Sea Days, Sea Days and More Sea Days

What can I say about sea days. There are a lot of activities going on. You can do as much as you want or as little as you want.
Yesterday ended up being an unexpected sea day, but the staff did a wonderful job filling up the day with activities.
Activities usually start out with morning fitness classes and then there are computer classes, Bridge classes, language classes, lectures, keyboard classes, knitting and needlepoint get togethers, and paddle tennis. This is all before lunch. Afternoon brings trivia, dance classes, poolside music, Mah Jongg, golf clinic, another lecture, afternoon movie, iMovie for iPad, art lessons, memoir writing, (wish they had a course on writing a blog instead), afternoon tea, Bingo, and one last fitness class. All these classes are included in the cruise fare so as I said before, you can do as little or as much as you can cram into the day.
Typical sea days for us start with walking on the Promenade Deck for an hour and then off to breakfast in the Lido, Crystal Serenity’s buffet. Then there are usually two lectures in the morning. Some are more interesting than others, but that is to be expected. We have really enjoyed Sen. Bob Graham and Leo Thorsness. Ken Rees has been a very good destination lecturer and I have enjoyed Stephen Cole who is British and brings a different perspective of world affairs. Off to lunch in the Lido which is probably our favorite meal of the day as we sit and relax and have a couple of glasses of wine, oh how decadent. Sometimes we take in a lecture in the afternoon, but usually we sit by the pool and listen to the band play, and then there is usually a little snooze in there somewhere. After this exhausting day so far we have to get ready for cocktails in The Cove and then dinner. To complete the day we will go the the featured entertainment or take in a movie. I love going to the movies as it a real theater and of course they serve freshly popped popcorn.
Last night we had a wonderful Valentine’s/Birthday dinner with some new friends. It was Elaine’s birthday so she invited us to have dinner with her and three others. It was outstanding. The birthday cake they made for her was awesome. It has been such a pleasure meeting Elaine and Peggy. We have had a lot of laughs and looking forward to a lot more in the coming weeks as they are on until Miami also.
So we have three more sea days before we get to the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. This stop was added since we missed Rarotonga. Everyone says it is a lovely place.
We cross the International Dateline on Monday so we go from Monday to Wednesday, no Tuesday this week.
See you in a few days when we have more to report.
Bye