At-Sea Day

June 8, 2009

The first full day of the cruise, an at-sea day. We woke up when our breakfast was brought to us, which I could very easily get accustomed to happening every morning, forever.

I put on a swimsuit and went up to the part of the sundeck labeled “quiet zone,” which I think I figured out is polite code for “no children.” The lounge chairs are huge, padded, and wicker, so I mainly just spent hours basking in the sun on the open sea. Dean, bless his caucasian heart, tends to get sun poisoning with absolutely astounding efficiency, so he stayed in-doors doing whatever it is Dean does when left to his own devices. We met up in the later afternoon, of course, for another trivia game! I am a bit ashamed to admit I do not know my castles, palaces, and royal buildings too well, but I enjoyed learning. And I kicked some cruise-ship butt on city skylines.

As nice as the day was, not being allowed to get off the boat and not having a steady internet connection really made me feel like I was camping, but not in the good, communing-with-nature way. I bought a few ridiculously expensive minutes on a shoddy satellite connection and checked Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and all the other really important sites. The only thing I was sorry to have missed was Mei’s birthday (happy birthday, Mei!), but shockingly everything in the states seems to have continued on in my absence.

In the evening, Dean and I dressed up to go to the Grand Pacifica dining room. Then Dean decided he would teach me to play Texas Hold ’Em in the casino. I pretended I was gambling in Monte Carlo, because that makes gambling classy. After tipping the dealer, I won $5! So unfortunately this means that Dean is just an average teacher.

Then the ship was having a white party, so we did it up Diddy style and made an appearance. We danced as we cruised toward Malta.