Today was a day at sea, which meant rest and relaxation. Not that we didn’t enjoy everything we had seen, but we were ready for a break. That morning, I got up early and walked the promenade on deck 5. You have to do it early because if you get up at 8:00 a.m. or later, sections of the deck were blocked off for maintenance. By getting out early, I could walk the entire length of the ship and look out at the sea in peace and quiet. For some reason, the only people who were up on the promenade deck at that hour were two or three smokers and members of the crew who were making cell phone calls.

Our first at sea day was also the first formal night. The sea days were the fullest days of activity. There were plenty of things to do such as the 9:00 a.m. “walk a mile with the captain and officers,” but by that time I had already done my walking. Plus, the walking deck was located on the top level, called the sports deck, and it had a really short track. The fact that there were people running and sunning, made for a mess. It was much more fun to walk the quiet of deck five. Let me give you an example of some of the other activities.

The casino was open all day beginning at 9:00 a.m. The spa offered services such as acupuncture, steam room, sauna, and teeth whitening. The fitness center was open from 6:00-11:00 p.m. The activities crew offered bingo and family beginner karate class. There was a Fisher Price activity center called “royal babies and royal tots” featuring storytelling, creative arts, play and music. The British hostess conducted a British history trivia context. In addition, there was a belly dance class and men’s sexy legs competition. Caricatures were also available, and we sat for one once we were all dressed up for formal night. Speakers offered a historical lecture on Roman history through archaeology, gourmet cooking, and wine tasting. Anything you could think of was going on that day including a ballroom dance class, an informal bridge session and a number of movies including “The Game Plan” and “Dan in Real Life.”

As I said, that evening was the formal evening and so we got dressed up. Before dinner the Captain formally welcomed us aboard during a reception with champagne from 8:00-9:00 p.m. (and I gotta say that Captain Zini was a hottie). Hope it doesn’t sound sexist, but he really was a hottie. One could have one’s picture taken with him from 8:00-9:00 p.m., but we didn’t do that. We just admired him from a distance and then we went to dinner.

After dinner the show that night in the main theater was Ranotto Pagliari. He was described as an international singing star and entertainer. I’m sorry Ranotto, but he was sort of a cheesy classical singer/comedian. We weren’t really crazy about it and I’m not going to call any names, but some folks in our party actually fell asleep during the show. Later that evening in the Colony Club we watched a game show entitled “Who wants to be a Royal Caribbeanaire?,” which was pretty fun. We thought the questions were pretty easy, but we didn’t volunteer to be participants. Instead, we critiqued and enjoyed. After that, we went and sat in the piano bar for a little while and visited with some of the folks we had met on the cruise and then it was time for bed because the next day we were going to tour the island of Mykonos.