At Sea – North Of Japan

     We are into the first day of a week of crossing to Alaska. We are travelling at about 20 knots and seem to be going along quite nicely. The sea has swells but not to he white cap stage. Being high in the ship we get a nice rock but nothing drastic.

Our Selfie

Today was a typical day at sea. Of course zumba in the morning. There must be close to 200 people exercising to great music. It is a little more strenuous that zumba gold but at about that level. The 45 minute workout is a good way to start the day. We attended 2 lectures this morning. The first was a talk about Alaska by a naturalist. It centred on the exploration and settlement of Alaska by Europeans. She is polished and had a good delivery. The second lecture was on the life and explorations of Captain Cook. Again a good presentation. Jeff Wolff did a tongue in cheek pre-presentation on Alaska and some of the animals. A lot of photoshop but it was amusing. He did a piece on Alaska toilets in a previous lecture. By the end of those presentations it was noon.

    We had our first of the time changes that we will see as we proceed east. The next one is tomorrow. Suddenly noon became 1 pm. All the dining venues were packed and they only had one side of the buffet open. We settled on burgers and beer in our room.

     The main even in the afternoon was a wine tasting. It is one of the things that we get because of the Elite level. We tried a Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay,Pinot Noir and a Merlot. In addition we tried a late harvest from Australia but it was nothing like the late harvest wines we get in Essex. We have been too quite a few tastings over the years. The ship is running out of wine. We (and others) have tried to order wine only to find out that they do not have any aboard.

Chocolate Journey

     Tonight being formal night, our appetizers arrived as we were getting ready to start the evening. We saw 2 shows, a piano player/singer and a production show that was called The British Invasion. It is an older show that featured music from the British Isles. It was mainly Beatles, some Queen, Rolling Stones, etc. Dinner was the traditional lobster on formal night and a nice chocolate journey dessert.