October 7, 2016

The clocks needed to be moved forward overnight, since Greece and Turkey are in the Eastern Europe time zone.   The ship had passed the southern tip of Italy, the Calabria region, before the sun rose this morning.  The sea here is called the Ionian Sea.

There was a bit of cloud around the horizon and the humidity seemed high when we stepped out onto the deck.  The temperature was 21 and it was windy with tiny whitecaps on the waves.

It is a Sea Day today, so there was no need to set alarms to be sure to get to an excursion on time.

When we started our walk on Deck 14, the sun had risen but there were not a lot of people out yet.  After 40 minutes walking just over three miles, there were more people strolling and staking out lounge chairs.  We had breakfast in the Oceanview Café.

On our way to the Upcoming Ports presentation, we stopped at the Hospitality Desk where Brendene and Brian were stationed for an hour, so that if any of our group wanted to check with them on anything they were available.  After the Upcoming Ports presentation, our next agenda item was a wine tasting for the Captain’s Club (Loyalty reward)Select, Elite and higher level passengers.  There were only a couple of dozen people present compared to about three times that number on the last cruise.

The wind has picked up and the waves are from 1 to 2 meters.  There is a slight sideways roll to the ship.

After a quick lunch we attended a lecture about Ephesus and Greek history.  In the early afternoon was another Captain’s Club event in the Deck 14 Sky Lounge, to meet the captain and some of the officers.  Drinks were complimentary and canapés and tiny desserts and tarts were served by roving waiters.  The Classical Duo played violin and classical guitar as that music background.  It was nice danceable music.

At 4:30 our group had a special backstage tour, led by the stage manager.  The nature of the production shows was explained as well as process for hiring and training the singers and dancers.  When the group was led on stage, which is at the front of the ship, the ship’s roll was quite noticeable.  You got a feel for what the dancers are faced with when the ship is travelling in less than calm seas.   We were shown the men’s dressing room and the costume room.  The daily distance so far was 4.34 miles.

Then it was time to get ready for the Evening Chic dress code for this evening.  There were not a lot of tuxedos or suits like previous times when this evening would have been a dress code of Formal.  For dinner tonight, we chose Apple pear Salad, Cream of Broccoli Soup and Crab Cake. There is always a basket of bread pieces or buns. The main course was either barolo braised beef short ribs with mashed potato or Cajun spiced drum fish on black bean rice. We usually have a glass of wine with the meal. The special dessert of cherries jubilee did not appeal to either of us so we chose either praline ice cream or Crème Brulé.  Coffee or tea is usually served after dessert is served.

Tonight production show is Elysium.  The costumes are colourful and some take a lot of space such as the huge eight foot wing span butterfly wings of the final act.  We had seen the wings on a 12 foot long wall during the backstage tour.

The ship is still slightly rolling, we can even notice the roll in our mid ship deck 3 stateroom, but on the higher decks, like Deck 14 for the buffet, the sway of the ship makes walking a bit of a balancing act.

A stop at the Café al Bacio for cappuccinos ended our evening.

At 11 p.m., the ship was heading into the Sea of Crete just north of the island of Kythira and south of the Greece’s southern province of Peloponnese, which is a peninsula.  The ship’s speed is 19 knots (or about 22 miles per hour).  The ship still has some slight rolling movement to the ship.

Today’s walking was  5.78 miles.