Crusan with Susan

2019 - 12 - 11&12 Sea days:

Dec. 11:

I was excited to take advantage of one of our Neptune Suite perks---breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill. We ended up having breakfast there every day except for one. Service was good. Food was mostly ok. Ken didn't like that his bread and sausage and eggs all came at different times. But the waiter was eager to make our dining experience a good one. It was nice not having to fight the Lido crowd or long waits in the Main restaurant even if it was just once a day.

We learned after a few days that this was just a "suggested" menu. You could ask for whatever you wanted.

Or you could order off the menu and get what they bring you. This was my blueberry pancakes.

After breakfast, I wanted to check out the Pickleball meet and/or Ping Pong Challenge. I did go up to deck 10 and looked up at the Sports court. There was noone there, but with the winds blowing about 50 m/h, I doubt anyone could play pickleball anyway! So I went to the ping pong challenge. There always seem to be some really good players at this, and today was no exception. I use to be one of them, but since I've only played during a ping pong challenge on a cruise the last 10 years or so, I've gotten a bit rusty. I did manage to get 17 points this time (and managed to serve out 4 or 5 times! How do you serve out in ping pong!!!!????)
I love when the free wifi works and I can check the Navigator out on my phone. This is what it looks like on the phone.

But I was anxious to get to the Cruise Critic M&G at 11, so wasn't disappointed to be out of the ping pong challenge so quickly. Ken and I went to where I thought the meeting was going to be, the Gallery Bar, but it wasn't there. I then ran up to the Explorers club to see if it was there, but it wasn't. By now 30 minutes was wasted, so we didn't pursue it anymore.
Ken in the Gallery Bar looking for the M&G.

We ended up going to the Neptune Lounge and playing some cribbage. They even gave us a deck of HAL cards.

How Ken spent much of his time---at least in the elevators.

We decided to go to the Main restaurant for lunch today (only time we made it there for lunch). Ken got the rueben sandwich which he thought was grissly.

I got the spinach dip---but they only gave me one small cracker to eat it with! Too bad, it was good, but without something to eat it with, I only ate 1/4 of it.

My swiss steak was really good, too.

I had hoped to go to the Tea, but with just having lunch, didn't end up going.

I noticed they had several pickleball players meets, but 90% of the time it was way to windy to check it out. The other times were port days and I was too busy to check it out.
But I did check out the Microsoft "Paint a Landscape with a Digital Pen" workshop.

I was surprised to find out it's a program that's already on my computer.

It was fun playing around with. Who knows, maybe I'll do more playing around with it at home.

Found out you can even paint over a picture. That sounds like something I might really be interested in.

By about 5, it was time to head out and wait for sunset.

I'll have to say, we didn't really have very good sunsets this trip, but if I get a chance to watch a sunset, I'm going to do it!

After dinner in the Lido, I went to the Main stage for the evening's performance. Ken usually spent his free time in the suite watching the huge big screen tv. There were a lot of good movies available. When he wasn't watching a movie or football, pretty much all he had to watch was the never ending Trump impeachment hearings and vote.

This performer---John Bressler---is a musical comedian and put on a great performance. Not only is he funny, but he's quite the piano player, too!

Back at the room, I found this cute flower arrangement. I wondered if the live anthirium in the window by the desk was all we were getting this time. This was a pretty surprise. And it lasted the whole cruise.

Also found this little guy on the bed.

along with this! Wonder if we were in the regular cabins if we'd get fancy chocolates, too?

Also found this on my phone a lot the first few days. Apparently they did some upgrading of the wi-fi in dry dock and didn't have all the kinks worked out yet.

Dec. 12, 2019:

Even Ken's hair was blowing in the wind on this cruise!

Time for a ping pong meet. Not a challenge this time, but I did play some doubles with 3 other people. it was fun and I did much better.

I was happy to see they had quite a few different Microsoft classes this cruise, too. Decided to do both the Sharable Videos and Trip Journaling ones.

I was even surprised to see these programs are already on my computer. I knew Microsoft did away with Movie Maker, but didn't realize they came up with an alternative. It is so easy to use, too!

No paper handouts anymore, but now they can be downloaded.

The gal in charge of the classes would kick us out between back to back classes. I thought that was a little strange. But this was just outside the workshop so I was able to check on our progress to the ABC islands.

On to Onenote journaling. Also on my computer. Interesting feature.

After the Microsoft classes, it was time, again, to do what we do best---eat. This time we went to the Lido deck taco bar. Found it to be pretty good!

I had heard the screening room was being transformed into the Microsoft workroom and was disappointed to read that. But they ended up moving the movies to the big screen in the Main stage. Turns out I really like that! Reminds me of going to the movie theater when I was a little girl. And they still had popcorn! Plus the screening room (now Microsoft workshop) was good for the computer classes.

We had seen Bohemian Rhapsody a couple weeks ago, but felt it was good enough to see again. Really enjoyed it again---except for the 30 minute or so delay near the end of the movie when the audio gave out. (Wish they would have shown a movie everyday, though. Seems like after the first 3 or 4 days, they didn't have a movie there again.)

Then it was time for sunset again. Back up to the observation deck. I always passed the Kids' club on my way there. Doesn't look like many kids are using it this week.

This turned out to be a great area to watch the sunset with easy access to both sides of the ship. We were in a room facing East, but I ended up going up to the deck most of the time even after we turned around and were heading back to Fort Lauderdale. I liked being able to look West and East.

Looking over the back pool. I'm still amazed how few people are out and about around sunset!

Even a lack luster sunset is enjoyable to watch.

about as good as it got.

a little more impressive if you zoom in on it.

On to dinner---back to Lido. There always seemed to be a carved beef along with some other carved meat. I usually had a salad and a bit of the carved meat.

the main restaurant menu.

I remembered in past cruises the Lido serving basically the same thing the main restaurant did, but this trip that didn't seem to be the case. I believe this was the first of the 2 formal nights

the specialty restaurant menu

7:30 Step One Dance Company Presents Humanity:
This was the Mainstage show for tonight. Now that HAL no longer has their own singers and dancers, they had a Dance Company performing. I thought I would miss the HAL performers, but I really enjoyed this group. There wasn't any live singing, but the music that was piped in was very good and the dancers were excellent.