Day 9 - Monday, January 13, 2025 – At Sea

We were up at normal time period we went to breakfast at Sabatini’s. I had oatmeal in my smoked salmon. Mary had an omelet. It was an uneventful breakfast. I then went to seven to push. Mary came upstairs to sort through laundry and do other things. We agreed we would meet at noon. There was a class on smartphone cameras on the 7th floor in the wheelhouse bar. Unfortunately, it was away from the screen so we could not see much. The class was pretty interesting. It gave us ideas on how to better set our phones to take better pictures. I'm sure if we actually saw the screen, it would be better, but no big deal. From there we went to the Princess Theater to play Deal or No Deal. It is really loosely based on the TV version. I won't bore you with the details, but we lost. We did get a $5 scratch off. I don't think we will play again.

From there we went to the dining room for a wine tasting session. For the next 90 minutes or so we tested six different wines – there was sauvignon blanc , a sparkling wine, a Chardonnay and three reds with names I don't remember. We liked the sparkling wine, but we don't think any of the others were that great. It is strange but you cannot buy a glass of these wines at the restaurants. You have to buy an entire bottle. We did learn more about winemaking. What was interesting is that wine makers try to make their wines so to appeal to the market. They're able to add more sugar to make it sweeter and stronger in alcohol, for example. Even Mary drank some of the wine. I think she got a little tipsy cause after the presentation we went back to the room then we took a nap. Actually, Mary took a nap I worked on the log. She never admit it though 😊

It was formal night so we had to get dressed up. I had my black jeans. Mary put a gray shirt and a black tie on me. (Yea! She was able to get the neck closed on my shirt.) She was in a black sequin dress kind of thing. She looked good as always. We headed out the door. I think we had three or four picture stations for another 15 or so pictures. We will have to see what they look like.

We got to dinner pretty late, at least late for us. I ordered rose wine. It was OK, not great. I keep working my way through the line list. I'll try anything once. For an appetizer I had some type of shrimp concoction on Philo dough. It was kind of weird. Mary and I both had the pasta which was very good. It was tomato based but it had red pepper flakes which made it spicy. For my main meal I had beef Wellington. It's the first beef I've had in a while. Again, trying something different, the beef Wellington was pretty good. It was done just right. It also had spinach and a mushroom base. 

After dinner, we went back upstairs then did this and that until bedtime. It was a quiet day, but a good day.