April 4--Sea Day

Some things I’ve learned today:

1. If your bed is made up of two twin beds put together, don’t sleep in the middle. There’s a big crack there that became obvious during the night.

2. The “Adults Only” pool in Royal Caribbean isn’t actually “Adults Only”, it’s “No Unsupervised Children”, which is really quite annoying.

3. Lights on cruise ships are too bright to see the stars with any clarity. I have yet to see the Bahamas, but I did see the lights of one of the islands reflecting off clouds in the distance

4. The current crop of people on American Idol are not nearly talented enough to do cruise ship shows, which are very well done even if they are cringingly cheesy.

5. Always bring a jacket or sweater or flannel, even to the tropics; it’s been really, really windy out (between the speed of the ship and the ambient wind, the winds have been around 35-40mph since we left port, and even when it’s warm out, that’s chilling.

6. I prefer salt-water pools to fresh-water; the salt water is nicer to my skin. I’ve been drinking water like a fish but my skin is still dry.

7. The TCM feed to South America is not the same as that to the US; I’ve yet to see “Police Academy” or “Lethal Weapon” or “Fantasy Island” on my TCM. I kind of like it. And the coming-attractions commercials have writing in both Spanish and Portuguese.

Otherwise, nothing interesting (to anyone other than me, anyway). I sat outside and read, ate and read, walked around the ship to refill my water bottle, watched people try to surf the Flow Rider and pretty much fail, sat in the hot tub and swam in the pool, and didn’t get too badly sunburned. I also bought tickets for a couple of snorkeling expeditions and bought a “water safe” that’s big enough for my ID and cruise key, which makes me feel better about going snorkeling. I may also do one more snorkel, if I’m up to it; I’m going to wait to see if I burn myself to a crisp and/or get sick of snorkeling before I commit.