Technically, the ship was in port until 7 am this morning. However, all aboard time was 2 am, meaning that for all practical purposes, this was a sea day.
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RQS and I got up late enough to miss all vestiges of breakfast. I took my time in getting moving, and we decided to go to one of the ship's casual dining venues, the American Diner, around 11:45 am. When we got there, there were 20 people in line ahead of us. While waiting, we bumped into our newfound friend and chatted for a while. Luckily, the line started to move at noon (when service started), and we were politely able to end our conversation without further commitments to meet again.
This dining venue is in a sheltered area above the lido deck, but it still outdoor dining. Given how busy the place is, we were glad to get there to be seated promptly. But then we had to wait for service. Eventually, someone took our beverage order, and then our food order. Both beverages and food took a relatively long time to come to the table. RQS and I had different opinions on our salads, as I had the Caesar Salad and she had the Greek Salad. I enjoyed the Chicken Chili, and she enjoyed her Nachos. Eventually, the main course came - a Cheeseburger for me and Pulled Pork Sliders for her. Even if the burgers were the same as from O'Sheehans downstairs, it tasted better for some reason. As for the pork sliders, RQS enjoyed them, but couldn't eat all of them. I tasted the one she didn't eat and i wasn't impressed - I guess I wasn't in the mood for any meat drenched in BBQ sauce.
After lunch we took our time in getting back to our rooms to take a nap. I needed it, for again, I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep again. On our way back to the room, we noticed that a larger than normal number of people (for this cruise) were outside sunning themselves by the pool area. This would be the last warm day we'd likely have before reaching port, and I might have been soaking myself in the hot tubs had I brought my swimsuit and other falsies.
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After our nap, it was time to go to the photo gallery and look at the pictures taken of us dressed to the nines. Most were OK, but I wish we had been on MSC for this cruise, as formal nights were truly formal nights. On NCL, they only have "Glow" nights, where people may opt to dress nicer than usual. Yet, we got a few nice pictures taken of us, On the way there, we met a couple dressed to the nines - the gentleman was in his Marine Corps finest, while his wife was decked out in a beautiful gown. I'd have loved to have seen their photo shoot!
Next stop was another one of the complimentary main dining rooms, the Manhattan room. This restaurant is similar to the other 2 complimentary restaurants (Taste and Savor), save that it is larger and has space for people to dance if the background music causes a couple to leave their table to dance a bit.
Dancing wasn't in the cards for us this night, as we were both hungry and interested in what was on the menu. I started with the Baked Brie Salad, followed by the Chicken & Shrimp Paella. It was good, but not as good as I've had in a favorite Spanish restaurant that is long shuttered. For dessert, it was a pair of eclairs. They were tasty, but not exactly what I would have wanted to finish the meal.
At this point, we were getting tired, so we went back to the room and retired for the night.
