DAY 5–FOURTH FULL SEA DAY

by The Don · April 15, 2023

As predicted, Melissa and I slept in today. When I say slept in, I mean, REALLY slept in. We woke up at 11:30 AM (which is 8:30 AM Apollo Beach time). It was still raining and truthfully, having closed down the bars 3 of the first 4 nights, we knew today was going to be a chillaxing kind of day.

First order of the day was to make some new friends and find out lots of new things. We did that in record time, sharing a lunch table with Darwin and Lorraine from California (somewhere adjacent to Irvine). They had so much interesting info to share. They are very well traveled and we didn’t hold it against them that they spend a lot of time roaming around Disneyland. I mean, it is close to their home and is a good place to get steps in. Plus, Darwin tells a great story about how he complained once about so many rides being shut down for safety reasons and the park kicked them out, even going so far as to stamp their hands with an infrared “REJECT” message. Happiest place on Earth? You be the judge. Darwin taught me about the virtues of a Korean Corn Dog and now I am going to have to find one. Challenge accepted.

Later in the day, I was relaxing in the Ocean Bar while Melissa went to the Dutch Café for coffee. I then got a text saying, get up to deck 3, I have found Redskins fans. Yes, the text was from Melissa but you get points from me if you even considered that it might have been from someone else. The couple was Bob and Cheryl from North Carolina. How did Melissa meet them? By accosting Cheryl and professing her love for Cheryl’s wardrobe choices. Melissa has never, ever met a stranger. Anyway, we have a lot in common and there is no doubt we will hang out with them again. Group selfie below.

Next was a return trip to the Ocean Bar to meet up with our new pre-dinner drinking companions, Peter and Debbie and Shari and Dave. Somehow, we got into a conversation about controlling the iguana population in Key West in which the current method sounded a lot like castration to me. But if they are eating the flower gardens, I guess they had it coming. We discussed other things, too, but that one was the most memorable. We made plans to do it again tomorrow.

So, Melissa and I skipped the dining room and did a quick dinner at the Lido buffet. No joke, the quality of the food there rivals that of the main dining room and they are both excellent. We then ran into some of our pickle ball pals, Cynthia, Steve and Elliot. We hung out with them for about an hour and then headed to deck 10 for movie night snacks. We had popcorn and hot pretzels. We decided to turn in early at about 9:30 to see if we can get back on a normal schedule tomorrow. I am reading a book about the inside secrets of the Hollywood Squares. Man, that Joan Rivers had some mean jokes about Elizabeth Taylor!

So far, this cruise has been so much fun. Even though we have so many front-loaded sea days, we have not had a moment where we lacked things to do. Looking forward to what tomorrow may bring.