Day 6: SATURDAY

Internet access from the ship costs 75 cents per minute, so I doubt I'll be able to post any of this before I get home. Ah, well... I'll keep writing, anyway.

Today is pretty darn cold. This is our first full day at sea, far away from land (though Dad and I finally spotted an island at about 11:30 a.m.). That means we're feeling a little more motion than usual, and the weather is a little harsher. I had planned to spend part of the afternoon out on deck or on our stateroom balcony, reading a book, but as it's only about 50 degrees with 25+ mph wind... I'm staying inside.

This morning I got up to attend a golf seminar. I figured I ought to learn something about the game, considering my father's proficiency. That way, if I ever have occasion to be around other golfers, I won't be quite as much of an embarrassment to him. :)

We had skipped breakfast, so from the seminar, we went to the buffet on deck 11 (there's always food being served somewhere on this ship!) and had brunch. Currently, I'm vegging in my stateroom, exercising my right to do nothing at all as I please. :) Next on the schedule is a seminar on acupuncture and Oriental medicine, followed by cha-cha dance lessons in the nightclub. I'm also considering going to the AquaSpa for some massage or relaxation treatments (I did something nasty to my shoulder while carrying luggage, and it's been bothering me for a few days. I'm sure it's not helped by sleeping in cramped spaces and abusing my body like I have been).

Tonight is the first formal night, which involves dinner and the nightly revue, as well as the Captain's Gala Toast (my second glass of champagne this year; the first was yesterday, at boarding) and other excuses to run around the ship in fancy clothes and be photographed.

Saturday, Cont'd. (late night entry)

Met Laura for lunch at the Asian buffet and discussed acupuncture, then went to cha-cha lessons... wow, talk about a workout. My abs and hip flexors are going to be sore for weeks. After that we went to the AquaSpa and sat in on the end of a makeup/bronzing seminar (mostly an excuse for us to sit on the exercise balls). Then I went back to the room and stretched out across Mom and Dad's bed to try to stretch my right shoulder, which didn't exactly work. I took a shower and got ready for formal night.

We had dinner, and posed for photographs, and Laura and I stunned people with our unique dresses (no tripping waiters or heart attacks this time, though!). She wore her red designer dress from Spain; I wore the blue pants/train thing with the open bodice and front.

After dinner we went to the Captain's Gala Toast, where I sampled champagne and red and white wines before finally getting a Coke because everything else was too dry to drink. :-P Following that was a good, albeit fairly typical, performance of award-winning songs from movies and Broadway shows.

Post-show, Laura, Jon and I wandered through lounges in search of something to do. We wanted to dance, but there were only two places to do it – one was the slow, fall-asleep-while-swaying-to-the-music couples dance in the central lounge, and the other was the '70s Disco Party in the nightclub. Neither of those was really our speed. We tried to get Mark LaVier to come out and play cards with us, but he had already changed for bed, and took a rain check on the partying.

Finally, after wandering the ship for an hour, we returned to Laura and Jon's room and decided to watch Kare Kano. But first we wanted some appetizers (the midnight buffets of old have been replaced by waiters with trays of nibbles wandering around public lounges), so we went back out in search of food. As if we needed any more to eat...

The first place we looked was in the nightclub, which was deep in the middle of the '70s Disco Party. As we entered, Rick James' “Superfreak” came on, and Laura and I – being our own silly selves – started improvising goofy dance steps to what we initially thought was MC Hammer's “You Can't Touch This” (the two songs have the identical intro, because Hammer shamelessly stole the backbeat).

That was the beginning of the end.

An hour later, after exhausting every danceable song from the 1970s, entertaining the DJ to no end, starting our own dance line to a Village People song, getting half the room out of their chairs and on the dance floor, and completely pulverizing our feet in the process (we were both wearing 4-inch heels), we finally quit dancing and headed back to the stateroom.

We watched two episodes of Kare Kano and then called the party on account of exhaustion.