1-24 At sea Happy Birthday Doug

1-24 Day 19 At Sea HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOUG!!!

Since this was Doug's birthday, it was his day to decide how he wanted to spend it – with some limitations since it was a sea day. We started by sleeping in really late!

He loved his gift from all the kids – a massage – since he's never had one.

As we were leaving our cabin for the morning, our cabin stewards sang Happy Birthday to him, so his day began very well!

Since it was so late, we decided to just get fancy coffee in the lounge with a donut and save up for lunch. It was so pleasant having that while we uploaded our e-mails.

We decided to have lunch in the formal dining room for the first time on this cruise thinking it would be very pleasant. Well, the food was OK, but the company could have been better. I sat next to an insufferable Canadian who didn't even have lunch with his wife because he wanted to linen tablecloth and service. He spent the hour telling us about all his travels, work, etc. Obnoxious doesn't quite convey it. The other couple from Indiana could put you to sleep they were so boring. He worked for museums for almost 40 years, so I thought it would be interesting to pick his brain about how they work, what was his favorite, etc. He hated museums and never goes in them on trips, etc. It wasn't at all clear why he worked for them for so many years. So, since lunch was pretty much a bust, we decided to spend the rest of the day just the two of us until dinner!

It was a lazy day – reading, napping, relaxing. It was a great way to spend the rest of the day. Dinner was a formal night with an orange theme for Antarctica. The dining room was decorated in orange and white with life vests all over as par of the décor. The wait staff all wore orange stocking caps and some wore orange vests as well (not life vests!) We had received a bottle of champagne from our travel agent, so we shared that with our table of 8. Had a very nice dinner followed by a birthday cake for Doug. I had requested his favorite – angel food with white icing and chocolate drippings – and they did it!! It was a really good cake.

We went to the ship's entertainment – a piano player, Elliot Finkel. He didn't “play” the piano, he “banged” the keys! It was so loud and not melodious at all. Lots of people walked out. The positive thing I can say about him was that he had a lot of energy. The only song we enjoyed was the only modern one he played by the Black Eyed Peas.

All in all, Doug had a really nice birthday at sea.