This morning I woke up quite early and then earlier still because we turned the clock back an hour. (I am so disappointed that we don’t get to turn the clock back an hour tomorrow morning. I’ve really been enjoying these 25 hour days.) There was a pilates class at 9:15 am and since I regularly take pilates classes at home I thought I would try the ship’s pilates. I knew there was a good chance it would be bad – that’s my motto for this cruise: low expectations.  It was still quite early so I had time to go upstairs and get a bagel and my Greek yogurt. Yesterday, you may recall, I was given a smidgen of Greek yogurt. Today when I went to the Chef’s Galley and said, “Do you have some Greek Yogurt for me?” the gentleman behind the counter said, “Of course, Madam, would you hand me a bowl please?” I gave him a bowl and he asked how much I would like. I suggested five spoonfuls and he gave me a bowl with a lot of yogurt in it. “That is more than I gave you yesterday,” he said.

“Yes!” I agreed.

“You should have told me you wanted more!”

“But I didn’t know,” I explained. “I thought maybe that was all you had.”

“No,” he assured me. “From now on I will always give you that much!” I do love my own private secret Greek yogurt and I love it even more now that I get a good amount.

Note from Mary: I find it exceedingly odd that they bother to carry Greek yogurt, but don’t make it actually available to any but the most persistent Greek-yogurt-hunters like my girl…

A little after 9 I went down to the Knightsbridge Room on the first floor of the ship for the pilates class. There were a lot of people standing around the room, but no teacher. At around 9:20, a man came and said, “He’s on his way. There was a mixup about the room.” A few minutes later, the teacher arrived bearing a cart full of yoga mats. We each got a mat and arranged ourselves on the floor and then the teacher started counting the exercise balls in the room. There were 13 exercise balls and 14 students so he decided to go back up to the 7th floor to get one more exercise ball. Then he left us with some green forms to fill out. As soon as he left, one of the students, upon looking at the form and realizing this was not a free class, decided to leave, thus negating the need for our teacher to go get another ball, but it was too late. The green forms were for us to put our stateroom and our name and agree to pay $15 plus a 12.5% service charge for the class. Eventually the teacher came back with the additional ball and seemed quite confused that he now had one more ball than necessary (that is the general state of most of the staff on this ship: confused.) He spent a long time counting the green forms over and over again and then finally the class started, about 20 minutes late. The entire class was conducted using these balls (the big kind you can sit on) and it was insane. It started out okay with some sitting on the ball and doing a little bit of balancing, though the teacher never mentioned anything about core muscles – which I believe is kind of the main thing in pilates – and he never gave any guidance to anyone about how to get into positions.  Then he moved on to having people hold the ball between their feet and contort themselves into all sorts of crazy positions.

By “people” I mean everyone but me because there was no way I was going to do these things since I have two injuries I am dealing with. I spent almost the entire class lying on my back with my feet up on the ball, letting the movement of the ship rock the ball from side to side and I realized this was a very nice gentle movement for my hips. Still I was getting bored and listening to the people grunting around me as they attempted more and more crazy things and frequently crashed on to their mats was a little irritating. When the teacher had people attempt to do shoulder stands with the ball between their feet, someone’s ball fell on my face and jammed my glasses into my nose. You’d think that would be the worst part of the class, but the worst was when, after 45 minutes, the teacher noticed I wasn’t doing what everyone else was doing and asked if I was all right. I explained that I just had some injuries and couldn’t do what everyone else was doing, but I was fine. The teacher was not fine with that, though, and at one point, actually physically tried to put me in a position, so for the last ten minutes of the class I had to pretend to do the exercises, which wasn’t that hard to do because he wasn’t paying very detailed attention to anyone. Boy was I glad when that class was over. That’s 80 minutes of my life and $16.88 of free cruise credit that I will never get back. But at least I didn’t injure myself. I wonder how many people in that class are going to end up injured from some of the crazy stuff they were doing, which would be bad enough in any situation but even worse while the ship was moving all over the place, completely affecting their balance.

After “pilates” I got to go up to the King’s Court and get breakfast Part Two, some hardboiled eggs and sausage which I brought back to the room and had along with my delicious leftover Greek Yogurt.

We had room service lunch which was interrupted by Albert who wanted to clean the room. We asked if he could wait 10 minutes but he said he got off at 1:00 and since it was now 12:50, we vacated the room and I took the rest of my lunch upstairs to the buffet. At 2:00 I went to the Illusions theater to see a 3D film of London’s Royal Opera House doing Carmen. I was very excited when I saw this in the Daily Programme last night, mainly because Mary has always wanted to go to one of those presentations that they do occasionally at movie theaters and charge $20 or more for and I thought this would be a great opportunity. She was only slightly interested, though, and once she found out it was 3D she said she couldn’t do it because it might make her seasick. (Note from Mary: I was actually quite interested, and most disappointed to have to forego it, but I am prone to motion sickness and didn’t want to risk it – I’ve managed to avoid seasickness so far.) The program said the show would be 90 minutes with a 20 minute intermission, and then 60 more minutes.

This presented a very serious problem because cream tea is only served between 3:30 and 4:30 and by my calculations the show would get out at 5 and I would miss cream tea, which I have become very attached to. So I planned to just leave at intermission.

We were given an excellent program with some background, a synopsis, and the cast of characters and also were directed to select a pair of 3D glasses from a box labeled “Clean” though the glasses were beat up and decidedly not clean. I had a hard time at first with the 3D and felt a little seasick, but I put my seabands on and soon I was completely entranced by Carmen. Illusions is an excellent theater with a very large screen and surround sound. I really don’t think the 3D was necessary but it was cool once in while when a character would seem to step out into the audience. For most of the first part of the show I spent a bit of time debating with myself about whether I would stay for the second part and whether it would be okay if I missed my cream tea. But once the first half ended I was so taken with the show that there was no question that I was coming back for the second part. What I ended up doing was running like mad during the 20 minute intermission: to the bathroom, to our stateroom to put away my tablet, to the King’s Court to get a scone and spread it with clotted cream and jam, back to our stateroom to stash the scone in the frig, and then back to my seat with one minute to spare. Anyway, I loved the whole show. That is the first time I have ever seen a full opera and though I have always questioned why anyone would want to go to a movie theater to see opera, I totally get it now. The view is so much better than it would be if I were in an actual audience, and I really liked being able to see the actor’s faces close up.

After Carmen I went back to the stateroom and had my scone and then Mary and I went to the Promenade Deck and walked our daily mile and then it was time for dinner. After dinner we went to the Winter Garden where there was a band playing Dixieland Jazz, listened to that for awhile and then made our way back to the stateroom. Now I am going to pass the keyboard on to Mary who will tell you about her day.

Mary’s Day – My last few days have been decidedly less eventful than Lis’, because I’ve entered this zen state of doing very little. Yesterday I spent virtually the whole day listening to podcasts, which was wonderfully relaxing but not at all interesting to anyone outside my head. Today, while Lis was having her pilates adventure, I was in the cabin listening to music and doing a colored pencil sketch of a painting in the room that I like. Then, while Lis was discovering the joys of opera, I was sitting on a deck chair on the promenade deck, listening to music and watching the ocean. Both of these things made me joyously happy, but, again, are not very interesting to an outside observer. Though, I will say that listening to music while watching the ocean is very emotionally affecting for me, so sometimes I was in tears, and sometimes I was grinning like a maniac – I wonder if some of the promenade walkers thought I was having a psychotic break…

Another thing I have been intensely enjoying is the Captain’s briefing, which happens every day at noon. Our Captain has a cheerful British accent and a sprightly manner, and gives us all sorts of fascinating information about the topography of the sea floor, in addition to telling us about the weather and sea conditions we can expect. I’m going to try to remember to record one of these, because they are so awesome.

The less zen part of my shipboard routine takes place in the afternoon, where from about 3 to 5pm I do some combination of blackjack, cream tea, and promenade deck walk. It is pretty great, and I’m happy to report that I am now up $3.50. How I am loving this transatlantic crossing!