Day Three – Sea Day

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

 This is a sea day, which should mean it’s a lazy day with no stress.  We’ll see!!

I wake up early enough to see the crescent moon and Venus, with a hint of the impending sunrise on the horizon!  We’re off to a good start.  Yoga and leisurely dressing and we’re off to find breakfast on deck 8, the Lido deck. 

There’s plenty of time to get to the “main stage” for a presentation on the various excursions which are offered for the next three ports of call, Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Maya. There is a slide show augmented by comments and opinions from the two presenters.  A few of the tours are only mentioned in the booklet in our room, not the highlights papers we picked up, so it was good we went.

After the presentation Diana and I went in search of the sangria special, while everyone else went their own ways.  We finally found the wine and found that the first one was full price, and the second only two dollars, so, guess what we did!  Now I owe Diana a drink somewhere.  It’s a light, tropical sangria and quite refreshing.  And mostly fruit juice, I’m sure.

Discretion being the better part of valor, we figure we’d better get some lunch.  More sushi and some fruit for me and salad and sushi for Diana.  Ahh, but she’s found a gluten-free dessert, a fluffy merengue delight with some creamy something on top and two cherries.  In the meantime, I found a gluten-free, sugar-free strawberry very light whipped delight!  We split the merengue and have our own parfait.  Oddly enough it’s really hard to find glasses for iced tea.

While we were in line, a woman asked me if I were the crazy lady from the piano bar last night.  When I hesitated, she added….”with the camera”.  Well then I had to ‘fess up, especially since I was holding said camera!

And while we were eating, another lady stopped by to say she loves my hair.  Sometimes being invisible has its moments!  Guess I’d better be careful not to do anything too bizarre or, especially, illegal!

At one o’clock there is a presentation in the America’s Test Kitchen theater, called the Wajang Theater (I have hard time not making that one syllable!).  It’s a pretty full house and we’re glad we came early.  Tobi and Dean are already there;  but they thought it would be a tasting, too, and haven’t had lunch.

The live action happens in the middle, with a screen on each side for both videos and overhead shots.

We can sign up for the Test Kitchen's newsletter and recipes.

The presentation is a blend of video and live action.  Caroleena does actually cook a Spanish tortilla, which is nothing like what we Americans expect, living so close to Mexico.  It’s actually potatoes and eggs;  It is round and sort of flat, though, and looks delicious.  When the bottom is cooked she slides it onto a plate, covers it with a second plate, inverts it, and slips it back into the pan!  But she says it’s all right if we tell our friends that we learned how to flip it (in the air) on our last cruise! 

There is a video demonstrating the differences between russet, Yukon gold, and red potatoes.  The russets sink because they absorb more water, the reds float, and the golds are half way in between.  That’s why russets are better for mashing and reds are better for slicing, as they will hold their shape.  It’s something about the starch content, as well.

She also prepares a simple shrimp dish and makes aioli from scratch.  And we’ve got the recipes.  The tortilla gets cut up into small pieces, perfect for a tapas party, as is the shrimp dish.  She recommends getting the frozen package with 31-40 per pound, so they fit nicely on a tapas plate.

After this Tobi and Dean head off for lunch and we explore a bit more, ‘cause there’s always something more to see!  We meet at the excursions desk before they open at three, so we can be first in line to order our excursions for Tomas Santos de Castilla and Mahogany Bay (check spelling), Roatan, Honduras.  We’re not doing anything  in Costa Maya because we’ve both been there before.

After securing our tickets, we split up again.  Tobi and Diana go off to tea!  And Dean and I go to a tasting of Johnny Walker scotches.  The presentation takes so long that we have to leave before it’s over in order to get ready for Gala Night!  We do get to sample the Red Label, Black Label, and Double Black Label, the only one worth drinking in my opinion and still not as good, by far, as the one Stu and Ole brought me from Scotland.  It’s interesting, though, and the opening video is very fun.  There’s a Scotsman who continues to walk toward us throughout his history of the distillery.  After all, it’s called “The Man Who Walked Around the World”.

When the bottle is refrigerated, "Winter is here" shows up.

It’s close, but Diana and I make to dinner for our 5:15 reservations and are able to hold our eight-top.  Tobi and Dean are right behind us;  but the family doesn’t make it until nearly six.  Oh well.  A lady comes over to me, kneels down and tells me how much she loves my hair!

Dinner – wow – escargot bourguignon, salad of arugula and frisee with pear, mandarin segments, pistachios, cherry tomatoes and mixed organic seeds, cracked pepper tenderloin with shrimp (2), and lemon meringue cheesecake!!  It’s Gala Night and everyone is dressed to the nines.  Afterwards we take some photos.  I ask a gentleman to take one with me in it and his wife takes it away from him.  Since she cut off half of Tobi in all but one, I wonder what his would have looked like!!

We scurry to the main stage for the captain’s toast and the show of the evening.  For a change it’s grand!!  Scott Bradlee’s Post Modern Jukebox!!  Photos weren’t allowed so I can only show the stage before the show.  Sorry!  They had four live musicians and three singers, two girls and a guy.  But they had a fascinating tech show to go with it!!  The columns shown in the photo are actually video projections and there is also a screen upstage that works the same way!  At the beginning there’s a video of Scott Bradlee welcoming the audience and explaining the origin of PMJ, and during the show he makes another appearance or two.  The tap dancer is video projected, also.  Sometimes she is on one – or both – of the columns, sometimes on the back screen, sometimes her feet are repeated multiple times across the three screens!  And the horn section shows up in various picture frames on one or another screen!  There is even a “curtain” that rises and falls on all three screens!  Such a clever way to put the whole PMJ contingent on a small stage on a small ship!  Bradlee said there are hundreds in the PMJ family, performing all over the place!

After the show, people split up again.  Tobi and Diana go to the casino;  I go back to listen to Barry from Boston.  The jazz quartet is also playing, just down the way;  but they don’t do sing alongs! 

As he is winding up his set of country classics, Diana comes to find me.  She missed the Kenny Rogers set, the Johnny Cash set and the John Denver set!  Sorry!  He finishes up with “God Bless the USA”, always a crowd pleaser!

We are supposed to set our clocks back yet another hour tonight!  I find it easier to just remember how much to subtract from what my phone says.  And my body refuses to be reset anyway!!

Our duvets are so, oh my goodness, heavy!  We both strip them off and use the sheet and the beach towel that we’ve been blessed with.  That works pretty well – but what will help even more is setting the thermostat higher.  Hope it warms up!

And we’ve got another towel critter!!  Maybe he’s an emu?  Adorable!!