Another Cruise, Another Sea Day

I know you are excited to hear about another sea day, but long cruises usually start with one to get you on your way. So, you know what we like to do but now our day is enhanced by the arrival of our friends. They are real trivia buffs. In fact, that is how we met. On a crossing on Celebrity Silhouette, we partnered up with Gil and Ronnie for music trivia. Gil is amazing, when the first few notes are played, she has the answers. Too bad we can’t bet on these games!

We had plenty of time to chat with friendes. Carol and Katie, from our first leg trivia team, caught up with each other at Cafe Al Bacio.

This cruise on the Apex was planned for a couple of years ago and we all know what happened to that! Our friend, Elva, was going with us and a complicated room swap was worked out since there would be three of us. However, for this re-booking she was not able to make it. We are missing her on our team and all along the way.

Our first stop will be in Valencia and again, Carol and I will have a walk-about. A very English thing to do! Gill and Ronnie plan to stay aboard as they have done this route many times and they enjoy the relaxing nature of a ship when most everyone has gone ashore. Marilyn plans to show Randy some places she had visited in Valencia before, but he had not.

We now have two speakers on board for the rest of the trip. The series is called Beyond the Podium. Our first speaker was a specialist in all things about flight. Today was about Amelia Earhart. Not many people showed up this morning but attendance increased as his subject got more dangerous, like mid air collisions and lost flights.

This second one was called Malaga – Pablo Picasso as a Young Man. I know Elva would have enjoyed this. I learned a lot. Mr. Pilant seems very much more adept that the speaker we had on the first leg. He had often just seemed lost in his own presentation. The slides demonstrated so many intricacies of the artwork and related to the Picasso story. Since I had been to Arles, I think with Ruth Hunter, I really understood and enjoyed the references. We visited it on a French river cruise. The buildings have been very much kept as in Picasso’s paintings. For example, the Yellow House and the Café at Night have not changed at all. I imagine at some time they did but once they became part of the Picasso legacy they were returned to their original appearances.

Mr. Pilant also gave talks on other sea days about The Duke and Duchess of Windsor with some striking comparisons to the current Sussexes. His talk on Henry the Navigator was exceptional. I like good, timely, lectures on sea days. It fills the uncommitted times and I feel smarter when I have listened well!

We had a very good dinner in Cyprus this evening and enjoyed music around the ship. We did not go to see Crystalize again. Cast shows are expensive to develop, stage, and produce so there will be many things that will repeat, and we may or may not revisit.