Still not adjusted to the time change, I awoke before 6 this am. Since it was so early and everyone else was asleep, I decided to go to the Fitness Center and do some running which I had been avoiding since last Sunday following the onset of my cold. I was still coughing but at least the nice yellow nasal drainage and sputum had stopped. 6:15 am is a good time to hit the gym. There were still a good number of treadmills available and I hopped on one intending to run for at least 30 minutes. I started intentionally at a slow pace since my cold was still bothering me. Given the gentle swaying of the ship, I had to hold on the to the treadmill’s bar with one hand to avoid going off the belt – or at least the feeling that I was going to go off of it. I then spent about ½ an hour lifting weights on the various machines. The gym was pretty nicely equpped with all the standard weight machines which I was very familiar with.
I returned to the cabin at around 7:30 and took a shower. Just after I got dressed and blew dry my hair, our room service order arrived. It was very interesting to see this dining steward maneuver a large tray filled with various dishes and baskets down the tiny hallway connecting the outside of our cabin with our teeny little sitting area. We decided that we didn’t need to tip him. Besides, he was out the door so quickly we never even had a chance to offer.
I set Rhys up on his bed with the small coffee table which was adjustable up and down. He thoroughly enjoyed his scrambled eggs, bacon, and potatoe wedge declaring it the best breakfast he’d had in a while. I had Special K cereal with 2% milk, sliced bananas, orange juice, and coffee having decided that I wouldn’t waste my calories on a meal as unimportant to me as breakfast.
Today would be our first full day at sea. Mimi, papa, and Amina had also ordered breakfast in although Amina was complaining about her tummy hurting when she was eating breakfast. I took the kids upstairs to Club HAL and checked them in so they could meet the other children on the cruise (it was the “get to know you” session this morning. We wanted to attend the kitchen tour at 10:30 am but would return to pick up Amina who also wanted to go. Rhys wanted to stay in the club.
When I returned to pick Amina up, a child had vomited in the children’s playroom so they were over in the Loft – the teenagers’ room. I found Rhys seated at the table with the other children working on a craft but Amina was laying down complaining about a headache. It looked like she was having some signs of motion sickness. Rhys wanted to stay in the club so I took Amina with me to the kitchen tour but she just wasn’t feeing up to it so Mimi took her back to the stateroom while I went on the kitchen tour. There wasn’t any sense in both of us missing the tour. It was surprising to me that Amina was experiencing motion sickness. On our Disney cruise and on numerous trips to visit Mimi and Papa in Arkansas, Rhys had thrown up after experiencing motion sickness. Now, though, Rhys was feeling fine and Amina was not feeling well.
Turns out the tour guide was our very own Krish who recognized me right away and greeted me by name. The kitchen tour met in the downstairs dining room and there must have been at least 150 people waiting in the foyer for the tour. They took us in groups of about 25 and we were led into the kitchen observing the different areas. The kitchen was clean and shiny and we all marveled at how the crew maneuvered around the somewhat small kitchen areas.
I found the lists on the walls interesting showing how each dish was to be plated. I assume these were posted so the crew knew what each dish looked like that they would be serving.
There was also a list of which stewards were able to carry 10 entrees out to the dining room to serve tables of 10. The list was quite short as I’m sure there aren’t many who could lift 10 plates with lids on a tray. We met an executive chef and saw an ice sculpture to be used for dinner this evening. The baking room smelled wonderful from the freshly baked bread.
After the kitchen tour, I returned to the staterooms where Amina was laying down and Mimi had already picked up Rhys from the Club. One important note about Club HAL which I found both interesting and a bit annoying – the very limited hours: 9 am – 11 am, 2 pm – 4 pm, and 8 pm – 10 pm. Although this afforded us the ability to do some “adult” things, the hours weren’t really long enough to not find ourselves running up and down dropping off/picking up. It was nice, however, that the Club allowed you to check your child in at any time rather than only during the end/beginning of a session/activity as it had been on the Disney cruise. The security was fairly lax as doors were accessible by anyone and although we had chosen a “password” for check-out, we never used it.
We headed over to the dining room for lunch although Amina was still not feeling well. Her room steward, Tony, had given me some meclizine which I gave about 12.5 mg to (chewable and scored 25 mg tablet) her. She did eat some lunch and seemed to feel better but opted to hang out in the cabin rather than go to Club HAL. Lunch was ok, I had the mushroom/onion burger with fries which was good. Seth and I were signed up for the wine tasting while Papa was at a gemstone class so Mimi took Rhys to the Club to check him in and then took Amina back to the cabin to rest.
Seth and I arrived for the wine tasting which was held downstairs in the La Fontaine Dining room at 2 pm. There were a large number of tables set up and later the head wine steward remarked that there were over 100 people attending this afternoon’s wine tasting. I’m glad that HAL did not limit the number of people on the kitchen tour or the wine tasting.
After the wine tasting, I checked in with Mimi and found that Amina was still sleeping so I found Papa at the art auction and registered to bid getting my raffle tickets for the drawing. Mimi would get Amina up at around 3:15 for the High Tea and I would meet them there. I had been to a lot of Park West art auctions before and was very familiar with them. The art auction lasted quite some time though and highlighted the usual Tarkays and Bellets but there were some newer artists that weren’t familiar to me. The auctioneer was rather boring compared to the previous auctions that I’d been to. He focused quite a bit on history and the artists and didn’t move as quickly through the pieces as at the previous auctions I’d been to. There was very little clapping between the pieces but he did manage to sell some. I left the auction briefly to pick Rhys up from the Club and found him in the Play Station room. He had not been taken over to the Club even though Mimi had checked him in. I couldn’t discern whether or not this was the fault of the Club HAL staff or whether Mimi just didn’t make sure Rhys went to the Club with the other children. At any rate, I was a little put out that nobody even seemed to realize that Rhys was signed in and NOT in the Club. I signed him out anyways.
We returned to the auction and saw a few more pieces auctioned off. Neither Papa nor I won anything this afternoon which included the drawing but we did receive our “free works of art” which were the Lee seriolithographs of a violin and guitar that Seth and I already had.
By this time, it was getting close to our dinnner seating and this was to be the first formal night - the Captains Gala Dinner. Rhys showered and was VERY excited to get into his new suit that I had purchased while I was out in Vegas. He looked SO cute. I checked on Amina who still wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to go with us to dinner. I gave her another 12.5 mg of meclizine and told her we’d check on her after our appetizers. I quickly changed into my long brown evening gown, spritzed my hair, and threw on some makeup. I also took 12.5 mg of meclizine because of the low grade headache I’d had for most of the day. The seas were “mild” only 1-4 foot waves but the boat was rocking enough to really throw your balance off. Seth and I didn’t remember so much motion on our previous inside passage cruise and came to the conclusion that the Inifinity sailed the inside passage both going north and coming down south. On HAL, we were cruising up outside the passage to the West on our way North to Juneau. There was definitely a difference in boat motion compared to our last cruise. Even Papa was not feeling 100% off and on all day much the same as I was.
We stopped off to have our formal portraits taken just outside the dining room. I’ve noticed that the scheduling on board seems a bit off to me. Many popular activities seemed to be scheduled all at the same time: the art auction, wine tasting, and cooking class were all scheduled for 2 pm today. The formal portraits were scheduled from 5:30 – 6:30, during our designated dinner seating. We had a few pictures taken and then headed to the dining room a little bit late.
Our menus were rolled into a scroll and included some wonderful choices.
I opted for the Pate de Fois Gras for an appetizer and the steamed Alaskan king crab legs for the entrée. I would also be having some of Rhys’ French onion soup. Seth ordered a Gewurtztraminer for our meal this evening as part of our Admiral’s wine package. The pate was quite good but I found myself spreading it on a roll since I wasn’t given any crackers or other biscuit to eat it with. The crab legs were a bit overcooked for my tastes but were still pretty good. Rhys’ French onion soup – a selection from the “available every meal” menu – was excellent. Not over salty for being a beef broth base. I couldn’t imagine not liking any of the appetizer choices on future menus but if I did, I would opt for the French onion soup.
As we were being served our appetizers, Seth suddenly declared that he wasn’t feeling well and disappeared. After finishing my pate, I went downstairs to check on Amina who said that Seth had stopped by and his way to the cabin. She was feeling better but still complained of being dizzy so I ordered her room service. I called them up and placed an order for a plain hamburger but the steward asked about cheese, ketchup, mustard, etc and I reiterated just a plain hamburger and explained that my daughter was not feeling well. “Ahhhh…..” he says and I add some jello to the order before hanging up. I tell Amina that I’ll check on her again before dessert.
As we were finishing up our entrée, I called Seth in the cabin who said that he wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be returning for dinner. As we finished eating, Rhys suddenly declared that he wanted to go back to the cabin to rest and didn’t want to have dessert. What? Was he getting sea sick too? No, he said, he just needed to “rest up” because he was going to the carnival at Club HAL tonight and was going to be staying up late (10 pm) so he needed to take a rest. Whew, I though to myself, I was glad he wasn’t getting motion sick too. After dropped Rhys off in the cabin and changing him back into his regular clothes, I checked on Amina who answered the door dressed with her shoes on. I was surprised but she was feeling a lot better and wanted to join us for dessert. I had swapped out one child for another when we returned to the dining room. Amina was all smiles again – apparently the meclizine had kicked in.
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