Day 5 - Sea Day/Bordeaux Thursday, 27 August 2015

Our real sea day went a lot better than the day before. As soon as we got out of the English Channel, the waters calmed down quite a bit and I felt a lot better. I had saved a meclizine to take before bed last night but didn't really need it and slept really well. The ship was still rocking but pretty gently just back and forth rather than up and down. I got dressed and went up to the fitness center to do my run – just 45 minutes (about 4 miles) during which I pretty much hung on to the treadmill the whole time after my bad day the prior day but my run felt good.

I went back to our suite and hung out for a bit, showered, and got dressed. We decided to try the Jazz Brunch in the main dining room for lunch which only went from 10 – 12:30 or so. The food was pretty good and the jazz band was quite good. By the time Wade and Charlie found us, the brunch was pretty much over so we moved up to the Cafe buffet for them to have lunch. The calamari was quite good – it wasn't just squid – it also included clams, scallops, and fish. We didn't actually finish with lunch until around 2 pm or so.

I worked some on my blog and messed around on the internet for the rest of the afternoon. I had opted for the unlimited internet package from the beginning of the cruise and, depending on where I was, the signal varied from pretty good (at the mosaic cafe) to can't connect (at the desk or vanity in our suite). Overall, though, I would say the internet signal was better than on all of the other cruises we had been on.

We met up with Charlie and Wade at the Prime C bar for drinks before dinner at around 6:30 and then had our 2^nd Chef's Table dinner – the Californian – at 7 pm. Our host this time was Tracie Jones who was the HR director for the ship.

The lobster salad was pretty good although none of us could taste the avocado. 

The smoked tomato veloute (soup) was awesome, though, and paired with one of our favorite white wines – Conundrum.  The smooth, smoky flavor was perfect considering tomato soup is not my favorite.

The surf and turf was pretty good – I thought the braised rib croquette was good but Seth and Wade thought it was bland and dry. 

 For the entree, I chose the strip loin but in retrospect, Seth's sea bass was better. 

After a cheese sampling, we had mud pie for dessert which was really good. 

We realized that we never did see Seth's birthday cake today. Even though we had docked in Bordeaux about 12 hours early, we were too tired and full to try wandering off the ship.