Day 3: At Sea:

The 3rd day of our cruise was an "AT SEA" day, meaning we didn't have a port of call that day. We were traveling to Tortola BVI, which was about 1150 kms away, so it took a full days sailing to get there. That was fine too because we were all so sun burnt, we were ready for some indoor activities. After we slept in for awhile, we had a leisurely breakfast and the kid's had a full day of activities with Club HAL, so we took advantage of some of the on-board shopping, browsing through the picture galleries where we found pictures of ourselves that the photographers had taken and generally just explored the ship. Dad and I took in the Digital Camera seminar, which turned out to be more for beginners, but oh well... We also went to the Cooking Seminar in the Vista Lounge with head chef Robert Versteeg, who turned out to be quite a comedian as well. We lounged around by the Lido pool with the kids for awhile in the early afternoon and generally had a relaxing day. We also took a "mixology" course with Jimmy in the Atrium Bar! Although he did teach us how to make 5-6 "exotic" drinks, it was more of an excuse to have some drinks and learn a thing or two at the same time.

Today was also the first of 2 formal dinners... By now Tommy and Ahmed pretty much had us figured out... Antonio again had our drinks ready for us and we were looking forward to the dinner because one of the main course dishes was crabs legs! The soup and salad dishes were top notch as usual as were the appetizer dishes. I couldn't decide between the filet mignon and the crab, and Tommy, sensing my dilemma looked and me and winked, saying, "I will look after you Mr. Peter". True to his word, he brought me one of each! In fact since five or six of us had ordered crab, he came by with an extra bowl of crabs legs and added a number of them to each of our plates! I said it before and I'll say it again... the service in the Vista Dining room is outstanding! I mentioned the view from our table earlier and as the sun was setting, we got some spectacular pictures... There really isn't anything like a setting sun on the ocean!

After dinner the kid's had some activities planned with Club HAL and we lounged around the Crow's nest for a while and Joe enjoyed a couple "cohiba's" in the Oak room. We also got to know our servers a bit better. Jimmy as it turned out was married to Ritchie who was one of the waitresses in the Lido Bar, and Arnold's wife was also on board in some capacity. As it turns out this is rather a common occurrence. Since the early 70's HAL has been recruiting and training crew members from the Philippines and Indonesia, and as such, many of the employees are from these 2 recruitment centres and are on the ship for months at a time without going home in between. This being the case, they tend to form lasting friendships with other crewmembers and some of those friendships turn into romantic relationships. Also, one might get a position aboard a cruise ship and later try to get his or her spouse assigned to the same ship so that they are able to spend time together. This isn't something that is particularly advertised or even talked about openly amongst the crew, but we got to know many of our servers quite well and I guess they felt more comfortable sharing these things with us. After we tucked the kids in for the night, we made our way to the Northern Lights nightclub for some drinks and dancing... but we didn't stay out too late because the next day we were due in Tortola BVI, where we had an appointment with a fish called Wanda, (oops sorry got carried away... I meant), a Dolphin named Poseidon.

Here are some pictures of our Day at Sea:

Robbie posing at the Lido Pool	Maddie & Livvie's turn to pose
Ahmed presenting Mom with a serviette flower.	3 little Monkeys
Dinning in the Vista Dining Room	A family portrait: Notice the "caribbean tan"
Sunset on the Atlantic	Sunset on the Atlantic
Sunset on the Atlantic	Sleeping Beauty with her "Mr. Monkey Monk"

Forward to Day 4: Roadtown, Tortola BVI: