The Great European Adventure, Day 12: Day at Sea #4featured

We’d all but exhausted our options to keep entertained on our unplanned sea day when we couldn’t dock in Santorini, so when we woke up the morning of our planned sea day, we knew there was really only one thing to do: head up to the pool.

A large crowd started to gather under the big screen and we realized the 2/$20 t-shirt sale was held on deck. People swarmed to that table for hours. I never particularly understood the appeal of some of these sales — the crowds we saw inside the Royal Promenade on the Allure on a gorgeous Caribbean sea day for a watch sale boggled my mind a few years ago!

After a few hours of sunning and swimming, we’d had our fill of Vitamin D and headed inside where we found…more sales. I guess when there’s nothing else to do, you’ll always have swimming and shopping on a cruise ship.

Latitudes was offering 25% off, so we grabbed some ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s and headed out to the promenade to enjoy our treats al fresco.

And that’s literally how we spent nearly the entirety of our day: sun, swim, shop, snack, nap. I’d worried before this trip that we’d return home exhausted – long haul flights, jet lag, early wakeups for excursions followed by hours of touring with only a few days of rest in between – but the lack of activities during the day left us with ample napping time. I woke up to Mom and Stephanie watching Sex and the City 2 in French (a language Mom barely speaks anymore and Stephanie doesn’t know a lick of). There was literally nothing else on TV (Royal Caribbean doesn’t have stateroom movies playing on a loop like Carnival does) and at this point, I was wondering if it was part of a larger conspiracy to keep cruisers out on deck and spending money instead of resting in their cabins.

Tonight was our third (and final) formal night, and I think everyone got a little more dressed up to mark the occasion.

Earlier in the day, Captain Lis mentioned that we’d be reentering the Straits of Messina around 7:30 pm, but we noticed land before we headed to dinner at 6:00 pm.

We knew it would take a few hours to navigate the straits, so we headed to dinner and watched the straits pass by out the window (perks of a table with a view!). The food was okay – formal night menus are never my favorite – but the service was more spectacular than the food. Marc stopped by to give us all of his reccos for our port day in Naples, Pawan made sure our glasses were never empty, and Lloyd? Lloyd couldn’t decide which dessert he wanted us to try the most, so he brought us one of everything.

Royal Shrimp Cocktail

Creamed Wild Mushrooms

Duck and Port Wine Terrine

Simple and Classic Caesar Salad

Roasted Poblano Pepper and Corn Soup

Slow Roasted Prime Rib

Pan-Fried Giant Shrimp

Thai Chicken Breast

Grand Mariner Souffle

Low Fat Angel Food Cake

Baked Alaska

Ivory Chocolate Mousse

Sugar-Free Coconut and Lychee Gateaux

Holy Dessert, Batman

We tried to head out to the promenade after dinner, but it was pretty windy (and, oddly enough, raining on the Sicily side of the passage but not on the other), so we headed up to deck 10, where it was a little less windy, and we watched the ship navigate through until Sicily became a small blip behind us.

We headed down to the Schooner Bar to play an impossible round of music trivia (spoiler alert: we lost) before heading down to the Masquerade for tonight’s headliner show, Boogie Wonderland. Much like the Broadway show earlier in the cruise, this one was a bit outdated. The music was great – that kind of music is timeless – but the sets were dated and the costumes were worn out. I’m not sure if either were changed out since the ship launched in 1998.

We missed the sunset during the show, but as we headed out for a stroll, we noticed that we were passing by Stromboli again, and Stromboli at dusk was one of the most beautiful sights we took in on this voyage.

Later on, Stephanie and I went to Park Café to grab some tea before bed and a code Oscar was called – man overboard. Stephanie and I headed down to the promenade and it was packed with concerned crew and passengers. When they launched a rescue boat and brought out a stretcher, they cleared the promenade. One of the crew members made the observation that of all of the life vests they threw in the water, the warning light only lit up on one of them – perhaps a reminder that they needed to check and replace those. We headed back upstairs to drink our tea and wait for an update on the situation – no one knew what was going on, but everyone was emotional about it. And when we got up to deck ten, the railing was lined with people. That part is expected – curiosity is human nature. But we saw people taking pictures and filming and every time we’ve been on a ship with an emergency, whether it be a medevac or a coast guard rescue, there are always people that take pictures and video. And I never understand it – this isn’t the part of your vacation you want to remember, and the misfortune of others isn’t really something to be documented by strangers.

It wasn’t long before we got our update: there wasn’t a passenger or crew overboard, but rather, they spotted a raft floating in the water near the ship and they weren’t sure if anyone was on it or not from the distance we were at, so they sent two crew members in hazmat suits to investigate on a rescue boat. The raft was empty (it turned out to be a coast guard exercise raft) and the coast guard asked that we remove it from the water before moving again. And, of course, once the situation was resolved and we began moving again, an Alpha code was called – a medical emergency. Poor Captain Lis couldn’t catch a break. Not long after the Alpha was called, she came on to say that the coast guard had decided they wanted us to return the equipment and raft to sea.

It was a crazy night and the best outcome to what could have been a terrible situation. By 11:00 pm, we were back on our way to Naples and we headed to bed. The clocks would move back an hour overnight, giving us one more hour of sleep. And with an early morning wakeup for our excursion in Naples, we’d take all the extra sleep we could get.