We woke to clear skies with not a hint of the rain from the night before. We enjoyed a light breakfast and coffee on our huge balcony before attending the lecture ‘Secrets to a Flatter Stomach.’ We came away knowing a lot about toxins, liver function, the lymphatic system, and the need to change up our lifestyle a wee bit. Lunch with the gang rounded out the morning followed by walking the deck with the hopes that the lecture leader would spot us diving right into a new routine. No such luck.

Naps, showers, and some light reading had us refreshed and ready for the first of three formal dining nights. But first we rallied for cocktails. OK, here’s how cocktails work: W&C and H&R have a lot of status with Royal Caribbean (we don’t) and each gets three coupons a day for complimentary happy hour drinks. This nets out that we drink for free thanks to their generosity. It’s a system we’ve grown to love.

Dinner was wonderful and the entertainment was very enjoyable. The headliner was a Brazilian chanteuse named Veronica (pronounced Ver-own-E-kuh by our Brazilian cruise director) Ferriani. In light of the fact that a) there are 800 Brazilians on board and b) we were still in Brazilian waters, most of her songs were sung in Portuguese with a couple in Spanish and English. From the enthusiasm (wild applause and singing along) of the the row behind us, it is safe to assume she nailed the Portuguese numbers.

We ended our evening with cookies washed down with coffee (H&R), tea (Walter), milk (Cleone), sugar free fruit punch (D&S) before heading to bed after a nice first day at sea. We turned our watches back an hour before lights out.

The second day at sea was an exercise in relaxation. Clear skies with temps in the high 80s. Dan and I were up and walking the promenade deck by 10:45 which got us back to the room in time to shower and meet the gang at noon. The ladies had a special ladies-only lunch, at Cleone’s invitation, in the dining room where she presented both Hettie and me with two beautiful Rustic Cuff bracelets in celebration of the 40th anniversary of her and Hettie’s friendship. I have made out like a bandit with these two beautiful bracelets and the scarf that Hettie knitted me. This is not counting free cocktails each night.

Cocktails at 5:30, dinner at 6:30, and entertainment (Brazil’s Luis Fernando on piano) at 9:30. I would have been more surprised by Louis’ orange shoes and orange tie except there was a gentleman seated behind us at dinner tonight with orange shoes and an orange shirt. Orange really is the new black in South America. We all agreed that the day was wonderful in spite of having done essentially nothing. And I do mean nothing.