Getting used to Life Onboard!

It doesn't take too long to adjust to:

"Would madam like wine with lunch?"
"Yes, absolutely, pour me some of that delicious French white right here"

"Are two feather pillows sufficient?"
"Just perfect to go with this delightful new mattress that you have provided"

"Would you like freshly baked cookies with that latte?"
"Just one as I'm saving room for the next three meals and two snacks today"

The ship, the Azamara Quest, has just been in dry dock for some upgrades, including midnight blue (or black) paint on the hull--depending on who you ask. Also, new mattresses, curtains and new veranda furniture, plus a host of refinements to various public rooms. We think the sound system must have been done, because at last night's show it the music didn't drown out the singers as it normally does on ships. Speaking of the show, there were some dancers from Belarus whose feet moved so fast they were a blur! Plus, I have never seen a man with more wiggle in his hips--they would give any of the TV dance show dancers a run for their money--it made us tired just watching.

Today while we are at Sea, on our way to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, the Captain and his senior bridge officers did a demonstration of using the sextant to calculate our location. It involved siting the sun on the horizon at the exact moment that it stops rising in the sky and starts dropping--precisely 12:31pm today. Then there were all kinds of adjustments for how far we were above the level of the water, etc and he came up with the latitude. At that point he called the bridge and they gave him the location as indicated on the GPS. the Captain said the GPS was only off by 2 miles! Actually someone pointed out that while he was explaining the calculation the ship could have traveled the 2 miles in question. He said that on most ships these days there is no one who knows how to use a sextant, but he likes to keep the guys on their toes!