Our first full day at sea and we were well on our way to cover the 1,144 nautical miles from Fort Lauderdale to Oranjestad, Aruba. Up at 7:30 to a clear sky with slight seas and to our immense surprise, there were birthday balloons stuck to our stateroom doors for Lee and Shelly to celebrate their birthdays which were back on March 10th and March 13th. As well, there was an envelope for each with a signed birthday card from the Captain and a surprise gift they were instructed to pick up later in the day.

  
click picture to enlarge

Down for breakfast at the Horizons Buffet at nine. That done, Bob went up to the top deck to shoot some hoops. Lee and Shelly trooped down to the shops to collect their birthday gifts and then to bingo at 11:15. I kicked back on our stateroom veranda to catch some rays, jot a few notes down on the net book and snooze on and off. Everybody met back at the staterooms at noon. Bob came in third in the hoop shooting contest.  Lee and Shelly arrived empty handed from bingo.

Lunch was a sushi buffet at Horizons. Not great but okay. The girls went down to pick up their birthday gifts mid-afternoon, a gift certificate for $200 (good as cash) towards the purchase of any 1 carat diamond solitaire from Tanzanite International. Pretty special ... okay.  Bob went down to the casino to take part in a roulette gaming demonstration. At 3 pm the girls grabbed our shirts for tonight and made their way to the laundromat down the hall from us to iron out the travelling wrinkles. The rest of the afternoon was feet up on the veranda with a drink in hand.

    
click picture to enlarge

At 5:00 everybody into their finery for formal night in the dining room. Very nice dinner.  While we were waiting for our after dinner coffee, Soto, Jacqueline and another waiter showed up at out table with two candled cakes in hand and launched into a multi-lingual rendition of Happy Birthday. The tables around us joined in, well-wishes were made and the candles blown out. Pretty good little birthday celebration.

      
    
  
click picture to enlarge

After dinner we decided to take in a "Dance Show" in the Princess Theatre but there were no seats left by the time we arrived. So, hustle down to the opposite end of the ship to watch the Variety Show and Comedy of Dan Bennett. The guy did a juggling routine with an ongoing patter of jokes. Pretty funny, especially the one about why "it's really hard to solve a crime in Arkansas because the DNA is all the same there", the explanation of how our Greek Captain learned English from an IHOP menu and Shelly's favourite, Roman soldiers on parade sounding off … I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII and so on. Guess you had to be there.

  
click picture to enlarge

Down to the casino for an hour after the show, then back to the rooms for a nightcap. Off to bed at midnight.