I hate the idea of sea days on cruises.
I don’t get a lot of vacation time. If I’m spending a lot of money to go somewhere I want to be exploring somewhere new. I want to be learning something. An enforced day of “Now you will sit here and do nothing” irks me. We had 3 on this cruise.
Now, I quite enjoy a lazy day at home but I don’t want to waste my vacation on it. But it turns out that we had so much relaxing to do that we ended up having to make a schedule so that we could get all our relaxing in on time.
Here’s roughly how it went:
7-9 AM Wake up and go get breakfast. I’ll be doing posts on all the meals later.
9-12 Reading time #1 in the Explorers’ Lounge. This is a 2 story bar/lounge on the front of the ship. We would hole up on the 8th floor on the couches and read for hours.
From 10-12 there was a biologist downstairs leading wildlife spotting. Spoiler alert – there was none. But how cool of a job is that? He lives on cruise ships all winter with his wife. He works for a British charity and his whole job is to log any wildlife he sees.
12 or 1 or so – Lunch
After lunch until 2 – Back to reading in the lounge
2ish – 1 hour walk around the promenade deck. The Husband did his workouts on the treadmill and lifted weights in the gym a few times a day.
3-4 PM – Spa time. There is a spa where you can get overpriced massages and facials. But, there is also a free area. This is a Norwegian ship so they are big on the whole hot to cold spa experience. In the locker rooms there is a sauna next to a cold plunge pool. I got peer pressured into the cold pool. I lasted about 2 minutes. I like warm water. The main area has a steam room and a snow room, a overhead bucket you can dump on yourself after coming out of the steam room, and a pool area that has multiple jetted areas. We went into the snow room often just to recreate the sensation of standing on our front step waiting for Nemo to go to the bathroom. It didn’t feel cold to us at all. The Californians couldn’t handle it. This isn’t a big area but I don’t think most people knew it was here or that it was free or were interested because it was never crowded. I’ll take steam rooms and hot tubs everyday, thank you! Our last ocean cruise was under COVID protocols and we had to make an appointment for this space and could only stay an hour. This felt luxurious.
There’s no fire on a ship so this is done with water vapor and light to mimic a fireplace outside the spa pool.
4-5 pm – Tea Time Yes, we must eat again while reading and then move back to the Explorers’ Lounge to continue reading until dinner. Look at that afternoon schedule. It’s brutal. You have to fit a workout and water time in with perfect timing in order to get cleaned up and to tea time at the right time.
7ish – Dinner
After dinner until 9 or so – You guessed it, more reading either in the lounge or on the loungers facing the side of the ship near the pool. Those were comfortable. The ones actually around the pool were not.
The comfy loungers with a view of Costa Rica during the daylight. That wasn’t a sea day so my relaxation schedule was off.
9-10 pm – Bedtime. This isn’t a ship with big shows or anything like that. They have a few singers and musicians. They do small cabaret type shows but we never went. One guy sang in the lounge and disturbed our reading for a bit each afternoon. I’d put my headphones on to quiet him down. He was talented but sang 1970s singer songwriters. The husband told the bartenders it was music to kill yourself to. They agreed that he could try to be more cheerful. The musicians played classical music at tea time or in the atrium of the ship as you were passing through.
In case you foolishly didn’t bring enough books for all this reading time. Viking has you covered. There are bookshelves everywhere.
I was getting the hang of relaxation at sea days by the end of the cruise. The husband really wants to do an Atlantic crossing. That’s about a week of sailing days. I just couldn’t make myself sign up for it though. I want to be exploring on a cruise!
