This cruise was a combination of sightseeing, adventure, travel, entertainment, learning, dining, and relaxation.  We participated in all of these.  The previous pages have described most of our activities such as the arrival onboard, our departure from port, and all the very interesting and exciting adventures on our tours in the various countries.  This section will try to fill in what we did in between these other activities, while we were on board.
 

Our dining room, the Bordeaux Room, was very elegant, so was the food. Every evening had a different menu consisting of a choice of appitizers, salads, soups, entrees, and deserts.  On only two nights did we decide that the offerings were not worth changing clothes for, and we went to the 24 hour buffet instead. On Thanksgiving, they offered turkey with all the trimmings, but we decided on Lobster tails instead.  Other evenings we had Prime Rib, Shrimp Kabob, Salmon, Scallops, Lobster tail and Prawns.  We had several of these twice, along with other great selections.

Many of the ship's activities took place in and around the Atrium.  They really did a beautiful job designing and building it. This view is from one of the two glass front elevators.

All the ship's shops and stores are on the 2nd deck of the Atrium (deck 6).  The Purser's desk, the excursion desk, and the Future cruises desk are on the lowest deck (deck 5).

The library, a card room, and the Internet Cafe are on the top deck of the Atrium (deck 8). There are bars and sitting areas spread all around. There are a couple areas which host the various musical groups and soloists.

They had their champagne fountain on the first of the 3 formal nights.  After ship's dignitaries, passengers lined up to pour the champagne over the top, to fill the glasses below.  They then passed the full glasses around.  We declined.

There was a young couple aboard with this small boy.  While I don't generally approve of having your kids on a leash, it was very handy here.  When he was free, he would almost instantly be on the other side of the ship. We really enjoyed watching him on several occasions.

There were concerts, movies, and NFL games shown on the large screen TV on the Lido deck almost constantly.  During the canal passage, the bridge camera image was shown. We tried watching one of the concerts,  and I found it was very hard on my eyes with the bright daylight behind the screen.  It was probably better at night.

We attended two of the stage shows.  Here they are offering a tribute to Sara Lee.

The dancing and singing was very well done and very enjoyable.

The shows we attended had a wide variety of numbers, and used the stage effects, such as this large elevator, to good advantage.

I was amazed at the quality of the costumes and stage sets.  The shows were very well done, and a lot of fun.

Every evening after dinner, we would try to get a couple of chairs near our favorite trio.  They consisted of a violinist, a string bass player, and a pianist.  They played a wide variety of music from pure classical to very lively Greek folk music. We really enjoyed them!

We attended several lectures in the Princess Theater describing our various ports of call and the canal transit.  They were very informative and enjoyable.

In addition to the activities above, we spent a lot of time just relaxing.  Our balcony was a great place for this, as well as the deck chairs and lounges on various parts of the Lido and the Promonade decks, and the chairs around the Atrium.  I managed to read 9 books on my Nook ebook reader during the 14 days aboard.  I also managed to get at least one soft serve ice cream cone each day, which were free for the first time on this one of our three cruises.

This was truly a wonderful cruise and a wonderful experience.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves the whole time.  I am happy I have been able to put these photographs and some of my thoughts on this website for you to share.  I hope you were able to enjoy our trip at least partly as much as we were.

Thanks for coming along!

With love,  Dick and Rosemarie