North Atlantic Ocean

Another routine day at sea. Except that we lost our third hour since departing Ft Lauderdale on 1 March. We have three more 23-hour days ahead of us to put us on the same footing with Spain by 11 March. We’re all agreed that springing ahead at noon instead of after midnight is much easier on the body.

Allure seems to be moving along at the same steady sea-day pace. The captain hasn’t advised of a change in our heading to make landfall for a med-evac, so I am assuming the critical emergency that required a ship-wide announcement last night for blood donors has stabilized for the better 🤞🏻

Though it was warmer today, that was likely because of lighter winds. The swells were maybe a tad bit more noticeable to the eye ... but the motion went largely unnoticed on the ship. We went through a rain squall mid-morning that stretched all around us ... wide enough that we could not alter course to avoid it. The result ... a couple of minutes of light ☔️.

I’ll skip writing about our routine activities and just mention some things we did that were different from our previous days at sea on this cruise.

For lunch, Mui and I went to Johnny Rocket’s on the Boardwalk. This is one of several specialty restaurants on Allure that has a cover charge — $9.95pp. You certainly get your money’s worth as the price includes a soft drink; a side — a variety of fries ... potato as well as onion; a main — burger or hot dog ... with a variety of toppings; and dessert — apple 🥧 a la mode or vanilla sundae. Really, way too much food. Mui and I shared a sundae and got a pie to go so that mom could nibble on it since she skipped lunch.

After lunch, we collected mom from her cabin and went to a matinee show at the Amber Theater. Though there will be a series of matinees in the coming days at sea, today’s show was a special one featuring the cast of Mamma Mia. From what I understand, it was a one-of-a-kind show the cast put together just for this sailing. They performed a sampling of songs through the decades, with live music provided by the Allure Orchestra. A fun show that we all agreed was worth going to see.

Our entertainment continued tonight ... this time with a show headlining Stephani Parker. Apparently Stephani began her career as a production show lead singer on cruise ships before launching her solo career. Tonight’s performance was an homage to “Whitney Houston, the Greatest Voice of All.” It was a terrific show. Stephani has quite a “set of pipes” as they say. Eyes closed, one would be excused for thinking that it was Whitney performing.

Our day might have been a routine one, but we sure enjoyed every minute of it.Read more