We continue to enjoy life aboard Oriana. Our concerns that we might not enjoy the sea days were unfounded. Now that temperatures are in the high 20s and the sun is shining we spend most of the day on deck reading, writing the blog and,people watching, the latter being a fascinating study into the psychology of the human race as you can probably imagine!!! Our preference is to sit at the back, sorry, aft, as it is more open than the sun decks in the middle of the ship - oops, midships.So here we are, on Deck 10 overlooking the Terrace pool, with the ship's wake in the distance. The sea is a beautiful colour - dark blue through green to the white caps of the propeller wake. It is very calm and there is a pleasant cooling breeze and the waiter has just come round with ice creams(Magnums!) which we have resisted up to now.
As this area is heavily patrolled by the Navy and others it was interesting to see the Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker Wave Knight alongside at 9am this morning, good publicity for the Navy no doubt. They launched a Zodiac to take photographs. Security seems to have been downgraded slightly this morning - the fire hoses have been disconnected and rolled up.
Let's talk about food! There's a lot of it for about 18 hours a day if you are that way inclined. Oriana has several restaurants - the Peninsular and Oriental restaurants are traditional restaurants with waiter service, the Oriental just serving dinner and the Peninsular, breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is a large self service restaurant, the Conservatory, which has the feel of a BHS cafeteria to it, Al Fresco is a small cafe serving breakfast, lunch and dinner with excellent fruit and salad bars, pastries,omelettes to order, pizzas, pasta and 3 set dishes of the day - this one is our favourite for breakfast and lunch. There's a Costa coffee shop - drinks have to be purchased here but a free naughty cake or sandwich goes with it - very tempting, and even diabetic and gf cakes!! Sorrento is an Italian restaurant outside on Deck 12 where a supplement has to be paid, also in the Marco Pierre White's Ocean Grill. There really is a non stop food fest for those who are that way inclined. We are trying to be virtuous - fruit for breakfast, salad for lunch and the main meal of the day in the Oriental, again excellent choice of dishes, very well prepared. We tried the Oriental for breakfast and lunch - lovely but far too much to eat. Only one set of scales on the ship in the gym which are not very accurate when the ship is at sea, but a last check on the Sharm day indicated we had not put on any weight - yet! We still walk for an hour each day, but the Pilates and Yoga aren't so appealing now the weather is good! We enjoyed a tour of the kitchens yesterday, enormous, immaculate and organised with the precision a military operation - in a two week cruise, 56000 cakes are baked!!