February 14, 2015

During the night, we cruised along the eastern side of the Bahamas islands. Clocks went back an hour to Eastern Standard Time (EST) overnight. Temperature at 7 was a cool 20 C with wind 12 knots south. The sky was partly clear with scattered puffy white clouds. Ship speed is 16 knots heading 300 (about north west) The swells looked flatter than yesterday’s waves, as we walked for 55 minutes on Decks 14 and 15, the sea got a bit rougher with the occasional white cap and 2 meter high swells.  Steps 7016.

We showered and went to breakfast in the dining room with two English couples and a couple from Sweden, who enjoy CBC radio especially Stewart McLean.  The hosts had an information desk set up on Deck 3 for an hour this morning for people who questions about tomorrow’s schedule. We went to an interesting presentation about navigating the ship.  End to end, the Eclipse is taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

We browsed the shops and the photo gallery, where we bought two photos from the cruise, then had a light lunch in the Oceanview Café, where each food station had an Ice Sculpture.

At 1 p.m., on Deck 14’s Skyview Lounge there was a 30 minute Waltz dance lesson attended by seven couples.  The dance floor was big enough that each couple had lots of space, even though the ship was rocking, like yesterday. We stopped for IGLU Coffee frappes before going to the iLounge on Deck 6 to meet the group and do pre-boarding seat selection.  It is the travel agency’s experiment, to see if over 60 people can do their pre-boarding. The line-up of at least 20 people to assist and only one account for Internet seemed that with dial-up speed satellite Internet the current line would not be able to be assisted in the next 75 minutes, so we decided that we could wait until Sunday at the airport. We found out later that with the assistance of another group member and some others with extra Internet minutes that everyone from our group, who went to the iLounge and stayed was able to get their boarding pass for Sunday. Then we went to the stateroom to update the blog and make a list of our purchases over the past two weeks, for the Customs declaration.  As usual, between us we did not use even one person’s exemptions.

We walked up to Deck 12 and through the Solarium and all the pools were open.  There was a group reception in Deck 14’s Skyview Lounge before dinner and a group photo was taken. Then it was time for dinner. For Valentine’s Day appetizers, soup and salad chosen were Scallop & Shrimp Ceviche, Wild Mushroom & Barley soup, and Tuna Nicoise salad. The entrées selected at our table were Coq au Vin, T-bone steak and a seafood pasta.  Just before dessert the song “That’s Amoré ” played as waiters and assistant waiters came down the stairway and aisles with red roses for all of the ladies.  Dessert was Blueberry Pavlova.

After dinner, the Grand Foyer on Deck 3 was filled with people to witness a dance competition where a passenger and cast dancer were paired and had prepared a 1 minute dance routine. We watched from Deck 4 and there were people watching from Decks 5 and 6 too.

Temperature at 8 p.m. was 17 C with winds of 16 knots. Then we packed in order to leave our luggage in the hall before 11 p.m. to be picked up and unloaded when the ship arrived in Miami and then when we are part way through the Customs process we would collect the luggage for possible inspection and then go to our bus to the airport.

  Steps today were 14,035.