Crossing the Atlantic
From here we start our journey across the Atlantic and will not see land for 6 days. There are plenty of things to do on the ship, we had already been to a yoga class, had our hair done, and a massage or two. Our plan was to have a nice quiet 6 days reading by the pool with the occasional stroll on deck – relaxing?!!!!
We woke up early (as we usually do at 11) and wondered up stairs for a leisurely brunch. Then we went poolside to commence our 6 days of lazing around the pool reading. We had all we needed – water, 50+, books and sun.
Around 2pm, Patricio (activities manager of some sort) made an announcement that they were looking for teams of 6 people to compete in Vision of Seas Olympics. There would be activities around 2pm everyday and the points would be accumulated and the winning team would win a FREE Cruise…………………………brochure. Keith was busy trying to convince Lin to join without success when he asked if we would be interested in making up a team – Elona and I looked at each other, I made the comment that we should participate.
ASIDE
Oh but wait!!!!!! Megan decided that we needed to PARTICIPATE bless her and when Keith asked us if we would join him in the 4 day Vision Olympics Meg’s was happy to say yes for the both of us. What ensued was 4 days of having relaxing poolside time interrupted by rock climbing, sit ups, push ups, hoola hooping, and trivia. Oh but wait….there is more. Participating in these activities led us to participate in Marathon Trivia and Sudoku…I was starting to think that Meg’s was bored – seriously that or the poolside thing was just not her gig!!
Next step was to locate 3 other team members, Keith and Elona went off in search of Dave and Patrick to see if they would join the team now known as “The Aussies and Others”. I tried to convince Lin to join us, she stuck to her guns and gracefully declined. Elona returned with the joyous news that the boys were in – fantastic, one more team member to go. Lin happened to overhear a couple saying they might be interested in doing the Olympics but didn’t know whom else would be in their team. Lin jumped in and advised that we were looking for another team member, Keith then introduced us to Joel (real name Roel) Beers for short as the final member of our team and his girlfriend Carlijn. Roel and Carlijn are both from Holland and were travelling back home after 12 months working in New Zealand and a couple of months touring South America.
Mission accomplished – we had our team and the next team challenge was to take place the following day at 2pm – Patricio did make the passing comment that the first event maybe a race of team members climbing the rock wall they have on the 10th floor at the back of the boat overlooking the ocean. – Yeah (I knew I should have support in Rec Studies at school at some point and acquired the necessary skills for this all important Olympic event??????)
Anyway we have to admit that the activities led to making more friends and sharing times with them either at breakfast, lunch or dinner OR even at times where we did get time to spend poolside reading, relaxing, listening to the live band OR meeting up after dinner and the show to join some ‘deck party’ to dance.
You’ll be pleased to know that we did finally have some luck with finding friends at dinner – we had a lovely couple Nancy and Gene sit next to us one night and as usual being the social couple we are we interrupted their conversation and from then they became our family – we just love them!!
And it’s not just because Gene resembles Jimmy Buffett or that Nancy has the most perfect hair!!! They are just a wonderful couple that we shared every dinner with from that point on sharing stories, laughter, teasing and also some day trips and with a little coaxing they did come out to a deck party to dance – we have to say guys that these dance parties don’t really start till after 11pm and after a huge day of PARTICIPATING it can get quite tiring to end your night with jiggling your butt!! Oh WAIT – there is a Brazilian phenomenon: this is really weird – the women must have some gravity defying butt gene that no matter how large their butts are they DO NOT hang – I’m NOT kidding they have the best butts and it’s no wonder that they call us flat arses!!!! Jealous??? Lots!!!!
There is sooooo much to write so instead we have decided to do this pictorially with information added along the way – as it has been pointed out by ONE person – yes you Sarah!! Who apparently doesn’t read the blog but just looks at the photos. Writing this will not get me into trouble as she won’t read the bloody thing anyway!!!!!!! Love ya Sarah J
Meet Patrick, kindly displaying a 750ml Fosters can (can you believe it?) and our flag.
We found out towards the end of the trip that it was actually cheaper
to have the cocktail of the day than to buy a litre of water or one glass of wine - tips for cruising.
Flags, flags everywhere
Hank left us an elephant
And a sarong tree along with our official certificates stating we had sailed across the equator -
hooo hoooo!
One of our competitors for Vision Olympics
sit-ups, push-ups and hula-hooping where the challenges of the day
Go Keith - how many can you do in 20 seconds??
Nice hula-hooping technique
Luckily Elona had the technique down pat and won this section for us
by keeping the hula-hoop going for an astonishing 5 seconds
We had just successfully won the first round - only 4 more to go!
This is Otto - HR Manager for Vision of the Seas and from South Africa.
Was so happy to find two English speaking girls to chat with - he was just lovely.
Pool deck- fabulous. Just a small story to go with the picture. See the spas/jacuzzis in the middle of the pool area, we decided to try one out, (not our first choice but the water in the pool was just too cold) we decided on the one that only had one person (a lady) as the other three were crowded and had a number of children jumping in and out of the water. No problems, we get in make ourselves comfortable when a man enters and is obviously with the lady who was already there as she hands him a pumice stone so he can pumice her nicely spa softened feet - SOOOOO DISGUSTING!!!!!!! As you can imagine we were not exactly quiet in hiding our disgust but as they were from Brazil we are not sure how much English they understood but they did stop with the pumice - well until we could stand it no longer and left, when he began pumicing his own feet as well. Needless to say we did not enter the Spa again!
View from the 10th deck - no land insight and the sun setting over the water - just lovely?
Once we were out at sea we noticed that the staff had put sick bags on every floor near the stairs for anyone overcome by motion sickness. Elona decided to demonstrate - we succeeded in making a lovely man who was vacuuming the floor near by laugh historically - Still don't quite understand how we came to be known as the crazy 2 Australian girls??
We had a new flag arrangement every night at dinner and invented a game 'Find the Australian flags in the dining room' - the staff were astonished at the places they found Australian flags!
Our lovely dinner companions - Gene and Nancy from New Mexico. And no that's
not in Mexico it is in the USA!!
Can you find the flag??? Oooops! Nice photo though.
This is the statue outside the theatre
This is in the very lively and colourful casino and yes MaB we put
twenty dollars in each - Megs lasted much longer than me but it was still
a fun way to pass an hour!
Ohhh dear - I have figured out that it's not my lenses that are giving me
the problems on reading the menu after being given Gene's reading glasses I
found that in fact I'm now short and long sited - signs of old age creeping in!!!
Bless his cotton socks; Gene came in the next night and presented me with a
beautiful pair of collapsible reading glasses in a little case for me to have! Thanks Gene :)
The theatre which we pretty much went to a show every night at 9.30pm
Very enjoyable but the position of the theatre is in a spot that actually makes you
feel the movement of the ship on the waves and everyone leaving after the
show all looked drunk as they headed out - very funny!
This guy is a man of many hats - he was in charge of excursions, Karaoke, marathon trivia
and turned up at other things as well. He has an amazing voice and is a very funny man too.
This another gift from Hank - bless him it's very creative! Those boobs
are a game that Megs and I bought in Rio; You hit them with your hand
like a shuttlecock. Good fun and we did have a game in our cabin one night - hilarious!
Our return gift to Hank - he thought this was very creative as well :)
This is the beautiful Suellen; our waitress who was never short of a smile
unless we did not finish our food or didn't want our dessert - in fact there
was one night where we didn't order dessert so she brought out every
dessert - about 5 of them and said 'Just try a little of each!'
We actually did find out that many staff who work on the ship are
highly qualified professionals for eg our beautiful Suellen is in fact a teacher and
Hank our steward is a full qualified fridge mechanic - how's that! This is their way of
travelling and saving money. You go guys - enjoy!
On certain nights the restaurant staff would all get together parade through
the restaurant and sing on the main steps - just lovely!
There are a number of flag holes around the dining hall, so what better
place to put our flags? A little small for the holes but you get that!
This is the lighthouse outside the schooner bar which my father Jim
would have absolutely loved it had the most amazing nautical decor!
The beautiful Carolijn deckside
On a very warm day what else do you expect on the pool deck but an
example of ice carving! Done without the chainsaws used
in Canada and Quebec
Roel, Megs and Linda waiting for the rock climbing to begin
This was a blast from the past for us - this is Roel's T-Shirt
and we use these expressions in stickers at Caboolture High School - the kids
love them
Climbing preparations
Here's the team ready to go!
Yeah Keith
God bless her cotton socks; Carolijn beat Keith's time!
This gives you an indication on how the wall actually is - it's
the equivalent of over 10 stories above sea level from deck 11
therefore probably another couple of stories above that!! Bloody high when
you're up there!
Carolijn and Roel poolside
See MaB me playing the pokies!! Who would have thought!?
70's night on the ship made the casino even more colourful!
This is our anteater from Hank
This is the artwork next to the pool - which we think is very clever.
Vision of the Seas Olympic teams
The winners!!! Yes people that is us!
Ahhhhhhh my nightly hug before dinner - wouldn't miss it for the world!
Check out Roel's T-shirt - it's an emu! Very cool
This Dave having a private discussion (in a crowded room) whether
he minded us tagging along or hijacking their holiday as we now call it.
Free Bingo cards was part of our prize from the olympics as were some magnets,
Royal Caribbean Bag, umbrella and a casino cup - not bad considering the
prize was originally going to be a free cruise........brochure!
Aaahhhh "Kissing Day" what a beautiful Brazilian custom!
Here's one for you Jon
See I wore red lipstick special for the occasion and all
One of the many beautiful desserts that Gene ordered - he would order a few a night bless him!
Having said that we saw him jog every day too!
Okay it looks a little suspect from this angle - go next photo
But it's actually a sea turtle!
This is our Vision of the Seas home away from home docked...somewhere...
I can't remember which port!
We did have a couple of visits to the boys' cabin - and the size difference
was mind blowing; they had a Junior Suite - very LaDiDa!!
Hence they got two lounges!
See!
Sorry Adrian (he's in the middle!) This is Raj and Suellen
Our dinner family
Poolside party - or Deck Party as it was called. We were joined by
Gene and Nancy for this one :)
You go girl!
Never shy to be on the dance floor: Keith and Linda :)
Carolijn and Elona dancing up a storm
Dancing Queen!!!!! Our new song. Dave is one of my favourite people
to dance with - he makes me feel like I'm floating.
Oh bless him gazing into my eyes!!! Probably thinking about Patrick but no one else knew that!!!
Is a wee bit of a show off and he doesn't mind what props he uses;
hence my skirt at times would be pulled up from behind just a wee bit short for my liking!!
But it was fun
And he swung me about like I was a feather...
Held me close.... and all went well until he hurt himself - he pulled a muscle in his calf.
Now this is the way I know the story is but if you ask Dave this is the night
that I broke him - and if you were an attentive listener he would even say I kicked him
so I found out when being introduced to someone who replied with just that "Oh you're
the one who kicked Dave!" UNBELIEVABLE!
I'm pretty sure it was this woman! he he he
This is the aerobics instructor and he has the most perfect Brazilian Butt!!
See I do care!!!! I massaged the poor boy's leg! He was such a girl about it!!
Our turn on the wall - Meg's is up first - and she is brimming with confidence!
The 10 seconds of instructions - ok you're ready!
And she's off!
Fashion Queen - ready
Short people are not meant to be climbers I'm sure!
I just need to blame Gene for getting me into this position and breaking a nail to boot!!
Still climbing - are we there yet?????
Bloody Gene - look at this nail!!!!
This is the gorgeous little bird that stowed away on board after Tenerife
Look it's soooo cute!
Look it's soooo cute!!
This is the night I have to say I got a little embarrassed - yeah I know Elona embarrassed??
Doesn't happen often but one of the boys from this Motown Group had a wee crush
and serenaded me from stage - NEVER sit in the front row people it's dangerous!!
This the Quest evening - looks sedate doesn't it??
Here's our team captains; Matt and Carolijn
Yes not so sedate now - yes the quest involved removing clothing - including bras!
But sometimes the views were pretty good!
See why the bras came off now??
Aren't Matt and Roel just beautiful girls?? Fun night but a little crazy!
Our monkey from Hank - Meg's said that she thought it looked hung and quartered! he he
His guts do look like they have fallen out!
Carolijn - a wee bit tipsy on the last night!!
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