What will one do with 4 days at sea???  The answer is another question – how can we do all there is to do in 24 hours?

A typical day might begin around 7AM with breakfast in the cabin served by a fantastic Butler like Aakash – –

One needs to be in the gym by 8AM in order to stake out their favorite place for the Pilates class.  While waiting for class to begin a few weight exercises can be done.  If you are not a “class” type of person, the treadmill and/or bike is a good alternative.

Fitness class is barely over before putting and shuffleboard begin on the top deck.  It is either incredibly beautiful up there or blowing a gale, in which case everything gets moved indoors;-(

It has now been a while since breakfast and a lot of activity has taken place, so a break for hot chocolate and a muffin or chocolate croissant is probably needed!  On Oceania that means you head to the 10th deck and Horizons –

Eat, drink and move quickly as it is time for an OLife Enrichment Speaker in the Regatta Lounge on the 5th deck.  This cruise has had some of the most fascinating speakers – especially Dr. Ron Orenstein, who knew everything about every animal or fish in all the areas we were cruising in.  Also, Dr. Linda Bradley who educated us on every culture encountered.

Boy – time passes quickly!  It is already lunch time.  A favorite spot to enjoy the noon hour might be the Terrace Cafe, where you can sit on the rear deck, enjoy the fresh air and watch the world go by – –

Don’t lollygag too long though, because there is more putting and bean bag toss on the 10th deck in Horizons at 2PM.  (These games are all VERY important, as you can win BIG O points to redeem at the end of the cruise for luggage tags, hats, tee shirts, etc!  They are all FREE with points.  OH BOY!!!!!)

There is now a free hour which can be effectively used to get in the three miles walked almost every day.  When at sea, there are no excursions to accomplish this feat (no pun intended), so walking the halls satisfies the requirement.  It just so happens that five times around deck 7 on the Oceania Regatta is one mile.

This also takes exactly an hour, so you can be finished right on time for Afternoon Tea back on the 10th deck in Horizons at 4PM.  There are the nicest servers there that now know chocolate is all this cruiser wants;-)

You don’t even have to move, once finished with tea, to enjoy Lu & Sebastian at happy hour beginning at 5;-). The biggest decision one has to make each afternoon is – do you get ready for dinner before tea so you can go right thru tea and Happy hour to dinner OR take a break somewhere between tea, happy hour and dinner to change for dinner?!?  Decisions – decisions.

Well – sandwiches and sweets from tea and snacks from happy hour have now settled, so it must be dinner time.  Every once in a while Chef scores something incredible in port.  In Nuku Hiva he managed to acquire 400 pounds of fresh tuna and prepared it in all kinds of special ways the next three days.  He even set up a cooking station out on the Terraces deck and cooked up an incredible fresh tuna dinner.

Sometimes surprises also come in the form of desserts.  Something chocolate was asked for one night – and a cheeseburger was served;-).

The food is so delicious, one wants to linger and savor.  This is fine as long as it’s not too long as the evening entertainment comes on at 9:30.  The ship’s entertainment team is extremely talented and became family over the 70 days on the ship as they also do all the daily activities (like putting, baggo, etc).  But, there is also a lot of talent that is brought on like pianists, vocalists, etc – –

When the crew really wants to get the passengers moving and shaking, they create extra competition days pitting passengers against crew.  Strange how the crew always won!

Or, the crew creates teams of passengers to ‘build’ sea worthy vessels from plastic bottles.  These creations must float from one end of the pool to the other and then actually carry ‘freight’.  If the vessels proved worthy, they were voted on to determine the favorite.  What an event this turned into, especially since the seas were really rolling so the pool was sloshing big time!

And then maybe a really special day is when the entire executive chef team decides to prepare a brunch of all brunches!  They truly outdid themselves this day – –

If none of the above tickles your fancy, there is also the casino, poker, mah jongg, table tennis, shuffleboard, bridge, bingo, trivia, name that tune, needlepoint and jewelry making.

By the end of a sea day, the sunset and the thought of sleep is a welcome sight.  And out here the sunsets are always beautiful – –

It’s not what will we do all day while at sea – it’s how will we have time to do it all?!?!

E & G – Ready to be in port to rest up;-)