Year 5, Day 186 “Living the Dream”. Sunday, 11/02/2025 – Day 27 of 30 day trip to Rome, Italy with a Mediterranean cruise and a transatlantic cruise back to Bayonne, NJ. Day 12 of 14 night transatlantic cruise on Odyssey of the Seas – At sea day 4 of 6 traveling from Tenerife, Canary Islands to Bayonne, NJ.
Last night I had the opportunity to sit and talk to a Wall Street Journal reporter. I found out after I started telling her about my writing and gave her a DeesTimes business card. As soon as she told me who she was, I wanted to steal my card back from her. Nope, don’t go and read my blog. No professional writing here. Just how I feel and what I see. In our conversation I called her a journalist. She very quickly corrected me. “I am a reporter, not a journalist”. I didn’t mean to offend her. I really didn’t understand the difference till today. So here it is: A professional gathers news directly from the field. They then present it to the public. That is a reporter. A professional who researches, writes, edits, and presents news and information is a journalist. It is a windy warm day. The outside pool is closed due to waves of 10 to 12 feet. Those hot tubs are full though. The stateroom tv map now shows Hamilton, Bermuda. Hamilton is 775 miles from New York, New York. We are actually 1,200 miles from the USA coast. Our trip is coming to an end. Just two more seas days and we are back in the USA.
The Atlantic Ocean is six and one half times the size of the United States. It covers 20 percent of the planet.
There is plenty of sport action playing on the tv’s in the Sports bar today. You won’t miss any game action on this ship.
Of course I prefer the casino games. Look at this view from the casino bar this morning. Pretty quiet place in the morning.
By noon time the pool has been drained. We decided to head to the solarium where there is no wind. Walking is a challenge now since the ship is currently going into the waves. You are either running down hill or fighting to walk up hill. It is a much difference experience than when the waves are hitting the sides of the ship. In that case you are like a drunk going back and forth. We made reservations for dinner at the Solarium Bistro. This is a complimentary restaurant that you do have to reserve for dinner in the evenings. Lunch and breakfast are buffets that all can freely go to. The restaurant is located on deck 14 all the way forward in the solarium. Well this used to be a wonderful place to eat dinner. In the past the appetizers and salad were buffet style. The breads were served to you along with your soup and entrees. Then your dessert was buffet style. Now everything is served on the buffet. Everything is in little plates that you just pick up and bring back to your table. The chicken was dried out. I didn’t take any pictures of the buffet. I will go up tomorrow evening and do a video. It was very very disappointing. The server was excellent but so soft spoken that he didn’t even communicate very well what was expected of us. I would say don’t even bother going.
We did see this cute afternoon entertaining show. James Rawlings is a juggler and variety entertainer. He put on a very light hearted feel good show. He is a little zany and crazy. I read that he holds the Guiness book of world records for sinning the most fidgets at one time. He spun 18 at one time.
Cruise Compass Day 12 of 14 – Odyssey of the Seas – At sea
A little something to ponder.
Here’s a link to today’s Amazon recommendation: https://amzn.to/492X2ol Insulated Stainless Steel Water Bottle with Straw: Perfect for traveling. Great on cruise ships. The ships water is fantastic. Much better than carrying the plastic water bottles. Especially if you are as concerned about adding more Microplastics in your body as I am. It is BPA, lead, and phthalate-free.
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