Day at sea onboard Regatta, April 25, 2006

Katie had set the alarm for 7; but chose to ignore it. We got to moving a little after 10. Already missed breakfast everywhere; so we went to Horizon's Lounge & got in on the tail end of the coffee, juice & rolls. We were sailing through the Dardanelle Passage past Gallipoli. How apropos considering that today is the anniversary of that war. We wandered into the two shops. Oceania obviously doesn't put much emphasis on onboard shopping. There is a nice size shop w/ fine jewelry & watches. The other has logo clothing & a (very) few sundry items.

Early afternoon, Katie went for stretch classes & then Pilates classes while I wrote the travel diary e-mail. I had a delicious lunch (alone) in the D.R. I had chorizo & cheese quesadillas w/ guacamole & salsa, cream of tomato & bell pepper soup & beef kabobs served over spicy eggplant. Fabulous! When Katie finished in the spa, she ordered room service for her late lunch. She had a crab salad appetizer, French onion soup & a chef salad w/ (what appeared to be raw) baby shrimp. I watched a movie in the cabin ("The Family Stone") while Katie went to a lecture on the balance of life & how to have the energy to do what you want (sounds right up her alley, doesn't it?).



Then it was a rush to get ready for our Cruise Critic get together. We had planned this weeks ago on the message board, choosing to meet on the first sea day at 6 pm in Horizon's Lounge. Unbeknownst to me, the Captain's Welcome Party was at the same time. I had no way of notifying everyone to change it (since I didn't know their last names). Less than half showed up (a few came after they had their free champagne w/ the Capt.). Very disappointing. Guess all these people I've been "talking to" on the boards will remain faceless names.



Eileen asked us to dine w/ them again; which we did. Halfway through the meal, we began to get the feeling that Eileen wasn't happy w/ Brian's playful banter at the table. It was like she was jealous because she wasn't the center of his attention. Brian is loads of fun; & so is (was) she. But her attitude towards us (Katie in particular) has changed. Anyway, on to the meal.....The Gala menu was so good we couldn't decide what to have. We ended up sampling more than our share. We asked for an appetizer portion of the pasta entree. It was an excellent rigatoni w/ tomato sauce over sauteed eggplant. This was followed by excellent cream of asparagus soup & then salads. Katie's was a frisee of greens w/ tomatoes, red onion & herbs. Mine was Boston lettuce w/ roasted pine nuts & warm bacon dressing. We both couldn't resist the FL lobster (cut into medallions) w/ Remy Martin Cognac cream sauce served over a bed of wild rice. And we were really, really bad... following this w/ prime rib w/ Bordelaise sauce & horseradish. Everything was superb; & table service was top notch tonight. Katie had petit fours again for dessert; & I had a larger serving of the pink grapefruit sorbet we had earlier between courses. It was to die for. We're stuffed & going to bed.