Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 42 - Monday June 20th 2016 - Ovation of the Seas - Cruising

So it was another sea day on board the Ovation and we started the day off with a cooked breakfast. Not quite the full English version but close (please no comments on our ever expanding waistlines).

So today was all about planning, well a bit of it anyway. Unusually we sat out on the balcony and chatted the morning away, dreaming up new plans for the future. Whilst I sat and wrote up some more of the blog Trev went off to book an appointment at the Next Cruise desk. We had a leaflet left on our bed last night advising us of upcoming cruises and one (not until November next year) had really got Trevor’s attention. It’s a cruise off to some really remote islands in the Pacific Ocean, all bendy palm trees and perfect white sandy beaches and water as hot as a bath. It’s also departing from Australia (Sydney) in November of next year and as we have to be in Oz anyway (Joe and Kates wedding) it’s actually doable.

Anyway, we have booked the appointment to see what deal they will offer us

on board if we book. We’ve done the web comparisons so we know what a good deal will look like if we get offered one. Tune back in tomorrow to see what we do……….

It was a blisteringly hot day out on deck so to be honest we avoided it, it’s just that bit too hot to lay out comfortably so we stayed in the AC most of the day with me watching more Homeland and Trev sorting more of the photographs and updating the web page. Trev nipped out for the odd walk up on deck but to be honest this really was us having a lazy sea day, not doing much at all.

I played around on the new iPad pro, playing with the pencil and the new drawing apps that we managed to download to it. It’s really going to take some time to master it. I also got a bit carried away using garage band (music writing software) and started writing a song just to see how this new version works. It’s really usable and actually good so hours of fun to be had on a sea day and I certainly was not bored in the slightest!

Anyway back to the ship and to our day. After getting ready for the evening we headed straight for the restaurant. Tonight we were going to Jamie Oliver’s Italian on board (one of the speciality restaurants). We were both really looking forward to it to be honest as on board you tend to get so much steak and red meat that a pasta meal was actually going to be quite unusual.

I actually ordered some wine tonight as my acid reflux felt like it had subsided, it was lovely to be able to have a glass of the grape again without it making me feel ill. The food was a complete delight tonight as well, mostly because it was full of all of our favourite flavours. We had crab and avocado bruschetta for starters (yes we ordered the same thing, we always do) and Liguini with Prawns and rocket with chilli for our main course. We ordered a side of chilli as well to spice it up even more and the flavour really hit the spot and we even both went as far as to say that this had been the best meal on the boat so far. For dessert we finally ordered something different from each other with me going for the Tiramisu and Trev for the Frangipane Tart. The other thing that made this a great meal was our waitress, Dan Dan. She was/is an over excited Chinese girl, really tiny but full of life and just infectious. She did not miss a thing and her personality really shone, not like some of the other Chinese staff we have encountered. All of this added up to a great night but it was not over yet.

We also had a reservation to watch the main production show in the theatre tonight, Love Live, Legs. Now you may remember that we have seen this before on the first leg of the cruise that we did from Barcelona to Dubai but we had such terrible seats that time that we couldn’t really see the show or enjoy it so hence we made another reservation and we are back again in the Royal Theatre. We arrived half an hour early this time to be sure of getting a good seat and we were not the first to think that getting here at this time was a good idea.

The show was great and we were both so glad that we had gone back and given it a second chance. It was all showgirls in feathers and bare chested male dancers with acrobatics and flying and a very modern songbook from Chris Brown (lets go) to a whole Kylie Minogue segment at the end, so yes, it was camp!

After the show we went down to Michaels Pub to see if we could see two girls that were apparently on the boat that had got in touch with us. Sounds weird I know but a friend from Gran Canaria had contacted us to say he also had two other friends travelling on the Ovation so a meet had been set up over Facebook. We didn’t see them this evening. What is quite funny though as these ladies are also from Germany. We keep meeting up with people from Germany on this cruise ship (not that there is anything wrong with that at all, far from it Michael and Martin were so lovely and we miss them not being on the boat now).

We got Trev his normal nightcap and headed back to our cabin. It really had been a great evening with the food, the wine, the entertainment, really good fun. Tomorrow brings the penultimate day at sea this cruise……then its Korea and China!