Yesterday (Day 5) was our first "sea day" so generally it's a relaxing day and it allows us a chance to get acquainted with the Eurodam and to start the prep work for the first formal night onboard.

The day started the same as it usually does, breakfast in the Lido. Breakfast was actually good for a change – another plus for HAL over some of their competitors. We got together with T&J so that we could pick out days for our “specialty restaurants” nights. Here on board they have three (3) specialty restaurants – Pinnacle (Steak & Seafood) / Tamarind (Japanese) – Canaletto (Italian) – so depending on formal nights and late port days, we got them ordered and reserved throughout the cruise. The girls then headed off to a cooking demonstration at the Culinary Arts Center where they showed them some appetizer recipes, while I tried to do something completely different than I’m used to – I headed into the Casino. I entered the Black Jack competition and ended up placing second in the first round of qualifications for the final table. You get dealt seven (7) hands and the object is to turn the allotted $1,000 that they give you in chips to as much money as lady luck will allow. I ended up more than doubling my stake to $2,200.00 while the first place guy managed to squeek by me at $2,500.00 So I’m in good position for now, I’ll watch the board and see if I need to get back in before final table. I can just about taste the $500.00 coming my way !

As I said it’s Formal night tonight – so on with the penguin suit and off to the Rembrandt Dining Room – Deborah looked beautiful tonight. This was our chance to meet the stragglers from the previous night – Charles and Marie from Sydney, Australia. This is actually quite funny as I’ll have no problem at all remembering their names throughout the dinner conversation as they have the same names as my parents.

Just a little more information on Oscar and Annabelle as I mentioned earlier. It seems the reason that they took the luggage loss in stride was based on some earlier events that had occurred in their life a few years earlier. Oscar was a police officer in California who was involved in a serious vehicle accident – hit head-on by a drunk driver and ultimately was in a comma for 3-months with very serious head injuries. He has worked tirelessly on his recovery to the point that you would not know unless you noticed the scar that runs over the top of his head from ear-to-ear. Truly amazing. He’s part Navajo and Mexican and wears his hair cut in a Mohawk style so that you can clearly see his scar. – he wears it proudly. The other funny thing is that Annabelle is also Mexican and her mother lives in Guadalajara, Mexico just a few miles from where we spent a month last in year in Ajijic – so I guess I can work on my Spanish during dinner sessions.

Despite the fact that they had lost luggage – both Oscar and Annabelle looked great in a rented tuxedo and nice black Italian dress that she had to pick up in Rome. Deborah took Annabelle aside after dinner and offered evening accessories for the future formal nights until such time that their luggage can be located – Nice touch Debs!

After some spirited dinner conversation about soup to nuts we headed back to the Queen’s Lounge for another round of BB King’s Blue’s Club. Again, they were fantastic. This is one of best things that HAL has done on their cruises – they got this right. The combination of 9 talented musicians and their lead singer(s) makes for a truly enjoyable night of music and dancing.

It’s 5:20 a.m. and we’re still heading westbound towards Cartagena. Room service is scheduled to bring our breakfast for 8:30 a.m. so off goes the laptop for another couple hours of shut eye and we’ll be good to go. Our floating hotel is supposed to dock around 10:00ish and we’ll be heading out on our tour for our walking tour of Murcia and surrounding areas. More on that tomorrow.