Last night, the seas got rough.  I went to sleep with the sound of my closet doors banging against the face of the cabinets.  It seems like to me they could have made sliding doors that are attached both top AND bottom to prevent this.  Very annoying.

I decide on a sit down breakfast again, this time because I am afraid I won’t make it from the buffet to my table without an accident.  The ship is now both pitching and rolling.  The captain says we have 20-30 foot seas, but there is no danger and we’re still making 18-19 knots.  The Eggs Benedict are OK.  Nothing special.

I try to work out in the gym but give up on the punching bag, which is swinging like a pendulum without any help from my blows.  Even the crew is having a bit of a hard time walking now.

I am glad I wore my patches because I am prone to seasickness.  I knew that crossing the open ocean might mean rough seas, and I wasn’t wrong.  This isn’t a Caribbean cruise, baby.  If you want to enjoy it, wear a patch!

And now for another complaint on NCL:  I mentioned before what a pain in the ass it is to get the day’s itinerary if you lost your own.  My cabin steward referred me all the way to the reception desk 7 decks below my room to get one for today.  I went downstairs, saw a stack in a magazine holder, and grabbed the top one without thinking.  Upon returning to my room, I realized it was in Spanish.  So yet another trip to the front desk for the stupid @!&**(^&!^(@*})@ itinerary.  The only consolation was that I got a view of the ocean from a low deck, and it was an impressive display of nature’s power.  Great walls of water roiled up from the depths of the sea whipped the last of their life in a frothy explosion as we slammed into another big wave.  Impressive.

Another irritant is the fact that the cabin steward apparently isn’t trusted with a master key all day long.  When I locked myself out of my room, he had to go to his supervisor to let me in.  I suppose it’s nice to have some security measures, but really he already has access at least part of the day anyway…what difference does it make if he has them all the time?

But these are minor complaints.  So far, I’m enjoying the cruise, and we’re about halfway across the Atlantic by now.  And the captain says we will have fair weather tomorrow or even as early as tonight.  I hope so, because I miss my daily soak in the hot tub, or just laying in the sun on deck.

I actually have a pretty good showing at Trivia today but don’t win.  I need to partner up with people to have a chance.

The Martini University is highly recommended.  For $20, you get 4 man-sized drinks packed with a big vodka wallop, and most of that is call brand like Svedka and Grey Goose.  I have a great time with my new best friends, Reiner from Germany and…I’ve forgotten.  Anyway, a wonderful time.

I meet a slew of new people at the Living room tonight.  There’s an Israeli, a woman who owns a pawnshop, a retired nurse, and a judge.

I eat at the Garden Café’ buffet, having determined that the full service restaurants (Manhattan and Taste) are just not worth it.

I make the mistake of hooking up with the pawnshop owner and her best friend, who proceed to feed me prodigious quantities of vino that they have stowed away in their room.  NCL’s policy is that they want to rip you off as much as possible on drinks so they hammer you over $9 a glass for ordinary Chardonnay.  They so jealously protect that monopoly that they confiscate any booze they find in your luggage (it’s returned at the end of the cruise).  My 2 new friends didn’t get caught.  They took 2 cases of water on board that wasn’t really water but rather some clear alcohol that they had put in the night before embarkation.  They also had full wine bottles in several pieces of luggage.

We hit the Bliss lounge for Salsa night but it quickly turned into disco music.  We only stayed until they closed the place down at 3AM.