Thursday, November 6, 2025 - Cruising Somewhere South of Bermuda

 We changed the time back again in the wee hours.  The Virgin App "ship's time" is now two hours different than my time.  All the shops/restaurants seem to be going with my time, so whatever.

It's less windy today and other than large swells in the morning, the ocean is calmer.  I spent the majority of the morning in my hammock.  Swaying gently, reading and relaxing.  Truly, my idea of heaven.

Not much in the way of photos so far and it may stay that way.  I'm feeling lazy and rolling with it...

Photos!

I have ventured out for several walks to fetch food and drink.  One of the things I love on HAL is the free room service.  You can get the full Main Dining Room menu delivered for free.  Each order on Virgin is $10 and has a limited menu.  On the bright side, it does force me to get my steps in.

I enjoy cloud watching.

And I love the prepared take-out containers of fresh fruit.  

They also have many varieties of yogurt and healthy items.

Fruit in the hammock.  A great way to start the day.

As usual, I started with no blanket but after about an hour, got chilly and brought out the down blanket.  The weather for the crossing has been warmer than I expected, with daytime temps in the 70's.

Fun fact - when the balcony door is open, air shoots out these holes in the bathroom doorway.  

Next to the yogurt station are some yeasty goodies.

After admiring all the healthy food, I got a take-out "Pretty Fly for a White Pie" from the pizza place, which was jammed.

Dinner was sushi in my cabin.

With the excellent chocolate mousse.

Wednesday, November 5, 2025 - Sigh, Another Day at Sea

 Poor me.  I woke up to blue skies which quickly turned grey and cloudy.  Another day, stuck on a rocky ocean.  Kidding - isn't it wonderful???  And, I still have days to go!  

Seriously, I love being at sea.  People clean my cabin, feed and wait on me.  It continues to be a great balance of social and alone time.  I'm finishing my second book and had enough bandwidth to download the third in the Charles Martin series.  Plus, hopeful headlines from home.  It is going to be the most glorious day!

It is now Thursday, as I add the final photos.  It was a glorious day and Scarlet Night on Virgin is a huge deal!  I brought a red blouse but since I wasn't staying up for the party, which started at 10:45 p.m., didn't wear it.  Oops!  When I went to dinner at 6 p.m., everyone had changed.  It was a sea of scarlet with clothing and the lighting on the ship, inside and out, turned scarlet.  If you like Halloween, you'd love Scarlet Night.  There's a whole "tale" about Scarlet Night that involves a giant octopus.  They had a couple of afternoon sessions to explain it but I was busy on my balcony (snoozing).  Whatever...people were into it and it made for a fun atmosphere.

Photos!

Buddy stays with friends who have a similar size/age dog, huge backyard and lots of love.  They took the boys to Fancy Pets doggie daycare yesterday while they had some plumbing work done on their house.  That's Buddy, who's ironically on a boat.  That is his happy smile.  Makes it easier to travel when I know my "baby" is happy, too.

View when I opened my eyes.  The hammock was blowing!

A few minutes later it started to get cloudy.

I walk around the ship every morning to make sure I get my daily steps in.  I'd forgotten all about the Karaoke rooms.  So I signed up for 10 a.m.

There are several karaoke rooms at Groupies, reserved and used on an honor basis.

I headed to the Arcade for my favorite Daytona game.  I am doing better!  Today was the first time I haven't come in 40th...aka, last.  The free Arcade games are a big plus, in my opinion.  And there's rarely anyone else in there.

This is the Dock, an outdoor eating and dining place.

Wooden seats, six inches off the deck.  Why???  On HAL, I've spent hours watching the ship's wake.  In a perfectly comfortable chair.

My private karaoke room.  Made for 2-4 people.  A couch, 2 microphones and lots of song options, some with vocals, some true karaoke.

I killed this song.  Sounded just like Idina Menzel.  Well, I had great enthusiasm.

I didn't just sing Disney tunes.

After belting out the tunes for an hour, I hit the hammock for a bit of R&R.

This is a tiny part of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt which started in 2011.  It's caused by climate change and nutrient runoff of fertilizers from land.

Geez, there I was all cozy in the hammock but it got chilly because of the breeze.  And I had to stand up, go inside and get my blankie, all by myself.  It is a hard, hard life at sea, lol.

Have I mentioned how much I love the grab and go refrigerator?  Lunch was a salad with a bit of roasted chicken.

Lest you think I was being healthy, I tried the tres leches cake.  Good but the chocolate take away dessert is better, IMHO.

I went to dinner at the Test Kitchen again.  There was a different menu tonight.  It was as good and perhaps even better than the previous menu.

I was seated two seats away from my previous seat, with the same waiter, who recognized me.  Given how many people he sees, I was impressed.

Our excellent and knowledgeable server explained each course to a group of us but I had trouble hearing so didn't catch all the details.  This was the smoked eel, which had black garlic and a slight sweet taste and was delicious.

Next up was the smoked scallops.  Also very tasty, plus fun drama with the smoky reveal. There's a short video of the drama at the end of the post.

This is a cheese tart (Brie, Bleu and Goat) with a black garlic crust, goji berries and thinly sliced raw mushroom.  Very tasty.  The mix of the strong, savory cheese with the berries was excellent.

Brioche onion rolls.  Very tasty but there was so much food I only had a bite.

A study in chicken was one of the best dishes on the cruise but I was so full by then.  The English guy next to me was a bit disappointed they weren't mushy peas but they were delicious mashed potatoes with spinach.  White meat was still moist and the dark meat had been compressed and then wrapped around a sausage filling that tasted like Thanksgiving stuffing.  It was all topped with a rich gravy.  With asparagus and leeks.  And, a whole morel mushroom cap in the middle.  Impressive and delicious.

Yuzu!  I love the strong citrus taste of yuzu and this was a great dessert with a variety of textures and mild creaminess adjacent to the tart flavor of the yuzu.  Each portion was full size, rather than tasting portions, so even though we lingered and my fellow diners (a very interesting couple from outside London) polished theirs off, I left part of mine.  Very reluctantly.  I enjoyed menu C, previously, at the Test Kitchen, but this one wins by a nose.  I'd happily eat it again today.

I came out of the restaurant to a sea of red.

There were giant tentacles from the octopus.

The red lights in the hall are fine.  But they stayed on on the balcony until after sunrise Thursday morning, so I didn't get to enjoy moonlight on the water last night.  Poor me.  I'm trying to bear up from that crushing disappointment.  The bigger disappointment is that they normally do Scarlet Night on deck 16 at the pool.  There are performers and it is an interactive show.  But because we've had rough seas, they had to move it to the Red Room, which is the main theater.

Tuesday, November 4, 2025 - Still Cruising Across the Atlantic

 Last night I spent an hour trying to figure out what time and day it was and contemplating if it was time to move into the "home".  I finally figured it out.  Not only do I need to change the time on my Chromebook, Kindle and phone but also my Google account, which thought I was still in Barcelona, where it was the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday.  

This morning I woke up confident it was Tuesday.  And that it was 6:30 a.m.  Then I looked at the app, which said it was 5:30 a.m.  Long story but the app is wrong.  It has changed times multiple times today and none of them are correct.  As long as I make my dinner reservation on time, I don't care what time it is.

I spent the majority of the morning on the balcony.  Yup, more than three hours of reading, swaying and snoozing.

Later, I caught up with friends on video calls and tonight I'm hitting Razzle Dazzle for dinner.  Another fabulous day at sea.

Photos!

View from my pillow at 5:30 a.m.

And, 630 a.m.

The Galley was getting ready for hungry sailors.

Sunrise from the back of the boat.

You can lie in this net on deck 16.

There are many breakfast options.  I had toast and bacon with a view.

Then enjoyed some apple juice in my hammock.

As the breeze picked up I got chilly. I always travel with a down blanket.  Folds away to nothing, is great on long flights and wonderful with the hammock.  Thanks, Julius, for taking the photo.

Lunch was sushi from the Bento box, in my cabin with two extraordinary desserts.  The desserts on the ship are AMAZING.

The game of "What Time is It?" continues.  The app says 2:39 p.m.  Customer Service agrees with my phone, with says it is 4:39 p.m.  Yesterday on Reddit a guy posted an email he got from Virgin.  He booked a cruise to the ABC Islands, departing this Sunday from Miami.  But the email said embarkation had been changed to San Juan.  Others booked on the cruise chimed in saying they'd gotten the same email.  Several called Sailor Services and some were told it would be from San Juan.  Others were told the email was an error.  I'm guessing it had to be an error.  In any case, it made me feel better about not knowing what time it is on a sea day.

Dinner was in Razzle Dazzle, where I dined on embarkation day.  I was seated at the same table, coincidentally.  Apparently, there was a solo travelers' table available but I passed.

Many good choices.

I skipped the entree and went for the lamb shank.  This time, they offered mint jelly, which took it over the top.

The excellent server, whose name I've already forgotten, brought me a knife and I laughed.  The lamb was fork-tender.

Anybody else remember the old Alka Seltzer and "I can't believe I ate the whole thing." ?  That's how I felt.

But hey, I skipped the appetizer so I could have dessert.

I went for the creme brulee, which had a strong smoky flavor.  Very smooth, with the crunchy crust I love.  Yum.  And, as with most of the restaurants, I ended up chatting with the people next to me, which was also enjoyable.

Anybody know what's up with the orange letters on doors?  

There are two or three in my hallway.  

BTW - even though the app said I was two hours early, I showed up on time for my dinner reservation.  It still has an incorrect ship's time.  After another stroll around the ship, I'm back in my cabin for the evening.  Now, I'm watching "Dave".  Sweet dreams everyone.  Tomorrow will be another exciting sea day of food and hammock time.