And here we see Terry engaged in one of the major chores of this trip - taking the dog out!
We were allowed to use a crew area at the aft end of one of the decks (the "poop deck," of course). To our great relief, Robbie was quite cooperative about doing his business on the ship. While Terry attended to Robbie, I contemplated the vastness of the ocean:
...and that's only the top!
Various scenes about the ship:
My attempt to give an impression of the length of the corridor
La Tavernetta, where we had pizza for lunch
The large brass sculpture in the "hotel lobby"
Terry enjoying a drink in the Piazza Navona Grand Bar
The pool deck, with the Galileo Night Club rising above it
The other pool deck
This ship has everything, even miniature golf! (A putting green, actually)
This day was spent at sea. In the morning, we had a chocolate treasure hunt. This was basically an excuse for them to give each of us a bagful of Nestle's products - Raisinets, Goobers, SnoCaps, Alpine White, Oh! Henry, 100 Grand, Chocolate Parfaits Nips. The candy was good; the treasure hunt was a joke. The idea was, you begin at the conference center, where you are handed a bag and your first clue, which directs you to another area of the ship, where someone is waiting to hand you some candy and another clue, which directs you to another place on the ship, where someone is waiting, etc. The trouble was that the clues were mixed up; in other words, the person at station number 3 was handing out clues directing you to station number 5 instead of 4, etc. We ended up just wandering around until we had collected everything. We were the first ones done.
In the afternoon, Terry took a nap while I wandered and explored. There was a Nestle's baking demonstration which we skipped, but I dropped by and picked up the recipes.
That evening was the first formal dress occasion - the Captain's Welcome Aboard Cocktail Party. We were addressed by Captain Vito Chiarini:
...who informed us that we were sailing on the safest cruise ship in the world. Why? Because he can't swim!
Captain Chiarini was then joined by his officers, as well as cruise director David Lawton (he's the one with the mike):
