British Isles Explorer Ocean Cruise

Day 8: Tuesday, April 14, 2026 - Scenic Sailing

The day's statistics:
⛅ Weather: who knows what temperature it was, but it was also overcast
👟 Steps: Linda 4,479; Steve 6,298

Today was a scenic sailing day.
We had one while on the Mediterranean cruise, but only because the weather in Troy prevented portage.
This was the one and only day on the ship that we had scheduled scenic sailing.
But we still had plans for today.
Today marked the eighth day of our trip - though only the third full day on the ship (rhyme not intended).
So we planned - when we were packing for the trip - to do laundry. Afterall, how many people are going to do laundry on the third day of their two week cruise, right?!!? We had 16 days worth of clothes and outfits to hold us for the remainder of the trip after the laundry.

After our usual breakfast in the World Café, we returned to the cabin.
We took a bag of laundry to the laundry room, and... had to wait. What?!!? There WERE others doing laundry? Yes, because some people ALSO had pre-cruise extensions. One woman told us they had spent an entire week in France before starting the cruise, so it was time for them to do laundry.
There was only one machine available, so we put in the whites and lights and set the timer on our step tracker for the time on the machines, less a few minutes to be safe.
When the white and lights went onto the dryer, we used the washer for the darks and set the timer again.
Then we dried the darks and hung up what needed to be hung.
We folded and packed the dried clothes.
We were somewhere on the sea, and there could have been land right over there a little further on for all we know.

By 11:30, the laundry was done, and we finished folding and packed that which was dry.

By the time we were done with laundry folding and packing, it was lunch time.
We arrived at the World Café and it. was. packed. This was probably the first and only time we every really felt like there were a lot of passengers on the ship.
Linda had her typical sandwich - this day it was a half-bagel sandwich with some mixed greens and seafood salad on the side. (And SHE took the picture of her lunch whereas I usually do.)

I visited the buffet a couple times.
Dessert was the usually fruit tart for Linda, and two somethings for me.

After lunch we decided to head to Manfredi's - the reservation-only Italian restaurant - as it was open this day from 10:00 - 3:00 for games.
We brought our small bag of games, but found some of the tables had games on them already, such as an edition of Monopoly® that had "fan picked Chance cards", backgammon, and a couple others.
There was one other couple playing a game when we got there. We started to play Pinocle - continuing our on-going game. Then I asked the couple if they wanted to play a game of Five Crowns when they were done. They said "sure".
After we were all done with our hands, we headed to a table for four.
We introduced ourselves and met Laurie and Anthony from Long Island.
We played Five Crowns and Anthony had a strong start, going out first the first three hands, but I wound up winning the game. We spent a good amount of time chatting too, and finished up about 3:30, after the staff had already set up all the other tables in Manfredi's.

We returned to the cabin and watched a movie to pass the time.
At 5:20, it was time to head to the atrium as there was going to be an Explorer's toast. Along with the champagne toast, some light hors d' oeuvres.

The resident musicians performed a couple songs. Then Philip did the toast.

After the toast, most people ran headed to the restaurants for dinner. We headed to The Restaurant for dinner. And were about fifteen couples back in the queue.
Cherrie seated us in a section on the other side. As she told us about the dinner, the waiter will be by, she asked if we had been in the restaurant before and we said "no" (this was our first dinner in The Restaurant).
"You look familiar."
"We were on the Vesta last fall."
"So was I!" Cherrie recognized us from the Mediterranean cruise we were on for four weeks.
We reviewed the menu.
I don't usually take a picture of the right side because it doesn't usually change and we don't usually order from it either. But I captured it on the first day.


Linda had the Chickpea & Tomato Soup, Spicy Mussels, and Raspberry & Rose.



I had the Seafood Salad, Roast Salmon, and Milk Chocolate Rocher.

Tonight's trivia had 24 points. And our team, that included Sue and Rob (Toronto) scored 23. And we didn't even win.
After the game we chatted for a little.

We returned to the cabin for the evening.

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