I didn’t sleep well during the night. I had continuous bad dreams which is strange for me. We got up, had a shower, and then went to breakfast. I ordered eggs benedict with salmon instead of bacon. It was a nice start to the trip. We were on a table of 4, so just 2 other people sitting with us. We barely got a word in, as she was quite a talker.

We wandered around, and went back to our room to do our teeth. Kaoru wanted to watch the movie under the stars – “Big Fish”. So I took her up to deck 14 and got her settled. I then went to the casino, as you get a $5 credit if you sit through the course. I saw Darren en route so he joined me. I then just passed the time until the draw at 12.15. By then I had found most people.

We wanted to go to lunch but couldn’t get in to the restaurant. There were no decisions really happening so Kaoru and I just headed off to get Pizza. Izzy came with us, even though we went the stairs (from Deck 5 to Deck 14). We found a table and not long after sitting down the others arrived. So we enjoyed lunch and had a chat. The others came up not long after, so once we had finished eating we went back to our room for a bit of a lie down.

At 2.00 I woke up, in time for Wineglass bay scenic cruising. We sat on our balcony and enjoyed the trip in, and were amazed at how the ship did a 540 degree turn, pretty much on the spot! It gave a chance for everybody on board to see the beach and both sides, and was quite an exercise. There was a roudy group on the balcony one deck down from us – that was Mum and Dad’s! It must’ve been terrible for other guests yesterday with all of us there.

We went to 4.00 trivia (Dad, Julie, Darren and I). Aunty Linda and Lorraine came a bit later to contribute, but we didn’t go well enough (14/20). There was more scenic cruising so we had some great views of the coastline as we sailed around. Kaoru and I went downstairs and had some cakes as a “pre-dinner” snack. These were free at the International Cafe. We assessed whether we would get a coffee card but decided it wasn’t really worth it for just us – unless Dad would be interested in some. We got a message from Dad that they were meeting for dinner at 6.45. So we went to our room, where I did some Japanese studying (not a lot) and we got our formal clothes on, in time to meet them outside the restaurant.

After getting to the front of the line, we were given a buzzer, and we got a drink to pass the time. By the time the drinks were served the buzzer went off so I paid and we went to our table. We had the same waiter as the previous night, by coincidence, which was great as he was an entertaining fellow – Michael. We had a great meal, and finished the wine from last night. With dessert we had irish cream shots, in collectable glasses.

After dinner we met Julie at the comedy show. He was a very entertaining comedian, and (luckily) we weren’t picked on being up the front row! After the show we rushed to the other end of the ship, in time to see the stage production “Born To Dance” – a show put on by the dancers which had interviews of famous dancers on it.

It was now 11.00 and we were pretty warn out. So Kaoru and I went to Deck 14 to get our cup of tea, and back to the room to call it a night.