It's a mini-miracle

I did not gain any weight on this cruise.  I'm not sure how that was possible.  I didn't feel that I was doing anything in particular to make that happen.  I ate what I wanted and drank lots of fruity alcoholic drinks all day.  I didn't even go to the gym or even feel like I walked that much.  That makes it a miracle!

I left for the cruise at an even 280 and returned the same.  Wow!  Now I admit that 280 is a HORRIBLE weight, so now I'm going to try really hard to lose about eight pounds before going on the next cruise, which is February 6.  I just looked at our calendar, and this month there are only six times when we should be eating either a lunch or dinner out.  Most all of the meals will be at home, and we will also be busy with appointments or rehearsals three mornings a week for about 3-4 hours. That's a lot of busy activity, which means less time to eat! On the other hand we have Rudy here for a week followed by Mark's cousin Ron for the next week.  Although we have not planned any meals out, sometimes company insists, especially Rudy!  We shall see.  It would be great if I ate mostly at home.

Our cruise was excellent.  We really enjoyed hanging out with Susie and Ed and occasionally running into other people from Solivita on the cruise.  We didn't even leave the ship in Nassau, so that was a great day of fun on the ship with not many people on board.  We always like that.  The second three day cruise was calm and low-key for us because we didn't know anybody.  We enjoy the back-to-back experience because it's relaxed in the morning while everyone else is worrying about getting off.  Then once we get back on, no one else is on board yet, so you get the run of the ship for awhile.  There were 11 of us doing back-to-back this time.  For the first time they gave us a complimentary lunch at the small specialty restaurant, Bistro on Five.  That was a $20 lunch, very nice.  We were in  Concierge Class this time, which gave us a bottle of champagne on the first day of each cruise, apples in the room all the time, nice tubes of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and lotion in the bathroom. There was priority boarding the first time, too.  I loved the balcony and the slightly bigger room.  It was surprising to me how much I actually used the balcony.  It's way too expensive to book Concierge Class or even a regular balcony very often, so I made the most of it this time.

Here are a few pictures from the first cruise.

Spillway party 

Mark brought us the bottle of champagne and glasses from our room to drink at the New Year's Eve deck party.  We drank the whole bottle!

Susie, Carol, and me at the Solivita Meet and Greet party.

We have never done room service before, but we had it for breakfast on this cruise.

Breakfast on the balcony in Nassau.

Susie and Ed in the Rendezvous before dinner on the last night of the cruise.