The last few days have been more of the same routine. Workout, eat, hang out at the pool, eat, do some activities, eat…you get the idea. We decided not to get off the ship at Manzanillo. It was more of an industrial port and it sounded like it would be a long taxi ride to get to a nice beach. So we just hung out on the ship that day and enjoyed the somewhat warm, but hazy weather. Seems like it’s much more humid at the ports than when you’re out at sea.

We spent one night dancing to Latin music at one of the dance clubs. That was fun. The food has continued to impress us most of the time. We did stay up late one night so we could attend the special midnight buffet. They set up the Empire dining room with a huge display of carved fruit, ice sculptures, and extravagant looking desserts. They opened it up at 11:45 PM for picture taking, then at 12:30 to eat. Heather and I were near the front of the line when they let us in at 12:30 and I went straight to the desserts. I got a sample of almost every dessert and even though they looked impressive, they didn’t taste that good. Both the desserts at the Empire and Lido dining rooms were better. That was kind of anti-climactic.

We went to a couple more shows and watched a couple more movies. We also took a tour of the galley, where they prepare the food. It was impressive. They said they spend about $450,000 on food alone for each cruise! They also use approximately 45,000 eggs during a weeklong cruise like this. Amazing! We got to see the inside of the Empire galley and it was impressive. It looked huge, but since it was empty, I don’t think we got a sense of how chaotic it must be during the middle of dinner. I’m sure the atmosphere would be quite different then!

When we came back from dinner yesterday, we were surprised to see there was no towel animal on our bed, then we noticed it hanging from the corner of the room. It was a monkey! We attended a towel animal tutorial today and we learned how to make a dog, elephant, rabbit, and seal. Some of the construction makes you wonder, “How did someone think of this!?”. But I guess the same goes for origami.