First Sea Day

July 18, 2015 -- At Sea

Temperature: 23.0C

A day to relax and enjoy the ship activities. There was no schedule to meet with our group until dinner time so everyone can choose what they wanted to do.

A beautiful morning at sea as we sailed along the east coast of Honshu Island towards Hokkaido.

A little waves but not too bad.

Every morning they had the "Radio Taiso"--morning exercise from 7:00 to 9:00 on the Lido Deck which was fun to do.

After breakfast at the buffet, I went to the Zumba Class--just  to watch. It was too strenuous for my old bones. Then I went to the Japanese language class and it was packed.

Heather, the Port Lecturer from our neighboring city of La Verne, gave a very detailed introduction about the next port of call--Kushiro. I must say that Heather really prepared us well for each port. She has a lot of information and personal experience about the places that we were going to visit which made our port planning much easier.

After the port lecture, we had our Cruise Critic meet and greet at Skywalker which was well-attended.

We had most of our breakfast and lunch at the buffet on this trip. Then we went back to the cabin and napped for a couple of hours.

They had a Let's Wear Yukata session at 4, but you need to get in line and get a ticket at 3 to join the fun. They teach about how to dress up in yukata and then they actually help you get dressed. A really neat experience and excellent photo opportunity! This was for both men and women.

I had so much fun with the yukata, I totally forgot about the captain's reception which took place that afternoon.

This was also our first formal night and there was a long line for the champagne fall photos at the atrium. Most Japanese passengers were dressed up, some in beautiful kimonos.

Dinner was the set menu -- Audrey Hepburn christening of the Star Princess menu.

Of course, one can still order whatever they want from the menu.

Just a photo to show how a cabin looks like with four beds.

We decided to skip the show and went to bed early to prepare ourselves for our first port the next day.