While we’re not generally a fan of days at sea — having been there, done that many times… and feeling a bit like we’re wasting precious vacation days on relaxation and leisure 
— today was surprisingly enjoyable. Even I managed to stay busy from breakfast through dinner.
In the morning, we went to a very nice breakfast for “top tier” cruisers with Royal Caribbean. After this, Emerson and I attended a hands-on, make-it-to-eat-it sushi class at Izumi, which might have been the best–most entertaining and educational–onboard activity that I’ve ever participated in on a cruise ship. We each made a crispy shrimp roll, a spicy tuna roll, a California hand roll, and shrimp sushi nigiri. Most importantly, we had a blast doing it!
After lunch (mmm, sushi…), I went to a well-attended Q&A session with Captain Rob, the Master of Rhapsody and a rare American captain within the RCI fleet. He seems pretty relaxed and has a self-deprecating, slightly quirky sort of humor. I also get the sense that he’s far more contemplative than he seems at first and derives his easy manner from really knowing his business. He seems very popular with both the passengers and the crew. As a result, Rhapsody appears to be a very well run and happy ship. While it’s certainly not the newest or nicest ship we’ve been on, it’s one of the best we’ve experienced in terms of service quality and operational efficiency.
Dinner was at Giovanni’s Table, which always provides a good Italian meal on RCI’s ships. Interestingly, while eating our meal, I spotted a small cruise ship that looked familiar at anchor somewhere around Gallipoli (I think). Turns out that it was the former NCL Leeward (now Celestyal Crystal), which Libby and I honeymooned on almost 18 years ago!