Activities for days at sea

I mentioned in an earlier blog about time spent relaxing on sea days; for those wanting organised activities there were several on offer.

​The first one I noticed were the art classes on offer. A member of my art group, an experienced painter, was hired in the past to provide these classes and I expected someone like this running them. Instead, it was a couple of the young cruise staff giving the tuition. Observing this paint along session, I noticed that the tuition was very basic and as the image was easy to paint, the guests made good attempts to recreate the image. I was worried that these simple lessons might put off the participants, however, I also noticed that the same guests signed on for more than one session. The cost was $30  so, they must have enjoyed the activity. As for the cruise line, with up to six people each time, this was quite profitable for them . 

As we tended to relax in the Spinnaker lounge, I also sketched the dance classes as the participants enjoyed the sessions. Unfortunately, for me they kept moving, which made sketching them very difficult!

On other cruises, we have taken part in the quizzes and actually won one. Feeling quite confident, we went back a few more times only to be thrashed by one lady, who was a librarian. This seemed an unfair advantage!!

​We had a go at a couple of the afternoon quiz sessions but couldn't enter properly because it was an ongoing quiz, where you had to enter every sea day and we had already missed a couple.

It was interesting to listen to these and I sketched others listening as well. 

​There was a games room and this was always full of guests playing board games and the popular card game bridge. Other passengers set up shop in the lounge and played a variety of card games, which also provided a good subject matter for me.​

There were many other daytime activities provided such as cocktail making and various food demonstrations. 

​Outside, there were small football and basketball activities, although it seemed too hot at times for these. We even tried Shuffleboard, which was lot more difficult than we expected but it was good fun. We tended to blame the rocking of the boat for our wayward discs and a couple of sunbathers also moved out of range to be safe!

​Lots to do and these were just a few of the activities. If you wanted to you could keep busy all day on this type of cruise.