Day at Sea - Day 7

We found out late last night that we were drawn for the lottery to take the Behind the Scenes tour of the ship.  So we had to be up early to get breakfast and meet with the other guests.  There were 14 of us in total and we toured the crew areas of the ship for 3 3/4 hours.  It was incredible!  I wasn't allowed to take my own pictures... but got a few from the photographer that accompanied us!

Above is the group in the bridge with the Captain.  Below we are in the front of the boat, where they house the chains for the anchors.

We saw the medical center, morgue, laundry, anchor room, galley, provisions, photo lab, print shop, engine control room and then got time with the captain in the bridge.  It was so worth the time and very neat to see what it takes to keep the boat underway and running so smoothly for guests.

Afterwards we grabbed a quick lunch and hurried to the spa for another treatment.  Scott had a bamboo massage and I did a skin treatment and body massage.  We met in the thermal spa and relaxed a while more.

Then we decided to get a spot in the Sanctuary for the remainder of the afternoon.  But as we got to the top deck, we heard thunder.  Very soon after, the captain announced that we would meet a decent storm in the next 5 minutes... and like clockwork, it hit.

We went into a restaurant for a quick snack and felt the ship roll hard to the starboard side.  The captain came on the overhead speakers again to reassure everyone that we were ok... that we had run into a squall and had just experienced a gust of 40 knots.

We headed back to our stateroom to watch a movie and relax before getting ready for dinner.  We went to the onboard steak house instead of our dining room and absolutely LOVED it.  The weather cleared for a short time, so we grabbed a coffee and hot chocolate and took one last walk on the deck.  It was a beautiful evening!

We headed back to our suite and got packed up.  Bags needed to be in the hall by 11:00 pm.  Sadly, this is the latest we've stayed up all week! :)

The captain announced that the storms would last most of the remainder of our trip getting worse as we approached Texas overnight.  Expecting gusts up to 50 knots... glad we slept through that portion of the storm!