Virgin Valiant Lady Day 9: Life's Simple Pleasures

I really like.my stateroom and if I didn't have this blog, I.would probably just live here.

Room sevice has been right on time today. I was able to have my coffee delivered before my morning stretch and my breathing class. I know it seems strange and I could certainly stretch and breath on my own. Except let's be real I'd find something else to do.

Yoga had been moved to the Red Room and there are now 30 spots instead of 10. Awesome! I went down and saw the crowd. A new cruise friend said, why not go back up to the empty room and do yoga with a nice view and peace and quiet. (Super genius idea!) 

We went up to a peaceful yoga studio and I practiced with the foam roller we used in class yesterday afternoon.

I didn't even have time to shower before Zumba where I knew I'd get all sweaty anyway. It was fun. I definitely did better following along at the beginning of class than the end. It was a great workout. However, like most things on this ship, it was also a show. The host lipsynched and danced through the whole routine. No verbal instructions were given and he was sort of a mime that whistled to get our attention and then we followed his moves. It looked like he was having fun so we should enjoy it too.

I was chatting with a couple after the class and I realized I haven't mentioned something important in this blog. I am often asked how I can cruise alone solo. The fact is that I always meet interesting people to talk to on a cruise. In fact, there are many people who I stay in touch with and some who I even cruise with again. I'm hoping this blog is a simple way for all of us to stay connected. We share information with each other and share experiences. It is old school networking.

I hurried upstairs to the Gut on Track workshop (ok I confess I used the elevator) where I confirmed I drank too much coffee. We also discussed nutrition and they offered a one hour consultation to review and help plan a custom cleanse routine. 

Although I don't plan to do the consultation, the information was still informative. It also made me choose a salad over a burger for lunch.

Let's talk about simple pleasures. Laundry delivered early at 3pm instead of after 5pm as promised. This meant clean underwear and a shirt before my next workout! I will normally hand wash laundry as usual once I sent a load to the ship laundry but I must confess that a miscalculation meant I had only one pair of underwear (which I was wearing) until my clean laundry came back. POOR PLANNING ON MY PART. All this relaxation and self care time has helped me to really appreciate a little luxury like clean underwear.

Apparently I should have kept on wearing my dirty clothes. The Work It Circuit was a series of  3 excercises at each of 4 stations. If the class was designed to be challenging it was definitely successful. If it was designed to destroy me it was successful. Squats have always hurt my knees and Jordan the instructor offered helpful suggestions. My suggestion to you is to be at least remotely fit before attempting this class. The companion class is HIIT and I would like to review that for you but I am definitely not at that level. I staggered back to my room thoroughly wrecked.

My reward was a nice long shower and a chance to rewash my clothes that I had put on the hour before.

I enjoyed a nice meal at Extra Virgin Italian restaurant in new clean clothes. The food was excellent once again and it would be safe to say this restaurant is probably in a tie with Wake for my favorite restaurant on this ship.

So a funny thing happened. My group got invited to a secret show. We had to meet someone at a specific location at a specific time. We were then led through some crew passages and down some stairs for a special show. They locked our phones in special cases so we couldn't take pictures or record it. It was a cool show and the mystique around it made it extra special.

Once the secret show wrapped up we had just enough time to make it to the show and still get some great seats. The Red Room had been transformed into sort of a high school gymnasium with seats on both sides.

There were two poles. The theater was set up with audience people with red bands on one side and blue bands on the other. It was basically a Romeo and Juliet fusion of modern dance meets juggling and aerial acts. I have to say I was impressed and this is easily the best show I have seen on Virgin.

Do you.have questions or comments? Hit me at shawn@thriftycruiser.com or comment below.

Happy Cruising!