Between ports of call, cruising at sea is satisfying

(And so I continue writing about the Norway cruise that my wife, Mary Pat Treuthart, and I took in May.)

Thursday, May 15, 9:36 a.m. (Central European Summer Time): Most of the lure associated with a cruise venture is the thrill of stopping at one port after another, from exotic spots such as the Galapagos Islands or Antarctica to more mundane destinations such as most anywhere in the Caribbean.

Not that I’m immune to the charms of the Caribbean. I like white sand beaches as much as the next tourist.

What I tend to like more, though, are the days at sea, those occasions when the ship is sailing through open water and the only things on the horizon are the rare other vessel and an obligatory colorful sunset or two – those latter experiences, of course, best enjoyed in good weather.

This is set to be one of those days, with Norway now in our rear mirror and the city of Bruges, Belgium, set as our objective tomorrow.

The weather was certainly good this morning when I did my daily laps beginning at 7:02. The wind was brisk, as usual, and the deck was a tad slippery because of the overnight dew. But thanks to the ship’s crew, a team of them equipped with squeegees, the track was cleared well enough that the few walkers and runners among us had little trouble getting through our exercise routines.

An hour later, I ventured into the Oceanview Café to score my standard coffee and croissant. I was a bit concerned because we’d been informed late the night before by the ship’s captain, a man named Nikolas Christodoulakis who (not surprisingly) spoke with a heavy Greek accent, that some passengers had come down with some sort of illness.

No one, including the good captain, was saying coronavirus or anything specific, nor did we get any information about how many people had been affected. But visions of what would become the Netflix series “Trainwreck: Poop Cruise” filled our imaginations.

(Let’s ignore the fact that “Trainwreck: Poop Cruise” didn’t premiere until June 24, long after our own cruise ended. The fact of people getting sick on cruise ships, and even on their river-boat equivalents, has long been a reality. And the Netflix series is an entertaining, if sobering, look at the phenomenon.)

I’m not sure what I expected when I entered the Café, but I took extra time to both wash my hands and then slather on some Purell hand sanitizer. And I donned a mask before heading to the coffee station.

To my surprise, I was confronted by a swarm of passengers, hardly any of whom were masked. The only difference in protocol that I could see was that crew members were handing out whatever food the passengers wanted. We, the passengers, weren’t allowed to touch any of the serving utensils. But apparently it was no problem if we breathed the same air.

I didn’t stick around long, and not just because I didn’t want to risk getting sick. Sipping my coffee and nibbling on a croissant out on the open deck has always been one of my main cruise-ship joys.

9:53 p.m.: Which was basically how the rest of the day went, our responding to the captain’s announcement by canceling most of the other day-at-sea activities that we might have taken advantage of, including our plans to see that night’s stage show.

Cruise ships are like traveling resorts, the kinds that schedule any number of ways for people to pass time. On the Celebrity Apex, our morning routine could have included – if we’d so chosen – “natural detoxification with acupuncture” at 10 a.m., Zumba with cruise director Corinne at 11 and golf putting at 11:30 among many other possibilities.

In the afternoon, the calendar included opportunities to take a tango dance class at 12:30, the chance to play table tennis at 1:30, bingo at 3, attend a jewelry sale at 4 … and so on, including listening to live music being performed at various deck locations throughout the day.

Things always pick up at night on cruises, with two shows featuring the headline singer/dancer/actor Jesse Hamilton Jr. and other kinds of entertainment scheduled up to 11:30 p.m., with only those 18 years an older allowed to attend the DJ Late Night Club.

We, though – I and Mary Pat, her sister Jean and our brother-in-law Steve – opted to attend only the 4 p.m. General Knowledge Trivia Contest, making sure to sit far away from the other teams. And even though going in we suspected things – as they had the day before – might have been weighted in favor of the UK passengers, we expected to do well. And we did, though for the second straight time we didn’t win (mostly because we couldn’t agree on identifying Idina Menzel as the woman who sang “Let It Go” from the Disney film “Frozen”).

Otherwise, we broke down and paid for 24 hours of Internet time, something we had vowed not to do. But, hey, it did allow me to answer a few texts and emails and, more important, maintain my Duolingo streak (which at this writing is 2,117 days and counting).

That left eating dinner, downing a late drink in the aft relaxation lounge Eden and, because it was a clear evening, viewing one of those obligatory sunsets from the comfort of our cabin. It was a day in which little seemed to happen, and yet it felt full.

One more day to go. Time is passing all too fast.

Next up: Bruges: the Venice of the North