After the big night , we expected all to sleep in…NOT to be.
Doc, PCB, Myself , Cheeky + Nita and Yogita ended up in the GYM !!!
Had to burn off all those liquid calories!

Session was great, Cheeky was showing me how to do weights, not sure if I did it right or not, but
something was better than nothing.Yogita, PCB tried out the Yoga stretch classes, Nita also joined in but as it was so full later came back to weights.

Post Gym we headed directly to Breaky…. no big schedule today – we just sat , chatted , had masala tea(yes they had that!!) – a few rounds of it. The minutes turned to a few hours…. lots of topics covered. Time to head back to freshen up

It was then to the rooms for shower / freshen, and meetup at the Emporium for some jewelry collection reveal – ladies were too keen on that.
The day went by, with Emporium viewing, going for a coffee @ Cafe Al Bacio – this became our go to stop and for nice group catchup area. Next was lunch at the buffet – so far, Celebrity food was far far superior to the MSC variety we had on our last cruise. Lunch was great session with the group with more laughs.

Evening dinner was booked at Tuscan Grille, an Italian Specialty restaurant – booking was at 8:30pm, lots of time.

Post lunch more roaming about and browsing stores , some ladies headed to the spa, saloon …. At 4pm we headed to the Buffet area for the daily high tea, great scones , jam and cream! Yumm.
Sitting their enjoying our chats, we could see the entry into Turkiye along the way to Istanbul. Passing some amazing hillside communities and the distinctive turkish mosques dotted along the way as we cruised through the Dardanelles Strait.

Time for a siesta, then to meet at the Constellation Lounge for drinks , this was at the front of the ship. Tonight the theme was white. Ladies had decided to wear the greek traditional gold leaf head bands… we bought them for the entire group in Athens, Nita made sure to hold on to them so no one lost it! Unfortunately bands did not last that long 😉

Constellation Lounge was not that great in terms of seating or rather the seats we got, decided to head to the Atrium area – informed PCB / Yogita to join us there (they had an extended siesta).

Atrium area with the not so grand staircase was packed, it was the captain’s night or rather formal night …. not so formal for us ;).
Good moment for the group pic.

One round of drinks post that and then it was to the Tuscan Grille.

Tuscan Grille had a very nice decor , big tables, the place was busy but nice and quiet – things were going to change quickly as the 12 of us got seated in the middle of the room on a long 12 seat table! We definitely stood out everywhere !

Tuscan Grille review: Food was plentiful and a lot of it. The sides were very nice but we felt the mains a bit lacking (cannot comment on the steak variety). The service was immaculate though.
Still a great night and to top it off, they had birthday cakes prepp’d for Doc, myself and PCB – round numbers being celebrated in this cruise, 2 x 50’s , 1x 60.

Called it a night, we were tired from the other night and tomorrow was an early start for all @ Istanbul.