Sunday, July 05, 2009 – Sea and then Dock in Barcelona
Pictures are HERE.
Today was basically an at sea day. We were sailing until 5pm when we docked in Barcelona. You could get off and go onshore today, but we decided to just stay on the ship for our last day and relax. We are staying in Barcelona tomorrow night, so we will see Barcelona tomorrow.
This morning, Mike and I participated in the “Deck for the Cure” walk which is Holland America’s spin on Race for the Cure. It was a 5K walk, but we went a little early and did the first 2 miles as a walk/run and then just walked the last 3.1 laps with the deck for the cure group. We got a cool shirt and pink bracelet to wear, and we got to exercise and do good at the same time.
After the Deck for the Cure, we raced upstairs to shower. We then raced to breakfast where I shoveled in some cheerios. We had a 10:30 appointment for a “Ladies and Gents” couples package. It included a scalp massage, a neck and shoulder massage, an express facial, a collagen eye treatment, a foot and ankle massage, and then time to relax in the thermal suite and hydro pool. It was advertised as 2 hours of pure pampering. J This was my anniversary present to Mike, but we didn’t get to use it until today as we have been rather busy. :)
The spa somehow had Mike booked in the morning and me booked in the afternoon for our couples event. Hmmmm……after some discussion, they fixed it. However, we ended up still being in different rooms. We did get to be in the thermal suite and the hydro pool together though. I hadn’t had a facial in over 10 years, and I have to say that I loved it. The massages were great, and the scalp massage was also wonderful. I loved the thermal bed (a bed with tiles on it that heat up). The hydro pool was kind of cold, so it wasn’t so great.
After the couples deal, I had Ionthermie. I heard about this on our first day, and I was intrigued. I decided “what the heck?” The idea is that when you are losing weight, your body only picks the healthy fat cells because they are easier to access and burn than fat cells that have “toxins” around them and a bunch of water. Vickie explained it as the analogy of trying to get to the peanut in an M&M without cracking the outside coating or the chocolate underneath. So, supposedly, this ionthermie stuff gets the toxins out which causes the fluid to go too. Then, the fat cells are “healthy” and can be used easily for fuel.
Having said all that, the procedure was ODD. I had it only on the abdomen as I didn’t do three treatments to hit all the areas. She measured about 6 measurements before hand and wrote them down. Then, she got this horse brush and rubbed it all over to get the circulation going. That kind of hurt (and it was really weird). Then, she put some other stuff that is supposed to help transport the stuff they are putting on into the skin or something like that. Finally, she prepared the bed and put this rectangular box on the bed. She then mixed algae, clay, and some other stuff together to make a paste. She spread that all in the rectangular thing on the bed, and she put these electrodes on top of the clay/algae mix and covered them in the same goop. She had me lie down on my back so that that icky stuff was touching my butt to my upper back. Then, she spread that same stuff all over my abdomen. Odd. Next, she put those same electrodes covered in mush on my abdomen. As I feared, she then turned on the electric stimulus. Wow, was that weird. I have used a TENS unit and other such things, but this was wild. It contracted all the abs and the back at the same time, held it briefly, and then relaxed before repeating many times over the next 30 minutes.
After, she measured again, and she said that it was 3 inches difference. Of course, that was the total of adding up all the places. The most in a single spot was an inch, and I was pretty happy with that. However, I suspect that it was very temporary, but we will see.
After my ionthermie, I had an appointment to get my teeth cleaned. She put this awful thing in my mouth that held it all open (my dad said it must be how a bass fish feels) so that she could brush the nasty stuff all over my teeth. Then, she put the yellow glasses on and she turned on the light to whiten the teeth.
After the teeth whitening, I made the mistake of getting Morgan to go shopping with me in the ship stores. We ended up with all kinds of crap that wasn’t needed, but we had fun. We also looked at the ship pictures. After the shopping event, we all hung out at grams and Papa’s balcony while we tried to kill off the drink cards we had gotten in the beginning of the cruise (basically pre-purchased drinks). We also had a little cheese and crackers delivered by room service (I am going to miss this ship).
We had dinner in the main dining room, and I had a spinach, mushroom and feta cheese pastry. It was fantastic. I also had a brie appetizer, and lobster bisque. Mikeo, Grams, Papa, and I all had our teeth whitening and can’t have anything red. We were cracking up as we tried to find things that weren’t red to eat or drink (can’t have any of that stuff OR DIET COKE) for 24 hours.
Finally, we packed. Nice, relaxing day before hitting our final spot.
Today was basically an at sea day. We were sailing until 5pm when we docked in Barcelona. You could get off and go onshore today, but we decided to just stay on the ship for our last day and relax. We are staying in Barcelona tomorrow night, so we will see Barcelona tomorrow.
This morning, Mike and I participated in the “Deck for the Cure” walk which is Holland America’s spin on Race for the Cure. It was a 5K walk, but we went a little early and did the first 2 miles as a walk/run and then just walked the last 3.1 laps with the deck for the cure group. We got a cool shirt and pink bracelet to wear, and we got to exercise and do good at the same time.
After the Deck for the Cure, we raced upstairs to shower. We then raced to breakfast where I shoveled in some cheerios. We had a 10:30 appointment for a “Ladies and Gents” couples package. It included a scalp massage, a neck and shoulder massage, an express facial, a collagen eye treatment, a foot and ankle massage, and then time to relax in the thermal suite and hydro pool. It was advertised as 2 hours of pure pampering. J This was my anniversary present to Mike, but we didn’t get to use it until today as we have been rather busy. :)
The spa somehow had Mike booked in the morning and me booked in the afternoon for our couples event. Hmmmm……after some discussion, they fixed it. However, we ended up still being in different rooms. We did get to be in the thermal suite and the hydro pool together though. I hadn’t had a facial in over 10 years, and I have to say that I loved it. The massages were great, and the scalp massage was also wonderful. I loved the thermal bed (a bed with tiles on it that heat up). The hydro pool was kind of cold, so it wasn’t so great.
After the couples deal, I had Ionthermie. I heard about this on our first day, and I was intrigued. I decided “what the heck?” The idea is that when you are losing weight, your body only picks the healthy fat cells because they are easier to access and burn than fat cells that have “toxins” around them and a bunch of water. Vickie explained it as the analogy of trying to get to the peanut in an M&M without cracking the outside coating or the chocolate underneath. So, supposedly, this ionthermie stuff gets the toxins out which causes the fluid to go too. Then, the fat cells are “healthy” and can be used easily for fuel.
Having said all that, the procedure was ODD. I had it only on the abdomen as I didn’t do three treatments to hit all the areas. She measured about 6 measurements before hand and wrote them down. Then, she got this horse brush and rubbed it all over to get the circulation going. That kind of hurt (and it was really weird). Then, she put some other stuff that is supposed to help transport the stuff they are putting on into the skin or something like that. Finally, she prepared the bed and put this rectangular box on the bed. She then mixed algae, clay, and some other stuff together to make a paste. She spread that all in the rectangular thing on the bed, and she put these electrodes on top of the clay/algae mix and covered them in the same goop. She had me lie down on my back so that that icky stuff was touching my butt to my upper back. Then, she spread that same stuff all over my abdomen. Odd. Next, she put those same electrodes covered in mush on my abdomen. As I feared, she then turned on the electric stimulus. Wow, was that weird. I have used a TENS unit and other such things, but this was wild. It contracted all the abs and the back at the same time, held it briefly, and then relaxed before repeating many times over the next 30 minutes.
After, she measured again, and she said that it was 3 inches difference. Of course, that was the total of adding up all the places. The most in a single spot was an inch, and I was pretty happy with that. However, I suspect that it was very temporary, but we will see.
After my ionthermie, I had an appointment to get my teeth cleaned. She put this awful thing in my mouth that held it all open (my dad said it must be how a bass fish feels) so that she could brush the nasty stuff all over my teeth. Then, she put the yellow glasses on and she turned on the light to whiten the teeth.
After the teeth whitening, I made the mistake of getting Morgan to go shopping with me in the ship stores. We ended up with all kinds of crap that wasn’t needed, but we had fun. We also looked at the ship pictures. After the shopping event, we all hung out at grams and Papa’s balcony while we tried to kill off the drink cards we had gotten in the beginning of the cruise (basically pre-purchased drinks). We also had a little cheese and crackers delivered by room service (I am going to miss this ship).
We had dinner in the main dining room, and I had a spinach, mushroom and feta cheese pastry. It was fantastic. I also had a brie appetizer, and lobster bisque. Mikeo, Grams, Papa, and I all had our teeth whitening and can’t have anything red. We were cracking up as we tried to find things that weren’t red to eat or drink (can’t have any of that stuff OR DIET COKE) for 24 hours.
Finally, we packed. Nice, relaxing day before hitting our final spot.
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