Too much fun, My brain is broken, I'm Lazy and Guilty

Yesterday was busy and fun with the wedding. See this Villa Vie Residences video about the wedding. It was SOO cool!

It also meant we ate and drank late, including wedding cake. That gave me acid reflux and I slept horribly. 

We docked in the port of Acajutla where one could take an excursion to Mayan ruins, but I just didn't feel like it. Besides, it's geek newsletter time. I made a valiant effort, sitting at my new desk in the room, to work on newsletter. Then our room Steward, Heidi, wanted to clean the room so I schlepped my laptop up to the business center for a couple hours but couldn't get my brain to stay focused on any one thing for more than 10 minutes. I bounced between making a fun with photos for Monday, to starting the newsletter, to answering email, to reading Facebook ... Like the ball in a pinball machine, I would hit on all these different things, back and forth, and finally packed it up, grateful that it was time for lunch!

We had a nice conversation at lunch with Craig and Cindy Who we learned were truck drivers. And Craig bought and developed the property in West Broward county that became Kings Manor where Jim once lived! Also at our table was Alicia, always fascinating. This time I learned that Alicia's home is Fairbanks Alaska! 

By the time lunch was over, I decided to give in to my laziness and go to our room to read my book. I'll get the newsletter done sometime. As for my guilt for not getting off the ship, I let myself off the hook for that too - we've just begun this new life, we'll figure it out sometime. We spent the last couple days opening up the boxes that were delivered and putting stuff away, setting up the room. I'm really quite impressed with how it's working out. We even both have a computer desk. I do think working in the room is more conducive to getting things done.

The most important thing is to take care of myself. I'm skipping dinner tonight and just drinking water - no wine. Clean the  brain. Get good sleep.

The older I get, the more important sleep becomes. My watch tracks the quality of my sleep and there is one metric called sleep fuel. If I didn't get any sleep fuel overnight, my brain simply doesn't work the next day. Just like a car that's run out of gas, she just doesn't go. That was my story yesterday. I would sit down at my computer to write and, like the ball in a pinball game, my brain would just bounce around. I couldn't stick to one thought (or one tab on my computer) for more than 1 minute. Note: I am writing this post a few days later after I did get decent sleep.

I watch that metric 'sleep fuel' and one other 'readiness' closely and try to connect the dots between my activity the day before. Here's what I find:

• the later I eat (the closer to going to sleep) the worse my sleep fuel rating
• the more wine I drink, the worse my sleep fuel rating
• the more water I drink, the better my sleep fuel rating
• the more I exercise, the better my readiness rating

If I want to function at the highest level, I need to get plenty of exercise, eat very little and eat early (skipping dinner altogether is good), don't drink wine (especially at night) and do drink lots of water.
But, what fun is that?!

Moving Day

When we first got on board, the cabin we purchased was under maintenance. They were working on fixing a leak in the shower, so they put us in another cabin just 2 doors down. That was actually a good thing. For our first week we didn't have to worry about unpacking and putting stuff away. We had the suitcases we brought with us on the plane and that's it. It's been a great week with no stuff, just enjoying the ship. 

But now we're ready. I'm tired of not knowing where anything is. It's time to move in and put things where they belong.

One of the things we shipped ahead was a simple little folding desk that we measured and figured it would fit where the big blue chair is now. I'm ready - I want my desk. 

What we bought on Amazon and had shipped ahead

Today they said our 'Villa' (that's what they call the cabins on the Villa Vie Odyssey!) was ready. Here's what we saw:

Oh my, where are we going to put all this stuff. And, this is only 5 of the 9 'boxes.' The closets are already mostly full with the contents of our suitcases. One bite at a time. We did get the boxes emptied and found a place for everything.

Jim set up my desk and got our custom-made cabinet attached to the wall. We had to put in a work order for someone from VVR (Villa Vie Residences) to take down the wall art that was in the room and put ours up. 

Then came the rest of the boxes! Jim is really good at sorting thru stuff and finding a way to 'pack' them in our room. He is much more of a 'nester' than I am.

He even had the forethought (from reading lots of the ship's whatsapp messages) to buy 'bed risers' so we would have the most room for storage under the bed.

And, here is the finished result!

I am finding it such a comfortable work/life area that I don't feel the need to schlep my laptop up to the business center. I even have a second monitor (see this video) and a keyboard drawer!

Planning to attend a world expo in Japan

We attended a talk on board given by Darrel, who has attended many world fair and is a huge fan of Japan. He talked about how our ships itinerary is going to make it possible for any of us to attend the 2025 world's fair in Osaka, Japan. 

How special is that?! 

I love the idea of attending the world's fair in Osaka, and that would never in a million years be in my list but for the fact that we're going to be there anyway! No way would I take the initiative to book flights from Florida to Japan, then hotels and expo tickets etc. A trip like that just would not make it into my radar screen. But now, my home is going to be docked in Kobe Japan for a few days, and it's just a matter of a 90 minute train ride if we want to visit the expo. One of our Geeks on Tour members (thanks Maurice!) had already alerted us to the fact that the Expo would be going on during our visit to Japan - so we were primed to learn more.

We gathered in the Coral Lounge to hear Darrel's talk about the Osaka World Expo

Darrel recommended that we do book a hotel for at least one night to allow us to visit the expo in the evening. The lights are spectacular and the temperature will be cooler than in the heat of day. 

Listening to Darryl talk about Japan, the expo, and how to make our arrangements really let it sink in how different life is now that we're living on the Villa Vie Odyssey.

Our ship will be in Japan from Aug 7 to Sep 12. 

See the full map of our itinerary here.

All aboard! Our first week living on a Cruise ship.

Clearing out the house, storing our RV and saying goodbye to friends and family in Florida was an exhausting, gut-wrenching ordeal. But we did it. 

Mark April 20th, 2025 in the logbook, folks, because that's the day we arrived "home." And yes, I'm putting "home" in quotes, but only because it's a bit unconventional! We stepped onto the Villa Vie Odyssey cruise ship, and I swear, the moment someone from guest services showed us to our cabin and we promptly collapsed into an afternoon nap, it just felt right. No need to talk ourselves into it – this was home, plain and simple. 

We woke up in plenty of time to go to dinner in the buffet restaurant called The Palms. Kit and Randy Cassingham joined us for dinner and made us feel oh so welcomed. It was their website, residentialcruising.com that sparked this whole incredible journey for us.

We are so excited about this new lifestyle, we want to share it with everyone. On 2 different zoom meetings this week, I used my phone and wandered around the ship, giving a bit of a virtual tour. You can see one of those tours on the YouTube video for tech for senior. Here's the link.

Slow Down! On the very first day, in my excitement, I got careless and twisted my ankle walking down the stairs. Was I ever grateful when I stood back up and could walk ok. It hurt, my ankle was bruised, but I was ok. Whew. Consider that my official "slow down and pay attention" memo from the universe. Or, maybe this is just a 'right-of'-passage' thing for me. I remember the first week of our fulltime RVing life also included a twisted ankle! ⁉️⁉️

Our stuff - we're not in our real room yet. The cabin we purchased is having some work done, so they put us in a room 2 doors down. Therefore we're not un packing any more than necessary and we're not getting the stuff that was shipped ahead of time. Actually it's nice not to have to deal with any of that yet. We're just enjoying the ship.

Food - I love eating buffet style. I get a bite of this and a bite of that. It is so satisfying and I never get over full. I especially like the prepared tiny salads that are different every day. My favorite so far is the beet-root salad. 

Exercise - going to and from meals we normally walk around the deck a couple times, easily racking up 5,000 steps with no effort at all. I've also taken advantage of the exercise classes and weight equipment in the gym 2 or 3 times this week. I hope to make it a more routine party of my day. 

Entertainment - we've attended a couple of lectures/talks on eclectic topics of CIA, and environmental poetry. We had fun with a group trivia - I won😲. And we enjoyed some live piano music.

Work - oh yeah, we still want to do our Geeks on Tour stuff! I schlepped my laptop up to the shared work area called the business center. I put headphones on and can work on the website, our editing videos. Jim has his workstation set up in the room and is comfortable there. I also stayed in the room more than I expected. I just sit in bed with my laptop on my .. lap! Just like when I'm in the RV. 

Travel - we started in Cartagena. Since we were just there a few months ago and took a city tour, we felt no need to get off the ship this time. Besides, did I mention we were exhausted? I was so envious then, when we were talking to a fellow resident (don't call us passengers! - we're residents) and she showed us photos of a beautiful sloth she saw in a downtown park. 

While docked in Colon, we got off just to pick up a couple things at one of the many dockside shops. Then going thru the Panama canal, we had perfect views and a wonderful commentary by a local guide. You could hear him thru the loudspeakers anywhere in the ship. Sometimes we were at the bow, sometimes in the observation room on the top deck. We even changed into bathing suits and took a dip in the salt water pool. Hey! We had to 'go swimming in the Panama canal!' Our transit this time was later in the day so it was night time by the time we got to Culebra cut and the centennial bridge. Soo pretty. 

Swimming in the Panama Canal!!

Sleep - the beds and comforters are so comfortable - we are sleeping like rocks. 

G'night

First Night, First Morning in our New Home

 After a nice nap, we woke up in time to go to dinner at 6:30. We immediately ran into Randy and Kit Cassingham, whose website ResidentialCruising.com is what started our adventure. It was great to chat with them through dinner and we felt so welcomed. We even had the same server, Chris!, who remembered us from when we were on board in December. 

We had a nice dinner, with our included 2 glasses of wine and then fell into bed, exhausted but happy. 

First Morning

I slept good! And if you don't believe me, check out my Apple Watch sleep stats! The purple marks represent deep sleep and I'm usually luck to have 6 or 7 of them.

It was not intentional that my stuffed animal pelican was placed on the window sill, but I think that's where she belongs! Our view is of the container port at Cartagena - fascinating to watch it work. You can see the city skyline in the background. 

Then!! a most exciting thing happened. I got an email from Ed and Deanna, longtime followers of Geeks on Tour. He said, "We are just pulling in next to you guys. We are on the Celebrity Summit ! Small world .” WOW - our first day living on board the Odyssey and we run into people we know. They had a city tour of Cartagena, but met up with us on the dock later. THANKS for reaching out Ed!

A few hours later, we were on our way.

After dinner we went out on the front of the ship to see the stars, that's a great thing about being at sea - it's dark enough to see the stars.