Art Deck-o

Thursday, January  29, 2026

Art Deck-o

Today we are just sailing along at sea. It’s a relaxing time. I felt lazy and didn’t go to any of the “official” daytime activities. To some extent, we made our own activities: reading, taking photos, blogging. Here are some of the featured activities today.

• On Deck for a Cause - a 5k charity walk
• A City on the Sea - a behind-the-scenes look at life aboard
• Ask the Captain - Q & A with the captain
• Game Show: The Game of Love - How well do you know your other half?
• Chocolate Surprise - I wanted to go to this, but I forgot to
• Cake Me Away! - I did go to this at lunch time. I tried two kinds of cake. Yum.
• English Afternoon Tea
• The Caribbean Up Close: Roots & Rhythm

There were lots of other activities, including arts and crafts, exercise classes, pickleball lessons, music, lectures, games, and dancing. 

Here are some photos of our room. We have a Neptune Suite. It is very comfortable, and it is hard to leave the quiet atmosphere of our room. It is an aft corner suite, so we have a wraparound balcony. There is a lot of storage space here - we haven’t even used it all. The desk where I write is in the corner by the window.

This is a small dressing room between the bedroom and the bathroom, with mirrors,
good lighting, and a lot of closets

The bathroom has a whirlpool tub and a shower

We have an illy coffee maker, a small refrigerator, a pair of good binoculars, a phone charger, and a big orange umbrella.

I have peeked into other types of rooms. The standard balcony rooms look a little larger than average, and even the inside rooms are larger than most inside rooms we have seen.

Now I am going to take you on an art tour of Deck 1. We will tour other decks later. You may recall that I described the style of this ship as “quirky Art Deco.” This ship is 23 years old. The newer HAL ships have a more modern style, but often with a little quirkiness still going on. 

Deck 1 has a number of staterooms and is also the location of the Guest Services desk. There isn’t that much art here. Some of it was too ugly to take photos of (e.g., larger-than-life clown sculptures with tiny heads). I mean, I don’t want to break my phone. OK, so I am opinionated about art.

This is in the elevator lobby. Why? I can’t even.

The Zuiderdam I, outbound from Holland in the 1940’s,
by Captain Stephen J. Card, Bermuda, 2002
(technically not on Deck 1, but in a stairwell between decks)

One of a pair of ugly neo-classical urns

This was in our room tonight:

Towel elephant

Today’s fabric is diamond piqué. Piqué is a durable, medium-weight textile created using a specialized weaving method that creates raised, textured patterns. The napkins and tablecloths in the Pinnacle Grill here onboard are made from a diamond-patterned piqué.  

Tablecloth in Pinnacle Grill