We expected a change in the weather, and that is exactly what we got today. Beautiful, comfortable, with the temperatures in the seventies. Great for walking and sunbathing. And that is what we did today, for the most part.
The wind was blowing strongly across the aft deck, keeping us cool. A different type of BBQ was happening back there from 11:30am to 2pm. It was called Ecuadorian Fish Sizzler, and featuring two different types of fish. One was tuna, probably brought onboard fresh yesterday. Normally this type of event is held in the Lido pool area. One thing we do notice when they have like a Mongolian BBQ in that closed-in area, there is a lot of smoke from the charcoal grills. On a windy day, the roof would have to be partially closed, therefore, trapping the smoke. It's just a guess, but perhaps they are testing the aft pool where the smoke can readily blow away.
Two guest speakers are onboard giving lectures in the Queens Lounge. Tommie-Sue Montgomery has been talking about pre-Colombian civilizations, specifically in Peru. Milton Keiles had a presentation all about the explorers in the area we are traveling.
Sunday services continue with Catholic mass being held by Father Bob. Interdenominational services were conducted by Pastor Florence. And finally, Rabbi Gan spoke about the life and times of the Jewish people at his service.
Two big football games were broadcasted this afternoon, and we watched most of them in our room with room service lunch. Watching the San Francisco 49ers win made our cheeseburgers taste even better. Mentioning TV, we were thrilled to find that we have more channels at our disposal on this world cruise. A few years ago, they added the second news channel, FOX, in addition to CNN. Now we have HLN, BBC News, CNBC, and another dedicated movie channel. That gives us four movie channels as well as TCM, which shows a lot of older movies.....older than us. And as always, the movie shown in the Wajang is repeated on TV the next day.
Our second formal evening was tonight. Dubbed the Black and Silver Ball, the dining room was festively decorated with black and silver streamers and mobiles. However, the Ball began a half hour earlier than before. Instead of starting at 10pm, the dance started at 9:30pm. We are seldom finished with dinner that early, but it appeared that the waiters sped things up a bit to give us a chance to exit sooner.
One nice thing happened at dinnertime. On formal nights, we usually have a guest to host our table. However, starting tonight, the Captain's Dinners in the Pinnacle Grill have begun. Each table in there is hosted with an officer or a rep from the staff. That leaves few, if any, to host tables in the main dining room. Even though we did not have a guest, our head waiter provided the complimentary wine anyway. Sometimes, we taste the wines, and sometimes we don't. Tonight one of us preferred a Coke Zero instead, and was offered that without prompting the head waiter. Last year, we almost had to beg the wine steward for a soda. He passed that job to our waiter, who was already too busy. Not so tonight. The head waiter went and got the soda with a glass of ice, and kindly served it. What a difference.
The entertainment in the Queens Lounge happened at 2pm today, since the Ball took the place of the show. Graham Jolley, the magic mind reader from last night, did an encore performance today. Our tablemates, Bill & Marianne claimed he did some very mysterious mind reading during his show, which they could not figure out how he did it.
Looking forward to another lazy day at sea.
