Other changes in our stateroom include a re-covered couch and chair. The old barrel stool is missing, however, and we do miss it. It was useful as a footstool, as well as another place to store stuff under the seat, which was removable. According to the hotel manager, he thinks all of those barrel stools have been destroyed.
The window drapes are made much smarter. That is, there is an insulated beige blackout curtain against the window with ribbon-striped sheers in front of the solid drape. Matching sheers drape from the ceiling near the desk and couch, sort of setting the bed and the desk/couch area apart. A brown plaid carpet was added in the staterooms, while the hallway carpets were also changed to a dark blue pattern.
Nothing in the bathroom has been changed yet. The corner mirrored medicine cabinet remains, and so does the old fixed hairdryer in the bathroom above the sink. Still included in the cabin drawer is a handheld hairdryer, which plugs in on the desk.
Two of our requests are always a small refrigerator and a fan. Yesterday, the refrigerator was already present, but there was no fan. We had asked for a tower fan, but eventually received an oscillating circular fan on a stand. It does appear to be very new. The other thing we had asked for were 4 dozen wire hangars. Why, you may ask? Well for one thing, wire ones take up far less room in the limited closet space. You can hang twice as many clothes. We did keep some of the wooden ones for slacks, but the rest were turned back to our room steward. These hangars were also not there when we arrived, but our kind room steward said he would drop them off later.
We really felt bad when we came back after a late lunch yesterday to find four dozen wooden hangars covering our bed. Oops, he did not see the word "wire", so he had to take them away and bring us the right ones. We told him no rush, but he was back in a flash. Since we had run out of time to put our stuff away yesterday, we saved that lovely job for today.......like, all day.
All the normal "at sea" activities kicked off today, but you would not find us at any of them. Our day began with a breakfast in the dining room that we were not sure was going to happen. As of late last night, we had not received the daily newsletter for today. It arrived early this morning, and upon checking the dining room times for breakfast, we found the only times given were for lunch and dinner. Had they cancelled the served breakfast in La Fontaine dining room? Boy, we would really be frosted if that was true.
Well, we went there around 8:30am to find breakfast in full service and an apology for the lack of communication. The food and service were still the best as ever, and we went out happy, full campers. After a walk of a couple of miles on the lower promenade deck, we headed back to the grindstone to complete the job of settling in.
We stuck with the unloading and re-arranging until well after 5pm. It had taken weeks to pack this stuff up, so to unravel it all in one day was quite a feat. But we accomplished the majority of it, and will finish up tomorrow.
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| The window garden |
By the way, our window garden got planted this afternoon as well. If it works, we should have some sunflowers, wildflowers, along with some bulbs of amaryllis and tiger lilies. Will be fun to watch the progress.
Finally logging in on the new internet system was fairly easy. We had pre-purchased the most affordable plan, 1000 minutes (25 cents a minute with a bonus of 100 extra minutes). The new system has been reportedly working much better than the old system. One of the major changes in this area is that there is no designated internet manager now. Emily, the librarian, has taken over that job as well as her own. She shall be busy for sure.
Dinner was interesting tonight. Trying to keep it light, we ordered the sesame steak salad for our entrees. The salad arrived, but without the beef. Our embarrassed waiter brought a generous portion of sliced steak for both of us. It was delicious, even if it was consumed separately. Our table mates have meshed quite well, and it is nice to see, because not all of the tables of guests are as animated as we are. They spend more time watching us, than visiting with each other. Seriously, we are like a bunch of kids re-united at summer camp.
The first of our Grand World Voyage gifts arrived tonight.......2 traveler's journals. They will be useful.
Finally logging in on the new internet system was fairly easy. We had pre-purchased the most affordable plan, 1000 minutes (25 cents a minute with a bonus of 100 extra minutes). The new system has been reportedly working much better than the old system. One of the major changes in this area is that there is no designated internet manager now. Emily, the librarian, has taken over that job as well as her own. She shall be busy for sure.
Dinner was interesting tonight. Trying to keep it light, we ordered the sesame steak salad for our entrees. The salad arrived, but without the beef. Our embarrassed waiter brought a generous portion of sliced steak for both of us. It was delicious, even if it was consumed separately. Our table mates have meshed quite well, and it is nice to see, because not all of the tables of guests are as animated as we are. They spend more time watching us, than visiting with each other. Seriously, we are like a bunch of kids re-united at summer camp.
The first of our Grand World Voyage gifts arrived tonight.......2 traveler's journals. They will be useful.
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| Two world cruise traveller's journals |
Gosh, it is midnight once again, so must close this story for tonight.
