Funny thing about this cruise.......if there are 1300 passengers onboard, you sure wouldn't know it. A sharp contrast from this same cruise last year, there are no crowds of passengers anywhere so far. There could be a few explanations for this. First of all, everyone traveled some distance to get to Florida to board, so there may be a lot of jet-lagged folks. Second, after a long day in the sun and surf at Half Moon Cay, some may be sunburned, and tired from the outdoor activities. And third, this crowd looks every bit as elderly as the world cruisers. That was the general comment we heard from some of the officers at the cocktail party last night. If there are any kids onboard, we have not seen them. Not that we are complaining, we just find it different not to have to search for two spots at the aft pool. There were even fewer lounges set up back there than on the world cruise. Last year, we could barely walk between the rows of chairs, as they were spaced very tightly.
Up to this point, we have not noticed any huge differences in this trip compared to the grand voyage. Of course the dining room hours have changed, as well as the fixed and open seating arrangements. No longer two set dinner times, there's the upper dining room with fixed seating at the slightly different times of 5:45pm and 8pm. The lower dining room is open seating from 5:15pm to 9pm. Our world cruise waiter, Firman, is now on deck four with the open seating diners. He has moved to the center section, where we can watch him serving the last of the diners by 8:30pm in his section. He is now our breakfast waiter in the main dining room. Joseph, our assistant waiter is on deck five with a new partner serving the large tables in the back of the room.
Lots of things were going on today, according to Gene's general annoucement at 10am this morning. The only thing different we see in his day, is that he hosts trivia at 1pm instead of 11:45am. This makes more sense, because it gives the folks a chance to eat in the dining room or the Pinnacle Grill from 12 to 1pm. Gene also hosts a pub trivia at 7pm in the Piano Bar. The pianist in there is now Derek.
Starting at 10am, Barbara H gave a talk on upcoming ports of Cartagena to Puerto Chiapas. One of the numerous ads we have gotten in our mail slots, was announcing the addition of a port shopping ambassador, Chris Lindsay, who will give shopping talks in the Queens Lounge. He will be giving away some prizes to the guests who attend his talks which will give hints for going ashore, top buys in each port, and places recommended to buy emeralds for instance.
The Lido Buffet went back to the regular self-served operations today at noon after the required 48 hours of full service. That is a good sign that the ship's population is healthy, and there is little threat of the spread of the dreaded stomach virus. For one thing, we have not noticed any sick people coughing, sneezing, or obviously ill. That was not the case back in January at the start of the world voyage. Many folks came onboard ill we think, considering that it was the middle of winter.
We spent the afternoon at the aft pool, of course. It was quiet, and we had plenty of space. The few lounges that were placed around the pool had been dragged to the shade near the showers and restrooms. This crowd is a shade-loving group, instead of sun worshipers.
Although there are no guest speakers scheduled, the Dancing With the Stars at Sea has begun. The waltz will be taught today with the help of the Amsterdam dancers and Gene too. We will probably never know the results of this contest, because we will be debarking in San Diego, about 5 days before the end of this voyage.
Dinner this evening was formal, with Captain Fred giving a welcome toast in the Queens Lounge before showtime of 8 and 10pm. No pre-dinner cocktail reception like on the world voyage. We noticed that most of the gentlemen wore suits and ties, and also a few wore tuxes. A select few had only a long sleeve shirt with no tie. Come to think of it, there was no description of the two acceptable forms of suggested dress.....smart casual or formal. Something was not working with the air-conditioning this evening, especially in the upper dining room. So most of the fellows with jackets had taken them off. The waiters were having the hardest time. Tom G., the manager, said there was a team of Russian workers that came onboard while we were in Ft. Lauderdale. It seems that they will be doing some needed maintainance with the motors and belts, thus shutting the system down as necessary. We wish they could save this work for the night time. According to Tom, they may be tackling this job all the way to San Diego. So far, our deck on one has remained cool, and we hope it stays that way.
We ordered one entree of beef wellington and one of the grilled lamb chops. Both were equally excellent, and hot, we might add. We have to give our new head chef Daniel an A plus for his over-the-top cuisine on this continuing trip. We are also happy to hear that he will be back for next year's grand voyage around the world.
The show for tonight was the Phillip Huber Marionettes, a popular and very funny performance that made everyone smile as promised. We sort of expected the late show to begin as 9:30pm, as they tended to do on the world cruise. But so far, the shows have been mostly at 8 and 10pm. This adjustment may be made to accommodate the numbers that show up each evening. No matter how the staff does the scheduling, some folks will just call it an evening after dinner, and go to bed, thus cutting off their chances of getting that extra revenue in the casino or the bars.
Getting back to our room, we found another invitation to a cocktail party tomorrow in the Explorers Lounge, hosted by Captain Fred and Henk M. This one will be at 7pm, and is for after-dinner or pre-dinner cocktails. Don't know what the occassion is, but we will be happy to attend.
Looking forward to another day at sea tomorrow. We have been rocking and rolling a bit, but not enough to bother us. We would not have even thought about it, but while at the front desk, we could not help but overhear one guest after the other asking for seasick meds. We were sailing around Cuba this afternoon, an area where it is also turbulent and choppy.
