Report #24 Sailing Towards Pago Pago, Samoa October 17, 2016 Monday Sunny & 82 degrees

It's always a good idea to read the daily newsletter early in the morning.  That way you won't be shocked when the alarms go off at 9:30am for a crew fire drill, especially when relaxing or walking around the promenade deck.  The folks that were snoozing outside were not one bit pleased with the disturbance.  These drills take place more often than we can remember.  And that is a good thing.  Today's drill involved the use of hoses from deck A, we assume.  The wind carried the spray, which soon cleared out all of the loungers on the port side.  With the morning heating up, it actually felt good.

 

Two events this morning dealt with a lecture on World War 2, and a cooking show with guest chef, Natacha Gomez.  Two of her creations, stuffed chicken croquette and jumbo grilled honey/beer glazed shrimp would be on the menu tonight. 

 

The book club met with the librarian for a group discussion on The Happy Isles of Oceania, written by Paul Theroux.  We were so lucky to have met him in person on this year's world cruise. Having read his book many years ago, we enjoyed reading it again.  We have heard a rumor that soon there will be no librarians onboard, and also the size of the library will be reduced.  That's not good news in our opinion, and we hope we are wrong.  Of course, with laptops, Kindles, and audio books, real honest-to-goodness hardback books will be obsolete.

                                                                                        

Polynesian activities continue with a fitness class learning the hot hula.  Ukulele is still being taught, and there is even a Polynesian teatime.  The dance class featured the merengue, which doesn't really fit into the current theme, but for those who love to dance, they don't mind.  We're not sure who the teachers are, but this class was added by popular demand we heard.

 

The Pinnacle Grill was converted into a Sommelier Dinner with Cellar Master Jacques hosting.  For the price of $85 per person, the meal is paired with fine wines from the first course through dessert.  Although we have never gone to one (we don't drink wine very often), we heard it is a quite nice affair.

 

Yesterday, we turned in a "Let Us Know" card with a few compliments for staff and crew members.  These cards are new, broken into three categories.  Tell us what you like (we won't change it), tell us what you don't like (we will try to fix it), and finally, a place to thank staff.  It is always nice to let them know they are appreciated.  Anyway, by dinnertime, we were being thanked for our comments.  That continued this morning with our room stewards, and also one of the head housekeepers on our deck.  They really do appreciate positive comments along the way.

 

Grandma's chicken noodle soup and wienerschnitzel made our dinner good tonight.  The lemon tart with blueberry compote finished the meal nicely.  Since tomorrow is a port day, we skipped the show – a combo of Strings Alive and John Pinney, the boxer/turned/comedian.

 

Bill & Mary Ann