Whether or not the weather was listed, it would be whatever was coming. And that was a warm, partly cloudy morning with a nice breeze. Blue skies were showing, finally giving the water a pale blue color that almost matched the sky. Now, it sure would have been nice if it had lasted. Good thing we had taken a long walk after breakfast this morning, because later in the day, we began to see scattered showers on the horizon. Eventually these showers became heavy, dousing the decks pretty good. And that included the freshly-painted varnish on the promenade railings.
EXC guide Ian gave his talk on the upcoming ports of Corinto, Puerto Quetzal, and Huatulco. As we have stopped in each of these ports many times, we could probably give the talk about them. As there are numerous tours in each port, this is a good time to sell them to the crowd. With the exception of Huatulco, there is little to see and do in Corinto and Puerto Quetzal, although we do tend to amuse ourselves despite that.
We have never heard of the gemstone called zultanite until last night, when we had a flyer advertising the sale of them today. In fact, everyone had a ticket for a special drawing at 1pm in the Ocean Bar. Zultanite was discovered in southwestern Turkey mountains, and the only mine in the world is located 4000 feet above sea level. The stones are extremely rare, and are only available on 12 cruise ships worldwide. Interesting. It’s surprising that this collection did not show up on the grand voyage.
We had a second invitation to wines of the world tasting ($25pp) at 2pm in the lower dining room. In fact, we have attended several of these tastings over the years, but so far, we still have not developed a taste for it.
Aquaman was the action/adventure movie shown in the Wajang today. So far, every movie has been a repeat of what was shown on the world cruise. We have missed seeing half of them, so some will be new to us.
Lunch for us was in the dining room, and really light with Grandma’s chicken noodle soup and half a sandwich. Since we are still fighting the cold bug, we did not do much today, except walk and get as much fresh air as we could. Watching an afternoon movie while working on the computer was a good choice, since the rain was falling down in buckets outside off and on until dark.
The Happy Hour at 4pm has worked a miracle in the Ocean Bar. By 4:30pm, every seat inside and outside the bar were taken. That included our favorite armchairs. The only thumbs down would have been the camera/curtain set-up for photos again. Once we saw that, we would have not stayed anyway. For some reason unknown to us, one of the new photographers sets one or two of the lights to auto-flash, causing the folks to temporarily go “blind” while sitting around the atrium.
Dinner for us was in the Pinnacle Grill again, with hopes of a normal meal. This time was much better, more like when the regular staff was here. Ordering the Caesar salad with the dining room dressing did the trick, as we did not care for the new dressing. The bread basket was different tonight. We did not have the thin cracker lavage, small rolls, or the one piece of pumpernickel bread. Instead, there were two sourdough rolls with a garlic-flavored grilled cheese in the center. Really good. One of us ordered the tomato/cheese appetizer, and it was different from the slices normally served. One shared order of the clothesline bacon with pickle slices and lemon was sinfully tasty.
The grilled lamb chops were as good as ever, and the 7 ounce steak was cooked perfectly. Thought we did not have room for dessert, but we each had a sliver of Key lime pie. Good thing we kept lunch light, and that was at noontime.
The evening show was a combo of John Wing, a comedian, and Shirley Dominguez at the harp. There were many more passengers at this second show compared to the late show time on the grand cruise. These folks want to squeeze in everything they can before the cruises ends.
Tomorrow we will be stopping at Corinto, Nicaragua. Captain Eversen mentioned showers and thunder and lightning. Should be interesting…..
Bill & Mary Ann
