Happy Leap Day, the extra day in February that occurs once every four years. If you were born on this date, perhaps you have discovered the fountain of youth, since your age is only ¼ of everyone else's. Would be nice if it really worked that way.
It was a bit cooler today with a tad less humidity. Compared to yesterday's heat in Tonga, it was most welcomed. It seems that the ship has had problems with directing the air-conditioning equally throughout the vessel. At times, it was sweltering on Dolphin deck at the stairway down to Deck A. Then the public areas were cool, to the point that many people were wearing jackets and sweaters. The dining room was also warm this evening, just in time for Gala night of course.
We think that the Maori Ambassadors are towards the end of their stay here. This morning they performed the Maori War Dance, where the purpose was to scare the enemy with extreme facial expressions. One of those was sticking the tongue out. Even more hilarious, was watching Greg ad Heo duplicate this tactic at dinner tonight. They did it well, making us all laugh.
Another subject of interest for us was the talk about the endangered parrots of Eastern Polynesia. But try as we might, we could not get the timing right to catch his lecture on TV later in the day. We would have been curious as to how the speaker, Gerald McCormack, was adding birds with a transboundary reintroduction. That has happened to us at home many years ago, when we accidently left a door opened to an aviary, and several wild turkey poults escaped. Not sure if this contributed to the huge number of flocks we have in or county, but surely some of the blood line might have survived.
Port talks on upcoming New Zealand cities were delivered today. That is a good indication that we will not be turned away. And shore excursion is still selling tours in Australia, so that looks good too. People are still talking about the changes with the itinerary, but in a good way. As much as we love Singapore, we sure do not wish to take any chances going there. Our biggest concern at the moment is that we may be allowed in an area that is fine, no virus, then after we leave, they have a breakout. That might affect every port after that. We may be turned away, like what is happening to several cruise ships lately. No sense worrying about something we cannot change at this point.
We spent the better part of the day at the Seaview Pool, mostly due to the fact that in a few days, we will begin to cool down and no longer go to the pool. It has been so pleasant back there, we really enjoy the quiet time.
During the day, we made several attempts at going online to send and receive emails. Did not have much luck at all. We are not alone, as everyone is having the same issues. If this ever gets fixed, we will be surprised.
We are still getting notices regarding important health advisory instructions. Today's note was titled "Keep calm and wash your hands". Cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing. Don't touch your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands. And void sick people. These are things we must have learned in kindergarten. Watching people's habits, we would say that most of this common-sense stuff has been long forgotten.
Our two week delivery of sodas came through today for our President's Club amenity. Just in time, since we have run out. Since we have purchased the nice long-lived flowers in Tahiti, we do not need to add that to our delivery for a while.
Gala dinner was Bowlers and Bumpershoots, a theme for being en-route to Commonwealth Nations. "Bowlers" is for the top hats, and "bumpershoots" is for umbrellas. These parasols were hung with paper clips from the ceilings in the dining room. At times, when the ship was rolling, some of these fell to the floor. Now we might be wrong, but isn't it bad luck to open an umbrella inside a room? Something like walking under a ladder used to be bad luck. So during dinner, we kept a watch on the umbrella hanging over our heads.
Another funny thing happened tonight. We had been scheduled to have a guest host, but by 8:25pm, no one had arrived. Asep informed us that the chief engineer was slated to join us, but something had interrupted him, and he could not attend. Not to fret, however, since they sent the wine (or soda) in his place anyway. The shrimp appetizer was good, as were the entrees of arctic char, and rack of lamb. The surf and turf was reportedly excellent as well. Chocolate souffles and Oreo cheesecake was a good way to end the meal.
The show was a repeat of singer Annie Frances and Jim Hodson, a multi-instrumentalist. At the 7:30pm show, we could hear Miss Frances all the way to the Ocean Bar with her booming voice. There appeared to be standing room only.
One more day at sea, and we should be in Auckland, New Zealand.
Bill & Mary Ann
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Report # 114 Day at Sea February 29, 2020 Saturday Mostly sunny & 83 degrees
