Ah, finally a day at sea to kick back and relax. Well, not exactly since we had a few activities in the morning to do. After yet another nice breakfast in the Club Orange, we headed to the main dining room, deck three, for a mandatory Covid test. Only those guests who will be doing the next voyage had to go. Turned out the line was already long when we got there, but we discovered that about 150 folks will be travelling onward. The process was easy. We were required to bring our "invitation" we had received yesterday. This card was kept and we each got a sticker with our name & room number on it. It was adhered to the back of our hands. Four stations were set up to do the swabbing, then the sticker was placed around each sample. Now the fun part….we had to return to our room and wait ½ hour. If we did not receive a phone call from them, that meant our tests were negative. We would be free to leave the room at that point.
Now the good news……we never got that phone call, meaning we did not test positive. A much nicer activity was the invite to a Mariner Recognition Event held at 11am in the Ocean Bar. On this ship, the Ocean Bar is a much smaller room, and was perfect for the 30 or so people that attended. We knew two other President's Club guests who travel on the grand world voyage every year. One other lady we did not know made the five of us on this trip. Several guests, already wearing their new medallions, were called to have a photo with Captain Noel and Mustafa, the Hotel General Manager. One of these guests was a very special one…..a guide dog assisting a blind lady. A black lab, she posed for the photo with her "family" as if she knew what was happening. Heartwarming, they all got an astounding round of applause from the small group. The majority of the group were then summoned for photos, but their days were not mentioned. Last but not least, the President's Club members were introduced by name and our number of sea days. During the ceremony, wine, orange juice, or mimosas were served. Lingering after most everyone left, we chatted with a couple seated next to us. They recognized us from the 2020 world cruise, even remembering that I wore a knee brace. Turned out, they were also members of the same travel agency we used for years, although, we have changed companies a few years ago. All-in-all, this was one of the more fun gatherings we have attended. The Captain set the tone for a very casual meeting. Anyway, we did receive the complimentary photo along with a photo of the ship by 5pm this afternoon. Nice.
We know this is getting to be old news, but our computer still does not work in our room. We even had trouble in the atrium. Oddly enough, the battery in the computer was low, but should not have been. That was when we discovered that when our room steward pulls the card from the wall slot, it was cutting power to some of the desk plugs, thus our computer was not charging. Now we have located the correct receptacles that do not shut down on the desk when the card is pulled, and we will not have to bother our room stewards about it. Not sure we mentioned that this new ship has modern technology in regards to room keys, that work by tapping, not inserting. And like most hotels have these days, you need to put a card (any card) into the slot by the door to enable the lights to work. It saves power, which is fine once we figured out what works or not.
So we went down to the Front Desk area and took our favorite seats to try the computer there. This time we looked for a plug, and it was there near the desk. The IT fellow spotted us, and said two of their top technicians were on their way with a possible solution for the computer to work everywhere. Then magic happened. Tweaking a few things, the internet came back in the atrium as well as our room. We sent them a thank you on their Navigator site, which takes the place of "Let Us Know" cards.
Many activities were taking place all over the ship today. Besides entertainment, there were last chance sales in every shop. We have yet to check any of their things out, but we do have lots of time to do it and make use of the use-it-or-lose-it shipboard credit. And of course with today being Christmas Eve, there were reports that Santa was roaming around, although we never did see him. Bet the kids found him.
We did have a few passing showers today, and the temps have cooled down to the mid 70's. That is the forecast for tomorrow's weather while at Half Moon Cay. We should arrive there around 8am with the last tender leaving at 2:30pm.
Tonight's dinner was gala, and with it being Christmas Eve, most everyone in the dining room was dressed for the occasion. We ordered a hot pumpkin soup, crab cakes with Thai peppers, Caesar salads, beef tenderloin with Yorkshire pudding, and vegetarian raviolis with an added side of roasted chicken breast. Perfect. Desserts were a very chocolaty yule log and a fruity pavlova. The plates were decorated with a Happy Holiday white chocolate edible decoration. And this is the first evening we heard two birthday celebrations with the special Indonesian song. The crew really loves doing this, and we are happy that the tradition has not been dropped…….yet.
The clocks went back one hour tonight, much to everyone's delight.
Bill & Mary Ann
Saturday, December 25, 2021
Report #7 Sea Day December 24, 2021 Thursday Mostly cloudy & 75 degrees
