Wishing everyone a most HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let's all hope this is a better year and virus-free!
We are heading back towards Ft. Lauderdale like horses going back to the stable. The ship seems to be making good time, despite the fact we may have an Azipod problem. According to the Captain, there is a strong current helping us along.
This morning after breakfast, we had an appointment for our second Covid test. This time, there were about 90 passengers going on the next 10 day cruise. And it was confirmed by Presty that 599 new guests will board tomorrow, and together with the 90 of us, there will be under 700. Among the 599 guests, Barb, our best buddy, will be among them. She will also have the Covid test at the airport, then hope her flight from Virginia doesn't get cancelled. She emailed and said she will see us tomorrow….or not. We continue to think positive.
Going back to our room as required, we did not get that dreaded phone call saying one or both of us tested positive. We are good to go for another 10 days. At this point, we do not know what would happen if we did test positive, but were asymptomatic. We do know for a fact that a fairly large amount of staterooms are deliberately kept empty in order to isolate any sick or positive tested passenger. Each situation would be dealt with as to who went home, or who stayed and quarantined here. Hope we never have to find out.
On another subject, we had a note on our door saying that the Mariner Delft tiles will be shipped to our home address, since there has been a problem with the delivery from the Netherlands. Funny, we are still waiting for the missing tiles from our Alaska cruise last September. This happened to us a few years ago, and eventually, they did arrive in our mailbox.
And with the start of another cruise, we also got another plastic tote bag. They are convenient to use for the pool towels.
If there were big sales in the Shops, we sure did not see them. A few items had been discounted, but none of the higher end merchandise was being discounted. The biggest activity was in the duty-free liquor shop, where the bottles folks bought today could be brought back to their room. That saved the staff the trouble of delivering the bottles. We are guessing that a lot of parties will be happening tonight.
A light lunch was at 3pm in the Lido with salads and a shared sandwich. Their custom-made paninis are sure good. And since there is no more fruit bowl in the rooms, we got some apples to take back with us. You can order the fresh fruit through room service, but we would need to be in our room to receive it. We have yet to try room service, but may do so during this extended trip.
Relaxing in our room, we finally watched a movie, The Christmas Story. Yes, we have seen it many times, and Christmas is over, but it still keeps us laughing, especially over the bee-bee gun the young boy dreams of getting. Today's movie at the Lido Pool was not a movie, but a football game.
Dinner for us was in the Canaletto. We tried a few different items, and were happy with the choices. Presty happened to stop by to chat a bit. We told him we enjoyed the food in here, because it is served in a timely manner, and is hot. He appreciated that. We even had enough time to take in another song and dance show in the World Stage. This performance was called Off The Charts, with songs from famous artists over the last 50 or so years. The singing was so-so, but the dancers were good as they performed on the tops of two huge piano-like instruments joined together. The circular light show was equally as entertaining. In our opinion, this was a re-imagined be-bop show of the old times. We were surprised to see the room fill up with guests at 9:30pm. Usually do not see that on the world cruise.
Back in the room, we had been gifted another HAL Journey's booklet with a sticker of this cruise. Got to turn in early since tomorrow's breakfast begins at 6:30am. Until then, good night.
Bill & Mary Ann
Sunday, January 2, 2022
Report # 15 Day at Sea Saturday - January 1, 2022 Sunny & breezy 79 degrees
