What a difference a day makes, especially in the weather department. By noon, the thermometer on our veranda registered 82 degrees. The humidity was up as well. The feeling of Hawaii is in the air now.
Even more folks were lined up for the Pinnacle Grill breakfast today, and we would soon learn the reason why. Surprise, surprise. At 9:15am, Captain Frank made a public announcement that every guest that boarded in San Diego was required to perform a self test for Covid 19 in their rooms by 9:30am. The reason stated was due to an abundance of caution, and the remote location of the upcoming ports, it was necessary to test again. Very interesting, since all of these passengers just tested as recently as Friday, September 30th….a mere 5 days ago. We sure hope this is not an indication that Covid has been spreading. That could be a deal-breaker entering some of the South Pacific Islands. Or, maybe we are reading way too much into this suddenly sprung test.
The internet has really given us headaches. And because we have just begun the 50 day cruise, we wondered if we still had the premium plan in place. The guest relations manager, Michelle, phoned to confirm that she checked into the details, and we did have the best plan. Later on, we had a phone call from Henk M. thanking us for pointing out the fact that the dinner menu for the dining room was not working on our stateroom TV. Digging deeper, he discovered that this problem was happening fleetwide as if there was a virus in the system. As far as the menu being on the Navigator app for the cell phones, we are not sure if that was working. When this gets resolved, we have no idea. Remember when you could go to the dining room entrance, and read the menu for the evening which was posted on the walls? We never passed by there without checking in case we found nothing we liked, we had the time to make reservations for the Pinnacle Grill. In fact, the assistant maitre'd agreed with us at dinner tonight, that some of the old ways were much better and simpler. By the way, he was not aware of the problem with the menu being missing.
We took a long walk on the promenade deck during lunchtime. It is always less crowded then. We sure noticed the difference in the temperature, especially on the sunny side of the ship. Many more lounges and deck pads were out, but more guests chose the shady side over the sunny one. After our warm walk, we went to the Ocean Bar and rewarded ourselves with two cold beers. One of us had Heineken, and the other the last can of Alaskan Amber. It tasted better because of that. We inquired about draft beer, and learned that it was served in the Galley Bar, near the casino. And of all things, they had Aflegem Belgium draft beer. We shall check that out tomorrow before they run out.
It's no surprise that we like the room service salads among other items. Hands down, they make the nicest Cobb salads, and will customize it with different cheeses. We do not care for blu cheese, so they substitute either swiss, cheddar, or even parmesan. Their sandwiches are always made with fresh breads and fillings. The best thing is that the wait is never too long. We could go to the Lido, but after 2pm, the choices are limited. And we still are apprehensive with the style of serving up there. Under the circumstances, we were happier with everything being served by the wait staff. We would love to pretend that Covid is not here, but that's probably not the case. We are happy to report that most every guest has been wearing their masks indoors.
Everything Hawaiian was the subject of many activities today. Beginning with a talk on the geology and geography of Hawaii, it was followed by hula lessons at 11am. Catching the Waves was all about surfing, and the shore ex team were promoting tours. There were 14 "promotion" activities as well. No need to be bored…..that's for sure.
We took a sunset walk before dinnertime. There was a cloud bank on the horizon, so the sun slipped behinds those clouds and disappeared without a spectacular show. The sunsets will get better….we are sure of it.
This evening was the first "dressy" dinner of the cruise, and most everyone we saw around us were looking pretty nice. There was one exception, as there always seems to be.
A young gal walked by dressed in white jeans, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap. Really? These days, as long as the guests are not dressed in swimwear, nothing is said. Whatever floats her boat…… Anyway, we noticed that the surf and turf entree included lobster. This is the first time in about 5 weeks that we saw lobster on the menu. We ordered one plate of stuffed ricotta shells with a small filet, and one yellow fin sole plate. Both were good, but would have been better if the fish did not have a few bones. Up to now, this was the first bone found in any fish. Both of us had the flourless chocolate cake for dessert. We are happy the portion sizes are conservative, so we do not feel over-loaded at the end of our meal.
The clocks went back an hour this evening. There will be one more hour to go before we arrive to the Hawaiian Islands on Sunday.
Bill & Mary Ann
No pictures
