The skies were mostly cloudy this morning, but that sure did not keep the temperature down. It was already 82 degrees on our veranda, and that was at 8am. Of course, we are getting much closer to the Equator, and can expect some extreme temps. We know one thing for sure – it can be most dangerous being in the sun too long as burning is easily done.
We find it necessary to arrive at least 15 minutes early for breakfast these days. The usual guests are now milling around the Pinnacle Bar waiting for that door to open. Then it is a race to see who can get in first. As far as we know, it is first come, first served. However it appears that there are a few couples that have the same table every day. On the other hand, some folks come at 8:45am, and by then the first round of diners are done. That frees up some of the window tables.
There are major problems with the internet, like we said yesterday. It took all day to email reports and photos. We suspect too many people are using it, and the bandwidth cannot handle it. Later in the evening, we received a note regarding the slow speed and bad connectivity.
We took our morning walk on the promenade deck only to be fumigated with paint fumes. Up to now, the outdoor work has been to a minimum, especially while in Alaska. The best thing about this deck is that it's wide and we can give the painters a lot of space, unlike the Amsterdam, where it was tight.
Going to the Ocean Bar, we had refreshing Cokes with lemon, as well as ordering some cans of water for our room. Looking out the windows, it appeared to be getting darker outside. That's when we realized it was raining, and heavily. Guess that is typical of this area, and we can expect more rain showers all throughout the South Pacific.
On our way back, we ducked into the Mainstage and heard Ian giving a talk all about the whales. Much to our surprise, the lounge was pretty full. We only wish that these informative talks were repeated on the TV later in the day. On the Amsterdam, they always were. We miss that.
Tonight was "dressy", and we were on the fence as to where to dine. We had previously made reservations in the Pinnacle Grill, but the dining room menu looked good too. Both were serving lamb chops, but normally, the Pinnacle Grill's are superior. Some nights you just do not feel like getting really dressed up, so we went more casual to the Pinnacle Grill. Well, our wedge salads were great, but our entrees came slightly warm, not hot. One was the halibut, which is always tasty, but not so much when it is cold. Even the French fries were not hot. Lamb chops? Warm, at best. This was the first time this happened here, and no one came by to check to see how our food was. They could have fixed it. Anyway, it was not that big of a deal, since the food still tasted great. We did mention it to Alejandra when she came by our table. By then, all of the other guests had left, and we felt free to mention this to her. She apologized profusely, then must have told the manager, Remco. He also came by to say sorry. Bet we will not have to ask for hot food ever again here…… Then we shared a Baked Alaska, which was divided at our table. One half came out OK, but the other slipped off the plate sideways. Geez, it just wasn't our day. Again, it tasted fine just a bit damaged. It will be fun teasing our waitresses tomorrow at breakfast.
A new entertainer joined the ship by the name of Hyperion Knight. He took to the Mainstage this evening performing his piano tunes for all. Since the ship has been rocking and rolling quite a bit, we figured the dancers and singers will come on later in the cruise. Too dangerous to perform safely we suspect.
Then we had a little surprise letter waiting for us after dinner in our room. It was from the hotel manager, Henk, in regards to the internet. Attempting to explain the limited deliverability of the satellite connectivity and a reduction of bandwidth ,we will be having problems until we are out of this region. In addition, it was requested of all of us to reduce our use of video streaming and large downloads as much as possible. To help with this matter, it was mentioned that their team will evaluate appropriate compensation for the loss of use. This tells us that everybody and their brother has been to the front desk complaining. We know it will get better once we get closer to civilization.
Tomorrow, Monday October 27th will not exist for us, as we will be crossing the International Dateline.
Bill & Mary Ann
