The seas remained rough throughout the night, but by sunrise, we had mostly blue skies, some fluffy white clouds, and warm humid temperatures. The rain has been left behind, at least for now.
Being that the Zuiderdam is traveling north, we do not get blinded by the shining sun in the Pinnacle Grill at breakfast. Our days of breakfast in there are limited now as we learned earlier in the cruise, there will be too many President's Club members to accommodate us and the Pinnacle/Neptune suites on the upcoming world cruise. Therefore, the President's Club group will have a special area of the upper dining room set aside every morning. Who knows, it may be even better. The menu is about the same anyway, and eggs are eggs, pancakes are pancakes. Actually, we are looking forward to it.
Most of the morning was used to continue packing, although it was challenging with the ship's movement. We always wonder what it is like packing in the rooms on the upper decks? Difficult for sure. Anyway, leaving out just enough clothes for the next couple of days, most of the luggage is done. After taking down the hanging dowels that held the shirts and the shoe bag, the room looked naked. Devoid of color, no personality. Even with a larger suite, we will bring the magnets and dowels because the shirts stayed much nicer not being jammed in the closets.
Taking our promenade deck walk break, we saw thousands of tiny flying fish. Always scattering from the front of the ship. Too bad there are no birds to take advantage of that. Unless we are passing islands, we bet there will be few birds until we are closer to a shoreline.
We still spent some time on the veranda in between packing, which does get old in a hurry. You know it is impossible to imagine how much water covers the earth, until you spend many consecutive days at sea. No matter how far your eye takes you in a 360 degree circle, all you can see is….water. To say it is isolating is an understatement. And if you add the loss of communications via the internet, that feeling of isolation intensifies. Guess you have figured out that we still have limited internet. Talking to one of our waiters this morning, he said they have only been able to text, and even that is limited. None of us are getting incoming emails, so please know it is not our doing if you don't get answers to questions or reports anytime too soon.
Today some photos got downloaded from a camera we seldom use. They are mostly photos of food from both the dining room and Pinnacle Grill. Taken over two months ago while on the Alaskan cruises, there are also some from this South Pacific trip. The best part of the various items is the fact we did not have to cook them or clean up. And that's the beauty of cruising.
We enjoyed another room service lunch while catching up on news on the TV. It feels as if the air conditioning on the ship is experiencing problems. Despite the fact the cold air is turned up to the max, our room is about 80 degrees. Even in the Pinnacle Grill we noticed the difference this evening at dinnertime. This would be our final dinner in there, and we ordered the "usual" starters and mains we always seem to do. The 7 ounce filet mignons were about the best ever (once again). Ordering them cooked medium, they arrived more like medium rare, but so tender and tasty, we both liked them cooked a little less. We had to pass on the dessert, since we were full to the brim.
Now that it is getting closer to the end of the trip, we had some shopping to do. Going to the Shops is best when the second show has started or 9:30pm. And we did find a few items to buy. The shop employees are very low-key here, compared to those on the larger ships. For that, we are grateful.
Bill & Mary Ann
