So far, so good….were the words of Captain Friso during his afternoon talk today. He was referring to the weather and sea conditions, which is all good news. Now that we are into the fourth day at sea, the temperatures are getting warmer, although the sun has been having problems appearing. Many clouds and passing showers have filled the skies.
Sunday Brunch happened again at 11am. Everyone said it was a full house, but it is a different twist on starting the day. We stuck to our 8am breakfast upstairs. Another guest had come into the room during the service time, and upon being turned away nicely, she said – oh I see this is for the fancy people. Now we have a new name….fancy people. Our waiters liked that.
We kept busy as usual, catching up on news of the day and reading books, etc. We even had a chance to try out those lounges again on deck 10. This time we were not bothered by workers hosing. The aft pool area was still sparsely used, and no one was in the pool. The two jacuzzis seem to get the biggest workout.
This afternoon, we got a package of visa papers and an important immigration advisory. Tomorrow we will be required to turn in the signed Mauritius Immigration card, the Mozambique shore leave and visa questionnaire, and the Covid 19 vaccine and booster questionnaire. It appears there is no charge for Mauritius, but there are options for Mozambique. The visa costs $85 USD per person, but if you choose to remain onboard, you will not be charged. In addition, we were given two copies of our passport pages, which we will have to show the local authorities upon leaving the ship in many African ports.
Lastly, our passports will be handed back to all of us before we reach Durban South Africa. The original yellow fever vaccination cards have to be included or a medical exemption letter. All guests will be requested to present themselves for a face-to-face inspection upon arrival in Durban. Hopefully those of us who are on overland tours will be able to go first, so we can get to the airport for our flights.
On our last day in Cape Town, we will have to do a departure face-to-face with immigrations. More info on that will be sent at the proper time. It can be complicated, but in the past all has gone well as long as the ship arrives super early to Durban.
This evening ,we were invited to a special gathering for a private Cabana Bash at 6:30pm in the Retreat area of the ship. We found that the invitation was described in a way that left us all with questions as to who was invited. The President's Club group and other travel friends were included. It was obvious to us that the Neptune guests had been included at this party, because when we arrived to deck 11, there must have been well over 150 people there. Many guests we knew from our group, but there were even more we did not recognize. Compared to the group we had at this event last fall where there were a dozen PC guests, this was way different. A bar had been set up with about every choice of alcohol, wine, or beer you wanted. Many hot canapies were being passed around by "dancing" waiters. There was a DJ doing the music, which for this group, was a bit loud. We have to say, many of the elderly guests were dancing in place, because they could not talk over the music, we suspect. Guest Relations Manager, Maja, was having the most fun as always. Several officers we have never seen, appeared at this gathering, mixing with the group.
The party was supposed to be over by 7:30pm, but if the bar closed down, we never noticed. Our dinnermates had already left, and we followed behind them by 10 minutes. The staff was most grateful that it did not rain, which it did briefly at 5:30pm. In case it did rain, they had an alternate plan of going to the Lido Deck midship. The last time we had the small gathering up here, it not only rained, but it flooded with a deluge. We all got lucky tonight.
Dinner had some hard choices. Salads were easy, but entrees were different. One of us had swordfish, which was a bit on the tough side. We think this is due to possibly microwaving the meal to keep it hot. The other entrée was thin slices of tri-tip beef with a baked potato. For some unknown reason, our waiter lost Barb's order, and she could not remember what she had ordered. Even though she told Nik not to bring anything, he did bring a chicken dinner, which she did eat. Next time, he better not throw the order away too soon. The same could happen with any of us.
The clocks went back another hour tonight. We do hope this will be OK for several days now.
Bill & Mary Ann
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