On this legendary voyage, on sea days, breakfast will be at 8am in the dining room and 7am in the Lido. Port days will be a half hour earlier, like it has always been. Showing up right after 8am at the Pinnacle grill, we noticed there were few customers. Guess boarding day was so busy that many guests slept later. Can't say we blame them. The result for the few of us at 8am is the fact we have the attention of several waiters. And they are spoiling us. We also met the new manager, Bagus, who has stepped in for Endrian who went home.
Today the weather was warm in the sun, but cool in the shade. It was 64 degrees with 12 mph winds, which picked up a lot by late afternoon. The ship is sailing at 15 knots with some listing. Heading primarily west, we have not dropped enough south to feel that tropical heat. It will be here soon enough. And despite some passing clouds, it has not rained.
There was another reception for the 3, 4, & 5 star Mariners and President's Club members at 11am in the Crow's Nest. Usually this is held on boarding day, but too much was happening, and it was moved to today. Much wiser. There were so many of the star members, there were two starting times. Not wishing to stand in a line at the entrance, we went about 10 minutes late. Well, there was no line, but the fellow at the entrance hesitated letting us enter. He did have a list, but failed to ask our names. We assured him we had been invited, and he said please come in. As it turned out, he was the new Mariner officer who replaced Jennifer. Saying no more to him, we took our usual seats at the bar.
The Beverage manager, Russell, came by and chatted for a while. When we told him that story, he laughed and motioned Arnold to come over and meet us. Well, he was surprised and apologized for the mix-up, as he should have known who his customers were. Hearing this conversation, the nice bartender pulled out a very good bottle of real champagne and poured us two drinks. We doubt if he forgets again, or we will tease him forever. He is a nice young man from the Philippines and quite friendly.
Johan, the food and beverage manager promised to get us a weekly menu of the Club Orange dinner entrees. He followed through because this evening, he came to us in the dining room with the list that gave the entrées with the sides as well. It will repeat on a weekly basis. We thanked him for doing this, and it will save time for our waiter who has to look it up on his device every night.
We also met the new Hotel Director, Glenn Cowly, who listened about the lack of TV since yesterday. He did admit the problem could be a number of things, but never went as far as saying something was broken. To be fair, we read our reports from last year's cruise, and we had similar problems with both the TV and internet. It seems like our internet is working better, but no one has taken credit for fixing it. The TV reception came on briefly this afternoon, but it did not last more than ½ hour. By the time we finished dinner, the channels were back.
Lunch was a Dive-In chicken sandwich and a hot dog with fries. It was ready within 5 minutes. Really great service when there is no line.
Tonight's dress was "dressy", and guess what? The majority of passengers dressed up just fine. This time we saw some tuxes, suits, and jackets for the fellows. The ladies always look great and tonight was no exception. And we saw only one t-shirt on a guy but no baseball hats. Things are looking better. Starters for us were shrimp cocktails, a salad, and a hot bowl of tomato soup. Very good. Mains were lamb chops but with customized sides of mashed potatoes, diced carrots and a pile of asparagus. Also tasty and colorful. Desserts were a crème brulee and sliced pineapple.
Better news: the clocks went back one hour, thank you.
Bill & Mary Ann
