It was a lazy day at sea for us and many others as the Zuiderdam sailed towards Singapore doing 20 knots. Captain Friso said that the smooth seas and following winds were in our favor. And the warm but comfortable weather with a nice breeze was just about perfect.
We learned that around 130 guests will be leaving the ship tomorrow and only 60 or so will be joining. More than likely some of the crew members will be ending their 8 month contracts and leaving as well. But we suspect that not all of them will be replaced. As this voyage continues, we believe there will be a further drop in the passenger count, especially when we head across the Atlantic Ocean in May. When the current itinerary changed, eliminating the Mediterranean, we feel that a number of folks made a decision to leave in Singapore. They were given that option to leave and receive future cruise credit for the missed days. Not everyone wanted a repeat of Africa, especially West Africa, since we did that last year.
This morning we all received two more stickers for the cruise log booklet, adding the ports from Tokyo to Singapore. We are well beyond the halfway mark now.
We still had not received our copies of the Singapore landing card info we had requested from the front desk folks as promised by this morning. So we made a call to our concierge, Michelle, who had to search for our emails from yesterday. In the meantime, she gave us her personal email to re-send the forms. While doing this, she located our emails and had already made copies for us. And even nicer, she delivered them personally to our room. She had brought her two daughters with her, who are visiting from the Philippines. How nice to meet them. They are teenagers we are guessing, and are having a fine time sailing for a few days on the ship. Their dad, Ray, is the bartender in the Ocean Bar, so having to see both of their parents at the same time is rare. The two young girls will be among the guests departing the ship tomorrow.
Everyone had to pick up their passports to carry with us when we go off of the ship. The tables were set up in the passenger deck elevator lobbies, and it went smooth as glass.
Kimberly delivered her Singapore talk this morning at 10am, so we looked for it on TV and found it this afternoon. Deciding to watch it around 4pm, we discovered it was gone. Will try after dinner, but have no faith it will be there. Of course we have been to the city several times in the past, but sometimes Kimberly adds extra tips, or closures we do not know about. Every bit of info we can gather is always a good thing. Doing online homework has been a big help with figuring out the MRT ticket counters that will be open tomorrow where we are docked. If nothing has changed since we were here last, we will be OK.
The Culinary Council Dinner menu was the theme tonight. It had a different type of salad with lots of things we like, including breaded shrimp. Both of us ordered the prime rib, but ½ size orders. The serving size was still more than enough. And it was good. One of us had the craqulin dessert, a chocolate pudding- filled type muffin. Our friend Heo surprised us and came over to say goodbye. We wished him a safe trip and we sure hope to see him and Greg in the future. We will really miss seeing him and also getting his port pictures.
Annie Gong was on the stage again tonight showcasing her one woman symphony concert. She is a favorite of the longtime world cruisers.
Ready or not….Singapore, here we come.
Bill & Mary Ann
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