Saturday began an hour earlier (technically) due to the clock change last night. Participation at breakfast was far less for two reasons. The time change of course, and the fact that the Mariner Society was having a medal award ceremony in the World Stage at 11:30am. It will be followed by a Mariner's Lunch in the dining room at 12:30pm. We intend to go to the first event, but probably will not attend the lunch. It is too early for us. Pulung happened to stop by to say hi, and he did confirm that the lunch will not be hosted, but open-seating. Perfect, we will keep to our 2:30pm Lido lunch.
Vini, our Mariner rep, called and said that the extra money that was missing from the final President's Club perk would be credited to our account. And he also said that reminders will be going out to anyone with extra non-refundable money to spend. The rule is: use it, or lose it. Then he added that in the future, if time runs out on this final delivery, the perk will be worth only $40 and not $60. Go figure??? Makes no sense to us, but these new rules seem to change with every trip we take. With that, he said "happy shopping".
The Captain came on the speakers announcing a mandatory crew drill, and apologized for the interruption. Not a big deal, we have not missed one of them since we boarded and find them interesting, not annoying.
We had a few questions regarding the upcoming drydock of this ship. Rumor has it that "wear-and-tear" projects will be addressed with carpets, drapes, and some cabin updates. Behind the scenes work will be done with the plumbing and electrical parts of the ship. It is possible that more wifi hotspots will be installed – very much needed on the passenger decks and USB ports will be added hopefully to all of the rooms.
Vini called us and said he had reserved seats for us in the World Stage, deck 4, so we could come in and go directly to the front where wine or mimosas were served. We did just that 10 minutes before the show began. Daniel introduced the Hotel Manager, Darren, and Captain Smit, the main medal-givers. Most of the awardees were silver (300 days), gold (500 days), and platinum (700 days).
We were introduced last, along with the other President's Club member. All of the awardees including the three of us had photos taken with Darren and the Captain. This event was well organized and went according to schedule. It was wrapped up 12pm, then anyone who wished a photo with the officers could come up and do it. Many did just that.
The doors to the lower dining room opened at 12:30pm and we heard they served a nice multi-choice lunch with champagne. We believe this lunch will be repeated Monday for the remainder of the Mariners.
Captain Smit was almost on time for his noon update but at 12:15pm. We have traveled 1255 nautical miles from Nuku Hiva and have 1569 nautical miles to go to San Diego. He has been maintaining a speed of 17.4 to 19 knots in order to fight the sea swells. At the moment of his talk, the swells were 3.1 meters, probably the highest of the whole trip. He apologized for the ship being "wobbly". Had to laugh with that remark. A bit more than wobbly, we are rocking and rolling quite a bit….enough so that the little white bags have appeared in the elevator lobbies.
The winds were 20 to 25 knots with cloudy skies, showers, and 79 degree temps. Tomorrow, he expects winds to increase to a force 6 on the Beaufort scale, with the temps dropping to 75 degrees, and sea swells at 3.7 meters. Tonight's sunset will be at 6:15pm, and the sunrise will be 6:35am. With that, he advised all of us to be most careful if going outside on the promenade deck as the combined winds and speed of the ship, we could encounter 50 knot winds. Also he added, please use the port side doors to go outside.
The only wildlife besides us were schools of flying fish. The lone masked booby seems to have departed the ship for parts unknown.
The photography competition exhibits were in the atrium for folks to see. It would be crew members who did the voting this time. The prize-winning ceremony would be held at 8pm, also in the atrium. Promotional sales headed the marquee to entice the guests to spend-spend-spend. We still need to do that.
We had a most unexpected sunset tonight. The skies had been depressingly overcast all day, so we did not expect to see anything at all with a sunset. It was a nice surprise.
This evening the Seafood Boil was the big event in the Lido. The top dishes served were Northwest-style clam chowder, Dungeness crab, Alaskan salmon, clams, mussels, and a triple berry crisp. So that's where all of the fresh berries have gone…… We think the price for this meal is $35 plus 18% gratuity.
Our dinner would be more traditional with salads, soup, a shrimp appetizer, and good old-fashioned turkey roast with gravy, cranberries, apple-pecan stuffing, dill carrots, and Brussel sprouts. One scoop of ice cream topped off our delicious meal.
Annie Gong performed in the World Stage with her second show and the movie, The Estate" was shown in the Wajang.
So much for a busy day….# 3 at sea. Three more to go and we had best start packing.
Bill & Mary Ann
