Day four at sea began with mostly sunny skies and warmer temperatures. Even the Captain made that announcement at his noon talk that it was a beautiful day, adding that we are doing a speed of 18 knots with 300 nautical miles to arrive to Easter Island. The waves were moderate with about a three foot swell. Later in the afternoon, it clouded up and it appeared we were passing through a series of showers on both sides of the ship. But what is really strange is the fact the sun has stayed up until after 9pm, which obviously, we are not on real time. That will change after we leave Easter Island with several time changes in a few days.
What helped make this day even better was discovering we were getting a signal coming through for the TV reception around 9am. It wasn't great or very consistent, but at least we were able to watch most all of the inauguration coverage, a very important day in American history. Truth be told, we only missed a few hours with walks and lunch as the only interruptions. We could envision a technician going outside and holding the darn antennae to get the most of the connection that was possible. Once the main portion of the inauguration was finished, it seemed that we lost the signal again. We suspect the closer we get to the island, the better the reception will be. And it was nice to be in touch with civilization once again.
Kimberly delivered her talk on Easter Island at 11am. We ducked into the World Stage briefly about 15 minutes prior to her talk. She was already warning folks not to sit on the stairways, or block the aisles, so it must have been filling up rapidly. Then she reminded everyone that this talk would be repeated on our TV's later, but there is a problem with that. Ever since we have sailed on this ship back in 2023, there has been a problem with the programs that are filmed to be shown later on. This applies to the port talks, the shore excursion descriptions, and talks by the shore ex group. The volume only goes halfway on the scale on our TV's, and there are stops quite often with the filming….like it is re-booting. Later this afternoon we attempted to watch her Easter Island port talk, only to find that the feed stopped and went back to the beginning. Over and over. What's up with that? Oh well, we have been to this part of the world more than once, so we know it very well.
One thing that is irritating to us like a thorn in our sides, is the fact the priority tendering for the President's Club members has been suspended for this port for the next two days. It has been denied to all of those who have been given that perk including Neptuners and others. Currently, there are only 26 qualifying guests in the President's Club group, and we figured perhaps half or more of that number will be taking a tour. A few members we know are using motorized scooters, so they cannot go off at all. That leaves about 10 passengers to filter into the line of tender boat people. In the past, we have all been allowed to join the line before open tenders were announced and it never presented a problem. Several years ago, our group was escorted down another flight of stairs to deck A. Now we are being denied. Go figure…. Has this perk been eliminated and we don't know about it? We shall dig a little deeper as we do not give up easily.
Eating dinner at 8pm was like going to lunch at 2pm. It was that light outside with no sign of the sun setting. Our starters were lamb kebabs but without the skewers. Maybe the chefs think we will hurt ourselves if they were served as we know it. There are many times we have commented that this grand voyage is like being in an "OFH" as our buddy Barb would say. Of course, that stands for old folks home, and we mean nothing bad by that comment. It is what it is and Holland America has a reputation for catering to an older group. Not that there is anything wrong with that, as Jerry Seinfeld used to say. Anyway, out mains were a full turkey dinner complete with the strangest-tasting cranberry sauce we ever had. Someone must have seen the need to stretch what they had left, and added strawberry jam to the cranberries. No kidding, they can't fool all of us all of the time. A shared dessert of a chocolate mousse cake which was not mousse at all but more like flourless chocolate cake was all the sweet we needed.
There was a comedian on the stage tonight by the name of Marc Yaffee who did a skit on his twists and turns of his life. And as always, there are always the other lounges that have bands or an orchestra playing from 8 to 9:45pm and beyond.
Bill & Mary Ann
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