Even though today was Monday, it was Super Bowl Sunday east of the International Dateline. The "Tailgate Party" began at 10am in the World Stage where the powers to be planned on serving beverage specials and team-specific snacks all the way to victory. Whose victory, no one really knows, but any reason for a party works for most everyone. Anyway, it is always a big deal when these games happen while we are onboard a ship. The bad thing was that the reception was not always a given in the past. Today with modern technology, the game came in perfectly in the World Stage as well as on our room TV's.
Well that was partly true. Last night TV # 3 shut itself off and we could not turn it off or on. That made two nights in a row. So the first thing before breakfast, we called the front desk folks to report that this TV also died. There must be a file of all of the work that has been done to make it right. They knew that TV # 4 was being retrofitted to hang correctly over the couch and they hoped to deliver it today.
After breakfast, one of the IT fellows stopped by and said they did not have time to adjust the new set, but he could restart the "dead" one. It re-booted and we were able to watch the game as long as we did not turn the set off. Then he asked when did we take our nap? Really? Honestly? We laughed and said that is something we never do, and he could return anytime after the game to install TV # 4.
To tell the truth, we have not followed football as much as we did when San Francisco was on the top with several Super Bowl wins. That was back in the Joe Montana days. Yeah, now we are dating ourselves, but that is the simple truth. But we did enjoy watching this over-hyped game mainly because Kansas City beat SF last year, and we wanted to see the Eagles win. And they did….big time.
So the minute the game was over, two of the IT guys were knocking on our door with a brand new LG big screen TV to install. Two more IT fellows showed up and the four of them worked on the back of both the TV and the spot where it had to hang over the couch. This turned out not to be a simple fix. It took about 45 minutes for them to hang the new TV, and the good news is that it worked. The remote is double the size of the old one with larger buttons to push.
Since it was past our lunch time, we left them working while we went for our Lido lunch. When we came back, another room steward was vacuuming the carpet and wiping the new screen down. Then a few minutes later, there was a knock on the door and our room steward Nana handed us a bottle of red wine with a card from the Front Desk Team. We assume it was for being patient while the team figured out the problem. We have to say we only reported this once, and every visit to fix it was a follow-up from them. The gift was a nice touch and we certainly appreciate it.
At noontime, Captain Friso gave a short and sweet talk so as not to interrupt the game-watchers. He said we were cruising the coastline of Australia about 35 nautical miles off of the land. Too far to see it, he will get closer the further south we go. He said we had a following wind but we could expect higher seas and 4 ½ foot swell with some rain later in the day and into tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the end of the first segment of this world cruise. It was called the 37 day Passage to Sydney, Australia and we were all given the new HAL Journeys booklet to attach the first two stickers of ports. We head through the grapevine that about 400 guests will be leaving, and around 200 new passengers will join us. We do know that HAL has been marketing these segments in order to fill the ship and it will be interesting to see if that works. Some of the crew will also be headed home tomorrow.
A few days ago we all got a letter regarding the handling of our shipboard accounts. That needed clarifying since on our last cruise in the fall, our account was cleared before we were done. We still had a 56 day cruise ahead of us, and it was not linked like it should have been the previous Alaska runs. So in order for that not to happen, we made a stop at the front desk and inquired about it. We were told nothing would change with our account, and since we did not owe any money, the account would roll over until we debark in May. That was good news, but we will still keep an eye on it. In the old days, or as recent as 2022, our account would carry over even if we owed money. Nothing was charged to the credit card until the day we departed. Well that changed, and now the cards have to be charged every month by law. If you did not owe anything, then there was no impact. At least we had that cleared up. Then we discovered they were selling Australian currency, and we decided to get some. The rate of exchange might be a bit higher than in Sydney, but it will save us time.
While getting ready for dinner, we noticed that it had gotten darker outside. Going out on the veranda, we were surprised to see streaks of lightning in the skies all around us. It took a while for us to hear the thunder, but when we hit the rain, it poured heavily. Even the dining room windows were lit up. It just so happened that there was a parade of the kitchen crew and the wait staff saying goodbye to the 400 disembarking guests. Usually this is done once on a world cruise, but this new venue began last year.
Starters for us were wedge salads, similar to the ones served in the Pinnacle Grill. However the dressing was not the same. The shrimp appetizer was good as usual, and the mains of beef brisket and a Salisbury steak pretty much looked alike with mashed potatoes, veggies and gravy. Tasted good too. Dessert was one chocolate mousse pie and one scoop of coffee fudge ice cream.
There were several suitcases out in the hallway on our deck. Our room steward said he had nine staterooms leaving, and some new folks coming . Glad we don't have to do this yet as it seems like we just got here. Hard to believe the reports are up to # 40 already. Time sure flies…….
Looking forward to two days in Sydney.
Bill & Mary Ann
