After a long day in port yesterday, it seemed that many folks slept in this morning. Excursions can be exhausting especially when they exceed 8 hours. Add the heat, humidity, and heavy rain showers and the day seems even longer. So thank goodness for these days at sea to re-charge the batteries.
As for today, we had good weather with temperatures in the mid-80's and some humidity. The seas were almost smooth and silky-looking without much of a breeze. Captain Friso said today was a great day, as he usually does. We were seeing some more ship traffic as well as fishing boats here and there. He told us to expect more commercial vessels as we get closer to Singapore. He continued to say that yesterday's visit to Bali did a lot to boost the morale of many of the crew members. Captain Friso has only two more days with the Zuiderdam as he will be leaving for his vacation in Singapore. That's when Captain Frank will arrive. Chantall, the Captain's partner, will remain onboard as our cruise consultant until we reach Ft. Lauderdale on May 9th.
Our big job of the day was collecting our passports at the usual spot in the elevator lobby by 10:45am. All of us will need to take our passports with us when we go ashore in Singapore. Michelle, our concierge, kindly filled out our arrival and departure forms online and printed the results for us. She has been a life-saver in regards to anything cell phone related.
We worked on photos and reports from Komodo, then later Bali. Then we took a lunch break as we always do in the Lido. There were very few folks in there, so we expect that some are packing to go home. We were told by Henk that about 212 passengers will be leaving and about the same amount will be embarking.
At 4pm, we were invited to another Mariner Recognition Event held in the Crow's Nest. Only the President's Club members were invited along with the recipients of the medallions. Today there were very few people getting their awards, but it sure is nice for them to be recognized in a private affair such as this. Cocktails or wine were served as well as very nice appetizers. Too bad we had eaten lunch so late, because the pot stickers are one of our favorite treats. Kimberly is finally back, although you can still hear the nasal twang when she speaks. We might add that this virus is still around, because we are being "squirted" with sanitizer when we enter the dining room. And now that new guests are arriving, the bug will probably start up again.
This evening was "formal" the third one this month. We were surprised to see a reminder in the Daily newsletter saying that formal dress was required for table service restaurants. Then Kimberly made this same announcement prior to the dining times. Apparently there have been some problems with the way some folks dress on these special evenings, or else they would not have to enforce it. Secretly, we are glad to see them sticking to the rule. There was even a sign showing this dress code as we entered the upper dining room.
So for dinner, we had shrimp cocktails, Caesar salads, and mains of lamb chops with sides of cannelloni beans and vegetables with a savory gravy. Desserts were hot fudge sundaes, a treat for us on a formal evening. Our assistant waiter, Komang, will be going home in Singapore, so we thanked him for all he has done to make our nightly meal a pleasant one.
The theme of this evening was "music", so with that in mind, there was one performance in the World Stage with most of the ship's musicians on stage at 7:30pm. Too bad that was our dining time. After their combined performance, they would retreat to their normal lounges for the rest of the evening.
Another relaxing day at sea will be welcomed tomorrow.
Bill & Mary Ann
