Last night we had two large cards slipped under our door. They came from the Effy team onboard inviting us to visit them and check out their merchandise. Guess we are on a list of passengers that have spent a lot of shipboard money in their shops over the years. Sometimes we find one of their pendants on a chain on our bed with some other incentive offers. However, none of those have shown up so far. And we are not seeing that shopping lectures have been given for the shopping onshore at their recommended stores. That may have ended with the sailings in Alaska.
Day three at sea began nicely with a sunrise. The weather is becoming more tropical and we have finally seen some flying fish popping up near the bow. We concluded that the temperature of the water must have something to do with their presence. After breakfast, we ventured outside for some laps around the promenade deck. The morning sun was shining on the portside, but the starboard side was in the shade and almost cold. Most of the people chose to relax on the leeward side (port) instead of the windward side. As long as we are heading west, the sun should remain about in the same position.
Captain Smit came on with his noon message. He said we are 931 nautical miles from San Diego and still have 1323 nautical miles to go to Kona. Maintaining a speed of 14 knots will take the next three days. A sea swell of between 6 and 7 feet was expected for the day, and we still have some motion going on. There seems to be more pitching than rolling, and we can say from memory, that this will remain with us until we reach Hawaii. It could be much worse. The temperature has been a comfortable 73 degrees with 12 knots winds. The perfect spot to enjoy this has been on our veranda. One of us has finally found some time to read books found in the library. Tomorrow's forecast remains about the same as today, except there may be a shower or two. Finally, some guests have reported seeing a turtle and even an owl. Obviously not a sea bird, the owl may have hitched a ride on the ship like the small swallow-type bird we saw yesterday. We know that with the flying fish we began seeing at 10am this morning, there may be some birds appear that will hunt these fish. That's when the fun starts as we watch the hunt from the promenade deck. Nature in action.
We did learn some news yesterday concerning the upcoming world cruise in January. The captains assigned are Ane Jan Smit, the one and the same captain we have right now. The second captain will be Michiel Willems. There are two hotel general managers – Glenn Cowley and Florin Dragomir. The two captains have been the team on this ship, or at least they were a year ago, as well as Glenn being the hotel manager. The Volendam is the sister ship, so they are quite familiar with this class of ships. And all very nice and personable we may add.
And here is a laugh of the day. We inquired about the price of one bottle of Jack Daniels Whiskey available through room service. The last time we bought a bottle was perhaps a year ago, and the cost was $90 which included the 18% gratuity. We thought that was high, but it did last for 56 days. Today's quote was far different with the same bottle costing a whopping $220 plus 18% gratuity…bringing the total to just under $260. Wow, we do like the whiskey, but not that much. So we said no thanks, especially when they added there was no discount for any Mariner status. That only applies to the limited selection of beverages that were in our room refrigerator.
Something different today was the opening of the Tiki Bar on deck 8, which we assume would be the decorating of the Lido Pool Bar. There were 13 promotion-related activities, seven "new today" things to do, and seven local activities. Family fun rated three things to do. Never a dull moment we say.
While going out on deck six forward to observe the sunset, we were pleasantly surprised to find a trio of what appeared to be brown boobies working the waters around the front of the ship. We figured when we saw the flying fish, the birds would come. Every now and then, they would dive for a fish, making a squawking noise. Quite often , the younger birds will make that noise begging for food from the adult, probably the parent. The sunset was underwhelming, and we were losing the light rapidly. That made getting good pictures of the birds in motion more than challenging, if not impossible.
A highlight of our day for one of us was having meatballs and spaghetti for dinner. And the blue plate special (Club Orange) was a grill veal chop. Both excellent. Two of the new chefs came over for a visit asking how we have been liking the food. We complimented them on their good job, thanking them for the introduction of some good Mexican cuisine. One of us had the blueberry pie, which really was a torte with a shortbread bread crust. They apologized for running out of whipped cream, so they substituted vanilla ice cream. Actually, it was better that way. Watermelon was just right for other one of us, although I had to test the blueberry pie and agreed it was a winner.
The comedy of Dave Konig was the entertainment of the evening. Missed it again unfortunately. So much for day three at sea. Three more to go…….Oops, almost forgot that the clocks went back one hour tonight. Always appreciated.
Bill & Mary Ann