One of us slept so soundly last night, it was near 8am by the time I woke up. That never happens, but after so many consecutive nights of getting less than needed sleep, it tends to catch up with you. And taking a long hot shower before retiring did not hurt one bit.
Getting a little late to the Pinnacle Grill was OK, as we do not think too many people want our table at the entrance. Manager Arsa really cannot say no to a guest who asks for it. And if you are late like today, we could have lost it. Anyway, the coffee has been piping hot and the food done just right.
On our way back to the elevators, Kumar our rep stopped us with some info we had asked about. So far, no one has been assigned the job of cruise director on the 2026 Grand World Voyage, now that the job description has been modified with two people taking over the duties. We are only guessing, but we suspect a job re-description might mean a cut in pay. There has to be a very good reason for losing some of the best cruise directors in the business recently. Kumar had a list of fellow President Club members and which grand voyages they were sailing on in 2026. The numbers of members booked has dropped on each ship, some under the amount of 30 guests. And for some unknown reason, we have gotten emails advertising reduced fares for the Grands of 2026. All of them are targeting the segments, which of course, the benefits of early booking and paying in advance have long since expired. Kumar is puzzled as to why we would even receive these ads since we are already booked and paid. One hand at HAL headquarters does not seem to know what the other hand is doing.
Since one of us was so far behind in daily writings, staying in the room and writing was the better bet. The more active one of us took a long walk on the promenade deck after breakfast as usual on a sea day. It is always less crowded when there is a port talk at 10am followed by a lecture on whales and dolphins. Out of the blue, a low-flying passenger jet appeared on the starboard side flying near the ship. Too quick to pull out the camera, it was gone just as fast as it had appeared. Hopefully the Captain will talk about this incident during his noon talk.
Noontime arrived, so we listened for some details with the jet, but he said not a word. Good thing was there was no crash reported, so we assume these things happen all the time here. The current temperature was 78 degrees with 25 knot winds coming straight at us. We are rolling with the swells because we are maintaining a speed of 8 knots. We are not sure the stabilizers can be utilized at this slow rate of speed. The Captain did admit that today's skies were looking better with scattered clouds, a little sun, and blue skies up high. It sure felt less humid, but that may be wishful thinking. The Captain also had a surprise up his sleeve. With some extra time, he decided to stray a little off course in order to be passing by the isolated island of Niue (pronounced new-way). He surprised us again with the fact that he has never been there and wanted bragging rights to be able to see it on the portside only. Hey, that works for us, however, we have been there at least three or four times on past cruises. We have by-passed it as well due to too deep swells to tender ashore. It is one big mound of an island but is a country itself and counts when you are a member of the Century Club. Like we said, bragging rights. It has close ties to New Zealand which takes care of its citizens. Other than that, there is not too much there to attract tourists. Our first visit there we went to the picnic grounds outside the main shopping market, where a local lady proceeded to root through my HAL bag I had on the bench next to me. No kidding. Another local yelled at her and she said she was looking for candy, from the ship we assume. People always brought over pillow chocolates to hand to the kids. That same day, too many passengers came over and crashed their internet for the day. They had to close the school early due to no internet. On the way back boarding the tenderboat, a crew member said to go, and when I did, the swell took the boat down 10 or more feet, and I was literally airborne. I hit the floor so hard I thought I broke my thigh bone. Never again I said will I go here. We did return, but the swell was not so bad. So sometime tomorrow morning, we should be passing by this island and possibly getting some photos.
We are now on a four day at sea sailing towards the Cook Islands. We were supposed to have two ports there with Aitutaki being one of them. This island has to be the jewel of the Cook Islands it is so pretty and scenic. Both ports of Rarotonga and Aitutaki do not cater to tourists in ships on Saturday and especially Sunday. Why HAL keeps adding these ports on weekends is beyond our understanding. The problem lies with the dockworkers who will not work on weekends, nor do most of the shore excursion folks work on weekends. Restaurants and stores may be closed, especially on Sunday, their big church day. Banks are not opened. It stands to be seen if we can even tender into Avatiu as the swells can be lethal. But that is another story for when we get closer.
Now let's complicate things a bit more. We will be crossing the International Dateline once again, essentially giving us back the day we lost around October 15th or so. As a result, the ships clocks will be turned back 24 hours. Therefore, we will experience October 29th twice. Guests using the Navigator will need to refresh the app to see the current day's activities. So Wednesday remains the same (no elevator carpet change) and the 29th is the same. Confused? As long as we are fed and entertained, we will all survive. And gaining an extra day at sea has it good points as well.
Here is Clare's riddle of the day: It happens once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a 1000 years. Can you guess the answer? It was easy this time.
We ordered sliders once again with one order of chicken nuggets from room service for lunch. It is a sure way to keep your meals as light as you can without other tempting foods to fill up on. We were able to catch up on photos and daily reports during the day, as well as re-arranging our furniture to get the heavy coffee table out of our road to the veranda. It was as easy as pulling the oblong glass table to alongside the desk and against the wall. The flowers stayed on the table, and now the entire couch is open for sitting or propping up our legs and feet during the day. We should have done this back in September.
Dinnertime was wrapped around the theme of Masquerade Ball and was dubbed "dressy". We have been due for one of these better-dressed evenings. The time has arrived for the folks that have been working on creating masks in classes onboard to wear them to dinner or after dinner. The menu this evening was really creative with some different items again. Oa's Groentesoep soup with meatballs, root veggies and noodles was a big hit according to Regie, who had served it to all 18 of his early-seating guests. So one of us had to try it, and yes, it was that good. A potato latke and a beer and cheese dip with long skinny pretzels were equally as good. Still too much cheese sauce for the pretzels, but there is always the bread to dip in the beer cheese. One Caesar salad finished the starters. The entrees were a hard choice, but the pork wellington was quite nice looking. I chose the sausage and spaetzle, but it ws not as I expected. Once again, the pork wellington was the winner. Dessert was a small slice of Swedish apple cake…very moist and full of cinnamon…another winner. The dining room emptied out with the folks heading for the World Stage to listen to their favorite band playing until well after 10pm. Our friends had brought the "real" masks they bought while in Venice and if anyone wins a prize, it should be them.
So tomorrow will be a repeat of today with different activities.
Bill & Mary Ann
No Pictures
