Well, the attractive hair nets were missing with the Pinnacle Grill wait staff this morning, and we are sure they are glad about that. They will be back, we are afraid, once we hit the next Brazilian ports.
It was a typical sea day with the exception of our travel agency's hosts who were set up at a small table outside the Wajang Theater at 9am. This is where they have been assigned for their group chats on sea days, which is about the last place we thought they would be. Normally, they have part of a lounge or a seating area in the atrium, where more than one or two guests can take a chair and visit with them. We shall see how long they last here.
One of us took a nice morning promenade deck walk while the other one was busy with yesterday's exploits. At least Bill was able to thank hotel manager Glenn for his nice letter and the fruit plates he had sent to our room. He has promised to keep on top of any issue we have. There was one last request, and that was to have our ceiling vent filter pad replaced. And that happened at 4pm this afternoon.
Most of the day was spent catching up on photos. Belem is such a diverse place, it takes many pictures to tell the story. The usual sea day activities took place including a dance performance by the visiting Oi Brazil group at 2:30pm. We believe this took the place of the show in the World Stage this evening, since it was the first formal evening with the Volendam Ball at 8:30pm.
Captain Rens returned with his noon talk reporting that the weather was rather nice with partly cloudy skies and possible rain. The ship was doing 17 knots as we sailed towards Recife, the next port of call. We still had 827 nautical miles to go to reach Recife. It will take an average of 19 knots to arrive on time. The current temperature was 81 degrees with 83% humidity and 33 knot winds. The wave heights were 3 feet, but later in the day, we began to have significant motion and suspect the sea swells to be much higher. Tomorrow we may see more tropical showers, typical to this part of the world. We did see some tiny flying fish by the thousands later this afternoon. No birds, however.
We never made it to lunch but snacked on the pizza slices from yesterday. Still tasty even though it was cold. Fresh fruit was our dessert.
This evening was the very first formal night as we mentioned. There was nothing more about proper dress for all table service onboard the ship like we had on the Zuiderdam. Last year, Kimberly our cruise director, announced the formal dress code during the day, and also before the dining room and Pinnacle Grill serving times. Then at the entrances to the dining rooms, there was a poster showing a picture of a jacket and tie which was acceptable for the gentlemen. The only reference to the dress code was listed in the Guide to Grand Voyages in each of our staterooms. The description for formal was : Formal dress is required for table service restaurants. This includes suits, tuxedos, dresses and other forms of cultural formal attire. Most ladies dressed nicely, but the fellows, not so much. We can only speak for the late seating dining, but there were a few guys with no jackets, just long-sleeve shirts – no ties. We did not see or hear of anyone that got turned away like we saw on the Zuiderdam.
Dinner choices included starters of smoked chicken with pomegranate molasses and citrus. Salads were slab salads with lardons (bacon) and iceberg lettuce. Our entrees were grilled veal chops with a mushroom gravy served over mashed potatoes. Very good. Other choices included a lobster tail or a filet or gnocchi with a tomato/pesto sauce. Many guests left the room by 8:30pm to make the start of the ball although we are not sure how anyone will be able to dance with the ship's rolling. We stayed and enjoyed desserts of a chocolate mousse in a hard dark chocolate ½ shell. One of us had the lemon dessert with drops of raspberry and lemon puree.
Back to the room, we found a whole bunch of gifts waiting for us. There were practical items such as phone chargers, re-usable cups for drinks at their cafes, key holders, rain ponchos, and large neck scarves. There were nice "belly" bags and two tiny little ducks in honor of Rubber Ducky Day. They were the cutest.
The saying for the day was a quote from Helen Keller: Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
Bill & Mary Ann
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