One of the best things we did for this cruise was sending a thick foam mattress pad with our shipped luggage. It made a big difference with the comfort of our bed and we slept like babies. We have used one at home for several years now and have been pleased with it. The egg crate pads the ship provides does little for comfort, but the much thicker foam pads work well.
Breakfast was fun with several visits with people we know. Once settled in their rooms, they are coming in more and more. We usually linger with our specialty coffees in order to give our room stewards time to clean our cabin. They know exactly what time we leave and are always ready to do their magic right away. And we appreciate that. Kadek, our head steward will be leaving for home sometime tomorrow, which is nice for him, but we will miss him. He has been most helpful with our unusual issues.
We're still doing the final touches on the room, such as hanging a large map and the calendar with all the ports marked. It has taken shape with the addition of twelve extra drawers for folded clothes. The shoe bag that has turned into our hanging pharmacy took some time. However, the pockets are not totally clear, so it will take time to locate everything we have stashed. Do we know where every little thing is located? Not exactly, but we'll find it in time.
Today we received a couple of letters from the Captain and the staff. One was regarding the handling of our passports and the details of customs and immigration checks, the need to keep our passports in some places, and places we should not take them off of the ship. Good idea, as this information is all written and it will save many calls to the Front Desk folks. The other letter was concerning safety and security in the upcoming ports. This has to be the first time we have seen such detailed warnings about what we wear with jewelry, money and credit cards we take off in port, and keeping aware of our surroundings. Now we cannot say we weren't warned well ahead of time. Of course, if we have that much fear, none of us would ever get off of the ship. Oh well, better forewarned than sorry.
Captain Rens came on with his noon talk and gave the basic info we like to hear. The current temperature was 77 degrees F., the winds were 17 knots, and the forecast was for partly cloudy skies. There was a slight sea swell of 3 feet, which was perfect. We were 364 nautical miles from Barbados and tomorrow's weather will be much the same. He did not mention sunrise and sunset times, but perhaps we will ask him to do that for those of us that are interested.
Only one of us took a promenade walk again, since the other was still busy hanging the map and adding some command hooks here and there. The drawers in the room have the worst design ever, in our humble opinion. The hidden pulls are on the bottom of the drawers, and most difficult to reach. So I am playing with some larger command hooks that will work upside down to use as draw pulls. So far it is working on the nightstand by the bed as it contains lighter items.
Somehow we forgot lunch again but snacked on peanuts and pretzels. Our refrigerator is full of Coke Zeros now. The best part of our day was watching the dozens of brown boobies flying along the ship. Honestly, they came within 10 feet of us on our veranda. Hundreds of photos were taken as they dove for the tiny flying fish. Then it got more interesting when one lone frigatebird showed up on the scene. They actually went to combat fighting over the catch. Nature is sure fascinating.
By the way, the carpet outside the bathroom never fully dried so we had to tolerate the fan running all day. We still do not know the source of the water, but we assume it was repaired. Then the remainder of our sodas were delivered for our PC perk. Again they were short 4 and promised a delivery later. Never happened.
We had an invite to another welcome reception for the President's Club members only held in the Crow's Nest at 6:30pm. Our group numbers 28 at the moment and some of the officers were present like Captain Rens, Glenn the general hotel manager, Jonah, Kumar and others. We took some seats on the far end, which turned out to be a good move since Bob and Martha joined us. Two more ladies, mom and daughter joined us as did Captain Rens. He seems to be most friendly as is Glenn who followed up later. The gathering included any drink of our choice and a few nice, but cold canapies. It ended by 7:30pm, but we stayed a bit longer talking with Glenn.
That turned out to be not so good when we entered the dining room to find our table had been given to another couple. What??? It seems that the lower dining room head waiter seated this couple when our waiters were running for food. So there was no one to tell him those were our seats. Our waiters were not happy and apologized over and over. We did get the table right next to ours, but the damage was done. Not that it mattered that much, but when you have an assigned table, it should be held no matter what. Over half of the railing tables were empty, so why give ours away? We did make it clear to our guys that if we have other plans, we would let them know the evening prior. Bet that doesn't happen again…..
One of us had hot chicken soup, a shrimp cocktail and meatballs and spaghetti. The other ordered Caesar salad, a cod slider (good), and prime rib end cut medium. It was cooked perfectly and quite good. Desserts were one tiny slice of blueberry pie and a melon platter.
Vocalist Chloe Lowery was the entertainer this evening with a mix of Broadway and rock tunes. We turned in right after dinner since tomorrow will be our first port day. With no special plans or tours, we will do our usual walk about town.
Bill & Mary Ann
