June 3 and 4, at Sea
Now for 2 days at sea. We really like days at sea but especially after seeing so many amazing ports and Lisbon. We can use the down time. Each evening before bed we review the daily handout for the next day. I read over the activities and circle the ones we are interested in. We like the talks and the shows. Most days there is a talk at 10am and sometimes at 2 o 3. Usually there is a show. This cruise ship only has 1 show at 9:30pm and sometimes a different show at 5:45pm. That works out as dinner started at 6:30pm and it takes a while, especially if we get a shared table. Then we have people to talk to and more people for the servers to wait on.
This ship has fantastic dancers and singers. They did a Broadway show of different Broadway songs and West End songs. There are about 8 of them and most of the dancers sing with the group as well. Very talented people. This ship is different as we often see the ship performers dining at diner with a World Cruise person or couple (they wear special pins so you know who they are). We think these performers are on this ship for 7 months.
They also have shows with a Headliner, a women from Wales/London with an amazing voice, a man from England with a 4 octave range who has been in West End productions, a magician who is very funny and does a rope or card trick and a comedian from England. We have seen something different than other ships, a headliner may pop into another persons show for a song or part of joke or skit. That has been interesting and different. (This was written after 2 day and then on the 4 th day of the next sea days).
David loves the lectures and we have had a great women giving lectures with history of the upcoming towns and areas and something about the people and how they live but she weaves in history of the times and events of the times. She is very enthusiastic and interesting and a bit hard to describe.
We have heard a women playing the piano but haven’t spent much time with the individual musicians bout the ship as we go to 2 to 3 shows or lectures each sea day and that seems to be enough entertainment time for us. We don’t do cards, dance class or exercise class or trivia. We haven’t seen Bingo offered and we don’t want to go to the Casino for the gambling completions or even the Gambling…. That is just us.
There is an older man, Bob Ray who was a dis jock in LA. His first one was about the Beatles and had interviewed them and he called some “surprise people who knew them. A bit hokey but still very interesting. The next one was the Beach Boys and he had a call to Dean of Jan and Dean. Lots of interesting facts as he played parts of their famous songs. The last was Billy Joel, Elton John & Carly Simon. No “surprise calls” so that was even better.
Bob’s partner was Jill. She gave several different talks about how to take better pictures with your phone. Technology is David’s thing so he went to those and enjoyed them a lot and even learned some new things.
The weather has not been great, lots of wind and the ship has rolled around a bit more than I had hoped but we didn’t have any problems. It also wasn’t that warm and after the last ship with the non-heated pool and stopping swimming half way through the cruise due to too cold conditions, I was concerned about the temperature of this pool. On day 2 of the sea day, I saw someone swim in the pool and asked him. He said it is warm enough and better than you think. So that afternoon Jackie tried the pool and David stayed in the cabin. The pool was a bit on the cool side but warm enough to swim. The next days David joined her in the pool and then in the nice hot tubs. One day we had to wait for a rain squall to go over but then the sun came out (in and out) and it was still a good time to swim. No having to share the pool or hot tubs! The 3 hot tubs have a 3 person limit and the pool has a 10 person limit but with no lifeguard, who would monitor that if it became a problem. Of course there was often people sitting out in deck chairs.
I sometimes call this ship the “ghost ship” as you don’t see many people around. You can always get a seat in the theatre, lots of empty chairs by the pool, the only slightly crowded space was when lunch opened up and the pool buffet had several people there. The inside buffet was fine, the dinning room feels pretty empty.
