I don’t think I had mentioned, or maybe I had but the clocks
were moved forward before arriving in Montevideo so we are now five hours ahead
of Vancouver time.
I don’t even wake up until 9 am and I am shocked, although
it was not a restful night I woke up quite a few times but no worries I am just
glad I can relax all day while sailing south towards the Falklands.
We are still under red alert but the Captain has announced
that things are going very well and looks like the code will be lifted
tomorrow! Yeah…. We have been at alert
for almost two weeks! But I think people
are getting the hint and washing their hands.
MUTS has been down for the past few days, the technicians
are working frantically on it though.
Today we pulled out the suitcase and the clothing items we
packed for cooler climates – jeans, long sleeve tops, fleece jackets, coat,
mittens, hats and scarves --- oh and the hot pocket hand warmers to use when
going around the glaciers.
This morning I meet Bernie down in Vines and Sherri and Ken
join us as they want to see our Rio Carnival pictures. For breakfast I grab a few items from the
International Café and the almond croissant is still warm and decadent! Loved it!
There are lots of lectures going on today, dance classes,
language classes, Zumba, vegetable carving and lots lots more.
But I end up back in the cabin on the balcony reading my
book and was able to finish it. Really
enjoyed John Grisham’s latest book Sycamore Row but like all his books it is
very predicable and makes for great vacation ready. Just started a new book “Rosie Project” by
Graeme Simsion and this is my third book this trip. Bernie adds he is reading “Nine Dragons” by
Michael Connely.
Hard to believe we have been gone for three weeks and we are
almost half way thru the trip.
Today is formal night and we are aiming to dress up and head
to the dining room. Tonight feature in
the Princess Theater is Destination Anywhere and since we didn’t see it the
last voyage we will try this evening, but if we miss it we know we have seen it
before too.
We are also heading to our “new” table. After the very noisy table in the back we ask
to move and we are assigned table 485 in Da Vinci with Mark and Lorelei and it
is the same waiter we had the other day when we dined with Barb/Craig. Service is excellent, location is great and
we can actually communicate between us and hear. We feel a huge sense of relief. Stephen the Head Waiter even makes an appearance
to make sure everything is good. Wow
could things in the dining room have turned a leaf? Stay tuned.
Bernie asked Mark about the wine card and how the tip is
distributed when you buy the card. Mark
tells us that when you buy the card the tip is charged at that time and whoever
sold you the card gets the tip portion.
Darn we never saw the waiter again that we bought the card from. We just assumed that every time we buy a
bottle the waiter we buy it from gets the tip money. We have used 10 of our 12 bottles so I am
sure we will be getting another one. And
when we do we will make sure to buy it from Mark.
Tonight we head to the 10:15 show of Destination Anywhere
and we both comment that this is a new show for us and we are amazed. Excellent, and kick ourselves that we missed
it last voyage and sad they won’t be repeating it before we get off. Oh well we will catch it another voyage. I do have to comment that a woman with her
partner sat in the middle seats in the front row and talked VERY loudly the
entire show. Now I understand if you
want to make a comment but talk quietly and don’t disturb others. She was quite rude and it was very obvious
and I felt bad for the dancers/singers who work so hard only to have people not
pay attention.
Okay I have ranted for
today. But to end on a positive note,
Make sure you see the production show Destination Anywhere.
The next sea day was a sleep in day, there was quite a bit
of movement on the seas, but not horrible but enough to make quite a few creaks
and I kept waking up. So Bernie crawls
out of bed and dresses and tells me to sleep and I do just that until around 10
am when I shower and head downstairs for a cup of coffee and we catch up with
Claudio.
I want to check out the Oriental buffet in Café Caribe and
we head up for around 12:15 and there is a huge line so we just get a seat and
wait for the line to die down, which really hardly did die down. The food was good, very salty again and I
need to drink a lot more water cause I am noticing the salt and since I rarely
every use salt in my food it is more than I am use to, but others may find it
perfect.
After lunch we decide to head to Club Fusion to check out
the new lecturer on board Jeffrey Wolff who is talking about The World of Sea
Turtles. The place is packed but this is
a good venue because there are so many tv screens that you can watch the show
from. But I have to say I didn’t find
his lecture to be that informative, he kept asking questions with multiple
answers and asked for a show of hands for responses…. Really just tell us and
move on I am thinking. He did have great
pictures but would of like to have had a much more educational lecture on
turtles. I really am missing Mark’s
lectures.
We are back in the cabin and watching a movie “Despicable Me”
and since Bernie is having a hard time staying awake I head out to the balcony
and read my book. Considering our
location it is rather nice out. I am
able to sit out in my capris and t shirt and I actually got some sun.
Dinner tonight is back at our new table and we asked
Jan/Michael to join us. We sailed with
them twice now and we have visited them at their home in Seattle too. We like our smaller table which allows us to
dine together or ask friends to join us and enjoy a lovely evening.
I wanted to add that we enjoyed wine in Vines prior to dinner
where we ordered a bottle of Sanceer which we corked and saved for another
night – note you can’t use the wine card in Vines. As we are finishing our wine I see the
Singer/Dancers wandering around and they are dressed in crew costumes and I say
“hey they are going to do that production in the Atrium that we saw them rehearsing
the other day”. So we take a spot along
the stairway and catch the new “Sail with Princess” act. It isn’t long but it is cute and shouldn’t be
missed.
After dinner we head to Explorer’s to catch Dan’s The Top
Five Gameshow but the place is packed and we can’t get a seat and since there
ends up being over 45 teams we just grab a seat along the promenade, order
drinks and answer from there. Next time
we will come earlier.
Tomorrow we are arriving in Stanley in the Falklands and it
will be an early day with the tender operation.
Oh and the clocks go back an hour!
Yeah.
Other things happening around the ship today: Hot Latin Hour, Musicians Get Together
(unhosted), In Stateroom Movie: The Hobbit The Desolation of Smaug, Spotlight
Showtime with Vocalist Peter Fernandez, Country Trivia, Music and Dancing with Rhumba
Jazz Duo, Country & Western Night, Disco Inferno in Skywalkers, Zumba, Hole
in One Challenge, and much much more.
Miscellaneous Comments:
MUTS is still out but they are working hard at fixing it.
The demographics of this leg are different, we had a 1,000
people leave in Buenos Aries and 1,000
new passengers join us. A lot less South
Americans now on board, much fewer kids, I think I have seen one or maybe two
kids. A lot less Spanish Speaking guests
to the point they are not doing the announcements in Spanish any longer, nor do
they have the Spanish Channel or the Spanish Wake Show.
Laundromats will be closed from the evening of March 12
until March 15 due to Environmental Water Restriction while ship is sailing inside
the Strait of Magellan. I don’t recall
this happening two years ago.
Dining rooms seem to working smoother with a lot more
waiters around and helping each other.
Specialty restaurants appear to be busier too.
Since we left Montevideo we have notice a lot of moths being
attracted to the lights from the ship. I
have never seen so many moths. To the
point if you open your balcony, especially at night you will have moths in the
cabin. They clean down the promenade in
the morning and there are tons of dead moths.
The Red Alert has been lifted! Yeah!
Everyone, especially the crew are smiling.
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