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Published: March 16th 2014
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Today we had a couple first experiences for our cruising.
We were awakened at 7:00 by the ship’s captain making an announcement that the weather in Port Chalmers was too windy for the ship to safely move into the port or to try to dock. So the ship aborted today’s visit and we slowly made our way further south and then west toward tomorrow’s destination. Actually they said the winds in port we measured at 30 knots. The temperature was mid 50’s and drizzling this morning around the ship. The rain let up by mid-morning, but it was very cloudy all day, so we probably would not have enjoyed our tour to Dunedin anyway. But this is the first time in all our cruises where we have completely cancelled a destination from our itinerary. It just goes to show how fortunate we have been by running ahead of this storm for so many days.
The description of what we would have seen was printed in our paperwork, so it will be inserted here so you’ll know what we missed:
“Drive through Dunedin, considered by many to be the best-preserved Victorian city in the world,
Janet
with some of her Needlework Buddies enjoying its grand architecture on your way to a photo stop at the Octagon, the eight-sided plaza that forms the core of the city’s business district. Continuing through the tranquil countryside, you’ll explore the magnificent neo-Gothic Larnach Castle. Built for banker and politician, William Larnach and his first wife Eliza between 1873 and 1887, it boasts lavish embellishments, rich appointments, and panoramic tower views overlooking Otago Harbor. Today the castle is home to the Barkers, who have spent over forty years of lovingly restoring the 40,000 square foot building and recreating the beauty of the original garden, a landscape which now holds the title of “garden in international significance.”
Instead we had a surprise Day at Sea. The crew worked quickly to improvise some entertainment to keep everyone occupied. Since we had no rush this morning we slept for another hour and then got up at 8:00. We went down to the formal dining room and had a leisurely breakfast. Janet got to have Eggs Benedict again and David had an Omelet. We ate with two other couples and shared stories about where we had been the previous day.
At 9:30, Janet went to see if her Knitters and Natters were having an impromptu gathering, and they were. A new version of the daily newsletter was quickly published and we saw the rest of the activities. David went to a presentation at 10:00 about various disasters that have occurred. It was a strange session, showing that Smallpox is the more prolific disaster over the centuries, when measured in terms of deaths. Second on the list was Measles, with AIDS in 3
rd place. There was a 4-year famine in China (under Mao) which ranked #4, and Genghis Khan and his pillaging was #5. The Black Plague of the middle ages was on the list (can’t remember whether it was ahead or behind Khan). Things like earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, tsunamis, etc actually rank fairly low on the list because each individual event only killed a people in certain numbers and were not aggregated like the diseases were. It was kind of a strange session.
Then David attended a session called “meet the performers”. The Cruise Director explained a little about how the entertainment is arranged and then the singers and dancers from the production shows answered questions from the audience. Afterwards we were all given a brief period to walk up on the stage and see how they raise and lower curtains, move props, etc. It was OK but not as good as visiting a castle.
Meanwhile, the Stitchers finished their meeting and Janet went to an Arts & Crafts session where she made a couple of St Patrick’s Day decorations (that’s tomorrow). She cut a shamrock out of green construction paper and tied a ribbon around it. Then they made green crepe paper flowers. Obviously it was thrown together at the last minute but she get to talk to some nice people.
We both met at noon and went to the Horizon Court for lunch. It was very crowded since everyone was on the ship and nobody really had anything to do – so it appears that everyone decided to eat all day. They were serving freshly carved veal, so Janet didn’t have any difficulty in selecting her meal. David had a little more variety.
After lunch we went back to the cabin and checked the e-mail. We have been doing blogs but haven’t kept up as well on the regular mail. But there weren’t and big problems being reported to us, so we figure that no news is good news.
At 2:00 David went to the theater to see the second movie of the Hobbit series (fortunately he had gotten the first one for Christmas). When the movie stopped at a cliffhanger moment, many of the people were shocked that it didn’t reach a natural conclusion (apparently they haven’t seen any of the previous Hobbit or Lord-of-the-Rings movies).
The next “first experience” for us was a visit to the Medical Center. Janet’s knee just had not gotten a whole lot better, even with a couple of days mainly resting in the cabin. The good news is that the doctor did NOT decide to do emergency knee replacement surgery. Instead the doctor diagnosed some inflammation from arthritis and gave her some medicine. We still have several more Days at Sea so she should be able to rest it some more in addition to the pills. But we have a lot of things ahead in the future and we didn’t want to have her hurting during all of them. But she was glad that they didn’t think it was anything more serious.
We went to dinner this evening and were the only two people at the table again. Not only are we disappointed by this, but the waiters and head waiter is also upset because there had been people who requested First Seating and had been turned down because there weren’t enough table places. Anyway, we are certainly getting first class service (you can barely put your glass down before they are refilling it – whether it needs it or not). Janet skipped the appetizer this evening, but David had the Pears with Blue Cheese Crumbles. For the soup course, we both had French Onion Soup which was good. For the entrée, Janet had Pasta Fettuccini with Lobster Sauce and David had Duck a l’Orange (the waiter assured us that it was not a relative of Donald Duck, but more like from Daffy’s family tree). For dessert, Janet had Jamaican Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce and David had Chocolate Suchar Torte with Vanilla Ice Cream. Needless to say we had another excellent dinner.
Tonight’s entertainment is what they call the International Crew Show. They bring people from all the parts of the ship to sing, dance, play instruments, tell jokes, etc. It was pretty entertaining since these are obviously amateurs - just folks using their talent and having a good time. This show was so popular that it is presented in the Princess Theater and was simulcast to a screen in the Vista Lounge (total audience of about 1000 people). At the same time they were televising the Australian Grand Prix from Sydney, which apparently has lots of interest by the Aussies. We went to the Vista Lounge because it is more comfortable and is closer to our room, so Janet wouldn’t have to walk so far. We enjoyed the show.
One of the down sides of skipping the visit to Dunedin is that David did not get a chance to return the laptop charger we had bought in Wellington. So we will have an extra one when we need it. The message has not appeared on the screen lately (only appeared in the past when booting the laptop and the battery was low and the charger was already attached before booting). Anyway, we will ignore the issue in future blogs unless it becomes a problem.
Also, we didn’t actually have particularly rough sailing, although you could indeed feel the movement of the seas. But since they were going more slowly than usual, it wasn’t very bad. OK, see you tomorrow.
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