Day-14 (Nov 2) Cruising - Election Day

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Today is the day when all of you come to the end of all those dreadful political advertisements, and an evening of interrupting TV shows with “up to date” vote counts. I can’t tell you how happy we are that all that ended for us 2 weeks ago. We did our absentee voting before we left and can wait until we come back to see how it turned out. So none of that stuff for us today!

Today we are approximately in the middle of no where. Looking at the plot of the cruise on the map, it appears we are pretty much equal distance from Africa, America, and South America. There are probably some islands somewhere, but for the most part we are a long way from the nearest store. To that end, it was a surprise when they said this morning that they had run out of tomato juice at breakfast. Hopefully they have an adequate supply of everything else. Unfortunately that also means we have run out of internet satellite coverage for awhile, so yesterday’s results did not get sent.

Janet & David went back to the sit-down formal breakfast today and sat with people who had taken other trips and compared tour stories. Who knows, we may have found a few more ideas for future vacations. So afterwards we went to the “future cruises” area and picked up some more brochures (one in particular called Exotic Cruises).

The Sieberts got up early to watch the sun rise, only to discover that it was cloudy this morning with the ship sliding between a couple of rain showers. But the weather cleared later in the morning and we have been having another great day of smooth seas and lots of sunshine. Since Jim was up early, he walked 4 miles on the track while Kathy counted his laps.

The captain announced at noon that we had earlier passed through the narrowest section of a squall line which had caused the morning showers, and at that time the temperature at noon was 77. Later in the afternoon it seemed to have gotten even warmer. Apparently there is a storm somewhere in the Caribbean which is causing those cruise ships to alter their plans and courses, but it is having no effect on us and we continue to have great weather and smooth sailing.

All five of us (Sieberts, Garvins, and Rich) went to the formal sit-down lunch instead of the usual buffet lines. We sat with some other people and continued to trade stories and travel experiences. The food actually wasn’t much different than you could have gotten elsewhere, but it was a nice change of pace.

Afterwards Janet and David went to a presentation on “Odd Ball and One of a Kind Ships through History”. It was interesting some of the crazy ideas people had tried for building ships (including one with 3 sections that were hinged so each section went over a wave at different times). The really surprising thing was that these ships worked at all, but mostly they did not have enough success to justify building any more of them.

Meanwhile the early risers adjourned to their cabin to study the inside of their eyelids for a couple of hours. Jim then went to try the hot tub at the pool deck.

After the lecture David and Janet were trying to decide what to do next, but after considering the options Janet decided to work on her needle-project and then started another book in the cabin while David went to the pool for a swim and some deck chair lounging.

Dinner this evening was Pork Medallions, Baked Tilapia, and Broiled Duck. As usual the food was excellent, but then there was a brief floorshow by the waiters after we ate. All the waiters danced around the dining room until they all arrived at the grand staircase. Then they all sang “O solo mio”. Following that, our waiters brought a cake for the other couple in our group (Joe and Gloria) who are celebrating their 45th anniversary, and sang for them individually.

The show this evening was an Italian tenor. He had a good strong voice, but about half the songs he sang were in Italian, which very few people understood. The English songs were a strange collection which he had generally re-orchestrated, some mostly it was not very entertaining.

There was a 10:00 movie in the screening room, but by the time we got there, all the people who had walked out of the Italian singing had taken all the seats. So we adjourned to our staterooms and settled in for the night. By this time polls are probably close to closing and you are all glued to your TV sets watching breathlessly as they announce the election results - we sure are sorry to have missed that. :- ))

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Photos

Pool Deck
Lots of folks enjoying the good sunny weather

Dining Room
3 level of formal dining rooms