Day-16 (Nov 4) Cruising

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It appears the final 4 blog sessions got "stuck" somehow in their system, so theyall 4 are being published again - please forgive if this is a duplicate notice for you.



This morning we awakened to more cloud cover than in the past, and the forecast is for that to continue intermittently through tomorrow afternoon. The captain announced today that the course has been adjusted a little more northerly so we can avoid some of the consequences of tropical storm Tomas. Later tomorrow we will turn back south down the gulf stream current and then there may be a little more motion, but today the ride was still pretty smooth.

Janet, Kathy, and David attended a cake decorating demonstration this morning. While the pastry cook, the cruise director, and a volunteer from the audience each decorated a Black Forest Cake, the Head Chef carried on a hilarious commentary that could easily qualified as a “stand up comic”. It was really very entertaining, and the cake sample at the end of the show was delicious. He did repeat his comments from the night before saying they make 20,000 meals a day for the audience, but normally that amount tappers down as the cruise continues (at first people are trying some of everything from each food service, and then they settle down to a slower pace) but in our case we have continued to steadily eat at the pace of the first day. Anyway, the demo was a lot of fun.

Then we all (except Jim) attended a Q&A session with some of the ship’s lead officers regarding many aspects of the cruise. It was very informative. One question dealt with the number of engines (6 but they never need to use them all at once) which generates propulsion as well as electricity for the whole ship. That led to a question about the surprise storm which blew up after leaving France. The winds then hit the top of scale and only delayed our arrival by a couple of hours - the winds from Thomas should only be half of those in the earlier storm. Conversely, a larger Royal Caribbean ship coming from northern Europe via the Azores has had several days of rough weather - we have been very fortunate and have enjoyed each day.

Meanwhile, Jim again went for his morning walk on deck-12 overlooking the pool. This time he stretched to 5 miles on his walk. Maybe tomorrow we need to check out the morning scenery in the pool, which motivates Jim to walk so many laps. :-)

We all five met for lunch at 1:00 in the Windjammer Buffet. After another “all you can eat” meal we went about various other activities.

Jim and Rich went to the presentation about “the real Robinson Crusoe”. He was actually a navigator on an English sailing ship. When the ship stopped at an island to replenish their water supply, either Robinson wandered off and was overlooked when the ship sailed, or he was left there on purpose - nobody knows. But he survived primarily on wild goats and fruits found on the island. There was no “man Friday”, but he did befriend a cat, which stayed with him and kept the island rats away from his camp. Eventually a Spanish ship stopped for water, but he had to hide since they were at war with each other. After 4 1/2 years an English ship stopped for fresh water and he was finally rescued.

David and Janet went up to the top of the ship for e-mail. While there, the shipped passed through a brief shower. From our view overlooking the pool, all the swimmers could be seen scurrying for cover despite them being wet from the pool already. The shower did not last long and we went down to the Solarium (Adult Only Pool and Hot Tub). It was easier to walk down those steps instead of trying to climb the ladder in and out of the pool. Later in the afternoon we sailed through some other showers, and the weather is slowly changing by the storm south of us.

Kathy was in the middle of an interesting but complicated book, so she spent the time reading and resting in her cabin. In anticipation of a busy final full day tomorrow, Jim and Kathy got another long afternoon nap.

We all met for dinner this evening at one of the specialty restaurants (Chops). Rich was gracious enough to treat the five of us to this delicious steak dinner. It is something we had scheduled beforehand and was a very nice sendoff to a terrific vacation (did not want to wait until the very last night because we expect to be busy trying to get everything back into the suitcases).

The evening show in the theater was called “Oh What a Night” and was a musical tribute to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. It was one of the best shows of the trip. It was clearly a sellout show and was warmly received by the audience.

During the cruise from Tenerife to Ft Lauderdale, they have been trying to raise $15,000 for Make-a-Wish. In actuality they raised $18,900, which will almost provide one extra wish.

No surprise animals waiting in the stateroom this evening, but we will post the picture of yesterday’s monkey.

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Photos

Sunrise
in the Atlantic

Monkey
in our cabin

5 Amigos
at Chops for Steak Dinner