Blogs from Oceans and Seas - page 24

Breakfast was up in the Lido, and today being Saturday, Sharon would be attending the Vigil Mass later in the day. It’s never fun waking up to the realization that the time to pack is neigh and what once seemed a never-ending vacation is almost at its end. With the refunds to my account from several tours that I’d canceled I had a negative balance on my cruise account, so I bought the bingo cards today. Today’s crowd was the biggest yet, and even Linda and her husband John showed up, as good Catholics do. But my system of waiting until card sales are nearly through didn’t work today, as it did at our last bingo when Sharon won. We both got to briefly stand; but, the bingo gods weren’t smiling on us today. It was ... read more

We ate breakfast in the Dining Room. I ordered an 3-egg omelet “My Way” and Sharon had scrambled eggs with bacon. The captain had promised rough seas for the night before; but, this mornings announcement seems to have delayed the storm by a day. There were no Daily Puzzle sheets to be had in the Exploration Lounge this morning; but, I did get another bottle of San Pellegrino. We went back to the room to wait for Bingo. I popped down the hall to the Excursion Desk to see if I could get back on the tour that I’d cancelled for the port of Kiel, Germany, tomorrow; but, that tour was already filled up with a wait list. My toe is feeling much better Today’s Bingo was a $20,000 jackpot bingo. It was my turn to ... read more

Our center cabin room is arranged with our feet pointing toward the bow as we lie in bed. The TV makes the perfect portal giving us a forward view when we set it to the bow camera; which we do before turning in (setting the elevator music accompanying this view to “mute” of course). We were still in port when we went to bed. Around midnight we seemed to still be in port, our forward Warnemunde port view had not changed, the lights of other boats docked in port had not moved. Still later, it seemed that we had not moved, and were still in port. We were supposed to be underway by 10:00 pm for sure; because, the casino was scheduled to open at midnight The next morning we awoke, having set our clocks ahead ... read more

I decided to splurge on breakfast and had fried eggs and sausage Sharon had scrambled eggs and toast , again eating in the Lido because the dining room wasn’t open that early. It was a beautiful day on the North Sea, and in the distance we could see and endless array of oil rigs at sea that just seemed to follow us south. It was pretty early in the morning for Team Trivia, especially for a non-scenic-viewing sea day! What’s with this 9:00AM anyway. Then Christina told us that people often ask for Trivia on the last sea day but her schedule is so full she can only do it a 9. There was only one other team present. Christina wanted to know “Who painted ‘The Scream’”? The answer was Munch. And Steve knew who the ... read more

Somewhere around March the team were looking at China prices, Da Niece Ellen was going to China, inaugural flights for Sichuan Airlines were around $300 one way , starting July, fly direct from Auckland. We should get in on that KK, time for a little adventure. Chengdu China, why? Price is grwear, got to start somewhere. Gate way to Tibet, which we both want to see, a few contacts due to our association with Hamish and the network he has created and a bit of a challenge. Took another couple of months to press the buy button, finally relying on an old mantra dug out of the cupboard “the Lord will provide.” I felt a need to spark up my wee friend’s existence after having cheerily looked after, cajoled, kicked, cooked, cleaned for the somewhat miserable, ... read more