Kancelling Kotor

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We rose looking forward to setting foot in a new country for both of us. The forecast was for showers all day, so it was with some trepidation that we made our way to the Lido. We were still making our way to the harbor where we would set anchor and tender ashore. The weather did not look great from the window in the Lido, there was a low ceiling and we could make out the shoreline. I had my Irish Oatmeal, banana and some Swiss muesli. Sharon had some potatoes and toast.



We were back in the room getting ready for our tour when they made an announcement over the outside intercom. All I could discern that they were closing the outside decks to keep passengers safe. When we walked into the Showroom to assemble for the tour nobody was there setting up for passenger disembarkation, and only one couple was sitting in the rear. We were pretty sure at that point that the part of the message that we’d missed dealt with delaying this port for the day as more people joined us. After a while we made our way to the front desk to confirm this, and informed them that people were beginning to show up for tours. We went to the kiosk the check our cabin charges and credits, and were pleased that the Stock ownership credit had now been applied, and Sharon was even more pleased to see that it had been applied to her charges. She said it’s only fair since she’d charged the unlimited internet package to her cabin account. For $250 we have unlimited WIFI connection to the internet “for the duration of the cruise”. Sharon was worried that after the first leg of our two leg “Mariner’s Voyage”, but the package covers the full 24-day trip. The good thing is, now she can’t give me grief if I use “her” internet to play a few games of Word-Crack! There are no tours today!



We went up to the Lido and I opted for the pasta ricotta stuffed manicotti with marinara sauce. I also picked up a couple of breadsticks, but they were a little bit chewy. Sharon got a Dive-In burger and French fries. The pasta was good enough (and small enough) for me to go back and get seconds. The custom order your pasta the way you like it also smelled very good, and I will have to try that sometime also.



We had some time to kill before Team Trivia at 4 PM, so I decided to go and watch the John Travolta movie “The Forger”. I walked into the screening room and I grabbed a small bag of popcorn and saw that all of the theatre seats were already filled. There were three chairs that someone had brought in from the Hudson Room, and I sat in the only one that was empty. Several people came in and either sat against the side wall or stood in the back. The movie wasn’t worth standing for, and it was a bit hard to sit through, with very slow moving intrigue in the beginning and middle.



The Crow’s Nest was filled when we arrived, and were able to find a bench behind the bar with a table but no chairs. We spotted the couple Sharon knew from mass, and another couple joined us. Sharon knew what cities were the longest street started and the city with the widest street (Toronto and Buenos Aires). And Sharon remembered the first singer after Elvis Presley to have her 40^th gold record in 1999. Our Australian teammates hadn’t heard of Barbara Streisand, shaking their heads with that “It must be an American thing” disbelief. I had told Sharon that Dave promised to have a Justin Bieber question, and here it came: What nationality is Justin Bieber? Everyone but me seemed to know he was Canadian. However, I did know what the “Dead-Man’s Hand” refers to. It is the poker hand that Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he was shot in the back and killed: Aces-and-Eights. Who did Muhamad Ali beat in the Thrilla from Manilla? I knew this answer, and I was writing it down: “Joe…” but I ended up writing down “Joe Foreman” so we missed that question. It was of course Joe Fraser. All of knew what the chemical symbols were for Iron and Mercury (Fe and Hg). But we blew what is the largest export of Indonesia, choosing from a) timber, b) petroleum, c) rice or d) cruise ship stewards. Dave conceded that the correct answer was not d. One of our teammates pressed for timber so we missed out on petroleum. We were into the bonus questions: We didn’t know the alter ego of Tony Starks. We went with Captain America, but a better answer might have been Ironman. I should have come up with the first 007 film starring Pierce Brosnan. We answered “Live and Let Die”, and we got it wrong! And we missed which movie Julie Andrews won an Oscar for in 1964. To my surprise our teammates came up with the names of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! They are Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael and Donatello.



We went back to the cabin and got ready for a smart and casual dinner. I had the Greek salad with orange slices, cannellini and lentil soup with cinnamon and the pork belly over red cabbage. Sharon had the roasted chicken and baked potato. My pork dish was very tasty; but, the fatty part was more tough and chewy than the delectable crispy melt-in-your-mouth delight that it can be. Still, trim off the fat and I was given an ample filling serving. I’ve never had this particular bean soup before, and seasoning it with cinnamon offered a very intriguing taste. I would have this soup again.



Tonight’s show featured “Magic of the Movies” with Matthew J. Dowden. He gave an entertaining show with audience participation, starting with a misdirection trick that involved the audience getting their hands tied up like a pretzel while his demonstration of the “same” movement untangles without a hitch. In addition to some close-up magic with cards, his finale involved one member from the audience assisting him levitating a small table. With the E.T. movie them and image, I was wondering how they were going to levitate themselves off into the moon; but, that was just my overactive imagination. He did create that spark of brilliant light on the end of the audience member’s finger which I guess is a good way to end the show. He also sang some of the movie music songs and played the piano.





And back to those movie trivia questions that we flubbed. Hopefully we’ll remember “Goldeneye” the next time we hear this question, and the Julie Andrews question really was a tossup with her being in two blockbusters around that time: “The Sound of Music” or “Mary Poppins”. The correct answer was the one with the umbrella.

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