Happy Birthday USA on our Sea Day in Bar Harbor

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We enjoyed the extra hour of sleep as we awoke this Fourth of July. I got the gym again this morning, concentrating on the arms today. When I got back, there had been an announcement that we can clear US immigration at any time up in the Exploration Lounge. We decided not to wait for our 9:15 AM appointment, go there now, and then head to the Dining Room for breakfast before it closes at 9:00 AM this morning. I went with the oatmeal and banana and the Frittata Italiano again, and Sharon had French Toast. We met another couple, Vivian and John at our table for eight were from California. We exchanged contact info, as she expressed an interest in the blog that we write. The Captain announced over the PA system that due to a change in the path of Hurricane Arthur, that today’s visit at Bar Harbor would be curtailed, and our departure would be moved ahead to 1:00 PM in consideration of the best comfort to passengers. He noted that there were currently no planned airline delays leaving Boston, and our arrival in Boston was not expected to adversely impact connections of those departing the Maasdam. However, we would likely run into some rough seas and winds on the way to Boston overnight. We made the decision to stay onboard today; instead of trying lunch at the West Street Café in Bar Harbor which was recommended by Billie Jo and her husband (one of the couples of our Trivia Teammates), where they enjoy the seafood and lobster. We breezed through the extensive line for U.S. citizens, checking in first with our ship card, and then showing our passports to the border control agents… and that was it. Well, this setup interfered with our Sudoku for quite a while, as passengers continued to trickle through the Exploration Café by the library. We stopped by the front desk on the way back to the room to check our account charges so far, and to report that our cabin safe was no longer working (It was open, then starting giving an “Err 2” alert, and then it became clear that the internal battery had died.) We decided to go and watch some of the men’s semi-finals at Wimbledon and wait for someone to come and fix the safe. It wasn’t long before someone from the front desk came to check out the situation, and said that she would need to call for the locksmith. He should up about five minutes later, carrying a full heavy tote bag of tools, having been told that the safe was locked. With it open, all he needed was a screw driver and some replacement batteries. He was done in less than five minutes. Sharon decided to go up and read by the pool. After the second match in the first men’s semi-final it appeared that Djokovic was going to turn his set around, I decided to go find Sharon. First, I stopped by the first desk to check out a $17 charge to her account from the Dining Room that neither of us could figure out. The charge was for a “Wine Tasting” that I’m sure Sharon didn’t sneak off and attend, and I certainly haven’t had any wine since we’ve been onboard. They’re looking into it. Next, I made reservations for that evening at Canaletto’s; selecting the choice of a 5:30 PM arrival (That was better than 7:30 PM; although, admittedly I hadn’t remembered Sharon going to mass at 5:00 PM). I picked up some Sudoku sheets and found Sharon “reading” by the pool… okay, so maybe she was snoozing in the sun. How can that possibly be better than spending time in the cabin and watching tennis with me? I had remembered to bring the pen, which I had needed in the cabin to fill out the laundry form. The free laundry is our favorite 4-star perk. She had warned me not to forget the pen, because she blamed her loss the previous day in our Sudoku challenge to using one of HAL’s tiny pencils to solve the puzzle. Her technique is to go through and write down all of the possible solutions in all of the cells and then solve the puzzle; while, I write down as few of the possible solutions as necessary, and try to limit annotations to pairs. Obviously, these aren’t the toughest puzzles, or you would need to annotate practically everything; although, I would still do a quick pass to catch the obvious solutions and pairs. We started the puzzle. I realized again that I’d done something wrong, but also figured out right away what the problem was and was pretty sure the problem hadn’t cascaded into something that couldn’t be recovered without starting over. Still, the fifteen seconds or so I paused to sort things out were enough for Sharon to finish first on the Easy puzzle; which, I keep reminding her is the “practice puzzle”. When it came to the Hard Puzzle, she got bogged down with all of her annotations, and she was close to finishing her annotations when I finished the puzzle.

We decided to stay there by the pool and wait for the Fourth of July barbeque HAL has planned for passengers. We ordered two Coca-Colas, and Sharon offered to stay with our table as I went and waited in the considerable line that had formed. They were grilling burgers, franks, bratwurst, strip steaks, chicken, salmon and spareribs. There was Cole slaw, potato salad, pasta salad, multi-bean salad, bread, rolls and Jalapeño cornbread. There were also roasted potato wedges, corn on the cob and grilled veggies. I was going to try to hold two plates and get Sharon a plate as well, but there was no place to set plates down while serving, so instead I decided just to load up the single plate. It took quite a while to work my way to the front of the line, and it didn’t seem to make sense for Sharon to wait in an even longer line. I told Sharon that she could take what she wanted from my plate, so she popped into the Lido and came back with a clean plate. She took the burger and I ate a wonder Bratwurst (it was hot). We split the strip steak. She took the chicken, and I had the ribs. Most of the other food wasn’t so hot off the grill; but, still cooked right and tasty. The potatoes didn’t quite meet Sharon’s high standards.

Sharon had made out our plan for the day, starting with Team Trivia at 3:30 PM. When I told her about our reservations she became very concerned about its conflict with mass; but, it should be fine. We met our team up in the Crow’s Nest, and Billie Jo and her husband were already there. They had forgotten about the earlier start the previous day for trivia and that was why they missed it. We checked some of the many answers that we missed, and it’s doubtful that it would have mattered. Sara and Charles then rounded out our team “Penguin Spotters”. After talking to Sharon about our trip to Antarctica, which had ultimately led to our team’s name, they’ve booked a cruise to Antarctica on HAL next season. Today’s was what seemed one of the easier trivia challenges, such as, “What barnyard animal is subject to becoming sunburned?” It is of course, the pig. “What religion expects its faithful to take a pilgrimage called a Hajj?” At first we’d written down Muslim; but, Sharon noted that that is the name of the faithful of that religion and not the religion itself. We switched to “Islam”. Next came a question for all of you California Natives out there, “What is the oldest city in California?” If you chose “Los Angeles” or “San Francisco” you’re choosing places a bit too far to the north. That’s right: “San Diego” gets you the point. Now for the question where we had the right answer, but changed it to the wrong answer: “Where did the boss nova dance originate?” I’ll give you some ABC choices: Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, or Denmark. If you chose D for Denmark, then, maybe you shouldn’t play Team Trivia on your next HAL cruise. If you chose B for Brazil, congratulations, you and most of the players in the Crow’s Nest got this one right. I had thrown out Cuba after we’d settled on Brazil, and Sharon said that might be right. The cruise director had warned players during a previous challenge that a team’s first answer is usually the right one. “What is the distance measured between the tip of your nose and the tip of one’s middle finger?” I wrote down “cubit” and Sharon noted that there are a lot of them in the Bible. We were one of the few teams to get this one right. “What brand of underwear was advertised by Babe Ruth?” We went with “Jockey”, discounting “BVD” and “Haines”, but failed to consider Sara whose answers we have failed to hear during previous games: “Fruit of the Loom”. This time we lucked out and our first guess was right. From a previous cruise Sharon and I both knew “What ball was originally used for volleyball?” If you picked “the orange one”, congratulations: The basketball! The bonus was “How many stars are on the American Flag?” Everyone guessed “50” and fortunately it wasn’t a trick question (e.g. there being two sides to the flag). We would have gotten a perfect score; except, for that incorrect choice of “Cuba”. We barely eked out an uncontested victory. Jeremy then offered a special bonus question to every player to come up and whisper the name of their favorite cruise director in his ear to also win a HAL Brass New England Cruise Pin (which might get 50 cents on eBay). He also offered to buy the winning team a drink at the bar, unfortunately, Billie Jo and her husband (the Sports expert) had already left. The only sports question today had been, who was the first woman celebrated on the cover of Sport’s Illustrated as “Sports Person of the Year”. The answer of course is Billie Jean King. Sharon had a Coke, and I had a very good gin and tonic. Sara had a Mai Tai that looked very good and Charles had a Pina Colada. Thank-you Jeremy. I had asked Jeremy about the unicycle act, where the performer had gotten one of the ship’s guests from the audience up on his shoulders, and then gotten on and ridden a unicycle on a stage that was moving just a bit from the sea’s movement; whether, he knew ahead of time if that was part of the show… and he said no! He thought, okay this is a good gag. Okay let’s see how far this goes. He’s not going to actually ride a unicycle with her on him. Oh my, she’s up on his shoulders. Yikes, he’s riding around on the stage and she looks really scared.

We had to meet Jeremy again in the Wajang Theatre for those doing the “Collector’s Voyage” (back to back legs aboard the same ship) and continuing the second leg after Boston. People had a whole slew of questions, but the gist is if you’re continuing back to Montreal, you can disembark before 8:00 AM (before departing passengers start their disembarkation) or after 10:00 AM (after the last person disembarks). U.S. immigration control does a “zero-count” for passengers staying in Boston. Other important things were that continuing passengers onboard accounts remain active.

Next we went to mass, and the priest entertained us with insights of young people (from the mouths of babes). He would say the first part of a famous phrase, and then tell us the answers given by children ages 4 to 8. “A bird in the hand…” and the 4-year old responded “…will poop on you.” There were about forty people at the mass, pretty much the same for the whole week. He gave everyone certificates commemorating their New England Discovery Cruise retreat onboard the Maasdam. This refers to his opening introduction at the Vigil Mass that we attended on the first day, of how he had told people at the church where he does mass as a retired priest, why he wasn’t on the schedule for doing mass this week at their church. He simply told them that he was going on a retreat.

We scurried from there to the Canaletto up on the Lido Deck, where we were seated by the window and had a scenic view of the split pea fog outside. Every now and then the deep throaty fog horn would sound. The meal is a four course feast, so you’d better come with an appetite if you do come to the Canaletto. Every meal comes with a choice from the antipasti platter that they bring around, serving you whatever you choose. There were three kinds of meat including prosciutto and salami, buffalo milk mozzarella, pickled eggplant, olives, tomatoes, red onions, calamari, and much more… but no lettuce. Everything was surprisingly tasty and very nicely seasoned. I chose the special offering of sausage and polenta; and was able to add either a salad or soup to that. I decided to go with the salad, which turned out to be some tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and their special house dressing, but again no leafy greens. Sharon had the minestrone, which she consume nearly all; but, she did leave just a bit for me to see that it was very good, with plenty of beans and noodles, with a hearty beef broth flavor, with just a hint of tomato. It wasn’t like the minestrone that I had consumed for lunch every day that I lived in Italy during the fifth grade, and its watery bright orange red broth. Sharon chose the chicken cacciatore, but it only comes as dark meat. I chose the veal osso buco. Sharon actually liked her dark meat, and my veal was good, and I’m looking forward to having this meal again! For dessert we both ordered the hazelnut chocolate cake, which Sharon felt had too many chunks of nuts in to suit her tastes. I thought it was quite good, but, boy am I full!

After dinner we went to the casino and Sharon started playing the slot machines. The only blackjack table that was open was nearly full, and someone was playing first base; although the first base seat was open. Two players were playing the first two spots though. I considered asking them to move over so that I could sit down; but, settled for just watching them play. The pit boss noted my dilemma, and I think he asked one of the idle dealers to get the table on the end ready. Meanwhile, the player from the day before who had said that splitting aces is a bad bet (despite his penchant for doubling down with a hard five) pushed his way in front of me, and told the other two to play on the other two spots. Okay, I guess I could have done that. Just as well, they did open up the table on the end, and I got to play first base one-on-one with the dealer. We were having a good time going back and forth, and I was even a little ahead having won four hands in a row. Another player came and sat down, bought in for one hundred and started playing $5 with a $5 coupon (bet $5 and coupon is worth $5 for one bet only). But he had about six of these coupons, and when the coupons ran out, he stopped playing. Okay, timeout here. A little bit about table etiquette. If someone is playing a shoe one-on-one with a dealer, it is best to ask the player if he can join the shoe in progress. The shoe was nearly over, and I probably would have asked the player to wait the four or five hands; but, only because I was in a winning streak. As the cards fell, I would have had a blackjack, but that is neither here nor there. The second breach of etiquette is don’t interrupt a one-on-one game if you don’t intend to play. I did wind up losing about four out of six hands, winning one and pushing one, while this player dumped his coupons and quit. I did get to play some more; but, the pace of play had slowed and other players were now getting into the game. The nice thing, for me, when playing alone, is that the pace can often be fast enough that other players will just watch, not being happy to get into a fast paced game. And for the most part, the dealer’s onboard the Maasdam were quite competent and capable of rapidly dispensing and calling cards. The previous night one lady after losing three close hands in a row had asked the dealer to “slow down” a bit, and his reply was “The cards aren’t going to change if I deal slowly!” But he did oblige her and deal the cards in an exaggerated slow motion that was hilarious. And to all of our amazement, everyone’s cards got better for a bit, so maybe there is something to her request. But then the “split-aces” guy from the other table came and sat down beside me, and I lost with “20” on my first hand with him sitting there. I looked over and saw that the luck at the other table had cleared everyone out, and I decided I would call it a night, ahead by about the same as I’d won the night before.

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