Another Lazy Sea Day with Nothing to Do – Double-NOT

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The plan had been to get up and to work on the blog for a couple of hours before it would be time for Sharon to scurry off to mass. Well, that was the plan! Instead, I awake to Sharon saying, “Well, it’s about time that you opened your eyes! I’m off to mass.” Okay, so I’m naively thinking that there will be plenty of time to get caught up. I do manage to meet Sharon after mass near the Hudson Room on the Upper Promenade; but, I just barely got there before the “Go in Peace. Mass is Ended.” We’d tried to talk to the Future Cruise Assistant yesterday; but, only managed to get a reservation for today at 9:45AM. So, we only had a bit of time to grab some breakfast in the Lido.

They’re operating in a full “Code Red” condition, and although there are a few that balk at the sanitizer stations or hand-washing stations, they are getting used; and, the dining room stewards insist on it. I decided on an omelet; while, Sharon got scrambled eggs and toast, skipping the chocolate croissant today murmuring something about being rushed. I also got a banana, something people had complained about running out of in Greenland. Somebody had said that they’d seen them loading bananas in Reykjavik, and they are definitely fresh… I’m supposing that these just might be Icelandic bananas having learned that Iceland is the leading producer of bananas in Europe. Anyway, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

We reached the Future Cruise Assistant on the Upper Promenade by the Exploration Café, and there was one couple just finishing up. Two older Asian women were next, and they too were taken care of. Then it was our turn. The lady scheduled after us was already there too, hoping no doubt as we did, that there might be some free time open up and we’d get served sooner. We were only 5-minutes late starting our scheduled appointment. “How can I help you?” she asks. I tell her, “We’re interested in the 2020 World Cruise.” She beamed, “Quite a few people on the Voyage of the Vikings have signed up for the 2020 World Cruise already!” Sharon and I both like the “C-Cabin” that we have on this cruise and were looking to price the same for a cruise that wasn’t even on our horizon just a week ago. The price came in line with what one of her friends who has a travel agent who specializes in putting together cruise packages, and so Sharon looked at me, and I looked at her, and we took the plunge. Sharon doesn’t believe we did it yet but we did.

We couldn’t find a seat in the Upper Promenade in the Showroom; but, were able to find seating in the back downstairs. We wanted to see Stuart Sutherland’s presentation of “The Future Atlantis and the Wave that Drowned the World.” His speaking was again eloquent and it’s impressive how he can bring a subject to life in an interesting way that grabs your attention. His talk addressed tsunamis, and what causes them, and did it using layman’s terms. He noted that while a tsunami can bring waves that completely overwhelm an oceanside venue, in the middle of the ocean the tsunami may only be a rise in water level of a few inches. What the tsunami does is change the frequency of a wave, so the wave now may stretch on for one hundred fifty miles. And those two or three inches results in a massive amount of water piling up when it hits shore. The wave moves at a speed equivalent to a jumbo jet. When it starts to come ashore, it slows down; but, that what follows speeds in piling up on the slowing water in front of it, until it batters the shoreside in front of it. Towards the end, Stuart noted that he was running out of time, and so was going to skip ahead to his summary; but, oohs and nooos from the audience made him give pause, and he said, “Okay, I think I can fit this in…” and he proceeded to give about ten seconds worth of gobbledygook double-speak with handwaving and animated gesturing, and then continued with his presentation.

We went up to the Lido for lunch where I decided on the Bolognese Lasagna and Sharon found turkey. After that, it was up to the Lido for Team Trivia. Duncan and Pam were already there. I noted, “We have no excuses today; because, Sharon’s had her fringes trimmed.” Linda was falling back into her patterns and offered another “Flag Question”. Sharon says, “He’s got this. He knows all the flags.” Nothing like a little pressure. Linda asked, “The flag of Egypt has three horizontal stripes… what colors are they?” Pam looks at me and says, “Well, we’re waiting.” I fumble, “If I see the flag of Egypt, I’ll recognize it; but THIS, this is not how I’ve remembered it!” But I did begin to visualize it: A white center stripe with an eagle in the center… a black stripe on the bottom… and a red stripe on top. Duncan’s reading what I’ve written upside down, and goes, “Really!” He reads my scrawl as RED-WHITE-BLUE. Linda likes her “Booze Questions”: “What liqueur’s name, in Italian means ‘Little Bitter’?” I was going over in my head liqueurs associated with Italy: Sambuca, Galiano, Limoncello, Aperol, Amaro; but, Duncan immediately wrote down “Amaretto” and if you think of bitterness associated with almonds, that is a pretty good answer. Linda’s multiple-choice questions have been killing us, and the True/False questions are worst of all! “TRUE or FALSE,” Linda continues. We all groan. “In May of 2011 the Center for Disease Control issued its “CDC Preparation 101: Zombie Apocalypse?” Would our taxpayer dollars really fund this? Of course, our Canadian teammates are thinking, “You American’s really are crazy enough to fund a study like this with YOUR tax dollars,” and Duncan wrote down TRUE. The bonus was worth up to 7 points: “Name all of Henry VIII wives (1 point each), with a bonus for the correct order.” I knew that Katherine of Aragon was the first, and that Anne Boleyn was second and that Catherine Parr (the one who survived… another trivia answer in my spreadsheet) was the sixth wife. Rose Marie mentioned Jane Seymore, the one who died in childbirth, and I knew that she was number three. Pam mentioned Anne of Cleves, and I placed her as the fourth wife. Rose Marie then thinks, “Weren’t there three Catherine’s?” But none of us could come up with Catherine Howard. We were feeling pretty good about our 18 out of 22 points; but, somebody else got 19!

At 2PM we went to the Filipino Crew Show, and the Show Room was nearly full when we arrived about twenty minutes early. Sharon says, “There not doing this show on all of the ships any more, the way that they used to do it.” The show was always at 11PM and something that was almost invariably after my bedtime. The crew certainly seemed to have fun doing the show. They did a variety of songs and dance native to the Philippines. The show was emceed by a duo from the Customer Service Front Desk who did a great job, and even tried to teach us some Tagalog. They told us that we return from the Voyage of the Vikings that we also tell our friends about the hour that we spent in the Philippines. The highlight of the show was undoubtedly the native dance tinikling. This dance is performed with two bamboo sticks. Two men hold these sticks at each end while kneeling on the ground. They begin a rhythm matched with drums to strike the two sticks together lengthwise; and, then spread them about 18 inches apart and in rhythm tap them against the ground twice. The beat is one long note, then two half-notes, and continues in that pattern. A male and female dancer, then time their steps to perform a graceful dance, putting their feet into the opening but removing them before the bamboo is struck together. They twirl and dance into and out of the opening and across the two sticks, picking their feet up just in time, and then down again. The girl did have one mis-step; but, nobody missed a beat. It was fascinating to watch, and well worth the price of admission.

Being in the Showroom already, and planning to be back at 4PM for Bingo, we decided to stay and watch the EXC Guide Claudia giver her presentation on Rotterdam, and possibly get some ideas what we might do when we get there in a few days. Her presentation was informative and did give us some ideas. We’re taking the tour to see the Windmills, and we were wondering if this is the same tour that we took last year from Amsterdam. From her slides, we couldn’t tell. The Rotterdam will arrive on Sunday and will stay overnight. On Monday we plan just to walk around and check out some of the places within walking distance of the ship that Claudia pointed out.

It was Sharon’s turn to buy the Bingo for the $9,000 Jackpot Bingo game. She took some time to consider which sheets she should give to me, concluding that none of them had really good numbers that she likes to see. Nino began with the standard Bingo and then continued as usual with the Four-Corner game. We came close on both; and, two others wound up splitting the second game. Nino threw us a bone and came up with a new game for the Green-Sheet: The Crazy Kite. That’s where you have a diagonal plus the two numbers adjacent to one of the ends of the diagonal. One of the ladies that had tied in the second game, won this game as well. Sharon was the first to get within two numbers on the blackout game, and only a few calls after the cut-off of 46 calls for the jackpot. But that is where she got stuck; and, that same lady won the final game as well. She had quite a card!

We showed up for dinner and so did Duncan and Pam two couples behind us. We decided to eat with them, and we got a table for four upstairs. We’d eaten upstairs once or twice before, and the service has always been noticeably better than in open dining. Duncan and I both ordered the confit duck appetizer and Sharon was very much look forward to the apple and pear gazpacho soup. I was afraid her anticipation and memory were going to be more than the dish was going to be when she tasted the soup. She’d had an apple-pear soup many cruises back and had loved it. As I feared, this was not that soup; although, the write-up made it seem so. I also had the gourmet greens with herbed goat cheese croutons. Sharon and I both had the prime rib; and, I got her fresh horseradish. As I remembered, the horseradish in this part of the world doesn’t knock your socks off, as it does when we cruise in Alaska. I again ordered the cheese and fruit plate, which I am enjoying, and Sharon was stuck with Vanilla ice cream.

Afterwards, I headed to the Showroom to save Sharon a seat, while Sharon found an idle Buffalo machine. She convinced the machine to let her win another $30 before plopping down next to me at the show. I turned to her and said, “I’m sorry madam, but my wife is sitting there.” She replied, “I’m sorry sir, but I am your wife.” The previously scheduled “Dance Infusion” was replaced by a saxophone player from the Netherlands. He played a lively opening number, and the man can blow a sax. Although he lives in the Netherlands now, he is originally from Yugoslavia, and his parents are Hungarian. He asked if there was anybody from Hungary in the audience, and then he began a dialog with them, in Hungarian (for quite some time). Then he turned to a Dutch couple in the front and started to talk further in Dutch. Sharon looked at me and said, “He’s losing me.” And I had to agree. He played a couple more tunes and Sharon asked, “What time is it?” It was approaching 8:20PM. We agreed to leave after the next song, and we did. We met other couples on the way out who were also headed for the doors.

I thought Sharon was heading for the Piano Bar, and I sat down at the Fun-21 table. I started with two tens and the dealer made a five-card twenty-one. And then it started to get bad. The only other person at the table had to throw in the towel; and, things did improve for a while playing by myself. I was wondering where “The Creature” was, because I hadn’t seen her but that time she’d played at my table. I had pointed her out to Sharon the next day in the casino, and I don’t think that Sharon had totally believed me until she saw with her own eyes. She had multiple rings on each finger and thumb, and not what looked to be gold or silver; but rather steel or pewter. There were spiral rings that would wrap around the finger several times with barbed ends protruding outward. If somebody were to hold “The Creature’s” hand, it would be impaled in at least half-a-dozen places. I hadn’t seen her since, and I stopped and wondered about somebody saying that they took somebody off the ship in Reykjavik with a heart attack. I could only wonder if it was that husband she’s been waiting for. I just couldn’t seem to win with 20; although, sometimes I didn’t lose with 20 either! It soon became apparent that this was not to be my night.

I returned to the cabin and went to bed. Sharon showed up a while later after spending some time in the Piano Bar listening to Barry do some Barry Manilow songs.

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