Sea Day off Brazil

---

Wed Jan 30

Well I never did get a chance to post yesterday. Busy Sea Day and the one time I checked the link was down. So I’ll try to catch up this morning. After we sailed on Monday we had a nice dinner and then I went to the show with one of my tablemates (Thersa from Cincinnati). It was a Cast show about various eras as if they were on the radio. Typical show but pretty good. The leads are very good singers and we have no idea how the dancers were able to dance the way the ship was moving but they held on pretty good.

Yesterday was our first sea day and everyone was ready for a day to catch up from flights and long tours in Rio. I know I slept in a bit and had breakfast before heading up to our roll-call meeting from the cc board. We had about 15 people and it was nice to put faces to the screen names. The Hotel Manager and a few others from the ship to answer questions. This is the first week they’ve added the Open Seating option for dinner and apparently it’s had a few kinks. Several of those at the meeting had wanted traditional dining but haven’t been able to get it. That’s a bit strange since there are definitely empty seats at the 8:00 seating (we have 3 that haven’t shown up yet). There’s also a shortage of some things on board but they said there were a few crates missing from their last deliveries but they’ll get them when we stop in Montevideo. So far I know they’re short on Kleenex (I had to ask my steward for a box), some types of Coke (but my red can has been there so far), and mints (the Yum yum man is passing out the red wrapped type instead of the normal after dinner mints). I’m not sure if they’re going to pick that stuff up today (we have to make a medical emergency stop in Montevideo on our way to Buenos Aries) or when we get there on Fri. Not sure what the emergency is but there was a code called when we were at dinner Monday night just a few hours after we sailed. Must not have been too bad or we would have expected them to go back to Rio rather than wait 2 days but they have sped the ship up.

After the cc meeting I went to the Solo lunch with Cathy (Cinder) from our roll call. There were over 2 tables of people sailing solo and we had a very nice lunch in the Dining room. Then it was time for the educational part to begin. We had a lecture on Buenos Aires by the Port lecturer Ian and then one on Brazil by the Explorations lecturer Warren. Both were very interesting and they’ll be doing the next sessions this afternoon. After that was time for Bingo and they almost didn’t have enough people to play. I didn’t even come close to winning though.

It was our first formal night but there is no longer a Reception before dinner. Instead the captain does a toast before the show. They were late opening the dining room for our sitting as the early ones must have been very slow. Our whole table went to the show together and missed the toast and probably the first song but it was a good show. It was a violinist but turned out a bit different than we expected since she was also a comedienne. All in all a very enjoyable and relaxing day. My table is working out great. The one couple Anne and Hugh are from New Hampshire (near Boston), Theresa is from Cincinnati, and Joanne is from Northern Kentucky.

So far today I got up a bit earlier and went to 8:00 mass. The priest has now had a piano moved in there so there can be music. He has a very thick New York accent (ask is ax) but there was quite a crowd for a weekday early mass. I then decided to do some laundry since the next 2 days are port days. By then it was 10:00 and I realized I hadn’t had breakfast so went up to the Lido and met a couple (Nancy and her husband) from the cc board who invited me to join them which was nice. So that’s it so far. Tomorrow is the trip to Iguazu Falls so I probably won’t have a chance to check in until Friday. Hope you’re all enjoying some winter weather while I’m gone!

Talk to you soon.
Sharon

P.S. Okay I guess I have to explain the Eating the Penguin story for some of you. Walt brought in a large chocolate penguin a few weeks before my trip (12-15” high?) So it was on my desk for a while and we tried to decide what to do with it. Finally thought we’d smash it and eat it the day before I left so that’s what we did. Actually since it was so cold we put it out on the patio to freeze for a while then hit it with a tape dispenser. It was actually very good but no one wanted the face. I took it home and ate it that night while starting this blog.

---

Comments

[Janet]

Thanks
HI Sharon, Thanks for explaining the penguin story. Have been wondering what you were talkikng about. It's cold here and we did get lucky the snow went north of us. All is fine here. Glad it is Feb. and not long until the RT concerts. Take care, Janet