Slept in until 8 a.m. this morning.... with the huge shade down, the room was very dark which certainly helps.
Some incoming texts this morning from our son Kris who is in Chicago at an ALPA Convention and from Lauren, our daughter, who has de-facto taken over as my editor. Usually I write up the blogs and Kelly then spell/grammar checks it and adds bits and pieces that I may have missed. Well she is now fast asleep when I finish up so this is where Lauren saves the day. I did fixed yesterday's blog errors:-)
After some busy port days, the sea day is a welcome relief as we are going to try and explore more of the ship today. I will say the whole tendering process has been very well run and when you think about it, getting a couple thousand folks on and off the ship daily is a major undertaking.
Kelly hit the Spa Cafe and grabbed us a couple coffees... very relaxed morning.
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Kelly in her favorite perch.. enjoying the day.
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We have now sorted out dinners over the last few days of this particular cruise as we have two more "back to backs" after this :-) We plan to go to Raw On 5 tonight for seafood, a special lunch tomorrow in Eden followed by Fine Cut Steakhouse on the last full day before we arrive in Sydney again. We will probably repeat all this later next month... yes we are on for a long time.
We went upstairs to get a good view of Willis Island, a remote weather station that provides information to ships, planes and really the world. The ship did a 360 rotation abeam the island and we had a radio message from one of four people that inhabit the island.. along with 10,000 sea birds.
We wandered the deck passing the Zumba class being run by Shauna the Cruise Director. Wow that woman has energy! I was exhausted just watching her! After walking the track, we settled into the solarium with a stunning view seaside. We were just around the corner from the Mast Grill and the smell of onions had us salivating. A cheeseburger it was as we had our lunch and settled in to some comfortable lounge chairs. ( I had popped down and grabbed iPad’s & knitting etc. from the room as it is just below us.)
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Afternoon Solarium view
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We relaxed and enjoyed a cool beverage as the sun started to come over us. It was slowly getting hotter to the point of excess for Kelly. She suggested it might be time to take in a magic carpet ride. We grabbed a spot out there and enjoyed the cooler breeze.
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Great spot for a beverage!
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Forward view
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Aft view
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Showers then dressed up as it is once again "chic night" so we will wear our finest attire. We went to the Senior Officer’s meet up in Eden and met the senior crew including the captain himself.
Our usual crew was there already so we sat down with them and quickly ordered drinks & got caught up on the days activities. The crew was introduced and pictures taken.  |
Senior Crew
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The captain mentioned that in the last three days of tendering, the crew safely moved 22,400 people. That is incredible.
Dinner was in "Raw on 5" at 6:30 so we cut out of the party a bit early. The sushi dinner was very good and relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme of things. After dinner, I dropped my watch off for a free "general cleaning" with the watch sales people... maybe they will mix it up with the Rolex?
We then made a quick stop at the casino but not much luck again tonight. We headed to the theater for the 9:00 show with singer Will Martin and like clockwork, we met up with Noelene, Bill, Avis & George and found some seats a couple rows back from the stage. The show was very good and while it was underway, an emergency medical call through the ships communication system silenced the performance. Once over, Will was quick to get going again and after finishing up the song explained that these things do happen on the ship and he appreciated everyone's consideration.
Hopefully the medical emergency had a positive outcome.
Following the show, Kelly and I headed up to our room and called it a night. Some blogging to finish up and it's lights out for me.
Clocks go ahead tonight.
Steps today 5,600
