Another lovely day aboard.  Another fun Australian lecturer talk and then more port/excursion talks.  Unfortunately the port talk conflicts with the Maori presentation, so we’ll just have to watch that on TV.

We are much happier with the demographic on this leg of the trip.  All is well here. Definitely different and definitely very much older, plus,  which is what we were praying for – very few kids.  Thank God. Those unsupervised, rowdy children mostly all left in Melbourne and we couldn’t be happier.

Except for the gym, because, well, all these old people apparently want to exercise!!  And only half the machines are available due to social distancing.  Makes for a scrum to grab a treadmill at times. But what can you do?  The promenade deck is always a great walk if we can’t get a treadmill, which happened this morning.  It was a beautiful day – chilly and windy, but we just got our jackets and made the best of it.  Always nice to be outside with the ocean all around.

We did have a surprise this morning though – we had to do a COVID self-test.  Had no clue we’d have to do that – and a self-test no less.  We had to self-administer it and then self-report if it was positive.  Right, like people will do that?  I mean, you obviously hope so, but…. It doesn’t worry us so much, won’t change our behavior – masks 100% unless eating or drinking, and even when in the theater, we follow their instructions:  “sip and cover.”  There is actually pretty good compliance all around with the masks and sip and cover.  We’re thinking about 90 to 95% follow the masking rules.  Works for us!

As this cruise progresses, we are finding our favorite crew…and what a difference in the crew now too. We think that 3/5 day sailing just beat them up.  I mean the shop staff was actually surly last cruise – truly surly. Couldn’t care less that we were there shopping.  So bad in fact, we slammed them on the survey.  We would normally never do that, but their behavior was truly a new low.  At any rate, all the crew we interact with now are so much happier. Poor things! Thankfully the remainder of their cruises down here are longer and not those “sea-cation” things that are just a mass of kids and partying.

Our afternoon proceeds as normal, gym, drinks at Mix the pool bar with Hansel (excellent bartender), then balcony time, then dinner, then a fabulous sunset and finally the show, an Adele tribute singer who we’ve seen before.  She is excellent.  Not the one who wasn’t very good who we saw on some ship or another.  I was very happy.

The evening ended on the balcony with a gorgeous sky and Sunny even joining us for the fresh breeze and pretty views.  Tomorrow we are sailing the fjords, which is basically another sea day, just with scenery!