Sunday – And we’re on to our stretch of sea days! Our day begins as normal – breaking into the gym before 7am – hey the lights are on at least! And Gary was already there – so we’re not alone in our B&E pursuits.
3 lectures today – yes! First Dr. Jean on African Elephants, then the Captain talking about Pirates. There is apparently pirate activity along the Ivory Coast, but he says we have protection measures even if we aren’t going there. Hmmm…..that’s interesting.
Lunch is brunch – which is good as always (although still no shrimp!). Then the afternoon is Chuck with a talk about Portuguese sailors.
The afternoon proceeds as normal, gym, drinks at the pool bar, dinner then the Living Room for our personal band and bartenders! Seriously – only 350 people on this cruise and they are never up here, so we have it all to ourselves. Tonight, Budi is bored – he’s everywhere, every bar, every venue – and now he is here and singing with the band! Too much fun.
We hang out with Putu and Dan for a bit after the band leaves, then headed back to the room where I unsuccessfully tried to get the picture in the hallway to stop rattling. It is outside our cabin door and in the quiet of the night, you can hear it all the way through the door. It is totally annoying when you wake up and try to go back to sleep! Andy, our adorable cabin steward sees us – to which I tell him to turn around, look away, don’t watch! LOL. He of course has to come down to help as we try to put folded pieces of paper in between the glass and the frame. He manages to wedge one in there with his keycard and the rattling stops. Thank you Andy!!!
After that little escapade, it is a night on the balcony and then bed.
Nice first day at sea.
Monday – We watch a gorgeous sunrise, then proceed on our normal schedule!
11am is Dr. Farkas with a fascinating discussion of Which is the Least Essential for our 21st Century World – Sun, Sea or Sand? It’s not sand – that’s for sure! Turns out sand is one of the most valuable commodities on earth and there are “sand mafias” out there creating black markets, doing illegal dredging. It is crazy! China used more sand this decade than the US has during the entire 20th Century. Nuts. But fascinating.
The afternoon is spent in the Cabaret with a wonderful Broadway Revue – Isiah sang Dear Theodosia from Hamilton! Not the typical songs. It was great.
On our way to dinner we see Andy in the hallway, and he tells us that today he figured out it wasn’t the picture that was rattling but the railing. Really! Smart guy. Even better – he had it fixed. How special is that? I tell you – the staff and crew on these ships are absolutely the best!
After that sweet gesture, the evening progressed as normal – dinner, then our private Living Room with our personal band! I had asked for a request (shocking I know!) – Independence Day, and Mavie and the guys performed it first thing. They are too sweet and cute.
Then we actually went to the comedian show – sitting all the way in the back in case we needed to bail. But he was actually quite funny, we stayed for the whole show. We were going to go up on deck – they are doing “lights off” at 10pm so we can see the stars, but with the full moon, it is a little difficult. So we retired to the balcony for the rest of the evening, enjoying the full moon out there over the horizon.
Tuesday – Today is jam packed with activities! First, of course, the normal gym and breakfast, then an early lecture from Chuck on the Islands of the Atlantic – more a geology lesson in how they are formed than a discussion about life on the different islands, but still pretty interesting.
And then it is the big Equator crossing ceremony. Like nothing we have ever seen. It was hysterical and fun and ever so entertaining. Captain Antonio is a hoot – between he and Emily and the Staff Captain, we laughed the entire time. Extremely fun – and I took far too many videos of the crew tug of war. I know. What can I say?
- Tug of War #1
- Tug of War #2
- Tug of War #3
- Tug of War #4
- Tug of War #5
- Captain and King Neptune #1
- Captain and King Neptune #2
Then it was a quick lunch, a lecture from Dr. Jean about the African Rhinoceros and poaching and extinction. Next was Dr. Dick, this time with Who is your Cousin? Basically that we are all related to everyone through 7 women from centuries ago.
We have a quick gym visit, then clean up for the Loyalty party which is small – less than 100 people – but fun. Dinner in Aqualina, good as always.
Then to the cabin for a fabulous moonrise – it looks like the sunrise!
Later it is a Netflix night – the show is Club Crooners which we saw on the last leg, so we’ll skip it tonight and see it next leg. Onto day 4.
Wednesday – Same, same, no different! Although today we only have 2 lectures – so it is mostly a blog day! First up though is Dr. Dick with the Most Famous Woman in the World You Don’t Know. He has the best lectures! Turns out it is Hedwig Keisler – better known as Hedy Lamarr – who in the 1930’s actually developed Spread Spectrum Technology and had it patented. Her motivation was to defeat the Nazis with what is patented as Secret Communication System – essentially spectrum frequencies that couldn’t be jammed. She never made a dime on it – and that is the technology that developed into LTE (Long-Term Evolution) technology – used on virtually every cell phone – today. Pretty darn amazing! We had no idea! She said her secret to success was to stand there and look stupid. Gotta love it!
The moral? Never underestimate anyone or judge them for their looks or apparent intelligence. You just never know!
Next up: lunch, then Chuck with Astonishing Africa, basically a historical perspective on humans and migration. Although he did have a great video of a leopard stalking baboons as part of the discussion around groups and families.
The evening is taken up by gym, dinner and then Cruise Director Emily Love’s show. We were saving her show for this leg, and it was well worth it. She has a great voice and a great stage presence. But the best was the Creweoke in the Living Room. We ran up there (literally) at the end of Emily’s show to secure our bar seats, and good thing we did – because after we were seated they started moving all the chairs away from the bar and putting them out in the audience. We ended up the only seats at the bar – AAC seats always!
The Living Room ended up being packed – first time ever on this leg! Guests and 50 or 60 crew were up there for 6 singers who were all fabulous. Of course Budi led everything off, then a host of others, including the Captain with a great rendition of La Bamba. That man has personality plus!
A total blast! Well worth staying up later than we ever do – and what the heck? Tomorrow is sea day #5, we can sleep in!
Thursday – And sleep in we did – well, ok, for us! We didn’t get up until 7:15. Ohhhh, such lazy people. LOL. Today is a very slow day aboard – we have nothing until 1pm when Dr. Dick will tell us all about Why Size Matters – in terms of Micro- and Macro-States. Then at 2pm Chuck will finally talk about Jamestown, St. Helena, but turns out he talks more about Napoleon. Which is fine, this is his final exile and where he died, but he only spends about 15 minutes on St. Helena and the rest of the time on Napoleon. Oh well. We’re on a tour – we’ll see what we can then hang out in the town afterward. Assuming we can even get in and the swells aren’t too bad to restrict the tendering.
Then it is White Night again. And again it is a relatively chilly – and windy – night, which is fine by us – rather that than stifling hot. Because there are not as many passengers, there are no tables on Deck 10 – which makes finding a 2-top slightly challenging, only due to positioning. You either have to be behind the hot tub or in the front row by the dance floor and stage. Per our norm, we arrive early and manage to grab a table at the hot tub stairs, crossing our fingers no idiot passenger will decide to use the hot tub during White Night (hey, we aren’t putting anything past these people!).
As it turns out we have nothing to worry about – no one comes near the hot tub and while we eat. And then, well, we’re sort of not into the whole scene, so we leave, meandering up to Deck 10 where we peek into Prime C where there are a couple covers, and chat with Kenneth and Susan (the hostess), then onto the Living Room where there are also a couple other escapees. Actually it is a nice night to just hang out and chat with everyone. Then to the cabin and the balcony for the rest of the night. Not a bad White Night really!
Andiamo 