Same, same, but different. Gym, breakfast, Tjalling coffee chat with the HR department, which was really interesting and full of little tidbits that we never knew – such as there are certain countries that are harder to deal with in terms of crew visas, so those places are avoided when embarking or disembarking crew. Now it all makes sense when crew change in weird little ports and not larger ones you might think would be easier. Also, there are certain nationalities that aren’t allowed to go to different places within another country. We knew some crew can’t go ashore at all in certain countries, but not that some nationalities are allowed to go into Civitavecchia, but not into Rome. Totally intriguing.
Next we are camped out in the World Stage for “All the Street’s A Stage: The Magic of Las Ramblas,” an interesting view of Street Performers on Las Ramblas including The Angel of Las Ramblas, an Argentinian classical ballerina who moved to Barcelona just to become a human statue, a guitar player/singer and a little quick talk about the human pyramid groups. Then Dr. Steven with his last presentation on “The Game of Thrones: The rise and fall of King Juan Carlos of Spain.” This is a fascinating overview of the rulers of Spain – how the Borbons ruled Spain for years, then there was a period with no royalty, followed by Juan Carlos being crowned King by General Franco, who passed over Don Juan, Juan Carlos’ father. Then the discussion turned to Juan Carlos (who should have been name Don Juan!) and his picadilloes shall we say – and what a reprehensible man he turned out to be. Always fascinating with Dr. Steven. And humorous – he has the best sarcastic little jokes.
A quick lunch of tacos (from the specialty taco bar), then back to the World Stage for Q&A with Dr. Steven, hosted by Tjalling. Mostly about heart health with tons of questions about heart attacks, transplants and animal valves. There was discussion about US health care vs. Europe that I won’t even get into, basically because the thesis for the answer from Tjalling wasn’t actually correct or accurate. PS – Tjalling was born with a congenital heart condition and has had many, many open-heart surgeries beginning when he was a baby, with the last one in 2020. You’d never know it. Amazing. Our last lecture of the day is with Alex and his “Field Notes from the Mediterranean.” This was essentially Alex reminiscing of projects he has worked on over the last 13 years, strandings, mapping out activity and getting areas protected.
A little down time, then our rush to the gym again today (where we watched a scared little European Turtle Dove clinging to the bow railing in the wind – he/she must have flown on in Madeira and become stuck) in order to make the Ceuta Q&A, this time for us too, as it is our first time in this port. Arriving at the Rolling Stone Lounge we find that the Cocktail chat with StepOne dancers is being held here. Oops. No seats for us. But that’s ok, we just stand at the back – probably better really. The place is packed for the dancers and even more packed for the port talk. Tjalling goes over his presentation and then opens the questions. We are standing next to a couple we’ve seen a few times around the ship; he’s blind, she’s a diminutive grey haired sprite. Seriously, a sprite, and a funny one. She has the same ironic sense of humor we do, and the snide comments too. When we get to the Q&A, we actually raise our hands – we NEVER do this, but we had found out it was Labor Day in Spain on May 1, and it is huge holiday with shops and many government offices closed. We want to see if the Port Agents have mentioned this or if Tjalling has heard anything – more to set expectations for the rest of the passengers than for us. Coz you know how the whining goes! Anyhow, we are at the very back of the room, and while Tjalling does see us, he goes to others in the front first. Well, the sprite tells us she is dying to hear our question, and she raises her hand too to help! Too fun! Trust me when I tell you, the answer was anticlimactic. Tjalling did come back to us, we asked, he was clueless, poor thing. So….then someone upfront googled Labor Day and Tjalling read out what it said – which was basically a lot of things will be closed. This set off speculation that since the cruise ship was in, people would stay open for us. Well, maybe. Maybe not. They only get 4 calls per year in Ceuta – it’s not really a tourist destination so to speak, so…..they may not be doing anything special just because 2,000 people are descending upon their little town. We’ll see tomorrow.
Back in the cabin we make the decision to blow off the dining room. It’s dressy night and it’s just too darn crazy in there for dressy dinners. And really? Do we care? No. Salad and a little something extra is fine by us in the Lido café – plus we don’t have to dress up. And even more importantly we can be assured we’ll make the 7:30 show tonight because it is a surprise 3rd show by the Showmen because the Illusionist didn’t make it to the ship due to the power outages in Spain and Portugal. They created it special for us today – and Tjalling hinted that they may be including other performers. Up to Lido we go! For an excellent salad, and then some very good beef tenderloin. And that’s really all we need.
We are early enough to get decent seats in the theater, and the Showmen do put on an excellent show. Mostly recycled medleys from their first shows, but also a few new additions. No special guests though. But we didn’t need them. Those guys are just so darn cute, talented and personable. The show was fantastic and much looser than their set, choreographed shows, making for a great evening.
Bonus! We are back in the cabin early enough to watch a spectacular sunset. That’s reason enough to start going to the early shows! The rest of the night is spent TV watching and preparing for our last port of this leg, Ceuta.
See? Told you it was a spectacular sunset!
Andiamo 