The breakfast I ordered arrives 15 minutes early. This would be a boon if I was scheduled to get off the ship – but we’ll be at sea today. Good thing I wear something to sleep in that does not preclude a rush to the door.
I get breakfast, have my coffee, stash my OJ to be a mixer (elite means I got one minibar setup), and promptly… go back to sleep.
So I’m late to the presentation about Panama this morning. But I only miss the first few minutes. And it’s very good. The presenter’s father helped build the Canal and he himself was born and grew up on the US base in the Canal Zone of Panama. Knowledgeable and fascinating!
There’s sales events on board and I opt for the pizzeria for lunch today. If I was inclined to watch football, it’s up on the giant outdoor screen today.
Hard pass for me. There are definitely people up enjoying that though.
I go up to get my steps in up on the track on 19. I do, eventually, but not before I meet and chat for a while with Glen, a semi-retired lawyer from SF. He’s also newly elite and he also earned his black medallion on the Vancouver-SanFran sailing in September. We were on that ship together, as it happens. He saw the dolphins I missed at the end of the trip, I saw the whales he missed at the beginning.
After that I did actually put in my 16-lap (one mile) walk and then headed down to join the crafts event. Today’s paper flowers:
Then I lose at trivia but have fun doing it.
It’s formal night. The dining room is open behind schedule and for some reason they don’t have any of the staple dishes that are always available. The evening selections are good if you’re not a Marylander and thus do not realize that a lump crab cake should have recognizable lumps of crabmeat in them. But they taste okay, such as they are.
But Gringita, you ask quite reasonably, why would you order crabcakes anywhere but Maryland when you know they’ll disappoint?
Good question. Normally I would not. For exactly this reason. But on this night the usual starters weren’t available. So I tried.
After dinner I headed down to see the champagne waterfall event.
This will all go on for a while. It takes a lot of bottles of champagne to fill so many glasses.
I head up on deck instead to catch the last of the sunset fading to darkness, and the moon dancing through clouds.
It’s another fine day and it’s been very relaxing. There’s one more to go before we reach a port of call.
aka gringita 