February 22, 2019 – at Sea
We are 18 hrs ahead of Detroit and we will gradually cross 18 more time zones before we get back home.
After our morning routine we went to the Main Stage to watch Ian give a presentation on Tonga. We still don’t have anything planned and my research suggests that there isn’t that much of interest to see. There is another market we plan to check out and we may rent bicycles to tour the island. This is not a tender port and that makes life a lot easier.
We did group trivia and are sad to learn that the rest of team gets off the ship in Auckland. They are seasoned travelers and are doing only a portion of the cruise. Skip and Gail and Jerry and Joanne will be leaving Tuesday. That leaves some spots we will be interviewing for.
One of our cabin stewards, Yan, is also leaving. I believe he works 9 months a year on the ship. The old days of leaving a tip for these employees has been replaced. HAL now adds a gratuity onto your bill. How handy! We have learned that people from some parts of the world refuse to pay this and to compensate for this, HAL now charges them more up front. HAL does not put a price online for its cruises. You must give them your information first and they will email you a quote.
We had dinner with Jean and Jim again in the main dining room. They have lots of great stories. I think they are the only farmers I have ever met and had a conversation with. I didn’t get that chance growing up in Detroit when the population was 2 million. Not many farmers crossed my path.
The show “Atlantic Crossing” was the evening entertainment. This featured the Amsterdam’s singers and dancers and they did a show featuring pop history from the UK. Beatles to Cold Play. They presented a very polished production once again. There are 10 in the group. 2 male and 2 female lead singers. 3 female and 3 male backup singers. They all dance well and the production appears flawless.…