April 15, 2019 – at Sea
Today we were invited to the main dining room for breakfast by Jim and Jean. Breakfast doesn’t begin until 8 am so this was really a change to our schedule. I had the buckwheat pancakes and Terri had the Swedish pancakes. The food was a nice change and we enjoyed conversation about shore tours we have taken. Jim and Jean have been doing HAL tours and Jim refers to the guests on the tours as “crypts”. Those that have trouble walking because of their weight or age.
We left breakfast about 9:20 and then headed to the main stage for the presentation Ian does just before every port. Information about immigration, dock location, shuttle busses, etc. can only be found here. All of the planning I did for shore excursions was based on the times given a year ago. When Ian announced that “all aboard” was at 4:30, I knew we were in trouble. 6 pm was the time I was working with. This is the third time such a change has been announced. I went back to the room and sent our tour company a note. Can they guarantee that we would arrive at the port by 4:30?
The change in breakfast time meant gym time was a bit later and a lot more crowded. We managed to grab an elliptical and a treadmill. I have been doing so much training on machines that I am the highest level that it can go up to. Level 20 on the elliptical. Quite a workout. Terri is working on speed on the treadmill and I hear hup..hup..hup..hup as her feet land on the tread.
I went back to our room to check email. Tour company says “no” but we can still do half of the tour if we want and get back at 2 pm. I went up to the main desk and asked when all aboard was. “5:30”. I told the nice young lady that Ian just said 4:30. She told me to go to the EXC tour desk. The answer here? “We don’t have that information yet”. Talk to Ian. I went to see Ian and he repeated his “4:30” answer. He shrugged his shoulders when I told him I had a tour that ended after 5. He did say “they won’t leave you behind”.
Terri suggested we rent a car and drive from Naples to Barcelona if we miss the departure. Too far I thought. I did look at flights and they are cheap. We decided this is a place we can risk missing the ship departure.
We missed group trivia because of all of the fuss. We went to lunch and ran into Ian when we were leaving. He pointed at me and said “5:30” is the departure time. He had confirmed it with the Captain.
Our tour company says they can drop us off at the port at 5:15.
15 minutes is not much slack. Let’s see how it goes.
It was a gala night and we had dinner with Bob and Brenda. Brenda was backpacker years ago and she had many stories to share about trips she has done.
We were cruising through the strait between Italy and Sicily. We sat up in the Crow’s nest and watched the sunset near Sicily.
The Amsterdam singers and dancers did a show entitled Amor. Very well done. It is always a pleasure to listen and watch them.…