October 15, 2022
We are a little more than halfway across the Atlantic Ocean. We have been getting a little bit of rain. Since there is nothing but ocean all around it is easy to see storms in different areas of the sea. Some produce lightning but we haven’t been through anything severe.
As we travel east, our balcony is in the sun most of the day. Temps in the 80s. It is much cooler and shady on the other side of the ship. We will experience this from Cape town until Florida.
The Captain came on the PA system at noon for his usual announcements about the position of the ship and the current and future weather. He did mention the results of the Covid tests. Good news he says, the majority of passengers are Covid Free but there were a few cases. This is very common he said. We will continue the mask mandate for the first seven days and I will let you know if we will be able to relax this rule in the next few days. Nothing about tomorrow being day seven.
Most folks ignore the masks or only put them on in the hallways. Team trivia – no masks, dinner – no masks, wine tasting-no masks, evening theater performance-no mask.
Our cruise director, Jeremy, is giving presentations each day about the first few ports of call. Our first stop is Funchal which is on an island and is part of Portugal. We do have a HAL tour at that port which takes up about half of the day. The next two ports are in Morocco. We have an overnight tour here. It’s important to get information about passports and visas needed at these presentations. We will need our passport since we are leaving the ship and staying overnight. Visa will be given upon arrival.
Team trivia teams are just about set. We do not have a regular team and we did the 1 o’clock session on our own and faired pretty well. I’m good at the science and math questions. Hydrogen is atomic number one. I did miss the only letter not to appear on the periodic table. I did consider J but changed it to Q. Answer. J. Terri takes all of the art questions. Musical lyrics are usually a tossup. I don’t listen to lyrics. I did take a stab at the first line of Bohemian Rhapsody. It was a line, just not the first.
Tonights entertainment was the BBC Earth presents. Photos with recorded music backed up by live musicians. We aren’t fans of this and didn’t attend. It always reminds me of the scene in Soylent Green where the character played by Edward G. Robinson has had enough and decides to ”go home”. He goes to a place where he is given a glass of poison to drink and he watches pictures with music of the past. He soon dies while watching. If you are sci fi fan you will know what Soylent Green, a mass produced food, is made of.
We played cards on the Lido deck at the rear of the ship. We had the place almost entirely to ourselves. It is a great place to watch the sunset and have a drink.
Some folks from back home have been asking how it is that we can be on a ship this long. Let’s see, 5 star accommodations, outstanding food, live entertainment, activities all day, laundry shows up folded or on a hangar, room cleaned twice per day, exercise equipment, swimming pools. Staff that is trained to be customer focused. Staff thanks us for attending every single meal. It doesn’t matter if it is the waitstaff, the engine room staff, the ship administration. All will not let you pass without say hi. The room stewards know us by name. Did I miss something? I guess on the other side is the poor internet and Covid protocols. Both are really not a function of the cruise industry. By cruise ship standards, this ship is quite small. This allows us in more ports than most. There is not anytime that I feel I need to get off the ship. Want to take in a movie? There is a theater aboard. …