at Sea
Nice to be back on the ship for a recovery day. One day at sea and then 2 days in Singapore.
I think that HAL or maybe it is just this ship is making passengers do more of the immigration work when we get into port. We had to apply for landing cards for both Singapore and Sri Lanka. I don’t every remember doing this before. When I looked in my passport I had a landing card for Japan stuck on one of the pages. This is something the ship usually does. One needs an internet connection to do this. I know that many did not purchase the internet package. I guess those people have to wait until we get into port. Not having internet connection all of the time would be equivalent to a household not having a land line when I was a kid. How would anything get done?
I continue to notice that there are employees on the ship that are unable to do their job. We signed up for a cruise that begins in Mozambique and goes to Johannesburg and then to Capetown. I called down to the EXC desk that handles the HAL excursions. “Do I need a VISA for this trip?”. The answer was no, you have a USA passport, no visa needed. Ok, I thought. A few days later, I remembered that I still had a Mozambique Visa in my passport from last year. It expired but if I needed one last year, wouldn’t I need one this year? This time I went to talk to the gentlemen I spoke to on the phone in person. I asked him again and he said no. I told him that I had a Mozambique passport from last year. “Let me check”, he said. He came back a few minutes later and said, “yes, you need a Visa for Mozambique”.
I expected more. That’s my problem.
Singapore it quite a difficult place to get in to from what I remember. We shall see tomorrow.
Group trivia. Who created a look alike contest for himself and only came in third place? What is the largest country in Africa? Where is Gouda from? Who did the voice in the female lead in the Lion King? Which country was originally know as New France? What chain of mountains is the Aconcagua in? Which Australian Company is the largest retailer of Surf Wear? What do Pandas eat?
We were close to the top but not the winners.
We had to pick up passports today for entrance into Singapore. I remember a sign in the immigration area that said “Death to Drug Dealers”. They also do not allow gum in to the country.
We did group trivia after dinner. The theme was route 66. Route 66 starts in Chicago, where does it end? How many states does it go through? Which John Steinbeck novel featured a family driving along route 66? Who designed route 66? What is the nickname of Route 66? What Art Deco masterpiece is found along route 66 in Shamrock, Texas. Hope you said the U-Drop-Inn. 8 out of 17 for us. One team scored 16.
Evening entertainment was a second set by Annie Gong. She did classic movie music. It was a great show. Annie has a great sense of humor but her English is not very good and it is tough for her to make jokes effective. Jokes aside, I give her a 10.…