Day 122, Sailing toward Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Smooth seas greeted us this morning. The temperature and humidity is still on the high side, but not unbearable. Despite this being a full ship, certain areas are less crowded than on the world cruise. For example, as I walked by the Explorer’s Lounge last night at 7pm, normally prime time for Adagio, there wasn’t a single person in the audience. We have yet to have a full table for the Poker Cash Game and there hasn’t been enough people for a Hold’em tournament 3 days running.

Not many children on this cruise, we have only seen one person of Club HAL age while we had up to 10 on the World Cruise and never less than 6.

Captain Fred was in the Queens Lounge at 10 am for a fascinating overview of the ship and how it works. His presentation was the best I have ever seen on any ship on this subject. He had some very interesting videos of the ship while in dry-dock that showed the Azipods rotating and explained in simple terms why there is the bulbous nose on the bow. He had a pleasant blend of humor and technical jargon and the time flew by. He then answered questions with brevity and precision so he was able to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. He also announced we would be docking on the Pier in Puntarenas closest to town due to favorable tides. This will allow us to walk into town.

The Queens Lounge was almost full and many people stayed for the shopping lecture immediately following. I am sure this wasn’t an accident to boost attendance for the shopping lecture. When you were leaving the Queens Lounge, helpful crew were passing out raffle tickets to try and entice you to do an about face and return to the Queens Lounge. No telling if this will be rebroadcast later. My experience is – don’t count on it – if there is something that you find interesting, best to see it in person to avoid disappointment later.

There weren’t enough people for a Hold’em game in the afternoon so I played 3 card poker for an hour and managed to leave with what I started and had some fun along the way.

Judy and I stopped by the Queens Lounge for our 3^rd game of Bingo all cruise. BINGO is always a pleasant diversion and we had a fairly good crowd. Judy came close to winning on the final “cover all” game but no luck today.

Judy had a chance to see fellow passenger Lori’s license plates she collected from many of the ports on the World Cruise. Each license plate has an interesting story and it was fun to look at them and hear the stories behind each one.

Tonight was another Gala Night. Not as many Tuxedos or dark suits as on the world cruise, but nothing really crazy either. Everyone seemed to step up their appearance to their definition of Gala. The Gala menu returned to the single large sheet with a separate dessert menu. Not sure when they use the little square menu we had on the first Gala Night. We have one more Gala night than we can pack up our formal clothes.

Judy and I both selected the Lobster Cobb Salad which was just OK – too much salad, not enough lobster. Once you have been on a Grand Voyage, returning to the normal menu takes a little getting used to. I also had the 5 Cheese Ravioli which was very good.

The show tonight was an encore performance for Harmonica Virtuoso Bernie Fields and Comedian Buzz Sutherland. Bernie was outstanding as usual and Buzz was better than he was before. Buzz is best when he sticks to comedy and avoids the distracting card tricks, mid show veterans tribute, Prince tribute etc. These diversions from comedy confuse the audience and we never get settled into what is show is all about. He also seems to obsess over the small size of the late show. Get over it and work on improving your act.

Around midnight we sailed very close to a line of thunderstorms and were treated to an amazing light show. Lighting was flashing all around and we could hear the thunder rolling across the waves.

• Bernie Fields