Day 126, Puerto Chiapas, Mexico

Even though the ship would be in port today, we decided to stay close and spend most of the day onboard and only visit the vendors and restaurant that are right next to the ship. There isn’t any town that is close to the ship and none of the tours interested us.

We slept in a little longer than normal and pushed back our room service breakfast to 9am. Judy spent most of the morning knitting and I caught up with some reading and working on the blog. There is a large suitcase next to our bed that we thought about packing but will probably wait until our next sea day before we start packing in earnest.

Around 3PM we left the ship and wandered over to the pool and thatched roof pavilion that held a small restaurant. We saw a few people we knew sitting by the pool and chatted for a bit.   There were only a handful of people there since it was later in the afternoon and many people decided to stay on the ship and sit by the pools on Deck 8 rather than venture down to the dock.

After looking around the pool area, we walked over to the large thatched roof building a couple hundred yards off the bow off the ship. Here is where we found about a dozen shops surrounding a small performance area. WiFi was available here for $5 per hour or $3 per half hour. I didn’t use this service so I can’t comment on the speed. We spent about 15 minutes strolling by the shops and only stopping in one to buy a keychain and some post cards.

About 1 hour after we went ashore we were back on the ship and went to the Lido for a snack and to watch the Sail Away. We left on time backing most of the way out of the harbor before spinning around to head out to sea. Near the harbor entrance we sailed by a beach area with a long pier full of people who were waving Bon Voyage to us.

We were invited to a “Collectors Voyage Guest Cocktail Reception” at 7:15 in the Crows Nest. This was for the 33 remaining world cruisers. As we entered, we were greeted the Captain, Hotel Director and The Cruise Director. We were seated in small groups that were hosted by one of the officers present. We were joined by Nyron, the manager of shore excursions, and had a wonderful time. He now lives in Capetown, South Africa, and we all invited ourselves to his house during the 2018 world cruise. There was an open bar and waiters were passing around some of the best appetizers we have had at one of these events.

The reception ran right up against dinner time, and probably lasted longer, but we had to get to our table at 8pm.   Most people were still enjoying themselves as we excused ourselves to head to dinner.

Dinner was wonderful as always and we always enjoy the interesting conversations about people’s daily adventures.

Tonight’s show was a cast production called “Nations” which showcased singing and dancing from various countries around the world. We saw this show near the end of the World Cruise, and enjoyed seeing it again. The ending of this show always puzzles me – the final number is an exciting Irish Dance number that features only the dancers. At the conclusion of this number, the show ends and everyone comes out for final bows. Usually the final number includes the entire cast for a high energy close as opposed to just the dancers. It was an outstanding final number, but just when I was expecting the singers to reappear for the Big Finish – Gene’s voice filled the room and started his series of acknowledgments. After most shows, Gene appears for a final wrap up and provides an overview of the next day’s activities. However, for these HAL Cast shows he is limited to reciting from a set script off stage so the ambiance of the show’s finale can linger as long as possible.

The activity in the Casino has cratered on this cruise. There was more activity during the world cruise with 500 less passengers. I noticed that the prices of the Texas Hold’em tournament has been lowered to $30. We haven’t had a tournament since before the Panama Canal. We will see if lower price draws more people tomorrow afternoon.

• HAL Singers and Dancers
• Nations