Oceans are vast, open spaces and sailing across the Pacific day after day is a constant reminder.   Since we left Panama I have not seen another ship, of any size, except when very near our ports of call.   Now I don’t spend that much time scanning the horizon, but this is consistent with my Navy cruising as well, seeing another ship in the middle of the ocean is rare.

When we started the cruise we had our room steward instruct the mini bar stewards to empty our mini bar of the liquor bottles and restock it with 5 diet cokes, 5 ginger ales and 2 beers.   The good news is that the mini bar attendant checks our fridge every day and replaces what we have used.   Going thru the mini bar steward gives you the mariner discount on your purchases as well and you never have to think about restocking the fridge since it happens automatically.

The Amsterdam singers and dancers were the guests on Good Morning Amsterdam.   They each had an opportunity to introduce themselves and give a brief overview of their background. This show is always interesting and is a great way to start the day.   The show is not broadcast live, but is looped a few times throughout the day.

 

 

 

Barbara presented her port lecture for Waitanga, Bay of Islands in New Zealand, our next port of call.   We learned, among other things, that New Zealand is holding a referendum this year to change their flag to a completely different look.   I kinda like the new flag, but we won’t get a vote.

 

 

 

 

I entered my first black jack tournament today.   For $10 you are given $1500 in play chips and play 7 hands. The tournament takes place over 3 days and the top two people for each day meet in the finals on the third day. I needed to win 12000 in 7 hands which would require an aggressive approach.   I went “all in” on the first hand, with the dealer showing a 7 and me being dealt 15. I hit and drew and ace, hit again and bust.   The dealer had 16 and drew a 10 and busted, but I was out….I will try again tomorrow.

All of the daily activities are in the “On Location” program which is delivered to your cabin around 6pm each evening.   A copy of each “On Location” is available here under World Cruise Reference so you can see the wide variety of activities available on a world cruise.   Far more than you find on a shorter cruise.

Judy and I usually share a plate from the Lido for lunch.   Today we had some delicious turkey meatballs and fish and chips. The food has been exceptionally good at every venue this cruise and is clearly a notch above what we have experienced on our last short cruise, a 7 day Alaska.   For example, on shorter cruises the “always available” shrimp cocktail in the MDR is on the skimpy side – on this cruise, the always available shrimp cocktail has giant shrimp that you normally find in the Pinnacle.

The weather remains near perfect and I took a stroll on the Promenade to check on the repair progress for Tender 9. One of the props has been removed but not much other progress was visible from our vantage point.   They have closed the promenade under the tender so you can’t walk a continuous circles around the promenade so people have little choice but to walk in both directions as they complete their laps around deck 3. While most of the people affected by the incident took the incident in stride, we heard that one couple was demanding compensation for missing lunch on the ship and being forced to buy lunch ashore.   Horrors!!

 

The BINGO game was scheduled for 4pm and I was there to try my luck one more time.   Unfortunately only 15 other people had the same idea so the game was cancelled as they need at least 20 people for the game to take place.   However as some consolation, they gave everyone 3 Grand Dollars for showing up.

Tonight is a Gala night and the theme is “Bowlers and Bumper Shoots”.   I wandered down to deck 5 about 4pm to see what the dining room looked like as they had finished setting up for the evening.   A “Bumper Shoot” is an umbrella and a “Bowler” is the hat as you would expect.   Above each table was an open umbrella, and at each place setting was either a gold or black bowler cap.

 

 

While checking out the dining room, I discovered Debby Bacon, the Piano Bar star, rehearsing in total silence on an electric keyboard wearing headphones. She creates a lot of music every night and is simply amazing.

 

 

 

 

Dinner was amazing.   The Gala dinner menu is on the blog. Most of the people at our table ordered the Lobster Pot Pie – which was fabulous.   Really good with a lot of lobster in a delicious sauce baked to perfection. The Key Lime pie for dessert was fantastic and the service remains perfect.

Tonight’s entertainment was provided by Adam and Lisa Press of La Musica, with whom we had dinner a few nights back.   They were fabulous and sang a wonderful variety of classic hits with modern arrangements. The highlight was a beautiful medley of the classics from Phantom of the Opera. They received an enthusiastic standing ovation.

 

 

 

We stopped by the Crow’s nest about 11:15 to see what was going on – and we discovered that the dance floor was fairly busy and everyone was having a great time!   A little surprised to find this much energy this late on a world cruise but it was good to see.