Day 26 – At Sea – Crossed Dateline – Jan 29th GONE!

Day 26, January 30^th – At Sea

Crossing the dateline

Early this morning we crossed the International Date Line.  We skipped January 29^th and advanced all clocks 24 hours.  During the World Cruise we will cross 24 time zones.  Since we travel westbound that means that there are 24 times that we will have 25 hour days.  Most world cruises travel westbound to avoid the other option of twenty-four 23 hour days followed by a bonus day when you cross the dateline eastbound.  On some ships they advance clocks in the middle of the afternoon, to avoid losing an hour of sleep at night.

Morning activities

I have given up on getting to the Texas Hold’em sign up early.  They open the casino at 9 AM and most people are already in line by 8:30.  Since so few people arrive between 8:30AM and 9:00AM, I realized that there was little benefit in getting there before 9 AM.  I arrive right after they open and take what ever games are left.  They are now offering 4 games a day and I find myself going to the 3:00PM game most often.

Scheduled for 9 AM today was a class in the Lido Dome titled:  “Learn to Make Your Own Maori Poi”.  I incorrectly assumed that this was a class making a food dish called “poi” which is often served at Hawaiian Luaus.  Once I arrived I realized that we were going to make the Poi balls – which we learned was redundant since Poi means ball in the Maori language.

Even though I arrived a few minutes late, there were a few empty sets and plenty of supplies available.  I jumped on an empty seat and twenty minutes later, I was the proud owner of a handmade Maori Poi!

Queen’s Lounge Lectures

I stopped by the Crow’s nest to show off my Poi to all the knitters before heading to the Queen’s Lounge for two presentations.  The first was on the HAL sponsored overland tours this cruise which was immediately followed by the guest speaker Milt Keiles who would be presenting on the topic “South Pacific Cultures”.  I estimated that the Queen’s Lounge was probably 50% to 75% full for both presentations.

Afternoon Activities

Judy attended Ben’s drawing class which today was an art history lecture instead of actual drawing.  She learned about ‘killer rabbits’ depicted in Medieval Art and saw examples of Etruscan funeral figures that are smiling.

After a few consecutive days of making the Craft class cut, all the craft projects were handed out by the time Judy arrived, about 10 minutes before the scheduled starting time.

After Pub Trivia at 5 PM, the ten people from table 303 assembled in the Casino for a Texas Hold’em training session.  The Casino hosts were very accommodating to our request for a special training session for our group.  The dealer spent about 10 minutes explaining the various poker hands and the structure of playing Texas Hold’em.  This orientation was followed by a mock tournament where everyone started with $4000 in tournament chips.

Judy won the first hand with a full house, beating a straight and a flush which also appeared on the same hand.  Despite Judy’s initial good fortune, I don’t expect to see her in the real tournaments anytime soon.

Spotlight Show

From time to time, the Cruise Director will schedule what is called a “Spotlight Show” which will feature an especially popular entertainer or a cast singer who gets an opportunity for a solo performance.  These shows are typically at 7:15 PM which gives folks on both early and late seating an opportunity to attend.

Hyperion Knight was the featured entertainer for today’s Spotlight show.  Once again he put on a masterful performance peppered with interesting commentary about the history and insight into the pieces he was about to perform.  He concluded his show with a mesmerizing performance of piano concerto “Rocky 2” by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Dinner featured two tantalizing choices – Beechers Macaroni and Cheese and Hungarian Goulash.  I enjoy both and asked for an appetizer sized portion of the Mac and Cheese.  Never hesitate to ask for more than one entrée at dinner if you can’t decide between two choices.

Queen’s Lounge

Frank King and Nathan Coe Marsh split the show tonight in the Queen’s lounge.  Nathan did a fine job and his show was much better that his first.  He performed a marvelous illusion where he managed to join and separate some wedding rings he borrowed from audience members.

Frank’s show was hilarious, and as good as his first show was, this one was even better.  He recounted amusing anecdotes about his experience in a hospital after his heart attack.  Frank has incredible insight into the human condition and an amazing ability to see the light side of almost any event.