Today is Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras decorations are starting to sprout up throughout the ship. We are also ending our first segment so we will be saying goodbye to about 150 people and say hello to about 150 more. It will be interesting to welcome the new folks and see how they get acclimated to the ship. Can we expect another wave of the traditional welcome aboard events? Another Captains reception? We will find out soon enough. The HAL and Carnival Corp executives arrive in Sydney tomorrow and they will be hosting a variety of events between Sydney and Cairns.
Tender 9 work continues
Work continues on Tender 9
They announced the winners of the first photo contest and our table mate, Susan, was one of the winners with her underwater picture of a pair of sharks. All the pictures were good and the winner was selected by a panel of 4 judges including the Captain, Hotel Director, Cruise Director and Barbara, the location guide…..This is better than having the passengers vote which has sometimes been the case.
Dhinawan teaching Aboriginal Art
Dhinawan
Dhinawan was the guest on Good Morning Amsterdam and discussed his background and gave an overview of the painting workshop he would hold this afternoon. Barbara wrapped up the show with an overview of what we can expect in Sydney. The bow will be open at 6am as we approach Sydney and they will be serving “Opera House Rolls” which Gene conceded are very similar to Panama Rolls and which will also look a lot like Hong Kong rolls and Suez Canal Rolls.
There were 4 sessions scheduled for the Aboriginal art class in Club HAL starting at 3pm. We arrived at 2:30 and the class was already half full and it filled up right before the scheduled start time. Dhinawan explained the background of Aboriginal art and then passed out water based acrylic paint and paper and invited us to capture our experience on the world cruise using symbols from our experience. We didn’t get very far as our time ran out, but we took our partially completed drawings to complete later.
Sun at the pool
Beautiful Day
The weather was perfect today and Judy got some sun on our Verandah as the sun was at the perfect angle to shine on our deck.
Outback Night in the Pinnacle Grill
While most of the ship was decorated for Mardi Gras, the Pinnacle Grill was dressed up for a special Australian Outback dinner.
Waiter doing magic trick
The waiters in the MDR were wearing colorful Mardi Gras costumes and many people were wearing the Mardi Gras beads. We brought a box of beads with us from San Diego and we were passing them out as we went along. About a month before the world cruise, HAL sends out a booklet with all the special events so you can plan ahead and buy any special items. A copy of this booklet is posted on the blog under World Cruise Activities.
Pete and Gene at the Mardi Gras Party
Mardi Gras!
A special Mardi Gras party was held in the Crow’s Nest from 9-11pm so we wrapped up dinner at 9:15 and headed up to check out the fun. The place was jammed and everyone was having a wonderful time with Cruise Director Gene leading the way in a colorful costume. Judy and I broke out our Mardi Gras masks and joined the fun.
Finale!
Australian Tenors
The Australian Tenors, 3 tenors and a piano player, performed in the Queens Lounge this evening. They put on an amazing performance of popular opera songs and local Australian favorites, the most familiar being “Waltzing Matilda.” The show concluded with a rousing standing ovation followed by 2 encores which extended the show to close to an hour.
We will be in Sydney overnight and are looking forward to seeing the Barber of Seville in the Sydney Opera House. Stay tuned for the details tomorrow.
