Wednesday, October 6, 2010 – At Sea – Mediterranean Sea – 60s F Hazy – Mostly Cloudy

Smooth seas overnight but noisy cabin and jet lag contributed to a fitful night’s sleep.

At 7:00 AM, I went to the buffet for my waffle and cottage cheese, while the ship passed through the Straits of Messina.  Not many folks in the Ocean View Cafe this morning- still recovering from their journeys or last night.

Straits of Messina

Attended the first presentation by the Destination Speaker – Kathleen Wulf - in the Equinox Theater (she had a good crowd – maybe 200 or so).  We then had brunch in the dining room.  As always, the brunch is extensive but I am content with a salad and an egg beater veggie omelet.  Very good.

At 2:00 PM, I attend the first presentation by Carolyn Peterson – the Smithsonian Journeys Speaker – in the Equinox Theater.  She is an astronomer with the University of Colorado in Boulder.  I got there a little early to catch the end of Kathleen’s second talk of the day.  When she finished, almost 90 percent of the audience left (I guess astronomy is not a favorite topic on the ship).  Her talk was interesting – I was familiar with the material but her slides were nice.

At 2:30 PM, I headed to Celebrity Central to set up for my first talk - “The Science of CSI”.  At 2:45, there were about 15 people (people told me they couldn’t find Celebrity Central).  Near 3PM, people started pouring in – apparently, they had gone to the Theater instead. At show time, when Dru introduced me, there were about 175 attendees with more still coming in.  The late start and introduction took up about 7 minutes of time so I felt rushed throughout the presentation even though I finished about a minute or so late.  The audience. 90 plus CSI fans, was very enthusiastic and interactive (throwing out answers to questions readily).  Hope it has legs.

Couldn’t get any photos of the first talk but here are screen shots from the ON DEMAND version on cabin TV.

After getting into our formal wear, we found our newly assigned seat in the Silhouette Dining Room.  Not the greatest – my chair extended into the hallway.  We did spot a table for two in the corner with a window – the one we had for the brunch earlier – so I checked with the Maitre’D who reassigned us to that table for the remainder of the cruise. 

Dinner was good – Salmon and Sea Bass.  I am getting double salads after my experience with mini-salads on the last cruise.  The salads are good size and tasty.

We checked out the show - “Remix” – but didn’t stay long since we had seen much of it before.  Again, the new set of dancers and singers were energetic and talented.

We were back in our rooms early because of the time change for tomorrow.  Our neighbors got us up by playing their TV too loudly – I called them and they turned down the volume.  Seas are smooth but not a lot of sleep.