Tinbergs on Tour: Friday, May 3, 2013 – At Sea – Atlantic Ocean – Cloudy, Cool

Slept a bit better last night – the sea and ship were both kinder. We did get awakened by Room Service at 6:45 AM. We just went back to sleep instead of eating.

A cloudy start to a cool day at sea…

Still about 1200 nautical miles to Southampton.

Ship’s Position – From all angles

At Sea – Cloudy Start

We spent the morning in Blue Moon – Deck 14 – too chilly to be in the Solarium. I had to modify my talk today to include some of the stuff omitted due to the computer failure yesterday.

We had lunch in the Vivaldi Dining Room today. We had ordered a test meal of Kosher Chicken Shwarma to try before our kosher dinner tonight. I had my usual assisted salad bar – really a good salad and Ellen sampled the chicken. We decided to cancel our Kosher meals for tonight.

My 2:00 PM Talk in the Lyric Theater – “DNA – Genetic Eyewitness” – drew the largest crowd of the cruise – much of the lower section was filled as were the sides and many passengers were still in the balcony. Maybe 300 plus – hard to tell but there have been increases with each subsequent talk. The modified slides from yesterday went over well and although the talk is the shortest of the series (since I removed the teacher firing case) it was well received (no defectors) based on feedback. Best of all, the computer behaved – I made sure it was fully charged and that the charging cord was working when I started.

The afternoon was again spent in the Blue Moon. It was nicer outside but still in the mid 50s.

The dance couple from Ukraine strolling the deck

After getting into our formal gear, we went to the Shabbat Service in the Deck 2 Conference Room. There were only six men and two women so we did not have a service. We did have wine and Challah. We also met a guy who we had met at a service on a cruise in South America about five years ago. I also met with a couple of passengers who attended my talks. One of them handed me a “Miranda Card” – not sure why you would need one of those on ship. Also chatted with one of the “hypnotees” from the other night. He was not very forthcoming about his role in the show – hey, it’s show biz, after all.

Dinner in the Vivaldi Room turned out to be interesting. Through some glitch, all of our special meals arrived (blackened Salmon and our Kosher Meals). We wound up trying a bit of each of them. The hot dog I ordered was the best of the Kosher Meals and a treat on a meatless voyage. We did get our picture taken (though a bit blurry).

Dinner – Vivaldi Dining Room

Tonight was the “March of the Chefs” night which had to be documented.

Leaving Dinner, I stepped outside to get a picture of a perfect sunset and a calm late evening sea.

Before dinner, we spent time reading in the relative quiet of the Deck 7 Library. I am just past halfway through “Riptide” and I would like finish before we get to Southampton.

Tonight is the final Production Show entitled “Jackpot” (a history of Vegas entertainment). The show proved to be most entertaining combining vintage film footage with fine singing and dancing. Best of all, an extended homage to the unfairly maligned Barry Manilow.