Sunday, February 5, 2017

Thursday, December 8, 2016 – At Sea – Gulf of Mexico – warm – 83F

NOTE – Neither the Serenity nor the Symphony has deck chairs on the Promenade Deck – the decks are not that wide, the railings are solid so you can’t see the water, and there are cabins on that deck (one way windows for privacy).

Another beautiful day at sea. 

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Deck 7 from our Verandah

The Standard Breakfast continues to be good.  My waitress, who is from Brazil, actually spent a year in Fox Valley training at the Y camp.  Globalization.

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Personalized Room Service on the Verandah

At 10 Am, I went to see Louis Rene Beres talk on Terrorism.  I was hoping for some insight into ISIS or what was Al Queda up to these days.  But the lecture touched on none of these topics so, for me, nothing new there.

We had lunch, as we generally do, in the Trident Grill and Lido area.  This time out, I had the grilled salmon filet sandwich.  It was good and fresh but two pieces of salmon on a single sandwich is difficult to manage. 

The Reflections circular did a good job of highlighting the talk and included my bio and a photo (which looked pretty drab so I may have to update it). 

My moved-up talk was scheduled in the Hollywood Theater on Deck 6.  The venue is set up just like an old time theater – tiered and tight seating.  The marquis at the theater also highlighted the lecture.

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Since I had no video or other fancy stuff in my talk, I only had to show up about 30 minutes ahead of my 1:30 PM start time.  The ship uses its own computers and loads the talks from a USB drive.  Set up took less than five minutes – everything looked good and worked well. 

As is the case in every venue for every event, the audience shows up right on time or late.  I spent a lot of time greeting passengers and chatting with them before the talk began.

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Pre-Talk Chat

My talk went well – nice venue and energetic audience, 

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Finally Working

Once all of the late comers showed up, the theater was around 60 percent full (about 120 passengers).  Only a couple of people left early (good for this ship) and, after the talk, a spontaneous Q and A broke out that went for more than 15 minutes.  The extra time was available because I had cut the Helena Greenwood case from the presentation.

Am reading Sharon Bolton’s “Dead Scared” – a Lacey Flint novel.  There was a good hook so I am in it for the duration (even though it is longer than previously read Bolton novels).

We pre-ordered kosher meals for tonight.  Ellen had chicken and I ordered a hamburger.  Both meals were good and as we were leaving I asked whether the galley also had hot dogs (they said they would check but hamburger would be my fall back).

Showtime tonight headlined Bob Arno – celebrity pickpocket.  We passed on the show as we had seen it before.

Back to the room – the verandah is nice when there isn’t a lot of wind.

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