Tuesday, December 12, 2017 – At Sea (Caribbean) – Warm – 80s

Another beautiful sea day.

Early presentation today so I went to the Lido as soon as it opened.

A little nervous about my second talk today – “The Search for Jack the Ripper” – scheduled for 10 AM in the Galaxy Lounge. When I arrived at 9:30 AM, there was no one there – then one woman arrived and I asked her to move down if the crowd was small.

Pre-Talk

Early Arrivals

Introduction by Gary

Talk 2

I should have known from previous experience that people come to everything very late.  By the time I started (with a nice introduction by Gary), I had a very good turnout – I am estimating 60-70 percent full (the published seating capacity is 565 – so 300 plus folks). The talk went well and finished in 39 minutes. I got some nice feedback from folks attending (and later on from passengers watching both on live and delayed TV).

I stayed to hear Louis talk about Vietnam and our current wars (hadn’t heard this one before).

We didn’t order special meals tonight and the dinner menu had nothing for us. We tried to make reservations for tonight at Taste and they had nothing. We did make a reservation for Prego for later in the cruise.

While we were having lunch at Taste (pizza and Asian Noodles), Ellen went over and chatted with the Taste Maitre D. She used her Jedi mind trick to secure a 6:30 PM reservation tonight in Taste.

After an afternoon on our verandah, we went to the first Chanukah Candle Lighting ceremony. Rabbi Hershman (from Burlingame, CA) gave some background about the holiday and then we lit the electric candles and sang some songs. The turnout was very good – present also was Christine Andreas and hubby. Latkes followed the service and the group also stayed and joined a passenger for Kaddish.

Chanukah – First Night

The dinner at Taste consisted of choosing a few items to start with and then a second wave of items would follow. We ordered the beet salad, the green and goat cheese salad, the eggplant dip, the cured raw salmon, and the parmesan gnocchi. The food was unusual. Prior to the meal, the waiter brought us fried garbanzo beans – I really liked those.

The show tonight was the second production show, a Jukebox Musical – “6/8” Café” – a story put to music of the 60s and 80s. I liked some of the songs (“I Will Follow Him”) and the dancing was energetic.

Back to the room and the balcony.