Wednesday, May 9, 2018

January 25, 2018 – At Sea – Atlantic Ocean – Mostly Cloudy – 82F

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Beautiful Day at Sea

We both slept pretty well. The bed is a European Double Bed, which is another way of describing a mini-queen bed.

I had breakfast in Horizon Court (Deck 14 Forward – on this ship food is in the front). Everyone entering the Buffet had to wash their hands with soap and water before they can get a plate and silver – everyone seems to be complying because they were aware and concerned about what happened on the previous voyage. I am impressed.

I had a waffle with cottage cheese, sour cream, and jellies. It was OK and the service again was very good – the coffee kept coming.

I went over my talk in the Patisserie, the coffee and pastry place on Deck 5 Midships. I had an iced decaf mocha latte (forgot the skinny so the drink was super rich), which costs $2.50 – a reasonable price in the world of Starbucks.

The best place to sit and read is going to be the indoor pool – temperature controlled and very comfortable lounge chairs with a view. I re-started Lisa Black’s “Theresa MacClean: Evidence of Murder”, which is turning out to be a good book. Theresa MacClean is a trace evidence forensic scientist (not one of the glamour jobs) but she also sees herself as a detective (not in her job description) (kind of like Miss Marple).

My first talk is an Noon in the Princess Theater – people started arriving early and the theater was more than half full by the time I started. A few people may have left to watch the Captain raffle off some earrings at 12:30 PM but most people stayed. “Forensics of Television” ran about 40 minutes or so after a nice introduction by CD Martin.

IMG_20180125_pre talk chatIMG_20180125_pre talk Forensics on TV

Pre-Talk Chat

IMG_20180125_Intro by Martin

Introduction by Martin

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Forensics and Television

There was not a lot of energy coming from the audience – after all people were tired after traveling to Florida and then waiting all afternoon to board. I got some nice feedback from passengers after the talk. We’ll see how it all turns out.

We had lunch in the Horizon Court (hand washing continues and no one is trying to get out of doing it). Not a lot on the buffet so I had a salad and a slice of pizza from next door.

We spent the whole afternoon in the indoor pool reading.

Before dinner, I met with Simone to give her shortened versions of my topics (only to find out later that the descriptions were still too long). I did find out that my next talk would be 1:30 PM tomorrow in the Explorer’s Lounge. She is also working out some final details on our room status.

We had dinner again in the Dining Room – this time out, we were taken upstairs to the Provence Dining Room (fixed seating). I had a garden salad, minestrone soup (odd), and spaghetti with meatballs (hold the meatballs). The dish did come with meatballs and a meatball free version showed up quickly – after asking, the server said he removed the meatballs. I quickly got a new one that never had meat on it and an apology from the waiter. Ellen tried the tiramisu and I had the lemongello sorbet for desert.

Scott Harris had a second show tonight at 7:45 PM in the Explorer’s Lounge – as expected, the lounge was packed but we managed to get seats in the middle about half way back. Perfect views of the stage. Scott was funny again and, this time, we recognized many of his jokes.

Earlier, we had passed on Lovina Fox, a singer we had seen several times.

After the show, we went up to the Horizon Buffet for more coffee and tea.

Our next stop was the Wheelhouse Bar to listen to Pianist/Vocalist Tetiana Panko (from Ukraine) perform popular songs in her very distinctive style. Following her was the Zinger Quartet from Argentina. The lead singer has a terrific singing voice but her sets are aimed at the dancers on board. We were looking for any gents on the dance floor but didn’t spot any. We stayed for a while but decided that the sensory overload might be too much so we headed for the quiet of our room.

Vic, our room steward, put our room in order including changing the bedding, new towels and some soaps and shampoos. We have finally moved in.

Seas are smooth.

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