Friday, January 4, 2019 – At Sea – Cloudy – 60sF

A smooth night but not a very restful night. Maybe too much sensory input at the Crooners Bar or just one of those things.

Still warm enough to walk on open Deck 7 on my way to Horizon Court. Haven’t seen the Sun for a while.

Not too many folks up at the Horizon Court – same breakfast again – oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins, pancakes, one fried egg, and a biscuit. The server in the annex has learned my coffee needs and he brought me two decaf coffees and another fresh cup without my asking.

I went to hear Gloeta talk about sharks in the Princess Theater in the morning. Then I did a little touch up on the remaining talks for this cruise.

We had lunch with everyone in the Solarium (aka Indoor Pool) (I brought what turned out to be surprisingly disappointing tuna sandwiches from the International Café - the tuna is usually excellent). A salad and a few fries completed the lunch.

Leo and his friends are competing in some kind of scavenger hunt/puzzle game and I have turned out to be the "go to" source for all of the tough questions. I guess if I answer questions for everyone, then the playing field is still even.

Back on the schedule again with “Forensic Detectives: Identifying American’s Fallen Heroes” in the Vista Lounge at 2:30 PM – immediately following Rowena’s Hula Class. Here's a screenshot of the advert found on the Princess intranet site (they do a nice job of publicizing the talks)

This was my largest turnout of both cruises with the theater essentially full – any open seats were due to obstruction by the huge columns. The audience was very interactive and some intermediate bits of applause and cheers made the presentation very satisfying. I put together a new finish that worked very well. A great session. 

I spoke afterwards with some vets that actually flew C-119 Box Cars and one that lost buddies in the same devastating May 1972 day at An Loc that resulted in the KIA of Michael Blassie. They told me that the correct pronunciation of that plane is not C 1-1-9 but C-1-19 or C-1dollar 19. Always get nice information from passengers.

It’s chilly on the open Decks so we found a spot in the back of the Crooner’s Lounge, which because of the hour was a quiet zone. I got some reading done in between nice visits from the kids.

At 5:00 PM, we changed for dinner (formal night tonight) and attended the Friday Night Service in Hearts and Minds – the service was essentially unattended. We brought seven of the 11 people that were there. As payment for that, I had three glasses of Manischewitz Wine (not driving tonight) and some pretty good Challah.

We ate in the Michelangelo Dining Room – the menu looked good with tomato soup and two kinds of stuffed pasta – as it turned out, the dinner was just OK. We skipped dessert but did order three veggie onion soups for tomorrow.

We got good seats for “Born to Dance” and enjoyed the show once again.

Steven Jaymes went through his usual play list in the Crooners Bar but did include a couple of new songs.

The ship continues to be a floating refrigerator – the Crooners Bar is an oasis of heat.  You can actually feel the ship getting warmer as you approach the Crooner Bar.