Tuesday, January 1, 2019 – At Sea – Pacific Ocean – Sunny Warm – mid 70s

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The seas are a little choppy on this first day of 2019.

Had the first breakfast of the new year up in the buffet. The crowd was sparse perhaps due to too much partying. Combined with a bright sunrise and no piped in music made for the most peaceful breakfast of the back to back cruises.

The Enrichment Lectures restarted after the four island stops. I went to Gloeta’s talk in the Princess Theater on Crustaceans – I got the feeling that this was not the talk she had planned for but that happens. She had some passengers up on the stage portraying lobsters to demonstrate the exoskeleton and mating process – a first for me for sure.

In what had to be a huge change of pace, I followed her at 11:00 AM with “Forensics and History: The Search for the Unknown Titanic Child”. 

I had a good crowd – more than half the theater or about 400 people. On this cruise, that is a good crowd for speakers. The talk went a minute or two long and my computer did not freeze up (even though I did nothing different this time).  I had a nice chat with passengers after the talk (with Macie at my side).

At 3:00 PM, Macie and I entered the paper plane competition in the Piazza hosted by CD Steven. We designed our plane for distance but we didn’t know that this was an accuracy competition – flying the plane from Deck 6 through a hoop in the Piazza. Macie was the first competitor or more than 50 and had no problem telling Steve her name and her city. 

The plane flew a long way – all the way to the pastry stand but missed the hoop. Still, it was fun. There were three winners – all received blue covered journals.

At 4:15 PM, Leo, Danny and I teamed up for trivia in the Explorers Lounge. We answered some tough questions but overthought others for a total score of 18 out of 20. The winning team answered some bonus questions and got 21. We still have more opportunities to win the trivia contests.

In the late afternoon, the seas became smooth and I watched the sunset from the open deck.

The headliner tonight is saxophonist, Tommy Proulx. We decided to pass on the show so after dinner in the buffet, we established a FIRST. We went to the Deck 14 outdoor pool area to watch the Movie Under the Stars – “Jumanji –Welcome to the Jungle”. We wrapped up in blankets. Although, I got spritzed by water from the pool, the movie was enjoyable. Talk about perfect timing - when the credits started to roll, the rain started and everyone scampered for shelter. It wasn’t warm but it was fun.

Clocks move forward tonight.