Wednesday, January 2, 2019 – At Sea – Sunny, Warm, and Breezy – high 60s

A beautiful but cool day at sea.

I spent a good deal of the morning in the Piazza nursing a IDMLS ("Iced Decaf Mocha Latte") w WC ("whipped cream") and going over my talk in an effort to shorten in a bit.

At lunch in the Horizon Court, we were visited by Sous Chef, Lilly, who is in charge of the Michelangelo Dining Room. During our discussion about vegetarian items, I asked her if it was possible to get vegetarian onion soup. To my surprise, she said yes and took down cabin numbers and said it would be available tomorrow. She came back and said she could make it for tonight and we should just check with our server. Wow.

I was back in the Vista Lounge at 2:30 PM with “Forensics and History: The Lost Dauphin of France”. 

The venue was about 90 plus full or about 400 people again. My computer froze two minutes before showtime but the reboot was quick and effective. I finished right on time – important because the Bingo crowd came in early.  A good session.

After the talk, we dressed warmly and did some reading up on Deck 15.

I finished “Hot Spot”, the second Sarah Stone novel. I was somewhat disappointed in the book – seemed pretty lightweight compared to the first in the series and why doesn’t Sarah just see a plastic surgeon to fix the battle scars on her face. It’s annoying but those scars are mentioned every other page. An easy fix and the author can concentrate on the story and characters and not her scars. Also, the novels are short – one third the size of standard novels. More words, more descriptive passages, please. 

I started Casey Hill’s “Trace” – a CSI Reilly Steel Novel.

We also joined everyone for some Arts and Crafts - looks like they are making Leis.

Dinner was in the Michelangelo Dining Room at six. The onion soup was there as promised and I thought it was fantastic – rich and tasty with tons of onions and cheese topped croutons. Right up there with the gazpacho and a front runner for the soup of the cruise. I would like to get it again but we will see. I had the salmon along with Pad Thai (which was OK). We ate quickly because we wanted to catch the show.

We got to the theater about 25 minutes early and still got nice seats near the front. Tonight’s Headliner is Ventriloquist Rob Watkins. We have never seen him before but he put on a great show with Libby the Sheep and Eucalyptus the Mind Reading Holiday Elf. He also did some neat stuff without any dummies. Probably the best Ventriloquist we’ve seen on ships and the audience loved him. A step above the usual.

After some coffee upstairs in a very shaky aft area, we went back to the room.