Arrival
9:30 AM – Departure 7:30 PM
Did not get much sleep last night – a combination of the
time change, something I had to eat during the day, and a fantastic lightning
storm that went on most of the night. I
did not hear any thunder and the seas were smooth but the storms off the
starboard side were spectacular. I took
a picture around 5 AM. At this point, I
am live at 7:34 AM in the cabin having been up since 4:30 AM. A price will be paid later today.
We, of course, are not getting off today. Puntarenas, located on the Gulf of Nicoya, has the longest pier of just about any of the ports we have gone to. Here's a look from Google Maps.
Queen Elizabeth is the only ship here today. There is a shuttle that runs people from the ships to the end of the pier.
I did get some pictures of Puntarenas from the ship.
A little bit of reading on the open deck and then it was time for lunch.
I went out to the Lido Pool Grille and ordered a veggie bean burger. I came back in 10 minutes to pick it up - the burger came with a jalapeno
bun and a side of guacamole and “salsa” and was served on a super fancy square plate – I had some fries with that but ate
very few of them. Ellen had some tuna
and egg salad mixed together. I might
get that bean burger again before the cruise is over. On other ships, the grill is very popular
with long lines waiting for burgers. A
guy in front of me got some kind of meat and then there was me and no one
behind me in line.
Most of the day was spent inside in the Carinthia Café area because it was
quite warm outside and not much breeze.
We downloaded books and I have started a new book by Preston and Childs
called “Diablo Mesa”. The novel features archeologist Nora Kelley
and a character based on Elon Musk. It
has to do with the UFO crash in Roswell NM.
We watched people come and go and near the end of the day, it appeared
that some new guests were coming on board the QE. What was interesting was that their bags were
fogged with antiseptic solution before being allowed on board. Earlier in the day, we asked why so many of
the tables in the Café had “Do Not Sit Here” signs and were told that the Café
had been disinfected and the seats were still wet. Interesting.
After checking out the options on the Britannia Dining
Room menu, we went to the Lido Café for Dinner.
I had the chef make us a cheese pizza with garlic and I had a salad with
Thousand Island Dressing (a rare visitor to the salad bar). I had three pieces of pizza and felt bad
about leaving half a pizza – next time, I’ll order a half pizza. Ellen had rice pudding for dessert and got
one of the waiters to bring her some raisins.
After dinner, we went to hear the Watson Duo in the Golden
Lion Pub. The last time we heard them in
the Queen’s Room, they did a rock and roll set.
Before they got started, the Captain came on the PA – ship
wide – to indicate that COVID cases on the ship were on the increase and
reinforced the mitigation procedures on the ship – mask wearing indoors and
hand washing. I suspect that another
round of all guest testing will be coming soon.
I think poor mask wearing, no masks while eating and drinking, and
carelessness off ship are mainly responsible for the increase in cases on
board. BTW, the Captain did project the gravitas needed to get the critical
nature of the situation across (there was also a letter in our room restating
the situation). There is too much emphasis on hand washing (even though I have seen quite a few guests ignore the sanitizers at the Lido Cafe) and not enough on distancing and proper mask wearing (someone should be wandering around and enforcing the mandate). Also, if you are sitting in the Dining Room and you are finished eating and drinking but are still chatting, masks should be worn.
Today, the Watson Duo did nothing but ballads, starting off with a great version of “The Rose” by Zoe,
 |
| "The Rose" |
Thomas did “Country Roads”, and Zoe
finished the set with “Hallelujah” – done wonderfully.
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| "Hallelujah" |
We came to the Royal Court Theater just as the show was about to begin. We got seats in the back and distanced as well as possible in the theater layout. There was a mask monitor on duty but she was not as good as the one the other night because she missed a lot of peekaboo noses.
The headliner tonight was vocalist, Claude-Eric Brunelle, from Montreal. He was very good knocking out Michael Buble’s
“I Feel Good”, a song in French from Charles Aznavor, “Up to Where you Are” by
Josh Groban, and finishing up with “Man of La Mancha”. Very entertaining show.
After the show we went to the room – the last time change
wiped me out and Ellen wasn’t feeling all that well.
I did get a nice picture of Puntarenas at night through our cabin window.
The clocks move FORWARD tonight putting up back on CDT,
even though the ship is moving NW up the coast of Central America.
Even though there are storms in the area, the ride is smooth.
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