February 26, 2024 – At Sea – Gulf of Mexico – Sunny Warm – 70s

Up early enough (that is unusual - NOT) to get a nice shot from our cabin window.

It was warm enough that I had breakfast outside on the back deck.  A truly beautiful morning.

 I got my cottage cheese and sour cream from my usual sources over at the yoghurt area. It was not quite 7 AM and the waffle and pancake area was not yet open – I asked a crew member for a waffle and he got it for me.  Another nice breakfast – never gets old for me.  Ellen had her usual wonderful special room service meal delivered to her.

I went to the theater at 9:30 AM and entered by opening the fire doors. When I got down to the fourth floor, I spent a few minutes talking to a crew member who was cleaning the railings and seats.  He said he watched the talks on TV and sometimes he peaks in an sees them in person. He said he was particularly interested in the Titanic Child.  Nice.

I spent a lot of time talking to passengers before the actual talk this morning.  I really like doing that and, while it may be harder in the theater, I still wander up and down the aisle to chat. 

My third talk, “Forensics and History: The Search for the Unknown Titanic Child”, pulled a great audience.  I would estimate that about 90 percent of the theater was occupied.  

It’s a long talk and it ran about 55 minutes.  I also met with several passengers afterwards including a woman whose son had been killed in the Swissair crash near Peggy’s Harbor.

We had lunch in the San Marco Dining Room because they had “Crispy Mushrooms” and “Cold Potato Leek Soup” as well as an Egg Panini (that Ellen likes).  I actually had two orders of the mushrooms and soup 

and a veggie burger for lunch – the soup was not chilled which changed the taste. We passed on dessert. The place was people dense - the tables for two near the window are simply too close together.  

The ship is very crowded but we actually found a couch in the Solarium.  We stayed for a while until the air became very perfume-heavy and we decided to leave.

The interior of the ship continues to be cold so we spent a lot of the afternoon staying warm in our cabin – it’s warmer outside but not warm enough on the open deck. Again, with our large window, it does feel like we are outside.  

I finished “Dead Mountain” – not the best Preston and Child novel and I could tell it was based on a real incident involving a nuclear bomb.  It was OK.

We had spaghetti with pesto sauce again tonight in the Oceanview Café – less pesto than yesterday – trying to save the company some money.  We did find a table outside so that was a definite plus. Also a plus was the magnificent Sunset over the Gulf.

Gabriel, the Magician was on tonight.  We passed on him and listened to the Lucky Band in the Rendezvous Lounge. There was something going on with them tonight as they really sounded different.  Never figured out what. After they finished their set we stayed put and read and scanned the internet.

This entire voyage and the previous cruise have been so smooth – not even a shimmy. The ship never felt like it was moving. Could be the smoothest consecutive days on a cruise for us.