Tinbergs on Tour: March 20, 2025 – At Sea – Atlantic Ocean – Partly Cloudy

Slept a little better last night – no reason. Looks like it's going to be a nice day so I took an early morning photo from our suite.

I had breakfast back on the veranda (Table 62; the seats were a little wet from overnight rain) at La Veranda when it opened at 7:30 AM – started off with my cereal (Frosted Mini-wheats and Corn Flakes with a couple of fresh strawberries)

followed by one blueberry pancake and one over medium fried egg. It’s still hard to get coffee refills but eventually, I did get some more coffee. I also started asking for a half cup of coffee and a pitcher of hot water – the coffee is too strong.

I went over my Romanov talk in the morning and shortened it by removing some slides and combining information from others. This talk is probably the longest one in the series.

We also did a load of laundry at the self-serve launderette right near our suite on the other corridor – the wash cycle is about 45 minutes and a bit shorter for the dryer. The clothes came out clean and nice (not wrinkly at all). Very easy.

We didn’t attend the Equator Crossing Celebration at the Pool at 11:15 AM (we have not been polliwogs for a while now). The program must have been shorter than usual because Andy came on with his noon announcements on time.

We had lunch in the Pool Grill area – pizza and salads. The pizza on board this ship is really good. I’ve only tried the cheese version but the sauce and cheese are good and the crust thick and tasty. Could be the best of all the cruise ship pizzas. I've been drinking ice teas or diet cokes with lunch. I would love to have a beer but I am working in the afternoons.

My third talk “Forensics and History: The Mystery of the Romanovs” was at 3 PM in the Theater

and the crowd was about the same - that would be the max audience for my sessions (I haven't bothered to take a count) – I am pleased with that because it is a good turnout for a ship with a large European passenger percentage (per Andy) (and so many competing events including the nice weather). Also, there are only 650 guests on board. I know that some people are watching the talks on the suite TVs. For some reason, this revised talk ran less than 40 minutes - going too fast, maybe. I did speak to some people outside the theater. Nobody understood and/or corrected the Russian phrase in my talk.

I was really tired after this talk and was starting to get an odd headache – I am wondering if I might have a sinus infection. I started Augmentin and will finish the course before the cruise ends.

We spent the afternoon in the Observation Lounge. About as peaceful and relaxing as it gets.

Dinner was different tonight – we ordered Room Service. First thing: The Room Service runs 24 hours and there is a huge selection of items available. We had tuna sandwiches (real tuna salad on some kind of brown bread with no crust – it was really good) and egg salad sandwiches. We also had a green salad with Ranch Dressing and a Caesar Salad. We also ordered Veggie Spring rolls with Thai Pepper Sauce (excellent) and two Diet Cokes. The food took a little while to get here but it was all really good. A relaxing dinner – we ate out on the veranda. I got an iconic shot of Ellen out there before dinner arrived.

After dinner and after the dinner dishes were picked up, we spent a little time in the Splendor Lounge (no music) relaxing and eating their mixed nuts (they have a lot of good looking but traif canapes so we settled for the nuts.

Showtime tonight featured Lisa-Marie Holmes’ second show, “The Music in Me”. Her show featured songs by the women who had influenced her career – actually nine divas: Tina Turner (“Rag Doll”); Shirley Bassie (“Hey Big Spender”); Dusty Springfield (“Son of a Preacher Man”);