December 20, 2025 – At Sea – Caribbean Sea – Sunny – 87F

December 20, 2025 – At Sea – Caribbean Sea – Sunny – 87F

Serenity is not along out here today. The Scarlet Lady is sailing the Atlantic as well.

When I got up to the Marketplace, my waiter told me he had gotten my table ready – there was a go cup with coffee and he turned the chair toward the wall and moved my silverware out of the way so I could put my plate down.  Now, that is SERVICE.

I changed my breakfast routine because there were biscuits on the buffet. I had my old standby, pancakes, cottage cheese, preserves, and scrambled eggs (with cheese). 

I went with Ellen to the Waterside Restaurant for her breakfast – French Toast and fried eggs. 

My last talk is today at 11:00 AM in the Galaxy Lounge.  I got ready and went to hear Anita Gonzalez talk about the Bahamas.  I did find out that Sidney Poitier and Esther Rolle came from the Islands.  Today, Anita finished very early so there was no rush to get set up (she uses her own computer which needs to be broken down).

My talk – “Open Unsolved Cases – Forensic Genetic Genealogy” drew a decent audience of maybe 40 people.  

Today, I was up against Bridge so that would partially account for the low count.  People will see it later on TV (that's where the picture above came from).  I also lost my mic – it simply fell off during the talk and hit the ground.  The AV tech, who stays all the way through the talks hustled down with a handheld mic, which I used successfully to finish my talk.  Today, was the first time since the first cruise, that I felt I connected with the audience.  The highlight of the talk was a request by a passenger to sign a book on CRISPR - “Code Breaker” (Nobel Winner Jennifer Doudna's story) by Walter Isaacson.  That was a first for me – we had trouble finding a pen but the stage manager did find one and I did sign it and the passenger was thrilled.

Ellen and I had lunch in the Waterside Restaurant because the menu contained Fettuccine Alfredo and Halibut.  The Alfredo was so-so and the halibut could have been seared a bit more.  The lunch was quiet which is nice.

We spent the afternoon on the pool deck just outside of the Tiger Grill area.  It was cooler today with a slight breeze so it was comfortable.  We listed to the Flair Duo and the DJ.  It was relaxing.

We had arranged to meet the Huttos for dinner at the Beefbar at 7 PM – this would mean we would have to finish pretty quickly to make the 8:30 PM show with comedian, Darrel Joyce.

We got a nice table for four from Barbara and she took this picture.

The place was relatively empty so we could actually hear each other.  Tonight, for the first time, the discussions got quite political as the dinner went on (I don't remember how we veered onto that topic) – we are aligned politically so it was all about agreeing and commiserating. The Huttos had some kind of meat dish and Ellen and I had the Robato (Salmon) prepared well done – it was a lot better this way than as sushi.  We had mashed potatoes with that (I had the classic version).  We shared the avocado hummus dip and some fries.  Everyone had the Gelato Mantecato (I asked for extra chocolate syrup).  There were no blueberries or raspberries in the fruit cup which had strawberries instead. Interestingly, the strawberries are no longer available on the breakfast buffet.

The conversation was lively and dinner lasted almost until 9 PM so we missed the comedy show.  We also passed on “Club Lights” – we didn’t see this show in any of the three cruises.

We said our goodbyes and headed for the stateroom.