Tinbergs on Tour

March 5. 2026 – At Sea – Caribbean Sea – Partly Cloudy – 75F

It’s always tough to get a good night’s sleep with a time change. Up much too early. Checked out the sea and weather conditions from the stateroom window. Some decent swells out there causing the ship to move a bit.

I was in the Terrace Café when it opened at 7:30 AM. The view from the veranda was simply beautiful. Warm and not too windy - no reason to eat indoors when you have this option.

Insignia is moving at a pretty good clip to make San Juan on time.

Breakfast today consisted of two pancakes with cottage cheese and jams plus made to order scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese (much better than the stuff on the buffet). The pancakes are a better choice than the waffles. You order the pancakes with the toast chef and somebody brings them out from the kitchen.

Ellen ordered room service, which has a complete menu.

I went to the room by walking across the pool deck - sunrise was still in progress.

After breakfast, we both went to Baristas (Deck 5 Aft). I ordered an iced mocha decaf from the barista – Mary Rose. Delicious drink – so good I ordered a second. Ellen tried the Chai Latte, which used a tea bag. Not quite what she is used to. I did some work on this afternoon’s talk – didn’t shorten it any; just went over the clues on the slides.

I ran into Peter as he was finishing the taping of tomorrow’s Morning Show. He said he got some nice feedback on my first talk.

As I indicated earlier, the ship does not publish the dining options until the previous meal has finished. So the lunch menu is not available until breakfast is over. Based on the menu, we decided to have lunch in the Main Dining Room. I had the Salad Nicoise with grilled Halibut and Ellen had the grilled perch – I liked mine but the perch was not a winner. I also ordered a Greek Salad but a Bibb Lettuce salad appeared with a nice cheese. The Greek salad arrived late in the dinner. Two salads are OK.

My second talk, “Forensics and History: Mystery of the Romanovs” was at 2 PM in the Insignia Lounge. My audience was at least 50 percent larger. Only a couple of people left early. The talk ran about 43 minutes. I did have to hang on to the podium as the ship continues to rock and roll. I think not being able to wander around the stage alters my delivery but I don’t want to get knocked down. Got some nice comments post talk.

Tonight is a special theme night in the Terrace Café – the ship is recreating the Asian Specialty Restaurant (Red Ginger) found on Oceania’s larger ships. We, however, are looking forward to our special orders – Ellen ordered the Lamb Rack (lamb chops really) and I opted for the spaghetti marinara (I didn’t realize that there was a pasta bar in the buffer nightly). We had them brought to the Terrace Café. Ellen’s was good if not a little sparse on the actual meat. I was not sure about my pasta as there was not much tomato taste in the sauce. But, I wound up finishing all of it. Ellen had sorbet for dessert and I tried one of the cakes. The desserts are unusual on Insignia.

We tried to listen to Robin Rose in Martini Bar but there were no seats. On this ship, a lot of the lounge has been turned into the Casino so there are very few seats available. You have to get there early to sit. Some seats did open up in the back – it turns out that this was “Name that Tune” night – Ellen went to get Theater Seats and I stayed and played the game with two folks who had attended my talk early in the day. We actually won with 20 points (16 was the next highest). They got three participation points. At the end of the cruise, you can exchange those "O" points for Oceania swag.

Tonight’s first production show is “One World” featuring songs from around the world.