June 22, 2019 – At Sea – North Atlantic Ocean – Cloudy 52F

Another gray and cloudy day at sea - no deck time on this cruise.

Breakfast is turning out to be one of the nicest parts of the day - the Panorama Buffet is not too crowded when I get there - a peaceful first meal of the day.  I usually get a nice window seat so I can read my magazine and catch the ocean going by.

To get ready for my eighth talk of the voyage, “Forensic Detectives: Identifying America’s Fallen Heroes”, I had my iced decaf latte in the Club Bar.  There are very few changes that need to be made to this talk.

The presentation drew a full house – 330 plus - including about 10 vets, whom I asked to stand at the beginning of the session.  One vet thanks me later for recognizing the vets on board.  It is one of my favorite presentations because it really engages the audience.

I started a new book, “The First Assassin”, one of the books in the John Rain series by Barry Eisler.

We passed on the combo show featuring John Rotellini and Ollie Mulkeen and instead went upstairs to hear the 2 Cool Duo.  They had some trouble with their sound system – the backup track drowned out the singers.  Too bad, because of the songs was “Hallelujah”.

Seas continue to be smooth.

June 21, 2109 – At Sea – North Atlantic Ocean – Cloudy – 52F

The cloudy skies continue on this first day of Summer.  The ride is smooth despite the angry looking Atlantic Ocean.


The usual breakfast – Waffles etc.  There are lots of other things available but this breakfast has never gotten old.

My presentation today, “Extreme Forensics: Non-Human DNA Testing”, 


drew the usual good audience.  There were a lot of dog and cat owners in the crowd so they could identity.

I finished my book “Fractured” by Karin Slaughter.  I liked it in the end and I have two more of her books in my Kindle.  We have started alternating the Library with the Pacific Lounge for our reading venue.  The Library is dead quiet but almost two quiet and the Lounge is always hosting some event.

Tonight is Formal Night #2 so we ate in the Dining Room.  All I can remember eating was my double Cesar Salad.

We went to the next production show, “Do You Want to Dance” highlighting dances from around the world.  



Most of the dance numbers were unremarkable but the final number, the Irish Step Dance, was the show stopper.  The troupe did a great job.  We’ve seen this show on Princess Ships of various sizes and this group did a nice job of dealing with the small stage.


Clocks move forward another hour tonight putting us on Reykjavik time (5 hours ahead of Chicago).

June 20, 2019 – At Sea – North Atlantic Ocean – Partly Cloudy – 50s

The sun had finally made an appearance after a couple of foggy days.  It is much to cold outside so no one - even the hardy souls - are out on the pool deck.




For the first time on this cruise, I asked one of the waiters for some sour cream for my waffle. He brought me an entire tub’s worth of sour cream and told me that he would note that I wanted it on a regular basis.  I tried it and it tasted like a cross between sour cream and yoghurt – “ship sour cream” as I like to call it.  I did use it on my waffle and might get it again.

Talk number 6 – “DNA Testing: Cold Cases Solved” – pulled in another good crowd.  The turnouts are running between 90 percent full and full house (300 – 340 people), depending on what else is going on around the ship.  I should mention that morning trivia is also held at 11 AM and trivia is very popular on this ship.  Today’s talk lasted about 45 minutes because I took out all of the introductory slides (this talk is usually the first one I give) and the DNA background slides (already done earlier).
  
We went upstairs to a slammed Panorama Buffet.  I basically had a salad for lunch today.

Book reading in the library and in the Pacific Lounge rounded out the afternoon. I did discover that the ship had delicious tuna salad at the 3 PM snack – too bad, this item doesn’t show up at lunch.


Tonight we ate off the menu in the Club Dining Room.  The Ricotta Ravioli in Walnut Cream Sauce was absolutely delicious, maybe the best pasta yet on the cruise.  I didn’t finish all of it although I wanted to.  A double Cesar Salad and a little bit of Cherries Jubilee rounded out the dinner.  I ordered Spaghetti Marinara for tomorrow’s dinner.


We listened to the Cruisetones before going to the show.  Debra joined her husband for a couple of songs – she soloed on “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue”.


We checked out Andrew Diessner’s second show – he opened with “Anthem”.  We opted out of the rest of the show and went up to the Pacific Lounge and listened to the 2 Cool Duo – there was something amiss with their sound system as their track was so loud it drowned out their vocals.


We stayed for “Majority Rules” with Kim and Alex because the two of them have a funny shtick.

We read some more and then went to the room.  We are both tired and the time changes and grayness are not helping.  The sun is setting around 10:15 PM these days.  We were up late enough that I could get a picture of the sunset from the very chilly open deck.




Seas are smooth.

June 19, 2019 – At Sea – North Atlantic Ocean – Foggy and Gray – 50s

Making our way across the North Atlantic Ocean.


Still foggy out there – fortunately, we do not hear the fog horn in our room – what a nightmare that would be.



Breakfast routine remains pretty much the same – the waffles are still good along with cottage cheese and the biscuits, though calorie dense and eaten in two bites, are also good.  The technical issue is getting hot coffee. The coffee from the spigots is lukewarm and the decaf is on the fritz a lot.  The coffee brought by the servers from their mobile pots is also lukewarm.  My solution to the problem is to dilute the decaf 1 to 1 with hot water to get a hot cup.

We found out from Lynn that the AV staff is down a person meaning that my talks will not be videotaped and shown throughout the day from now on.  People should notice this is the Patter and attend if they want to.  I also got a comment that the magenta type is not clearly visible on the screen so I plan to sub out much of that color for white with some embellishments.
  
My next talk – “Forensic Detectives: Identifying the Famous and Infamous” - is once again at 11 AM.  Another, near full house – 330 plus.  




The talk went well and went about 50 minutes.  A disembodied voice always tells everyone to vacate the theater so that rehearsals can take place.  People are slow to leave even though I tell them to meet me in the hall to chat. 
An interesting problem has emerged related to the 11 AM time slot.  When I finish, about 200 plus people head to the Panorama Buffet (and some to the Club Dining Room).  When we get up there, the place is slammed and there are no seats available anywhere in the place.  Ellen might go up there early and get a seat so we can get lunch.

I started a new book “Fractured” by Karin Slaughter.  This is the second book by her that I have tried – I read some of “Faithless” and stopped (didn’t delete it yet).  This new book centers of Will Trent, Special Agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and his partnership with Faith Mitchell, a detective for the Atlanta Police Department.  Kidnapping and murder of high school girls make up the plot but the real wrinkle is the concept of opposites – Will is a dyslexic investigator who relies on voice recorders and voice recognition tech to do his job (only his overbearing boss knows) and Faith is a newbie detective.  The book is conversation heavy but interesting.
  
We are doing our reading in the Library, which is essentially a cone of silence.  The chairs are not so comfortable but the tradeoff is quiet and the proximity of a men’s room.

I ordered a special entrée for tonight – Fettucine with Pesto Sauce.  Totally wonderful along with my double Cesar Salad.  The portion was huge – enough for two people.

Tomorrow we are ordering off the menu as they have options for us.
We caught a few minutes of tonight’s headliner – John Rotenilli.  He’s a very young guy – most likely a magician – that we’ve never seen before.  We watched him lift a wallet and do some fast slight of hand and decided to go upstairs and listen to the 2 Cook Duo instead.  There were only four people in attendance and I’m the only one who applauds.  A waste of talented people.
I met with the guy half of the duo and told me we like their stuff but that their set was too sort (45 minutes).
  
The clocks go forward another hour tonight.

June 18, 2019 – At Sea – Atlantic Ocean – Cold, Foggy – 60s maybe

The course map shows Pacific Princess sailing due East from Halifax instead of northeast toward Iceland.  There will be a left turn somewhere in the next few days. Also, since we left Halifax, we have been in thick fog and the ship has been sounding her foghorn every minute or so day and night.

Breakfast as usual in the Panorama Buffet – having trouble finding a hot cup of decaf coffee but my waiter did yeoman duty today and found me a couple (am using hot milk to keep the coffee hot).

At 9 AM, I went to the Club Bar for my iced decaf latte and went through today’s presentation.

The fourth lecture of the cruise was “Forensics and History: The Lost Dauphin of France”.  The turnout was once again very good with just under 300 people in attendance.  There were some competing events for this morning’s session, which may have pulled a few folks away.  I also delivered my OJ Moment at the outset.  The lecture ended a bit late and I chatted with some guests in the hall (they wanted the theater vacated). 

When 300 or so people hit the lunch venues at the same time, there is a slam.  So today, as all on all days, there was no place to sit up in the Panorama Buffet.  We wandered around until someone left and got a table for two.  Salad and a tuna sandwich made up lunch today.  I tried the creamy Italian dressing and found it to be pretty good.

The Pacific Lounge is fully of activities in the afternoon, so we went to the Library instead.  We pushed some chair against the windows so we could see the water.  The ship was still moving through fog and sounding the horn.  I finished “The English Girl” – a good book but not full of spycraft and action like some of the other Daniel Silva offerings.  I started the “Golden Crystal” by Rick Thacker but had to abandon it because if was super silly and completely without any semblance of continuity.  The author tried to make it Dan Brown like but didn’t really come close.  His first book, I believe.

We had dinner in the Club Dining Room – because of our sad experience the other night – the Head Waiter came over earlier and talked to us about it - we ordered special entrees tonight.  Ellen had Lemon Sole (which came breaded and not “Colbert”) and I had Spaghetti Marina – both dishes were very good but came as huge portions.  We didn’t even come close to finishing the dishes.  We ordered some off menu items for tomorrow.

We decided to pass on “Motor City” tonight and instead listened to the country-cool sound of the 2 Cool Duo in the Pacific Lounge.  They did two requests for me “I Can’t Make You Love Me if You Don’t” and “Don’t it Make My Brown Eyes Blue” and did a wonderful job on both.  The problem was that there were only four people in the entire lounge.

We stayed for the “Yes or No” game show run by Kim, Alex, and Lynn and then headed to the room to wind down.

The fog is still with us.

June 17, 2019 – Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada – Sunny – 60s

A cloudy, then mostly sunny day in Halifax. From the deck, I got a nice shot of Halifax Harbor.  The ship was greeted by a bagpiper on the pier - we are docked at Pier 21.



After breakfast, we went to the theater to help Stephania (from Argentina) with the dispatch of the early tours.  After that, we got off the ship and walked along the pier area – we saw the Cunard Pavilion, where their ships dock, and the Farmer’s Market.  There were just a few stores open in the Market as we were the only ship in port today.  We walked to the end of the street where the statue of Samuel Cunard

is located and then headed back to the ship. 
We tried to get lunch as soon as the Buffet opened but it opened a bit late as the crew was busy all morning with safety drills.  I tried the Blue Cheese dressing on my salad and it was quite good. 

We are both on tour today.  Our tour – “Peggy’s Cove and Titanic” – departed the pier at 1:00 PM – a double decker bus and we had the first seats on the top right – perfect view through clean windows.  Before heading out on the highway, we had a brief city tour of Halifax(below) and also a view of George's Island Lighthouse in the harbor.



Peggy’s Cove is about a hour ride from Halifax.  Our route took us along the coast where I got great shots of the ocean and the shoreline.



At Peggy's Harbor, we spent about 40 minutes there taking pictures and checking out some stores - one notable store was "Hags on the Hill".  We did not attempt to climb up the shale to get a better shot of the lighthouse as the shale was quite slick and dangerous (our guide reminded us that some people had gotten hurt trying that).  We settled for some great distance shots.








We left Peggy's Cove for our next stop, Fairview Lawn Cemetery, which was back in Halifax.  On our way there, we passed Shag Harbor, supposedly the crash site of a UFO and Shaw's Landing (below), the site of the 1998 crash of Swiss Air 111.

At Fairview Law Cemetery, 




our guide told us about several of the people in the graves including the Unknown Child.  His accounts were consistent with the information I had given to the passengers in my lecture.  I took a lot of pictures at the cemetery including the graves of Alma Paulson and Body 240 and Body 281, and of course, the Unknown Titanic Child.

We got back to the ship a few minutes after the all aboard and I was the last passenger to board (a Shorex person was the actual last one to board).
We had dinner in the Club Dining Room (Salmon and Fettucine Alfredo – the fettucine was not as creamy as it used to be).  The Head Waiter came over to talk to us to see if he could help us find options for dinner – for tomorrow’s dinner, Ellen will get her favorite Lemon Sole and they will make Spaghetti Marinara for me. 

After dinner we listed to the Cruisetones for a few minutes before heading to the Lotus Spa for a massage demo.

The rest of the evening was spent in the Pacific Lounge listening to the 2 Cool Duo, who did a real nice set tonight.  I am also about 90 percent through my book, “The English Girl” and the twists keep on coming.  I sort of had it figured out but there may be another zig yet to come.

We were so comfortable that we passed on Ollie Mulkeen.  We did chat with him after his first show.

The clocks went forward one hour tonight as we begin our five day North Atlantic journey to Iceland.

June 16, 2019 – At Sea – Cloudy – 61F

Got up early and had my usual breakfast – waffle with cottage cheese and jam, a small scrambled omelet with tomatoes and onions, and a biscuit.  I have yet to finish any of these items.

I once again went up to the Club Coffee Bar on Deck 5 (near the restaurant) for an iced skinny latte and to go over the talk for today – to try and cram the information into my head and keep it there long enough to share it at today’s presentation.

I really like my permanent time slot at 11:00 AM. Talk 3 – “Forensics and History: The Search for the Unknown Titanic Child” – 330 plus folks.  Talk had good pace and went well.  Best so far.

For lunch today, we went to the Steakhouse on Deck 10 for the “Pub Lunch” – fish and chips and iced tea.  The fish was good.  We had a bit of a wait because the place was slammed when the group from the Cabaret Lounge came up after my talk. Cosmic.

We had dinner in the Club Dining Room.  I had ordered the Pad Thai but it was prepared with tomato sauce instead of peanut sauce and the combination of flavors was such that I didn’t like it.  Dinner was actually a double Cesar Salad, some salmon, and a single scoop sundae.

Showtime tonight was Andrew Diessner – Vocalist – we have seen him before but I will need to look him up.  We opted not to attend and instead spent the time reading.

Country Western night – watched the 2 Cool Duo and the Pac Princess Dancers and Kim dance and sing.