Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Sunday, 26 April - Friday, 1 May. Our first six days
were "at sea." The weather was fantastic for this time of year. Most days were
sunny and mild (highs around 70), and the sea had no more than low swells. In
spite of all the leisure time, though, we felt "busy," perhaps partly because we
lost an hour to changing time zones on four of the six nights. There were two or
three interesting presentations nearly every day, usually at 10:00, 11:00 and
3:00. Two of them were continuous series: one on the "Discoverers" who found and
explored the New World; the other on astronomy, from celestial navigation by the
discoverers to the latest pictures from the Hubble telescope. The other
presentations mostly covered the places the ship would be visiting in the days
ahead. Of course, there were also the three meals around which our days seemed
to revolve. On two of the evenings, the dinners were formal.
Then there was a show after dinner every evening in the MainStage, the ship's huge theater/auditorium. We saw a crew show (good talent but way too loud); the New York Vagabonds twice (a very talented male quartet); Acrobatique with Ilia and Valerie (dancers-gymnasts-acrobats); and Luke Burrage (a juggling comedian).
In spite of the leisure time, I got to the gym only twice during the six days because I came down with debilitating cold on Monday and had a couple of bad days (and nights). Also on Monday, there was a medical emergency that required the ship to leave its planned northeastward course and sail several hours south to Bermuda to disembark a passenger. The ship easily made up the lost time over the next four days be increasing its speed a couple of knots (to about 20 mph). | |||||||
