At 9:30am we went to the Cabaret Lounge to listen to Bill Hall's lecture on Santa Marta, Columbia, where we will stop the day after tomorrow. We have been to Columbia before, but never Santa Marta, and wanted to get some ideas for how to spend a Sunday there. Bill's slides and photos were very helpful to show us where- and where not- to go. At 10:15am there was a Cruise Critic Meet and Greet in the Club Restaurant and all but three of us were on for the entire World Cruise. People were most interested in hearing about the Nice event, which many had kept an eye on via Cruise Critic and the ship's webcam, because, obviously they had a World Cruise riding on the ship being repaired and operational.
We went directly from there to the steakhouse for the British Pub Lunch and sat with Charlie and Marianne from Iowa who are doing their second World Cruise and heard about visa requirements and excursion planning. Though it actually has fewer port stops than our little junket did this season, none of them are repeated and it all sounds like a lot more planning work. I'm not sure I'm up for that sort of challenge! While G had the fish and chips, I had just the ploughman's lunch, and then was starving again by 4pm. Seriously, did men work in the fields all day on a small hard roll, piece of cheese, tiny bit of pate, a few thin slices of deli ham and two sweet pickles? How did they do it?
We both had busy starts to the afternoon; I went to the Cabaret Lounge to watch Christian and Caroline Heim's Performance about the mysterious loves of Beethoven's life. I was fully entranced by both her acting and his piano skills. While I loved the mathematical precision and order of Bach when I was still in school, I came to enjoy Beethoven's dramatic music more recently. The final piece Christian played was Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which was the recessional song at our wedding because both G and I love it so much. The Cabaret Lounge during their performances is more filled every day as word gets around about how enjoyable they are.
I passed through the Casino Lounge to observe a few minutes of G's guitar lesson. He is enjoying it, too, but admitted to me that instructor/ Pacific Princess showband guitarist Michael may divide up the group into more and less advanced subgroups, and that he (G) would likely be in the latter. It reminded me of senior math in high school, where we were divided into groups we jokingly named bluebirds, redbirds and crows. ;-) One side of the Promenade Deck was closed off due to the wind, but I sat on the other side for awhile until G's class was finished and he came looking for me. We decided to rest in the cabin instead of on deck; the wind and sea salt sprays were just a little too much. Our poor next door tablemate is getting married in Aruba tomorrow and was horribly seasick all day today. I even heard some World Cruisers bemoaning the bounciness. Let's hope it's the worst they'll encounter all 111 days (but I seriously doubt it). I passed the 'bow of the ship' test several times today, so it didn't even begin to measure up against what we encountered on (insert ominous tones here) The Crossing.
We were ready for dinner in time to go to the PES Lounge beforehand, because it was Stilton night, and because I was hungry, and then went to dinner, where, thanks to the Stilton, I wasn't. Still, I made room for mango tamarind sorbet for dessert and it was so yummy! We listened to Pacific Princess showband pianist Manny play some jazz tunes in the Casino Lounge before watching production show Do You Wanna Dance for the really and truly last time this season. Sigh. We love that show!
And that was our day. We felt a bit lethargic the entire day, and G observed at dinner that more than two sea days in a row kind of zap his energy. Instead of feeling rested, we end up feeling lazy. We compared the intensity of our season, at least in the Mediterranean, to the World Cruise (73 sea days, 38 port days) and decided that, even during those long stretches of port days when we felt run off our feet, it really is more to our liking (though I think perhaps 3 sea days instead of 2 every 12- night cruise might be even more to my liking).
And now we know. :-)