Once again. I skipped breakfast. Unless I make it to the dining room, the buffet breakfast choices just don’t excite me. Instead I again filled up with watermelon and a cappuccino, and then joined G in talking with some guests sitting on the Horizon Terrace.
Even waiting for help at Guest Services is feeling festive
Sunset through the window at our dinner table
The email I had just received called into question the health insurance choices I had made for us when I did our open season enrollment before we re-boarded the Regal on November 17. Why this email wasn’t sent until a few days before open season ends is a mystery, but I had spent a couple of hours this morning researching things on the internet. As it turns out, G was at the same time talking to people who (coincidentally) had the answer I was looking for.
They were retired military veterans who assured me (us) that, with me going on Medicare starting in January, and us being covered for free through Tricare for Life, we no longer need our civilian medical insurance. Dropping it is a big move, but I’ve heard the same thing time and again from others. It’s a good thing- lots more money for cruising- but I can’t get it changed until we are in Galveston on Sunday and I can get a code sent to my phone, and the deadline is Monday. I also had to find a form online, print out a copy in the Internet cafe, fill it out, scan it and fax it in using a faxing app. No pressure here!
But how amazing that at the same time I was scrambling to figure out what to do, G was chatting with people who were able to confirm what I had already been told and was also finding online?
We continued to sit on the Terrace Deck being social, and didn’t want to leave to go to lunch in the dining room. Today there was sushi in the buffet, which even buffet-ignorant me can handle.
When one of our new (and very helpful) friends finally moved on, we realized he had left his tablet between the cushions in his chair. We held onto it until we left, told the people who had taken his place that we were delivering it to Guest Services in case he came looking for it, and I took it down (‘cause standing in line there is my favorite thing to do). While I waited, I was able to find his name on it without knowing his security code, which hopefully allowed them to re-unite him with it.
I have been negligent in relating that we have been seeing more and more Christmas decorations every day of this cruise. Monday morning there were lots of swags and wreaths around the ship, then some minor trees appeared, and then larger swags, and just today the large tree appeared in the Piazza. I’ll get a photo of that on turnaround day when it is not packed with people. We are also hearing some subtle Christmas carols, nice ones, not those Side B ones we too often heard in the past. It’s nice!
Even waiting for help at Guest Services is feeling festive
Sunset through the window at our dinner table
We had to eat fast and run - Captains Circle Party was tonight- and dinner service has been an issue this cruise, so I had just salmon for dinner. I knew we’d be getting dessert later this evening somewhere.
We invited four new friends to join us for the party, four women who are MDs or PAs or NPs who are friends through work, and Captain Traverso saw G sitting there with five women and made a comment about G being a lucky man (which he is, even with just me!😉). We were honored to be this cruise’s second most traveled guests. Days cruised ranged from the 700s to the 1600s to Mrs. Middleton, who was honored for her 2000th day. That is incredible.
We did make it back to the Piazza for G to get ice cream, lots of ice cream for his dessert and I discovered, for the first time, that they have sorbet there, too, so I had orange sorbet while G ate his six scoops of ice cream. That reminded me of our Diamond Princess Transpacific cruise in 2006 when there was a running contest between an Italian-Australian wine maker and G for which could consume the most ice cream every day. I remember the number of scoops topping out at 20 per day. Seriously. This guy loves his ice cream (and he still runs up mountains. #goodgenes).
There was a comedian in Vista Lounge tonight, not the iPhone guy, so we sat through another not- especially- funny comedian still in search of the elusive ONE. We closed out our evening at the Wheelhouse listening to Colin Salter, our favorite way to finish a day (except for football).
The multi-talented, singing, dancing Tam
