Day 17 - Only one more day at sea - on this run anyway - June 5th

Oh such joy! A pirate drill at 10am to add to the day’s activities.  Although the risk of pirate attack is extremely low, it is a critical part of cruising in this area that crew particularly, are well prepared.  This time, we were told to congregate in the corridors right outside our cabins (sorry, state rooms…).  In the past, we have been told to merely wedge the door open and stay inside, well away from the windows.

As Alex pointed out to one of the cruise staff who was on duty in his area, that an intruder with a machine gun could merely bowl us all over once entering the corridor.  The entertainment cruise staff member was neither amused nor very conversant with what we would consider the very basics of armed warfare, but ours is not to reason why, as they say.  So far, he has shown a distinct lack of personality anyway and doesn’t look like earning a coveted ‘Blue Card’ from us.

After yet another trivia that we didn’t win, Paula got roped into the ladies bowls team where the ladies were losing to the men, who were bowling from opposite ends and to the jack in the centre.  A point away if you hit the jack.  It was just one lady against one man for the final roll – which Paula won, though the ladies still lost.

A good natter again to while away the time then we went up for an earlier than usual very light lunch.  Just mushroom soup and  a roll for me – showing admirable restraint I thought.

We didn’t do very well in either of the afternoon trivia sessions and Jill’s World Trivia is very, very tough.

We did have a bit of a disagreement in yesterday’s trivia (Jill), as to “Who had a hit with ‘Devil Woman’? About a quarter of those present stated one person, a third stated another and the remainder didn’t know. They opted for a vote and the quarter lost! When I can get to good internet access, I must check out the sales figures, as of curse, our team was in the outvoted quarter.

Apparently the upstairs evening meal was advertised as an Indian buffet, so we checked it out early, just in case it was a better overall option than the dining room menu.  It wasn’t, but Paula sneaked a couple of poppadoms (spicy!) and I had a tandoori chicken leg and a small piece of curried fish.  Call it an early aperitif.

Back to the 7:45pm dining room.  A bit of a late eating time for us under normal circumstances, as at home we eat about 6pm. There again, we only have two meals a day at home, not 7…

Before the show, Wheelhouse waiter Vladimir, shows the sort of rapport with the audience that the aforementioned ACD could learn from. 

The late show was half by Bayne Bacon – more repeats, and half by comedian Steve Allison. This was  a cracker as he also did some juggling, some with three axes.  To prove that the axes were real, he had an audience member out to help him (the ZZ Top lookalike - again).  ZZ had to hold a large carrot in his mouth, then his hand (cue a very funny series of jokes, that I can’t repeat here) and Steve gradually chopped off more and more of the carrot with each swing of the axe.  By the time he got to 6, ZZ was looking decidedly nervous - especially when Steve told him to hang on as he was going for 15!

A very good show, but interesting that both performers effectively did one and a half shows each, rather than the usual 2.

Columbo tomorrow and an anticipated 32 degrees. Nothing appears to have been resolved regarding a shuttle to the port gates, so we’ll just have to wait and see.  We’ll probably hang around on board and if they have the usual small market on the wharf, we will make do with that.  It certainly keeps the cost of extras down.

 

Sea Princess

There were initially some reservations about the Sea Princess, as they had some bad press not so very long ago, with mechanical issues and also noro-virus. 

So far, the ship has performed admirably, though the air-conditioning system and therefore temperature control is erratic, with people complaining about the cold in the Vista lounge and also occasionally the theatre.

Someone had commented from the previous cruise (on Cruise Critic) that there was a bad smell – without quantifying it.  We have come across what we would put down as a whiff from where there has been a water leak, but that was in one area only and seems to have disappeared anyway.

As passengers haven’t been ashore, other than in Australia, there have been no problems to date, but those noro viruses can happen anywhere there are large numbers of people living in close proximity.

We honestly wouldn’t know whether we were on the Dawn or the Sea Princess, if it wasn’t for the room name changes and some new carpeting on the stairs - which is browns and beiges rather than blues.  Oh, and that dreadful picture of the palm trees in every cabin on the Dawn.  It is  a far nicer picture of a small boat in a small harbour instead.

We continue to meet new people and I continue to take the Mickey out of June on our dinner table at night.  Now she has got used to me she is giving back as good as she gets.  She is now saying she’ll really miss us when we get off. I’ll take that as a compliment.

Typical:

June: (to the assistant waiter)  “Bong, I don’t seem to have a butter knife for my bread roll?”

Me: “It is in her handbag Bong – and tomorrow, mark my words, she’ll be missing a fork…”