Well, that heading should wake a few readers – particularly past and future cruisers!
It was another rock n’ roll night and the ship was moving around a bit. I’d taken a Coldral capsule as the continued exposure to air-conditioning usually starts to affect me with a bit of a throat tickle so I slept fairly well, though the constant movement kept waking me. I had tried to purchase another inhaler of “First Defence”, but I didn’t manage it in Auckland or Sydney.
The rocking must have helped us sleep longer than usual as it was 9:20am before our feet touched the deck.
Enjoying a leisurely breakfast and chat with Ces & Kevin, at 9:45, it was time for another crew drill. They had closed deck 7 outside (it was blowing a gale anyway) whilst they searched there and also in the storage areas and public areas of deck 7 for a ‘bomb’ or ‘bombs’.
The next announcement was that there had been an explosion and casualties in the medical centre and that a temporary medical centre had been set up in the Vista lounge.
I can just imagine that those not listening to the opening, “For exercise, for exercise”, announcement would have freaked out, but these crew drills are essential for crew training and do inspire confidence that in the event of an emergency, that these drills would be of value. This one was followed by a senior staff member’s debrief, where no doubt Cruise Director Dan would have received due praise for finding a ‘bomb’ either in or under the piano in the atrium. (One or two of us would have been quite happy had a real device had been placed in the atrium piano last year and also the year before – and detonated – hopefully without damage to the piano.)
Three weeks into our holiday and we are really glad that we didn’t try to bully any non-cruisers into giving it a try on this leg!
Paula got roped into bowls again but got knocked out in the second round.
This time we both played a game of scrabble with Alec and Eileen. By the way, there is a good selection of games on board and at least 8 sets of Mah Jong, so no need for anyone to lug their own set on board. Ditto for chess, backgammon, scrabble, Yahtze, Balderdash, cribbage scoreboards, decks of playing cards, Monopoly and no doubt several others.
I got well and truly thrashed at Scrabble this time, finishing a distinct last. Still, it passed away an hour or so.
For our late lunch, up in the buffet they had that delicious baked cannelloni with ricotta and spinach, topped with cheese sauce, usually only available in the pizzeria.
We didn’t do brilliantly in the World trivia, nor the afternoon trivia though 16/20 wasn’t bad.
Formal night again – the last obviously, for those departing at Dubai.
We went to the 6:30 show in the theatre for Peter Howarth’s second show. We’d missed his number one show. Peter is in the current “Hollies” group that has a history going back 50 years. A very professional performance and some very good guitar playing. I think he is one of only two performers so far who got any form of a standing ovation. We also managed to chat to singer, Lauren, who was on door duty and made sure we knew how much we appreciated her singing. This is the first time we have seen singers and dancers on door duty.
Dinner was Paula’s favourite – Beef Wellington. I had mine topped with a couple of jumbo prawns, but opted for garlic soup rather than the lobster/prawn duo as a starter.
Afterwards, the wind really got up, particularly on the port side so the captain kept us informed as to the location of the cyclone but the rain was battering our cabin so hard, that water was getting in at the foot of the balcony ranch sliders, so we had to lay down towels to prevent the carpet getting wet.
On to the late show in the Vista lounge – Italian Mentalist, Luca Volpe. I have forgotten just how many mentalists we have had on the various cruises, but we certainly seem to keep seeing the same ‘tricks’, time and again and tonight was no exception. Yes, baffling, but nothing new. A pleasant enough show though.
He is on again with a half show tomorrow night with Don Bryan.
At 11pm, the Captain was on the tannoy again, saying we were changing from a North Westerly course straight to Dubai, to a temporary North Easterly course, to try and skip around the cyclone, hoping to outrun it! We are batting along at 20 knots but the sea is running about the same speed so the stabilisers aren’t very effective, consequently, a less than smooth ride. This deviation will obviously delay our arrival in Dubai by an hour or three. This will inevitably mean more announcements as to Princess tour rescheduling tomorrow.
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