Saturday, October 21 – At Sea

Boarding a HAL ship is often like a homecoming.  We have seen other passengers who look familiar and some we have toured with on previous cruises.  Last night, we were surprised during dinner when last year’s waiter popped up from behind a serving station.  We don’t know how Roy knew we were on board, but it was a pleasant surprise.  He is working the dinner shift in another part of the MDR, but we expect we will see him frequently at breakfast.  In fact, he came to check on us this morning and even remembered MA’s fondness for basil in her omelets, so much so that he came back with a sprig of fresh basil as a joke.  Even the other waiters now know about the basil.

Today will set the pattern for the sea days – breakfast in the MDR;  the NYT crossword; Facebook update; journal writing and publishing; and trivia at noon.  Lunch following trivia, reading and the requisite SCAN will round out most days.

Trivia was decidedly low-key rather than the cut-throat versions we have seen on longer cruises.  We played as a team of two, a holdover from last year when the Cruise Critic people tried to take over the world and had a martinet assigning arbitrary teams.  We were right on 10 0f 15 and close on several others.  We don’t expect to win but are playing for the fun and the challenge.  Sample questions from today:

                ---   Which country always marches first in the Olympic parade?
     ---  Grace Kelly’s father was an Olympian in what sport?
                ---  Where is Mt. Erebus?
                ---  What rock group included Mike Naismith?

The seas appeared calm this morning, once we emerged from our cocoon, but the captain warned everyone to be careful if they went on deck because the forward movement of the ship and the headwind combined for a 50 knot wind effect.  It gets you coming or going.  However, there are no whitecaps and little motion to the ship, so we were in a happy place.  Still, there was enough vibration to force us into an early nap following a light lunch.
We went to the Ocean Bar before dinner and D even had a drink!  Of course, it was ginger ale, but it’s a start.  We went to our new table tonight and are pleased with the location and noise level.  Or waiter/steward is Eka and he was solicitous and speedy.  We were in and out in 45 minutes.  Dinner tonight was spring rolls and Asian noodles for both of us and we skipped dessert.  It won’t happen often.

A brief but futile stop in the casino brought us home.  We set the clocks and watches ahead one hour to account for our Eastward journey.  Eventually, we will be 6 hours ahead.  Since 9:30 was suddenly 10:30, we went to bed early so we would not sleep through breakfast in the MDR/


TOMORROW – More of the same

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