Tuesday, December 5 – The Days Dwindle Down As advertised, tonight was the last of the formal nights. D noticed that none of the passengers was in formal wear; only the officers wore their finery. Many of the larger tables had officers present for dinner, a nice touch especially because the wine is free for the passengers. We had asked about dining with officers yesterday. On most of our previous cruises, the captain or his designee has hosted a table of 8 or 9 passengers several times each week. On long cruises, these are usually the 5 Star Mariners who have spent more than 500 days on HAL ships. On the World in 2015, it was everyone who had booked the entire 114 days. On this cruise last year, we ate at “the big table” with the hotel manager. Maud, the assistant dining room manager responsible for our section, told us that this year, officers were being sent to the 6- and 8-person tables but that she could arrange for us to eat at one if we wished to dine with an of
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Sunday, December 3 -- Merrily We Roll Along It’s a good thing nothing of consequence has happened since Wednesday because internet service was spotty at best. We are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean heading west toward the Bahama Islands, but the satellites the ship uses for internet connectivity don’t know that; they are somewhat motionless over the earth. Seas the past few days have been bumpy and, on occasion, downright rocky. Still, they were nothing extraordinary and tended to rock us to sleep, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. Now that we are in the home stretch we are making lists of chores which have to be done starting Friday. For example, the hurricane shutters have to be opened until the next storm season and all of the patio furniture needs to be taken from the living room and put back on the deck. There meals to organize for the coming invasion of the grandchildren and presents to buy. Now that we know we have to return to Baltimore for another round of s