April 7th

At Sea

The Continued No Internet Day

We may have gained an hour, but try telling that to my FitBit. Despite the fact that my cell phone, to which it is linked, has been able to get the time right, my FitBit is still an hour out of sync, which may make things challenging today. Tonight we put our watches back and a-half hours. I dare my phone to work that one out.

We woke up this morning hoping that yesterday’s problem with the internet had been solved, and that I could post my previous 3 days worth of blogs. No such luck, it was still down.

I went to the 10:00 AM craft session to see what the new people had on offer. There were a couple of projects that look interesting, but I miss Jill from the last segment already.

It was time to stop by the internet desk, now situated on deck 3 in the library, to get an internet update, but the gentleman who takes care of it was nowhere to be found. I don’t blame him.

I thought I would go to the Voyage Sales office to discuss a future cruise we have booked. Andrea couldn’t do anything because the internet is down. Next I went to the Purser’s desk to get an interim statement to check on how our On Board Credit was being depleted. They couldn’t do any financial transactions due to the internet problem. However, waiting in the queue I heard first that it was not only our ship that had the communications issue, it was the whole fleet. Wow, 3 ships with no internet I thought, not good. Then someone said that in fact it was the whole of Carnival – not sure if it was just Carnival UK, or every Carnival ship. Wow, just think about all of those unhappy passengers if it really is all of the Carnival ships. People were talking about conspiracy theories about someone (Russia of course) hacking in to the system to cause this disruption, sabotage or cyber attack. Hopefully not, and there is some smart IT guy or gal out there who will get it fixed soon?

At her noon announcement Captain Inger said that the communications failure was in Southampton, and that it was being worked on. However, she had no idea of when things would be up and running again. No blog posting again today I fear.

There was the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet in the Commodore Club before lunch. It is always great to put faces to the people whose posts I have enjoyed over the past year, and who have been so helpful with researching tours and other land activities. It was also great to meet our companions for the Tuk Tuk tour we are doing in Sri Lanka, and the authors of the blogs that I have been so enjoying.

We continue to have very calm seas. There was a short squall with thunder and lightening, and torrential rain which reduced our visibility considerably, but mostly it is overcast and hot. Not ideal weather for being by the pool.

Tonight was a formal night – the Cunard Ball. Brian wore his red and black bow tie, and I wore my red dress with a black stole. Everyone we saw around the ship was dressed appropriately, although there were no kilts in sight, and our Japanese guests have disembarked so no kimonos either.

When we walked past the Queens Room after dinner on our way to the Commodore Club, the ball was in full swing, and it was great to see so many people on the dance floor. The ship really has a very special feel to it on a formal night. I like to stay up late and maximize the experience, and we could do so as we have an extra hour and a half of sleep tonight to get us in line with Sri Lankan time.