At Sea

December 14^th

We got up early as I was still trying to get things organized for my group, and had failed thus far. Then came the “this is your captain speaking” announcement. These are never good. I always fantasize that it may mean we have all been invited to stay on the ship for another month, but so far this has not happened. In the past it has meant that we all have to get off the ship today and fly home from Perth, or else that Queen Mary 2 has developed funnel rot, and we aren’t going to New York after all. But Captain Hashmi is nowhere in sight, so I though that maybe this would not be bad news.

It was bad news. One of the passengers (guests) had a medical emergency so we were returning to Miami. I looked at our position on Cruise Mapper and we were just off the coast of Cuba. It seemed like a shame that we couldn’t stop there, but if we needed to go back to Miami, so be it. Captain knows best.

It will probably mean missing a port, and an extra sea day, but I am totally fine with that. I am totally in love with this ship.

I stopped by Guest Services and noticed that magically overnight the Christmas decorations had appeared. The lobby looked absolutely spectacular, and with the pianist playing soothing music in the background, it was perfection.

Actually, there is so much to love about the ship, but 2 of my favorite feature are the internet and bathroom floors.

I have sailed on several cruise lines, and the internet has varied from being totally frustrating to being mediocre. Well here it is amazing. It’s just as good as our fibre network at home. First of all once you have established an account you never have to log in again – you can just pull out your phone and use it. Also, you can use 2 devices at the same time, so you don’t have to log off from your phone in order to use your computer. Then the best part is that the connection is as good in your suite as it is in the lounges. Using the internet in our stateroom has been impossible on a certain much loved ocean liner, unless you have the door open or stand in the corridor. Uploading photos here is a breeze. Why can’t other cruise ships be like this?

My second favorite feature is the heated floors in the bathroom. Probably not really needed for a Caribbean cruise, but so nice.

In the morning, Brian went to a talk on using the camera on your phone. Now, he is a great photographer and usually finds photography talks on ships to be of a low standard, but he was happy to report that he learned something at this talk. Yay!

Next on our agenda was a meet the captain session. Captain Diego is absolutely charming, and with a background in both cargo and cruise ships, seems well suited for the job. Not that I am an expert on that sort of thing, but it just sounded like he had a good resume. Of course there were questions asked about our return to Miami and what our updated itinerary would be, and then there was a question about his favorite foods on board (pasta), number of passengers on the ship (just over 400, about half capacity), maximum speed of the ship (20 knots, Cruise Mapper showed us currently going at 21 knots) but I was interested when he talked about the stabilizers and how they retract automatically when the ship slows down as you don’t want to be using them when you go in to port.

That brought back memories of the bridge tour on the Big Red Boat many years ago. The first thing I noticed about the bridge was that they were growing rather spectacular tomatoes there, and secondly that there was a red plastic sign rather like the one some people have on their dishwasher where one side says “dirty” and the other side says “clean”. Here was the red plastic sign that said “stabilizers on” and the other side said “stabilizers off”. I questioned this, and was told that “yes, that’s how they know whether the stabilizers are on or off”. So I asked if sometimes people forgot to turn the sign over, and found out that “oh yes, happens all the time”. As it turned out on that particular cruise the stabilizers packed in totally a few days later, but that is another long and sordid story.

After the talk we went up to the Explora Lounge. The lounge looks much better during the day – it is bright and warm and is the perfect place to sit and read, or work on the computer or watch the sea go by. At noon Captain Diego gave his noon announcement. It was so great to hear a classic noon announcement, just like the Cunard ones. He gave our position, the depth of the water underneath us, distance to the closest land (Cuba 10 miles away), current weather and weather forecast, and details of our arrival in San Juan the day after tomorrow. I do love the noon announcement. He didn’t add a nautical anecdote like some of my favorite captains do, but on a scale of 1 to 10, I would give him an 8. That Italian accent certainly adds points. Did he blow the whistle? Hard to say, we were indoors and may not have heard it, I must listen out for it tomorrow.

Due to our unscheduled return to Miami we will get an extra sea day, but will miss St Kitts. Extra sea day is great, but I am sorry that we will miss St Kitts. The important thing is that we are doing the right thing by returning to Miami. I do hope the person with the medical emergency will be OK.

Then it was time for lunch. We chose to go to Sakura, the oriental restaurant. The restaurant, like everything else on the ship, is beautifully decorated. Even the fake cherry blossoms hanging from the ceiling were classy. Not easy to do that.

I chose sushi, and I must say that it was the best sushi I have ever had. Brian also had sushi, followed by the teriyaki steak, which he pronounced excellent. Brian had sesame ice cream for dessert. I tried some of his, and it was actually rather tasty. This was all accompanied by a very pleasant dry riesling. All in all a very good meal.

Looking out the window of the restaurant I could see that the waves outside were getting bigger and bigger, it was looking more and more like we were sailing in the north Atlantic in the middle of a storm rather than the Caribbean Sea. Was it time to be on a real ocean liner? Could this cruise ship really handle this rough weather? And can we call her a cruise ship with all of this Explora Speak describing every other aspect of our journey? I need to find out.

Meanwhile, I LOVE rough weather so I am very happy about the sea conditions, and quite honestly the ship is handling the situation very well.  We went back to our suite on deck 8 midships, and spray was splashing over our balcony. I wish there was a bridge cam, I am sure the view would be excellent.

We had our cocktail party that evening, which was well attended. It was scheduled to be in the Malt Whiskey Bar, but the bar was already full of noisy patrons, so we requested that we move to the nearby Explora Lounge which worked out much better. The best thing is that it coincided with our return to Miami,  so we could see all the bright lights of Miami through the large floor to ceiling windows. It was a lovely sight. I loved the view, but most people were thrilled that the ship had stopped rocking finally. We had had to pull in the stabilizers as we needed to go at top speed to get to Miami, so there had been a fair amount of rocking and rolling, but nothing to be concerned about.

Then it was time for dinner. Where to go tonight? We chose the Mediterranean Yacht Club. It was a good choice, we had a selection of tapas for starters, and Brian had Ossobuco and I had truffle risotto for our entrees. Both were delicious.

After dinner we went to the Journey’s Lounge for the introduction of the senior officers and hosts. It was a very informal affair, and there weren’t too many officers there (well I suppose they were running the ship), but the captain and the doctor were there. The doctor must be quite relieved that his patient had been transferred off the ship in Miami, I hope he gets to relax tonight.

Instead of the promised Billy Joel evening, we had the resident band artistes playing jazz. Billy Joel will have to wait for another night.

We returned to our suite determined that tonight we would be able to turn off all of the lights there. We had failed in our mission to get the ceiling lights turned off last night. There are way too many light switches in the suite, last night we just couldn’t get the ceiling lights to stay off. I was able to sleep with the lights on, not so Brian, who was up half the night. But yay, Brian discovered the trick to turning them off, and we sank into deep sleep in the darkness of our gently rocking room.