At Sea

April 11^th, 2024

We have settled into a sea day routine. The morning is spent in enrichment talks or activities, lunch by the pool, and the afternoons reading and relaxing, and if the weather is fine, having a swim.

This morning Brian went to a talk entitled “From Galileo to Hubble” and then to one on the Panama Canal, while I attended my steel pan class.

Stephan teaches the class, and even if I wasn’t enjoying playing the music so much, I would love just to sit and listen to him. He is a great teacher, and a wonderful musician.

However, I must say that I am really enjoying playing the music.

Today we learned One Love by Bob Marley and I had the best time putting all of my energy into hitting the right notes with the right amount of enthusiasm. Tomorrow we will learn Hot Hot Hot. Brian hates this song for no good reason that I can think of. He says his dislike stems from years of listening to the Queen Mary 2 band playing this on rainy days as we sail along the Solent leaving England’s green and pleasant land behind us.. He feels that the sail away music should include Jerusalem, Land of Hope and Glory, or Rule Britannia as we leave Southampton, bound for New York, and not “One cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, dollar” and “Hot hot hot”.

He could be right, but we are about to pass through the Panama Canal into the Caribbean Sea, so I think Hot Hot Hot is appropriate at the moment.

It certainly describes the weather today. It is unbelievably hot and humid, and instead of a lazy afternoon by the pool, we opted for air conditioned splendor. Out on deck it was certainly very steamy, without a breath of air. The captain has reassured us it will be better tomorrow. I hope so. I did miss my swim today.

However, it was much more pleasant indoors listening to the Diva Duo.

In addition to the extreme heat this afternoon, the pool had become very noisy. There was the Mr Sexy Legs challenge going on at Neptune’s Reef and Pool. This involved  much shouting, screaming and cheering. No chance of a nap in the sun even if the weather had been conducive to do so.

It is the Emerald Princess’ birthday today – 17 years. They had a birthday party to celebrate

And of course there was dancing

And cake

No champagne though……

Tonight the dress code was “dress to impress”. We still haven’t worked out exactly what that means. Nor has anyone else on board it seems. There were a few couples who had dressed up for the occasion, but the majority of passengers were very casual, and didn’t seem to have made any effort.

The good news is that the dinner menu was impressive, and I can’t complain when there are lobster tails and chateaubriand, and the desserts include a vanilla souffle.

After dinner we went to see the Mighty Quinn Show.

The theater was packed, hardly an empty seat. Quinn is a Canadian comedian and juggler, and I must say he did a really impressive, if not somewhat weird show.

We enjoyed it as it was something completely different. The show included incredible juggling tricks, and an amazing finale of him juggling  2 machetes  while balancing on a ten foot unicycle, and eating the apple at the same time!

He was not the most politically correct performer, but he is certainly very talented. Most of all, he was a pleasant change from the singers and comedians who have been entertaining us recently.