World Cruise Day 66/152 - Sea Day - Same old, same old

Cruise day: 66/152

Ports days: 19
Sea days: 47
Countries: 7
Continents: 3
Ports: 12

 

With 47 sea days to date and only 19 port days, the routine is becoming just that, routine.  The days are all the same, or at least similar.  Breakfast, bridge lessons, playing bridge with our partners, trivia, lunch, art for Arlona, and eventually dinner, sucky internet.  Variables come in like port talks or watching some of the recorded lectures on TV.  We don't go live because we prefer to not wear a mask if we don't have to - same for port talks.  Some of the entertainment draws us in.  Of course, the weather is also variable and today, we have mixed sun and clouds, temps in the 60s, and a 20MPH wind coming right at us. But we really have the hang of sea days.  Adding to the routine is the fact there is very little (we've seen none lately) aquatic life visible here nor any birds flying around. We might try mixing it up one afternoon with an hour in the spa for sauna, snow grotto, and therapy pool time.  We know that we'll be clamoring for a sea day once we start the port-heavy part of the cruise, but for now, we're looking forward to it. 

Trivia was interesting today.  We were presented with a badly written plot description for 15 musicals and we had to come up with the actual title of the musical.  We thought it was fun so I will include all 15 clues here and the answers below so you can play along.

1. Magical felines sing about remembering things
2. Nudist hippies protest wigs and the Vietnam war
3. A man steals a loaf of bread, then a revolution happens
4. Swedish band soundtrack & the audience never discovers who the father is
5. Woman gains a new accent by studying and attending the races
6. People get hurt while shaving, pies taste funny
7. Singing Austrian family runs around wearing curtains
8. The people probably should have stayed out of the forest
9. Bloke finds weird plant, becomes famous, kills everyone with the plant
10. Like Romeo & Juliet, but Juliet is poor and speaks Spanish
11. Poor man is constantly reprimanding his daughters for who they want to marry
12. Farm girl's house falls on old lady so she teams up with others with missing organs to kill the old lady's sister
13. Women recount different ways to kill their husbands while a lawyer makes money setting them free
14. Woman becomes powerful, then dies - her people cry even though she told them not to
15. A young woman completely changes her appearance and values for someone she already dated

Arlona's art project this afternoon was lighthouses.  Here is her interpretation.

She continues to impress me with her ability to quickly pick up something new.

We walked for a while on deck #2.  It is always interesting on days when the ship is moving from rough seas.  Starting on the port side and walking forward, as you approach the tunnel near the front, the wind gets extremely strong in your face with the occasional spray thrown in when the ship hits a wave.  The tunnel itself is relatively calm, but you feel more of the ship's movement.  As soon as you exit the tunnel on the starboard side, *boom* - you get hit in the back with the same force you fought in your face on the other side.  As you get to mid-ship and move a little more inward, the breeze subsides and it stays that way all the way around the back and moving forward again on the port side.  It makes for an interesting walk and funny leans forward and backward fighting the wind.

Today marks the final day for our Cruise Director, Aaron Syfert.  He is leaving to go and launch the new Viking Mars ocean cruise ship.  Assistant Cruise Director, Damien, will fill in until our new Cruise Director, Kate, comes over from the Viking Jupiter in a few weeks.  Aaron was the person who, on day #3 of the cruise, without ever meeting me, saw me (in a full mask) and wished me a happy birthday.  Pretty impressive.  It will be interesting after 66 days of Aaron's style to see Damien's take on the CD role. We like him and look forward to him putting his personal touch on the role.

We ate dinner early, right at 6pm.  As we watched the sunset, friends joined us and we wound up sitting in the World Cafe, sipping wine or drinks and chatting and laughing for the next two hours.  It is a great way to spend an evening.

When we returned to our room, we found the excursion list for Venice to Crete.  We spent the rest of the evening working through excursion choices so we could get them submitted and hopefully get our first excursion choices.

Tomorrow, we dock in Funchal, the capital city of Portugal's Madeira archipelago, and have a couple of excursions planned. It will count as a new country, but we'll still be on the African tectonic plate. We're looking forward to another port. Then, one sea day and three, count 'em, three port days in a row with two new countries and a new continent!

And, as promised, here are the answers to the trivia.

1. Cats
2. Hair
3. Les Miserables
4. Mamma Mia
5. My Fair Lady
6. Sweeny Todd
7. The Sound of Music
8. Into the Woods
9. Little Shop of Horrors
10. West Side Story
11. Fiddler on the Roof
12. The Wizard of Oz (The Wiz also accepted)
13. Chicago
14. Evita
15. Grease