Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 7/96 - Sea Day - leaving Europe and heading to Africa
Today was our first of many sea days on this grand voyage. We got up and headed up to The Colonnade (buffet) for breakfast. As I walked past a planter, I spotted this guy in the photo above. Cruise ducks are a thing, but we didn't expect to see any on a cruise like this. This was a nice surprise. I re-hid it for someone else to find.
After breakfast, Arlona went to a painting class. This is her first watercolor project in quite a while.
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| The inspiration |
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| Arlona's interpretation |
I participated in the cruise's first Baggo (corn hole/bean bag toss) event. About a dozen folks participated and we had some fun while meeting each other,
Afterward, I wandered around, taking in some of the views of the ship.
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| Deck 9, looking down the main staircase to Deck 4 |
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| Deck 9 by the staircase |
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| The Restaurant |
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| If you look in the distance in The Restaurant, you can see an artist in red, working away |
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| The Sun Terrace on Deck 11 |
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| Deck 11 sports area, two shuffleboard courses, a putting green, golf driving cage, and a ping pong table |
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| Overlooking the Deck 8 pool area |
Since this was a sea, that meant the first of many trivia contests. We paired up with a great group of folks and hope to continue with them for the duration of the cruise. Our team, Titanic
Swim Team, scored a respectable second-place finish, just out of the prizes - Seabourn hats today.
Our misfires:
- What book series was written by the author, P. L. Travers, and became one of Disney's biggest movies?
- We didn't know and guessed Lady and the Tramp - it turns out that there were eight Mary Poppins books
- How much time is allowed to search for a lost golf ball?
- We guessed 5, and that was correct, but the rule was recently changed to 3 minutes
- What tribe was Moses from, Levi, Judah, Joseph, or Gad?
- We guessed Judah, but it was Levi
There were two interesting questions that we got right:
- What Disney princess got the least screen time in her movie - only 18 minutes?
- We reasoned it out correctly that it was Aurora - Sleeping Beauty
- What is the most expensive man-made object ever created?
- Again, a little thought got us the right answer - the ISS - International Space Station, which cost over $150 billion (that's billions of dollars with a capital "B")
After lunch, Arlona went to another painting class where they worked on flamingos.
At 4:00, we went to the first Name That Tune competition. We paired up with some very nice folks from Australia and California, trying to name the artist and title for 20 songs from the 1950s to the 2000s. With one point for the artist and one point for the title, we ended with 29 points. We did well, finishing in a tie for first place. Cruise Director, Nick, played a three-song time-breaker. We got five out of the possible six points, securing the win and a prize.
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| We scored a Seabourn travel game set with dominoes, a pair of dice, and playing cards. |
We returned to our room and the cruising ducks showed up again, this time on our suite door!
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| We decided to let it live there for as long as it wants to be there |
Tonight, they had a Captain's welcome event. Since we're new to Seabourn, we decided to attend.
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| Cruise Director, Nick, warmed up the group with a song |
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| Captain Hamish Elliott welcomed the passengers |
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| The senior staff, cruise director, cruise consultant, medical officer, chief engineer, Captain Hamish Elliott, Staff Captain, Hotel General Manager, Executive Chef |
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| Hanging with the captain |
After the event, we went to the Observation Bar where there was a Cruise Critic meet and greet. We spent time chatting with other passengers before heading with one couple for dinner. The Colonnade was featuring a special lobster dinner tonight, so that's where we headed. Everything was lovely and we enjoyed chatting with a nice couple from Perth, Australia.
When we got back to the room, this gift was waiting for us.
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| A nice, small tote and a pair of insulated wine glasses |
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| There was also a beautiful rose to brighten up the room |
We tried to watch tonight's show, a cellist, on our suite TV, but unlike Viking, Seabourn does not stream the shows into the staterooms. We thought that they said they did, but obviously, we misunderstood. Oh well.
Tomorrow, we will dock in Tangier, Morocco, and travel to Chefchaouen, known as The Blue City. It will be a long 8.5-hour tour day, but we're excited to visit our third African country and our 87th country, overall.
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