Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 85/96 - Sea Day - Birthday Friend Fun
One of the friends we made on the ship, Margaret, was celebrating her birthday today. Of course, the fabulous team in The Colonnade was aware and brought heart-shaped pancakes and mimosas for her for breakfast.
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| Surprise |
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| Excitement |
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| Blowing out the candle (and blowing the powdered sugar everywhere) |
After a hearty round of 🎶Happy Birthday🎶, she enjoyed her breakfast.
The seas calmed somewhat overnight. We still are moving a bit, but it is much calmer than yesterday.
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| Another nice sunrise |
We played Baggo this morning with an interesting twist - a blindfold. We could line up but then had to put the blindfold on and throw. Only a few of us hit the board. We threw next with our non-dominant hand. I made the semis but came up a few points short of the final. These daily twists make the game different every day. Not everyone likes it, but I find the challenges to be fun.
After getting our passports back yesterday, It got me thinking. I flipped through the freshly stamped pages and it brought back fond memories from this adventure.
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| A couple stamps from Ecuador from a previous trip, and Barcelona |
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| Zanzibar (Tanzania), Angola, Ghana |
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| Mozambique, Angola, Tanzania |
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| South Africa, Sao Tome and Principe, and an older Serbia stamp |
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| South Africa, Botswana |
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| Madagascar |
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| Namibia, South Africa |
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| Zambia, Zimbabwe |
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| Benin, South Africa, Zimbabwe |
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| Togo |
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| The Gambia, Senegal |
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| Senegal |
We didn't get a stamp in Cabo Verde, Ivory Coast, or Seychelles. Immigration really varies from country to country.
Arlona painted today. Her project was a birthday card for Margaret.
We played the final round of accumulative trivia today. The usual gang was in the lead and essentially uncatchable. There was a tight race for second but we were far enough behind that we were destined to finish in the middle of the pack. We started the day in fifth place and ended in fourth, so I guess we'll call that a win. Today's misses:
- Who said, "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go."?
- We had a list of contenders and guessed Churchill - it was Oscar Wilde (he was on the list)
- What country has the letters "IS" on their automotive license plates?
- We guessed Israel - it was Iceland
The bonus today was to name the ten countries with the largest populations. A bonus was given for each one in the right order. We got seven correct, but only the top two were in the right order. Here is the full and accurate list.
- India
- China
- USA
- Indonesia
- Pakistan
- Nigeria
- Brazil
- Bangladesh
- Russia
- Ethiopia
Arlona took the jewelry that she made up to Seabourn Square this afternoon. The jewelry, along with her paintings were on display for a couple of hours along with the works of all the other guests in an art exhibition. Some of the paintings were available for purchase with all collected funds going into the crew benefit fund.
We attended the Captain's farewell tonight as this is the last day of this segment of this journey. Many guests will disembark in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands tomorrow. Many more will embark and we are expected to have a full ship for this last eight-day segment back to Barcelona.
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| The officers all gathered in The Grand Salon |
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| Many crew members from all departments came on stage for recognition |
It was a nice presentation, but the same after every segment. After that presentation, the entertainment department presented Classique, a crossover music event featuring Ronni and Jay from the Seabourn Six. They sang classic Italian songs, in Italian, sprinkled with English, in solos and duets.
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| They put on a great show |
After the show, we grabbed a pre-dinner cocktail in the Observation Bar and then went to dinner. Eight of us dined together tonight to continue the celebration of Margaret's birthday. It was a nice dinner, complete with cake and ice cream.
Tonight's show featured
Kieran Alleyne from the Soulwaves performance a couple of nights ago. He has been in the musical, Thriller, playing Michael Jackson twice, once at 13 and then again at 23. He also played Michael in MJ The Musical in London's West End. His show tonight featured music from Michael Jackson.
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| He channeled MJ's moves and sound extremely well with lots of energy |
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| It was easily one of the best shows we've seen on this journey |
Tomorrow, we switch from Africa to Europe when we dock in Las Palmas. Even though The Canary Islands are off the west coast of Morocco, they are part of Spain, so we'll be in Europe and spending Euros.
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| The Canary Islands are circled in red |
We have a full-day tour of the best of Grand Canary departing at 9:00 tomorrow morning.
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