World Cruise - Day 19 - Jan 31 - At Sea

Today is another sea day, so that means another beautiful sunrise.  I took about 100 photos this morning, these are the five finalists (I couldn’t narrow it down below 5), with the first three being pre-sunrise:

This is looking off the back of the ship on deck 9 at the seating outside the buffet with the prop churn in the water leaving a wake as it goes off toward the sunrise.

I was playing with the lighting quite a bit to pull out the most intense colors.

I like the blues and reds of this photo, still before sunrise.

This is the actual sunrise.  Again, I played a lot with the lens and the lighting to get this effect.

This is post sunrise, taken from our balcony.  I love how the camera pulled out the blues in the sky.

Anyway, enough on sunrises.  By now, you’re probably ODed on sunrises, trivia and ping pong.  I’ll try to find other things of interest to talk about today.

Sonia, thanks for the background on the pollywog tradition with crossing the equator.  Wasn’t aware of that and glad to now know the origins.  We won’t be participating in that activity based on the history and roots.

Patti and Sonia, we are trying to work out an opportunity for Emmanuelle to swim with the dolphins at either Sealife Park or Dolphin Quest in Honolulu.  We have Sealife agreeing to do a Dolphin Encounter, although the difficulty is that the “waist high” water for Emmanuelle would actually be difficult, since he cannot stand for long periods of time (even in the water), so she would need to have a life jacket and be floating.  She has now reserved that tour (yay!) to at least have an encounter with the dolphins, although she would really like to (if possible) do the swim with the dolphins.  We’re glad that she will be able to at least do the encounter, still trying to work out the actual swim with the dolphins.  We have done that in the past and everyone is wearing life jackets and floating in deep water, so that would actually be easier for her than the encounter, where she would be in shallow water and her legs/knees on the bottom.  I will let you know what we get worked out for her.

I did my weigh-in today.  It’s kinda hard to get a good reading on the scale while the ship is moving (it can vary by as much as 5 pounds in both directions within just a few seconds, depending on the tilt of the ship), but it appears that I am so far holding even at the same weight as when we joined the ship.  Krissie has been doing Zumba most days when it is provided and we have both been walking the track.  Krissie is more diligent about the exercise than me, so maybe she has lost weight since joining the ship.  Our worry was the common cruise ship “gain a pound per day” thing that we’re trying to avoid.  We’re eating healthy and trying to get exercise each day.

I talked to Dan today (the 21-year-old on the full world cruise) and found out that he paid for his entire portion of the trip on his own.  He has been working and earning money and was able to save up enough for both the cruise and the shore excursions.  Good for him!  It’s a great life experience for him to be here on this cruise.  And now there’s a 19-year-old girl on this segment (Anna Marie), so at least he has some company in his age range.

WWII Historian Bruce Petty (the father of Anna Marie, BTW) gave another presentation today, this one on Guam, Tinian and the Islands of North Saipan:

I really enjoy learning about history, especially about the areas where we will be traveling (we will be in Guam and the Marianna Islands after Australia).

I had some time today, so I took a few more pics around the ship:

Sandy Gunder is in charge of future cruise sales onboard.

Another photo of the casino, this time showing the roulette and slot machines.  I don’t think I’ve seen anyone playing roulette, but the slot machines are busier at night.

This is Domnick in the camera center.  He was very helpful today with my PowerShot and we were able to get the lens cover fixed.

There are several shops onboard.  This one is the jewelry store…

…this one is for perfumes and clothing…

…and this one sells various sundries.

Andrew has been doing a great job in the Excursions desk and has helped us out trying to get Emmanuelle on the dolphin swim (still trying with the local vendors).

Reception has been very helpful with just about any request, from making copies for our Cruise Critic meetings to answering general questions about the ship.

Today was Chuck Weinberger’s birthday.  Lorraine invited us to their cabin for asti spumante and chocolate covered strawberries.

We gave Chuck several birthday presents: a lanyard, a mint chocolate, a heart chocolate, a magnetic clip and a first place medal for being the very best at what he does (actually, it was for being the best __-year-old onboard, but I didn’t get his OK to print his age on the blog).  The waiters sang happy birthday to Chuck at dinner.

I love this pic of Lorraine and Chuck.

Keegan, one of the dancers, was telling us about the production numbers onboard.  They will be doing a total of 9 production shows during the course of the world cruise.  They had learned 5 production numbers at the beginning of the cruise and are learning 4 new shows.  So all of the production shows will be original while we are onboard.

Apparently Jerry Mathers (Beaver Cleaver) is already onboard, although we haven’t seen him yet.  He will be giving a presentation tomorrow entitled “Leave it to Beaver: Behind the Scenes” in the Cabaret Lounge.  Krissie wants to get her pic with The Beav.

The show tonight was Huber Marionettes.

I got this pic of the puppeteer (never caught his name, although I would guess it is Huber?) along with Janie, our friend onboard.

Lorraine wanted me to post this pic of this really cool shirt:

The guy wearing the shirt has some great pecs and chest hair.  The shirt was a hobbit gift from a friend.

Tomorrow is another sea day.