Do the math and it should be 8 days. However since we crossed the International date line, we “lost” a day. As it turned out, we crossed the Equator at the same time. They call that Crossing the Golden Line. What is more, we crossed the Golden Line at Noon. So we had breakfast on Friday in the Northern Hemisphere and dinner that same day on Saturday in the Southern Hemisphere. Of course we’ve already gained a bunch of time by crossing a time zone almost every other day.
We started our eek at sea by having breakfast in our room while watching the Inauguration.
After a few days at sea, we have adopted a basic routine, having breakfast about 8 and lunch at noon in the Lido cafeteria
A Meal in The Lido
with dinner at 5:30 in the La Fontaine Dining Room.
La Fontaine Dining Room
La Fontaine is two stories with sufficient seating for about half the guests. There are two dinner seatings, 5:30 and 8:00 pm. It is also open for a served breakfast or lunch, but we prefer the flexibility and choice of the Lido.
After breakfast there is Tai Chi class. After lunch Janice and I go to Tia Chi practice.
Tia Chi Practice in the Crow's Nest
In between we go to various lectures, Janice especially likes the cooking class,
Mr. Recipe
maybe watch a movie, or sit in one of the many lounges and read or write the copy for this blog or the trip journal.
We have dinner every evening at the same table for eight are are slowly becoming like family.
Typical Dinner
After dinner there is usually live entertainment in the Queens Lounge, which like the dining room is two-stories and designed to hold about half the guests as there are two shows. We’ve had singers, instrumentalists, a joking juggler, a magician, a comedian, and several performances by the “Rotterdam Singers and Dancers” 7 singers and dancers who perform “favorites.” The biggest name so far is Viki Lawrence who did half the show as herself and half as “Momma” from the Carol Burnett show.
Viki Lawrence as
The seas have been moderate, 3-5 foot waves, so the sailing has been good. Ive tried to shoot some short videos to show the motion of the ship, but it doesn’t really show up well. This video was captured on the way to Hawaii and does show that the swimming pool on deck 8 (really about 10 decks above the water line) and how the water splashes about on one of the rougher days we’ve had so far.
[flashvideo file=wp-content/uploads/2009/02/00155_active_pool.flv image=wp-content/uploads/2009/02/00155.jpg width=350 /]
As I write this on Monday morning (while the Super Bowl is being played.
Super Bowl Monday in the Queen
We’ve seen the daily high temperature go from the low 70s to the mid 80s. Days have been partly cloudy with a few light showers over the course of the week. We hear that Melbourne has been experiencing a heat wave with temperatures from 105 to 115°F.
I’m amazed at how quickly the week has passed! It’s like being at a resort, except we are on the water and going across the Pacific Ocean.