December 4, 2017

   Today is Sea Day # 5.    Clocks were advanced an hour overnight and will advance again tonight to get to Chilean time for Tuesday.
   The daily activities are numerous as with most Sea Days.  One of the activities is the watercolour painting class where everything is suppled. Doug from our dining group is enjoying the classes.
   Today started overcast, but the clouds gradually disappeared before noon.  At 10 am the captain announced that the temperature was 66 and the wind was 10 to 15 knots (17 to 25 km per hour).  The ocean has swells of two meters that are gently rocking the ship.  The roll is more noticeable on Deck 11 & 12 on the walking route since the path is along the railing. The winds got stronger in the afternoon.  The ship gently rolled most of the day, but it just meant that sometimes you stepped to the side for balance.  The ship was about halfway between the port of San Martin and Arica, Chile, this morning.
    After breakfast, we walked a bit, before going to the Beyond the Podium presentation, “Our Wild Cruise”, by biologist Lizzie Daly.  Lizzie spoke about the birds and marine animals that are likely to be seen on the voyage.
   We walked more before lunch, watching some seabirds skimming above the water.  We went to the Oceanview Café for lunch where the Chef’s Special was a French theme; Beef Wellington, Beef Bourgeon, Coq au Vin, two kinds of quiches and more.  Jan from our dining group joined us for lunch since Doug was at the watercolour painting class.
   There was a matinée performance by the pianist Antonio Salci, who had performed two evenings ago.  Each day at sea there is a movie playing on the Rooftop Terrace on Deck 12 on the outdoor screen.  Today was the movie, Dean.
   During the afternoon, there were sightings of dolphins and sea lions in the water near the ship.  When you see several seabirds, it is a sign that fish are nearby and other marine animals.
   Mid-afternoon, another Beyond the Podium presentation, this time by Dr. David Roberts, was “The Moche...Warrior Kings and Queens”. It was about an ancient civilization before the Incas.
   We joined our group at dining room table 342 by the aft windows.  The selections today were Scallop & Shrimp ceviche, Tuna Niçoise and Shrimp Cocktail as appetizers; entrées - Seafood & Lobster Pappardella, with fresh broad noodles, then Blueberry Pavlova and Macadamia White Chocolate Cake as the dessert choices.
  Tonight’s Celebrity Theatre show was violinist Amy Lee playing classical, Celtic and popular music.  She performed a variety of music ending with a medley of Michael Jackson tunes. She included a video for one of her selections.
   Then it was a Captain’s Club (loyalty rewards) function – the Senior Officers Party up in the Constellation Room on Deck 11 with the house band, Blind Vinyl, playing good dance music, but anything more than 12 couples on the dance floor was too many.  The drinks and canapés were compliments of the ship’s officers.  We enjoyed the cosmopolitans and sat with a couple from Washington state on their 9th Celebrity cruise and a couple from New York on their 7th Celebrity cruise, this was our 8th Celebrity cruise (since 2012).  One of the couples is staying on the ship as one of about 320 people who will remain for the next itinerary from San Antonio to Buenos Aires arriving there on December 22 and flying home for Christmas.
    There was time to pop into the casino before, going out on Deck 4 to catch sight of the Super Moon.

Final steps for the day 14,687

Comments are welcomed.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

December 10, 2017

Image
   The sun was shining in a blue sky, there was a little wind and the temperature was 12 C, as we ventured to find the parada (bus stop) for local bus 605 to take us to Viña del Mar.   Within ten minutes we found it on Av. Playa Ancha.   The bus trip took about 20 minutes – being Sunday there was very little traffic.   We got to see lots of different areas of Valparaiso as the road followed the harbor shore. As we entered Viña del Mar, we saw the Floral Clock, known as Reloj de Flores, and pushed the button to signal to stop at the next parada.    We had 90 minutes to explore before returning to the floral clock. We walked along Av. Marina past the modern ocean side Sheraton Miramar hotel, Castillo Wulff almost on the beach and above on the cliff, Castillo Brunet, constructed of gray stone from Portugal.   Castillo Wulff was constructed between 1905 and 1908 and in 1995 became a National Historical Monument.   We walked across the bridge...
Read more

November 25, 2017

Image
       This morning we arrived at George Town, Grand Cayman.   Grand Cayman is the largest of the Cayman Islands, which are governed by United Kingdom.   The smaller islands are called Cayman Brac and Little Cayman.   Cuba is the closest country to the Cayman Islands at only 149 miles north and Jamaica is little further at 167 miles to the southeast. The Cayman Islands were discovered by Christopher Columbus on his third or fourth voyage to the Americas in 1503.   The sky was mainly cloudy, temperature 78 F and a light breeze.   The exchange rate here is one Canadian dollar is worth about 65.4 cents in Cayman dollars or if you wanted to by a t-shirt priced at $10 Cayman Dollars, to declare it for Canadian Customs the cost to show would be about $15.42 in Canadian currency.    The Cayman Port is celebrating its 40 th anniversary this year. There was one other cruise ship anchored near us the Aida Luna....
Read more

November 29, 2017

Image
    We crossed the equator during the night, after we cruised along the coast of Columbia to along the coast of the Republic of Ecuador.    This morning there was a haze and thin clouds, but the temperature was about 75 F and very little wind.   We could see beautiful beaches from the ship’s decks.     Manta, located in Manabi province, is one of the Republic of Ecuador’s largest ports and is famous for its tuna fishing industry. International major brands of tuna are processed here in one of the 16 facilities. The dock was within the working port and there were fishing boats unloading their catches at the next pier. There are 160 fishing boats on the tuna fleet. There was no smell of fish even though the ship was docked between five fishing boats that were unloading their frozen catches.   About 40 cruise ships dock in Manta each year.    Ecuador has some tall mountains in the Andes, some over 6,000 meters high. The tallest...
Read more