Shipmates at Gala Dinner

Sea days are times to relax and recuperate. That's what we did. Breakfast usually was in the main dining room. We asked for a table for two because of my coughing. We had lunch on the Lido Deck and dinner in the main dining room with our shipmates. One of the dinners was with gala attire. The menu on gala nights had surf and turf. I did not want turf and Juan did not want surf. So I got two servings of lobster and he got two servings of steak. A good compromise. ​

The time between meals was spent reading, napping and going to talks in the Vista Lounge. The non-staff people giving talks were not very good except for the astronomer. He extended his presentation one night to take us out on one of the top decks so he could point out constellations and stars with his powerful laser beam. I saw the Southern Cross, Orion's Belt and Beatlegeuse after stumbling around in the dark.

Ann took advantage of the pool and tried to swim through the massive bodies that were in the pool to soak, wade or socialize. The weather was getting much warmer as we cruised toward the equator. ​

We did not go to the entertainment the first two nights, but on the third night we saw Barry Seacroft whose primary instrument is the soprano saxophone.

We were scheduled to go to New Caledonia, but there was a cyclone heading there. To be safe, our route was changed to bypass the weather and sail into Port Vila. Neither Ann not I had the energy to go on a shore excursion. We managed to leave the ship for a short tour of vendor stalls that were set up next to the dock. We found nothing that we wanted to buy. ​

The evening's show was Patrick McMahon a wildly entertaining singer, guitar player and joke teller.