January 27, 2024, part two

I’m not sure why last night’s post was dated today, but oh well, maybe I’m secretly preparing for the international date line.

Welcome to the southern hemisphere. Not only are we on the bottom half of the world, but winter magically just became summer! The ceremony of the equator crossing was fantastic. There were about 100 guests and crew that were experiencing their first crossing. Ten at a time they were brought before the high seas court and the judge read their crimes. Like buying the streaming package and streaming movies which slowed the internet for everyone, claiming to have gone to the gym every day but couldn’t tell you what deck the gym was on, or spending way too much time in the crew bar. Even if they plead not guilty, the jury of their peers (the rest of the guests) found them guilty. The punishment was a sliming, they had to kiss a fish and were then pushed into the pool. It was very fun.

From time-to-time Seabourn brings comedians onboard to entertain us, we always attend these shows, but I realized that sitting by the pool and eavesdropping on a conversation is sometimes way more entertaining.  Today was one of those moments.  I can’t share all I heard with you because this is a public blog and I would not want any feelings hurt, so I’ll share what I can.  It seems late last night in the club a couple had a bit of a spat, she decided to leave and go to their room, he yelled at her as she exited the club “you’ll pay for this, don’t go off and leave me here”.  Well, he started pounding down drinks and when he was totally wasted, he headed for his room.  When he got to his hallway, he started stripping off his clothes, by the time he got to his room he was almost naked.  His room key would not work, so he started pounding on the door and yelling for his wife to open the door.  When security got there, they informed him that he was on the wrong floor!  They picked up his clothes and escorted him to his room.  Today he is on a mandatory vacation from alcohol.  Keep in mind, the average age on this ship is close to 80, sometimes people never grow up.😉 

I heard one lady ask, “are we really going to lose a whole day when we cross the International Date?”  Folks, we are all supposed to be seasoned and educated travelers. 

However, it’s also educational sometimes.  I heard a lady say that when she meets someone, she explains that she has reached the age that she can not always remember who she told what. She went on to say, “if I start telling you something I’ve already told you, just give me a thumbs up and I will know we’ve already been there”.  I like that because I am afraid that I may repeat some of my stories to you.  Well, if I do, just give me the thumbs up, forgive me and move to the next day. 

The other day when the Astronaut spoke to us about her experience on the space station a gentleman asked her “is the space station still active and occupied?”.  Fortunately, I did use my indoor voice as I said, “do you live under a rock?”.  A term my brother uses on me regularly.

We gain another hour tonight which will make us 3 hours ahead of the west coast and the NFL play off games start at 9 AM tomorrow. I have 4 options in place to watch: the ship may broadcast the games, but the announcers are in Germany, I should be able to stream on my laptop or phone and last-ditch effort, my son will text me updates.

For dinner tonight, we went to the Thomas Keller Grill, the most elegant eating venue on board.  Their signature plate is a Snake River (Oregon) center cut Ribeye.  Now, this will be an easy one for my Reno trip buddies.  I have had a steak 4 times so far on this cruise, can you guess how many I sent back because they were overdone?  Okay, I hear you yelling, you’re right, 4 for 4.  I’m slowly training them how to cook my steak.  Depressing for me though, I hate to waste such a great cut of meat.

By the way, if you have an iPhone, you can text us while at sea and I am on Telegram, an app you can download. 

Two more days at sea before we reach Samoa.