Thursday, February 13, 2020

February 14th - Happy Valentine's Day



This cut watermelon was just one of the surprises seen at the lido buffet this afternoon.  They also had ice sculptures, valentine day themed cakes, cupcakes, cake pops…you name it. There was a lot of sugar to be had by all.  I didn’t have my camera at lunch so couldn’t get pictures.  Of course, that is supposing I could get close enough to get pictures of course.  People on cruise ships sometimes act like they’ve never been fed before.  You don’t want to get between them and something new on the buffet line!

Unfortunately, the ship was unable to procure flowers while we were getting supplies in Port Kelang the other day so they announced they could not fulfill the valentine’s day flower orders.  That means every guy on the ship can say, ‘honey, I ordered the flowers for you, it’s not my fault…’

Speaking of Port Kelang I found out that only 100 people got off there to go home.  As I mentioned before people who were supposed to get off in Hong Kong/Singapore were allowed to stay on to Fremantle at no extra charge if they wanted, so it seems a lot of people took them up on that.  The bad news for them is now they need to get Australian Visa’s before we get there.  They are easily obtained online (we got ours before leaving of course) but it does require internet time, hence a very long line at the internet center the other day with some unhappy people waiting quite a while to be helped. 

We crossed the equator at 8PM last night.  In celebration of that the ship held a ‘crossing the line’ ceremony where pollywogs (those who have never crossed before) become shellbacks (like Fred and I…been there done that…).  Somehow this is accomplished by kissing a fish and an elaborate ceremony, none of which I was able to get a picture of because I arrived too late.  I did get a picture of the crowd looking down on the pool area.  Those people standing on balconies with two levels of glass behind them are in the highest priced suites on the ship.  They are duplex suites and they cost a lot.  They come with a butler and your own exercise equipment.  Nice if you can afford it.


We continue our journey to Fremantle where we hope to make landfall on Tuesday.  The tour office is under a lot of pressure to put out a list of shore excursions for our two days there.  Nothing has appeared thus far and we’re not sure what the holdup is.  We’re not planning on doing any tours with the ship during the two days ourselves but others are impatient.

The Captain gave a ‘virtual bridge tour’ as a presentation today.  He has a great sense of humor.  He talked about his time on the staff of a ship that went back and forth between Sweden and the U.S. delivering Volvos.  He said there was no getting off that ship for 14 days…’just like this cruise’…it got a big laugh. 

We’re having a lot of sea days because of all the changes.  Happily, some of the presenters who were supposed to get off in Hong Kong/Singapore stayed on and lucky for us they are really interesting.  We’ve been gaining weight lately so we’re trying to watch what we eat (darn that valentine’s day stuff).  I was planning to get my haircut in Singapore but had to have it done here on the ship.  I’ve never spent so much money on a haircut!  The cost comes out of our ‘on board credit’, this is money given to you by the cruise line for your loyalty or because you reserved early.  Even still, the haircut doesn’t justify the amount spent.

We’re sailing in the doldrums now, very calm seas and not many ships around.  We should be entering the Indian Ocean later tonight.

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