Day 16 – formal dinner with Staff Captain
(During our breakfast, I heard from my Social Committee Co-Chair for our building. The brunch was a great success with no drama. And the signature cocktail we created was a huge hit! – And a related funny bit: I had suggested a Kir Royale, which is something they sometimes pass out on our ship.)
We finally finished our long game of cribbage with him winning 7-5. And then, we got a dinner invitation to another hosted table. We did not know* what we were in for.
We had had afternoon tea a couple of times, but this was our first Viennese High Tea. Apparently an apple strudel is the difference. Literally everything else was the same. We enjoyed it, but were a little bit confused.
*The hosted table we were seated at was for the #2 person on the boat, the Staff Captain. She’s Polish, is quietly helping pave the way for women in her field, and is an absolute delight. We had a lovely time. The server even came to shoo us off to the show because the conversation was non-stop.
The show was a “mentalist” doing parlor tricks. He was funny and the show was okay, but it was also easy to see how he did most of the tricks. Because we prefer the back row, we had been sitting next to the same woman most nights. We were even polite when she loudly snored through one of the shows. But this night, she revealed herself to be a magat, so we will sit somewhere else for the other nights.
Both the Trio and the Band were great. But everyone, us included, keeps turning in early. We are tired despite the fact that we are spending our days doing whatever we want. I really don’t know how the staff do it; they are all working 12-hour days every day. About 75% of them get some time off when we go into a port, but that also means that 25% of those days, they don’t get a day off. And, even when they do, it’s a few hours mid-day, not the whole time we are there. However, many of them have worked for Seabourn for quite a few years. They are drawn to the Ship Life. (And we are aware: Seabourn hires from countries with a lower COL, so the wages are great for people from those places. Hardly any of the staff is American.)
Day 17 – me tired
I was overwhelmingly tired. I felt like all we were doing was running from one thing back to change clothes to the next thing…like 3-4 times a day. We have tried to sleep in and then go to breakfast, but then we have to eat lunch early to avoid the mayhem of trivia letting out. He gets a nap, but I’ve never been good at that. Everything is rush, rush, rush and exhausting. (And we are only doing the things we really want to do–probably about a quarter of the activities offered.)
So, as soon as we could finish breakfast, it was back to our cabin and then up to the pool deck for a bunch of games. Nearly every department had a game set up for the guests to play. You could assemble an engine part, tie knots, fill in the org chart, evaluate gem stones, identify travel destinations, and about 20 other games*. It looked fun (and the staff seemed to be having the most fun), but we don’t actually want the prizes and there was no way I was staying out there in the heat on a extraordinarily muggy day.
I lost him and couldn’t find our friend, so I headed back to the club to sit in a quiet air conditioned space. He joined me, but we didn’t stay long. They started to set up for trivia. And when those people all came in, it got loud and muggy in there, too. We came back to the cabin. He was tired too, because as soon as he stopped moving, he fell asleep.
* Our friend E was the only person to place first in two of the games.
Our briefing from the Captain was interesting. The land we are closest to at this point is the Palmyra Atoll. It’s US owned and under the control of Fish and Wildlife. But it has an interesting history, too. There is even a miniseries about it’s tragic story.
We napped for the whole afternoon. Well, he did and I tried and dozed a little to a movie. Before our hosted dinner, we went to the Observation Bar for a drink and to watch the sunset.
At dinner, we sat with the Leadership & Development Officer from the little country of Moldova. She trains every staff and crew member on Seabourn’s policies and standards. One woman at our table got displaced from her cabin, possibly by the woman who had a stroke. Our table mate had been in a handicap suite. You can stay in those with the caveat that if it becomes needed, you get bumped. Well, it was and she did. We told her about the woman who had the stroke; the timing matched.
The evening entertainment was a movie that I’ve seen, that I don’t care to see again, and that he won’t like. So, I took a hot bath. The other option was a Dance Party on deck, but it was ultra windy and super muggy. No thanks. And while I was writing this, they moved the Dance Party to The Club. That’s the second time that has happened, so maybe they should stop trying to have those outside. LOL.
We also have a new term. For a couple of days, the winds have whistled slightly through one door in the Observation Bar. He called it a banshee. Well this night was worse and the winds were whistling through our veranda door. I tried to open it so I could pull it tightly closed but the winds were so strong I couldn’t open the door. I guess we can say we slept with a banshee.
Day 18 – bridge
We had a late breakfast. I did a tiny bit of blogging, but we were rushed because of two cabin cleanings a day. Yes, we are spoiled in the most ridiculous ways; we both appreciate the level of service. At least I was finally caught up on sleep and able to function. But even our breakfast server asked, “Are you okay?” Yes, I was, I was just still waking up.
We started a new game of cribbage; he’s ahead 1-0. And then we got a Bridge Tour. It was amazing. If you ever get the chance, do it! We learned a lot about the ship. The stabilizers (“wings” under the water) extend four meters out the sides of the ship. And the maintenance they did before we left LA was to clear barnacles and other things off the boat. New Zealand has very high standards for clean boats upon entry, so they cleaned in LA, again in Hawai’i, and will do it another time before we can sail into New Zealand’s waters.
On our way out of the Bridge Tour, we found our friends day drinking on the patio. It was lovely except for one thing. The sole Texan on this boat (someone they befriended) is a hateful magat. It’s no surprise really since he owns homes in Texass and Arseizona. He made a quite nasty and inappropriate quip about our Vice President. He’s also been creeping on a woman young enough to be his daughter (but looks young enough to be his grand daughter). She has politely tolerated him, but his behavior is predatory. I will not spend any more time with Brent the Bigot.
We then went to Name That Tune with the expectation that we’d just watch. After we picked a pretend team name, the Cruise Director called us voyeurs, so we took a sheet and added that to our team name: Cheeky Voyeurs! This time the songs were from popular/original artists instead of a piano. As a team of two, we got last, but we got 9 of the 18 possible points from 15 songs. We wrote funny answers for the songs we didn’t know. He even poked a little fun at the Entertainment Director who is from Liverpool. And it was a ton of fun.
Our dinner was lovely as always and the Seabourn Six put on a great show, too.