This is the second of three sea days in a row. The seas have been what a number of people are calling rough and there are the usual carefully placed sea sickness bags available at the food of the fore and mid ships stairways.
We are that small yellow dot below the second S in Sargasso.
NCL has its own loyalty program with various assorted privileges that kick in at each level. I had traded in my internet minutes for a credit on a full package towards the beginning of the cruise when I was seriously thinking I would have not have a working phone for the duration. Using my AT&T phone plan while in port is certainly cheaper than any ship’s WiFi…
Anyway – one of the perks at my level on NCL is a meal with an officer. Which in this case is dinner with an officer in a small group. It isn’t a Captain’s Table by any means. But it was scheduled to be a meal with six other passengers. There was a lovely couple from Florida who I think live in an area that puts them 25 minutes from Fort Lauderdale and 45 from the Miami cruise port. They are obviously staying with the ship to Miami. They also were on the Symphony TA last month. Another couple begged off since the rough seas were getting to them. And then there was the woman from Cincinnati who insisted on playing “which cruise officers do you know from other ships” with our poor officer. She is also staying till Seattle.
This was his first “opportunity” to host one of these dinners. In his mid-40s, he has been with NCL for five years, and was with RCCL for years before that. A relatively senior person in the hotel chain, his duties involve all the registrations, visas, and port immigration procedures. And working closely with the security chief since the integration of their new face recognition software (which is what they use to check people coming back on ship…)
Anyway, he was lovely, interesting, and informative any time we could get Ohio woman shut down for 10 seconds. The good thing about her behavior? It made me evaluate everything before I said it and do what I could to include the other couple and our host. I am interested in discussions of travel, experiences, etc. I really don’t who knows which crew members from past voyages. Doesn’t impress me and leaves others out of the conversation.
[off soap box]
The food was decent – better than most of my meals on Royal outside of two meals in Coastal Kitchen), And the flan actually tasted like flan.
End of day progress on Vintage Sampler which is at 58%. (13,641 stitches completed)
