Practically speaking – I am going to have to upload photos to the server at
- dinner time
- middle of the night
as other options just aren’t going to be possible. As I mentioned, this is the same ship with the minimal connectivity that I sailed on last fall. I can understand it from the ship’s point of view. With 103 paying passengers, even if everyone on board bought the full package, the income wouldn’t cover the amount of bandwidth needed. And, given the particular brand of passenger, many of them don’t understand about getting off-line when not actively using wifi – much less shutting off their dozens of irrelevant apps while on limited services.
So, starting tomorrow, I will provide direct links the day after to any photos that I actually manage to get uploaded.
There are a variety of passengers. Perhaps about a dozen of us traveling solo. Several couples using the ship for their twice annual migration (England, Belgium & Portugal being the destinations I have heard so far). A reasonable mix of passengers who have been on Windstar before and new-to-the-line passengers.
Unlike last fall, there are a number of serious puzzle junkies on the ship. I brought along a couple of puzzles to contribute (one a duplicate and one that just doesn’t appeal to me). The 1000 piece Whimsy puzzle of Mt Rainer was immediately picked up by a Brit ex-pat who is now in the Denver area. He was familiar with Liberty Puzzles and was delighted to be introduced to a new manufacture of wooden puzzles. There are several puzzles that are new to me from last fall, but the rest I remember seeing completed. No matter what time I hit the lounge, someone seems to be working on a puzzle.
The large table we used has been taken over by the “cruise consultant” who is attempting to sell both future cruises and port tours. Considering that we may not even get our stop in Horta… it is going to be interesting to watch him. I mind only because it is the table with both 110 & 220 power points on top for easy access.
What else? Looks like specialty dining is going to be limited due to the low number of passengers. Can’t say that I blame the ship, since having more venues open when no extra revenue is generated makes no sense.
There is at least one knitter on the ship; says she is on the sock-a-day plan. Two stitchers are working on mixed media additions to large, square pillow coverings (the kind that are 2/20$ on Amazon). unzip, turn inside out, take out the three side seams and you now effectively have a blank canvas on which to stitch….
Me? I have been working on my Long Dog (now 62% complete) and “Life Happens, Coffee Helps” from Forbidden Fiber Co.
We have detoured ~170 nautical miles south of the original plan in an effort to avoid predicted high seas and storms.
We will see!
(currently GMT-4)
