Day 4

Day 4, 28^th May 2011

We spent a hectic first day at sea, trying to set a pattern for our life on board the ship. We had a broken first night's sleep on board which I put down to the excitement, unfamiliar bed and surroundings. I know that I didn't manage to have much sleep the last couple of nights before leaving home, which I put down to anticipation and organising home, dog and financial affairs, and our last minute farewells and packing.   However I expected a better night's sleep the second night, which was not to be, but last night has broken the trend as we have both calmed down and sleep has finally come to us.

So far our days are starting with a 7 lap of the deck walk followed by breakfast and the day's programs. Our intentions are to increase our laps every few days and work out in the gym though at the moment it is hard to find any piece of equipment in the gym which isn't being used when we walk in there. We have discovered and intend to sit in on his talks, an economics lecturer, Colin White, who is giving a series of lectures on the World's Economy whilst we are sailing to Dubai.  He is giving us a very interesting insight on how the countries around the world are structuring their policies.

Talk about remembering names……..we have met so many lovely people, chattered with them and built up a repour and can I remember all of their names? I think I have about half of their names locked in the memory but the others will just have to repeat their names. I bet they are thinking the same.

Last night the ship had the first of 17 formal nights. This occasion also had the Captain's 'Welcome aboard Party' and Champagne Waterfall. With that is 'free' champagne!  Paul had an upset over his soda and bitters he usually gets with his 'soda card'. The waiters keep coming back to him to say that they couldn't give him his favourite drink on the card as bitters was alcohol and the 3-4 drops would constitute the drink as an alcohol beverage and he would need to pay for it separately. On previous cruises this had not been an issue and it took a trip to the Purser's Desk to qualify the change. They rang us next morning to inform us that the food and beverage manager would allow the drink to be added to the soda steam package. I now have one happy husband…..he was distraught thinking he would be drinking water for virtually the whole cruise.   

Today we are sailing at 19.7 knots, just off the coast from Townsville and north to Cooktown. The seas are slight, there are a couple of cotton ball clouds scattered around in the blue sky and the temp is 24C. People are scattered on the various decks, lying on lazy boys, reading their books or electronic books, or listening to their iPods.

The Capt.  announced yesterday one of the 4 engines had broken down and a technician will be boarding the ship in Darwin to (hopefully) rectify the problem.

There has been a line up outside the Tour Office with people hoping to book on the ship's tours. Most of them are already booked out. The trip to the Taj Mahal had been booked out months before sailing but I have also noted a lot of other tours were booked out as well. There is one lucky couple who have managed to get on the Paris/ Seine tour thanks to my oversight of booking the tour twice on the cruise personaliser. I handed back the extra tickets yesterday and today I intend to check our statement to see if the cost has been refunded.

Paul has joined the World Cruise Choir. There are two other couples from Adelaide who have encouraged him to join with them in this activity. I listened to them practice today but will use this spare time to do something else.  We played the Afternoon Quiz today but gave Bingo a miss. Last night watched the Showtime performance of 'Rock This Town', the previous night we saw the comedian Dave Burke who I thought, was quite funny and not crude.

So far today I have walked 5kms on the pedometer.