Paula found a new cure for the night coughs – a swig of port! Regardless of the almost daily clock changes, we still seem to be able to sleep fairly late and today was no exception, so by the time we got sorted it was almost 10am. Paula missed her Zumba class yet again... Continuing the strict and sparse breakfast regime is made so much easier now that there are queues at every single station waiting to be served – and still there are passengers who don’t seem to grasp the importance of hand sanitising every time they enter the buffet. Information on the numbers affected are of course not available but we believe it is over 100.
(The rumour about the ship flying the red flag has not been substantiated so the comment in an earlier post has been deleted for obvious reasons.)
Our relaxed and distinctly less than energetic regime still contains the quizzes, and we excelled ourselves today with 18/20. The only two we got wrong were:
Q: What fabric was invented in Nimes (France).
A: Denim... Doh!
Q: By what name was the 1919 Volstedt Act in the USA better known.
A: Prohibition
But we lost out to two teams who managed 20/20...
‘Our’ atrium waitress was somewhat shocked by an order of tea (for Paula) but just iced water for me.
We then retired to the cabin to watch the film “Salmon Fishing in The Yemen”. What a great film.
Lunch was yet another soup plus pineapple. We stopped to chat to M & M for a while, then things got really interesting.
All the outer decks and cabins in section 7 on decks 9, 10 & 11 (the aft end of the ship) had to be cleared, in preparation for a helicopter evacuation. The crew were extremely impressive as they also had to clear all the deck furniture from the central pool area, even though the helicopter wasn’t landing and was just going to hover over the rear of the ship, way back. Entertainment staff, office staff, security staff, cabin staff, engineers, accountant, maintenance, were all involved in what was a well organised drill. Yet, even though there were several PA announcements, ordering all passengers indoors, 20 minutes later, whilst many of us had taken refuge in the Horizon Court with its glass panels, there were still three or four passengers outside at the front on decks 14 and 15, either totally oblivious or just plain awkward, until security eventually rounded them up, to cheers from the horizon court!
The whole exercise took the best part of two hours and even though we made it back to our cabin (section 6 wasn’t locked down) we couldn’t see a thing, even though we could hear the helicopter hovering above.
That rather threw our plans for a swim right out the window.
We managed the early ‘variety’ show in the theatre which was basically a couple of numbers by the new singers/dancers cast, three from Australian vocalist Jennifer Green, followed by a duet with Michael Montgomery, before his three numbers. I have to say I am not a great fan of vocalists though Michael is very impressive.
Just six of us on the table for a pleasant meal then due to Alan still being out of action, the Dawn Princess orchestra played a jazz concert in the atrium, where the young half of “Duo Yelba” took over lead guitar, then a passenger played along with a small trumpet for a couple of numbers and later, another passenger took over the piano. Good fun and an appreciative audience. Not really my kind of jazz though.
With an early start tomorrow, even with the clocks back yet again, we opted to turn in early but watched a bit of TV and a bit of reading.
Yokohama tomorrow and for us, a bus tour to Tokyo which returns about 11:30. We don’t really know what to expect but meanwhile, the ship is going to go through a major sanitisation clean up – and we do mean major.
I knew what fabric was invented in Nim's...... learnt it on my Rick Steves video!!
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