Evening Wear

Between lunchtime and dinner we did absolutely nothing - and it was everything we thought it could be. We gazed out our balcony, Bryan took a snooze (as he hasn’t been sleeping very well), I painstakingly slowly watched some Marco Polo messages from Desmond and Megan (which decided to load about two seconds each time I refreshed), and we visited the ice cream bar and walked around with our treats looking for the elusive putt putt golf course. My “strawberry” sorbet was immensely disappointing, mostly because it turned out not to be strawberry. I couldn’t place the flavor, and guessed that it was maybe watermelon or some sort of fruit punch. At dinner later that night, we learned that it had been cranberry. I set it aside without finishing it, which is made easier to do as it is complimentary. 

After walking about, and lazing around, it was time to get dressed for dinner. It was the first of two formal nights on the ship, and the payoff for lugging our garnet bag all this way. 

We looked for our table mates from the previous evening, but didn’t see them. We asked about being seated in Manny’s section, and were told it was full and if we ask ahead next time, this request could be granted. I mentioned we had asked last night and had been told “no.” 

The appalled expression in her eyes above her mask leads me to believe that they are expected to never tell a guest “no.”  To be perfectly fair, the head waiter had not told us no but had explained that it was “not possible” at our reserved dinner time and suggested that perhaps at an earlier time it would be possible to accommodate such a request. 

In any case, we were lead into the dining room and seated with four Australians we had not met yet. At first I thought it was parents, their child, and a grandfather - but we later learned that the older gentleman seated next to Bryan was unrelated to the three across from us. 

After a few moments without conversation, Bryan offered our names by way of starting off introductions. Early on in the conversation, before salads had even come, the gentleman went into a prolonged gripe about how “all those Americans crowd in front of things taking selfies so that no one can get a proper picture of it.”  As we listened, I thought of the selfie we had taken on the way to dinner. 

Soon after this awkward moment, the woman across from us asked if we were over from America. There was nothing for it. We admitted to being Americans and went on with our evening visiting with our table mates. The gentleman didn’t seem embarrassed in the least to have been emphatically disparaging people from our country mere moments before. Ah well. I am sure it will be many years in the future before I forget his particularly scornful remarks about selfies in particular and Americans in general. They say that travel is an education, and I think taking a humble view of one’s customs and peculiarities by seeing them through the eyes of another is probably healthy. And it serves as a reminder to guard my own words in case any of my own opinions might give another discomfort. 

I did not feel inclined to take out my phone to snap pictures of our plates, given the circumstances, so my description will have to suffice. Dinner was good, but dessert was better. They served me a delicate piece of layered white cake, surrounded artfully by raspberry sauce. The layers that were not cake were the same sort of whipped cream that had topped my meringue at lunch. I am not sure what they are making it of (magic?) but It was such a treat!  

After dinner we made our way to the Princess Theater for the evening’s entertainment. Outside the door we were recognized by the cruise director who had met us briefly the night before as we were walking the promenade. Kevin remembered us and where we were from and, eyes twinkling above his mask, relayed part of this information to a fellow crew member from Vancouver. . . B.C. 

We are seriously beginning to wonder if there are any other people from the USA on this cruise. 

The show was. . . diverting. The costumes were lavish, the singing good, and the choreography fairly well executed. However, the overall show, which was called “Encore,” was confusing. It was difficult to determine what rhyme or reason there might have been for the musical selections and order of performance. There were moments of it that were enjoyable, but as a whole Bryan and I agreed we couldn’t make heads or tails of it. 

After the show concluded, we got our picture taken in the atrium and then made our way back to our stateroom, ready for bed. 

We were amused to find that our room steward, Sigfred, had fanned out the extra blankets on our bed. These had been requested for when we sit out on the porch to bundle up a bit, and he decided they needed to be arranged when he turned down the bed while we were at dinner. 

Tomorrow we will be at our first port of call, Airlie Beach. We have no shore excursion booked, and plan to just take a walk around and see what we see.