Monday, 15 August 2016

NEW YORK TO SYDNEY CRUISE PART 5 - Sea days Sunday 7th to Tuesday 16th August

Part 5
Sea days Sunday 7th August to Tuesday 16th August
As our last landfall was at Valparaiso on 6th August and our next landfall is not until Moorea on 16th August we will have spent 10 days at sea and some people are freaking out.  However, I love it. 
This trip from New York to Sydney is a segment of the Sydney to Sydney World tour lasting 104 unforgettable days taking in 5 continents, 39 “Legendary Ports of Call” and 38 time zones.

Thankfully this segment only lasts for 38 days during which we will have been through 10 time zones, crossed the equator and the international date line, through the tropics twice, winter once and spring once.  That messes with both your body and your head.

I think that 38 days is quite long enough, however there are a surprising number of people doing the whole trip and, even more surprising, many have done it several times!  In fact, the couple on the next table to us in the dining room travel, on average, 300 days a year and have clocked up more than 2500 days.  My query is, don’t they have a life? 

This is my schedule on a typical day at sea:
0730      Breakfast – today in the dining room on a “shared table” (that means random people to either like or dislike).  Some mornings I go to the buffet.  My regular buffet breakfast is mixed fresh fruit and yoghurt, then scrambled egg and crispy bacon (American style), fresh orange juice and a nice cuppa.
0845      Bible Study – which bizarrely meets in the “Nook Whiskey Bar” in full view of other passengers who gaze on in wonder and awe when we break into song from time to time. 
1000      An “Enrichment Lecture” in the Princess Theatre.  This day it was a showing of the Machu Picchu presentation of a trip some of our fellow passengers made to this amazing place high in the Andes.
1115      Trivia – self explanatory
1200      Deck therapy in the sun
1230      Today it was lunch in the dining room, where I made more new friends (or not) instead of the buffet where I would invariably have a bowl of soup and a pudding
1400      Watch the choir who had been practicing since New York. This took place in the Vista Lounge.
1530      More trivia – where we usually make fools of ourselves.
1730      Dinner in the dining room.  I usually go for the chilled soup (which is like a smoothie) and a half portion of the main course so that I can make room for a yummy pudding.
1830      Write a blog update
1945      Go to show in the Princess Lounge. This day it was a comic singer called Maggie.  Highly unforgettable but from time to time there have been some really good shows.
2000      Listened to the band and watched the dancing in the Wheelhouse bar whilst drinking a Pina Colada.

2130     Yet more trivia and then bed.

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