We were fairly early to bed last night and both up about 6am
this morning which was well before sunrise. It turned out there was not a good
sunrise today because of low visibility due to a storm front. It poured in St.
Louis this morning. I guess after a week of sunshine we were due it. Today was
a turnaround day for the Queen of the Mississippi. They had breakfast a half hour earlier at 7am to
try to have all passengers off by 8:30am. The problem is that the first new arrivals
came before 7am! Before noon they announced they had all but 2 passengers onboard and
we would sail once they were aboard. It was after 3pm before they showed up and we could sail. I have no idea what
was up with that. We were all a little surprised that they held the boat for them. (It seems that it was 2 of the new passengers who had arrived and then left the boat to go sightsee and they returned well after sailing time. We know because they came in late to the tour briefing as we started sailing. Clay & I had not seen a sailing time posted and when we asked Gerardo this morning before leaving he replied that we should be onboard and ready to leave by 11am as we would leave as soon as all passengers were aboard. I just checked the newsletter for the day and it said sailing at 1:30pm.)
So Clay and I set out with umbrellas towards the Gateway Arch with our pre-booked timed tickets for 9am to go to the top of the Arch. It
must be one of those things where after enough time, I block bad memories
because I found it distinctly unpleasant. After going back, I can remember more from when I was a child and Grandma took Matt & I up there. I think Clay was OK with it because
going up and back down we had a little car to ourselves each way. If there had been 5
people squeezed in there for 3 to 4 minutes instead of just the 2 of us, it
would have been different. Also there wasn’t a big crowd at the top. That was
because we didn’t have much of a view with the rainy weather socked in. Oh,
well. You have to give it a try. I’m still glad we did it. We wandered through
the museum about the westward expansion and the gift shop and then left because
we couldn’t get phone reception underground there and Mom is coming.
We set off at a slow stroll along an upper path and talked
to Mom by phone a couple of times to confirm that they were making their way on
the MetroLink. It cost them $2 each, so convenient and affordable. They arrived
several minutes after we did and there were few people in the train's cars. We walked
them to take the elevator down to the street and then down the block and under the cover of the parking deck where we met Nancy
the golf cart shuttle driver the day before and Mom called her and in minutes
she was driving us the 2 blocks to the boat. It would be an easy downhill walk
if it weren’t pouring rain! We were all back onboard by 10am or so. Robert was
checking boarding passes this week which surprised me because no one ever asked
for anything but a name and cabin number from us last week. Robert pointed out
that he was not willing to give anybody who was willing to ride a bus for 5
hours to Dubuque any grief and I guess that is a good philosophy.
So, they got unpacked and settled and we visited and I gave
them a guided orientation tour of the boat. Safety briefing was at 12:15pm and
while ours last week was just a short video, this was live by the mate. Lunch
was at 12:30pm. We met the new Riverlorian, whose name is Mike again this week.
Different Mikes. Sorry I don’t have a copy of the menu since we had to use the
back to order dinner today. I will say that of the 4 choices there was nothing I
would eat and I asked for a PB&J and chips and it was perfect. (I know we
have been told that Oceania will not honor special requests in their
restaurants but I just find it hard to believe or to imagine dealing with that
kind of rigidity for 6 months next year, but I guess we’ll see.) In other bad
news, we had a brand new waitress and what a mess!! The new Riverlorian Mike was the first to explain to us, as we waited 45 minutes to place our food orders, how ACL only hires steward/waitstaff as trainees for 12-week increments with no option for permanent employment. It explained a lot, not that it makes it right at this per diem! Mike explained that he used to be the Hotel Manager for the Delta Queen when it used to sail the Mississippi.
At 2:30pm, they held the tour briefing. There are a lot more
paid tours this week than last week. Given the quality of last week’s tours, I
am not willing to pay ACL more money for any of their tours. We all discussed
what we would like to do and with some compromise and planning, I think we will
see everything to satisfy everyone and for little extra expense or trouble.
We 3 ladies spent the afternoon in rockers in the shade
behind the Sky Lounge on Deck 4. Our favorite rockers on the front of the boat
were overcrowded and too windy anyway. We spent some time working on that awfully
difficult Thomas Kinkaide Tara jigsaw puzzle and hopefully we’ll finish it soon and
get a better one.
We changed for cocktail hour/dinner and all went. They
changed Rieslings last night and the one they are pouring now is undrinkable.
So I left tonight’s glass in the lounge and hoped for something nice at dinner.
It was a Sauvignon Blanc, which I have not had good luck with and this one
tasted like cat piss smells. So, no wine for me tonight. I’ll have to try
requesting a Chenin Blanc or something and see if I can find a new wine this
week. We got into dinner a few minutes early tonight and that never happened
before but then we were never in the lounge when they rang the 5-minute warning
bell for dinnertime either. In any event, we scored the front of the room 4-top
and even though we had another new waitress, it was our most timely meal to
date. Inexplicably, several people arrived to dinner more than 15 minutes late
and everyone had certainly already ordered and most were eating already. I
guess they did not understand the distinction that Gerardo explained twice
during his pre-tour talk orientation about the difference between open seating
and single seating. Open seating means come when you like between certain
hours at breakfast. But lunch and dinner which are served at 12:30 and at
6:30 in a single seating. I still don’t think those people got the memo. I
haven’t seen him yet, but I think we also got a new chef this week. So, dinner
tonight was first course, field salad or scallops. Main course was prime rib of beef
or blackened stuffed pork tenderloin, or mahi. Dessert was cheesecake with sour
cherry compote (Not! It was a 3-layer Frankendessert of cookie crumb crust,
cheesecake, red velvet cake and meringue. It was tasty but not the same dessert
they served last week by that name.) or peach shortcake or ice cream.
After dinner, we did a little puzzle work then Mom &
Judy went to Silk Pajamas and line dancing in the Magnolia Lounge. Clay went to
sleep and I am here typing up notes.
The river and the landscape were different today. Very
industrial and developed for miles. We did not have a good view off the center
of the back of the boat and Clay had my binoculars. When I went back to the
room around 5pm, Clay complained that he had not seen any wildlife all
afternoon. I replied that I had seen some birds and then went back in the
cabin. I turned around and looked out the window to immediately see a flying
bald eagle, followed by a great blue heron, then a flock of buzzards circling
what looked like a great stone castle alongside the west bank of the
Mississippi. That was a little creepy, only the American flag saved it. We went to happy hour where I promptly
spotted another bald eagle flying out the port side window. Clay was disgusted. Mom
& Judy said he didn’t see any birds all afternoon because he was asleep. He
admitted that might have been a factor.
Well we are sailing all day tomorrow, so people will really
have a chance to settle in for this cruise. Monday in Memphis!
Photos
Photos
