Cruising the Atlantic Ocean

Photos

I'll pick up where I left off with yesterday's WC 2019 Exclusive Shoreside Event. It did not surprise, disappoint or impress. It was in a spectacular setting  and must have been a logistical nightmare to set up, but honestly that should have been inconspicuous not the most impressive part. Otherwise it was a hodgepodge of local talent and a Star Wars theme. The 2 were not related except by 3 local dancing girls who twirled lights in the dark. The star of the evening, and only professional quality entertertainer, was an uncredited soprano who gave me goosebumps with 3 songs and dramatic lighting effects. Just as I was thinking the dune behind her was made for a laser light show, the Millennium Falcon showed up a less than 1 minute show as the Grand Finale.  Clay has a photo of the extensive canapes meal we were served. The cold canapes were on the tables for self-service when we arrived. The hot canapes were served to each person one at a time more or less in the order listed on the menu. Dessert was served after we'd left the tent and were seated under the stars for the final entertainment. I'd say it was the Star Wars portion but the highlight soprano was unrelated to Star Wars. She was preceded by the light twirlers and followed by the laser light projection with John Williams soundtrack. The waitstaff squeezed down between each row in the dark after we were all seated. We didn't take any dessert until we were standing in the lights waiting to load buses for the ride back. That brings me to the ride. We drew bus 12 outbound. Our bus left last as they were trying to find a working microphone. They didn't. We were told it would take 15 minutes, 30 minutes and 45 minutes to reach the venue for the evening. It wound up taking an hour after we boarded. All the other buses departed as we tried 3 microphones, We left and drove about 15 minutes on paved road toward Windhoek. We exited at Dune 7 where we could see what we thought was all the other buses. Clay heard later arrivals at the party talking about their photo op at Dune 7. Our bus drove towards the other buses and then made a right on a washboard dirt road paralleling train tracks and the paved road. We got rattled for the next 30 minutes wondering. We came to an intersection and a man was there to direct us as well as paper signs to the Crystal Event. I learned from the bus 6 outbound escort on the return that his bus did the same thing without the microphone delay. He pondered the wisdom of the long dirt road drive when we returned by the paved road in about a 1/2 hour. Right? It was kind of a mess. I feel like luxury cruises set such a high standard of expectation aboard that "special" shoreside events inevitably disappoint.

We got back onboard Serenity about 9:30 pm. We were greeted with hot washclothes and champagne in flutes and directed to Stardust for Namibian exit immigration procedures. It was quite quick and painless and the ship collected our passports again as we left the lounge. It was straight to bed for us even though I had a long nap yesterday afternoon. Getting motion sick with vertigo in the morning wiped me out and made me shaky all day yesterday.

Clay was up first in the dark today. It is overcast with low clouds but fairly calm seas and warmer today. The pool had water in it this morning. Breakfast at Marketplace started at 7:30 am today and was sparsely attended when we were there. We waited to return to our cabin as usual in Palm Court and yoga was sparsely attended as well. A waitress this morning said 320-something passengers were off at the event last night. I know we were out past our bedtime, but I had an impression that evening performances aboard were well attended which meant not everyone else who went ashore last night should have been sleeping in today. In any event, it is the first of 3 sea days and I guess that was reason enough to lay up for a couple extra hours.

We got 2 loads of laundry done this morning so that is done. I suspect I'll do it at least once more before the end of the cruise but we'll see. Reflections says that Marketplace lunch is Asian Specialties. It will be our theme all day as the Waterside menu was not appealing and Clay got us Silk reservations for dinner tonight. We turn the clocks back an hour tonight on our way northwest towards St. Helena. That's what I like 3 days to do nothing and some extra time to catch up on sleep as a bonus. I'll assume nothing else noteworthy and post this now.

The captain noted in his noon announcement that while we are heading towards the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean you'd expect not to see much. So he said even he was surprised to find himself at noon within a mile of 3 other ships that needed to be safely cleared. He said he is running, at 15 knots, slightly below the average speed he needs to make Jamestown, St. Helena on schedule. He says he is enjoying the smooth sailing and the fuel and carbon emissions savings from only running 2 generators for now and will add a 3rd and a short burst of speed later to make schedule. Fingers crossed we make landfall on St. Helena this trip. We've never forgotten that disappointment in 2001.

Back from lunch to report that once again Reflections was incorrect. There was no theme at the buffet lunch. I had pork saltimbocca that was very good. Bonus, we passed a big group of dolphins on the starboard side where we lunched.

Back to report that Silk has a new menu. They retitled the duck dish. Clay tried it and thought it was actually the same. He didn't like it. I had a new dish, mapo tofu (the 1st ingredient on the menu was ground pork, so not vegetarian) and we didn't like it either. We shared beef potstickers and both like them. The tapioca soup with lychee and matcha ice cream was still on the menu. Good thing.

We had a voice mail on the cabin phone when we got back. It was about the Luderitz tour and a partial rebate of the price due to complaints. (Not ours.) I didn't even blog about it, but our time in Kolmanskop was cut short of exploration time. It turns out they did that to allow us free time for shopping in Luderitz. We never even found out if the van came back to the drop off in town at 11am or not. We just walked back to the tender dock. Of course, it was wrong to cut short the tour part we paid for in Kolmanskop for time in Luderitz where we could have explored on our own time instead of tour time. Neither of us think this was as egregious as the missed chocolate factory tour on Tastes of Western Australia for which I did complain and nothing was done. But it was wrong and not listed on the tour description so a partial refund was in order.

Photos