This is our next to last full sea day of the cruise. I assume at the Captain's noon announcement he'll tell us when we'll pass through the Strait of Gibraltar. We won't reach our next port of Malaga, Spain until 1 pm tomorrow. We were talking about it and wondering if we'd see it, the Rock of Gibraltar. In 2001, I got up around midnight and went outside and looked out either side of the Crown Odyssey as we passed the Rock of Gibraltar on the starboard silhouetted against the lighter night sky and the lights of the African coast on the port. In 2006, on Voyager we passed through in a storm and we saw nothing. Fingers crossed for a clear view this time. It will be our first time in this direction in any event.
From about 9 to 10:15 am this morning we took a full World Cruise Exclusive Tour Behind the Scenes. It was decks 5 down to 2 in the areas where the crew work and sleep and eat. It was interesting. We've done tours like this on other ships and what impressed us was how spacious it was compared to others. This tour never showed a crew cabin though so nothing to compare there.
The movie today is "Green Book" again. They are having a special Mozart Tea this afternoon. It is casual tonight. We've approved the Waterside dinner menu. We lost our Waterside table 6 last night and got 11. We'll see where we wind up tonight. We move the clocks forward another hour tonight. Fortunately we can sleep in tomorrow and we have no firm plans. This will be our 3rd visit to Malaga. First time we took a ship's tour to the Alhambra. A must do, but once will suffice. Second time we rented a car and drove to Ronda and down the Costa del Sol. Tomorrow afternoon and early evening we plan to just visit Malaga on foot. Our only firm goal is the Picasso birthplace and museum. We don't know yet where we'll dock though and it the port area is huge. It could be a 6-mile round trip walk or 1, so we'll see how it goes.
The Captain predicted that we'd pass through the Strait of Gibraltar sometime around 8 am tomorrow, anywhere between 7:30 and 8:30 am. He was not predicting visibility though he did say that at only 8 miles across on a clear day you could see both pillars of Hercules. I guess we're planning to be in front at Palm Court early and figure we can eat breakfast after. So we're banking on a clear view. The Captain also announced that the ride was rough enough that they'd had to drain the pool. So we finally know we're sailing in the North Atlantic Ocean.
We begin our trip home one week from today. I put the laundry basket full of dirty clothes in a compression bag and into a suitcase under the bed today. That was the last straw for Clay on making a decision on Fall Eastern Europe trip we've been playing around with. He booked flights and a river cruise already. I guess we'll be spending the rest of our sea days rounding up the rest of the confirmations. We haven't arrived in Europe yet much less left and we've already arranged our next roundtrip.
Little Bob hits the road
Little Bob hits the road
