Thursday - March 29, 2018

Thursday – March 29, 2018

Breakfast is on deck 5 again. Today’s luncheon will be for passengers with 500 to 900 cruising days. This is our day. We will meet Roger and Sandy at 11:30 and then join 4 others at a table for 8. We are looking forward to this.

Until then it is time to refine the blog for me. Alice is working on her journal. She is a bit farther behind than I am. I will attempt to login to the ship’s complimentary websites. This will let me test the connection and speed before I start using my paid minutes.  ***   Internet connection is horrible.  Updating must wait.

At 11:25 we went to the dining rom for our Mariners’ Luncheon. We waited for Roger and Sandy in the hallway until 11:35. When they did not appear we went in as some of the very last to enter. After our greeting by the president and others we were seated at a table for six. No one else was there. As we were being seated we saw Prestee, the assistant dining room manager. We asked about Sandy and Roger and learned that they had already been seated at a big table.

After 5 minutes or so a lady was seated with us. Alice dutifully greeted her, and we exchanged names. That is when she pulled the Daily Times out of her bag and started reading it. I was not happy. No one else was seated at our table.

After our order was taken, Alice decided to again institute conversation. I was not optimistic, but our tablemate actually started to open up. She was traveling alone, and she said that because she was not a good conversationalist she had not made new acquaintances. We kept talking as we ate and she opened up. We actually had a good time together. We hope that the rest of her voyage offers more comfort. We just don’t realize how unhappy some of our fellow cruisers are.

The luncheon was good, but Alice was not fond of the African Chardonnay. She switched to the African Cabernet, and I took her white wine to drink with my fish course. I had drunk some of the cabernet with my appetizer. We both enjoyed the cabernet.

The dessert was perhaps the best course of the meal. We enjoyed it, and thanked our tablemate for her company as we left.

Today is Holy Thursday. Mass will be in the Queen’s Lounge at 4:00. It will be interesting to see how Holy Week is celebrated on a cruise ship. We are just grateful that we do have a priest onboard. Mass was a simple but devout experience