5 Days at Sea

            Thursday, 31 Jan 2019 – Sally awoke at 9:05 AM, and we went to the Terrace Café for breakfast.  (Jesse had been awake for a few hours.)  We had our usual oatmeal with blueberries and various other fruit; a mushroom, spinach, ham, and cheese omelet, which we shared; and salmon.  Back in our cabin, we saw on FaceBook that it was minus 33 degrees Fahrenheit in Bettendorf!  We both felt very guilty for not being home, suffering in the cold with our friends; but not that guilty, because a little later we went for a swim in the ship’s pool.  The outside temperature was a little cool, but the water was heated.  One problem is that the pool is saltwater, so swim goggles are a must.  As we were getting out of the pool, Sally realized that she had forgotten to take out her hearing aids!  One was still dangling from her left ear, and the other was missing.  After a brief search, Jesse found the second hearing aid at the bottom of the pool.  After returning to our cabin, we removed the batteries, rinsed the hearing aids thoroughly with tap water, and placed them on the window sill to dry out in the sunlight.  According to the internet, hearing aids may need to dry out as long as 24 hours before they start back to working properly after being immersed in water.

After lunch, we ran into Dan and Carrissa.  They were our next door cabin neighbors on our 2018 cruise.  They have taken world cruises for the last few years on the same ship and always in the same cabin.   This time, we’re a few doors down from them.   Before leaving for dinner, Sally decided to try out her hearing aids.  They both worked great!   After dinner, we danced to the Insignia Orchestra for 30 minutes.  This orchestra plays in the jazz style, which Sally does not like. The songs were difficult to dance to (all sounding a lot alike), and none of them had familiar tunes.  (It is definitely not a ballroom dance orchestra this time!)

Friday, 1 Feb 2019 – Sally awoke a little late.  We made it to breakfast just before the 10:00 AM closing time; however, the omelet cook was already out of mushrooms and spinach.  Since Jesse has decided to wean himself off caffeine for this cruise, he skipped coffee.   It was raining outside, the sea was rough, and the pool was covered with a net; hence no swimming for today.  At lunch, the Terrace Café was very crowded, so we joined Dean & Darlene at their table for four.  They used to live in Virginia, but recently sold their house and put their furniture in storage.  They will be cruising until May.  Afterwards, they plan to purchase a house near their kids in Reno.  Dean has been doing genealogy since 2008 and Darlene is an avid Sci-Fi fan, so we had a lot to talk about.

We donned our dress-up clothes for the Captain’s welcome party, starting at 5:15 PM.  After being seated at tables, we enjoyed complimentary drinks and danced for 30 minutes before Insignia’s senior staff was introduced to the group.  We remembered the cruise director and one other senior staff member and they remembered us also.  We sat near two friendly couples: two sisters, Leslie and Betty, both originally from Massachusetts, and their husbands, Paul and Stephen.  Leslie still lives in Massachusetts, but Betty and her husband now live in Texas.  They boarded the ship in Los Angeles and are on the world cruise.  On our way to dinner, we ran into Jalynn (Jay) and Mike, from last year’s cruise.  They were playing cards as they were doing when we first met them.  We sat our clocks back one hour (gladly!) before retiring for the night.

Saturday, 2 Feb 2019 – Jesse let Sally sleep until 9:15 AM.  Jesse had decided to do laundry today.  While Sally slept, he finished about half of the laundry by hand.  Being just a little bit earlier for breakfast than yesterday, the cook had all of our favorite omelet ingredients still available.  After breakfast, Jesse did the other half by machine in the laundry room.  Both washers and dryers are $2.00 per load.  He enjoyed interesting conversation in the laundry room, helping a couple of the women retrieve their laundry from the dryers, which were stacked high above the washers.  Sally joined him towards the end to make sure Jesse wasn’t “over-drying” the clothes.  The pool was still covered with a net, so no swimming again today!  After lunch, we both napped for a couple of hours.  Jesse doesn’t usually nap, but he is having trouble staying awake without caffeine.  Before dinner, we went to the Horizons for dancing, where we met another dance couple, Paul and Nancy from Delaware.  They boarded the ship in New York and are cruising to Sydney.  We were able to dance the swing and a couple of cha-cha’s.  We stayed up until 11:30 PM, Sally working on genealogy (unlimited internet) and Jesse watching movies on TV. 

Sunday, 3 Feb 2019 – Sally slept well for a change, so we were both up by 7:30 AM, and went to breakfast at 9:00 AM.  Since the nets were off the pool, we went for a swim.  The water felt colder than usual, so Jesse had been swimming for 15 minutes before Sally finally got into the water.  (The pool is quite small compared to the YMCA pool at home, so that we usually swim for a half hour to get enough exercise.)  In the hot tub, we talked with Don and Pam from Toronto.  Pam worked as a physical therapist.  They lived on a sailboat after Don retired 13 years ago, but sold it recently.  They’ve cruised a lot on Oceania and get free laundry, and have also cruised a lot on Seaborne.  Pam has had several back surgeries and walks with a cane.  Don needs two hip replacements, but he keeps putting them off.  Don will be turning 80 this year and Pam next year.

After lunch, the Super Bowl was showing in the Insignia Lounge, but we chose to spend the afternoon in our cabin.  We danced for 45 minutes in the Horizons before dinner.  Before retiring, we set our clocks back one hour.

Monday, 4 Feb 2019 – We awoke at 8:00 AM this morning.  At breakfast, we talked with Margaret.  She remembered us from the 2018 cruise.   Originally from Germany, she has lived and worked in Washington, DC with her husband, Carl.  Now they live in San Francisco.  Carl has a severe eye infection and was told, initially, that he would be transported to Hawaii by a Coast Guard helicopter at 3:00 PM; however, the captain later decided that he would speed up the cruise ship and arrive in Hawaii as early as possible.  They are booked through to Sydney, but may not be able to complete the cruise.

At lunch, we talked with Al and Amelia from Florida, but previously from New Jersey.  Amelia has a strong resemblance to our friend Helma.  She will be 68 in June, and he is 73.  She was originally from Brooklyn, NY, and he from New Jersey.  Amelia is his third wife and they will be celebrating their 26 wedding anniversary on St. Patrick’s Day.  They are on the World Cruise, roundtrip to Miami.  After lunch, we swam for 25 minutes until three kids got into the pool.  Since they weren’t staying out of our path as the adults had done, we decided to cut our swim short rather than risk plowing over one of them.

We danced in the Horizon’s for 45 minutes before dinner.  At dinner, we sat next to a couple who also like to dance, but they haven’t danced at all so far on this cruise.  They appear to have several other interests and activities which have taken up much of their time, whereas we concentrate mostly on swimming and dancing.