Sorry for the delay in these posts but the ship has been having internet issues.
We are having a whale of a time. Yes, today on the open deck both of us saw a whale swim past. Then later, Mark saw a pod of porpoises jumping out of the water plus a turtle and a pod of dolphins - Pam had just got in the Aquarius pool when the Dolphins arrived and had just endured walking on a hot deck in bare feet to get there so dolphins weren’t enough to tempt her back out so soon. The awful cover pic for today was Mark trying to prove he saw porpoises - those are the small black blobs apparently.
After breakfast, we started the day attending a lecture. It was by a guy called Paul Sloane and was about how you have to sometimes be outrageous to get noticed. It was very funny and well delivered. Pam had seen a few by Paul before but this was Mark’s first of his. Probably the best lecturer we have had so far but he gets off the ship tomorrow.
We then spent some time on the promenade deck which is when the whale appeared. It wasn’t a great sighting and more of a Loch Ness monster view but it counts. Then Pam went off for a natter at some coffee chat thing and Mark read and looked for it other sealife. Relaxing on the promenade deck with a book as the sea and wildlife pass by is a great way to spend a few hours and Mark’s idea of bliss.
Mark has noticed a change onboard which Pam is loving. As you may remember the ship is fairly small with 11 decks (5 of which are cabins only) so there are essentially 6 common area decks and 3 of these are used the most. It doesn’t seem crowded, even with 1800 passengers, but it does mean you encounter people (who are now familiar) a lot. We live in a place with around 12,000 people and 1 main shopping street. When you go to the shops you will encounter the odd local friend/neighbour and have a catch up chat and maybe a stroll with them if you are going the same way. On here, that is now happening constantly. Mark has about 8 fellow passengers who he now knows their names and will happily sit, chat and probably quiz with. Pamela, being far more socialable, and remembers people, is probably nearer 25. That is far too much nattering for Mark. Mark is also getting worse at identifying who people are. He got stopped by a couple who were friendly and who recognised him and he had no clue who they were. Turned out that they were the couple staying in the cabin next door. He had no idea and as Pam wasn’t with him it is now an odds on bet that the same thing will happen again in a few days time.
Talking of people onboard, we are definitely not the youngest. There are a pair of Welsh girls in their 20s travelling the world together. No idea where they have been hiding. Mark stated “how come we haven’t seen them before?” To which Pam replied, “we probably have but thought they were crew and you wouldn’t recognise them anyway.”
In other news, a few days ago now, Mark found another deck. As you can see there are 11 decks. This shows the lifts outside the East Bar on deck 11 mid-ship.
But there are these stairs here.
It wasn’t easy to figure out how to get to these stairs from the lift area - Mark did actually walk in through the back door of the Sindhu restaurant during one of the attempts - but once you manage it you are on deck 12 which is not on a map.
There is no extra deck at the aft (back) of the ship but Pam convinced Mark that the same would appear at the front which only goes up to deck 10 (Crow’s Nest Bar). Sure enough she is right and it is another open deck.
So they can be your areas of the ship for this sea day. Would be a good place to hide but too darn hot!
After lunch, Pam arrived back in the cabin to find Mark was on the balcony scoffing crisps and also some pistachios he picked up from a food stall in Mexico. He had made a right mess wiping his pistachio hands on his newly washed shorts - he is really like a 5 yr old sometimes.
After more nattering, and dinner, Pam went to see Adam Johnson (the pianist) again who played songs from movies and then joined Mark with our quiz friends Lesley & Chris for a Chinese New Year quiz in the pub - who were half way through and had Pam had been there earlier would have been a few points better off but it would have made no difference. After that we headed to the ocean room for the hard late night syndicate quiz which seems to have passengers from Eggheads competing - still we were not last. Off to bed as it’s Manzanillo tomorrow.
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