Tuesday, February 20, 2018- Cruise Day 28; At Sea

Tuesday, February 20, 2018- Cruise Day 28; At Sea

We were surprised to look outside and see blue skies and calm seas.  We also saw two whales surface near the ship as it sailed past.  It wasn’t possible to positively identify them, but they didn’t have a distinct dorsal fin, and the spout was bifurcated.  We had breakfast in the dining room and then attended our second mandatory Muster drill.  Thankfully, the drills have been streamlined so they take less time, but it did cause terrible congestion in all the public lounges and hallways as people moved from their muster stations to where they wanted to be on the ship.  

We did make it to the 10:45AM morning trivia, and our team with John, Kathy, Bob and Roger won with a score of 16/20.  We got string bags and aluminum bottles.  Janet managed to barter with Ted and Kathleen behind us to swap aluminum water bottles for wine bottle stoppers because they wanted the bottles and had 14 wine bottle stoppers.  

We then went to the Effy store for a Tanzanite presentation and raffle.  We learned a lot about Tanzanite, but didn’t win the raffle.  There was a sign up for the scrap heap boat contest, and a paper airplane contest scheduled for today, but we opted to pass on these.  We had a casual lunch at the burger bar, and then hit the fitness center for some guilt reduction exercise.  

We then returned to the Effy store for a 3:00PM contest to guess the carot weight of a Tanzanite pendant.  Much to her surprize, Janet guessed the weight exactly on the nail at 4.125 ct.  Her jaw literally dropped to the counter when her name was announced as the winner!  Unfortunately, she didn’t get to win the Tanzanite pendant, but got a goodie bag with a jeweled jaguar key chain, nice Effy scarf, and jewelry bag.  That really made Janet a Happy Girl!

We attended the 3:30PM afternoon trivia with our usual team, scoring 17/22, with the winning team scoring 19/22.  

We had dinner at Sabatini’s. Part of our booking promotion included one specialty restaurant dining, which is worth $29 per person.  We were able to have double lobster tails at Sabatini’s to make up for the lobster we missed while away on our Iguazu Falls excursion.  They also had a delicious Chocolate Journey Tiramisu dessert.  

We met up with our trivia team at 7:45PM Food and Beverage trivia, and ended up tying for 1st place with one other team with 14/20 points.  The tie breaker question was how many pounds did the world’s record nacho chips weigh.  We guessed 2000#, while the other team guessed 900#.  The actual weight was 4618#, so we ended up winning a bottle of champagne, which Janet managed to swap with Ted and Kathleen for wine bottle stoppers, since they have been wanting a bottle of Champagne all cruise.

We then saw the late Showtime performance by Dan Delgado, who was a trumpeter and vocalist who did some jazz and pop tunes.  With the Island Princess orchestra backing him, they put on a decent show for another evening of entertainment.  

We arrive at Stanley in the Falkland Islands tomorrow morning.  Hopefully the weather and seas will be favorable for our tender transfers, which will take 30 minutes each way.  We have heard stories from other passengers who have been to Stanley before about not being able to carry out tender operations because of weather, and extremely wet and wild tender rides into and back out of Stanley.  We have a Princess Excursion booked to see Gentoo and King penguins at the Bluff Cove penguin rookery.  We hear that part of that excursion will involve some pretty rough cross country travel in a caravan of Land Rovers to get to the rookery.  It should be in the 50’s tomorrow with little chance of rain, but plenty of wind and penguins.