2015-11-10 Sea Day

  Tuesday was a sea day.   Plenty of time to get out and explore the ship a bit.
The cabanas on Lido next to the family pool.

 At 11am we went to the CruiseCritic Meet and Greet.  If I remember correctly, about 45 people said they were coming.  In the end, about 25 came.  Still a nice turn out and the ship provided a nice spread of cookies and pastries as well as coffees and teas.  This was one of the few times we made it up to the Crow's nest this cruise!  On the Maasdam, we were up there almost every night.

One of the many real flower arrangements on board.

 We like going to the culinary exhibitions.  This one was highlighting a food from each of the restaurants.

 Canaletto's rigatoni with Italian sausage.  It was very good.

 more elevator areas.

 peering down at the bar by the customer service area.

 another flower arrangement.

 I checked out the Gala dinner menu and decided there wasn't anything worth dressing up for.  So later we ate in the Lido buffet.

 Having been a florist for about 2 years, I enjoy going to the florist exhibition and watching them create their master pieces.  2 guys are responsible for all the flowers on board. 

 I missed our almost daily treks to the Explorers Cafe for our bottle water and flavored drinks on our last Maasdam cruise.  We had complimentary drink cards then and used it for waters and sodas, as well as a variety of drinks.  No drinks this cruise.  Did I mention we're "cheap skates"?

While hanging out on our veranda, Ken even tried a new towel hat!

 And we toasted to another great vacation.  Thanks for the bottle of Moscato, Sue !!!!

I, again, took up my spot at the back of the Lido deck for sunset.  This Carnival ship was our companion most of the way.

 There even happened to be a wedding on board.

 What really surprised me was how empty the deck got from sunset on. 

 That night we went to the Mainstage for the ships singers and dancers.  They had a new show which I really enjoyed.  A lot of more current songs--albeit probably not ones most seniors have heard before.  Having worked around high school kids for the last 19 years, I've heard and actually like a lot of those songs.

After the show, I went out on our veranda to enjoy the sound of the water.  I was surprised to see this----
a spotlight from the bridge following a small light in the water.  (the larger lights are the Carnival ship traveling along with us and another cruise ship).

Turned out to be a small boat of Cuban refugees.  I didn't get a good picture of the boat, but we were told later it was made out of Styrofoam blocks tied together and had a make shift sail.   When it was at it's closest, we were able to see one of the guys waving his arms and yelling for help.

It was at this point that the captain of our ship decided to rescue them, so he sounded the alarm (first time I've ever heard it other than at the muster drill!) and announced what he was doing and for everyone to stay off deck 3.  That was the deck the officers congregated on and the rescue boat was directly under our veranda.

 After a few minutes, they had the boat in the water and were on their way to rescue the Cubans.

 Here's what was on the tv at that time.  It looked to us like they were not trying to head towards the USA, but more likely Grand Cayman.  We didn't hear how long they were out there, but the Captain did say their boat was coming apart.

 Of course a lightening storm and lots of rain was going on then, too.  We stood out at the end of our uncovered balcony, and watched the whole thing.  Here they are bringing back 4 of the Cubans as it poured down rain.

 Then they went back for the other 3.  Total there were 6 men between the ages of  about 19 - 45 and 1 female about 18 or so.  The Captain announced the next day that they were handed over to Immagrations on the Cayman Islands to "consider their request for asylum".  Never did hear the outcome.

But it made for an interesting, though very wet, end to the day.