23-28 September Cruisin' On Down

23 September Sailing Away/Tijuana Taxi

Some nervous moments yesterday. Back in 09 we spent 6 days in Hong Kong before catching a ship to Singapore. Somehow we miscounted and came very very close to waving the ship goodbye from the Kowloon foreshore. Some subliminal scars may linger. The unexpected sight of Solstice in port yesterday reactivated repressed memories and we had to go and check that they were not about to escape us.

Arriving home a few hours later . . we found Steph on Facebook, who greeted us with . . . “what are you doing there? . . the kitchen calendar says you are sailing today”. Aaaaargh palpitations. Quite right, but it is still Yesterday here (Gen Y: google “International Date Line”).

One of the Taiwanese at dinner last night said wages down here might be lower than elsewhere in the USA because the Mexicans are prepared to work below normal wages if they are illegal immigrants. Maybe?

We had a final visit to plunder $1 Toblerones from the local supermarket. Almost immediately a bus stopped at our toes and the lady driver said she was going half way to the cruise terminal. She declined a fare. We easily found our way down, checked in the bags and quickly signed in ourselves. They gave us tickets for bus 40 and some time later called for people with tickets 1 and 2. Oooh dear this could take some time. They plodded slowly along to 9 and then suddenly called 36! That seemed to be too good to be true but they followed on 37 38 39 and 40. We headed off down to the border at Tijuana and then through the Mexican countryside, mostly down the coast.

 The double fences between Mexico and USA.  San Diego Bay in the distance.

 Tijuana

 Ensenda Mexico.  Biggest flag we have ever seen.

 Huge scavenging seagulls.  We are lucky ours are a little smaller.

 

It was very much like Peru – a very pretty mountainous coast with some lovely winding parts high above the sea. Elsewhere fairly flat or rolling hills. But totally arid. Many coastal developments, mostly in the early land sales stages. After about 2 hours we reached Ensenada and pulled into the port. We had been given forms to fill in and they were collected but we didn’t pass through immigration (or US emigration).

They left us sitting in the (fortunately air-conditioned) bus for about half an hour before we passed through a shed with Xray machines where we and our hand luggage were scanned. They missed the vegetable knife – J reckons it was tucking it in behind the fridge magnets? There were still 6 buses waiting and we heard that others had sat there for 90 minutes. It took a long time for the luggage to be delivered to our cabin.

We have gone for an inside cabin, which happens to be right up the front. Might be a bit rough up there? We started by cancelling our freestyle dining allocation and signing up for the first dinner setting. Then we hit the lunch buffet (in a restrained manner) and pecked judiciously at 2 of the delicious chocolate desserts (each). My final assignment for the day was non-trivial and slightly challenging but I unexpectedly reaped the benefit of my tiny residual Sethefrican eccent, which was spotted by the supervisor behind the Guest Relations desk. It may take a few days for the outcome but, cautiously, the signs are good.

We could have conducted the spa and gym tour by now, but we followed one of the therapists around for a refresher and to qualify for the free treatment draw which will be held in 2 days. Up to the top deck (and we discovered the 16^th which I had missed) for the view round Ensenada Bay and the seals in the harbour.

5.15 was the emergency drill then it was time for dinner, still with no luggage in our room L We were part of a table for 10 with 8 Americans. We sat next to a very affable older couple from Tampa Florida. He reminded me of Will Farrell.

The music quiz at 8pm was titled The British Invasion, so we cunningly teamed up with the 3 girls with recognisably English teeth. Sure enough, we won and scored a couple of music download cards. By then, I was over-excited and left J to watch the evening show, which on the first night usually consists of the on-board singers and dancers plus the guitarists and jazz trios etc who will be in the bars and lounges. Speciality acts will come later.

We cast off at midnight and were aware that the boat was rocking on a gentle swell. We better toughen up because it will be quite disconcerting when the seas get up. Last time we were this far forward we managed to get relocated AND to a balcony suite, just in time for the glacier viewing the following day and the Inward Passage. But that was on a ship that was nowhere near as full as this one is.

24 September Baby Let Me Take You On A  - Sea Cruise

We were up at the stretch class at 7.30. Very packed as always on Day 1. Running straight into the Ab session with the same young blonde Sethefrican who was aboard in February. She remembered me, which may or may not be a good thing. A different class but it hit the spot. J went straight into Zumba next to the pool while I started laundry duties.

We joined a family of 4 from San Diego for the morning trivia and managed 14, 1 behind the winners. A couple of tricky questions, like who was the murderer Clarice Starling was chasing . . sorry no it wasn’t Hannibal Lector.

We wanted to make time for relaxing on this trip and found a quiet spot overlooking the water with the daily news sheets from Aus, UK and SE Asia. Back to the buffet for curry and green salad. Ok and maybe a furtive nibble at the sugar free chocolate mousse and the chocolate imperial. And just a taste of the orange chocolate.

J took off for the line dance class and we met up again for the music trivia. By the way, Clarice was chasing Buffalo Bill, with help from Hannibal. Sneaky huh? And the Greek god of sleep wasn’t Morpheus. Hypnos. Grrrr.

Afternoon music trivia promised much, delivered little but was enjoyable. That familiar feeling of mentally running through a song waiting for a title to jump out at you. No it isn’t called “tonight’s gonna be a good night”.

Nap time before the big afternoon cumulative trivia, where we maintained our policy of scoring one behind the leaders. Who IS the 6^th character in Cluedo?

We decided to turn out for formal dinner, for fear of missing out on lobster, which they didn’t serve anyway. The evening show was Ghostlight, a tribute to generations of musicals. The singers were quite strong and the dancers ok.

The weather was not bad but we had a big roll running all day. Some quite ill people moving around and presumably many more in their cabins. We kept busy and moving and were not much affected. The Captain said the sea will flatten a bit tomorrow afternoon and then stay down.

25^th September Taking It Easy

We were awake early and made it to all the morning exercises. J managed to get through Zumba and Hawaiian dancing as well. One behind during the morning trivia (as usual) – we sat and watched as our teammates answered a string of US questions. There was also a world flag quiz and we again failed to recognise Bolivia, but I forgive myself because this time I wasn’t wearing their football shirt with the emblem.

As per plan, we made time for vegging out in the comfy chairs. Nothing to see out here but it is soothing and we should try and do it at home as well. We qualified for the Captain’s Club cocktail party after lunch, which was very pleasant -  we sat looking out to sea while we were plied with Cosmopolitans and delicious snacks by a passing parade of waiters. One friendly fellow from Jamaica pretty much adopted us and ran a Cosmo shuttle service.

We grabbed the Cruise Director and asked about the AFL final on Saturday – he says the satellite coverage won’t get it L. And at 75c/minute we won’t be queuing to follow it on internet. They will print a news sheet the next morning and we will be docked in Hilo Hawaii and can go ashore and catch up on that and all the other news.

This ensured that we went to afternoon trivia very relaxed. In short, we finished one off the pace and we don’t know whether yesterday’s winners were ahead of us again. Either way, we were very happy with the way the team performed – most of all, the chemistry was very good and we had fun.

We ducked dinner and snacked on sushi and whatever in the buffet instead. The only thing we missed was the exotic desserts in the dining room. They held the draw for the free spa treatments but just for once we didn’t get lucky. In between the hoo-haa about ObamaCare, we heard on the news that the minimum wage in California is significantly below $10/hr.

We dropped in on the comedian and found it was one we had seen years ago – probably back in 07. He was very funny and, as he put it, “works clean”. We get an extra hour’s sleep tonight J

26 September And the Beat Goes On

The usual routine . . the usual meals . . the usual scores. We keep finishing one behind the top team but it isn’t always the same team. We scored some sun time and napped in the comfy furniture in the solarium and got back into the gym before dinner. J took in a movie in the cinema. 2 extra women had turned up at dinner the day before and in the confusion we now had 2 extra. Just as well we were there because they served huge lamb shanks. The evening pianist was interesting without being hugely entertaining.

27 September Top Of The World

As above -2 solid hours gym/zumba, 14 out of 15 in the brainwarmer quiz but lost the tiebreaker guess. AFL final tonight.

4pm – They are showing us equal top of the cumulative trivia. The “kids” (mid-20s) slept through and we fell back 1 point to the team of oldies with one middle aged redhead. They actually asked the dread question that had been raised in chat within our team – Jim thinks Johannesburg is the Southernmost capital and was unconvinced that it is Wellington. J had the pencil and basically said – sorry trust us on this. On the other hand, he thought the densest bone was the jawbone, which turned out to be correct. We were all surprised to find how big and thick a giraffe’s heart has to be (to pump blood up its neck). One session to go.

We had the Select Club cocktails afterwards and fell foul of apple martinis that were basically straight vodka with 2 drops of green dye. The said middle-aged redhead came and sat near us, which allowed us to elicit that she and her husband were staying on until Sydney but it seemed their team was getting off. Hmmmm?  We ended up at dinner where there were seats for everybody. The Grand Marnier soufflés were very good.

We got into the Millionaire show but they had run out of handsets already so we decided to watch anyway. As it happened, the kind couple behind us shared theirs and we managed to come 3^rd out of 100, narrowly missing out on Tshirts. We gave up on the juggler and headed to bed.

28 September The Agony and the Ecstasy

We woke at 6, by which time it was midnight in Perth and the footie would be over already. We watched a sports channel that was spooling scores across the bottom but no mention of AFL.

J had a sore back so we ditched the gym and just did some Tai Chi/Stretching in a nook on 14^th floor. We then scored an hour in one of the tented double hammocks near the pool. Very nice. Morning trivia . . what do you want to know? Second again. No there aren’t just 2 teams. Maybe 12 or so.

I should just mention that the session began with the announcement that an Aussie question was imminent. The next leg of the cruise will be laden with Aussies but we are still thin on the ground (deck actually). Our team radiated smugness at having 2 of us and we all watched expectantly as he asked how many states were included in the Commonwealth in 1901. Our trusty True Blue Aussie scribe immediately wrote down 5. I just absent-mindedly did the maths and was curious whether perhaps Tasmania had not been a state in those days? Say no more. The “kids” were there and Jim was red hot so it portends well for the critical final afternoon session.

The news sheets are out, proclaiming the tragic news from Melbourne. The Dockers deserved to win their first Premiership and it would have been nice if they did. Having said that . . . well, we can look forward to a few more years of taunting their fans’ bare trophy cupboard.

We took lunch out on the terrace at the back today, watching the Pacific pass by. We actually saw our first ship today.

We had to miss the special Aussie/NZ drinks at the stern bar to get to the final quiz session. The questions were very hard and we only managed 9/16. The answers came from all around the team and Jim reinforced his morning performance with some good answers. Evidently the other teams were not cheering much and we were not really astonished to find that we had rebounded from being 1 point down and snatched victory by a single point. True to form, we came second on the day but the team that won had started 2 behind us.

So yet another triumph in cumulative trivia. Warren and I were in the team that came from behind to win on the same ship back in February. We just scored a handsome booty package of a gold medal, Celebrity T shirt, lanyard and a metal water bottle. Each. Place your orders now.

And so to the 2^nd and final formal dinner – yes there is lobster on the menu.