Day 05 11/25/21 - At Sea on Thanksgiving

Today was a pretty laid back day for us.  After breakfast we attended the Mariner (loyalty) awards ceremony where the recipients receive medallions for having cruised a threshold number of days.  Today's ceremony recognized those reaching the 300 and 500 cruise day levels.  Afterwards I visited the future cruise consultant's desk and booked another cruise for early 2022. Following lunch I did a long Facetime call with a friend whose mother-in-law is the widow of our deceased former pastor.   The rest of the day until 3pm I spent hanging out until we attended a future cruise presentation in the Main Stage.

 

After the Main Stage presentation I had a serendipitous encounter (one of two this day and one of many in the past few months).  I was strolling outside on deck 10 aft when I passed by a fellow with his camera on a tripod and pointed to the sky.  I stopped and enquired what he was doing and he indicated he was doing time lapses of the clouds.  That led to much further conversation about photography and cruising and many other topics.  At one point he asked me if I had always lived in Seattle.  I said we had spent fifteen years in Spokane and lived on Five Mile Prairie.  His face lit up and said his parents also did and gave the street name which was our street and I knew that it was only 2 blocks long.  He gave their names and I asked them if they were LDS. He said yes, and I described where their house was which was 3 houses east of ours.  It turned out Brad had already left home before his parents moved up to the prairie, so we didn't know him; but we certainly knew his parents.  It is certainly a small world!

 

Right after that at dinner, I looked our waiter in the eyes above his masked face and said, "we've sailed with you before."  I gave a ship and a route and he confirmed he was on that sailing.  Dede expressed extreme gratitude at being back to work and thanked us for booking the cruise. We are thrilled to do our little part in helping restore the economic lives of so many in the cruise industry as a result of the pandemic.  They don't want a handout; just a hand.  It was not busy so we talked a long time about the pandemic, how he got home, and more.  I also learned from my wife that she met the wine steward that introduced us to Moscoto wine.  I'll look Marlin up.

 

We went to the One Step Dance Company presentation of Humanity.  It was clearly a better performance on the Rotterdam's Main Stage compared to the Nieuw Amsterdam's smaller and less technically advanced stage.  We also watched the comedy of Azeem in the BBKing stage area.  He was incredibly funny and fed off of the audience participation.  Our evening ended with sharing a plain pretzel and popcorn outside the NY Deli on deck 10 while watching the Buffalo-Saints football game on the large Lido screen.

 

Tomorrow is Curaçao and we have another snorkeling adventure planned.  Stay tuned.

 


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