Two sea days until San Francisco and we have had to cover up
our arms and walk more quickly to keep warm, how spoiled we have been since
reaching the Caribbean. As we head to
the USA the temperature is falling, overnight 24C and now 20C, predicted 11C on
30th. Of course this makes the prospect of exploring SF very
comfortable. We still have brilliant
sunshine, and a peaceful sea so all is well. It won’t be long until the heat comes again in
sector 2 as we head for the South Pacific and Australia.
There is a big difference between Mexico and USA’s
immigration policies and procedures. In Mexico we didn’t have to show our
passports, just carried the cruise card (bar coded with all our passport
details on it and a photo). We have
already had an A4 sheet of instructions for the USA, which involves all 2000 of
us having a face to face with an immigration official in a booth in the port
with our Passport, Cruise Card, Visa Waiver confirmation. It could take some
time, we are advised there might be bag searches. No food drink or water
allowed into the USA from the ship. Interesting though.
We have just returned to the cabin after our classes – as a
few people finish their cruise and leave the ship in San Francisco (they call
what we have just completed sector one) dance and art lessons for sector 1 are coming to an
end. They will start up again in sector
2 on the 5 sea days to Hawaii.
Dance today was revision of the rhythm foxtrot, jive, cha
cha cha, rumba, waltz and quickstep. ;) we are ok at the slow ones but our
quickstep is disastrous! The final art subject for this sector of the cruise was
a watercolour of a dog, going well for us so far. We will be finishing it off
tomorrow in time for the exhibition at 2 p.m.
We have been very lucky so far with both teachers’ patience and understanding of different learner styles. Impressive that it is all included in the cost of the cruise. Lessons every day (two of each if you want/can fit them in) would cost a fortune on their own. We are putting everything up on the walls at 1 p.m. and collecting them at 4 p.m. Just to recap…water colour of a meerkat, autumn landscape, robin, young woman portrait, mountain landscape, snowy forest, Venice landscape, our waiters, Khachik and me, seascape, woman planting, koala, camel’s head, dog, and one pencil drawing of Mohammed Ali. Khachik has never laughed as much as he did at my koala – honestly, in his whole life I dare say. Even now that I have amended the shocking oversized ear and the look it had on its face of being a bit of a bugger, the memory of my first effort is indelibly fixed in Khachik’s mind. I am so glad he became a civil engineer and nothing "inter-personal".
We have been very lucky so far with both teachers’ patience and understanding of different learner styles. Impressive that it is all included in the cost of the cruise. Lessons every day (two of each if you want/can fit them in) would cost a fortune on their own. We are putting everything up on the walls at 1 p.m. and collecting them at 4 p.m. Just to recap…water colour of a meerkat, autumn landscape, robin, young woman portrait, mountain landscape, snowy forest, Venice landscape, our waiters, Khachik and me, seascape, woman planting, koala, camel’s head, dog, and one pencil drawing of Mohammed Ali. Khachik has never laughed as much as he did at my koala – honestly, in his whole life I dare say. Even now that I have amended the shocking oversized ear and the look it had on its face of being a bit of a bugger, the memory of my first effort is indelibly fixed in Khachik’s mind. I am so glad he became a civil engineer and nothing "inter-personal".
Our captain calls from the bridge every time whales and
dolphins are in sight. Today we were
walking on the Promenade Deck when one of those calls came and luckily we also
had our camera so not only do we have whale footage from yesterday, but also 30
seconds of joy from this morning when 3-4
dolphins came to play near the ship. These are incredible moments. You can tell from the gasping and shouting
out soundtracks! The foloowing picture is unfortunately not one of ours, but feel free to gasp any way.
We have another Black Tie dinner tonight with a Marco Pierre
White menu, so it’s time to get ready for that.
We may not go to the Palladium tonight for our fix of after dinner
entertainment, as we are already yawning! That could change…
Bye until tomorrow xxxx
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