Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 28

#1

My report seems to be taking as long as the Cruise did.

Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 28

Day 95. At sea. Sunny & warm.
12 April Evening Casual/Tropical.

World Cruise Lunch in Alexandria.
We went to the last church service of the cruise before we got ourselves ready for our World Cruise lunch at noon.
We were at table of 6, we had Sandra & Pat who were on our table at our first lunch, also at our table was a lady from Switzerland called Susan she was on her own only because her husband didn't join her for whatever reason. The officer we had was the Chief Engineer. My lunch was lovely but unfortunately Bill's choice of the menu was not all good. The fish was dry and his dessert was not nice either but his starter was better. When we finished we both went back to the cabin for a nap. I had an hour and I later went to the Crystal Pool area upstairs for a while.

Day 96. Antigua, Caribbean. Hot & Sunny. 8.30 - 5.45pm.
13th April Evening Casual.

Had breakfast up in the buffet this morning and I afterwards went off into town which in this port is literary in front of the ship. I walk down the main street area that is for the tourist who come off the ships and it is frequented by many ships over the course of a year. P&O visit on their Caribbean Cruises especially the ships that are based in the area during the winter but there are some that stay during the hot summer months when it is likely to rain more.
I made my way to the top of the hill and veered left to where there is a church which, like the last time we visited it was in a state of renovations and restorations. Since it was either 2010, 11 or 12 it was a long time ago and it looks as though they still have a long way to go still. Unfortunately the area at the front of the church where you would be able to get a good view, they had boarded up the area so you can't get the view. A pity really as this could have a good selling point to raise more much needed funds for their renovations. So I made my way back towards the shopping area and as per last time found the odd shop selling different things, I also saw a few shops closed, not many but as there is a cricket match on today between England & Antigua one can understand why they may want to go to see the cricket. Anyway I continued my way back towards the ship and went to a place they call the Historical Dock area where there are bars, restaurants and shops. I went into a few shops and one that interested me was a place called Silver Chelles. It sold an array of Jewellery made from shells and mother of pearls as well. I liked the look of a few pieces but the shop had customers there so I moved on and decided I would come back later. I looked in some other places which were selling clothing but nothing I would buy. As I walked towards where the sea was and to where our ship and another ship is also docked I noticed ahead of me a figure I recognised, It was Maureen also Ron, friends of ours, was there too, he looked as though he was connected to the internet which he was. I asked how he got connected and said the shop he was standing out of put the passcode in and allowed him to use it. After a short while Roy asked if I could get connected also. So the man in the shop did this for me. So I too was able to see my emails. Since I was able to connect when we were in Curacao two days ago nothing else was in need of doing. I was not on it for very long and so moved on and walked towards the small market selling all sorts of very touristy things. Moved on from there and saw a small shop that did sell Coco cola but not diet and they wanted almost 5$ for it. I passed on that. Having exhausted the window shopping of the various shops which 95% have nothing worth buying. I went back to the silver chelles shop I went to earlier and spent a good while trying to decide what to buy. My original view of the pieces changed when I noticed another type of shell that has two sides to it of which you can wear either side, very unusual. The other one was not that different from my two other pendants I have already, so opted for this other one and I bought earrings to match, well not an exact match but of the same type. Naughty I know but they were unusual and its something you can wear at home, I also got them at a good price. Especially since the pendant can be worn two ways.
I got back to the ship at just after 2pm and I found Bill to be where I knew he would be, outside on deck twelve outside which is where I left him in the morning. As I came back a lot earlier than I usually do I was able to get some lunch which I did. Later Bill went back to the cabin and I stayed a while writing up today's diary.

Day 97. At sea. Sunny and cooler. 1 of 5 heading to last port.
14th April Evening Dress, Black Tie.

Clocks went forward so as to be -3 GMT but we are -4 hours from UK as they are on British summer time now.

Breakfast at Glass House.
Guest Speaker Terry Brown, ex Policeman who talks about techniques in interviewing suspects.
Lunch at Medina Restaurant.
Crystal Pool upstairs.
Evening entertainment Tom 'O'Connor who was in form.

Day 98. At Sea. Sunny & Cool. 2 of 5 sailing homeward bound via the Azores first.
15th April Smart, Jacket Required

Clocks went forward so now we are -2 GMT and now 3 hours behind UK.

Breakfast at the Glass House.
Went to the Photography place to enter my photos for the last sector competition. But there was quite a queue and as I needed to speak to one of the photographers there were only 2 photographers attending so thought it would not be prudent not to take up their time so I decided to go down to reception to find out where I could get a bottle opener as we had not been given one for the bottles of coca cola that Bill bought from room service. We were told yesterday that we needed to call room service to have a bottle opened but when we asked if we could get a bottle opener for ourselves we were told we could not, so I went to reception to see who could help us. Instead I got an unbelievable response. 1. I could ring room service to open the bottle, that's not a solution as I may want it open at 10pm and not all the bottles. 2. I could buy a bottle opener, definitely not an option. I was so aghast by all this that I was not happy and I got to the point I was angry that I was expected to do either of these options. Having left my room number I decided it was time to leave before I really got angry. I went back to the cabin to calm down. The phone rang which Bill answered and told them to go away as I did not want to speak to them. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door, it was the receptionist Stanley who I spoke to earlier. He came personally to give me a bottle opener which he got from one of the bars where he explained to the bar man what he wanted and why. He was so unhappy that he could not help me as the options he gave me he said were not really acceptable options so he felt compelled to find a solution for me. I said I wasn't mad at him but the stupid policy and why give us bottled drinks that we cannot open ourselves, we had twelve small ones. I thanked him and he was happier that I was now happy. Something so simple became such a big issue when it didn't need to be.
Later I went back to the photography gallery where I spoke to one of the photographers where we went through my photos I had narrowed now and we took a little while to figure out which 5 to put through for the last competition.
Eventually having done my photos I went upstairs to the Crystal Pool area. I visited the Horizon buffet to get a scone and water, I also got an extra scone for Bill to take back to the cabin later. I sat at the end of the row of loungers where there was a door open to let in cooler air since they have closed the roof when we were in Antigua.
Evening entertainment was rather a mix. They had the passenger talent show which I did not go to. After that they are passengers and their dance instructors entertaining us on what they had learnt during the cruise. It was all called Entertainment Explosion featuring The Aurora singers, Line Dancers, Party Dancers, Ballroom Dancers and the Aurora Tappers (tap dancing). It was all rather good and good fun too. The line dancing had certainly come a long way and was very good, if I am honest it was the best of the bunch, everyone had worked so hard enjoying what they had done on their cruise. There was so much going on there were times you had to figure out what you really wanted to see and do.

#2

When I saw this melsea I thought 'Is she still at sea? She must be going round again!!'
What a performance with the bottle opener! You couldn't make it up!!!

#3

Hi Melsea I've been waiting for Part 27. Unless it's me I can't find it. I agree with OBF, why couldn't Room service just let you have a bottle opener?

#4

Emjay

Oops. I had better post that hadn't I

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