April 14, 2016

World Cruise 2016 Day 100

Day 100 – At sea. The temperature is in the upper 50's this morning, by mid day it has warmed to 61. The seas are choppy and the skies are dark with clouds. We pass between to "toe" of Italy and the island of Sicily around noon time. The wind on our bow is in excess of 50 mph, the captain tells us this is quite common for this area. Within an hour or so the wind has dropped to 25 mph from the west as we continue on our course to Civitavecchia. The seas are relatively calm.


HAL's newest ship, the Koningsdam, is currently on its maiden voyage. Tomorrow we will be sharing the pier with her in Civitavecchia and arrangements have been made for passengers to visit the ship in the morning, but I, like many other passengers, will be on a shore excursion. I expect the majority of visitors will be crew and staff.


One of the forward elevators is out of service today, the crew is changing a large pulley at the top. It is about 2 feet in diameter and about a foot wide. I would guess it weighs at least 300 pounds. Workers struggle to maneuver it up the stairs to the mechanical room on deck 10.


All of the equipment is now operating at the "Dive In" on the Lido deck. The last solution, an extension cord run across the ceiling to power the taco ingredients warming station.


This morning Barbara and Nyron give a presentation on all the shore excursions for the rest of our voyage. How depressive, they are talking about tours in Ft Lauderdale.


An hour later Barbara gives her presentation on Barcelona. I will watch it later on TV when we are closer to Spain.


Today HAL returns our passports. Italian law says we must carry our passports at all times in Italy. Being the law abiding person that I am, I may or may not comply. HAL tells us we just need photo ID. Actually I have felt uncomfortable at times over the past three months being in a foreign country without a passport. Not that it is likely, but if something were to happen and I missed the ship or had to return to the US by means other than the ship, travel may be difficult without a passport. I'll decide what to do in the morning. If I don't post anything else to the blog after this, you can conclude I was detained in Italy for not having a passport.


Our show lounge entertainer tonight is Ruben Vilagrand presenting a combination of mime, magic and comedy.