We are headed southerly in the Atlantic towards Labadee, Haiti The seas are still about 6 feet but are expected to drop throughout the next 24 hours. There are some clouds, but basically the skies are sunny.
Breakfast in Chops is the first order of business. I order buttermilk pancakes. A little tough and barely warm enough to melt soft butter. The Jewel being a smaller ship does not have a Coastal Kitchen for the Suites passengers so both Pinnacle guests and Suite guests may avail themselves of Chops for breakfast.
A magician, whom I assume will be doing a show later in the cruise, holds a class in the Centrum on how to perform some card tricks. Well attended by many, the children especially.
The Jewel is about 20 years old and one of the smaller ships in Royal's fleet holding about 2500 passengers. No giant water slides here for kids, most of the manifest is more mature passengers.
The pool deck is quite busy with many working on future skin cancer. Nearing the peak of the day there is an "accident" in the main pool. I can only assume an accident of biological nature not physical nature. The pool must be drained, cleaned, and refilled. The only issue is where the ship is located. Water can not be discharged, and water can not be taken from the ocean. A slight diversion in course and slowing the ship to 10 knots solves the location problem. The pool is expected to be in operation by 2:00, delaying some of the pool activities by a few hours.
Again both the Diamond Lounge and the Concierge Lounge have plenty of seating when happy hour starts at 5:00. Tonight is a formal night, one of two on this voyage. Most passengers are appropriately dressed. We stop for a few pictures on our way to the lounge.
The dining room is a madhouse when we arrive at 6:45. We are diverted to a waiting area as no tables are available. We are called within a few minutes and tell our waiter we would like to make the 8:00 show. He hustles and we make it.
Tonight was one of those menues with 4 or 5 excellent choices. I settle on the chicken condon blu. Except for the serving size being way too large at about 12 oz, it was excellent.
The production show was, well a production show. Not bad, nothing special. It wouldn't surprise me if the show has been playing here since the ship was launched in 2004. The theater was nearly full, and most significantly the seating very comfortable, unlike that on most of the newer ships.
After the show we are entertained in "The Suite" with Adrienne's stories and Terry and Steve's jokes.
While cleaning of your cabin historically has been done twice a day, now it is only once a day, but you have the option of morning or night. Our cabin is made up in the evening while we are always at dinner. Tonight there definitely was an elephant in the cabin. A towel elephant that is. The obvious driver of this is labor cost. Our cabin steward is responsible for 32 cabins. I remember many years ago when they were expected to service four.
The seas have calmed to about 3 feet, and the skies mostly overcast. Except for our slight diversion to deal with the pool issue we cruise at about 20 knots.
Our expected arrival at Labadee is 8:00 AM
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