Sunday, March 18, 2012

SE Asia and China Cruise—Day 5 (At Sea)

March 18, 2012—At Sea

My parents and I decided to have breakfast in Sabatini’s this morning.  This is an Italian restaurant that is normally only open in the evenings for dinner except they serve breakfast to those who are booked in a suite.  I’ve never been able to take advantage of this before and most likely won’t again after this cruise.  It sure beats going to the buffet and the breakfast was cooked to perfection.  My Dad decided that we should have breakfast there every morning!  Well, at least every sea day since Sabatini’s doesn’t open until 7:30am and with excursions planned in most ports early, we aren’t able to go there on port days.

After breakfast, I went to the Internet Café to update the Cruise Critic Slot Pull spreadsheet.  I had volunteered to organize a Slot Pull among the Cruise Critic roll call folks and had a total of 50 people signed up. 

Once I had the spreadsheet updated and printed, I checked emails and read Facebook.  It sure is nice having unlimited complimentary internet since I’ve already used over 300 minutes.

At 12:30, I went to the casino to pick out a slot machine and wait for all the folks to arrive at 1:00.  I met with the casino manager and let them know that I had a group of folks coming.  I hadn’t told them ahead of time since I didn’t want them to “adjust” any of the slot machines (although I don’t think it’s that easy to do), but also thought I should give them the courtesy of letting them know at least a few minutes beforehand.

We had 37 of the 50 people show up.  I collected $15 dollars from each person, and we put them all in the slot machine I had picked out.  Then as I called each person’s name, that person took their turn (at $3.00 a pull, each person had 5 pulls).  I kept track of how much each person had won for the group on the spreadsheet.  After everyone had their turn, we cashed out and divided all the money equally.  Since the casino doesn’t give out change for this and since it never divides out evenly, the person who won the most for the group gets the remaining money.  We had all invested $15 and each of us got back $19, so while we didn’t hit the $50,000 jackpot, we did come out ahead.  Based on all the comments and cheering every time someone won even just a little bit, I think everyone had a good time.

Between organizing the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet and the Slot Pull, and making friends among the crew (as I usually do) and a few other passengers, it seems that everywhere I go, someone is greeting me.  Unfortunately, I can’t seem to remember all their names! 

After the Slot Pull, I spent some time updating my journal so I could post on Facebook.  I’m starting to get behind on these posts, and know that the next two day’s excursions will put me further behind.

We had dinner reservations that evening and went to the Pacific Dining Room.  David, the headwaiter has been very good at taking care of our reservations for us each evening.  I haven’t had to call the Dine Line at all anymore which is great since it isn’t always convenient to call them to make reservations each evening. 

After dinner, it was off to the lounge for an after dinner cocktail.  Jutte, my new German friend and her friend Michael joined me.  Michael is from Switzerland and is tour guide for a group of people he has on board.  While Jutte remains on board all the time and meets her group after they embark, Michael meets his group at the airport and flies over with them and then flies back with them.  I had a great time talking to them both about their jobs.  We all had a very early start the next day with the excursions in Ho Chi Minh City, but ended up staying and talking much later than we should have.

Finally made it back to the cabin and bed by midnight and the alarm was set for 5:00am.  At least I should be able to get a few extra minutes of sleep on the long 2-1/2 hour drive to Ho Chi Minh the next morning (I hope).

No comments:

Post a Comment