March 21, 2012--At
Sea
Ahhhh, a sea day at last!
A chance to relax with no place we had to be at any particular time
until dinner that night.
We had set our clocks forward one hour the night before; still,
I woke up at a little after 6:30. By the
time I got ready and dressed, it was almost 7:30. I went up to the Lido Deck to get two cups of
coffee and delivered them back to the cabin for my parents. When I brought them in, my Dad made a comment
about why we were getting up so early (even though he was awake)—turns out he
had set his watch backwards instead of forward and thought that it was 5:30 in
the morning instead of 7:30.
I went to the Lobby Coffee Bar for cappuccino while my
parents were getting dressed. Ronald was
working in the Lobby Bar that morning, and since it was a sea day and people
were sleeping in, it was quiet so we had a chance to visit for a little while.
I then went back to the cabin to meet my parents for
breakfast and we headed off to Sabatini’s.
After breakfast, I spent a little time checking emails, Facebook, and
catching up on my journal.
Afterwards, I stopped by the boutique shop to pick up the
four “inch of gold” necklaces my mother and I had ordered. Then my mother and I spent a little time in
the casino—unfortunately, we both lost.
I had a late lunch of Princess pizza on the Lido Deck, spoke to a few of
the people who passed by, and read my Kindle—all-in-all a nice relaxing day.
Late afternoon, I went to Crooners Bar and spent time talking
with Vyron, another bartender I had met.
After visiting with Vyron, I headed down to the Lobby Bar and had a
cappuccino. My parents found me there
and had their afternoon coffee/cappuccino as well. Then it was back to the cabin to get ready
for dinner.
Dinner that night was Italian, and I had the eggplant
parmesan, rigatoni fra diavolo, and the veal scaloppini—excellent! Italian was one of my favorite theme
dinners. Unfortunately, we had some
swells and the ship was rocking a little, so my mother wasn’t feeling well
despite the sea bands she was wearing for seasickness. She had a light dinner of just bread rolls
and Caesar salad and my dad had only the shrimp cocktail and minestrone soup—Italian
food was one of their least favorite. Maricio,
our assistant waiter, was at the end of his contract and he was scheduled to go
home to Chile the next day
when we arrived in Hong Kong , so it was his
last night on board. When I left the
restaurant, I wished him well and we exchanged the double kiss on the cheek (it
was Italian night afterall).
My parents went up to the room early, and I headed for the
lounge. Most of the discussion that
evening among the bartenders and bar stewards was about whether or not they
would be able to go outside in Hong Kong . Jeoffrey, the bar steward, said that he hoped
he would get a couple of hours off since he wanted to buy a laptop he had
looked at two cruises ago, go to an Indian restaurant for good food, and (as he
put it) have a BIG beer. Even though
there was beer available in the crew bar, he said beer just tasted better
outside. Unfortunately, the schedule for
the next day isn’t available until around 10:00pm the night before, so everyone
kept speculating on whether or not they would be able to go out. The Diamond was scheduled to arrive at 9:00am
and would not depart Hong Kong until midnight, so were we going to be in Hong
Kong for quite a while and hopefully, many of the crew would be able to have a
least a couple of hours off.
Pong, one of the bar stewards from the casino came in. I asked him if he was going out and he said
that no, that they are keeping his laminate.
The crew can’t get off the ship without their “laminate” which is an ID
card that will allow them to enter the various ports the ships stop at. Only those crew who are authorized to get off
the ship are issued their laminates.
Pong was scheduled for IPM, or in-port manning, so he wouldn’t be
receiving his laminate—the ship is required to have a minimum number of crew
members on board at all times while in port and crew members are scheduled for
IPM on a rotating basis.
Finally, at a little after 10:00pm, the much anticipated
schedule was delivered by the bar manager.
Unfortunately, there was a meeting scheduled for all bar staff at 10:30
the next morning, so none of them would be able to go out until around noon and
since they were all scheduled to work at 5:00 when most of the bars opened,
that limited the time outside. Despite
the scheduled bar staff meeting, Jeoffrey was happy to see that he would have
plenty of time to get off the ship and get his laptop, dinner, and beer.
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