We woke early this morning to cloudy skies and to fog. We went to breakfast at the Lido Café. It was not too busy as many passenger’s appeared to be sleeping in this morning. By the time we arrived at the Fitness Center, the fog had cleared and we had good visibility. This was a prelude to a wonderful treat that awaited us as our ship made its way toward Deception Island, which is part of Antarctica.
As we worked out, various wildlife of the sea could be seen from the ship so we had a perfect view in which to observe our friends from the sea. We saw several whales, which were just a couple hundred feet from the ship. About 30 minutes later we saw hundreds upon hundreds of penguins as their heads bobbed up and down in the ocean. The naturalist explained that it does not get better than this. Off the bow of the ship towards the beach area there were literally thousands of penguins. Formal attire for our ocean friends was certainly the attire for the day. ☺ Between yesterdays perfect weather coupled with what we observed this morning we consider ourselves quite fortunate. Antarctica has truly exceeded all of our expectations. It is truly a wonderland and a place that we would highly recommend cruising to.
In addition to sailing near Deception Island, we also cruised by the South Shetland Islands in the Bransfield Strait.
As the ship began to cruise to its next destination we took part in other activities during the morning. Anne Marie attended her piano class while Keith read and wrote and then we each worked out for another 30 minutes on the treadmill until it was tine to attend the second in a series of lectures given by Ambassador Edward Peck. The title of this mornings lecture was “Thinking About Our World: An Effort to Provoke Thoughts, Not People.” “The shock of foreign cultures – especially ours, different peoples can see exactly the same thing differently”. Several of the points of the presentation could easily be applied to a book that Keith is currently reading. We sat next to Ambassador Pecks’ wife, Ann, and enjoyed talking with her prior to the lecture. Following the lecture, it was time for team trivia. There are close to twenty trivia teams. Our team finished in a tie for second place today. After trivia, we went to the main dining room for lunch with most of our trivia teammates. Once again, we each had our usual; a salad entrée.
This afternoon we walked around the ship, and we took in the beautiful and magical scenery of Antarctica. As this is a sea day there was a diverse set of activities for the passenger’s to enjoy. This included a lecture on the television and film industry, music instruction, a movie, needlepoint, a world cruise quilting project, duplicate bridge, social bridge, a computer course, a French class, a Spanish class, afternoon tea, yoga for beginners, a rehearsal for those in the Chorus, an organized afternoon walk on the promenade deck, along with complimentary hot chocolate with dark Bacardi rum served on the outer decks for one hour. By the way, Mr. Bacardi and his wife are passenger’s for a couple of segments of the World Cruise.
The highlight of the day began at around 2:30 PM when we went up to the Palm Court, which is on Deck 12 looking over the bow (front or forward) of the ship and one deck below the uppermost deck. From this vantage point we saw beautiful scenery and the most whales we’ve ever seen at one time. As we moved fairly close to an enormous iceberg, we observed three whales on the port (left side). About 30 minutes later we saw approximately 10 whales at the bow of the ship. Keith was able to get a picture of two of them. We once again were treated to sunny skies while we had the opportunity to view this pristine area. And to think that we are seeing just a small portion of Antarctica. Again, for those of you who are avid cruisers, we highly recommend this part of the world for a cruise.
While we observed all of the beauty around us today’s daily tea in the Palm Court included a variety of chocolate deserts. We passed on the goodies and Keith had green tea while Anne Marie enjoyed a cup of coffee.
This evening we had a wonderful dinner in the main dining room. The headwaiter always asks us if we want something special for dinner so when he asked the other night we asked for swordfish for the two of us this evening and it was wonderful. Overall, we have been very pleased with the quality and diversity of the meals served in the main dining room. For dinner, we have almost exclusively had fish or some other type of seafood each evening and have really enjoyed it. Tomorrow evening we will be dining in Silk Road with one of the two couples from our dining room table along with two other couples. We still have not dined at Prego which is the Italian Specialty Restaurant.
Keith & Anne Marie
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