Friday, November 17, 2023
Oh! It’s a sea day! Who thought that would be such a welcome thing! We can sleep in and have brunch instead of breakfast! Of course I wake up at four anyway, but I don’t have to get up! When I do I write all of yesterday’s blog and upload it before anyone else needs the internet. Sure wish I could upload photos of the Segrada Familia!
We go down to the buffet for brunch after loading up our one free laundry bag. The breakfast is okay but no one is thrilled. Ginger and I go back to the room and grab entertainment so we can go sit outside until it’s time to cheer on Nick’s trivia team. It’s quiet and out of the wind on our deck and for a moment I can airdrop photos to Ginger’s computer!! I’m ecstatic but later we can’t replicate the experiment.
Nick’s team includes Christine and a lady from Tarpon Springs!! And a lady from Georgia!! What a small world. The contest has twenty general knowledge questions. I know most of them and am not pleased that I know John Waterman invited the fountain pen! Most of the others were either easy or beyond me.
After the contest the three of us go back to our outdoor venue. Nick is on his phone, Ginger is putting the finishing touches on her Guatemala book and I’m editing photos. After a while we order drinks. Ginger and I get rusty nails because they don’t have Caesars and Nick gets the drink of the day. It’s pretty awful and he leaves it on the table and goes inside because it’s a little brisk out here now.
Dinner will be at five wherever we can get because we have tickets for “Burning the Floor” at 7:30. Reservations don’t include assigned seats so we want to be early!
Ginger and I go back to the room to leave our things and head to Shanghai, our first choice for dinner at five. We arrive to find that Nick has just joined the line (it’s 4:45) and we slip right in with him. The line grows like a weed on fertilizer and we’re awfully glad we came early! The girl behind us is from Romania and has been doing all the art museums. She wants to be an art critic and live in the US, if she can find love. If not there are always other options! This afternoon she did the ropes course on the ship!
Just before five they begin seating people at long, tall tables and we sit across from each other. The man across from Ginger is Korean and is on the cruise with his wife, mother-in-law, who is 93, his friend from high school and the friend’s wife. He is very friendly and a good dinner partner. His wife never says a word. We choose our dinner components by filling a box next to each choice with the number of servings. I choose to start with one order of steamed vegetable dumplings with spicy plum sauce and follow that with combination fried rice with shrimp, beef, roast pork, egg, Chinese cabbage, bean sprouts and scallions.
Ginger orders all three of the dim sum, the dumplings, spring rolls with sweet chili sauce, and fried pots tickers with ginger-soy dipping sauce. Good choice! She graciously shares a spring roll with me before the entrees arrive. She ordered the Peking Style Chicken with lo mein noodles, chicken, straw mushrooms and red peppers. We each half of our entrees and then swap. Both are good but the lo mein is better. I’d get that again in a heart beat! Shouldn’t have ordered dessert, we’re so stuffed! The Koreans all are smarter and have left but we wait to see what it is. It’s Five Spice Chocolate cake with sweet ginger sauce. It’s pretty as a picture and very rich. None of us can do more than put a dent in it. Lesson learned here!
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| Every few moments another cast member is featured on this sign outside the theater. |
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| Waiting for the curtain, which rises right on time for the first of two shows this evening. |
The show’s curtain is at 7:30 and the doors open at 7:00. You need reservations but the seating is general admission, so we decide to go to the room and rest for just a few minutes and be at the Breakaway Theater by 6:30. Others also had that idea but when the do open the doors the seats we had talked about are available and Nick leads the charge - center, center, fifth row. The seats are staggered so the view isn’t obstructed by the person directly in front of you and even if they weren’t a tiny Chinese lady sits in front of me. I lean over to thank her and at first she thinks I’m being sarcastic! When I assure her that I am truly grateful, we both have a good laugh.
There are old black and white movies showing on the two screens along side the stage, featuring ballroom numbers from back in the day, and promptly at 7:30 the show begins. If you ever have the chance to see it - do not miss the opportunity!! I’ve forgiven the ship for all its shortcomings because it brought me this hour of spectacular dancing and singing and staging and choreography and lighting and pure joy! Three singers, two guys and a powerful and beautiful black woman, a four piece band - piano, drums (she’s spectacular) bass and rhythm guitars, and twelve amazing dancers! There is barely enough break between numbers for the applause, so the show is nonstop. Yes, it’s ballroom, but not like you’ve seen in any ballroom!! See it!!
We take our stunned psyches to Howl at the Moon for an hour or two and head for bed around 10:30. We have to be off the ship by 6:45, in Cadiz, to meet our tour group at 7:00. This time, though, everyone in the group is from the Breakaway, so we don’t have to worry if the ship is late again. It must be a huge group because there are two buses! We’re heading to Seville which is about two hours away, and we have to be back by 4:30, so it will be a whirlwind! I hear that we break up into smaller groups once we arrive, so it should be fine.
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| Ginger has her embroidery with her and it tempted to go join her! |
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| There are several screens around the venue in case you can't see from your seat. |
Anyway, I go straight to bed while Ginger and Nick are still up. They only need half an hour in the morning! I’ve sent my jammies offf in our one free bag of laundry, but it the clean clothes haven’t come back yet, so Ginger loans me a night shirt. We all like it cold for sleeping, so naked to bed isn’t an option (well, for any number of reasons!) and I drift off while they are still up. I got up at 4:30 so I could write and post this while everyone else is off line. It works out quite well and is now our regular routine.
