Today was mostly a sea day, but we had an hour of scenic touring of Cape Horn in the late afternoon.
Our day began early because we had the Ultimate Ship' Tour at 9. We started by visiting Sabattini's for a quick coffee, juice and pastry.
We headed to the meeting location, with our signed waiver, at 8:45. Just before 9, so crew members started showing up, and checking the list of names. At 9am, Dave, one of the cruise staff, led us into the theater where JJ (Cruise director) gave us a brief introduction to the tour. It started with them demonstrating staging of a show. At the end a couple of costumed dancers appeared, and then Bex, the line captain came out to tell us about the show. (Bex is apparently a normal British nickname for Rebecca - I know this from reading Shopaholic books). She took us back stage to see the dressing room. Among the interesting points was that the stage is actually about 5 stores worth of stuff. While we were on the stage Glen asked if we could do a dance turn. They agreed so now we have danced on a Princess stage.
We then went to the mooring area at the front of the ship, and saw the anchor and lines. It was interesting to learn about them as I've seen them before - on the Dawn Princess the promenade deck goes by the mooring area and you can see in. (I believe they close it when mooring is in progress).
Next we headed out to the Galley. Once again, the chef was there to greet us and explain things. The tour we got this time was much more detailed, with visits to the pastry station, the storage refrigerators and the vegetable cutting room (down one deck, vegetables are never cut in the actual cooking galley). No visit to the galley is ever complete without a snack - in this case mimosas and chocolate covered strawberries. They had some white chocolate ones, and I had those. They were yummy. For the most part, strawberries are almost always just covered with regular chocolate, so this might be the first time I've had them.
The vegetable cutting area.
From the galley, we headed to the engine control room. There one of the engineers explained how the engines worked and answered other questions about things including how sewage is treated. We learned about black water and grey water. (Email me if you want more details).
Following that, we visited the shops - printing and photo - saw where all stuff you get in your mailbox is printed - they do about 22,000 pages a day. The menus, by the way, are preprinted, probably in Santa Clarita and brought on board. They have a wall with cubby holes with stacks of them.
Pretty fun looking.
In the photo shop we saw their huge photo printers. The photographers use all digital now, and it's uploaded and printed quickly. The manager did tell us that they'd be going all digital eventually, but I'll believe it when I see it. Photos are very much an impulse purchase, and I can't see them risking that. Maybe eventually they'll use digital display boards.
A highlight of the trip was the laundry - we saw all the washing machines, driers, folding machines and the dry cleaning areas. The laundry is in operation 24x7.
Usually, the medical center is next, but since it was clinic hour time, we went to the bridge first. There were about 7 people working there, and the 3rd officer showed us around and pointed out the various equipment. During that time, everyone got their picture taken with the captain. The views were spectacular, and since we were still having heavy winds, you could see the ship moving up and down. There were also refreshments there.
Glen spent some time talking technical with the staff captain and I wandered around. I asked the captain if it really was his best visit in 4 to Antarctica. He said I was the second person that asked that, and yes it was true.
A view from the bridge.
After the bridge, we went to the medical center. Dylan, the senior doctor, showed us around. There are two doctors there, with different backgrounds. Dylan came from intensive care and anesthesiology and the other one from emergency medicine. We saw the hospital and then what apparently is the most asked after part of the medical center - the morgue. Yes, they have one and they use it, especially on longer cruises (which makes sense since older people take those cruises).
After the morgue we were done. Today, there were two special dining features - a pastry buffet and a pub lunch. We first went to the buffet because it closed first. Almost everything had chocolate on it though, so I only ate a little. Then, around 1:15, we went to the pub lunch. There was a pretty long line, so I got in it while Glen went to watch the tango show. We ran into some people from our roll call, so we decided to eat with them. We heard while waiting that they were waiting for the kitchen to catch up, which appeared to be the case - the line started moving very fast. It took a while for the food to come, but it was actually very good.
After lunch, I went to line dance class. Melissa, the instructor, decided to teach a partner dance that has pivots and underarm turns in it. I got it but my partner didn't. As was the case with a lot of people. After about 35 minutes, and getting frustrated, she gave up and went on to a line dance. As we were about to do it with music, the captain got on and announced that because of wind (still at gale force), we couldn't board the Chilean pilot, and we were not allowed to sail in Chilean waters without a Chilean pilot, so we were going to have to view Cape Horn from the south. I think we later had to go in in order to get to Ushuaia.
That was disappointing, certainly.
At 4:00 I met my friend Linda at Vines, the wine bar. We sat and chatted, and then we hit Cape Horn so I grabbed my coat and camera and took lots of pictures.
This is a picture of the Cape. It was stark and striking (and very windy!)
And the monument on the island. I don't actually, at this time, know what it is.
And the other structure on Cape Horn. Notice the flag of Chili.
One last picture for you. Enjoy.
After the bulk of it, we went up to Skywalkers for the elite lounge and chatted with Teri and Rod until the reception was over - at 7pm. We then got ready for dinner, did a bit of dancing and enjoyed dinner.
We have an early day tomorrow, so after a couple after dinner dances, we went to bed.
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