How long is this river anyway?

Feb 3

We'd gone to bed early last night, so were up pretty early. Checking the voyage channel we saw that we were still, after sailing all night, in the Rio de la Plata. BA is much more inland than I thought.

We decided to take advantage of one of the perks of a suite - breakfast at Sabatini's, the ship's specialty Italian restaurant. We wandered in around 9, and they asked our room number. There were about 5 or 6 tables occupied. The restaurant offers a nice breakfast menu, including a complementary mimosa. I opted in, Glen did not. As we were sitting there, the captain from the Dawn walked by. We said hello and shook his hand, and mentioned we'd sailed with him. He asked us to remind him. I said it was the Alaska trip in which Sitka was canceled (last cruise of the season he recalled), and we were his neighbors on the Riviera deck. I think at that point he remembered us. We had a brief nice chat, and he went on his way and we went to breakfast.

We next attended a lecture - an introduction of the various guest lecturers, including Antarctic exports, the Ice Pilot (or master) and the port lecturer. It was moderately interesting.

Then we went to one of the most fun things we had planned - the cruise critic meet and greet. It was great - we've had a very active roll call and it was fun to put faces to names. In addition, the organizer invited some of the officers, and they came - I met the Cruise Director, Maitre'd, Hotel Manager, assistant cruise director and the Captain. He explained why there were two captains on board -- apparently, because of the ice, etc, they want a captain on duty 24x7. Usually, he's just on pager part of the time, but for this one they want somebody there. Apparently, he did it for the previous captain on the previous cruise.

After the M&G we went to lunch with Linda and Bob, and then to the first ballroom lesson, the ubiquitous Meringue. Ben, the instructor did a pretty good job. After that, we relaxed for a while and got ready for formal night.

After a break in our room (very nice to hang out in) I went down to gather my cash for our Falkland expedition. I ran into some of our cruise critic friends, and chatted with them for a while, and then went back upstairs to wait for our laundry and dress for the formal dinner.

During the day we got our new table assignment, so at dinner we headed for that table. We knew it trouble right away, as the four people sitting there said hello in Spanish. We asked if they spoke English, and only one did. As soon as Rich and Joan arrived, we went back to the Maitre'd. He said he'd find us another table with English speakers, but right now all he had was a table for 4. We decided to take that. While we were sitting there, the Maitre'd came back again, and gave us a new table number. I noticed it was the same number that Joan and Rich had before, and she'd told me they wanted to leave anyway. After a brief discussion, we decided to stay, and nominated Joan to be the Spokesperson to tell the maitre'd. She did and we were set.

After dinner was the first heat of the Ballroom Blitz. They have a 45 minute dance session, and people can sign up for the blitz. The cruise staff selects who's through to the final. We entered, as did 3 other couples, and all four of us went through. Now we have about a week and half to figure out what to dance and to what music. It should be a crowd favorite song and a flashy routine.

After that, we walked on the upper deck for a while and then to bed.