We woke up at 6:30, got dressed and headed outside.
Deception Island is the Caldera of an old volcano. It's U shaped. I hoped we were sailing in, but apparently not because there's a rock at the harbor entrance that prevents it. So we watched for a while looking for wildlife and then, since we were exhausted, went back to bed as the captain spun the ship around, and went around the island.
You can kind of see how the Island looks like a caldera with an opening.
One side of the entrance.
And the other.
At about 9:00 he announced that we were leaving and heading north to Cape Horn. He also said this was the best Antarctic visit he'd had for scenic cruising in all four trips he'd made. Considering that we missed 2 of 4 major spots (although the Gerlache Straight was amazing) and this was the best, it's very clear that cruising Antarctica is somewhat dicey. The last cruise had to leave a day early. Whether it was or wasn't, this was simply an amazing four days.
We went to Sabatini's for breakfast and for the first time they were crowded. Breakfast service wasn't what it usually was and it took a long time. We got out with just enough time to get cash and grab my dance shoes for our tango lesson. When we stopped back at the room, our steward was cleaning it out, and his boss was there - he later told his boss stops in every once in a while to make sure all is well.
Our tango lesson went very well. Cecelia was the primary teacher, since her English was good, and Fernando speaks very little. Because we already do tango (she said she watched us dance the night before) she asked us if wanted patterns, or technique. She also asked if we wanted praise, or constructive criticism. We said we wanted them to be honest - but they could choose what we did with the lesson. She opted to work on one pattern (ocho), improve it, and give us a couple of variations on it. At the end of the lesson, we got their business card, and also the location where they teach when not on the ship. She pointed out where they lived, said we should come over when we're in town (I think she's kidding). It was an hour well spent.
We were still a bit tired, so went back to the room for a while. This afternoon was our Cruise critic cabin crawl, so we cleaned up a bit to get ready for that.
It was getting to be about 1pm, and we hadn't had lunch so we stopped by the buffet on our way to meet our group for the crawl. Uninspiring as always, but reasonably tasty.
After lunch I arrived at the elevators near the buffet - we set 2pm for the crawl, and a meeting time between 1:50 and 2:00. I was a couple minutes early and to my surprise there were at least 16 people there by the time I got there.
What, you may ask is a cabin crawl? (I can hear you now - Abby, what's a cabin crawl? Glad you asked). It's an event where a group gets together and visits as many different types of cabins as they can. I started organizing this a few months ago by asking who wanted to volunteer a cabin, or just go. I've been keeping track of it for a while. After everyone arrived, Glen took the various wines to our room, which was the final destination, and we'd have a little party there. We started with an inside room, and then when from Deck 12 to Deck 8 to visit two outsides - one with an obstructed view (not very) and one with unobstructed. It was a fun group, with about 30 people, going in a few at a time, since most ship board rooms won't hold more than about 10 (6 comfortably) at a time. Rooms are very small by hotel standards. After the outsides, we'd had a problem, since the balcony volunteer wasn't there due to sea sickness. Somebody else volunteered and we rearranged a couple of rooms. Next up was the minisuites, one with a covered balcony one with the normal uncovered. One of our members volunteered her room as well, since it had a large wraparound balcony. Some people had never seen a mini, and the bathroom was a feature, since it has a full size tub, not the usual micro showers. After that, we went to the balcony cabin and then we all went to our suite for some wine and cheese.
One of the things that impressed people was that we get the dinner menus in our room, so I proceeded to read the menu as a waiter would announce specials.
During the party the phone rang. It was the ship confirming that we're going on the Ultimate Ship tour tomorrow morning (interesting since in theory bookings closed tomorrow).
The party lasted about 2 hours, and a good time was had by all. After that, I went down and did trivia while Glen rested after our early start.
Tonight was the Captain's Circle Party (for repeat cruisers) and formal night. We got ready for that, and then went to it. Usually the captain is there, but this time it was the hotel manager. The cruise director said it was because the captain was on the bridge because of the weather. Probably.
We have an early day tomorrow, so after dinner we went to the second heat of Ballroom Blitz, (we didn't have to qualify, but we thought it would be good to go) and then went to bed.
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