DAY 36 at sea 

The ship is still buzzing in conversation about Cochin. So many really enjoyed the city and its people.

The outside temperature is still very hot and humid and the seas continue to be smooth apart from the odd bump now and then as if we have just run over something on the road. We are current cruising around the bottom of Sri Lanka.

Everyone is enjoying the days at sea, especially after being ashore in such heat which is quite exhausting and we’ve had extreme heat since we began sailing through the Suez canal which seems like ages ago.

The ship is still undergoing refurbishment here and there. They are re-carpeting the cabins at 20 per day. The RCL brand shop has been closed for refurbishment since Barcelona which I think is pretty poor. Many like to purchase the Logo merchandise and not all the merchandise has  been on offer as it was on our first leg of the cruise from New Orleans to Barcelona when the shop was open. Many are not happy about this considering they managed to refurbish the Casino including adding new tables and slot machines in 7 days, yet it has taken 3 weeks so far to refurbish the shop and it’s still not finished.  Everyone understands maintenance has to occur during cruises but you would think the Management on board would ensure that the work is done in a timely and efficient manner so as not to affect the guests for too long. The word is the left hand doesn’t always know what the right hand is doing on here, and I must say those words are mild compared to what some are saying. The only thing that matters seems to be the Asia market.  We just hope the Asian market respect this wonderful refurbishment and trust it still looks as good as new when the ship arrives in Australia for its season. They have taken on many Asian crew  which is  good for the Asian market but sometimes proving very difficult for a ship with the majority being English speaking especially when Trivia is conducted in English by an Asian speaker who can’t be understood as their pronunciation is not good so it ends up with everyone asking for the words to be spelled out, and even that makes a bad situation worse.  I must point out our Progressive Trivia is taken by the Activities Manager who is English speaking and he is excellent and a lot of fun. 

The most laughable everyone will have seen on here is beautiful photographs taken by the ships photographers whilst we were at the Pyramids.  Printed at the bottom of each person’s photo, which is available for purchase is “The Pyramids of the DESSERT” not ’DESERT’ J. I hope they offered to reprint them for those who wanted to purchase them.

The introduction of the DreamWorks characters has been successful.  We are the first ship to have these characters, and I must say they’re very big but quite cute.  In the future for those travelling with families Royal Caribbean have introduced for the children and their parents breakfast with Shrek, Fiona, Puss in Boots and others in the main dining room a couple of times each cruise. The menu is specific to the characters and they are all there to entertain and be photographed during breakfast.

Gordon Whatman our Cruise Director has worked for 22 years for Royal Caribbean.  He has such charisma and a wonderful sense of humour, has everyone in fits of laughter everywhere he goes and he’s an ‘out there’ Cruise Director and can been seen all around the ship. He even has a ‘chat with the Cruise Director’ at 10.00am every morning in the Pig and Whistle which is very popular.

Early afternoon yesterday we had an airline get together.  A guy by the name of Blair put a little notice up on the board asking if there were any others who had worked or currently work for an airline and from that about 12 of us turned up for a chat. We had a couple of Qantas ex airport Managers, a retired American Airline Pilot, Ansett/TAA staff, Delta staff all retired and ourselves Air New Zealand. Tomorrow we are meeting for lunch in the dining room.

A tip for those booking on Deck 6, we are able to get an internet connection from our Cabin…yay. The Guest Relations staff who are all an excellent bunch  are very helpful with any internet problems or any other problems you may encounter on the ship. We’ve had no problems at all except for some internet issues which they have rectified for us promptly.

Tomorrow is at sea cruising toward Penang Malaysia.