Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 11 - Friday May 20th 2016 - At Sea

So after the long day yesterday it was great knowing that we had a sea day today. Time to just relax, take it easy. With no real agenda we set about our day in the usual way of visiting the windjammer for breakfast followed by Starbucks for coffee and then it was time for a ships drill entitled Safe Haven.

The drill was designed to keep all the passengers safe should we encounter any Pirates! Yep, you read it right Pirates! As we are sailing off the coast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden it’s a necessary precaution as it has been known for Pirates to try and board ships etc.
think of the film with Tom Hanks Captain Phillips). The drill involved all the passengers basically moving off all the outside decks and into areas of the ship that have no windows (it’s actually quite hard to do as the ship itself is designed to make seeing the sea from every opportunity).

The drill took about half an hour and after it had finished Trev and I went off and did our own thing for a few hours. I went off to the burning sun trap of deck 15 and took in some rays. The temperature on board has been notably getting higher and higher over the last few days and it was certainly hot out there at 31 degrees or so. Trevor opted for the shade of the cabin balcony and used the time to sort out all the hundreds of photographs we have already taken since embarking on this trip.

We met up again for a light lunch and then headed off to The North Star as we had a reservation to travel.

The North Star is basically a hydraulic arm that has attached to it a pod like viewing bubble that raises over the top of the entire ship and moves from side to side to give you, well views of the ship and the sea from different angles. It’s such a shame that they were not allowed to operate it whilst travelling through the Suez Canal. The ride lasts for about fifteen minutes and you really do get to see the ship from a completely different perspective. Again this was not really a wow moment for us as it was for our fellow passengers as we had been on The North Star when we travelled on board The Anthem of the Seas last year but never the less it is very impressive, it is unique to this class of boat and is something of a gimmick but equally unique.

Our ride over Trevor went for a swim and I headed back to the deck for some more rays still covered from head to toe in factor twenty (I did not burn at all, not even a little bit!).

Sunbathing over it was time to put our bodies to work so we both went off to the gym to compensate all the food and alcohol that we are getting through. An hour on a treadmill makes up some way towards the calories of our evening meal but I still dread to think what our weight will be when we finally get of the boat in Beijing?

Once again it was a busy night as before dinner we had to head off to 270 as we had a reservation to watch the show Spectres Cabaret in the two seventy space which is located right at the back of the boat on deck five.

The space is very very impressive indeed. The stage pops up, goes down, has holes in the ceiling for acrobats to come falling from the ceiling from. The whole of the rear floor to ceiling glass panels are tuned into one big projector screen that carries the show in tremendous definition. On top of all this you have a bank of robots that have LCD screens attached to their arms that again carry projection and complete their own choreographed dance to the various scenes of the shows and even have their own dedicated segment dancing to Kraftwerks “We are the Robots”.

Again we had actually seen this show before on Anthem of the Seas but to be honest this does not matter at all as it a show that just never stops with singing, dancing, robots, live musicians and acrobats you name it thy chucked everything at it so you really just can’t take it all in. The guy playing the lead role of Spectre was actually the same person we saw play the role on Anthem, sort of a singing, dancing narrator role and he keeps the whole thing moving along at a real pace. It has to be the best show I have ever seen in terms of the marriage of really advanced technology and story and cast. It’s not theatre at all but it is cabaret in a very modern way and the video imagery is genius and when it’s all synced up with the live action it truly is a spectacle…. great fun indeed.

Dinner was in the American Icon Restaurant tonight and a little later than normal due to the show. I can honestly say that we received the best service of any night on board so far, it and the food were exceptional and we left congratulating the staff.

As it was much later in the evening we went straight to meet Martin and Michael in the Bionic Bar. It was busier everywhere on board tonight after people being out in the sun all day and there was no room at the Schooner so we headed down to the peace and quiet of Vintages (the wine bar) and we all ordered a Shiraz.

Now I know I like to talk but Trevor tells me that I was out doing myself with a constant spewing of conversation. They are such lovely lovely people and as I have said before its remarkable how good there English is. It honestly makes you quite embarrassed that we don’t really speak another language. We talked until the midnight hour once again and then called it a night. For a change the boat was actually still quite busy as we headed off to the lifts and our cabin. Trev stopped for a brandy nightcap to take to bed and with that we were back in our room both feeling tired but relaxed.

It’s another day at sea tomorrow and we have a lot of Blog catching up to write….