Tuesday, November 13, 2018 – Fourth Sea Day
Got up at 8:00 again. Could see that today was going to be cloudier than yesterday which was fine with me since I would not be taking the time to soak up the sun. Since we were on no deadline, we had breakfast in the dining room. Then we did our 2 miles around the ship.
We decided to go to the presentation “Ask the Captain.” It is an opportunity for him to talk about life on the bridge and answer guest questions. We knew it would be crowded as people are wanting to know more about the azipod situation. The presentation was very interesting. He showed pictures of the bridge and talked about the roles of the different ship officers. He had his chief engineer talk in-depth about the azipod but the result was still “they are not sure of the root cause of the problem and wouldn’t know until they could take it apart in Ft. Lauderdale.” He also talked about his career and his life in Holland. He said would probably be on the Zuiderdam one more year and then would move to a different HAL ship.
He had a good sense of humor. Most people had general questions about ships and being a Captain. One woman who spoke only Dutch asked him about only having announcements in English even though HAL is a Dutch origin shipping line (we know this because the Captain translated for us). She apparently didn’t like his answer as we could tell she continued to scold him. He finally told her we had to move on with other questions. I noticed that the cruise director (who also spoke Dutch) was talking with her after the presentation.
After having lunch, it was time to start the packing process. We would be placing the 2 large bags out in the hallway before midnight and would keep the two small suitcases to roll off with us tomorrow morning. I watched the movie “Ant Man and the Wasp” while packing the suitcases. Chuck always offers to help but it is usually easier for me just to do it by myself.
I like the fact that I am packing mostly clean clothes to bring home. Today was the last day to get laundry returned and my last load got here this afternoon. I did have a dirty clothes bag for today’s clothes.
We got our new paperwork indicating that our disembarkation time for tomorrow will be approximately 11:15 barring any unforeseen issues. Our original paperwork had us disembarking at 8:15.
Was finished before the movie was over. Afterwards, I read for a while and then got cleaned up for dinner. We had dinner with two women that we have seen most nights at the BB King nightclub. They are mother and daughter from Louisiana. I had the Dover sole and a salad. The sole was okay but it had to be de-boned by the waiter. I prefer the filets. Chuck had beef tips. I should have had that dish too.
We skipped the main entertainment tonight – Dave Burleigh, an impressionist. I have seen him on other ships. He is okay. We could hear people laughing. We spent the evening at the first 2 sets of the BB King show. Chuck played his last time at the Casino.
The Lido and the main dining room will be open for breakfast tomorrow as well as the coffee bar. I assume room service is also available although they did not announce it. I set the alarm for 7:00. No towel animal tonight. The monkey is still hanging on the hangar. The bags are out in the hallway.
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