Steve and Cathy's Blog

Ranuca from Romania

By the time Steve awakens at 6:15, Cathy has already taken a short walk – short because the fitness track was closed as it was wet.  She is now ready for f-o-o-d.  We finally head for Waves at 7:15.  Cathy retrieves an omelet from the Terrace Cafe for her breakfast.  Back in the room, we plan our day.  Cathy’s first stop is the Bible study held in the Martinis bar, because it doesn’t open until 1:00pm.

Steve finally decides that it is time to get back into the habit of walking, and by now the fitness track is open.  This is a track that circumnavigates the pool area, except that it is on Deck 10 while the pool is on Deck 9.  I keep a pretty good pace, and there are others that are walking that keep a different pace, so there is some maneuvering around slower walkers from time to time.  In the forty-five minutes I am there, I figured I covered about 2 1/2 to 3 miles.  Oddly enough, the motion of the ship throws off the Health app on my iPhone which measures steps and distance.  It says I only covered 2.2 miles in 4,865 steps.  There is no doubt I did more than that, but it also said I climbed 24 flights of stairs when I hadn’t covered more than perhaps a half dozen.  We are told that 13 laps around the track equals a mile, so I guess in the future that’s the way I’ll keep track.

Cathy hits Needlepoint and has a great time for a change.  She meets Elizabeth from Houston (with whom we had lunch a couple of days ago), Terry (formerly from NYC) from Hilton Head, Catherine from Scotland (a regular), and Barbara O’Dell came for the first time too.

We both attend the Enrichment Lecture by Peter Croyle and he continues to discuss colonization of the Caribbean and South America.  Today’s topics are the Atlantic System and slavery.  The Atlantic System is the triangle of trade that arose after the development of the sugar industry in the Brazilian and, subsequently, Caribbean economies.  This crop, and the products that derived from it, was (and presumably still is) very labor-intensive.  Attempts to enslave the indigenous peoples to provide labor failed, in large part because the diseases that the Europeans had brought into the New World were decimating them in large percentages.  The Portuguese, who were the first Europeans to extensively explore the west coast of Africa, were also the first Europeans to engage in slave trading of Africans to provide labor for their holdings in Brazil.  The transportation of slaves from west Africa, particularly the Portuguese colony of Angola but elsewhere as well, to South America (and Brazil in particular), was the first leg of the triangle.

The transportation of sugar and molasses (and later other commodities such as cotton, gold, etc.) from Brazil (and later from the Caribbean) to Europe was the second leg of the trade triangle.  The third leg was manufactured goods from Europe to Africa.  This Atlantic System began in the 16th century and survived well into the 19th century, and during that time it is estimated that between 12 and 20 million slaves were brought from Africa to the New World.  The numbers vary wildly because the record keeping is largely lost and because so many of the slaves died enroute.

The subject matter of this lecture left us all aghast at the inhumanity of it all as well as the scope and size of it.  From our present day perspective, it is hard to comprehend how human beings could be looked upon as mere property, as assets to be used to perform backbreaking work until they were worked to death and then replaced with another human being.

Well, after this lecture, we returned to our stateroom.  We had lunch in the Grand Dining Room at Table Number One which was against the wall.  Our maitre’d apologized but we thought the seating was a welcome change.  Cathy had a greek salad and Steve had Hotel de Paris Club Sandwich.

Back to the stateroom once again for our daily constitutional.  You would think that at least once in a while we would opt to attend some activity.  But you would be wrong.  We have gotten in a groove, and no activity in the afternoon strikes our fancy enough to forego some reading, writing and napping time.  Oh well.

At least at 5:30 we attend the second of the series of four lectures by Angela Schneider on the subject of jazz.  This one deals with jazz in the Roaring Twenties.  As usual, it is riveting, as we find ourselves being treated to a fascinating piece of American history from a perspective we have never encountered.

Dinner tonight is a special treat.  We have been invited to An Exclusive Around the World Dinner by Captain Luca Morvillo and General Manager Damien Lacroix.  It takes place in the Toscana restaurant and begins at 7:00pm.  Our friends Brian and Barbara have been assigned to Table 1, which we suspect is the Captain’s table, and we have table 17.  It turns out we had the better deal.  The Captain’s table is set up for ten, and, as the captain is indeed the host, the ambience is a little formal.

But Table 17 where we are is only set up for five of us.  Besides Cathy and I, our friend Margie from New Jersey and a woman named Ida from Switzerland are the only guests.  We are very lucky to also have a very interesting and engaging staff member there, a young woman named Ranuca who is the manager of the Casino (her picture graces the beginning of this post).  Ranuca is from Romania and has been working in the cruise industry for eleven years.  She has worked for Oceania for around a year, having waited nearly four years for an opening.  She loves working in the industry, especially for Oceania, as the ships are small and the staff works so well together.  She is on Insignia for four months, then will be reassigned.  Apparently these short “contracts,” as she refers to her working assignments, are the norm.  She has a great sense of adventure and is a wealth of information to us.  Having her at our table has made the evening very special.

The meal was a set menu (with wine) and oh what a menu it was: The starter, fried empanada with bell pepper, onions and coconut stuffing with mango salsa. The middle course, scallops wrapped in chorizo with mojito green peas puree and marinated watermelon (this was REALLY good). The main course, pan fried sea bass with roasted sage butternut squash and Mediterranean salsa. Dessert, white chocolate mousse with rum, mango jelly, almond financier (basically marzipan dipped in chocolate) and a curaçao drop (jello shot).

We are hitting the sack late – late for us, anyway.  And again we have to turn the clocks ahead an hour.  This is going to be a short night.

What made this Sea Day special was this dinner.  They really do treat the Around the World guests with deference.  Looks like there is more of this special attention in our future.  We’re not used to this, but are definitely willing to try and get better at it.