Steve and Cathy's Blog

Housekeeping contest at The Insignia Country Fair

What a difference a day makes, as the song goes. As predicted by Peter Croyle in his lecture, there has been a considerable and very welcome change in the climate. The air temperature when we wake up is in the 60s, and the heavy humidity is gone.  We had started to notice the change as we attended the Country Fair yesterday (a photo of the Housekeeping booth with the put-the-pillowcase-on-the-pillow contest that is at the beginning of this post).

The calm seas of the past three days have also changed. The wind is kicking up at around 25 knots, and the swells are up to nine feet high. We are pretty much heading into the waves, which is helpful. Plowing through them head-on makes the ship pitch a bit, but they’re easier to take than when they hit us sideways, which makes the ship roll.  These are not big seas by any means, but the difference from the previous few days noticeable throughout the ship.

After breakfast, we went up to Horizons where Cathy was going to meet her Needlepoint buddies at 9:30. I wrote a couple of posts while she chatted with her friends, and then went back to the room when the pitching of the ship (exaggerated in Horizons because it’s right in the bow) became distracting.

At 11:00, we went to the third Cooking Demonstration with Executive Chef Farid Oudir and Executive Sous Chef Giancola Mazza in the Insignia Lounge   This time we sat in the back rather than the front row so as to avoid being chosen to be a participant.   They were in good comedic form as usual. Barbara O’Dell met us there toward the end of the performance as we were having lunch with her and Brian.

Off to the Grand Dining Room. The four of us had our typical good time. It was a good chance to compare notes, and, as friends are like to do, we came to agreement on most all subjects, in particular some of the behavior of certain fellow passengers. The four of us consider ourselves pretty down to earth, but that standard does not apply to all of us sharing space on this ship. We commiserated with each other as we shared episodes of eye-rolling behavior we have witnessed or been subject to. It is a great relief to find friends like them who share the same values.

With lunch over, we naturally headed for our stateroom for the required daily quiet time. Next, here is Cathy’s report on her 3:00pm Canyon Spa session: I had a spa appointment at 3 PM, what they call a “ritual.” Ninety minutes during which you get scrubbed, wrapped and massaged. I’m hooked on the spa. They have what they call “special deals.” If you sign up for 5 treatments you get one free, etc. It basically works out to be the price you would pay on land so not too bad. And we got lots of $ in shipboard credits so we aren’t even spending actual money. Yet 😉

Cathy returns euphoric from her treatment. After the last treatment, she was told she was toxin-free. At this point, toxins won’t dare enter her body for days and days.

At 5:30, we watch an Enrichment Lecture with Angela Schneider entitled Cape Town – The Mother City on television instead of attending in Insignia Lounge. In the middle of her presentation, her computer hiccups. We feel her pain. She restarts it and continues her excellent presentation. Much of the lecture covers the apartheid period which begins in 1948 and lasts until Prime Minister De Clerk finally calls general elections that would include all races in 1994. The black population had always been treated shabbily by the colonists throughout the country’s history, but apartheid was discrimination and ill-treatment on steroids – much more awful than most anyone in America ever knew. This applied to blacks and Coloured (mixed-race – whites, blacks and slaves from the Indian Ocean area). It was an eye-opening lecture about an appalling and shameful period of South African history.   America has had its periods of discrimination, but nothing comparable to apartheid.

After that experience, we went to have dinner in the main dining room with Paula and Margie. We have been looking forward to having dinner with them ever since we met them, and the dinner was everything we had hoped. They are delightful; two more people with whom we share values. They too are Around the World guests, so we hope to repeat this fun evening often. Both of them have far more cruise experience than we do (as does everyone on this ship) and have interesting stories about their travels.

They also have much more information on the cruise itself than we have, and are a great source of information. We also share stories about preparing for the trip, most specifically the unfortunate lack of information from Oceania about side trips away from the ship that last for a few days. Margie is taking one to the Taj Mahal! We would definitely have done that if we had known about it. There were apparently quite a few trips that were available for booking that did not come to our attention, or to Paula’s attention either. A surprising shortcoming by Oceania Cruises, and made more puzzling because of the way they have been burying us in literature about their cruise options over the past year. Now we know, and will be careful to ask more questions in the future.

They proceeded to Insignia Lounge to enjoy the entertainment and we proceeded to end the day reading and writing. We dock in Walvis Bay, Namibia tomorrow around 8:00am for our first overnight (two-day) stay on this six-month odyssey.