We are scheduled to take the Highlights of Tianjin five-hour excursion that begins at 7:45am. We signed up for this tour four months ago, so Cathy checks the excursion description to see what we are set to see. The synopsis begins this way: “Depart the pier for the one-hour drive to Tianjin … “ Uh oh. Not more time on the bus! (Hence the map at the beginning of this post as a reminder)
Now we should be stalwart, ambitious, eager beaver tourists. After all, that’s why we are here. But we aren’t. We are pooped. We are temporarily traveled out. We are on information overload, and so we bail. April 5th turns out to be what we are now terming a “Virtual Sea Day.” We are staying put.
Besides the fact that the previous two days were long and packed with activities, we are quickly learning just how big China is. Heck, the port we are at is 44 miles from the center of Tianjin. Beijing is 109 miles. It is no wonder the Chinese government is spending trillions on transportation infrastructure.
Okay, so there are Steve and Cathy’s excuses. We need to recharge. So we do, and there isn’t much else to tell about our day, other than the mandatory safety drill at 5:15pm. These very important drills are worth describing, if only to point out one change that occurred at today’s drill.
These drills consist of two parts: 1) Everyone “musters” at one of two places on the ship on Deck 5. You are designated to meet at Insignia Lounge in the bow or the Grand Dining Room in the stern. If you are in your room when the alarm sounds, you bring your life jacket, which has your stateroom number on it, your muster station and your lifeboat number. When you arrive, your name is checked off by a crewmember. In a few minutes, attendance is finalized. Every single person must be accounted for.
We will now hear from the cruise director over the public address system. He/she gives detailed instructions on how things are to be handled by the crew and what is expected of every passenger. As mentioned in a previous blog, Steve and Cathy think that emphasizing cooperation and the importance of keeping calm and following instructions to certain people with whom we must travel is critical, given what we have seen of their behavior elsewhere on the ship.
After listening to the cruise director, we are instructed to put on our life jackets, and are given directions on how to do so and what features they have. Then we all file out of the Insignia Lounge (in our case) and go out on open Deck 5 to congregate underneath our lifeboat (so that we know where it is).
That is where today’s drill differed from previous ones. The weather is so cold and so windy that we skip the trip to our actual lifeboat station. That will give you an idea of what it has been like weather-wise for the past two days. “Unseasonably” cold. Yet another reason that we choose to hunker down on Insignia for the day.
We are departing the port for Dalian, China at 7:00pm tonight. So it is time to end this short post and move on to the next day.
