We have several activities to occupy our time today. Oceania does a great job on these Sea Days planning extra events and activities. The first one we attend is only for those of us who are on the Around the World Cruise. These are not to be missed, because the cruise line really does treat us special with these events.
It begins at 11:30am, and we attend with the O’Dells. There are many scrumptious goodies, especially yummy doughnuts, plus champagne and mimosas. Cruise Director Ray Carr presides, along with General Manager Damien Lacroix. They give us a heads up on upcoming ATW events and really boost our egos by referring to the people that are due to board in Los Angeles for the last segment as “newbies.” He is very nice about it, of course, but at this point it has become obvious that we 186 guests are given extra good handling. It is my impression that these Around The World cruises are Oceania Cruises’ marquee cruises, the ones that the cruise line uses to differentiate itself from other cruise lines. You can very much hear that as Ray speaks.
Another special event is taking place right after this: the O’Dell Private Winetasting! Brian and Barbara are developing oenophiles, and they have been planning this for a few weeks. Besides us, attendees include the Rosenthals, Margie Maines, Pat Watt, and, of course, the O’Dells. Brian and Barbara chose four wines to be served, and the Oceania sommeliers surprised them with a fifth selection (a photo of the five bottles heads up this post). This was to be a blind taste test, and we were each given a sheet with five circles, one for each wine glass we used for the individual wines.
We took the wines one at a time, and had plenty of discussion about each one as we sampled them. Everyone took this quite seriously, although there was a lot of laughter and good cheer about some of the comments made. The sommeliers described each of the wines in detail before we tasted them, and we all had plenty of cheese, crackers and fruit to nibble on in order to “cleanse the palate.”
After we had tasted all five, Barbara asked each of us to rank them one through five, and she collated the results. While it wasn’t unanimous, the wine chosen by the Oceania staff was the overwhelming favorite. It turns out that the cost of the wines ran from a high of $150 to a low of $18 per bottle, and the $18 bottle won! That was quite an eye-opener for all of us. The waiter, Agneto (from India) said, “You all better order some lunch now.” They take good care of you on Oceania! So we all had a light lunch, and the event ended around 3pm, and Steve and Cathy headed to the room for some rest, as we had agreed to meet Brian for Cigar Time on Deck 9 at 4pm.
Cigar Time was fun as usual, with Cathy nailing 90% of the songs in the Name That Tune department. We left in order to be at the Grand Dining Room right at 6:30. We happened to meet Paula and Susan, two of the Around The World Babes (These are ladies traveling singly that has gotten together early in the journey. They even formed a Trivia team – appropriately naming themselves the Around The World babes). It was a very pleasant dinner with two people with whom we have spent a lot of time these past five months.
So today was a fun day and we are grateful to our wonderful friends Brian and Barbara for making it so special.
