These are two very quiet days with very little to see or say. We present this post with this admonition.
The scenery is, of course, the river. The photo above is what we see all day along the shore. The sky dominates the rest of the view, of course, and it is constantly changing. We intersperse some photos we took during various times of the day.
December 1st: We wake up having traveled all night on the Amazon River. By nightfall, we will reach the mouth of the river. Our routine doesn’t really vary today. We begin with breakfast in the GDR, head for Horizons around 9. We chat with the Petersons for a half an hour, with the intention of attending the Crossing the Equator Ceremony at 10:30.
This is a fun time. Someone in the crew dresses up as King Neptune. The cruise director acts as emcee, and those who are crossing the equator for the first time are inducted into the Secret Society of Shellbacks. Passengers have some water poured ion their heads. The crew, on the other hand, really gets teased and goes through much more “hazing” than the guests. Insignia actually crossed the equator on our way up the river, but it was nighttime, so they postponed the ceremony until today when we cross again from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere.
The event takes place on the Pool Deck (Deck 9), so we go to view it from the Fitness Track on Deck 10 that overlooks it. We are there for just a couple of minutes when we decide that we’ve been there-done that. It’s fun to see – once. Which we have. So, we return to Horizons and read and blog and chat. But we do receive certificates of having accomplished the equator crossing.
Lunch at the GDR. When we return to our stateroom, Cathy watches the movie Moonstruck. Steve takes a 50-minute walk on the fitness track, until it begins to rain.
There really isn’t much more to the day.
December 2nd: Today we do have a couple of events to look forward to. The first is Sunday Brunch in the Grand Dining Room, which will run from 9:30am to 1:00pm. The food on board Insignia is truly five-star, and this should be a real treat. The second event is a special cocktail party for those of us who have achieved some level of Oceania Club membership, done by, of course, having taken multiple cruises with Oceania. It will run from 5:45 to 6:30pm.
We start the day in Waves Grill. We eat only breakfast cereal in preparation for the brunch later in the morning. After that, Cathy heads for the medical center to fill out insurance paperwork for the treatments they have given her. Steve heads for Horizons. We meet there at 9:30, where we run into the Petersons.
We spend the morning chatting with them. They’re in one of the Penthouse Suites on the same deck as we are, and are interested in what our Concierge-level stateroom looks like for their next cruise on Oceania because it will be a whole lot less expensive. Around 11:15, we go down to our Deck 8 stateroom and show them. They determine that it would still suit their needs despite the smaller size (216 square feet vs. 322 square feet).
They head back to their stateroom and we head for Sunday Brunch. It’s a beautiful setup, with tables of elaborately carved fruits and vegetables fashioned into animals and a string quartet playing.
Steve has “second breakfast;” Cathy has a seafood platter. This is the kind of diversion that Oceania often has on Sea Days, and they go all out. It’s very impressive and makes us feel very welcome.
The second interesting event is the Oceania Club cocktail party. It’s actually a pretty elaborate affair, and is essentially a marketing effort aimed at returning customers. We had received a special invitation to come a few minutes early because we are Platinum Level members, and we are to be given a special welcome. We arrive as requested, but there are already dozens of people waiting in line, so the idea of a special welcome for Platinum Level guests had to be scrapped. Truly not a big deal. We don’t ask for nor want the notoriety.
We find seats for ourselves, and immediately we are greeted by Sommelier Wara, a lovely young lady who is from Thailand.
There are videos playing highlighting the construction of MS Vista, a brand new ship being added to the Oceania fleet, the maiden voyage of which will be in April 2023.
The Insignia Showband is playing as well. When everyone has arrived, Cruise Director Gary introduces some of the officers, and some make remarks, most especially Oceania Ambassador Jennifer. Her job is to help people book future cruises while on board, and she is a pretty darn good salesperson – and assistant emcee.
The captain takes this opportunity to make an announcement about water consumption. As we’ve mentioned, we had been asked to conserve water while cruising the Amazon because the ship won’t be taking on the water we are sailing in. He tells us that, in the 7 days, 12 hours we were on the river, the ship would normally consume 1,800 tons of water. However, we actually consumed only 1,200 tons. He credits us guests for the success of the conservation program, but we suspect that it was the crew and adjustments that were made in the laundry and elsewhere that really did it. Nevertheless, we give ourselves a round of applause.
The last part of the festivities is very special: eight members of the crew are called up and presented with service awards. Their positions ranked from officer to dining room staff, and we very much appreciate that each one is treated with equal respect and congratulations. And that we hundred guests have the opportunity to give them some well-deserved applause.
We had made a dinner date with the Petersons, so we leave around 6:20 for the GDR. We have a very pleasant dinner, of course. During the meal, we learn quite a bit about Nelson’s professional career. He worked at Campbell Soup’s enormous plant in Camden, New Jersey, and stayed even after the plant itself was closed to work in their headquarters. His job was to develop procedures to produce new soups at the enormous quantities needed when the product went national. Fascinating.
Well, we had a busy Sea Day today, and have another one tomorrow. We crash around 8:30pm as usual. All in all, a fun day at sea.
