Wanderung 26

We arose early and took advantage of the nearly empty ship to wander along through the public spaces taking pictures. Early morning is a good time for that on board most cruise ships as precious few folks are wandering around before 10:00 a.m. or so. We started at the tall, spacious atrium with its glass elevators and beautiful ceiling. From there it was a quick step into the now empty dining room, where we ate so many meals in wonderful company.

The Sea Princess also had a lot of interesting artwork mounted on the walls in the stairwells as well as in the lounges, and even some stained glass panels up in the pizzeria area.

We attended the Pop Choir rehearsal at 11:30 a.m., and once again we made sure we brought our sharpened pencils with the big fat erasers because we were constantly making "notes" on our sheets in lieu of having real sheet music. I made my "notes" right above each syllable, but I later saw that Monika had annotated hers off to the right side where she had more room to represent a full musical scale. But sometimes I suspected Rose had changed the notes for the harmony sections as what I had written on previous rehearsals didn't seem to match what we were singing. Or was it just me?

Monika went to a champagne art auction at 2:30, but didn't find anything that said "Buy Me!", although the champagne apparently said "Drink Me!".

In the afternoon, the ship's orchestra or band, really, played for a Tea Dance at 3:30. It was lots of fun and we danced all the foxtrot and waltz numbers. However, the orchestra also played several songs with Latin rhythms, so I decided then and there that I would have to take more rumba, samba, salsa, or whatever lessons to try to beef up my skills in that area. But is was so nice to be able to dance in the afternoon, when I am at least semi-sentient, as opposed to having late night dances when I am closer to being comatose.

After dinner we attended a magician's how in the Vista Lounge with our tablemates. Both Monika and I were called on stage to be "assistants". I wrote my birth year on a pad that I then held to my forehead, and the magician proceeded to create a "magic square" of numbers, every row, column, and diagonal of which added up to be exactly that year. It was fun and I got to keep the paper as a souvenir. Monika shredded some paper advertisements with him on stage, and then he suddenly had an intact paper again at the end while Monika's fragments were strewn about the floor. Neither of us could figure out how he did the tricks even though we were right next to him, but that was part of the fun.

We topped off the evening by listening to Rose Winters play piano and sing at the Crooner's Bar. It was a very cabaret-like atmosphere, but spoiled a bit by the fact that the main traffic pattern for folks walking fore or aft ran smack dab through the center of the room. Thus, folks constantly were passing Rose at the piano and although she took it very gracefully and did not alter her performance at all, it was somewhat distracting for the rest of us. If it had not been for the foot traffic, the performance would have been like a very nice cabaret routine.