At Sea

01-05 Sunday: Today everyone is getting the Philippine entry codes. Ours were fairly easy because we downloaded the app and filled things out first. So many people did not. It is a mess for them. Raine and Mina didn’t do it and they are in the que to have help. We both tried to help them but since they could not get to their email for the confirmation code, it was useless. The rest of our day was filled with games, dinner, and a brief visit to the casino. We ran into another couple from the Africa cruise (Chuck and Joyce). We plan to meet with them tomorrow evening for craps.

We went to the brief Captain’s welcome then on to dinner in the dining room, which was okay. The soups, while delicious on the last HAL cruise leave a little bit to be desired on this cruise. There seems to be no depth of flavor and not served really hot, we will see how it goes from now on.

01-06 Monday: We are cruising in the Sulu Sea at the moment. Breakfast delivered to our cabin again. After that we went down for the Thermal Scan that is required to enter the Philippines. It was sure easy because all we did was walk through the area after getting our cards scanned. It automatically takes our temperature and we were good to go. Stuart talked with Adrianne for a bit and I chatted for a little bit with Jeff. I am so glad we have the internet phone service. From there we went to the Sea View Bar to play Rummikub. It had rained before we got there and before we finished our games it rained again! It was a brief rain and though people left the area, we stayed because it was not much and we wanted to enjoy the breeze, sun, and sea. By noon we headed to the Lido deck and got a few snacks to put in our fridge for later. We went to lunch in the dining room. I had the chicken Korma and it was delicious. It is like a mild curry. I would love to try making this. We saw John, Blanche, Paul, and Diana when leaving the dining room. We are all set up to play Mexican Train the next sea day at 1p, Crows Nest. A quick trip to the casino for some fun, then back to the cabin to catch up on this blog and housekeeping.

Dinner in the dining room and on to the World Stage for the show tonight. It was a techno light show with dance by Step One Dance Company, called Humanity. Actually, it was quite good. After that we met friends in the casino to play craps. That was going pretty well (Stuart, John, Chuck, Joyce, me) when I started to feel very light headed. I only had 1 wine with dinner and crème de menthe at the show. I had to leave the table and sit down. When I didn’t improve, Stuart cashed in my chips for me and took me back to the cabin. I felt fine after lying down for a while. I’m not sure just what happened!