- Most efforts will concentrate on the staterooms:
- Bathrooms to be refurbished with new tiling
- Walk-in closets to be retained, but with additional shelving to be added
- Java Café and the Shops area will be refurbished.
We were very much impressed with the Captain’s candor.
The Captain then stayed in the Queens Lounge to personally call the “win a free cruise” bingo. (Bingo attendance increased to a full lounge.)
Another new presentation was a flower demonstration by Linda, the on-board florist from The Netherlands. While shy about her English skills, she is a master at floral creations and amazed the audience by creating several major floral arrangements for the ship during the presentation. She makes and maintains all flower arrangements on board, which are quite stunning.
In the after, the Food and Beverage department offered a “Highlights Demonstration” where they set up a series of tables to informally demonstrate various F&B skills by their resident experts. Martini making (by Aurora), origami using wire Champaign tops (by Pam), dinner napkin folding (by our dinner server Indra), towel animals and the like. The few kids aboard were entertained trying out the various skills (except the Martinis!!)
A nice surprise: our ship was close enough to Greek Isles that our European cell phone had service; I was able to call my brother Jon and wish him a happy birthday!
During late dinner, the ship entered the Dardanelles around 8 pm as we sailed towards Istanbul. While it was dark, we could see several of the lighted Gallipoli monuments from our dinner table.