December 23 and 24: Sea days
Not a whole lot going on. Sea days fall into a rhythm: we get up, I go to breakfast while Andy’s at the fitness center, we meet for lunch, hang out somewhere near a window for the afternoon, wait for the cookies at about 3:00 at the coffee bar, go to dinner, and then the 9:00 p.m. show (where I do my best to stay awake, but no guarantees).
A couple of things that are different from previous cruises:
- The average age is skewed much lower than usual, with many families with kids – an artifact that school is out this week in most places.
- This is the first time that I can recall the clientele isn’t 80% American. Fully half, if not more, of the cruise guests are Spanish speaking as their native language, and most of them from Mexico.
This means all announcements and other communications are repeated in Spanish. It has been a great opportunity to dredge up the remains of my 6.5. years of Spanish in school over 50 years ago. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how much I understand. And every once in a while I say something in Spanish to somebody that they seem to understand! Amazing!
Some views of the Christmas decor around the ship
Grand foyer display
We have one more day at sea before we arrive at Ushuaia.
Maryland Meshugas 