Tom and Noel Cruise South America Again!: March 8/9/10 At sea and on the Amazon

We had two days at sea before entering the Amazon. The weather is mostly overcast with some rain, but it is still very warm and humid.

We did go to Code Red Level Two as we now have 9 people on board with the GI symptoms. So once again we have no condiments on the tables, no canapes or snacks, all food is served by staff in the buffets and the launderettes are closed. The crew is working very hard with all the extra work involved in sanitizing everything, even all the books in the library. With the constant sanitizing the finish on wood rails is beginning to wear off and the ship is going to need some extra work very soon.

This segment is interesting in that we have about 200 Europeans and when you add on the Canadians, Kiwis and Aussies, over half of the guests are from outside the US. Many of the crew are having a difficult time understanding some of the guests as English is not the first language of either of them.

During the cocktail hour there were gatherings around the ship by country or state. We visited both the Nevada and Hawaii groups, 7 or 8 guests each. There was no group for Montana.

There have been a lot of sea birds around the ship, mostly "Masked Booby" that dive sharply into the sea after fish. One of the tv channels is a camera shot facing the bow of the ship and as this is the channel for announcements we often have this channel on in our suite. We noticed that there appeared to be a large bird that had perched on the small pennant staff on the bow. He would take off and sort of fly a figure eight pattern around the forward part of the ship and then come back to his perch. Noel went up to the Observation Lounge on deck 12 and got a couple of pictures of the bird. Later she showed them to the lecturer, Terry Breen, who identified the bird as a "Sooty Booby". The bird was still on his perch when we went to to the cocktail hour get together but was gone in the morning. He must have been a long was from where he started!

Sooty Booby

We crossed the equator before entering the Amazon and then again not too long after we entered into the river. As we came into the river basin at 5 am it was very foggy and humid so the ship was blowing the horn for about two hours, probably getting everyone up very early.

One of the events that the crew really enjoys is the "County Fair". The different departments on the ship set up booths with some sort of game that the passengers play to win tickets for prize drawings. It is always a lot of fun but we think the crew enjoys it more than the passengers.

The restaurant staff were targets for water ballons

The band members were targets for ping pong balls and if you hit them they had to fall into the pool

The cast members had passengers trying to get a balloon passed up between two people by wiggling!

Housekeeping staff had passengers running a skills relay race

The bar staff ran a ring toss game

After we entered the Amazon and crossed the equator for the second time we had the "King Neptune" ceremony for those who had not crossed the equator before by sea. We were surprised at how many passengers were "pollywogs", the term for the newbies. It is always a fun event even though it was moved into the theater because of rain.