Not Dubrovnik, Croatia

Monday, November 11, 2024

A loud bing bing bing sound woke us up at 7am this morning. We were supposed to be docked at 7am, but apparently, we weren’t. The captain announced that they were expecting wind of 30 knots but had just had several gusts at 65 knots. They were checking all the things and would keep us posted about docking. After not too long (but long enough for Keith to be sleeping again – so over 7 seconds) he bing bonged again and said, nope, no getting into port today. Happy sea day.

We booked this cruise mostly to touch Africa, but also for Croatia. We’ve heard such good things, and were interested in getting a taste to see if perhaps we would return via plane some time. I guess we’ll have to come again sometime.

We slept until alarm at 9, then got ready for trivia. Simon and Keith arrived, and we got 16. Our team is now the Sweet 16s. There was Music through the Decades trivia at 11:30, added because of the sea day. We absolutely know nothing about popular music (which is kind of ironic. No actually, pretty ironic) but Keith and Simon said come, so we did. Simon brought Jill, his wife, because she knows music. We have heard all about Jill – she doesn’t quiz, she is from Scotland, she was a musician, she now works for the people who want to emigrate to Australia or New Zealand and are doctors – but we hadn’t met her. When she spoke, I was delighted because there is no better sound than a Scottish accent. Jill’s mother, Anne, came along too, and when she spoke, I was completely surprised! Lo and behold, she is from Scotland, too!!!! I laughed out loud at myself and announced that perhaps everyone should reconsider quizzing with me, since Anne being Scottish had surprised me. They laughed with me and kept me. (Phew) Jill was quite good and the rest of us watched. The expression on Anne’s face when the MC invited us to rate our answers on a given question by yelling whoop whoop or wah wah wah made it the best quiz ever. Hilarious.

We had lunch with a couple and the woman never stopped talking. Like, never. She maybe didn’t breathe. It was amazing. After, we took a little nap, then watched a half hour of Avatar: the Way of Water.

We gathered Claire and Kerry into our group for 4:00 trivia. They are from Brisbane. We stayed after and talked and talked with them. They have been house sitting around the world since they retired. They stay 3-6 weeks in someone’s house for free, while they feed the cat or just take care of the house. They have been traveling all around by train before and after the house sittings. Maybe we will become house sitters.

We went to the 7:30 show in the theater – Encore. It was billed as celebrating the traditions of opera and musical theater, but was primarily pop tunes. I was a bit disappointed, because my expectations were wrong. After the show, we zoomed upstairs for movies under the stars: Avatar: the Way of Water. We had time for a bathroom trip and a stop at the buffet for some fruit and still got cuddled in before the first half hour was done. We had not seen it before. I really enjoyed it. I pretty much thought I could swim under water without needing to breathe by the end, which felt like a real win.

So, what is the POTD? I was thinking of trying to get into the dining room (if we are there before they open at 4:45 we can probably get in) tonight because the menu was appealing and mostly because I was feeling French onion soup. I had it the other night and it was so good, I wanted it again. Instead, we visited with Claire and Kerry, because people are more important than soup (I could cross stitch that on a throw pillow). When I got up to the buffet, I saw this fabulous stack of cheese on bread and realized they had figured out a way to put French onion soup on the buffet! Brilliant! It was so good!! I win! People AND soup.

Here is the morning view from our window. It’s hard to tell, but it’s very wavy out there.