Day 12 - 10/13/22 - At Sea to Samoa - Day 2

 Today's coffee chat was unlike any we've ever experienced before.  Before the host, Rachael, arrived, the guest, Patrick McMahon arrived.  He is a large and imposing fellow from Australia and he immediately captivated the assembled audience and began talking about himself and music.  After Rachael arrived the chat kicked into high gear with lots of stories, short song clips, and more.  Rachael had to depart, but Patrick continued on answering questions and interacting with the audience for another 25 minutes.

On the Main Stage Rachael present a brief history of Samoa and Fiji, and she was followed but Neil, the shore excursions manager, who not only offered brief comments about the ship's excursions, but also he offered suggestions for things one might do on one's own.  He talked for nearly an hour which is quite long for this type of presentation.

We had a LIDO lunch with Eric and Marilyn before adjourning to the Main Stage for the Ask the Captain 2pm session.  It was totally packed and he spoke for over an hour giving the typical electronic tour of the ship but also some photographs of the cleaning of the hull in a drydock session in Portland, Oregon before the resumption of its cruising. He then entertained questions.  A young person asked a question that stumped the Captain.  That question was, "Why is the bridge called the bridge?"  He offered to research it and report back.  Naturally, a number of questions revolved around the two helicopter medivacs.  He noted that he was in telephone contact with the US Coast Guard every 30 minutes as the evacuation plans developed. In the first one at Port Angeles, the helicopter was too small to take the companion of the medically challenged guest off the ship.  For the second one at Kona, they first wanted him to return to Honolulu, but because of a faster response time and less fuel consumption by the ship, he persuaded them to fly to Kona, refuel and then do the evacuation off the coast there.  In this case both the wife and the patient were both evacuated by helicopter. As he described the process, I computed that we turned around not long after the medical aid call was broadcast over the loudspeaker.  The route was then headed to Honolulu but the Captain negotiated a change.  The ship would alter its course and head back to Kona.  The helicopter would fly to Kona; refuel; and then fly out to the ship and do the evacuation.  If f turned out that both the patient and his wife were evacuated (unlike the first evacuation).  He said the US Coast Guard bill would be sent to the patient.

Then, after the hour of presenting, he did a further Q&A session in front of the stage for another 40 minutes.  This is the most time I have experienced having the Captain spend time like this with passengers on any ship we've sailed on. I truly appreciate it, and I communicated it to him in person.

I spent the afternoon writing and dinner was tandoori chicken.

The evening's entertainment was Chris Strait who was pretty funny and totally clean.

Tonight was the Orange party in the BBKing lounge.  I wore a bunch of Orange including an orange mustache on my black mask. The party was very well attended and lasted about an hour. Finger foods were passed out and a number of ship's officers were present including the Captain.

 

Tomorrow is the Captain Neptune ceremony at the aft Lido pool and it should be a lot of fun.