Day 27- 10/29/22 At sea to Alotau, Papua New Guinea - Day 2

 Today was a different sort of day.  While it started off like normal with breakfast and Rachael's coffee chat with Dr. John Hardy, the rest of the morning was sort of free time because of the mandatory safety drill for all guests.  We were required to watch the safety movie on our stateroom TV between 10 and 12 noon, check in at our muster station 16 on Deck 3, and listen to the Captain's instruction about the drill.  For the rest of the morning I uploaded my CPAP data to WWW.sleephq.com and reviewed my activity for the past 10 days or so.  It was totally normal.

My lunch today was a basic green salad as our dinner meal will be a bit heavy, In the Captain's noon announcement, he reported 44 passenger COVID cases and 4 crew cases.  All are mild or asymptomatic.  He also announced that we would have two days in the Conflict Islands and that was very well received by everyone.  Jonathon, one of the new first officers had worked out the details and permission from the Seattle office was received to do the now 2 day stop.  When we talked with the Captain, he was overjoyed about the change especially since it was not a takeaway even though it was another change in itinerary. 

After lunch Rachael hosted a Q&A session with John Hocknull about what to expect in Alotau, PNG.  It was held in the BBKing lounge which was the wrong venue.  It was overflowed and should have been held on the Main Stage.  He wasn't happy about the arrangement and wanted to be on the main stage. John was followed by Dr. Jack Hardy who donned the garb of Captain. Cook and gave a first person lecture on his first two voyages.  It was a very effective way and quite different method of presenting.  

During the day I received a message and a picture of our Lido Pool Server, Bobby and another guest from Bobby's previous ship, the Rotterdam.  I showed it to Bobby and we took a picture of me to send back to the other party.  Bobby is a first class beverage attendant! He's very friendly and very attentive to his clients.

Before dinner, Angela was having some difficulties with her phone, so I worked on that a bit. It will require some more work.  For some unknown reason, her Mail APP was deleted and it's really hard to re-install it and re-add the email accounts given the slow ship internet.  But I've made some progress. Dinner tonight was an Alaskan Seafood Boil.  There was Ivar's clam chowder to start with, and crab, shrimp, mussels, clams, and potatoes all served in a big pot.  Desert was a berry crisp.  Apparently this was served on the Westerdam's summer sailings in Alaska.  It was yummy and a bib was required.

The evening entertainment was Thomas Armstrong-Robley who did a performance called "Live At Frankies: The Songs of Frankie Vallie and Frank Sinatra.  Tonight's performance was his first in over two years because of Covid.  It was quite good, although we didn't stay for the 9pm show.  We came back to the room and I updated my blog and called it a night.  We don't arrive until 10AM but we don't have to be onboard until 7:30pm which is well after dark.