Day 61 - 12/02/22 - At Sea to Melbourne, Australia

 On this next to last sea day it was a pretty quiet day on board the Westerdam.  Carlos, the lead entertainment host was the coffee chat host.  He's a ball of energy and well suited for the task.  Dr. Woodman presented a morning talk on gender differences in language and an afternoon talk on how children learn language.  Her teaching style and content has grown on me over the weeks she has been on board and it's been good content.  It is, however, sparsely attended.

We were invited to attend a Mariner's award ceremony (I think they needed to have some "filler" in the audience).  4 couples and a single lady received medallions.  Those of us who were 'most valued' members were also acknowledged as well and we could have had our picture taken with the Captain and the Hotel Director.  But we declined and enjoyed a free soda and some nuts along with a short discussion with Chris, our Cruise & Travel  car with yesterday.  It was fun to reminisce and I airdropped a number of my pictures from yesterday.  They were keen on having the koala and kangaroo pictures and the group selfies. 

In the afternoon I inquired of the future cruise consultant about a possible summer cruise to Alaska which we would take one of our grandsons on with us.  I had received a terrific itinerary offer from a travel agent we have used and I wanted to see what HAL might have with a direct booking.  The travel agent's offering is really good and virtually duplicates the trip we last summer but in the reverse direction.  HAL doesn't have a comparable offer this year.  We may just book it.  He'll be thrilled.

Just before dinner the Captain came on the PA system.  That's not a good sign.  He announced that engine number 4 was out of service indefinitely with a bad bearing in a component.  As a result we will have a one hour earlier departure from Melbourne.  It should not affect our arrival times in Melbourne or Sydney. 

Our Covid numbers seem to be relatively stable.  While there are six new guest cases and a total of 30 guests in isolation, there are no crew in isolation. 

 

While it was dressy night, we ate again in the LIDO and chatted with Hanna about our adventure yesterday.  Afterwards we watched the Step One Dance Company perform Musicology.  We then watched a beautiful sunset. 

Tomorrow we will be in Melbourne for an overnight stay.  We'll be staying off the ship with our exchange daughter, and that should be fun. Temperatures are expected to hit 80ºF.