Day 63 - 12/04/22 - Melbourne, Australia - Day 2

 It was a nice visit with our exchange daughter and her family over the past 2 days.  We'll be back in 7 days to spend more time with them.  We made it back to the port and re-boarded the ship at 3pm for a 4:30pm onboard time.  I finished some last minute sermon preparations for tonight's 6pm interdenominational service.  We were then able to watch the initial sail away from the Crow's Nest.


Covid cases are on the rise to 49 passengers and 2 crew.  The Captain again pleaded for all to accept personal responsibility and mask up. When I chatted with him later at the Orange Party, he indicated the new cases were primarily among the recently embarked guests.


After the interdenominational service (which had a low attendance) we enjoyed a 7pm dinner with Peter, the onboard Catholic priest. Afterwards, we attended the 9pm Annie Francis set which was music from the 60's. 


Tonight was the Orange party and it was a good one.  Chris, our Cruise & Travel Director, sported a fancy orange bow tie and was a hit as a Dutch treats server.  He is very debonaire. It was well attended and the BBKing band belted out the music.  Drinks were flowing.  Although we don't drink, we had a good time chatting with crew.


Bar Staff


Chris, our Cruise & Travel Director



Some of the Senior Staff

Tomorrow is our last day at sea before disembarking on Tuesday.  It's very sad to know the cruise is coming to an end.  But we're excited that we booked a second cruise which will be a July, 2023 Land and Sea cruise to Alaska on the Noordam going northbound essentially repeating the same route we did southbound in July, 2022.  For the 2023 cruise, we'll have a very special 3rd passenger staying with us for the cruise.


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