Day 19 - 10/25/23 - At Sea to Coquimbo, Chile - Day 3

 It was really nice to have a very lazy day at sea today.  I was pretty tired especially getting up by 7am these past number of days. 

Jeremy's morning coffee chat was with the comedian, Simon B. Cutter.  It was entertaining like his shows.  He's new to cruise ships and especially liking the aspect that he's essentially living with the people he performs before as opposed to land events where he most likely will never see members of the audience again once he performs for them.

Tom Goltz returned with an excellent presentation on the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda.

The biggest challenge of the day was to complete the Chilean border entry form which could be done online or by filling out a paper form.  The online form was challenging for many because once one selected the English option, America or United States of America could not be found on the drop down menu. The selection was written in the Spanish equivalent! The process was so challenging for many passengers that a special help desk was set up in the 3rd floor atrium from 3-6pm to assist people in filling out the form.

It was cold in the Lido pool area and 5 inflatable penguins remained bobbing around.  They are super cute!

For the first time in many cruises I took a several hour nap and it felt really good!  I woke up to an alarm in time to make it to my desk at 4pm for Cruise Critic questions and was there for an hour with a steady stream of guests.

While I was asleep the deck crew threw the freeloading gannets overboard and they immediately took flight.  Those that tried to take off from the deck failed for lack of air movement which necessitated the need to heave them overboard.  That was why a group of them collected over the past few days resulting in a lot of bird guano requiring clean up, and the deck now is spotless but I don't think I would want to eat off of it just yet. . .

For the first time this cruise we did an Asian stir fry for dinner with some seafood and short ribs as condiments.  It was yummy.


The evening entertainment was Rodrigo Sanric, saxophonist, who performed another excellent show.  My nap really helped in staying awake.  

Our bat towel animal tonight was especially cute.

Tomorrow is Coquimbo and we have a nice excursion planned for this brief and first stop in Chile.

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