At sea days on board the ship are quickly becoming days I look forward to. It’s a nice change of pace – a chance to sleep in, read a book, and just take the day as it comes.
I’ve discovered one of the restaurants on board has Swedish pancakes and lingonberries for breakfast. This is my new favorite breakfast spot.
This morning, we spent some time on the pool deck reading our books. Had to cozy up under blankets because it was a bit chilly. No complaints from me – crisp air and zero sweating is perfect. I still had to wear my big floppy hat to repel the sun, though.
Regent Lecture Series
Next: we attended a guest lecture about Shanghai – we’re trying to gain some knowledge for the next couple of days. It was really good info overall – right up until the speaker got a little ivory tower and recommended a book called, Dissertation on Oriental Gardening from 1759 in its original old English. YAWN. Will put that on the back, back burner.
Approach to Shanghai
As we got closer to China, we were met by an armada of fishing vessels. Most of them didn’t look especially seaworthy. Then came the cargo ships. Hundreds and hundreds of them. So if you’ve ordered anything from Temu or SHEIN lately, your stuff is making progress.
We’ve been told by the captain that the ship’s WiFi will not work once we are in China because of their Great Firewall. I’m really hoping our Asia eSIM cards come through for us.
Ship’s Library
The ship’s library is really well done. Tons of good titles in there – something for everyone. I’ll have a couple more books to donate to the cause at the end of the cruise. 📚
Ken and I took a few laps around the inside of ship today. I’m loving the Art Nouveau/Deco inspired spaces on board the ship. Well done.
I keep looking at this painting. Trying to decide if I like it, or it bothers me. I’m leaning toward bothers me.
Team Trivia
We met a lovely couple from Vancouver, and another couple from Omaha (Go Big Red!), on the bus to Seoul on Saturday. Joined them this afternoon for team trivia. Forgot to take pictures. We did OK for our first team effort, but the questions skewed, um, older. I have no idea what Charlie Chaplain’s first “talkie” film was. I’m not 90. Bring on the 80s trivia. We’d win that!
And a Musical
We met one of the ship’s performers in the bar this evening – Pedro from Portugal. Pedro is one of the dancers on board, and he invited us to the musical show tonight. It’s got something to do with music of the 1960s. If I’m being honest, I fully expected it to be super cheesy, but to my surprise, it was genuinely good. These folks have real talent.
No photos allowed during the show, and out of respect for the performers, I didn’t try to take any stealth photos.
Big (long) day in Shanghai tomorrow. Fingers crossed for good shopping karma.
Cheers!
Ah, some people are discovering that there is a reason while so many people enjoy cruising. I especially enjoy the documentaries on the places we will be visiting, sounds like you do as well.
I enjoy cruising on the smaller ships – 750 people just feels more manageable to me than 7,500 people. The at sea days were great – time to relax a bit, which is something we tend NOT to do when we’re off the ship!
From your pics that doesn’t look like a small ship you’re on. I thought you were avoiding the massive crowds.
A lovely couple from Vancouver? We Canadians are all lovely people (wish I could say the same for all Americans)!
Believe it or not, it is a small cruise ship. 750 people vs. 7,500. And the crew to passenger ratio is nearly 1:1. I’ll take it.
And that’s right . . . Happy Canada Day to you! 🇨🇦
That day does not sound half bad . . . beginning with those pancakes with the lingonberries – yes, please! The decor agrees with me also, but the painting presents as a bit ‘blah’! Please do NOT talk to me about ‘firewalls’ . . . the WiFi in the building my current studio is situated is super hefty and ruins each and every one of my days at the moment – won’t spoil your story with mine! Looking forwards to Shanghai . . . oh, I made an awful error and ordered something actually looking ‘nice’ on Shein . . . daresay it slowly ambled past you and is still somewhere in the environs . . .
I finally decided that painting bothered me. Something about the paint drips. My daughter used to order all of her bikinis off of Shein. It was a wonder they didn’t all dissolve when they got wet. 🤣
Sounds like a lovely relaxing day, and off to a good start with those delicious-sounding pancakes! A family friend spent a few years as a dancer on cruise ships in the Med. She loved the life but said she couldn’t do it forever 🙂
PS I forgot to mention (and you may already know this) but the link to this post from your Weekly Twist, which I received yesterday, didn’t work – it took me to the home page of your blog instead.
I set it up that way. Mostly because I’m lazy and don’t want to change it for each newsletter. I was hoping that people could figure it out (like you did) from the home page. 🤣
I think it would be great when you’re young and don’t have a family. After that, the lifestyle wouldn’t be sustainable.
The problem was that this post didn’t appear on your home page at the time when I accessed it from the newsletter, I think maybe you hadn’t published it yet at that point?