Day 8 - Wed 12/12/18 - At Sea to Florida - Day 2

Overnight there was a bit more motion to the ocean, but I'm finally sleeping full nights which is good. The clocks were rolled back an hour again last night.

Our first event was the coffee chat with the hotel manager, Don, who was also the hotel manager on the rollout of the Koningsdam. It's was an interesting chat. $7.5 million was spent on startup furnishings like cutlery, napkins and the like. Additionally he noted the food cost for 2100 passengers for a week was $200,000 or about $13 per person per day. He estimated the waste food at about 4%. These coffee chats help bring insight into things one otherwise might not know.

Afterwards, Robin Ross presented an EXC talk on the history of Reggae music with lots of sound clips. It was really good and his experience of 10's of years as a DJ was invaluable in the presentation. He's grown on me as a speaker.

Atlys (corrected spelling from prior posts), the string quartet, performed a matinee on the Lincoln Center Stage and they were once again wonderful. They and the dueling pianos are my favorites of the music venues.

Following the classical music, I attended another America's Test Kitchen on Tapas. My big takeaway was how to tell how long to cook shrimp. Shrimp starts in the shape of a capital C, and when it's the shape of a lower case c, it's done. Cooking it further makes it into the letter O and that's over cooked. Clever trick! Each of these events has recipe cards so one can try the demonstrated item at home.

Today I visited the re-imagined Wonder Photo Shop sponsored by Fuji. The former photo gallery been transformed from racks of photos taken of passengers to touchscreens where one can view photos identified by image recognition software, put photos on cups, mugs, water bottles, coasters, and even metal. There's also a broad selection of cameras including some instant film versions including GoPro 7's & accessories. There's even a place within the Navigator App where one can import one's own pictures to print or put on one of the above items. Prices range from about $13 and up. I went back later and purchased a 10" x 10" metal print of a picture that won a prize on our last cruise. The cost was $29.95 which I felt was reasonable and will be available after noon tomorrow.

Of course, there was time to return to the Lincoln Center Stage for some Brahms by the quintet. Splendid classical music!

Dan Mings presented his lecture on the Spanish conquest of the new world and his dry sense of humor really came through today.

We did our walking around deck 11's jogging track where I encountered one of the senior engineering staff who was doing his routine inspections. We chatted a fair bit and he revealed he was on the Koningsdam and how he felt this ship was so much better because it was built on the experience of the Koningsdam. He was quite proud of the efficiency with which the ship operates. He indicated that 16.5 knots is the optimal hull speed for the ship and it can do that on just two engines which saves significant amounts of fuel compared to the older HAL ships. During my walk I also took time lapse photos which I posted to Cruise Critic.

Dinner tonight was at Nami Sushi. We just walked in and were seated at the sushi counter where we watched our sushi being prepared. We're sushi lovers and our 6-7 varieties didn't disappoint. We'll be back.

The Knights, a British tribute trio, rocked a packed the 8pm show on the World Stage. The group is comprised of British musical theatre actors and one of the group will be spending at least a year on Broadway in a lead role in Moulin Rouge. They were so good we went back for the second show at 10pm. Afterwards we sampled the new popcorn and found it was a bit tough. HAL staff needs more practice with their new popcorn machine.

Today was a good day for us and I hope it was for you as well. The ship is proving to be a fine long distance cruise vessel with lots of daily options. Stay tuned for more tomorrow.