It was another lazy day at sea. Bill Crews presented his last lecture before he disembarked. His lecture on this day was a brief background of the construction of the Suez Canal and the subsequent challenges and wrestling for control over this strategic waterway. After several shut downs of the canal, it is now under the control of the Egyptian people, and they have recently invested billions of dollars to enlarge the canal. This new enlarged canal will allow ships to pass in opposite directions at the same time, allowing many more vessels to transit each day. This is expected to increase revenues by more than 100% annually.

For lunch we invited two of the young men who work in the shore excursions office to join us. Antonio is from Holland and Adriano is from Brazil. Antonio has worked on cruise ships for several years as a librarian and then in the shore excursions office. Adriano has worked for several cruise lines at both the front desk and then at the shore excursions office. They both love the opportunity to travel and see the world while working, but at the same time miss some of the things that are happening on land while they are away. They work seven days a week for six months and then have two months of vacation, so it is a busy life.

The afternoon lecture by Martyn Green included practical information on our upcoming port of Civitavecchia, Italy, not far from Rome. With so many things to see in Rome, he narrowed the list of best places to see to just twenty, not including Pompeii, the island of Capri and a few other locations nearby. We are only in port for one day so it will be difficult for people to choose what to see and do in such a short time.

For dinner we met our friends Kathy, Carol, Tom and the Italian entertainer, Marco Romano, for a special cellar master dinner in the Canaletto. The dinner consisted of a six-course meal accompanied by a glass of champagne, a white wine and two red wines. The meal was excellent and we had a wonderful time together.

After dinner we attended a variety show featuring Stephen Clark the flute player and Izabella Zebrowska the violinist. They put on another excellent show featuring songs from movies and musicals.