The weather on this sea day was very gray and cloudy and the temperatures are beginning to cool as we move eastward.

The Morning Show with cruise director Jorge was our first event of the day where he interviewed the cast of the Alley Cats who performed last evening. The group has been around for 31 years and they have members scattered across the country from the New York area to the Los Angeles area. They perform in many schools, at festivals, at the San Diego Animal Park Christmas Show, local theaters and anywhere else that will have them.

Next, Ian presented a few of his slides from previous cruises where he has traveled the world to show folks some interesting places they might want to consider on their next cruise. He will be onboard for the World Cruise beginning in January.

Kent attended a lecture by Dr. Joe Kess on the Pacific war. Mark attended a cooking class in America’s Test Kitchen where Spencer showed how to make Pad Thai and Scallion Pancakes at home. Interesting cooking class but not sure it is worth the work to make it at home when it is so easily available in the neighborhood.

In the afternoon we attended a Mariner Society Cocktail Reception in the main showroom as a thank you to previous Holland America guests. In this case, most of the guests onboard are previous passengers. Drinks and appetizers were served by waiters dressed in sailors’ hats, shirts and white gloves. Platinum, gold, silver and bronze medallions were handed out to guests and photos were taken with the captain.

For dinner we were invited to dinner with Captain Fred Eversen and his girlfriend Brooke Nantz in the Pinnacle Grill restaurant. Brooke works in the shore excursion office when the captain is onboard the ship. The dinner menu consisted of six courses plus a lime sorbet palette refresher. There was a salmon course, a tomato bisque course, a shrimp ravioli and black cod course, and a pork with butternut squash and cheese course. The main course was a steak saltimbocca which was very delicious followed by a dessert of chocolate and hazel nut tartella. All of this was accompanied with a Flanagan Beauty of Three Chardonnay from California and a Col Solare Meritage from Washington State. It was a wonderful dinner that we were happy to have been included in.

The evening’s entertainment was a clarinet player by the name of Kenny Martyn. He played music as a tribute to the late Benny Goodman.

When we returned to our cabin there were two gift boxes on our bed with Royal Goedewaagen plates in them. The plates have a map of the world and show all of the ports where we stopped along our voyage over the last 82 days.