Day 84 Mar 28 (sea day)

Well first, let me correct a serious oversight. I neglected to mention in my last entry that on Day 82 (Suez Canal) we won at Trivia. (Since the transit was going to take 11 hours or so we took time out to play trivia.)

The prize was even worth the effort! (OK, we really do it for the fun but it is nice to get something useful once and awhile when we win - boy aren't I spoiled. Lots of the teams never win and I'm picky about the prizes. I must be adjusting to this pampered life. I may be difficult to live with after this is over. Fair warning!) The prize was a Maglite flashlight (a smaller one) with the Holland America Line name on it. We could have used them at the Karnak Sound and Light Show. Actually I had my own little flashlight with me (thanks Bunk!) and had to loan it to one of our crew who was escorting a mobility challenged guest. The crewmember's name is Jinque, one of the Front Desk girls I "flirt" with just to keep in practice. The fact that she is cute had nothing to do with my offering my flashlight I'm sure. Sadly, she is about 40 years younger than I. Scary but true.

Meanwhile back at day 84. The usual for breakfast (Lido deck). Tai Chi followed by Vantage Discussion. Today's topic was the three days we spent in Egypt (Safaga, Suez and Alexandria). Egypt is an amazing place and seems to be working very hard to encourage tourism. Most people had great experiences. There is still a lot of poverty but considering the history and natural resources (enough oil to be self sufficient but not to export) they are doing pretty well and improving.

At 11 Hassan Eltaher talked about Istanbul.

Today we lost at trivia by 2 answers.

At 2 Barbara lectured about Sevastopol, Ukraine (she is a few ports ahead at the moment, we visit Istanbul, Turkey and Sochi, Russia before Ukraine).

I was running out of room on my photo memory cards so I backed up my computer photo library on DVD (3.9 GB of zip file). I have taken almost 1800 pictures so far. I thought 2000 or so would cover it when I was buying cards.

The show at 8 was the Dancers and Singers singing "Songs of the South" - lot of Country and some other stuff. Good show.

I stayed up until 2 AM finishing and sending my last installment of this saga for you guys. I had nothing to do in the morning so I figured I might as well finish it up and sending it would be easier that late because most sane people were catching z's.