Day 23 - Sun - 10/19/2025 - At Sea to FLL - Day 1

 For a sea day, today was pretty busy for me.  Without a baseball game playing during the middle of the night, I got 6 straight hours of sleep before needing a bio break.  Then another hour until it  time to get up for our 8am interdenominational church service which was held in the aft in Club Fusion.  It wasn't as well attended as the last service we attended and the person who volunteered to lead it was a choir director who did okay leading the songs but there could have been more singing as that's something we tend to have in common.  Preaching wasn't his strong suit and unfortunately nobody else was allowed to speak.  The ship did provide communion ingredients, so we were able to celebrate communion.  


Afterwards we ate a quick breakfast before heading to the Princess Theater for a young new lecturer, Jacob Marvin, who spoke on the Islands of the Atlantic with a focus on the Azores and the Canary Islands.  He was a great lecturer who didn't read from notes and kept our attention for 45 minutes with lots of history about the significance of these islands.  Following his lecture, I did a lap around deck 7 (it's quite warm out) before returning to the room to do some reading before lunch. I'm reading a new mystery novel, Dead Line, by a favorite author, Marc Cameron.  It's set in Alaska and involves Federal Marshalls which Mr. Cameron once was one.


Finished with a light lunch, we went back to the Princess Theater for the DEAL OR NO DEAL game show.  The first contestant took the Banker's offer of $160, but had she held out for her case to be opened, it was worth $350.  The second contestant held out to the end and won only $20.  I enjoy watching this show as I like to estimate the Banker's offer following each round of case openings.


Immediately following the Deal or No Deal game show, 6 of the musicians were interviewed (band director, two Irish musicians, a trumpet player, and two of the party band).  It was very interesting and most of them had a musical interest from a very early age.

Afterwards, I read some more until dinner which we ate up in the LIDO again.  After dinner, I walked another lap around deck 7 before going to the theater for the evening show.  On the way I noticed many people watching the movie F1 on the warm midship pool area open deck.  Tonight, the American Grand Prix will be shown live on the same screen.


Tonight's evening entertainment was an energetic Russian violinist, Inna Tolstova, who was excellent.  I ended my evening watching the last part of the Emerald Tide's 8pm set before returning to the room to update my blog.  Angela went to her normal karaoke in Club Fusion.

Tonight we move our clocks back one hour, so our Seattle Mariner's game will start at midnight our time.  It'll be a short night.

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