Saturday, 09/28/13 At Sea Day 6

Saturday, 09/28/13 At Sea Day 6

Sun and calm seas! At last! This morning was the first morning to see the sunrise since Vancouver. Seas were “Slight” with swells of 1-2 feet (0.5-1 meters), and the temperature was 52 degrees F. Later, the seas became “Moderate” with winds of 14 knots, or 16 mph. The ship has sailed 2700 miles since Whittier, with 400 miles to go to Muroran.

Attended the port lecture on Dalian, and it was okay today -- just okay.

At one point the port lecturer, Heather, talked about the customs procedures for Muroran tomorrow. She said that everyone would be required to give fingerprints (by touching a screen), but she did not warn people to clean their fingers with an antiseptic wipe afterwards. In 2009, when I was here on this same ship, 500 people got sick after the fingerprint process because they did not clean their fingers afterwards, and the entire ship was quarantined in Shanghai. After the lecture today, I went to the tour office and told them about the previous experience and asked them to warn people to clean their fingers after the fingerprint process; however, they were very nasty to me and told me that they didn’t need any advice from me because they know how to do things. I asked them if Princess would have wipes available for people to use after the fingerprint process, and they simply repeated to me that they know how to do their jobs and they don’t need any advice from me. What jerks.

Late afternoon, I went up to Skywalkers Lounge for the predinner drinks for Platinum and Elite members. Although I didn’t get a drink, I did sit and look out at the seas for a few minutes, and the view was worth the effort -- a large school of dolphins suddenly appeared swimming all along the ship from the bow to the stern. There must have been at least 50 of them, and they were jumping in groups of up to six at a time. They seemed to be everywhere jumping all over the place. The sight of all those dolphins jumping and playing was really incredible.