Detour

 September 30, 2026

Well, no Cabo San Lucas tomorrow. It is a tender port and the storm in the area has caused the officials there to close the port.  So we are detouring around the storm and heading for Costa Rica.  Bonnie and I weren't getting off the ship anyway.

After I finished my 10:30 talk today, Jason, the entertainment director, came to me and said since we were missing a scheduled stop he moved one of my two scheduled Sunday talks to tomorrow.  Today I did the celestial navigation talk, "Are We There Yet?" and the one tomorrow will be part 2 of the c.n., "John Harrison: the Man who gave us longitude.  Much better layout.

My technician today was Andrei from -- are you ready -- Russia.  We gavarooed a bit, he found the street in Samara where mom and I rented a flat.  Really neat.  Then after the talk there was a lady selling tickets for bingo and her accent was -- are you ready -- Russian.  Her name is Anastasia, and I pronounced it the Russian way which made her happy (Anna Stas E Uh not Anna Stayzyuh).  I guess you needed to be there.

Well I need to start rehearsal so we'll see yinz tomorrow.  Mom is sitting in bed, reading, and drinking a coke and using it to was down a Hershey chocolate bar.

TTFN

Love, David/Dad/Pappy

The Real 9/29

 September 29, 2026

Well, we started at 6:30 am with showers. On then to breakfast on Deck 3. He went back to the  room to study while I went up to the LIDO to get my cup filled with ice and water for the day. Then off to Deck 2 to sit and wait for his first talk today on Photography. I sit in front of the "Starbucks" coffee place. It is crazy busy with people order their lattee, etc at the cost of $7 or more. A cup of just plain coffee is $3. You can get a cup of coffee on the lido deck for free. I bought 2 cans of coke tonight and that was $9. Won't buy too many of those. Jason brought us 2 large boys of cold water for our room. Very nice because they cost $4.50 each.

After his talk we went back to the room so he could get ready for his second talk on Potatoes at 2:30. Today was a busy day. After this talk it was back to the room till it was time for our 5:15 supper.

I did get some crocheting done. And they finally got the temperature adjusted in our room so we are not freezing.

Tomorrow at 10:30 he has his first talk in the theater. Much bigger venue. He only has one talk so we will have some time to go to the shops, relax and play some cards. 

Tonight's supper was not satisfactory. My tomato soup and salad were good. However, my entree was not. I got what was described as "chicken in a creamy mushroom gravy with noodles and seasoned vegetables". Instead of nice pieces of chicken I had two small pieces of chicken with the bone in under the gravy. It took me forever to separate the small amount of chicken from the bones in order to eat it. I wound up having to remove little pieces of bone from my mouth which I couldn't see. It was not an appetizing meal. Dessert was pina colada cheesecake, sugar free. It was good.

Well, he has finished his practicing and will do his part now. We are getting up 6:30 tomorrow to be at breakfast by 8.

Miss you all. Haven't had anytime to get out on deck yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Love you all. Mom, Granny and Bonnie

September 29

 Hey everybody ! Welcome to the crazy farm.

We just rushed in from supper and he said BLOG! So here I am. Today up at 7 (went to bed at 8 pm) I was exhausted last night. We had gone to the show after supper and yesterday was his first talk. It was just a long day.

Today was slower, he had the day off. Tomorrow he has 2 talks, one at 10:30 and one at 2:30. It will be crazy .

Today we were talking about getting off the ship on the 12th and look at getting a shuttle to the airport. Can't be done our flight is too early. So he has spent all afternoon changing the plane flights so we can buy a ship's shuttle ticket.

Our cabin is on Deck 1. Kind of in the middle of the ship. If you turn right out our door we walk about 2/3 the length of the ship to take an elevator up to food. If you turn left out the door you walk about 1/3 the length of the ship to get to the Mad Hadder lounge where  10 talks are and the other 2 are in the theater two decks up.

As he has said our room is icy!! Even cold to me. Nice to sleep in but not sit or work. This is an older ship so things don't all work as well as they could.

We have had a breakfast brunch in the dining room twice. It is nice and I can get a cup of hot chocolate. Then, we don't eat again to supper because brunch is late. Today we did go up to the Lido deck and have a bowl of soup and an ice cream cone. The meals in the dining room have been good. Our wait staff (I Gusti, Dodi, Antari, and Alfi) are very nice and work very hard. They have many tables!!

I have done a little crocheting and some reading. People are hiding ducks and I found one tonight in the dining room. Yes, and I scooped it up. I shall be on the look out for more. There is not much to explore on the ship. Only 2 or 3 shops. Halls and spaces are very narrow. Not much opportunity to sit outside on deck 2 or 3 and there are no chairs outside. Haven't looked around on Deck 9 the Lido deck where pools and etc are located. Want to go back to the one shop that has souveniors and clothes. He bought a new shirt to wear because he forgot his sweater vest to wear for his talks. I found a t-shirt on clearance for just a little more than $4.

Well, he has studying to do and I won't be long out of bed. I am very tired again tonight.

OH, we did play one game  of cards and he beat me bad.

Love to all!! Mom, Granny and Bonnie

September 27

09-27-2026 A full day at sea, the first of many. We don’t make our first landfall until Cabo san Lucas, then another Mexican stop (at neither of which do we plan to disembark) and finally Cartegena, Columbia before Galveston. I had my first talk today, “Yes, We May Have No Bananas.” A good crowd in the Mad Hatter Theater. It looks like will seat 75. Mom guesstimated an audience of 60. I’m off tomorrow and then have 2 on Tuesday. At supper tonight Bonnie had “Southern Fried Chicken,” but it looked like and she said it tasted tlike “Banquet Frozen Chicken.” My pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon was good. And we each had Carnival Molten Lava Cake, with 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream for dessert. And it was very good. Well, my cruise buddy is napping (she promised to blog tomorrow), and my demonic word processor, aka Word, is being stupid (Note to self: install the angelic WordPerfect before next cruise), so I will say TTFN.

93 Emails

93-Emails That’s how many emails were exchanged between your humble scribe and CCL before boarding the Carnival Miracle today. And among the last half dozen was the statement that we did not have a cabin assigned and we would have to carry our suitcases on by ourselves. This morning we prayed that when we got to the ship there would be an assignment. We walked up to a lady and said, “We don’t have one.” She looked and said, “There you are!” Thank you, Lord! That was one of several angel visits since leaving Augusta. Brooke, on Delta, the lead flight attendant tried to get Bonnie’s monitor working and when it failed, gave us a $25 travel voucher. When we checked into the Hilton Hotel last night, room paid for by CCL, Natasha said we were in one of the rooms selected for crew, outside and a good hike away. She said, “Let me see if there is an upgrade I can move you to,” and there was and we stayed inside in a king suite. At breakfast this morning I had a voucher for my breakfast and would have to pay for Mom. Our waitress, Savannah, said, “I have more vouchers. She doesn’t have to pay.” And she advised us to take an Uber to the ship and not a taxi because it would be faster and cheaper. For all of the above, as well as all of the safe travel, Lord we give you the glory, and our thanks! There’s more to tell, but it will wait until tomorrow, because I need to rehearse for my first talk, “Yes, we have no bananas,” tomorrow at 4 p.m. in the Mad Hatter lounge. So until then, TTFN.