Moving on a Rainy Day in Norfolk

December 22nd - Moving Day

We had lunch in the Lido Buffet.

Lido at lunch

It was overcast and rainy. Not many people are getting on in Norfolk - only about 500. The other 800 plus many children are getting on in Fort Lauderdale. We stopped by the dining room to see if they knew our table number, but their computer was down. I called the Front Desk to see if they knew and they said they would get back to me.

I went out and took photos of Norfolk again - we pulled out a little after 3.

Leaving the Norfolk dock

Turning the ship

Nauticus pier

I went up to the Crows' Nest (deck 12) because I had to get in out of the wind which was pretty cold.

Empty Harborside marina

Barge and tug

Cargo ship and tug in Norfolk harbor

Satellite dishes

Coal piers

Underground pipeline

Freighter leaving the harbor

I was hoping again to get a photo of Cape Henry Light this time, but it got darker and darker. I did get a reasonable photo of Thimble Shoals,

Thinble Shoals

but by the time we got within sight of Cape Henry it was fully dark (it gets dark at 1700 this time of year).

There was a phone message from the Front Desk on the phone when I got back. She said just to go to the same table we had last time. (The phone in this room doesn't have a broken message light on it, and also the bathroom door actually closes without using major force on it.) I wanted to get my same seat (next to the window), so when it was dinner time, I slipped by the man asking for our dinner cards, and went with two older ladies to our table and sat in my seat. Bob was caught and they weren't going to let him go to the table unless he presented a card (which he didn't have) so they made him wait until they checked it out in the computer.

In addition to the two ladies (who were annoyed that they didn't have a large table for 10 or 12) there was a couple named Tom and Sue. Tom is my age. The dining room is nearly empty. I had steamed mussels (which Al had last cruise and looked good to me at the time and were good),

Steamed mussels

baby spinach with mushroom salad, and Grilled Mahi Mahi with Roasted Corn Salsa and Plantains, rice and black beans (I didn't eat much of the beans).

Grilled Mahi Mahi with Roasted Corn Salsa and Plantains, rice and black beans

Bob also had the Mahi Mahi, and I ate his plantains (he doesn't like them). I had the chocolate cake for dessert.

Pastry Chef's Signature Chocolate cake

Black forest cake

December 23rd

It has been quite peaceful on the ship. Bob discovered that there was a menu for the TV which allowed him to set the on/off time for it, and he set it to go on at 7 am on the bow camera. It took us another day or so to figure out that we could set the sound to be softer too.

Cinnamon toast at breakfast

We ate lunch in the dining room.

Farmer's vegetable puree soup swirled with cream

Grilled Chicken Breast Burger

Beef Stroganoff

Chocolate dessert

Cheesecake

We went to trivia and teamed up with a lady named Sue with her foot in a cast and another lady. We won and the prize was luggage tags - there were about 5 teams tied with the same number of questions correct. She gave us two extra questions as a tie breaker. Each team got one right and one wrong. All of the other teams got correct the name of the bottled water that Napoleon authorized (Perrier), but we got that wrong. We were the only team though that got correct the location of the 1000 foot deep lake which I knew was somewhere in Central America and Bob remembered which country it was because we had the question on a previous trivia. The moderator decided that was the harder question (since we were the only ones who got it), so she gave it to us.

For dinner, I had the

Carpaccio of Beef Tenderloin

Roast venison with poached figs and polenta

No Sugar added Chocolate Torte

Bob had the

Hazelnut crusted black sea mullet

Key Lime pie

Someone else at the table had the

Tropical Fruit Sundae

We went to the show after dinner, and it was a comedian named Frank King who was very funny.

Tomorrow - Ft. Lauderdale