Day 04 - Downunder 2016 - Thu - 09/29/16 - At Sea to Hawaii 2

Overnight the ship rocked and rolled much more than the two previous nights. There were creaks and squeaks throughout the cabin, but since I'm a deep sleeper it didn't bother me. We woke up to the news of the NJ train crash and made our way to the Lido for a quick breakfast before attending the interdenominational reflection and prayer time in the Wajang Theatre. It seemed that on this day we finally settled into the routines that we would be following for days to come.

In the hour before the next lecture, I used the time to continue my read of The Great Reef. This morning's lecture was on the topic of the International Space Station by Dr. Kuznetz. It was really good and he presented how the payback on the station was 8 to 1 and showed the real life benefits resulting from the station.

Lunch was a bit crowded, but the salad I had was quite good. While there, the Chief Engineer came through and I recognized him from last year's Seattle to Singapore cruise, so I went over to say hi. It turned out that they brought him back from retirement to fill in on the Seattle to Sydney segment. When I indicated it would be more money for him, he just grinned and said, "No, I have my wife with me!" We exchanged smiles at that comment indicating our mutual understanding of the concept although I have to concede my wife is modest in her shopping.

This led to a one mile walk around Deck 6 and then more reading while watching the Pareo tying class. For the uninitiated, a Pareo is a simple rectangular piece of decorative fabric that's tied strategically around one's body to form clothing. It's a common form of apparel in the Hawaiian and South Sea islands.

Afterwards, Tom Goltz presented part A of his presentation on Captain Bligh and the Mutinity on the Bounty. 

There are a number of self service laundries onboard the ship including one on our deck 5, so I took the time to press a few cotton shirts one of which will be used for the first gala night tonight. With HAL's relaxation of the old formal night dress code to the new Gala night, I'll just wear a white shirt and tie, slacks, and dress shoes.

The Gala dinner service was the fastest we have ever experienced on any cruise in our memory. So far we're really pleased with the MDR service. We enjoyed dinner conversations with guests from Australia and Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Captain's Toast was the first time that he was introduced by name and we followed that by watching the singers and dancers in Atlantic Crossing which was songs from Britain that came to America which we've seen many times before. On a much lighter note we ended the day watching the 10pm showing of 'Finding Dory'.