The Traveling Blogcrastinator: Mask Parade

Friday, February 14, 2025

The water last evening was VERY ROUGH. We are at sea again today. The water continued to be rough overnight. Today it is slightly better, but still rough. Maybe we are getting used to it.

But there were so many activities I wanted to do today, I will have to go to them, in spite of the rough water. It’s been a long time since I have been on a cruise that had SO MANY activities that appealed to me.

Today’s craft was mask-making, again. Additional sessions were added due to the high demand coupled with max seating of 25 in the Art Studio. I decided to skip trying to get a place in the class, because I now have the mask I purchased in Tobago. Nonetheless, I am very pleased that the ship has been responding to passenger demand by repeating several activities.

I went to another session of Learn Portuguese, and then went with Ken to hear Richard Watson’s presentation: Into the Amazon. Richard is a British man who fell in love with Brazil and has lived there for many years. He is an excellent speaker with a nice British accent that is easy to understand. He brings a lot of energy to the stage, and he is very good-looking.

White chocolate coins embellished the desserts at lunch today

Later, I went to Latin Aerobics, with Charles. It was too hard for me. It was very fast and my Brooks sneakers did not slide along the wooden floor very well. I think “Latin Aerobics” is a way of saying “Zumba” when you don’t have a licensed Zumba instructor.

I wanted to go to the Capoeira class to at least watch it, but I couldn’t fit it in. I did (barely) fit in a class in Samba Drumming. The instructor, named Franklee, had set out several drums so I sat by one. It was like a small snare drum. The people who came later were given several kinds of percussion. There were tambourines, maracas, and rain sticks, plus some others which I could not identify. This class was held by the pool and the music playing from the ship’s sound system competed with the class. We started by doing some simple rhythms together. Then we were given a complicated rhythm with about 7 beats. Then other instruments started playing different rhythms. It wasn’t long before I lost the beat. Even something as simple as shaking a rain stick can be much harder than it looks when there are other instruments playing, and I realized I needed to drop out of this band in the future and leave to people who have prior experience playing an instrument. But I am so glad I had a chance to try drumming. I have never done it before. The effect of all the instruments playing together was very cool.

After all this I rushed back to our room to get ready for dinner, followed by Shabbat services. We found out that there is a rabbi aboard because this is a Legendary Voyage, i.e. 25-59 days.

Our final event of this busy day was the “Masquerade and Parade.” I have never been to a real masquerade party where most of the people wore masks. It was fun to see all the dressy outfits, costumes, and get-ups for Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras.