Welcome back, faithful readers. Since leaving Devil’s Island without actually setting foot on
the accursed former French penal colony, we’ve been at sea, heading in a southeastern direction toward our next destination, Fortaleza, Brazil. The past two days have been very full, and there’s much to tell.
We started our day on Christmas Eve by attending a morning lecture on our next three ports of call, all in Brazil. The highlight will be our stop in Rio de Janeiro, where, fortuitously, we’ll be on New Year’s Eve. Visiting Christ the Redeemer, seeing Sugarloaf Mountain and watching the New Year’s Eve fireworks from the deck of our cruise ship are certain to be lifetime memories. More about Rio when we get there, but right now I’m excited about tomorrow’s visit to Fortaleza, a famous Brazilian beach destination.
After grabbing an early lunch we hustled over to the ship’s movie theater for a noon viewing of Christmas Vacation. I think I’ve seen the film a dozen times, and probably know every line, but it still makes me laugh. There was a group of Australian women who had never seen the movie sitting behind us, and listening to them react was almost as funny as the movie itself.
After the movie it was back to the main theater for another enrichment lecture on Latin music by Dr. Welson Tremura, who is a professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Florida. Dr. Tremura’s lectures have been interesting and informative, and have definitely helped prepare me for our upcoming South American ports of call.
And, talk about a segue. Christmas Eve, as you might imagine, was formal night in the main dining room. We have what’s known as “my time” dining, which means that like a restaurant, we can call ahead or use the app to make a reservation for whatever time we’d like to dine. Our reservation was for 6:45, so after dressing for the occasion Michele and I arrived and were seated at a table for two that was separated from another table for two by only two or three inches. So, who do you think joined us at the other table immediately after we were seated? Yep, Dr. Tremura and his wife. How about that! We spent a delightful hour chatting with them, and I think I have a new friend.
After dinner we took our favorite seats in the balcony of the main theater for a performance by Britain’s Finest, a Beatles tribute band. They certainly knew their audience, which on this cruise is largely an older demographic, as they played exclusively the Fab Four’s big early 60s hits. The show was a lot of fun, though I must say that watching my fellow seniors get up and twist to “Twist and Shout” was…well, I’ll leave it to your imagination.
The night still wasn’t done, though. At 10:00 we joined our fellow passengers and the crew in the Centrum for 40 minutes of Christmas caroling. It was a really nice ending to a full day (though there was still mass at 11:00 for Catholics).
Christmas Day was just as amazing. Almost exactly at 9:00 am our ship crossed the equator and we entered the southern hemisphere. The captain counted it down and blew the ship’s horn when the big moment arrived. Then, just for fun, he turned the ship around, crossed back into the northern hemisphere, turned around again and resumed our southward journey to Fortaleza. So, in a period of several minutes we crossed the equator three times. How about that. And now we’re all shellbacks instead of pollywogs. Curious? Google equator line crossing ceremony. I think you’ll find it interesting.
At 10:00 Santa arrived on the pool deck to much fanfare, then headed down to the Centrum to present gifts to all the children on the cruise.
After lunch I spent some time catching up on the blog, until 3:30, when Michele and I went to the Safari Club, a wood paneled lounge with bookcases and pool tables, for a music performance by Dr. Tremura. Unlike his lectures, this was a coffeehouse-style set of South American songs, and I really enjoyed it, along with the opportunity to chat with him briefly again beforehand. I’m looking forward to his final talk on Wednesday, before he jumps ship in Rio. We’ll be joined by enrichment lecturers throughout the cruise, and I can’t wait to find out who’s next.
After dinner we were back in the main theater for a Christmas variety show with singers, the ship’s orchestra, and a masterful performance by a comedian/juggler. The juggling was beyond impressive, and he had us laughing for pretty much the whole show. After that it was back to our stateroom to prepare for tomorrow’s shore excursion in Fortaleza.
Finally, I thought you might be interested to learn that this cruise has become something of a sensation on TikTok. Apparently TikTok content creators are drumming up views by suggesting that our adventure is some sort of reality show, and that drama is certain to unfold at some point. Based on what I’ve seen so far, this is a pretty mellow ship-full of passengers, so I’d be surprised, but who knows, it’s a long cruise. Here’s the link to a NBC News story on the TikTok thing.
That’s it for our two sea days. I hope you’ve all had a joyous Christmas, and I’ll be back after our stop in Fortaleza, the first time I’ll ever set foot in South America.
Great lecture about the things we’ll see on our next three ports of call in Brazil. Rio is going to be amazing.
The Serenade of the Seas has a beautiful movie theater showing great movies all day every day. Yesterday we caught Christmas Vacation, one of my favorite holiday movies.
Professor Welson Tremura gave the second of his three scheduled enrichment lectures on Latin American music in the afternoon. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.
After a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner in the main dining room we enjoyed a concert by Britain’s Finest, a Beatles tribute band. They stuck to the Fab Four’s early hits from the mid sixties, which the crowd of mostly older passengers really enjoyed. Fortunately there was no recording of our efforts to twist along to “Twist and Shout.”
Christmas Eve activities concluded at 10:00 pm with Christmas caroling in the Centrum. It really felt like a great way to wrap up a wonderful day.
Me celebrating the exact moment we crossed the equator and I became a shellback instead of a pollywog. Amazing that it occurred on Christmas Day.
An actual photograph of our ship crossing the equator this morning. The captain did a great job and I hardly felt a thing as we jumped the line.
The crew presented us with certificates to commemorate our crossing of the equator. We have them mounted on the wall in our stateroom.
Me with my new friend, Professor Welson Tremura. We really did hit it off, and who knows, maybe we’ll stay in touch. He gets off the ship in Rio, but he’s delivering one more lecture before then, on Wednesday afternoon.
Professor Tremura giving a coffeehouse-style this afternoon in the Safari Club lounge. He’s a very talented guitarist and singer as well as an academician.
Tonight’s variety show was highlighted by Randy Cabral, a juggler/comedian who kept us laughing while he dazzled us with some incredible juggling.
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