Cruise The World With Us

Wednesday – February 19, 2025

Today something new was added to for our entertainment – a cooking competition for the title “Master Chef At Sea”. Eight contestants were selected much as they do for those reality TV shows. The purpose of this session was to reduce the number of contestants from 8 to 6. Each was given the choice of preparing a dish in 10 minutes using pre-cooked chicken or shrimp. There was a selection of herbs, seasoning and vegetables from which they could choose but they must use each of those they chose. Three people from the MSC Magnifica kitchen staff were the judges. They selected the five dishes they thought best. But wait – eight minus five means three people would have to leave. Well the kicker is that the audience was allowed to vote for the one of those three they would like to stay and compete. Jan and Kelsey voted for the same person – who eventually did stay. Don’t know when the next competition will be held – stay tuned.

Prior to the Master Chef competition the World Cruise game was held. Today’s game was for a team to have the most different Winter gloves. Jan had a pair that had a unique raspberry color. There were many black gloves (which only counted as “1”). In the end Air came up a little short of the total number of different gloves – so we, again, finished second.

The cooking contest was held at 3:00 pm (15:00 ship time). Kelsey scurried up to deck 7 following that so she could watch the classical musicians. She took stills and a video of that performance. This performance at least one song (from West Side Story) was in English.

While Kelsey was listening to music, Jan and I went to the Medical Center to have the doctor look at Jan and see what could be done to help her get rid of her cough and congestion. I wasn’t allowed in for the consult but it sounded like the doctor was quite interested in what treatment Jan might be receiving for cancer when she returns from the cruise. The doctor prescribed a couple medicines which she will begin to take today. From what we have heard from other people the medicine seems to do the trick.

Following the musical presentation Kelsey stopped to check for progress solving the jigsaw puzzle. Looks like it is coming along OK. She then joined us for dinner in the restaurant on deck 5. There are a couple photos of selections from dinner.

We returned to our cabin after dinner and were able to see some of this evening’s sunset. The clouds cooperated and contributed to nice colors. The ship, however, was not as cooperative. As you watch the sunset time-lapse you can see that the ship was rocking from port to starboard and back. Oh the headaches of being on a cruise ship in beautiful weather on the way to French Polynesia!

This evenings show in the theatre was a tribute to Frank Sinatra. Kelsey even wore a blue dress for dinner to honor “Ol’ Blue Eyes”. The singers did a good job but you can’t beat the original version of each song.

Sharon asked for a copy of one of our menus so I included the dinner menu from Tuesday. Each menu features selections for the day and several items that are always available if you don’t fancy that day’s choices.

You will find today’s video and photo media here.