Saturday – May 2, 2026 – at sea to Mindelo day 2
The person in today’s featured photo is our butler – Lezle. Tonight he is wearing the elegant eveningwear outfit. He has a less formal evening outfit that does not include the white gloves or coat with tails. During the day he has an informal outfit. This is the way the butlers in the Yacht Club are required to dress. It would be OK with me if he wore the informal garb all the time but then I don’t pay his salary (directly).
This is day 2 of 7 as we head Northwest to Mindelo. We will be crossing the equator again in a couple days so the temperature is climbing from what it was in Cape Town and Walvis Bay.
The World Cruise game today was like basketball but with the hoop (bucket) on the floor (deck 13). There weren’t any of the passengers who were able to get the ball in the bucket so the team leaders were tasked to do that for their teams. You guessed – we did not win.
Today we met with Lorena and signed up for a 2 week cruise in the Caribbean beginning December 19th on the MSC Grandiosa. This ship can carry 6,300 passengers (compared to the 2,400 on this World Cruise) so it will be quite large. It has a couple restaurants we want to try – Tacos and other Mexican food is one and Teppanyaki (Japanese steak house) is the other. We booked a Yacht Club cabin for 3 so this will be the first time since December of 2023 that the 3 of us will be sharing a cabin. Kelsey said she could put up with us for 2 weeks (she hopes). I know I said I don’t like ships with large passenger counts. We wanted to try the Yacht Club before the 2028 World Cruise and this seemed a good way to do so – and give us a chance to see Jeff and Karen (from the 2025 World Cruise) and Carl and Yvonne (from the 2026 World Cruise). Both couples live in the area near Port Canaveral from which this cruise originates.
At the restaurant this evening there was an ice sculpture at the entrance. Not sure why but it was nice looking and I included a couple photos in the gallery. For her main course Jan ordered prawns. I included a photo so you can see how they are served – head and all. Jan didn’t have a starter so she got her prawns before Yvonne (who ordered them as her main dish). After Jan had finished her prawns, Yvonne asked how they tasted. Jan said she would answer after Yvonne tried hers. Yvonne said it tasted like her prawns had sand in them. Jan said that is the same thing she thought. We let Rame (our waiter) know about the prawns so he would be aware if any other passengers found the same problem when he served second seating. On the way out of the restaurant I found a couple head waiters to tell them so they could advise the kitchen. Jan has had prawns for her main dish previously on this cruise without the grit so we hope this is a one-off.
Theater show this evening was Legends of Rock. Kelsey took a photo for me because I stayed in the cabin to try and catch-up processing photos and video to upload to the website. While I was doing that there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find one of the wait staff with a bucket and bottle of chilled prosecco and a plate with pastries. With the wine and pastries was a note from one of the head waiters I had talked to about the sand in the prawns. I was not expecting gifts for telling them of an issue with the food. There is a photo of the wine, food and another of the note.
The photos from today can be found here.