Friday – April 25, 2025
This started as another of those “at sea” days with not a lot to do. When we opened the curtain and looked out the window I told Jan there were a couple boats visible. One was a container ship and the other was smaller and I couldn’t make out what it was. She wanted to know if it might be pirates! We had talked about that yesterday because we have sailed a good distance off the coast of Africa for that very reason – to avoid pirates. As it turns out, we believe the unidentified ship is a fishing vessel.
Didn’t attend World Cruise game today because we had received an invitation from the captain to join him in the theatre at 11:30. We showed up and it appeared over 1,000 other passengers had also received an invitation. What followed was 30 minutes I’ll never be able to reclaim – and time I wish I had not spent in the theatre. On the way into the theatre we surrendered our invitation and the staff wrote our cabin number on the back. Next we were offered juice or champagne. The primary crew staff were brought on stage, everyone clapped. Then there was a short video of a couple places we did not dock around South America. Following that was a short dance number by some of the main stage production group. Then there was a drawing for 3 of the invitations by cabin number. Each drawn received a replica of MSC Magnifica. Finally the cruise director (Sonya) said “Thank you for cruising with MSC” in multiple languages and that was the end of the meeting. In my opinion, wasted time.
We waited for 20 minutes or so because we thought the dining rooms would be packed with all those leaving the theatre. Arrived at the restaurant and got a table immediately – wasn’t as crowded as we thought it would be. Kelsey had an interesting dessert and took a photo of it which appears in today’s media.
We returned to our cabin, watched an episode of “Parks & Recreation” I had on a solid state drive then Kelsey and Jan left for high tea. While they were gone I cut my hair. Pretty exciting stuff so far – right. When Jan returned from high tea I made a comment about the room feeling cold. Called guest services and they sent up a repairman quickly. Have a couple photos of him working on the unit – something had failed, he found the fault, repaired it and it works fine now.
We left for dinner. Jan took a photo of her dessert – a peach cake we hadn’t seen before. She liked the taste. While we were gone I had set a camera to take a time lapse of the sunset. The sunset wasn’t great but the video did capture lots of sargassum (see yesterday’s post). It shows in the video as yellow color in the water.
Following dinner we went to the main production groups show titled “La Dolce Vita”. All the numbers had some tie to Italy and many were in Italian. We recognized a few and I’ve labeled them in the videos. Their final number is one dear to me – Con Te Partiro (Time To Say Goodbye). It brings memories of my Dad and Mom. It was also the last song to which I shot a choreographed fireworks display.
The evening wasn’t over yet. A special buffet had been prepared and was setup on deck 13 where we have World Cruise games. Kelsey went up to look it over and snatch goodies. She took photos before the passengers descended on the food. Once the rush for food was on she grabbed many macaroons. She had instructions from Jan to bring back white chocolate (especially with M&M’s) if there was any. No chocolate but Kelsey did find some other sweets she thought Jan might like.
Tonight we set our clocks back an hour so now we will be 5 hours ahead of Central Daylight Time. Tomorrow is Dakar and our excursion to an animal reserve.
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