Feb 3 --  On the way to Auckland

We are heading to Auckland, New Zealand.  Today was the first of 2 sea days and followed the regular routine.  We attended the after-dinner show for a change in the hope that Elliot Finkel’s act would improve from the other night.  It didn’t.  He continued to pound out chords, glissandos, arpeggios and trills as if gymnastics on the piano ability.  His pyrotechnics overshadowed any artistic merit.  It was a pity because he had played well when performing piano solos several days ago.

Feb 4 – Not there yet

We were still in “sea day” mode although there was no Trivia this morning.  Team Trivia [usually in the morning] is a cumulative affair.  Simply put, our scores are added together from sea-day to sea-day.  Port days are not included because team members may still be ashore when the game is played.  All of that is an introduction to today’s Trivia non-session.  Rather than have us play, Gene the Cruise Director distributed Grand Dollars to the teams; each team got 3 times their number of points in Grand Dollars which can be used to “buy” merchandise on specified days throughout the voyage.  Normally, shopping days occur right before a segment of the cruise ends and people get off and go home.  We had 241 points and received 720 “dollars” which we distributed among the team members.  Since Arthur is ineligible for prizes, we have established the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund to get him anything he wants.  We will start new cumulative Trivia after we leave Sydney, Australia.

Before dinner we attended The Liar’s Club which featured Arthur, Gene and a guest lecturer trying to fool the audience by giving false definitions for strange words.  Obviously, one of the three will have the correct definition, but the fun is in figuring it out.  So far this cruise, the audience has not picked the right definition.

Tonight was another formal night and we invited Ginger and Dave to share our table with us.  They have a 2-top on the upper level of the MDR and were delighted at the prospect of having someone else to talk to for a change.  We intend to invite more people as time goes on.

Rita Rudner was back for another show after dinner.  We enjoyed her program much more than we did the piano player’s.

TOMORROW – Day 1 in Auckland, New Zealand