Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
Hi All! We had another lazy sea day where we got to sleep in and have room service. You can quickly get used to this luxury! It was a beautiful sunny day but it’s definitely getting chillier. We are heading north back to Svalbard and inching closer to the North Pole!
There were lots of things going on today onboard. They finished the lecture on the Whales and Dolphins of the Arctic and that was interesting. If you remember, the other day they started this lecture then stopped it when whales were spotted and everyone ran outside!
Next they had a cooking competition where some of the guests competed against the Executive Chef and the Hotel Manager. Other guests even got to be the taste testers. How did I not get that job?? Lol. It was really fun and one of the guests actually beat the Executive Chef!
We took a quick break for lunch (that cooking competition made us hungry!) and then attended a lecture on Arctic Governance. It was interesting to hear how the US and Russia in the past worked closely together on the Arctic treaty but now both them and China are in conflict over the regulations.
Later in the afternoon we went to afternoon tea where they had the senior officers there to answer questions. There were tons of birds flying around the ship and we thought for sure there’s be a whale around but no such luck.
Of course we got hungry again so we had a nice dinner. Tonight’s theme was Peruvian and I ordered the chicken. It was just like Viva Chicken, so tasty! I think it’s cool that each night the restaurant has food from different countries. Love the variety!
After dinner we went to the show which was the Assistant Cruise Director Julie singing the biggest movie soundtracks of all time. She really has an amazing voice!
We went to bed early to get ready for our big expedition day tomorrow! Happy Hump Day to all!
PS: Since it was a sea day, I didn’t take any pictures but will include some from areas around the ship that I didn’t share before, some from the Longyearbyen airport when we first arrived as well as a funny angle of my Polar Plunge as well as my official certificate they gave me!
The Wandering Italian 