WATCHING WHALES AT SEA

Thursday, January 28, 2010
A FUN DAY AT SEA

Today was sunny but a little cooler. We enjoyed omelettes at the buffet for breakfast and then headed to the Lido Aft Pool to read and watch for whales. The captain had told us last Saturday that when the ship returned north we might see whales near Cabo San Lucas. About noon we did indeed begin seeing spouts! For the next three hours we saw whales breeching, jumping, spouting, sometimes in pairs, sometimes alone. The captain was kind enough to reroute the ship to maximize the experience. Sometimes the whales were on the starboard side, at other times on the port side, or aft. We stayed on the ship’s aft the whole time and could see whales from all angles! We were told that this is the season that whales go to this particular area to give birth. It would be difficult to guess the whales’ sizes, but they seemed quite large to me. If a whale is 2 ½ miles away and one can still see it, it must be big!! That’s my take.

Dinner with Donna and Lawrence: Bing Cherry Soup, Escargots (TK), Shrimp Cocktail, Chateaubriand, Baked Alaska.

After dinner we went to see “The Big Easy, A Trip to New Orleans,” tonight’s main show in Pharoah’s Palace featuring the Carnival Spirit Dancers and the Spirit Show Band. This was a very vibrant show with laser beams, strobe lights, smoky “dry ice,” and flame effects, bright colored costumes, sequins, great vocals, many costume changes, a variety of music (jazz, country, rock, spirituals), and many different sets representing New Orleans’ scenes (e.g. Café du Monde). My favorite number was “The House of the Rising Sun.” The dancers’ wispy costumes represented gargoyles. At the end beads and confetti were thrown in the midst of the audience.

TK’s Takes: Whales, whales, and more whales. We saw more whales on this trip than we did when we went to Alaska in 1999. The temperature is getting cooler.

Aside to B1 and B2: Tonight’s towel animal was a turtle.