Well we'd ordered breakfast for 8am this morning and just had a nice breakfast in bed while watching "Krippendorfer's Tribe" on TV. A light comedy which was just our speed for a leisurely morning. Then we got up and watched the ship pull out (it was freezing!) while attempting to do laundry which is always a chore on board. Our washer broke, had to wait for a dryer, etc. So I was on deck watching us leave and Sean ran down to check on the laundry and was gone for about an hour and I didn't know whether to go find him and risk missing him or to wait. Finally I went down to the laundry room and he was not a happy camper... But finally it got done and we have clothes again.
I was watching the tug pull us out and it got really close so I had to back up to avoid it's mast next to the railing and then it ran into us! It crumpled the corner of the tug and scraped paint off the ship but they decided no major damage was done. It was quite a surprise though. And we passed under a bridge leaving and only cleared it by about a meter so I can see how we'd had difficulty if the tide was any higher.
Then Sean had a run and I went to talk to Stefan about some of the ports we were goin to, to find out which ones we could do on our own. Both Dalian and Pusan can be done on our own so we cancelled the tours for both places. It's much better (and much cheaper) to head out on your own if we are at all close to anything. Unfortunately we will be at xiangang for 2 days which has absolutely nothing to do or to get to unless you go on tours to the Great Wall and/or Beijing. Both are full (11 hour) day tours and very expensive. So we are just going to Beijing the second day and will hang out on the ship the first day. Two days of 11 hour tours (it's about 3 1/2 hours each way just to Beijing) was just too much.
Time for lunch and Sean went off to the movie theater at 1:45 to see "What Dreams May Come". I went to the lecture at 2pm by Gil Sheinbaum on China. As I said before, he really put a spin on China and the events that have happened there. He ignored Tibet, said we support Taiwan's autonomy, but not their independence (whatever that means) and said Tianammen Square Massacre was not politically motivated at all but was because so many good changes were happening in China that the people started expecting too much and that it was mostly just disgruntled farmers who came to the big city looking for work and expected to make it big there and were unhappy that not all the people could find jobs and that it was just a slight economic downturn that caused the problem. What a load of B.S.! Especially since it was students protesting, not farmers (where did he get that from?). He really made me mad - I'm not going to any more of his lectures and I don't think they should have had him there in the first place. All a bunch of lies and propaganda. He also totally ignored me when I had a question for him during the Question and Answer period. I was right up front and raised my hand right in front of him. He picked someone else and then came down the steps and stood with his back to me the rest of the Q&A period. People around me were trying to flag him down and tell him I had a question but he managed to "not see" all of us. So I got in line (in the front of the line) to ask him afterwards and he talked to everyone else but me. Since I was in front, he just started going up to people in the line, not taking them in order. I gues he wasn't too happy with my Y2K question at the first lecture (he did look pretty ill-informed when he didn't know squat about it, but how was I to know he didn't have a clue?) but it was still infuriating. I wish I would have gone to the movie with Sean.
We relaxed a bit and then got ready for dinner. It was an informal night. One thing we noticed about this particular cruise was that people dressed much more casually than any other cruise we've been on before. The men dressed nice (tuxes/suits on formal nights and jackets on informal nights) but the women dressed informally at best on formal nights and almost casually on informal nights (business casual to casual). Really not a lot of difference than on casual nights. It was a little surprising as it was so different from other cruises.
We of course, wore long gowns and tuxes on formal nights and cocktail dress or fancy evening cocktail pants outfits and suit or jackets for Sean on informal nights. After dinner we danced up a storm! We were planning to head to the show, but got to talking to one of the dance hosts and had an enjoyable conversation with him. His name was Meng and he was from Hong Kong but emigrated to Vancouver, B.C. quite a while ago. He is a mechanical engineer, mainly involved in ship building and has traveled all over with the company he worked for - WorldWide Shipping, which is a very well-known name in the shipping business. He had accumulated about 6 months of vacation and was told to take it so he decided to be a dance host for some of his vacation. He was really nice and personable and a very good dancer.
We also have a waiter in the dance lounge named Miguel who calls us Sir Thomas (Sean's real first name) and Susan and is just a great guy and gives us excellent service with a smile. He is a real pleasure. We danced until 11:15pm and then hit the Dutch Extravaganza Dessert Buffet. It was beautifully done, but we were to full to each much. Mostly we just admired it. I did have a few chocolate dipped strawberries that were to die for. Oh, also on this ship in the Lido Cafe is an expresso machine near the doors leading to the deck. If you like coffee, be sure to get your coffee here, not at the regular coffee pots by the food line. It is much better coffee and makes a great cappuchino too.
Well, it's late so off to bed. Sea day tomorrow so we can stay up late. Well, we have to be at Tai Chi at 8am tomorrow morning, but can lounge around most of the day.