Day 24 - Sun - 08/30/26 - Day 5 - At Sea to Canada

Sunday morning came a bit early as I had stayed awake until 1:30am listening to the Grand Old Opry tribute to Dolly Parton.  But I was ready to face the day especially since I would be preaching at and leading the interdenominational service in the Explorer's lounge at 8am.  

The service went well and was very well attended with probably nearly 100 people there.  Princess provided a brochure with words to hymns and an Old Testament scripture included.  I think I might have touched a few nerves as I had one lady approach me after the service with a relationship problem she was having.  We had the chance to chat in the hallway after the service and I shared a bit of help with her.

The highlight of the day was the opportunity to take a tour of the bridge which was offered by the cruise director.  A group of about 20 of us were escorted to the bridge on deck 14 and basically given free rein to walk around and ask questions with only two rules: "Don't touch any red buttons" and don't speak with the officers doing the navigating.  Captain Mario Juresko was very gracious and open to dialogue and I even got a selfie with him.

After the tour, I watched part of the emergency demonstration and then snagged some breakfast and shortly after that Angela and I met up with Dan for lunch in the International Dining Room which is aft on Deck 6. Dan is a fellow we've cruised with several times on Holland America and I had spotted him a week or so ago, but was unable to connect with him.  Yesterday Angela met him at an Improv session and we made plans to meet for lunch and catch up.  And that we did.

Angela left lunch to prepare for the Pop Choir presentation and Dan & I continued chatting.  I then excused myself to get my big camera to photograph the Pop Choir presentation in the Piazza.  It was a good presentation of 4 songs and was led by Mao, one of the entertainment hosts.

  Afterwards we watched Kez James' presentation about Boston.  Our afternoon concluded with a 5pm presentation by Dr. Angel on Epidemics that changed the World - Part 2.  

Following dinner our evening entertainment was a juggler/comedian David Aiken from Vancouver Island.  He was the best juggler of the 4 we had on this voyage.  He was funny, engaging, and had a clever routine. 

The Marriage Match game show was next and it was another good one.  For the first time this cruise I went to a karaoke session: Karaoke Wars.  Volunteers were paired into two groups and each team had to sing, without any advance notice, a song from 4-5 different genres.  Angela's team didn't win, but she got a Princess backpack anyway.  

Afterwards, we adjourned to the room to get a jump on some sleep for our first port call after 5 sea days.

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