Seder Dinner

There was a Rabbi (a woman), a Priest and a Pastor (both men) on board the ship.  They held several services during the cruise.  As it happened we were onboard for Passover, so the Rabbi announced in the daily bulletin that they would be holding a Seder Dinner on the Lido Deck (the buffet area) and that anyone would be welcome to attend, all you had to do was sign up at the office several days beforehand, so we did.  There was such a good turnout we took up one whole side of the Lido Deck!

The first picture is the Seder plate.  If you look closely (and upside down) you can see what each circle is to have on it.  Each of these things have specific meaning to the Jewish people and the celebration of Passover.

 Throughout the meal there were several readings from a book and several toasts of wine.  The Rabbi asked the Priest, the Pastor and several others to read different sections and of course there were sections the whole congregation read aloud together.

 The first course was....Fresh Iceberg Lettuce with Tomato and Cucumber (oil and vinegar dressing)

 Then we were asked to pour everyone a glass of wine and to put 10 drops of wine on our side plate.

 Next course...Gefilte Fish with Red Beet Horseradish (delicately poached white fish served with a red beet horseradish sauce)

 Between each course there are more readings and toasting with wine.  This course was  Chicken Matzah Ball Soup (a traditional soup of savory chicken broth with handmade matzah dumplings).

 Then Roasted Chicken (beautifully roasted Empire chicken served with carrot, sweet potato and prune tzimmes, asparagus with lemon and potato kugel)

For dessert we were served Fruit Salad with Cinnamon Sugar Sauce-Parve (fresh fruit marinated in a sweet cinnamon sugar sauce) and Hazelnut and Coconut Macaroons-Parve (a sweet way to end your meal). 

The whole procedure took over 3 1/2 hours and the Macaroons got served late...almost like an afterthought, but it was very interesting and enlightening.  The cooks and waiters did a superb job considering they don't do this very often and there were so many people to serve.
################################################################################### 
did some research and came up with this info:

tzimmes....a Jewish stew of sweetened vegetables or vegetables and fruit, sometimes with meat

Empire chicken....Kosher, Empire is an American company that raises it'sfree range chickens without
              antibiotics or hormones.  A team of 65 Rabbis oversee the kosher slaughter process.

potato kugel....Jewish dish of potato and onion baked together

Parve....Jewish...having no meat or milk in any form as an ingredient and being permissible for use with both meat and dairy meals as stated in the dietary laws.

10 drops of wine....represent the 10 plagues...blood, frogs, vermin, beasts, cattle disease, boils, hail,
            locusts, darkness, slaying of the first born.

Keeping us Busy

We have five full sea days between Pago Pago and Hawaii, and another 5 sea days to Victoria, but there is so much going on you don't get a chance to be bored.  There were movies, lectures, cooking demos, games, craft classes, etc., but you could also go swimming, have a sauna or hot tub, read or just laze around.  Two of my favorite things to do were going to the tech classes on Windows 10 and go to the jewellery talks.

I went to talks on chocolate diamonds, black pearls, tanzanite, Australian Opals and Faberge Eggs.  Sometimes after the talks they'd have drawings for a door prize.  I kept entering but never won until I went to the Opal talk, then they drew my name and I got an opal pendant!!  It would have been exceptionally nice if they would have had a draw at the Faberge Egg talk, but those things are worth a fortune, so guess they couldn't afford it!!!  I've often read about them in novels but I was totally thrilled to actually get a chance to see them...couldn't touch them because they're worth thousands of dollars each, so they were behind locked glass doors.

 This is the pendant I won!!!!  I tried to buy some earrings to match but didn't care for the ones they had there.  The girl suggested I wear silver earrings with it.

Inflating a Life Raft

On board the ship there are lifeboats and life rafts.  Today they decided to show us how the life rafts are inflated, so they chose the smaller 20 person raft for the demo and inflated it in the larger indoor pool.

 This is a sea anchor to help hold the raft in position.

 Here they're turning the raft over to show us the underside.  It just barely cleared the overhead beams, but they did get it turned over.

 These yellow things fill up with sea water and help give stability to the life raft.  There are also provisions and first aid kit inside the raft.  It was a very interesting demo.  With all the cruises we've taken seeing a life raft inflated was a first for us.

Our towel animal for tonight....cute little crab.

Crossing the Equator

When you are on board a cruise ship and have never crossed the equator before they have an initiation party on deck for you and other first timers.  King Neptune and his princess are there and the helpers smear you with some weird concoction, in today's case it was coloured meringue and you had to kiss this big fish.  Years ago we were on another cruise and they had cooked spaghetti, raw eggs, and a large raw liver they dragged over your body....the whole thing was totally gross, but people were good sports and everyone had fun.  I was busy doing something else and didn't get to see the whole ceremony this time, but from what I did see it wasn't quite so gross...at any rate I was glad I'd crossed the equator before.

 In the evening we went down by the gift shops where they had a couple of big electronic screens giving the ship's position and speed.  Notice the latitude in the pictures.  We could see approximately when we crossed the equator.  Also notice the sunrise and sunset times (remembering it's a 24 hour clock) and you'll see how even the days and nights are right near the equator.

Tonight's towel creation.

Pago Pago continued

Further into our tour around the island we saw the Correctional facility.

 We were on the Island on Sunday so most of the businesses were closed.

How would you like to have your bananas growing on a tree in your yard?

 The tour took us to this village so we could get a taste of life in a typical Samoan Village of several years ago. 

 They did some dances for us, showed us how they cook in the underground ovens and things like that.  We got to taste some of the food prepared in the traditional way.

 Of course they made use of whatever materials they had on hand.  From the palm branches they made brooms, mats for sitting or sleeping on and bowls or baskets like the one in this picture.

 Tonight, back on our cruise ship we were on our verandah and saw some lights far, far in the distance.  Got out the binoculars and determined it was another cruise ship.  Had to use the full power zoom on my little camera to capture this picture.

Pago Pago, American Samoa

We docked in Pago Pago.  Again we're on a working dock so this ship was in the midst of loading.

 View from the stern of the Noordaam

 We booked a tour for this stop.  We were told the transportation is via "Island buses" so no AC or other frills!

 They were right.  This is the inside of the bus and the seats were wooden and small.  AC was having no glass in the windows!

 Our tour guide told us there is one of everything on the Island but there are two McDonalds.

 Here foreigners are not allowed to own property.  The properties are handed down from generation to generation and grandma, grandpa and other family members are buried on the property.  Some in fancy crypts like this and others with just a marker on their gravesite.  Apparently they don't have cemeteries.

Dravuni Island, Fiji / Crossing the International Date Line

We were supposed to tender into Dravuni Island, Fiji today, but about 8am an announcement came on in our stateroom. "This is your Captain speaking..."  I was still in bed and the speaker was right by my ear, so that woke me up real quick!!  I had visions of having to abandon ship! The Captain told us that there is a tropical storm to the southwest of us and conditions on the Island have deteriorated to the point that it wasn't safe for us to tender in.  Well, thankfully we don't have to abandon ship!! 

Within an hour or so they had new daily programs printed up and in our staterooms with added activities to keep us busy for the day. That also means we'll have 2 full sea days before getting to our next destination. 

The seas were classed as "rather rough" and the skies were overcast with chance of rain. We've had fairly calm seas up to now so you saw a lot of people "staggering" trying to keep their balance.  I met a lady in the hallway and she said, "I'm not drunk...I didn't have anything to drink!"  I told her she'd have an even harder time to convince herself she wasn't drunk if she DID have a drink.

The date on today's program is Saturday, April 16A and the next day was Saturday April 16B because we crossed the International Date Line.  I talked to a lady in one of the lounges and she said her husband loved having two April 16's, because he got to celebrate his birthday for two whole days!!