On the way to Manila. We will be there about six pm and will have one full day there tomorrow. We have a tour scheduled for the morning. Plan shopping at Asia Mall in the afternoon. It is supposed to be huge. Bought airplane tickets to Split,Croatia. Colinda’s Bob will be joining us for two weeks there. So that part of the trip is shaping up. Found out the staff that is not from the Philippines has taken over all of the duties of the Philippine staff so families can see each other for the time we are there. We have a lot of staff from India and will get paid back in India. Really, the staff is so wonderful. Always helpful and cheerful.

Docked on a commercial dock and not allowed off ship. From our veranda there is a huge old cargo ship. No cargo on it. Looks exactly like the one in the movie with Tom Hanks in it. The one where the pirates got on board and the crew hid. He ended up in the little orange rescue ship with the pirates who captured him. The frog men navy men saved him. The crew next door were may not be able to get off ship either. They have been wandering around all day talking to each other and sitting in the shade. They all have on masks.

St. Patrick’s Day was fun! There were 70 participants in the pub crawl! After a few drinks before they got there, they turned out to be a good and cheerful audience. We sang…My Wild Irish Rose, Danny Boy, Irish Lullaby, When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, and one we never heard of the starts like this…If you’re Irish, come into the parlor, there’s a welcome here for you. No more choir for a while. We only practice on sea days and we will not be having many more for a while. From now on no more small little islands full of charm and will be in big cities. Will have many more hot days ahead. I have a picture of us singing. I have on a bright green dress I bought for the day. Will be good to put on in the heat.

Well, things just happen. Seems while we were enjoying Palau, the ship was planning to fill up with fuel. When we got there the captain was told they could not provide us with the fuel. Various rumors around the ship said they had no fuel of type we needed, captain refused to pay bribe money, or hookup’s did not match, etc. Complete speculations. One lady I heard complained that if they could refuel planes in the air, she did not see why they could not refuel ships at sea. I had a sudden vision of a shell station bobbing in the ocean all lit up. So now we are heading straight to Cebu, Philippines, a port not scheduled in the trip. It is supposed to be a beautiful city with lots of blue water. Unfortunately we will now have only one day in Manila and one day in Hong Kong. This devastated the most of the crew because most of them are from the Philippines and had plans to see their family. We were looking forward to two days there also. In the afternoon the ship was putting the reserve tanks into the fuel line and had a spill. It was quickly stopped but our cabin and corridors smelled heavily of gas fumes for several hours. We wandered around other floors until things got better. Both of the two smaller specialty restaurants are closed and the private bar also to save on electricity. We will be having dinner served on the deck around the pool until we get to port. Choir is all tuned up for singing Irish songs tomorrow. There will be a pub crawl with Irish themed drinks tomorrow afternoon. Crawlers will have four stops! We are looking up flights and places to stay in Croatia. So much at once! Who said life at sea could be boring?

Beautiful little island of 45,000 people. We came into a little bay and were tendered to a resort hotel. Water was perfect for swimming and snorkeling. We took a half day tour of two museums. Both were full of history and represented a variety of local artifacts and each were interesting in their own way. We had lunch at the resort hotel and lived the five star life enjoying ourselves and watching our fellow passengers in the clear blue water. It was hot and humid. I expect we will be hot and humid from now on.

Decorations on a lodge meeting house

Interesting day. Good lecture about sea turtles. I have learned so much about nature, birds, and animals on this voyage. We have two cultural ambassadors from the Philippines on this part They are teaching us about their culture with talks, performances, and music. Choir practice for St Patrick’s Day show. Art class. Cocktail party for the world cruisers. There will be 134 staying on ship out of a193 who began. Tomorrow we will be in Korar,Palau. Will be there 9 to 4. Have a tour in the morning. Am adding a picture taken by the photo folks on board while we were at the cultural event.

Quiet day at sea. We crossed the equator again going north. Added an hour in time. Had a small equator initiation this time for the new people who have joined for this leg of the trip. Glad I did not have to kiss a fish again. Found out that the ship will keep our things on board if we pack up our stuff in suitcases. This is great news because who wants to drag multiple as suitcases all over everywhere. Busy making plans about the time off ship. Nothing concrete yet.

Started off like a usual sea day. Added an art class in printing to the list of things to do. Got the good news that we could leave belongings on the ship while it goes from Dubai to Venice. Azamara will refund the money from part 8 and 9 of our trip. We will be jumping ship, meeting with Colinda’s daughter and granddaughter for 10 or so days traveling where they want to go then will be settling down for the rest of the time somewhere to be decided. Croatia? Portugal? Italy? What a delightful problem. Stand by for news!