John Edward Cooper’s Notes

[i] Between our booking this cruise and actually going on it, the name changed from “Cuban Revolution” to “Cuban Fusion”.

Cruise News, Wednesday 27th January 2016








Excursion Guide and other documents
All the tickets for the excursions we’d booked for the “Cuban Fusion” part of the cruise were delivered to our cabin at some time. Each of them had instructions for time and location of pickup, which I appended as a footnote to each day’s heading in “2016.doc”. There was also this letter:


Excursion Guide — Cuban Fusion
There was a folder “Excursion Guide — Cuban Fusion” enclosing ten pages with details of excursions available.








Your Shore EXCURSION GUIDE
10 pages of details of excursions available — not a lot of use to us, because we’d already booked excursions in advance for each day ashore




















Your Shore Excursion BOOKING FORM




I got up ca.7.10am… and I went to the Sirens Restaurant on deck 11 for breakfast. We previously thought it was relatively undiscovered, but today it was fairly crowded. I had a turn around Deck 9 then returned to the cabin ca.8.30am. Janet was getting dressed. I accompanied Janet when she went to Sirens for breakfast, though I didn’t have anything. “It was… hot and sunny,” Janet wrote. “We returned to the cabin then looked at the ship’s bill, which didn’t tally with my calculations, and went down to Reception when we discovered the discrepancy. Then we went to the Lido Bar…” I had two pints of Red Stripe lager (I first had that ashore yesterday) and Janet had three Fanta Zero (10:35:29, 10:54:16, 10:58:49, 11:12:31). “…and returned to the cabin just before noon. At 12.15pm we went to the Sirens for lunch. It was busy!” — too busy for my liking, for the queue on the main course side stretched as far as the door. So I had tomato and basil soup from the less busy counter, then went out to the little pizza stall by the pool and got myself served with a couple of slices of different ones and some chips. The bar bill says “Glass — Diet Coke”. I think that was after Janet had discovered that they had Diet Pepsi in big 1.5ℓ bottles (always preferable to Diet Coke, which they serve out of cans), so asked for a glass of it. I had another pint of Red Stripe lager (12:27:43). We returned to the cabin. In the Cruise News today there was advertised—

Caribbean Pirates, Part 1:
Drake and the Early Privateers
1pm Medusa Lounge, deck 8
We look at why the Caribbean became the
most renowned and spectacular region for
piracy that the world has ever known. We look
at the early years when there were many
privateers, semi-legitimate pirates.

—and an information leaflet had been delivered:



I’d decided to go to this, so went down to the Medusa Lounge just before 1pm.



Janet wrote that I “came back at 1.45pm a bit ‘popped’ as he’d had a double Jameson’s!” (13:00:32 on the bar bill). I didn’t go to the “Port Showcase” at 10am as I had done a week ago, but both of us went to:

3pm
Havana Presentation
Find out the secrets of this amazing destination
Medusa Lounge, deck 8

Then we went to the Coffee Port. I had an Americano and an Espresso and Janet had a Fanta Zero (15:51:53, 16:13:58). Back to the cabin, then a turn of the promenade deck, then to the Medusa Lounge where “Keith Kerslake, Piano Vocalist” was scheduled to appear. He played a few numbers, but didn’t sing. His was a thankless task, because no-one except ourselves was listening. At 5.50pm we went to the Lido Restaurant for dinner. I finished the bottle of house red wine that had been put behind the bar for me, and Janet had a Fanta Zero (18:05:20). We had a couple of rapid turns of the promenade deck before going back to the cabin. We’d recently been in conversation with Tatiana the cabin steward, and learned that she came from Russia, somewhere in the region of the Ural Mountains. So seeing her, I said «Здравствуйте!» and she said «Здравствуйте!» back. That was the word we repeatedly heard on TV many years ago when the BBC had a series Russia, Language and People, but it was the first time I’d heard it spoken “in the flesh” by a Russian; we didn’t hear it once in Russia. Janet wanted an early night, but I wanted to go to the show. So ca.8pm I went down to deck 8 and joined a queue of “suits”, as happened a week ago when “Captain John” had his “Gala Reception”. When I got seated in the Broadway, I had my wonted Campari and soda (20:27:59).

Showtime: At The Copa
8.30pm & 10.30pm Broadway, deck 8 & 9
A show with a bang! Havana in the roaring
twenties — Lola the showgirl, teasing the boys
as Tony and Rico fight for her favours— what
will be the consequences? Spectacular songs
and music with a modern zest as the story
unfolds.

When I got back to the cabin a bit before 9pm I got ready for bed, where Janet already was.

[Thursday 28 January 2016]