Donna - you are right. Internet down most of yesterday. On the second night out, they did the "block party" start to the cocktail hour. This is a lot of fun. Capt. Dag ran down our hallway. I reminded him Joanna & Marcie wanted us to kiss him on New Year's Eve. He just smiled & said, "Well, let's get started!!" and gave me a big smooch.

Seas were calm yesterday & it was a lazy day. Ngaire & Ken had a lovely cocktail party for their group & then we were all invited to various officers' table. Olivia, Chetaun, Ngaire, Ken, Marge, Gary & I joined Dag & his wife, Christine. A lot of fun. Thank goodness they moved the captain's table out of the middle of Compass Rose & back towards the back entrance. You can hear a whole lot better that way.

There's a new gentleman host, Alex, on board. He is a riot. Showed up looking like a 1930's style gangster last night. Said it's his country club casual version of "black and white" attire. Working his way through a masters in geology and sailing the world cruise. What a life! This guy will go far.

Bette and Marty are doing marvelously well. It's so great to sail with them again. I've met most of our group - Deb and Clay are delightful and the fabulous foursome (Jim, Jan, Bing and Carol) are great.

We haven't been on board this ship since June 2004. Minor differences are noted. The mixed nuts are not as good; and you can't burn a CD from your picture card in club.com anymore. Instead, it's $14.95 at the photo shop. Hope my flash drive will read on the new computer set up. I can probably just store the photos there. Otherwise, next time I"ll have to bring my own laptop. It's minor but it's annoying. Love our cabin stewardess and am seeing lots of old friends in the waitstaff. Cheers, Anne

That's about it for now.