BITS & PIECES…

WEATHER, BABES, SEAS, PASSENGER STATS

Weather affects us all wherever we may be – freezing in Toronto, melting in Arizona, or dripping wet in the Amazon.  But, I think one is never so much aware of weather as we are at sea.

My journey around the world has taken me, so far, from bone chilling, freezing weather in Toronto, to cold rainy weather in Miami.  The iguanas were freezing and falling out of the trees in Florida.  The Caribbean was hot – low to mid 80’s, and humid – high 80s, as was South America along with more rain.  Now in Africa it is still hot and even more humid.  But the seas for the past few days have been idyllic!  Flat with a gentle roll. Lovely, after many days of eight foot waves, rain and a lot of rocking and rolling.  Chrissy would not have been a happy camper.  And I love it because it is like being in a cradle at night.  Consequently, sleeping very well.  On the other hand, the wine may have something to do with the good sleeps.

AROUND THE WORLD BABES!!  I have been lucky to meet a group of lovely women all travelling solo and none of us knew one another before boarding Insignia.  This is our trivia team and we while we seem mostly to be one point off third place, we are moving up!  For the last couple of days we have been in second place.  So look out!  We are movin’ up!

STATS

There are 619 passengers on this leg of the cruise – Barbados to Cape Town.  The following is the ranking of countries based on the number of passengers on board – 

1 – USA, 2 – Canada, 3 – UK, 4 – Germany, 5 – Australia

There are 531 repeat guests and 425 have elite status.  Ninety-six are first timers for the 180 day Around the World cruise.  When we reach the end of the second segment in Cape Town, approximately 300 passengers will disembark and I believe the same number will come on board.

On board we have the following number of guests who have reached certain levels on Oceania –

148 BRONZE – 5 to 9 cruises

36 SILVER – 10 – 14 cruises

161 GOLD – 15 – 19 cruises

71 PLATINUM – 20 – 29 cruises

8 DIAMOND – 40 – 59 cruises

1 PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE – 60+ cruises

I received my gold pin on this cruise which is really nice and with two more cruises I will reach Platinum status and that includes a free cruise.