Our penultimate sea day. I only mention that because I love the word “penultimate.”

We started the day in the casino where things went just fine for Marlene but went from bad to worse for me. I kept thinking that I was due for a bonus that I never got. I lost $110 (down $560 with 1 small bonus in the last $400 in losses).

After breakfast we played cards and I won one game. We played right through lunch, then I blogged, catching up through Day 28. Dinner was formal with some fine filet mignon. We danced after dinner.

A quiet penultimate day. We did get a towel animal. We haven’t gotten many because we didn’t ask the cabin attendant to make up the room most days.

As Day 28 started, we passed by Thursday Island at the very northern tip of Australia and turned south, hugging the shore through the Great Barrier Reef. It was odd – and a little disconcerting – to be sailing so close to land, often between the mainland and coral islands. It was also disconcerting that the depth of the sea was no longer reported on the cruise map, which made me wonder just how shallow the water was in this area.

The day was cloudy but the seas were smooth.

We started the day in the casino where I lost yet another $40 (down $450). But at least this time I got a small bonus ($40) which I immediately lost, then lost more. Not a good stretch at the casino. Marlene, on the other hand, was on a winning streak. She is losing, but probably losing less than me. On this particular day she got several nice bonuses and was up over $200 for the day.

Between breakfast and lunch we played cards with Debbie (Maureen and Dottie declined our offer to play). Debbie won both games.

After lunch we toured the ship’s galley – a first for me. It is, not surprisingly, HUGE as it prepares roughly 10,000 meals every day.

I blogged in the afternoon. Dinner (chicken parm) was very good. The show was “Hot 80s Rock” and included all of the regular show entertainers plus the Luminosa Rockband. Great music.

We sailed through very shallow (less than 100 feet in some places) water between Australia and New Guinea. I had no idea that the ocean was this shallow in this area. Nor that the countries were so close – maybe 80 miles apart. I guess I am learning geography while we cruise.

After breakfast we played cards. But we didn’t finish the second game as Maureen was annoyed that Marlene and I had a little spat – she started to chide me for playing slowly. But it was a difficult hand and in any case I didn’t think I was playing any slower than she played when she had a difficult hand. But Maureen didn’t want to be party to the spat and quit the game.

After lunch I read a bit, then attended the party for Platinum and Diamond guests (these are the highest designations that Carnival has, based on days sailed on Carnival ships). I am only Gold, but Marlene is Platinum so I was able to attend as her plus-one. It is basically a chance to hobnob with senior officers – including the Captain – but does offer free drinks. LOTS of free drinks. Marlene had two and I had four.

After the party we played the slots for an hour and my bad luck continued – I lost $40 (down$410). I believe I have gone 3 days (and about $180 in losses) without a bonus. Or even free spins. The “one-armed bandits are really living up to their name.

Dinner was good but the evening show – a musician who played about 7 different instruments – wasn’t very interesting.

Another day on smooth seas. After breakfast we had to line up to retrieve our passports. I had lost my “receipt” (just a piece of paper with my name on it) so I had to sign the ship’s copy TWICE – once to acknowledge receipt of the passport and once to declare that I had misplaced my “receipt.” Why a piece of paper with my name on it was better proof that I owned the passport than simply opening the passport and matching my face… I have no idea. Seems pretty idiotic to me.

After lunch we played cards, then went to dinner (see a pattern here?). Marlene posed for some photos after dinner, then we went to the evening show – a hypnotist. He got about 25 people to come up on stage to make fools of themselves. Marlene was one of those 25 but she didn’t last long – he figured out pretty quickly that he wouldn’t be able to hypnotize her and asked her to return to her seat. Others quickly followed, leaving about a dozen people that continued on, supposedly in a deep hypnotic state. But some of them – most notably two young men – were clearly faking it. Others were a bit more believable, but I have my doubts that any were truly hypnotized; they were just willing to dance like ballet dancers, shiver from imagined cold and generally act foolish.

A bit of dancing, then we spent some time in the casino to finish the day. I should have just gone to bed as I lost $90 (down $370).

Another beautiful day at sea. This time in the Banda Sea. Yeah. I had never heard of it either, but it is the name of a large body of water near Indonesia.

We started the day in the casino. Marlene won a bunch – she is nearly even now – but I lost $50, down $280 over the 25 days. Not bad.

After breakfast I did one round of trivia, doing poorly, then while Marlene and the others played cards I blogged, catching up through Day 24. That took me to lunch where I ate a hamburger (very good) while watching the King Neptune festivities – a celebration of crossing the equator. King Neptune and his wife (played by Ivan and Oscar, two of the entertainment staff) passed judgment on a variety of cruise officials. All were convicted of “crimes” such as waking us too early and eating all the ice cream and were made to suffer the indignity of kissing a fish and being pelted with eggs and other foodstuffs. At the end the cruise director, Simon, also got pelted and the captain was tossed into the pool. All pretty funny.

After lunch we played cards and I won one game. Dinner was terrific once again. Ribeye roast this time. We danced a bit, then sat for the late show – a revue of Frankie Valli hits by December ’63. Very entertaining.

No casino before breakfast as the casino is closed when the ship is docked. So we had breakfast then went ashore.

Indonesia is a very large country – over 250 million people. But it is a third world county. Bitung is definitely a third world city. The sidewalks are crumbling (some manhole covers are missing and an unwary pedestrian could easily fall in) and the buildings – even the banks – are decrepit.

We wandered, vaguely in search of a statue that I had heard of. We didn’t find it. We did find the venue for a pitbull event and the “miniature Eiffel Tower”.

We found a little shopping mall where we (or, more accurately, Marlene) spent almost an hour shopping. We also found a church where a group of children, in costume, begged for photos with us.

Everywhere we went we seemed to be a sensation. Families approached us on the street and asked for photos. Young children – most of whom could speak at least rudimentary English – approached us to engage in conversations. I expected that these encounters would deteriorate into solicitations for money, but while the children certainly would have accepted if I had offered, they never asked. We found a church and did get a simple solicitation from a young man who approached us to get our signature in a guest book, but he did not persist when we refused to give him money.

We visited on a Sunday and, I learned later, on a holiday that was the equivalent of our Thanksgiving Day. Bitung is a predominantly Christian city, unlike the rest of Indonesia which is predominantly Muslim. The shops that were open were all Muslim-owned. In the afternoon there was a huge parade with thousands of mostly young children, all dressed in red (like the church group we had encountered earlier).

The Indonesian currency – the rupiah – is interesting. I always thought the Japanese yen was tiny (150 yen per dollar) but the rupiah is 100 times tinier – 15,000 rupiah per dollar. When we returned to the cruise terminal I bought a large bottle of beer for 60,000 rupiah – about $4. The beer was pretty good. Worth every rupiah.

It was obvious that we were something of a sensation to Bitung residents but I didn’t learn until I had reboarded the ship that the Luminosa was the first cruise ship that had docked there in 15 years. And many of the residents of Bitung had never met an American. We were objects of wonder and fascination. If you want to feel special, visit Bitung.

When the ship left there were hundreds of Bitung residents on the shore, waving lit cell phones. Very touching. It is far from a beautiful city, but the way the people there treated us was beautiful.

I attempted to blog, using the T-Mobile service, but was unable to do so.

After dinner we visited the casino where I lost $30 (down $230), then attended the “80’s Pop to the Max” show by the Luminosa entertainers. Very good.

We crossed the equator just before midnight. A number of people – including me – were crowded around the buffet TV, watching for the latitude to go to 00:00:00 but we were disappointed – it went from 00:00:01 N to 00:00:05 S. But we did cross and are now in the southern hemisphere.

The original itinerary had us arriving in Bitung on Day 24. But because we skipped the Philippines, we arrived in Indonesia around 4 pm on Day 23. More on that early arrival later.

Marlene and I again started the day in the casino. The slots were unforgiving this time. I lost $50 (down $200 for the cruise). Then we had breakfast, played some cards and had lunch before arriving in Bitung.

We originally planned to stay on the ship in Bitung, partly because it didn’t look very interesting and partly because Indonesia charges $35 for a visa. But we were informed that EVERYONE would be charged for the visa (which annoyed both of us greatly but our annoyance didn’t change anything). We didn’t file the visa application, but the Carnival staff filed it for us. So, having already paid for a visa we decided that we should at least go ashore.

But we were never given an actual visa and Carnival had already taken our passports (apparently to simplify the processing of the visa applications by Indonesian officials), so what, exactly, was going to happen when we went ashore? Carnival was not clear on this and we got about 4 different views from other passengers. Also, I could not find the simple piece of paper that i was given when my passport was taken. This slip of paper stated that I did not have a visa and would not be disembarking in Indonesia. So, filled with unanswered questions, I went down to the Guest Services desk. The conversation there went something like this:

Me, displaying Marlene’s slip of paper: What is the purpose of this paper? Is it needed to go ashore?

GSA (Guest Services Attendant): Just keep it with you. They might ask for it.

Me: Who is “they”? I can’t find mine.

CSA: Oh. Well, don’t worry about it.

Me: But what is it for? Do I need to get a replacement?

CSA: It is just a receipt for your passport.

Me (puzzled): But you took EVERYONE’s passport. Why would I need a receipt? I don’t think there is any question that you have it.

CSA (struggling for a response): Well, don’t worry about it.

Me: Ok. When do I get my visa? I was told that you would contact me about the visa.

CSA: You get the visa when you go ashore.

Me: Really? The visa that I need to go ashore will be given to me when I go ashore?

CSI (struggling again): Well, yes. Don’t worry about it.

This idiotic exchange did not comfort me, but I decided that I should take her advice and not worry about it.

We also had to fill out custom declaration forms (simple and easy) and were advised to take them with us when we went ashore. So, after dinner, we decided to venture forth and see if we could figure out how this mysterious process of obtaining a visa worked. We disembarked and walked to the cruise terminal. Customs officials met us there and took the declarations. But no visa was given to me and it was unclear if I would need a second customs declaration to exit the ship a second time (which we were planning on doing the next day). So I asked the customs official what would happen then. His answer: Just tell them that you already turned in your customs form.

Huh? Really? Just tell the customs people that we had already turned in my customs declaration? Obviously, we could have skipped the customs forms and just lied about turning them in. Crazy process. Completely idiotic.

And I never got an actual visa. There was no immigration check on shore.

We got some nice night photos of both the Luminosa and a smaller ferry. Then we reboarded the ship and went to the evening show, a very nice one by mentalist/magician Drew Thomas.

As with Azar, Drew baffled me. The highlight was asking a passenger to think of a musician or musical group. He asked the passenger if the name of the musician or group he was thinking of contained an M, an I and a C and the passenger said yes. He then said “Mick Jagger?” and the passenger shook his head. He seemed embarrassed that he had guessed wrong and asked the passenger what he was thinking of and he said “Metallica.” Upon which Drew took off his jacket, unbuttoned his shirt and displayed the Metallica t-shirt that he was wearing. Baffling.

We ended the day with a toast using our mango plum liqueur. It was the anniversary of the day we met.

We slept in later than usual, getting down to “crafts” at 8:30 am. This is a freebie gift of some little craft package that some people actually do as a way to pass time on sea days. But more people stow them away to give to their grandchildren when they get home. I got a package and give it to Maureen, for her grandchildren.

Then we stopped at the casino before breakfast. And I hit a bonus, winning $180. I finished the day up $150 (down $150 for the cruise – I cut my loses in half).

After breakfast we played cards until noon, then Marlene and I took ownership of a Serenity Deck cabana and jumped (literally, for Marlene, earning her a harsh reprimand from the pool attendant) into the pool. After splashing about and socializing for a bit we retired to the cabana and spent a leisurely hour sunbathing and enjoying the beautiful day.

After dinner (pretty ordinary this time) we attended a show by a juggler/comedian (nothing special). We danced for a bit after that, then, at 10:30 pm, attended Quest, the traditional (on Carnival cruises) adult scavenger hunt event. Always fun. I can’t be specific about what went on there, but a good time was had by all. A very good end to a very good day.

I will add that on this day we also viewed, for the first time, the elaborate towel-art display that has been the talk of the ship. It is common, on board a cruise ship, for a cabin attendant to leave a towel-art animal after cleaning the room. But one attendant on the Luminosa has been leaving elaborate towel-art scenes, first in the 6th floor hallway and then, when it attracted too much attention, in the 6th floor elevator lobby. Every day he constructs a different scene, usually with a smooth transition from one day to the next. For example, one day he had a turtle laying eggs and the next day had many small turtles emerging from the eggs. Very creative.

I was very happy to wake and find the seas were calm and the day was sunny. I didn’t need another nasty day at sea.

Marlene and I started the day in the casino. She did fine but the machines were unfriendly to me: I lost $50 and am now down $300.

After breakfast I bought the one-day internet package ($22 per day – not bad) and blogged through Day 20. That took me to lunch. After lunch we played cards (Oh Shit, didn’t win) then napped. Dinner was formal, which gave Marlene an opportunity to wear her new kimono and gave me an opportunity to tie a kimono bow. I reviewed the video I took and managed to do it pretty well on the first try – it stayed in place all night.

The kimono was a big hit – Marlene was given LOTS of compliments all night long. And the next day, too, when she was no longer wearing it. She did look beautiful.

Dinner was terrific again – Beef Wellington. I have dined well this week.

The show was Kate Lindeman a “classically-trained soprano” who sang popular songs beautifully.

Then we danced to the always-terrific Luminosa Rockband. A good day and a wonderful evening.