March 10th, 2020 Day 66 of 128

Floating around Australia, sea day. No one slept really well last night. Boy were we ever rocking and rolling. Megan wound up moving to the floor in the middle of the night because she was afraid she would fall off the bed. Needless to say everyone was dragging their wagons a little today. We still managed to go to most of our daily activities. Crocheting, Gym time, arts and crafts, tutoring and schoolwork for the girls. Mom also had a chance to go and get her haircut today. Another masterpiece by Glen. He is really great at his craft and he gives the best scalp massages too. We are officially in the Great Barrier Reef as of late last night/early this morning. It is still overcast and dreary and now it is also getting hot and humid again. It was eighty today and we are expecting similar weather for our excursion tomorrow. Shorts and raincoats it will be. Another change of the day was there is now a man manning the hand sanitizer dispensers at both entrances to the buffet pretty much “demanding” that we utilize it before entering. They are also doing the same thing at the main dining room. If you try to walk by without using it you get the stink eye. We try and wash our hands with soap and water right before we go and eat and then they want us to use the sanitizer too. Kinda overkill, but we are going for the better safe then sorry attitude. We received a print out today for two excursions Cruise Specialist are offering in Fremantle so we are good to good for that port, both days. New adventures ahead of us that were not even expected when we left Florida two months ago. We are still waiting on Holland America to get us options for the ports we have coming up next week. I know they are working hard on it, but it would be nice to have it in hand by now. We had another wonderful dinner in the main dining room tonight, the theme was Aboriginal cuisine and there was venison and a couple of other new dishes on the menu for the evening. We also went to the show as a family tonight and saw an act called Soul Mystique. They were finalist in the Australia’s Got Talent TV program. We received several notices at the conclusion of our day today when we got to our cabin from dinner. Gone are the days of any self-service of food on the ship effective today. There used to be tongs to grab things at the buffet. Now everything has to be served to us, or will be placed in single serving containers to be taken. Butter is in small containers, cheese platters have been replaced with cheese slices on a plate, rolls and fruit have to be handed to you by an employee, and anything that could be cross contaminated with germs has disappeared. These are the time we live in right now. I am trying to remember they are trying to keep us safe and be positive for the girls through it all. Chin up and off to bed early so we can make up for lost sleep last from night and an early wake up for our excursion in the morning. Hugs to you all. Debra