We were supposed to go to French Guiana and to Devil’s Island, site of a penal colony shown in Papillon. I slept kinda funky all night, as my knee was bothering me all night while sleeping (which doesn’t bode well).
Door Update
Wasn’t sure if anyone would care about photos these days, as everyone is so concerned and consumed with digital media and instant reactions (i.e. tiktoks and instagram), but I needed to get rid of the stock paper anyway, so I had all the photos to give away.
Checked the door in the morning, and to my surprise there were only a handful of photos left.
I ended up refreshing the door with new photos for the day, need to find some more magnets so I can put them all up for people to take.
Heading Topside
Finally, around 11AM, I went upstairs to check the weather and get ready for the day. To my surprise, when I got topside, I couldn’t see any flag hoisted, so I just assumed that for tender ports, maybe we don’t put them up, but also, it felt like we were still moving, which was strange.
Didn’t think much about it and went downstairs and got ready to head out. As I was leaving the stateroom, I was chatting with Lovelace and she was wondering where I was going. Apparently I slept through the announcement, but the swells were too big and there was a storm coming, so we didn’t even stop at French Guiana and we had to continue on.
Sooooo….extra cruise day!
Taking Care of Errands
Set up shop around the centrum cause there was supposedly music all day there, and set up to do some work with my extra monitor with me. I had been carrying it, but kept forgetting the cable for it.
Started the day trying to get my Indonesia eVisa taken care of, and boy, what a cluster. First you go through and submit the application and it intermittently goes to a 500 page.
Then if you get lucky enough to get through, it just saves the application into a “Draft” state, and you have to go click back into the application to submit it (why two steps to just submit an app?).
After submission, it just sits there waiting for a payment state, but there’s nowhere to pay. Clicking any of the payment buttons just brings you back to the main page, and around and around you go in circles.
Spent a couple hours on it researching and the like, and found all sorts of people on the internet having the same issue, so who knows…sent them an email to see if they had any guidance on how to submit it.
Pics and Videos
Otherwise, spent the rest of the day setting up a potential gallery for the pictures, and waiting for videos to finish processing. Here’s a whole bunch of videos from Aruba and Curaçao that finished uploading.
Aruba
Curaçao
Flexible Workspaces
Spent a good amount of time in the pub and over in the lounge listening to music after dinner. I had several people come ask me about my setup and the second screen, wanting to know where they could get their own.
Shoutout to Mobile Pixels’ Duex Float. I love this second screen that’s vertical, takes up so much less space and the mechanism to flip and fold the screen is so solidly built.
Watched a couple games while doing research. Both football games and the Wild game (another incredible win).
Christmas Time is Here
It’s also Christmas Time apparently cause it’s everywhere on the ship now.
Big party in the centrum and lots of Christmas music in the bar / lounge. Including the “most annoying Christmas song ever” (her words not mine 🤣).
Food
Dinner was pretty good. the most packed I’ve seen the MyTime service today which was kind of fun. Maybe everyone was tired of being couped up.
Got the special which turned out to be a whole Indian spread which was delicious, and a chicken alfredo, tomato soup and a caramel flan to finish it off as well.
Moon Check
Visibility was horrible all day long, super gray and couldn’t see much so wasn’t too optimistic but I checked deck 12 before my run and lo and behold the moon was out in all its glory.
Weighing In on Controversy and Drama
I’ll pontificate in more detail on another day, but just a quick note about some of the drama.
There are certain people being trolls (or asshats) and pretending they are on the cruise and posting on social media about the cruise and trying to cause drama and division on the ship…some of these folk aren’t even on the Serenade….be careful what you believe (as everyone should be in this day and age).
There ARE some people being very entitled and annoying in both the full world cruise population AND the segment specific (or individual mini segments). These folks are very much the minority and don’t reflect the vast majority of people (also similar to the rest of the world…in this day and age). I find it actually pretty similar to people who really care about their cruise status and flaunt status as if that means they own more of the boat than the rest (ok they sorta do cause they have exclusive lounges). I guess I’m just not that bougie anyway and would rather introvert by myself and enjoy the breeze rather than pat myself on the back all day at exclusive events 🤣.
Ok, semi-rant over….just be careful what you read and assume and remember that people are mostly good!
Running
Got a slow mile in, but man my knee is messed up. Even taped it up and everything. Might have to take a day or two off…
Vibe Check
3 parts joy
1 part sadness (as missing French Guiana)
1 part disgust (at drama)
Feedback
Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!
Matti 
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