Diva wrecks the dining room

Majorca was a restful call for TSH and Diva. They went into Palma on the shuttle bus and walked around on their own, without the benefit of a guide overloading them with detailed explanations.

On arrival in SALT, Diva managed to knock over both of her wine glasses, which were fortunately still empty. Nothing broken, but a lot of attention from waiters and guests at surrounding tables. They were in a dark corner and Diva could not read the menu, so she asked for the spotlight above the table to be redirected. The waiter managed to pull the light fitting away from the ceiling but it was still lit and she was able to order a meze and an excellent local chicken dish.

TSH is getting quite tanned – but only on the upper half of his face, as he so often wears a mask – even when outdoors, if there are a lot of people around. Diva does not tan and avoids the sun at all times. Some guests are not wearing masks at all, even in enclosed spaces such as tour buses, where it is compulsory.

Diva does not normally use the Silversea boutique, as it has limited stock and is very expensive. But on this cruise, they have been given a large on-board credit and it is not obvious how to spend it, as drinks and excursions are included, they only need a limited amount of nails and hair attention and the fee paying restaurants are not to their taste. The goods in the boutique do not have price labels, so guests have to ask staff about each item (this involves ipads and scanning). Since hardly anyone uses the boutique, this does not cause as much queueing as might be expected. The reason given is that VAT rates change for each country. Diva gave them some free advice – base price on each item and a large board by the entrance with the current VAT rate. She ended up buying unfeasibly expensive skincare for slightly more than it would cost at John Lewis, but it prevented the credit going to waste. The procedure for reclaiming the VAT is so tortuous and dubious that it is unlikely to happen but the boutique owning company have already emailed her twice for her credit card details to be emailed back.

There are more cruise ships around this end of the Mediterranean.

Only 4 guests now testing positive for Covid.