Welcome to 2026
The New Year began in grand style here on board Splendor.
The ship had been beautifully decorated for Christmas and there were a few minor adaptations for the New Year celebrations, mostly involving balloons. After a sumptuous celebratory dinner in Compass Rose with friends, we joined everyone in the Atrium where the Captain began the countdown.
The ice sculpture in the reception area upstairs provided a great backdrop for many, many photographs.
This morning, we woke anticipating some lumpy seas. Even before we left for our tour yesterday morning, the Captain had warned of heavy sea conditions “starting at 9am tomorrow” and last night, when we were out partying, Agustin and Gil had secured all the loose bits and pieces in our suite and tucked away the bottles and glassware in preparation for some rocking and rolling.
But actually, though it was only 8am (and the Captain’s warning had been quite specific about 9am being the predicted time), the seas were none too rough and though there was some motion, it wasn’t at all bad.
We checked the Windy app and could see the “area of concern”. Better take care this morning then.
The ship was a quiet place for sure. Was that as a result of sore heads or people taking precautions and staying put for a while?
As we headed for a coffee shop breakfast, I hoped the lovely Lalique vase - one of a pair here in reception - had been fixed securely down!
No chance of an outside table today with the doors firmly locked already.
As the morning progressed, the seas did get a little more lively, but Splendor handles it all well and there’s not as much movement as we’d anticipated.
From high in the Observation Lounge, “up top”, we could see the waves crashing on the lower decks and were reminded that, as part of his initial warning, the Captain had said that some shutters would be applied to lower deck windows as a precaution.
Actually, we rather enjoyed sitting watching the sea from this excellent viewpoint. Settled into a pair of solid, comfortable chairs which were not going anywhere, we watched the waves and felt thankful neither of us suffers from seasickness, because it was nearing lunchtime!
The French restaurant was open for lunch today and there were decisions to be made with the help of our delightful Peruvian server Claudia.
Budi arrived with the chilled Sauvignon Blanc already in hand…
whilst we enjoyed our lunch and felt pleased to be here and not on the ship we could see over on the horizon, identified as an Argentinian fishing boat from the Marine Traffic app. It was pitching a great deal in these heavy seas and we imagined those on board would be a great deal less comfortable than us!
Returning to our suite after lunch, we were curious what mischief Agustin and Gil had cooked up today…
It appears that the bears were not feeling so well…
Thankfully, neither of us have needed those seasick pills either (so far) and with Robin’s lecture about Ice on the programme for this afternoon, we wasted no time in heading down to the theatre to listen. Fingers crossed, we won’t fall asleep!
