I have previously mentioned the Captain’s dinner and yesterday evening was such an occasion.  On each dinner, approximately 50 guests are invited to participate, if they are sailing the full Grand World voyage. Over the course of a World cruise I and officers will be ‘eat our way round’ the world 😉 .  We will have 14 dinners, as we have approximately 700 guests who are circumnavigating the globe.

(Those other guests on board are sailing ‘segments’, or parts of the cruise; Fort Lauderdale to Sydney, Sydney to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Cape Town or Cape Town to Fort Lauderdale.  Some of course will do more than one segment).

Guests first meet for a pre-dinner cocktail in our Culinary Arts Center, (sic); here they are treated to hors d’oeuvre and meet officers before they are escorted to our Pinnacle Grill restaurant.  Each table has an officer, (or two) and their seating arrangements are marked with their uniform cap, (hence my ‘featured’ photo).  I have Hans, our Chief Engineer at the other end of my table. When Karen is with me, (she joins in Hong Kong), she would share the table.

It wouldn’t do for me to be carrying my camera around during such an occasion and so I asked Tina, of the Pinnacle Grill, to discreetly snap away with my small Canon EOS M.  She excelled and presented me with some candid shots, some taken ‘behind the scenes’, for you to enjoy.

From start to finish, the evening takes about 3 hours.  Each guest is presented with a memento of the occasion; the ladies receive a necklace and the gentlemen, cufflinks.  Both are specifically made for HAL and are unique to each Grand World voyage.