Cruise Day 64
Monday, December 12, 2022
"Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.” -- Lawrence Durrell
This is the beginning of five straight sea days as we make our way towards home across the Atlantic. Last night the clocks were set back an hour so it’s hard to sleep in when you’ve already gotten an extra hour of sleep so were up around 8:00. The morning was pretty quiet, Val read out on the balcony, and I downloaded the pictures we took over the last few days.
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| We are sailing from Africa to Puerto Rico, our final port of the cruise before returning to Fort Lauderdale. |
I had told Kristine I had taken some video of the flash mob and she wanted copies, so I got those together and put them on a flash drive that I’ll give her next time we’re in the Neptune Lounge.
After lunch in the Lido, we were off to the Crow’s Nest for a gathering of Cruise Critic Rollcall members who had booked the Grand Australian Cruise in January of 2024. There wasn’t any structure to the gathering, but we got to see and meet some of our fellow passengers, so it was worthwhile going.
After that we went up to the Lido as there was supposed to be a special selection of cakes and pastries, but there was a long line waiting to get served so we just left. We thought it would be a display of lavishly decorated cakes and maybe it was, but the line was for people wanting to sample it. I heard later that it took 40 minutes to get through the line. Someone commented that you’d think we didn’t get enough food on the ship for people to wait that long, but I guess there isn’t much else to do as the cruise winds down.
After that, we decided to take the computer to the Neptune Lounge and look at the pictures of the last few ports we have done. It will probably be the last viewing we do as we only have one port left and we can look at those pictures when we get home. We showed Kristine the videos we had taken, and she was excited to see them and to get the copies.
The rest of the day was spent reading and relaxing until dinner and then we had our usual evening routine of dinner and the casino. I guess you would call these the dog days of the cruise as there is nothing really to look forward to except for getting home.
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| We did have a nice sunset as we sailed west. |
Cruise Day 65
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
"All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” -- Samuel Johnson
Today is the second of our five sea days in a row. We woke up late this morning as we didn’t leave any curtains open last night, so the morning light didn’t wake us. We still were up by 9:00 and ready to start the day. After breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, I went to work on the computer answering some e-mails while Val read. Today was warmer than yesterday and more humid so we stayed inside.
Today we have another Cruise Critic Roll Call event, this time a group lunch in the main dining room at 11:30. There were well over two hundred attending so a whole portion of the dining room was reserved. We had a good lunch and met two interesting couples.
One couple we had met previously on a tour, but the other was new to us. The new couple told us they cruise almost constantly and after this cruise have sixteen more cruises currently booked, most of them consecutively. Both couples were seasoned Grand / World Cruisers, so we were once again the rookies, but it was interesting to hear their stories especially comparing pre-covid grand cruise with this one (this one is lacking by comparison). Lunch was good and we enjoyed ourselves and had a good time.
Yesterday during the Grand Australia meetup, someone told us of a new cruse just released by Holland America that sounded interesting. It is a 28 day round trip Alaskan cruise out of Seattle. The interesting part of it is that most of the ports are not on the usual itinerary. It goes all the way to Nome and then into the Arctic Circle.
It sounded interesting so this morning we set up an appointment to meet with the Future Cruise Consultant to meet with us in the Neptune Lounge at 1:30 so after lunch we headed off to that. The cruise starts in June of 2024 which is only two months after we get back from our very long, Grand Australia cruise. After talking to the FCC, we went ahead and booked with the knowledge that we could cancel. The price was quite good as we had gotten a nice casino discount, so I guess our losing in the casino pays off for something anyway.
After getting that done, I got caught up on the blog while Val went out to read on the balcony. She didn’t stay out long because it was so hot and humid, so we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the air conditioning until it was time for dinner.
It was the usual routine for dinner, but I had a very good night in the casino; it was good to break out of my losing streak. There was no hurry to get to bed tonight as we once again set the clocks back an hour; two more to go.
Cruise Day 66
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
"Travel is like a giant blank canvas, and the painting on the canvas is only limited by one’s imagination.” -- Ross Morely
Since the clock had been set back again last night, we were up early. After our usual breakfast we relaxed for a bit, but I decided to go to the last port talk of the cruise for our upcoming port of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Val decided she wasn’t interested and opted to go out and read on the balcony.
When I got
back from the talk, I found Val on the couch and the room being cleaned, it was
just too warm to stay outside. Because
of her play in the casino, Val had earned a complimentary lunch in the Pinnacle
Grill so at 12:30 we went down to that.
We had an excellent lunch and really enjoyed our time there, I had a
seafood soup with clams, mussels, scallops, fish, shrimp and a creamy tomato
broth; it was really outstanding, and I would definitely have it again. In case I haven't already mentioned it, the Pinnacle Grill is a specialty restaurant that charges a fee to eat there unlike most of the other food options on the ship.
After lunch we couldn’t resist a trip to the casino since they had paid for our lunch. I quickly lost my money, but Val got to play a while before she lost hers. I still had to finish picking out pictures from our safari for our 2023 calendar so when we returned to the room, I started that up while Val worked on her computer.
I narrowed down the candidates for our safari animal themed calendar to 61, but I had to get that down to 13 (12 months and a cover). There were so many good pictures it was difficult to narrow it down and now need to narrow it down even further.
After finishing with the pictures, it was late afternoon, and we spent the rest of the time before dinner relaxing and reading. It was still too hot and humid out on the balcony so we stayed in the cool of our room. The seas on this cruise have been very calm so far, but the last couple of days there has been a bit of rocking and rolling. Nothing very bad, but certainly the most we’ve felt on this cruise so far.
It was dinner and the casino as usual tonight with me losing my money quickly and spending most of the time watching Val play. Then it was back to our room where we read until bedtime.
Cruise Day 67
Thursday, December 15, 2022
"Travel is like knowledge, the more you see, the more you know you haven’t seen.” -- Mark Hertsgaad
Another sea day today; only one more until we reach Puerto Rico. This morning there is a Mariner’s presentation in the ship theater that we have been invited to. The Mariner’s Society is Holland America’s loyalty program that consists of two parts. The first is the one through five-star mariner levels based on points earned by the number of days at sea and onboard spending and if you book a suite, the sea days are doubled. Val and I are both five-star mariners and will have well over six hundred points before the end of this cruise.
The other part of the program is based only on actual days at sea and recognized by the awarding of a medallion. When you reach 100 sea days you get a bronze medallion, 300 sea days a silver medallion, 500 sea days a gold medallion and over 700 sea days a platinum medallion. When you reach 1400 sea days you become a member of the President’s Club which, as you might guess, is very seldom achieved. Surprisingly we were told there were 15 on board this cruise which seemed like a lot, but maybe not so surprising considering this is a grand voyage.
Today Val and I received our silver medallions as we have passed 300 actual sea days on this trip. The theater was very crowded as might be expected on a cruise of this type since it attracts people who travel a lot. Today’s event is for only half the people receiving medallions and the other half will receive theirs tomorrow. It took almost an hour and a half to pass out the various medals for all the different levels.
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| We got our picture taken with the Captain (left) and the Hotel Director. |
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| Our silver medallion. |
After all the medals were passed out, there was a Mariner’s Luncheon scheduled for the main dining room, but after the Cruise Critic Rollcall Luncheon on Tuesday and the Pinnacle Grill yesterday, Val and I just wanted to have a simple lunch so we skipped it.
After returning to the room, the captain made an announcement that we were altering our course as he had received an emergency notification of an overturned yacht and we were the closest ship to the area, so we are headed to the spot. He said that these reports aren’t always accurate, but they need to be checked out so that’s what we are doing. At one point they did spot some debris in the water and looped back to investigate, but it turned out to be something much older and weathered than what they were looking for. They turned back to the west and for the next half hour they sailed at reduced speed, scanning the area around them for any debris. He finally announced that nothing was seen, and they had resumed full speed sailing. He said they had reported what they had seen and not seen along with sending a picture of the debris that was spotted.
We had lunch in the Lido and after taking a turn around the ship, returned to our room. I went back to narrowing down the safari pictures for our calendar and Val sat down with me to go through the leopard and lion pictures. We narrowed it down to four candidates and we will tackle the elephants tomorrow.
I had hoped that as we sailed west, we would get into some cooler temperatures, but that doesn’t seem to be happening as it has been a bit too warm and humid to spend much time on the balcony. I guess we are staying too far south.
The captain made an announcement late in the afternoon that he had received word from the authorities that the yacht had been found yesterday and all aboard were rescued. His response was a sarcastic “thanks for letting us know” as the ship had spent quite a bit of time and energy responding to something that had already been resolved.
Dinner tonight is the last formal night of the voyage, so we started to get ready early. The food in the dining room has been a little uneven this trip, but tonight’s dinner was excellent. Val and I both had the surf and turf (actually Val just had the turf) and both the steak and lobster were very good. We finished the night in the casino where neither of us had any luck.
We set the clocks back an hour again tonight so there was no rush to get to bed. We only have one more time change before we get back to EST in Florida at the end of the trip. Tomorrow is our last sea day before we arrive in Puerto Rico.
Cruise Day 68
Friday, December 16, 2022
"Surely of all the wonders of the world, the horizon is the greatest.” -- Freya Stark
I woke up quite early and saw the end of a nice sunrise and went out and took a few pictures. I went back to bed, but never really got back to sleep so I went ahead and got up early. Val was still sleeping but woke up a short time later and got up herself.
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| It's very rare that I get pictures of a sunrise, but I was up early this morning. |
We were both feeling hungry this morning and decided to go to the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast. Breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill is another perk for suite guests as it is not open to anyone else. We both had eggs for breakfast and enjoyed the change from our usual Neptune Lounge continental breakfast. We normally aren’t very hungry in the morning so usually a continental breakfast is fine, but a “real” breakfast this morning really hit the spot.
We returned to the room, and I went out on the balcony to read, but it was very warm out there and quickly came back in. I decided instead to continue to work on our pictures for a while. Getting a lot of that done on these sea days will save me a lot of time when we get home.
After our full breakfast this morning, we thought we wouldn’t be very hungry for lunch, but we were so, as usual, we had our lunch in the Lido. After lunch we relaxed a bit, but then decided to finish going over the animal pictures I had selected as candidates for the calendar. It took us a while, but we narrowed it down to the best twenty and that was good enough as I make the final decision on what to use when I put the calendar together. Sometimes the form factor of the picture doesn’t work well with the form factor of the calendar, so I usually need some alternates.
We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and reading. Around 6:00 I noticed there was the potential for a good sunset so I went out on the balcony to watch. It had cooled down to a comfortable level and Val soon joined me. It wasn’t a spectacular sunset, but it was still pretty nice.
Just as the sunset was winding down and we had put our cameras down Val noticed some dolphins jumping in the water heading out in front of the ship. I quickly grabbed my camera, but it was too late as they had disappeared past the front of the ship. This was the first sea animal sighting we have had on this voyage, which is a bit unusual particularly considering how far we have sailed.
By then it was time to get ready for dinner, so we headed off to the dining room and the casino. I had a very good night in the casino tonight and as far as I can remember, the best night I have ever had in a shipboard casino. Everything went my way tonight and the good thing is, I won’t have time to spend all my winnings which will mean I will lose less than I was expecting for the cruise.
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| A nice sunset to go along with our nice sunrise. |
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