Cruise Day 46
Thursday, November 13, 2025
I’m starting to feel better, but the coughing continues. We had our breakfast in the Neptune Lounge and I spent the rest of the morning resting and coughing. Val read out on the balcony, I’m sure she’s getting pretty bored. I had snacks from the Neptune Lounge for lunch, but Val decided to go up to the Lido and bring something back to our room for her lunch.
I spent the afternoon resting and Val visited the casino for a while and then spent most of the rest of her time on the balcony until it was time for trivia. I still didn’t feel like going, but maybe tomorrow. I decided to go to dinner tonight for the first time in a few days. Tonight is Orange Night where Holland America honors its Dutch heritage, so everyone is asked to wear something orange at dinner and then there is an Orange Party up by the Lido Pool.
I had the same orange suspenders and bow tie I used on our Alaska cruise and Val wore an orange flowered head piece she had gotten in Pago Pago. I still don’t have much of an appetite, but I need to eat of course so I ended up having two appetizers and a dessert.
It was another early bedtime for us as neither one of us is sleeping well, probably due to my coughing at night. Tomorrow is another sea day and hopefully I’ll be feeling better.
Cruise Day 47
Friday, November 14, 2025
I didn’t cough as much last night and didn’t have to use the codeine, and although I didn’t wake up feeling groggy from the codeine, I did feel tired as neither of us slept well again. Our morning routine was the same as usual lately with me continuing to cough. Changing from laying down to being up after getting out of bed stimulates the coughing as gravity moves things around.
We crossed the equator sometime during the night so we are now back in the Northern Hemisphere, it feels good to be home.
I was feeling better overall and decided to return to the Lido for lunch. That was fine with minimal coughing. Due to my lack of appetite, food isn’t very appealing right now, but I had a decent lunch and decided to visit the casino with Val after we finished lunch.
I had a good start at my new favorite slot machine, but after a little while I started coughing and had to leave. Besides my regular cough, every so often I get a tickle in my throat that starts me off on a coughing spree that’s hard to stop. Val stayed for a while and joined me out on the balcony a little later.
I decided I was feeling well enough to go to trivia today and it was good to see Arthur and Donna again. Today we exchanged contact information so we could stay in contact after the cruise, we have become pretty good friends playing trivia and talking every day.
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| Our trivia team, Donna, Arthur, Me and Val. |
After trivia, I went down to the medical center to get my paperwork to submit for our medical claims and also ask for another box of throat lozenges that seem to help stop my coughing fits. I wanted to make sure I had enough to last for the rest of the cruise and the train trip home.
We rested until dinner and as I was feeling better we returned again to the main dining room. After dinner we once again called it a night as we are both still very tired.
Cruise Day 48
Saturday, November 15, 2025
Last night went well as I didn’t cough very much, but we still didn’t sleep well. For me I think it might be the antibiotics I’m taking, but I’m not sure why Val can’t sleep, maybe she’s worried about me.
We did the usual morning routine of breakfast in the Neptune Lounge and then resting and relaxing until lunchtime. I’m feeling better, but still not ready to be out and about again, as my coughing, especially in the morning continues.
After lunch in the Lido, we went to the casino, and I made it through my stay without having to leave. Val wanted to stay longer than I did, so I left and went down to the photo shop where they were selling videos of the cruise. I decided to purchase one but can’t pick it up until the last day of the cruise as there are still events going on that they will include.
Val returned and we relaxed until it was time for trivia. I forgot to mention that for the last six days of the cruise they are doing a trivia tournament where the first, second and third place finishers get points and there will be a grand winner on the last day of the cruise. We have been very consistently in the middle of the pack since we first started and that’s where we continue to stay, so there have been no points for us so far.
After trivia we relaxed until dinner and again retired early hoping for a good night’s sleep. The ship’s clocks will be moved ahead another hour tonight, so we’ll lose another hour of sleep tonight, but it’ll be for the last time as we are now back in the Pacific time zone.
Cruise Day 49
Sunday, November 16, 2025
The morning sleep report is not much better than it has been, we both woke up not having slept well despite my reduced nighttime coughing. It didn’t help that we lost an hour due to the time zone change last night.
I felt a little more energetic this morning so after breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, I started to organize things a bit and get ready to have to pack everything up in couple of days. I mainly got our photo gear put away in my backpack as our photo taking is pretty much over for the trip except for maybe some cell phone pictures. It felt good to actually do something for a change rather than just lay around.
After lunch in the Lido, we visited the casino where I pretty quickly lost my daily allotment, but Val did better and played quite a while. We went to trivia that was held in the Ocean Bar today instead of the Crow’s Nest. We did our usual, but it seemed very hard today, so we were happy to get what we got.
We spent the rest of the afternoon resting and relaxing until it was time for dinner. Our room steward, K, told us to be sure to go to the Crew Talent show tomorrow as our other room steward Han would be performing. We will be sure to attend.
Once again after dinner we retired early hoping again for a good night’s sleep. I have been able to keep my coughing to a minimum, but that hasn’t helped me sleep.
Cruise Day 50
Monday, November 17, 2025
Happy days, Val and I both slept very well last night and we woke up feeling very well rested. I am feeling much better and except for my lingering cough, I feel almost normal. Unfortunately, from what we’ve read, the cough may linger for a while, but it has seemed like it is getting better.
After having breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we returned to our room and found that it was being cleaned, so we went out on the balcony and read until they were done. With my newfound energy, I decided it was time to update the blog which I had been ignoring for the last few days. While I was doing that, Kyle came by to explain the details of our debarkation in San Diego in a couple of days.
That done, Val returned to the balcony, and I returned to the blog and got that all up to date. The weather outside is noticeably cooler with much less humidity and that is very welcome. After getting the blog updated, I relaxed with Val until lunchtime.
After lunch in the Lido, Val and I went down to the casino and as usual, I lost my daily allotment pretty quickly, but Val stayed while I went back to the room. We had decided to start some packing today, so I got our luggage out from under the bed where we had stored it so we could start on that. I also had some tags to fill out to attach to our luggage that we will have taken off the ship for us. Val returned and we did some packing, but we wanted to go to the Crew Show in the World Stage today, so we left early to get good seats.
Evidently everyone else had the same idea as even though we were half an hour early all the good seats were gone, and we had to sit over to the side with a limited view of the stage. The show was a competition between departments, and they were all very good. Han was part of group that did a traditional Indonesian dance that was very good and they ended up taking third place. Overall, it was a great show, there are a lot of very talented people in the crew. The winner was the young woman who takes the phone orders for room service. She did a wonderful version of “I Will Always Love You” and added some light moments by using one of the ship’s officers as part of her song. Second place went to (I think) someone in the culinary group. He wrote his own song, sang it and put together a video about the power of love, it was very good especially considering he did it all in a week. He also had never performed on stage before so that made it even better.
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| I didn't bother with any pictures from the actual show, we were sitting too far off to the side. |
These crew shows are pretty inspirational, these crew members work hard every day making our wonderful trip even better; they do not get any time off for this. They practice on their own time, often when they would normally be sleeping. The overflow crowd showed their appreciation of this and gave big applause and support for every act.
The show ended up being an hour and a half long, so we missed trivia. We thought that it might have been postponed as the assistant cruise director Byron usually hosts trivia and was one of the judges, but when we went up at 4:30 it was already over. We talked to Arthur and Donna for a while and then returned to our room.
Today is the best I have felt in a while, but we were busy the whole day, so I decided to just rest until it was time for dinner. Tonight is a formal night, so we’ll have to get ready a little earlier than usual.
Dinner was good tonight and Val and I both had the surf and turf, but actually, I only wanted lobster, so I had the surf and Val only wanted steak so she had the turf. We gave Disan and Wahyu something extra to show our appreciation for them taking care of us every night.
After dinner we called it a night. Tomorrow is the last day of the cruise and the big packing day.
Cruise Day 51
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
This is it, the last day of the cruise. It’s usually a little bittersweet, but this time due to our illnesses, we are more anxious to get home, but it’s still a little sad.
We went to the Neptune Lounge for breakfast and gave Kyle some extra cash in appreciation for all her help. Considering this was her first time as a concierge, she did a remarkable job. She has a great, outgoing personality and is remarkably competent at her job so even as inexperienced as she is, she is one of the best concierges we’ve had. Jefferson (her backup) was there this morning also, so we also gave him a little bonus cash. Every morning while we eat breakfast a steward comes in and makes sure everything in the food area is clean and replenishes what is low and generally does whatever is necessary, so we don’t have any problems. He is very quiet and shy and pretty much stays in the background, but we appreciate what he does and decided to give him a small cash amount too. It was very heartwarming how grateful and thankful he was, it made Val and I feel very good.
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| The Neptune Lounge. |
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| This is where Val and I had breakfast almost every morning unless someone got this table first and we had to sit and the big table. |
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| This is where most of the food is, it's a little sparse as it is just about time to transition from breakfast to lunch food. |
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| There was a coffee machine where you could choose different types of coffee. I don't drink coffee and don't know much about the different type so I can't tell you what is offered, but I do know there is hot water available that Val used for her tea. |
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| Our concierge Kyle on the right and her backup Jefferson at the concierge desk in the Neptune Lounge. |
We returned to our room and found K and Han cleaning up so we gave them their extra gratuity and thanked them for all they had done for us. They are a pair of the best room stewards we have ever had; they seem to anticipate our needs and fill our requests in a timely manner. They are both very friendly and personable and we like talking to them every day.
The rest of the morning was filled with a frenzy of packing. Our two biggest bags are going to be shipped home, so we can only put in them things we won’t need for the next week until our luggage is delivered. It should be easy to decide what to put where, but it was pretty tiring.
Neither one of us felt very hungry, but we needed to eat and went up to the Lido for our last lunch onboard. Wahyu also works in the Lido every day at lunch, and he always has Val’s glass of ice and a straw ready for her Diet Coke and looks after us during lunch. We decided to give him a little extra cash for what he does for us at lunch, so we gave that to him today. His contract is ending and he is going home to see his family for the first time in over six months, so he is very excited and happy. I don’t see how these crew members do it, working seven days a week for months at a time, but they come from very poor countries and the money they make on the ship makes them able to take care of their family and give them a good life they might not have otherwise.
After lunch we went to the casino for the last time, and I lost the last of my money pretty quickly. While Val continued to play, I went down to the Photo Shop and picked up the cruise video we had ordered and then returned to the casino to see how Val was doing. It turns out she was doing quite well so knowing Val, she will probably be there for a while, so I went back to the room and brought the blog up to date and then did the last of my packing.
Val returned later and said she had actually cashed out some money which is always nice, but overall, we both lost most of our money on this cruise. Val finished the last of her packing and then we relaxed until dinner.
Our last dinner was very good and after we finished, we said goodbye to Wahyu and Disan and returned to our room. Wahyu was really excited and happy tonight as when we dock in San Diego tomorrow, he will be leaving the ship and flying home to see his family for the first time in over six months.
Before calling it a night we checked to make sure everything was packed and then I moved our larger bags out into the hallway where they’ll be taken away, and we won’t see them until we claim them in the terminal tomorrow morning. After that we relaxed a bit and then went to bed. As always, this is a bit of a bittersweet time as the cruise is coming to an end, but we are looking forward to getting home.
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