We’ve added a few more photos to our Lima & St. Martin ports, but satellite reception has been very slow (& at times disruptive) since starting our journey across the Pacific. We'll most likely wait for our return in May to upload the bulk of our photos - there are times when it takes more than 1-2 minutes to upload one picture...and that Internet cash register just keeps ringing...so we need to be prudent here at sea using satellite.
The day was relatively quiet – light breakfast around 6:30, then “Good Morning Amsterdam” at 9:30. The latter is a TV show taped each morning in a small theater (capacity 200) on deck #4 adjacent to the Front Office. The format is similar to Good Morning America – a talk show setting, where the Cruise Director (Bruce) and Cruise Hostess (Adell) sit on bar stools in front of an audience and discuss the events of the current day & interview passengers about certain short topics. They also invite a ‘special guest’ each day who may be one of the entertainers or someone from the ship’s crew, and they share a little about their careers and interact with the audience. The show is then played several times on TV throughout the day & evening. It can be both entertaining & educational depending on the topics or guests interviewed. We try to participate each morning depending on our other scheduled activities.
It was overcast until about 1pm with slight seas – the only excitement was passing by a fleet of Japanese boats (large vessels) who were commercial fishing for giant squid in about 15,000 feet of water. They were a long way from home – but apparently this is ‘the’ place for squid and of course, is so commonly consumed in their homeland & nearby countries.
Wii games continue to be boring – team bowling again today. Nothing at all like last year – we’ll see how it goes – hopefully it gets better. Different Activity Director this year who seems to have a bit of an attitude.
We officially dropped out of Bridge class – we spoke with the instructor at 11:00 and thanked him for having us for a few sessions, and we also apologized to our table partners – it’s just not a game for us. Our ‘Rummy’ card game continues – Cheryl is still in the lead – 8 games to 6! We now play ‘Hearts’ with a very nice couple from Sacramento (Herb & Jane) – usually on sea days from 1:30 – 2:30 – a lot of good fun! Today they taught us how to play ‘31’ – very enjoyable.
Happy Hour today at 4:30 (with Bill & Mary) was pleasurable as always. Bill is/was an eye doctor – Mary a former surgical nurse. They were on the cruise last year as well – very good friends from the Tampa Bay area.
Dinner was a disaster – again - so untypical of Holland America. We normally don’t complain but service was so slow this evening, we excused ourselves from the table before entrees arrived. For some reason, our table of six is always the last to be served even though we all normally arrive first. Last year we had a table of five and experienced excellent service – it’s just taking far too long – we’ll see what happens tomorrow night. We both had a large lunch so we can afford to go to bed without dinner!
Entertainment this evening was a takeoff on ABBA – again I’m being critical here, but it was a joke. It was like turning on Saturday morning cartoons with these goofballs (one in particular) jumping around the stage in a blue jumpsuit with a blond wig. The lead guitarist & keyboard player had a track running in the background – they weren’t actually playing, but wanted you to think they were – I don’t think many folks picked up on it but with a limited and humble background in music, it was easy for me to spot. It wasn’t good, though we both clapped out of respect.
Not a banner day for us overall – and to top it off, our toilet was plugged this morning and we had to call the plumber for the 5th straight day! Yikes!
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