cruise

Today we awoke after a bit of a tossing night at sea. Well lets just say Lynda felt a tossing night at sea – Andrew slept through it! It seems that the wind direction is now more westerly or easterly and the balcony door is now singing again which it likes to sing a lovely high pitched tune in the middle of the night while we rock around at sea!

Had breakfast at 8 am as scheduled and then hung out in our stateroom and relaxed! I downloaded the pictures from yesterday (I seemed to take a lot of them) and tried to optimize them and fell asleep! Nothing like being in a rocking cradle at times at sea! Needless to say, had to then get up and get ready for lunch which the previous night we were told was the Mariner’s lunch for people who have sailed with Holland America previously.

Lunch was very nice – I had a lobster and beet salad with some sword fish that was a little closer to sushi than I wanted, and then a chocolate desert which was pretty similar to what other people received – which included a chocolate brownie! All in all pretty good! We sat at a table for 8, however there were only 7 of us plus my walker. One couple was from Austin, Texas, however they did not talk much. The other couple and their daughter were from Arizona. Their daughter’s husband skipped the meal to play Pickle ball which is all the rage on the ship right now. As these couples were fairly quiet, I started talking about various subjects – how I liked Austin, Texas when I was working there, and about my trip to Unalaska as one of the couples had taken a 2 week cruise to Alaska from Vancouver. Then, which I have no recollection on how we got onto the subject (Andrew does not remember either) I found out that the husband of the other couple had flown 707’s and 727’s for Eastern Airlines! Well, now the conversation got interesting! We chatted about planes, how I like the Dreamliner, however we are going to fly from Sydney on the 380 as we had seen them being built in Toulouse, France. I have a faint recollection of Eastern Airlines which flew before I took to the skies with my job with the software company, so I asked the pilot what happened to Eastern Airlines and if they were taken over by one of the current airlines? I found out that actually the pilots, flight attendants AND mechanics all banded together and went on strike together for better pay and that was the end of the airline – it just went under. This gentleman had retired a couple of months prior, however the impact to him was two fold – he lost his medical benefits (I am presuming his pension was covered by the Airline Pilot Association (APA) – I did not get to ask him that question though) and he no longer gets an airline “discount” to fly as he is not associated with any airlines. He does still get a discount as a former pilot on cruise lines though! I did mention that I volunteered at YVR and was interested in Aviation and that I shared that same interest with my father who went with me to visit the Airbus factory and has visited the Boeing plant too!

There are lots of activities going on at all times on the ship – this afternoon I decided to go to the colouring and crochet class and then back to the cabin and relax some more – yesterday was such a busy day! When we were in Honolulu I did stock up on some craft essentials which have now come in handy – some cotton to crochet dishcloth’s and some pencils so I can do some colouring outside of the scheduled colouring activities on board. They give out black and white outlined papers, such as a picture of the beach, or Hawaiian flowers and then you can colour that to your hearts content!

The other thing on board that is done, which on previous voyages had its own classroom is Technology at Sea. Right now the technology at sea is a bit below my level but is is great to see all the people attending the classes with their cell phones learning how to use Google Maps and how to find this through the various search criteria that can be used online! Here is a picture of one of the classes where they are learning about the “search” feature to figure out a plant species. I do not think that lady was happy I was taking her picture at the back!

As Holland America is Dutch, tonight was the Orange Party! I have NO IDEA what got into me at home, however I forgot my silk orange skirt that I normally pack for these voyages! Luckily enough, I was escorted by a properly dressed man, Andrew in his black pants, dress shirt and orange tie, which we got on Amazon just prior to leaving! Tonight’s dinner was a Dutch influenced dinner, however there was not much Dutch about my dinner except for the dessert! I had a chocolate tulip!

Tonight, on the stroll from the stern to the bow of the ship, we stopped off at the Rolling Stone Lounge (which also is where the food demonstrations are) to see the comedian who was doing the 9 pm show. He had been “downgraded” from the World Stage, which is 3 decks high at the front of the ship, to this stage as the Orange Party was going on at the World Stage starting at 9 pm. I much rathered this venue as it was much cozier!

The comedian, whose name was Chad, was VERY good! His opening night was the night we went to see the show in Waikiki so we missed that show however I heard great things about it so was keen to hear his next show. I think he changed this show for the more intimate audience – I would call him a more “casual” stand up comedian – he likes to talk and drop puns and funny references in his commentary. All I can say is it was a good thing I used the restroom BEFORE we attended the show as he was really funny! He joked about “normal” things like everyday life, M&M’s, going to the mall and being a handyman – or not! The best thing is there were no political jokes (he is American) and it was good comedy! It was a great evening!

When we got back to our room, we found out that we had crashed the Mariner’s party today at lunch! It was for the 1 and 2 star Mariners (those who have cruised at least once and up to 50 days) and we were supposed to attend tomorrow per our invitation! Oh well, they gave me the paper last night to order my food for lunch – I did not know any better! So tomorrow I am having the same thing again for lunch! Looking forward to the chocolate brownie again!

As for tomorrow, it is going to be my catch-up day for posting. I am not sure what is going to happen as the Blue Jays will be playing at 2 pm and as we are in the middle of the darn Pacific, I am not sure if they will be playing the game on the TV’s in the bars or not. So that might mean some nasty slow internet tomorrow when I am trying to upload my pictures and videos from October 22nd! I should have done it today but today was a days of rest 🙂

We hope everyone is having a great time where ever in the world you are reading this from and chat with you soon! Lastly, Happy 58th Birthday Joanne! From your sister rocking away at sea – I know not your cup of tea…. 🙂

Good morning! Well we are still in some mildly choppy seas, which the Captain has said are between a 5 and 6 on the Beaufort scale however we have traveled over 2200 nautical miles towards Honolulu and have about 300 nautical miles left to go! The outside temperature has also risen – today it is a nice an balmy 25 degrees Celsius or about 88 degrees Fahrenheit. On this lovely air conditioned ship when you pass by a door that is opened leading to the Promenade deck, it is like having a hot blow dryer blown at you! Very bizarre feeling!

Today I am focused on saving all my energy for the painting class, which is 2 hours long! It is at 4 pm. We are going to have a relaxing day at sea and then I will probably attend the crochet class prior to the painting class and then the painting class itself. The painting class you have to pay for ($25) however you get lots of goodies and can take your painting home with you! Our last cruise where I did this I REALLY liked my painting however we left it in the room by mistake when leaving in a hurry to get off in Barcelona. I was quite frustrated with my mistake in forgetting to pack it! It is sized so you can fit it into a medium suitcase between clothes. There is going to be another painting class after we leave Hawaii on our way to Fiji where we have another set of days at sea – so perhaps I will end up with two!

However first, we had to power lunch! I had a very delicious clear chicken and veggie soup with my bagel and provolone cheese. Andrew had some delicate deep fried motza sticks and then a Ruben sandwich. He lost some of his potato chips to me also! Funny enough, we had our dinner waiter, Ade, serve us at lunch today so he already knew about my dining needs.

Again, I met some interesting (understatement) ladies at the Art area of the class – first it was the crochet class where I went to help out as all I wanted to do is finish unwinding the skein of yarn that I bought in Seattle, that had become a huge knot over the last couple of days! As I quietly sat in the class while Bonolo, who is from Johannesburg, taught the crochet class to some new ladies trying to crochet, I decided to ask the ladies next to me who knew how to crochet already as one of them was facing me, what her shirt meant. It said “We will not stand for any Kings” and had an American flag on it. Was it referring to Martin Luther King? Oh, how stupid I was to ask that question as obviously I have not been watching enough American news! I found out, through a long explanation, that today was the day for the “March for No Kings” which was response to President Trump indicating that he should be King. I am going to leave this discussion there, as I would rather not get into political stuff here, however lets just say I was schooled on American politics and finally after about 10 minutes had to tell her that I was Canadian and I really do not have any interest in American news! The two ladies continued their discussion about all the things that Trump has done – which I did learn some things like all the generals that he brought to the Pentagon to lecture to them – these generals traveled from all over the world for this meeting and who were leading the troops at that point in time was in my mind! No wonder these two ladies are trying to find a way to move from Arizona to Canada – despite the difference in the weather! They also told me that all their “Canadian” friends are selling their houses in Arizona and giving up on the USA.

Next came the Painting Class – I was so happy as I loved doing this class on the Nieuw Statendam crossing we did of the Trans Atlantic in 2022. Holland America has partnered with Painting with “Gogh” which is a lady who teaches the class via video (pre-recorded) during the 2 hour class. She does an excellent job and channels Bob Ross – who used to paint a lot of landscapes for people to follow along, on PBS TV shows, if I remember correctly.

Today we are painting the Rocky Mountains – right up my alley! Lets get going! Most people had easels with the canvas on it to paint on however as the easel is too high for my arm to go up, I laid mine down to paint, propped up on the easel while it was lying on the table. I have included a picture of the lady in the video who was instructing us and then Bonolo took one of me so you could see how I was doing! I found painting this time a bit harder as we had a bit of a chop to the sea, vs last time our crossing of the Atlantic was quite a bit smoother. We had to do some “dotting” of the paintbrush and some fine lines for the mountains and lets just say my paintbrush was NOT doing nice dotting and fine lines! I finally got them under control though which was good! Nothing like acrylic – it dries fairly fast and can be painted over! I will unveil my finished painting tomorrow after it is dry!

That class actually took 2 1/2 hours so I got back to the cabin where Andrew was waiting for me just before we had to go to dinner. Dinner was good – I had a cold corn soup to start and then a new fish I have not had before – it was from Africa and called a King Fish. It is a white fish, on the drier side and flaky. Dessert was again a low sugar vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and a GIANT cookie! That cookie type I had not seen previously and it was a bit dry and crumbly so I ended up putting it into my ice cream with the chocolate sauce and eating it that way! Andrew had a Caesar Salad and then breaded Chicken with red sauce and veggies and then a Nut layer cake – layers of cream, wafers and crumbled nuts. No, Andrew is not starving – he is eating at times better than me!

After dinner, as we eat on the Promenade Deck (Deck 3) we went for a quick stroll outside on our way back to our cabin at the pointy end of the ship! Another day, 5+ kilometers walked on the ship!

Tomorrow we arrive in Honolulu and I am going to be SO HAPPY to be able to take my phone off airplane mode! Then my Libre Diabetes sensor and my watch, which are both controlled by my phone, will be in the correct time zone again! Right now I have been living with my phone where it last checked in with land – Port Angeles, for the last 6 days, despite going through 3 time changes! So when I get up at 6 am as that is what time my phone indicates, it is really only 3 am and I need to go back to sleep! Such are the major issues with being at sea…. It is going to get MORE confusing for me when we cross the date line as then I have to be in airplane mode until we get to Fiji! My Libre sensor will not work if I set the time manually on my phone – that from a software perspective, I would call a nasty BUG! However who am I to think that?

Have a great day and we will report in after our adventures tomorrow in Honolulu!

Today being our 6th day at sea, we have had a bit of a light to medium chop all night long – more side to side rocking action than previously going “over” the waves. I would say we are still in about 8-10 foot swells at sea, with whitecaps showing today. It is a little hard to judge from 5+ decks up, however the captain yesterday said to expect 2-3 metre seas and that is about the equivalent. The other interesting thing that the Captain has indicated is the Beaufort scale – which I am mentioning more for the nautical people following (read my dad) that anyone else. I have not heard this mentioned on previous cruises so I looked it up!

According to Wikipedia – the Beaufort Scale is “an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the “Beaufort wind force scale”. It was devised in 1805 by Francis Beaufort, a hydrographer, in the Royal Navy. It was officially adopted by the Royal Navy and later spread internationally.” It goes on to say “The initial scale of 13 classes (zero to 12) did not reference wind speed numbers, but related qualitative wind conditions to effects on the sails of a frigate, then the main ship of the Royal Navy, from “just sufficient to give steerage” to “that which no canvas sails could withstand. The scale was made a standard for ship’s log entries on Royal Navy vessels in the late 1830s and, in 1853, the Beaufort scale was accepted.”

Engineer section: Wind speed on the modern Beaufort scale is based on the empirical relationship of:

v = 1.625 B^3/2 knots (=138B3) and v = 0.836 B^3/2 m/s

Now for all your land lubbers like me, that in English means the following for sea vs. land:

A couple of things to note – “white horses” are “a nautical term for whitecaps or breaking wave crests that form on the surface of the water in windy conditions. They get their name because the white, foamy crests can resemble the mane of a horse, and the sound of crashing waves can sound like hooves.”

Next, the Beaufort Scale in 1946, was extended to 13-17, however it is not approved by the World Meteorological Organization. These forces of 13 to 17 were intended to apply only to special cases, such as tropical cyclones which are used now in Taiwan, mainland China and Vietnam areas which are often affected by typhoons.

Now onto more happening things on the ship! Yes, another day of artwork for me! Today I planned to do watercolour, calligraphy, doodling, sign up for the oil painting class tomorrow (I have to pay for that class) and “adult” colouring! What fun I had doing all these things and the people that I met were also so fascinating! In my doodling and calligraphy class, I sat next to two ladies who I had already shared the space with previously. One, Anne is VERY organized and has her own mechanical pencil, colouring pencils which are double ended – different colours on each end which are great for traveling, and black felt pens. I have a pencil and black pen with me but did not bring my colouring pencils! I do have my Mandela book with me though so that is what I primarily focused on in the adult colouring class. Laura next to me is a beautiful artist and drew an awesome butterfly from the class a few days prior and she was still finishing it with the pens and pencils available. So we coloured and chatted a bit and it was fun!

I then met Andrew after his 3 mile/5 kilometre walk around the now warmer deck, for lunch. Well, lunch was a let down after that phenomenal dinner last night! I had ordered a watermelon caprese salad which was nice but TINY and it was kind of weird having watermelon chunks with mozzarella and balsamic vinegar! I much prefer tomatoes. However Andrew really liked the salad so each to their own tastes! The menu was light for gluten free options for lunch so I had ordered baguette slices and the spinach artichoke dip with Parmesan cheese. The nice cheese topping on the dip was good on the piece of bread that I received (not the baguette slices) however the dip was something less desirable. I remember ordering this on the Nieuw Statendam and it being excellent! I ended up going to the Lido deck later in the afternoon and getting a bagel and some cheese chunks for a snack instead, which is a great segway into my next topic – gluten free food on board!

I by now had realized that the muffins I had ordered at breakfast, the bread and cookies I was being served in the dining room and the bagel that I had for lunch the previous day were not from the supplier that Holland America used to purchase from which was Kinnickinnik Foods out of Edmonton, AB. They were just different in taste and size. As I know they stock gluten free food items on the Lido Deck too, which is where I will dine in a pinch, I decided to investigate and see what brands were on board! When we first got onto the ship, the gluten free supplies had not made it to the Lido deck yet as the Executive Sous Chef that I talked to on the Lido deck told me that they had taken on a large order of gluten free food provisions for the journey and the various food outlets would be stocked overnight. I was quite surprised to see a new brand that I had not seen previously in my 45 years of living with Celiac Disease – it is called Schnitzer and it is out of Europe. They have bagels, hot dog buns, hamburger buns, foccacia, pannini and other types of bread like baguettes. Also on board is a Canadian company named Northern Bakehouse, whose bread I actually do not like – which makes sense now that the brown bread I have been served – it is from them. I however DO like the Northern Bakehouse Cinnamon Raisin bread – so if they have that I will have to give it a try! I also saw Barilla pasta which is one of the ones we use at home. The only thing that the Lido was out of stock on were the cookies – so that I am still to find out what types they have (and brands) other than chocolate chip!

Now onto more exciting things! First, as it is Friday, at 2pm I joined my weekly Zoom session where we discuss a short story that everyone has read this past week. This week the story was called “The Boat” and it was written about a family in Eastern Canada and fishing. It was kind of ironic, as I am on a type of boat myself, however as my father will correct me, it is a SHIP! It really is amazing, here we are over half way down the Pacific to Hawaii, and I could almost maintain a zoom session (I did break up a couple of times I was told) while at sea. Technology is advancing fast!

I then went to the 4pm water colour class, where I met another fascinating lady who lives in Marysville, Washington – when I asked her where she was from she said “oh north of Seattle – you would not know where”. I said try me – I can almost drive from Vancouver, BC to Bellevue, Washington with blindfolds on as I know the route so well and that is when she told me Marysville! The Ferguson’s used to stop at a pie place there and I often get a Coke Zero at the McDonalds and fill up at the Chevron there if driving back at night as I like that gas station better as it is very well lit.

She then told me that she was a former math teacher and she is retired now, and how during COVID her friend invited her to go to a water colour class at the local seniors centre. She thought a math teachers does not do art work! However then she told me about the right/left brain theory (which I already knew) and how the one side of the brain that does numbers gets to relax and the creative side gets to take over and how she now LOVES watercolour painting and has been doing it for 3 years now. While we were painting our mushrooms (Dad, keep your puns to yourself please) we kept chatting and she said her husband is in the military and after their kids were born she went back to school and got a degree in computer engineering. That fascinated me so I told her that I had worked as an Income Auditor and then switched to become a Software Product Manager myself, on the technical side and worked a lot with programmers and testers on the software that a private company made. At that time she then told me she both worked on and was the manager of quality assurance for the F-14 figher jets and the software changes that needed to be made to upgrade and be tested. This fairly quiet lady is quite a smart cookie! I was quite surprised! We then chatted about planes, how I had watched Top Gun and Top Gun Mavrick and my love of flying along with my dad’s interest too. She was very pleased to see a female so interested in the airline industry as she said when she began working for the government, there were not a lot of females in the computer science field. It was a very interesting hour that I spent with her!

Then she left and Adult Colouring began, which I was prepared for to complete what I had started earlier in the day. I was sitting by myself at the table and I could hear two ladies behind me giggling and talking about their mushroom art and how psychedelic they were. So I could not resist and turned around and said “if you paint too many more you will not have mush room for any more on the paper”. They laughed! Better than I get at home from Andrew or my dad! One of them was from the East Coast of the USA and the other from the Netherlands. I would estimate they were in their 30’s. They are on this cruise with a group named the Digital Nomads, which were a bit controversial prior to us getting onto this ship.

As you know I belong to an online community called Cruise Critics and you can belong to a chat session for the specific sailing of the cruise you will be on. I was on the Noordam sailing to Sydney for about 9 months prior to the cruise. When I joined, there was a lot of talk about the Digital Nomads group and how a sailing that went from Vancouver to Japan was very uncomfortable for the other guests on the ship as the Digital Nomads got into the party spirit a bit too much. People on the Cruise Critic message board decided to cancel and things like that as they did not want their “dream” vacation ruined by some “kids”. Granted, Holland America’s target audience are seniors, a bit older than Andrew and I, however the company does have a right to be open to any market segment that wants to travel with them and build loyalty going forward! I personally think this is a great relationship between the two segments of communities – they really do not get into each others way. The Digital Nomads are definitely tech heavy on the ship where the senior cruises are more light users such as email like Andrew.

The ladies who sat behind me were very polite and obviously had overheard the conversation that I had with my prior table made with regards to technology and computer science. The lady from the East Coast left, however the one from the Netherlands stayed to complete her mushroom painting. She and I chatted off and on and she has been on several of these Digital Nomad cruises now and really enjoys the networking with others, some of the daily sessions they have and most of all meeting people from around the world. She has an online niche travel business in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia where she is going after this cruise along with she motivates women and empowers them daily to take care of themselves better through an online website. It is in a different language, so I did not bother to ask her further about it.

That again, got me thinking just how this world has changed over the years from the lady who sat next to me, who was first educated in math, who went on to getting a degree in Computer Science using main frame computers and programmed and ensured that F-14’s could fly safely. Then desktop computers were invented, laptops, modems, the internet and the world opened up for business! Now one, like the Digital Nomads, can go anywhere and do anything as long as it is online, and work their own hours and not be tied down to a desk each day. Quite a different live, that in part, COVID helped launch into this paradigm.

During the doodling class, the ship had moved the sunset Hawaiian music playing inside from the Lido Deck to the Crowsnest which is just behind were the art studio is. Apparently people were having problems hearing on the Lido Deck. I went by and took some pictures of the hula dancers (mum and daughter) and the husband/father playing the ukulele behind them.

Okay, enough of me and my pondering while at sea! We have dinner to prepare for! Tonight we are going to a specialty dinner called the Crab Boil which is being held on the Lido Deck (Deck 9) of the Noordam. It is self explanatory – I took a picture of the tent card on the table and that is what we had to eat – the amusing part is it was a set dinner and everything for me was made gluten free – identical almost, but gluten free! So no salad instead of the clam chowder or fruit instead of the berry crisp a la mode! Quite spectacular!

Now we were very full after that meal! We then sauntered (as well as you can when the sea is at 9 – 10 feet) or Beaufort 5, back to our room to relax for the balance of the evening! Andrew was happy with all the sports scores for the evening too! Tomorrow is our last day at sea prior to seeing land again – Honolulu for two days!

Chat soon!

Today started out with a brilliant sunrise and when I opened the balcony door – warmth! Oh this is wonderful! I sat on the balcony and watched the sun rise without needing any extra blankets – just my pj’s were good enough! Soon the lump in the bed also arose and we enjoyed breakfast in the room, which today as promised, I remembered to take a picture of! The breakfast included the following:

Bottom right going counter clockwise – vegetable frittata with GF hash brown, fruit bowl, cottage cheese, GF muffins (2), milk, juices (2), coffee, toast and fruit plate for Andrew. All was delicious! Andrew then moved onto the balcony to enjoy his coffee while I prepared to get to my first art activity of the day – Origami Folding – today is an Envelope! Then it will be Doodling, and Calligraphy before lunch.

After lunch, which was another bowl of soup and bagel with cheese for me, I went back to the Art Studio for some more entertaining classes! My goal this time was to complete some art work on the projects that I had already started rather thank start more projects. I did not bring any coloured pencils or pens with me on this trip and they have coloured pens in these classes so I can borrow them when in class to complete the items I am creating! This afternoon it was Origami Envelopes again, Doodling and then Crochet. I sat next to a lovely lady from Bainbridge Island, which is near Seattle, and she is a marine biologist who volunteers at the Seattle Aquarium. She told me about the Holland America program that she participates in that allows her to choose cruises each year in which to “standby” for and she pays $99 US a day if she gets onto the ship. That is actually a pretty good deal! She told me she signed up for 3 cruises this year – one to Alaska, one to Hawaii and this one and made it onto all of them at the last minute! On this cruise she is in a very small (as she is traveling alone) inside cabin, however she is really looking forward to examining both the beaches and snorkeling in our various destinations! When she went to Hawaii, she actually took her microscope on board in her roll-aboard just so she could look at the sides of some of the creatures that she found when out snorkeling on the various Hawaiian islands. I asked if she had been to Hanauma Bay near Diamond Head and like me, she had been there when it was a gravel parking lot and the truck pulled the carriages down to the beach and back up and dislikes the “tourist attraction” that it now has become where you need an appointment time to go visit the beach and pay admission!

Now that I have had a full day of creativity, I joined Andrew back in the stateroom where he was keeping tabs on all the sports scores, mainly the Blue Jays and Mariners games which had been taking place while we have been at sea. It seems that the Blue Jays have done to the Mariners (won two games in Seattle) which the Mariners did to the Blue Jays in Toronto – winning two games in the Centre of the Universe! Game 5 tomorrow should be interesting!

Off to dinner we then went – which I was looking forward to as on the menu the night before I had ordered Eggplant Cannelloni with Asparagus Risotto. It was labeled both gluten free and vegetarian which confused me as cannelloni is normally pasta! I am not aware of any cannelloni sized pasta tubes but hey, this is Holland America and they have surprised me at meals before!

Now, I had to calculate this statistic at dinner. After 105 days at sea on mainly Holland America and some Royal Caribbean Cruises, I have now had my best meal at sea. The Eggplant Cannelloni dinner was beyond awesome! It the eggplant which formed the rolls around the cheese was thin and easy to consume, the cheese filling was beyond believe and then it was delicately placed on top of an asparagus risotto that alone was scrumptious! The red sauce was also very flavourful and helped it all meld together nicely. I wish I had eaten slower – this dish was unbelievably tasty! Poor Andrew was left behind finishing his very nice looking Barramundi fish dinner as my dinner was gone in a flash it was so good! The only downside of having Celiac Disease is there are no second helpings! These meals are made in the allergy kitchen and are a one off….

To finish, I had a no sugar vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce (no sugar chocolate sauce is no fun) and some GF cookies. They were a nice complement to the dinner!

I think our wait staff, Ade and April Joy, were quite mystified by my reaction to my food – first Ade saw me on my phone counting (where I was looking and the number of days of the cruises we had taken on our Holland America account) and then adding the 2 Royal Caribbean cruises and then the number of days already on this cruise, which I ended up needing to count on my hands too and then I guess he thought there was something wrong so he came by and I told him just how wonderful my dinner entree was and how many days we had been on a cruise ship and he was quite impressed and said he will tell the chef! I will follow up with a note to the chef myself as I believe in positive feedback too!

Well, tomorrow is another day at sea – tonight the waves are up a bit and the captain has suggested that people hang onto the railings if they are walking in the corridors – I of course have that handled with my snazzy walker guiding me – however it is funny watching Andrew ahead of me wandering side to side along the corridor! We are doing fewer porpoising moves now (up and down from the bow) and more side to side movements it seems. I will report in on the sea condition tomorrow when the captain comes on a noon and reports in!

We hope you all are having a good day wherever in the world you happen to be reading this from!

Today we (I) woke to a beautiful sunrise off the bow so we must still be still heading south westerly which is great to see! I say the “we” cautiously as the curtains in this cabin that cover the balcony and the front window over the port side of the bow above the sofa are both electronically controlled. So if I want to see outside, I need to press a button to open them. That makes a noise and it is NOT quiet – more of a squeal type of sound. Well poor Andrew jumped out of sleep when I did that this morning as he was not used to the noise! He quickly went back to sleep though so not much of a disturbance. Here is the picture over the bow of the sunrise –

Today (which I neglected to take a picture of) breakfast arrived CORRECTLY! Wahoo! Nothing like a strong start to the day! I got what I ordered and especially Andrew got the number of things he ordered (we now figured out that a 1 for whole wheat toast means 1 piece of bread not for 1 person) so we now need to enter a 2 for the bread category! Also the cutlery, jam and butter showed up this time too which was nice. Nothing like an all inclusive breakfast! Tomorrow I will try for a picture!

While on the subject of food – there are some changes that I have observed since we last cruised with Holland America and also that seem to be happening in the cruise industry in general. First, Holland America offers a “Have it All” package, which we got at a fairly discounted price as we booked this cruise about 2 years out. For a cruise over 21 days, it includes for each of us, the Elite Beverage package (15 drinks a day priced under $15), 3 shore excursions up to $100 each, and dining in 3 specialty restaurants on the ship during our cruise. On top of that, as we booked during a Labour Day Sale, the crew gratuities are also included. So, for Andrew and I, the Elite Beverage package we are definitely not going to make full use of – I generally do not drink and as Coke Zero costs $2.95 I am WAY below the $15 cap on each drink. Drinking 15 Coke Zero in a day also would be outrageous! It is nice for Andrew though as he can try different types of wine with dinner – there are two different Beverage packages – one is for drinks under $11 and ours is for under $15 so there are a couple more wines available for Andrew to choose from which is great.

The challenge that cruise ships are facing with these “Beverage” packages is that BOTH people in the cabin must have the same beverage package. Now, following the 80/20 rule, that probably works out most of the time, 80% of the population would either both have a Beverage package or not. However sometimes people cannot drink (or choose not to drink) and for one spouse or partner that could be an issue. I do not know what the answer to this is, however it is becoming standard on all cruise lines – which is different from when Andrew and I first started cruising – all occupants in a suite (legal drinking age of course) need to have the same Beverage package. Gone are the days where Andrew could have the Beverage package and I have the Soda package! It is interesting observing the controversy on this both online and the discussions happening on the ship – people abusing the privilege vs the wishes for some people not to drink!

Moving onto less controversial subjects now, Andrew successfully went for his walk on the Promenade deck today with just his shorts and t-shirt which was a success! He did 9 or 10 laps – he lost count. I will have to go look at the plaque which indicates how many laps equals a kilometre or mile and report back! I am still averaging 10,000 steps a day walking the ship and will, once my pain evens out in my legs, start walking on the deck too. I just cannot keep up with Andrew long stride!

I enjoyed a calligraphy class today where the teacher, when she saw I could already do letters and was struggling with the paintbrush style pens that they had, gave me a calligraphy (felt) pen, I was off to the races! I had so much fun writing the alphabet again! That class flew by! I am not going to show you what I did as it is a work in progress…and a Christmas present!

The next class was a watercolour class. I did not pay attention and started painting early and so I missed a REALLY important step on how to do dry vs. wet painting! This student was chatting with her neighbour too much about knitting. So my jellyfish got a bit out of control, however in the end worked out okay! I will need to take the class again it looks like to practice what the instructor was intending me to do – the next class is mushrooms (Dad I am going to spare you that pun) and I will try and do better next time! I have included my picture above.

Next was lunch – no pictures today – I had a clear chicken and leek soup with a bagel with provolone cheese on it. Andrew had a really good looking lunch of 2 salmon tacos! I wish I had taken a picture of them as they looked exquisite! They were in a wheat tortilla, however only half a large wheat tortilla was used for each taco – which made the meal less bread like and have more nutritional value!

Andrew and I sat in one of the lounges for a while in the afternoon looking out at the sea – I did a Sudoku puzzle (the ship has a new one every day) while he kept up on the sports and news happening around the world. We also had picked up the “Canadian” news summary that is provided in the Library each day (along with the Sudoku, New York Times and American news summary).

Back in the room we relaxed and I caught up on some Estate work to be done for our arrival in Japan, prior to our 7pm dinner reservation in the Pinnacle Restaurant on the Noordam. This is my second food observation – I like the ability to try out the specialty dining restaurants on board the ships – we have several both paid and included reservations booked for our cruise, however I am noticing a reduction in both the quantity and higher end offerings in these restaurants, with often what we experienced in 2022 on the Niew Statendam is now an up-charge in the restaurants. Such as the lobster or crab items I could order on the last cruise and this time they cost between $10 and $19 each. Not a big deal – it is just an observation. Also, the portion sizes, which I LIKE are more reasonable! On previous cruises it used to drive me nutty with the amount of food that I was served – especially gluten free bread – often 3-4 slices at dinner. I would ask for only 1 slice and the next night – 3-4 slices would show up, which I would not eat. Now I get 1 slice or a couple of fingers of gluten free baguettes. Much better! The dinner portions in the Main Dining room are also much better too! Let’s just say they have taken the “Supersize” out of the meals which is great to see!

We arrived at the Pinnacle Grill and had a lovely table for two which was situated near the lobby instead of the outside of the ship. It was a nice and open area and not claustrophobic! Andrew had the pleasure of reading the menu and choosing what he wanted to eat. I had read the menu the night before and written down what I wanted to eat so that they could prepare it for me gluten free – there is only one allergen kitchen on the boat so my meal needed to come from the allergen kitchen and not the kitchen for the Pinnacle Grill. Thus they need advance warning 🙂

I had selected the Coconut Seafood Chowder with Lobster, Shrimp and Scallops with the backup of Lobster Bisque if they could not make the Chowder. For the Main I selected the Glazed Chilean Sea Bass with Asparagus and Mashed Potatoes and for Dessert, the Chocolate Souffle! I was pleasantly surprised, for the 2nd time in my life, to receive on Holland America a Lobster Bisque! It was superb and delicious! Such as luxury to be able to be served such fine food where other restaurants do not go to these lengths to please their guests. The Chilean sea bass was very flaky and delicate in texture however as always, the Chocolate Souffle made the night! So light and airy with the chocolate sauce! Oh la la! They served us Macaroons to “snack” on while we waited for my Chocolate Souffle to rise!

Andrew also had the Lobster Bisque – which was a deeper red brown colour than mine so we knew they were different. He had prime rib and a key lime pie for dessert! All met his palate needs very well and he was quite pleased with his dinner too!

After that dining adventure we had to cool off! So we came back to the stateroom and watched a movie about penguins in the South Pole – it was narrated by Morgan Freeman and his DEEP voice – it was a really interesting movie to see how the penguins survive in such a cold and unforgiving climate!

All for now – see you all tomorrow for another day at sea and hopefully a balcony visit!

Today we woke up to a smooth sea, however it was a bit cloudy and no sunrise! As we are now heading south west-ish and we are on the port (left) side of the ship (boat for my dad just to tease him) it was kind of strange to experience no sunrise! All good though! Up bright and early as we are now 1 hour behind PST and does our body know that? NOPE! Wide awake before sunrise! Currently Honolulu where we are headed is 3 hours behind PST so I expect we will go back and hour every 2 nights so our arrival in Honolulu will be on Hawaiian Time.

Today, breakfast in the room was a bit of a disaster. I normally pre-order my breakfast as I have the same thing everyday. Then when Andrew figures out at night what he wants to have the next morning, we put it on the Room Service door hanger and add to please send my pre-ordered meal. Somehow the wires got crossed in the kitchen and they sent a double meal to me which was quite amusing – so I had two frittatas (one that I had ordered and one regular one with onions and chili flakes I do not care for), two bowls of cottage cheese and two bowls of fruit! I dislike getting extra food as it goes to waste! I really like the frittata on Holland America – it is an egg with spinach and asparagus and a little bit of goat cheese! The one good thing is that we moved from the little fruit plate and tiny square (about 1 tsp) of cottage cheese to now a small bowl of each – about 1/2 cup which is exactly what I like and I was able to tell the waiter that amount was perfect – but just one serving of each please!

Now, it was off to some arts and crafts for me and Andrew was going for his walk. The weather has warmed up a degree or two, however we have still not entered the “warm” zone yet. As we are traveling to warmer climates Andrew did not bring his sweatshirt with him so his thin rain jacket is all he has to protect him from the wind.

The crafts on deck for this morning are: Origami, crochet and then doodling! Then lunch and relaxing and some computer work this afternoon. Today is the day of the butterfly. So we did a butterfly Origami (mine really did not work out very well), and then we moved onto basic crochet. The class was VERY full – over 40 ladies attended! The instructor ran out of balls of yarn and had to scramble to find some left overs to share. Luckily there were about 10 people in the class like myself who knew how to crochet, so we were paired with at least one other new to crochet person as this class was to learn the fundamental stitches of chain, single and half double crochet. I helped a lady named Rose to learn how to crochet! We had lots of fun! Then the class area was turned over to a new instructor named Mailyn and she was in charge of Doodling. As it was butterfly day, we doodled a butterfly! She provided some examples on the overheard to start (I have never been to this kind of class before but know how to doodle), so I drew out one of the shapes and started. Then she sat down and drew a different shape and most of the class followed her and her design. I was on my own at that point! I have not completed my doodle as there was only time to do one wing (Mailyn’s had a butterfly at rest with just one wing displayed) were my butterfly was in flight with both wings open! It is a work in progress. I was unprepared for both the crochet and doodle classes as there was a problem with the Navigator app in the morning and the classes I had signed up for got switched to tomorrow and the ones that I had planned to take tomorrow ended up being today – so my crochet hooks and pens were down in the cabin and not with me. I can catch up later 🙂

We had a nice quick lunch in the Dining Room and met some new waiters who were lovely and well versed on serving someone with Celiac Disease. I must say that Holland America has the ordering and production of the meals as smooth process now and I am not that concerned about cross contamination as every time I ask a question, they get back to me with what I deem is a valid answer.

After lunch we took it easy and as it was cloudy out, we decided to check out the movies available on the nice 40 or larger TV in our stateroom. What better movie to play? Top Gun! Nothing like watching some planes land on air craft carriers at sea, similar to where we are presently cruising (no pun intended there)! We then started watching the sequel – Top Gun – Mavrick, however as tonight is a Formal(ish) night on the ship, we had to also get ready for dinner, so we put the end on pause and went to dinner first! Also tonight was the introduction of the key managers on the ship in the World Theatre,, which towers 3 decks high, below us in the bow of the ship. The Cruise Director is on the left and that is the Captain speaking, with his 2nd in command next to the Cruise Director and then the Hotel/Guest Manager, Chief Engineer and Environmental Officer. Lastly is the Future Cruise Specialists who wants us to all book another cruise with him! The Captain was fairly funny, joking around on stage. There are actually 800 staff on board from over 35 countries! He thought they should all join us in the theatre until the Cruise Director pointed out that some had pretty important jobs such as currently steering the ship and serving the guests!

Here is a sample of the food that I ate today – the GF “Farmers” soup at lunch with my bagel with provolone cheese was EXCELLENT! We each had a jumbo shrimp cocktail for dinner and then I had chicken and crème brûlée for dessert. My dessert was nothing to write home about as it was a salted caramel and I do not particularly like salted food, however Andrew partook in dessert too and ordered the GF Chocolate Ganache cake and it was WONDERFUL! I did not get a picture of it though!

Back in our stateroom we arrived to be greeted with our first towel animal – a pig or a dog – not sure which! It was really cute and had two Lindt chocolates at its hoofs/paws. We then watched the rest of the Top Gun – Maverick movie, filled out our Room Service card and hoped for a smooth breakfast service in the morning!

The seas tonight were quite calm and getting to sleep was very easy – too easy actually! We also set our clocks back another hour, so at 2am tomorrow morning, we will now be 2 hours earlier than Vancouver Daylight Savings time. Honolulu is currently 3 hours ahead of Vancouver Daylight Savings time. So it looks like we have another hour to go back yet before we arrive in Hawaii!

Catch you all tomorrow!

Today is Thanksgiving Day and we started the morning with both a beautiful sunrise off the port side (which gave me an indication of the direction we were traveling) and an announcement from the Cruise Director whose is Mexican however signs off every announcement with ciao, ciao! like he is Italian! Quite interesting in this multicultural city at sea.

We had what I would call light to medium swells night at sea, which was confirmed by the captain at noon when he told us we were heading into 2.5 to 3 metre seas and trying to avoid a storm by heading west first and then more south to Hawaii to avoid a storm. We are currently cruising at 13 knots during the day however it is our impression that he puts the throttle up at notch at night!

Today I set out early to get my manicure and pedicure done while Andrew walked around the deck a couple of times which he found cold and blustery (he normally walks each day at home to Jericho Beach). Then we met for lunch and at 2pm I hosted a “Meet at Greet” on the ship for those who belong to the online group called “Cruise Critics”. We met all the people we had been chatting with over the last 18 months! I also, with another lady, ran a little trivia game with Canadian prizes (it was Thanksgiving after all) and it seems a good time was had by all! I had booked space for 40 people, had enough name tags for 50 people and 38 people showed up! Only minor issue is that someone on Holland America did not READ the meeting request properly and set the space up for 14 people! So we were a bit squished in the area. However we were in the Crows Nest on the 10th deck facing the bow so the view was great! I was amazed how many Canadians and people from the UK were on board!

After the Meet and Greet, there was supposed to be a Ukulele show on the Lido deck, which I found to be a family affair! A mother was talking about the origins of the ukulele and then playing it, while her daughter then did some hula dances. It was quite nice, although I was disappointed that they were not offering ukulele lessons like on our previous voyage to Hawaii.

After that cultural experience, which I really like that Holland America brings these Cultural Ambassadors on board the ship for this part of the crossing, we had some time in our stateroom where I fought with my new yarn and trying to get it nicely into a ball (was not successful) and then we went to Thanksgiving Dinner. It was a casual night tonight and while I did wear a nice skirt, I wore my Canad EH ian t-shirt which did not impress Andrew! I thought it was appropriate attire for the evening! Cruise ships have become way less formal for dinner these days and no one blinked an eye – in fact lots of people liked my shirt!

Dinner was awesome, aside from the cold berry soup. I like berries but decided that I do not like cold berry soup for an appetizer! Oh well, something tried for sure! The turkey dinner was unbelievable – the turkey I could cut with the side of my fork it was so tender! While this plate shows only a TINY square of cranberry sauce and gravy – two more soon arrived which made my evening! The fact that I got a double serving of petite chou’s (brussel sprouts) also made my night! Of course I adopted Andrew’s as well as he had turkey dinner too. Dessert was a coconut rice pudding – light and small – just perfect end to the meal!

After a fairly active day of walking (over 10,000 steps for me) we called it a night, filled out the room service menu for the next morning to have breakfast in the room and went to bed! The nice thing that happened in the evening, which the captain promised earlier in the day, was that the seas did calm down and we started heading south. So hopefully less tossing around tonight at sea for those who do not like the slight bumps! For me, bring them on! 🙂