richwmn

It’s Thursday afternoon, and we are now getting ready to begin the next segment of the cruise. This morning was an interesting time. I had to go into Fort Lauderdale and pick up something that was shipped for me to a friend. Leaving the ship was really no problem and I got a cab driver right away. The day was beautiful and the cab ride was nice. When we arrived I asked the driver for a phone number and told him I would need to go back to the port in a half hour or so. I met with my friend and got my package. I also had a nice visit. As I got to the lobby of the building I called the driver an got his voice mail. I thanked the desk lady who had actually received the package for me, she heard the voice mail and pointed outside where the driver was already waiting for me. The ride back to the port was fine. Once I got dropped off I showed my ‘in transit’ ticket and was directed to the proper area. As I passed one of the agents asked me if I had been on Nieuw Statendam in October. I acknowledged that I had and she told me we had been trivia partners a couple of times on that cruise. She said that when she got back she decided that she could handle working portside and applied. So there she was directing me to the waiting lounge. The first person I had shown my ‘in transit’ pass to directed me to the escalator which goes to the priority boarding area. When I got there, the person in charge wanted me to wait downstairs until I showed her my cabin card with 5*. She then allowed me to go the the priority area. I would think that any ‘in transit’ should be upstairs – but what do I know. I had to wait about 30 minute to board. Just before we were allowed to board, a lady came up and started moving people around. When another agent asked her what was going on, she replied that she had been doing this for 9 years so she didn’t need to be questioned about it. I did manage to get back aboard about 11:30 and got some lunch. I never did get a paper schedule for today, but here are the meals for tonight.

I joined a friend last night in Zuiderdam's Pinnacle Grill. She notified the hostess that we are both 5* when she arrived. Both accounts were properly credited before the meal ended.

It is Wednesday evening on Zuiderdam. It is nice seeing all the luggage in the passageway and know that I don’t have to get off the ship tomorrow. Earlier this evening I got the sticker and book for this segment. The tile came earlier this week. I attended the 4:30 trivia along with @Scrapnana and some others. Overall we did pretty good, getting a majority of the questions right. Sandra of the activity staff is doing most of the trivia sessions and is having fun doing it. After trivia was over Kathy said she was going to eat at the Pinnacle Grill alone so I asked if she would like company. We met at the Grill and had a very nice dinner together. Just like most dinners when there is good company and conversation it lasted a while and we missed the 6:00 pm science and nature trivia. We did make it to the 9:00 pm Motown Music trivia and did rather well with that one. It was billed as Motown, but maybe 1/3 of the songs were not Motown but were at least the correct time frame. I stayed in Billboard for a short while after trivia and listened to a couple of songs performed by Kaia and David. They are both talented musicians with good voices. The show was enjoyable. Tomorrow morning is Fort Lauderdale and errands. @Hygge!I haven't seen a schedule for tomorrow so I don't know yet.

I just left the afternoon EXC talk in the Main Stage. Today was a presentation on radio and its uses. It was an interesting talk, with (of course) some missing information. But it was a good way to fill an hour. Kimberly is an enthusiastic speaker and the time went quickly. Later today will be trivia. No real preparations for tomorrow. I do need to leave the ship for a while and hopefully that will be easy. I do hope it is a nice day tomorrow. Tonight’s menus for your pleasure

Casa Mission, it is local and very good.

It is a bright, warm day on Zuiderdam today as we make our way back to Port Everglades. The sun was rising after I went to breakfast this morning. Service at breakfast was great as always. We have a full day of activities today, here they are: And today we got the form for Future Cruise Deposits:

This morning's sunrise from Zuiderdam

Thanks again to @rafinmdfor publishing the Daily and providing the map(s). We are at sea today, and back in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow for the first turn around. Hope the weather is nice there since I have a couple of errands to run. Rich

It is Tuesday evening and the first segment of this adventure is almost over. Overall, it has been a very good day. Actually, from a standpoint of playing trivia, the day didn’t go to well. The first session was at 9:30 this morning and I was the only one that showed up. It was general trivia, but seemed pointed more to the younger guests and I didn’t do well. General trivia at 6:30 we did do better and we won. Next was movie trivia. This was held in the former Queens Lounge, now called Rolling Stone Lounge. It consisted of 25 pictures taken during the filming of movies, but not part of the movie. We didn’t win but did ok. Last was Disney movie music trivia. We listened to 16 snips of songs from Disney movies and had to answer with the song title and movie. With a total of 36 points possible, we got 9. I was no help at all on this one. The show on the main stage tonight was the Comedy of Steven Scott. He is a very funny, clean comedian who got a great reaction from the audience. He grew up in New York City and a big part of the act revolves around that fact. He also played a pretty good piano, but maybe the best part was his sound effects. Everyone I talked to enjoyed the show. We are still in Cozumel. All aboard is in just a few minutes and then we will be sailing off toward Fort Lauderdale. This will be a slightly different experience for me because I need to run a couple of errands in Fort Lauderdale. I usually just stay on the ship and go thru whatever procedure is called for. We’ll just have to see what happens.

The font is the same, I just adjusted the line spacing as suggested by Jo @WriterOnDeck

For those who asked for a font change, see if this is a little bit better. This morning I posted the daily events, which started with a Trivia at 9:30. I was by myself and didn’t do well at all. Interesting questions, some of which I’m sure we will run into again. The ship made her way to Cozumel with plenty of time to spare. We were cleared to go ashore about 15 minutes early (10:45am) and I was off shortly after that. I was picked up by a friend who lives in Cozumel and spent time there and had lunch at a nice local place. We then stopped by a local store and picked up a cable I forgot. Then it was back to the ship. While we were visiting, the rain came down pretty heavy for a bit, but by the time I walked from the car to the ship it was clear again. This evening’s menus:

Just got back from visiting with them. Had a nice days, spoke of several mutual friends. Rich

Zuiderdam current position 8:00 am

Good morning from (soon) Cozumel, Mexico. Last night I took a walk around and listened a bit to both Billboard and Rolling Stone. The performers in each venue seemed good and were a bit engaging. They each had a reasonable audience that they engaged with. Today is a long day in Cozumel. We are scheduled to arrive at 11:00am and sail away is 10:30pm. Cozumel is a nice port call and I will be spending time with some residents. Thursday is the first turn around day in Fort Lauderdale and I have to errands to run. Hopefully everything will go without a hitch. Have a great day everyone.

Once we got away from Grand Cayman the ship settled into a sea day routing. Aboard ship, the weather became nice so lots of people around the pools, and the roof was open. Tonight we had the the Jukebox Rouges again, this time doing “Masters of the Musicals”, another good show but again missing a member. The show is high energy and well done. We didn’t do well with trivia today, no where near enough to win but it was still fun. Trivia has been in the Billboard area and one nice thing is that the questions have been displayed on the various screens around the area so that if you can’t hear above the noise, a screen is nearby. The answers were displayed on the screens as well. Music Walk will be starting up shortly with a pub crawl and 9pm and the Orange Party starting at 9:45 in the Rolling Stone Lounge. I’m sure a lot of Orange will be displayed and everyone will have a good time.

As was mentioned earlier, we pulled away from Grand Cayman shortly after we arrived. So today has been a very lazy day at sea. A bunch of activities were added and showed up on Navigator very quickly. One of the added activities was an EXC talk: Islands of the Mind, which talked about the influence three people have had on the perception of the Caribbean. It was a very entertaining 40 minute multimedia presentation on Jimmy Buffett, Earnest Hemingway, and Ian Fleming. Once we got a little way from Grand Cayman the weather became nice. This evening’s menus

Taken from Zuiderdam

The Captain just announced that the weather conditions are to poor to tender into Georgetown. Thru the window it just looks overcast, but when I walked out on the aft Lido Deck a few minutes ago it was a steady rain and I could see a lot of motion on the tenders for Dream.

Monday December 26th, 2022 from Grand Cayman Island. I look out my cabin window and the first thing I see is a mouse. Actually what I see is Disney Dream. She is close to us and fills the horizon. It appears to be a nice day. Tendering is supposed to start in a few minutes but no announcement yet. Again I got a notice that 4 & 5 star Mariners could pick up priority tickets. I guess I’ll go ashore for a little bit. I generally enjoy the tender ride so it might be a nice diversion. I was a bit remiss last evening in not talking about the entertainment. Along with @scrap the trivia was fun. On the 6:30 trivia (Christmas Trivia) we tied and lost the tiebreaker. The question was to guess the number of guests below the age of 18. We guessed 450, the answer was 319 and another team guessed 301. We talked a minute about it and it sure seems like more than 319, but they are all well behaved. Elliot Finkel was the Main Stage entertainment again. I watched a bit of his Christmas show and enjoyed it. I particularly liked the mention of his brother and father. I hope everyone has a great day! Rich

Good morning from Georgetown, Grand Cayman Island. Thanks to Roy @rafinmd for posting the daily each day. I'm glad to see it continuing. Tenders will be starting shortly. It has been a very good cruise so far, but still a lot more to come. Happy Boxing Day everyone. Rich

This evening's meals are now available

Today's Activities:

I took a couple of pictures to show the industrial port we are docked at and how close it is to the tourist port. It is interesting that the port information we were given last night is about the tourist port.

We are docked at the industrial port, not the tourist port. As such there is nothing to do right at the ship. This is also where I docked 20 years ago the first time I visited Ocho Rios. My plans to stay on the ship have nothing to do with personal safety, more like 'been there, done that' several times. If we were at the tourist dock I might get off and check out the shops, but that is a 30 minute walk or short cab ride away. I talked to one CC member this morning that is doing a HAL tour to Dunn's River Falls, but have not talked to anyone else yet.

Currently aboard Zuiderdam. Your OBC on Navigator will show two balances, refundable and non-refundable. My Gratuities are being deducted from non-refundable balance. Non-Refundable OBC comes from either HAL or CCL (Stock holder, Military, etc) Refundable is OBC purchased by you or on your behalf by a Travel Agent or Friend.