Explore the world with Pete & Judy on the 2018 Holland America Grand World Voyage

Great Weather

Another great day at sea, as we continue to head towards Nuka Hiva. The weather has been fantastic; blue skies, a few puffy clouds, and calm seas with temperatures in the 70s.

Judy started today with her Tai Chi class while I signed up for Texas Hold 'em at 9 o'clock and went on to Coffee with Hamish in the Explorers lounge. Judy is enjoying the Tai Chi class. There are still one or two new people in each class. The instructor is teaching at an easygoing pace and they are able to catch up.

Coffee Chat

Fred Moore was the guest at the Coffee Chat this morning. He provided some interesting insight about how he got started in the magic business as well as what it's like to be a performer on cruise ships. The coffee chats are well attended and if you want a close seat you have to get there at least 15 minutes early. But even arriving at the last minute, seats are available in the back where you can still hear clearly and pretty much see what's going on.

Knitting

At 10 o'clock Knitting in the Crow’s Nest, I am continuing my knitting career. I'm at about 14 rows now. I have a pretty good feel for the basics of the knit stitch, but I have a difficult time evaluating my own work in determining whether or not I have made a mistake. Fortunately, Judy is always close at hand to provide expert instruction. I stayed longer than normal today because the Texas Hold 'em game at 10:30 filled up before I could sign up so I wasn't scheduled to play Texas Hold’em until 1:30 PM.

Lunch

After knitting Judy and I headed back to the Lido Market for lunch. I discovered that the Ramen bar that I enjoy is located on the other side of the Lido from where we normally go. It always pays to scope out both sides of the Lido Market as often times there are different food offerings on either side.

Judy enjoys getting a Panini sandwich made to order. The turkey and swiss panini is becoming her go to lunch. They also have premade sandwiches which are quite good and if you're in a hurry it’s convenient to grab one. The food in all the restaurants continues to be outstanding.

Ukulele class

After lunch, Judy headed up to her Ukulele class where the instructor, Kane, is doing wonderful job. The class has thinned out some so you can easily find a seat at either session.

Casino

While waiting for the Texas Hold 'em game to start, I donated $20 to the casino for the Slot Tournament. I know this isn’t a very good bet but I always seem to get caught up in it when they have one. They have yet to have a blackjack tournament and I'll be looking forward to the first one of those.

No luck for me today at Texas Hold 'em. I played two games and I didn't finish in the money in either one.

Drawing Class

Judy remains busy as she went directly to Drawing Class after her Ukulele Class. The Drawing Class is well attended but not so crowded you can't find a seat if you come right at the start time. The class is also structured in a way that if you join after the classes have already started you won't be completely lost and you'll be able to catch up and still learn. Today Judy learned to sketched movement and gesture from images projected on the screen.

Pub Trivia

Our dinner table mates met us at Pub Trivia at 5 PM in the piano bar. The piano bar is crowded for people playing trivia with 6-8 teams already formed. Our team was able to find an open spot in the corner next to the bar. The assistant cruise director is the master ceremonies and she did a wonderful job. After all the questions have been read we exchange answer sheets with a nearby team for scoring. There is no prize for first place other than bragging rights and every participant receives a certificate with a notional value of $.10. You can see a copy of one of certificates on the blog under 2018 world cruise reference. At some point towards the end of the cruise you will exchange your pile of gift certificates towards real Amazon gift certificates valued at five dollars increments so if you played the trivia every day for a hundred days you would get an Amazon Gift Certificate for $10.

There was a little controversy at the conclusion of the game regarding the final question and answer. The question was to name five countries in Africa that bordered on the Mediterranean Sea. One person in one of the groups wrote down Israel, which was not one of the countries that was listed as a correct answer. Afterwards I overheard some discussion between the person and the assistant cruise director as to whether or not this was actually an acceptable answer. He went on and on debating the point even though the outcome of the game had no significance towards anything as everyone gets a $.10 gift certificate regardless of who finishes first or last. I didn't stay around to observe how this ended. Our group had a score of 12 which is probably in the top third of everyone present but we had a great time and will probably do it again throughout the cruise.

Dinner

We were joined for dinner tonight by Fred Moore, the magician and comedian who we saw perform a few days ago. He grew up in Northeast Ohio not too far from Cleveland where I am from. As soon as he could, he headed south to Florida, near Orlando, due to the better weather and the better prospects for getting work in his field. After a few years he was able to earn his full-time living in his chosen profession. He will perform once more before we arrive in Tahiti and we are looking forward to the show.

Queens Lounge

Tonight in the Queens lounge was a violinist from Budapest named Tom Suha. The show opened with his rendition of one of my favorite songs from Phantom of the Opera; Music of the Night. He put on an excellent show playing many popular genres from Rock to Classical to Gypsy to Broadway shows. The entertainment on this Grand World Voyage continues to excel and we always enjoy the opportunity to see performances that would not come near our home.

Hair Dryers and More

There have been some questions about the hair dryers and make-up mirrors in our state room. I’ll let Judy answer those questions:

Hi, Judy here. Let me start by saying that last Spring, Pete bought me one of the expensive new Dyson hair dryers. I love it a lot, but it’s too big and heavy to take on our travels. There is a hair dryer in each cabin that is a 1600 watt dryer. It plugs into the outlet at the desk. I’m not a fan of drying my hair in the ‘living area’ of our cabin – who needs my stray hairs flying around the sofa, chair and table. I use the dryer installed on the wall in the bathroom. The motor/fan isn’t that strong and it takes a little longer to get my hair dry. AND, the area where you hold it becomes so hot that I wrap it in a wash cloth to make it more comfortable to hold. I have a small travel hair dryer I could pack, but it takes up ‘valuable’ room in my suitcase.

The mirror provided has one side at normal magnification and the other side is 5x. There is also the mirror that is attached to the desk. It has the normal and 5x magnification sides and has light ring around both sides to give extra illumination. I pack my normal / 10x magnification hand mirror and use it exclusively, but that’s just my preference.

Pictures on the blog - along with all menus and location guides

Day 11, At Sea

Endless Summer

“Every day’s a holiday and every meal’s a feast.” That's what life is like on a World Cruise on the Amsterdam. Long cruises like these remind me of the movie Endless Summer.

Sunday Brunch

Today is Sunday which means no Tai Chi in the Queens Lounge, but there will be the special Sunday Brunch in the main dining room. We have to make a point to go to a Sunday Buffet sooner than later because the days on a world cruise have a way of slipping by and activities you plan to do later (because it's such a long cruise) may be put off forever. We don’t want to be three days from Fort Lauderdale and realize that we never went to the Sunday buffet or we never did this or never did that. My advice to all is to sample everything early in the cruise so you can find out what you like or don’t like while you still have time to adjust your routine.

Coffee Chat

I stopped by the Explorer’s Lounge to catch the Coffee Chat with Cruise Director Hamish. The guest today was Abby from America’s Test Kitchen. She gave a wonderful interview and it was great to learn more about her background and what activities she was planning for this cruise.

Knitting

If it's 10 AM it must be knitting in the Crow’s Nest. I am continuing to go every day and I am making slow but steady progress. I emphasize the word slow but I am making progress. My knitting instructor, Judy, is encouraging me to start purling but I don't feel I'm ready for that yet, maybe tomorrow. I did learn how to cast on some extra stitches today so now my project is a little bit wider. Meanwhile the other two new knitters, Dawn and Margaret, are racing ahead with their projects and they are already purling. I am, however, far ahead in the men's knitting division.

Judy gave a brief demonstration of weaving in ends. She will give a more in-depth lesson tomorrow.

Texas Hold’em

After knitting I headed down to the casino for the first of the day’s two games of Texas Hold 'em. I lost the first game, but won the second game with amazing hand where I caught a third king on the river. I probably should have folded earlier when my opponent raised after the flop when a pair of eights appeared. I felt lucky because I continued to bet my pocket pair of Kings and was rewarded on the river. It’s always risky to bet feelings rather that facts, but today it worked out.

One of the nice benefits of playing Texas Hold 'em on a world cruise is that the stakes are low enough and the games frequent enough that you can afford to experiment with certain plays you may not make otherwise. It's all in good fun, and the regular players are coming together in a nice social atmosphere and we are all having a great time.

Crossing the Equator

At 10:21 AM we crossed the equator. Captain Mercer mentioned that we will cross the equator a total of four times this cruise with traditional ceremony delayed until the last crossing off the coast of Africa.

Pod of Dolphins

We are in our cabin this morning when the bridge announced that there was a pod of dolphins off the starboard side. When we went to look we couldn't see any and we later heard from other passengers that by the time they made the announcement the dolphins were already behind the ship and not visible to people looking immediately off to the side.

Lunch

For lunch we sat by the Lido pool. I enjoyed a grilled tuna steak while Judy had another Turkey & Swiss Cheese Panini. All our food continues to be exceptional and the sandwich maker is a nice touch because Judy can get her sandwiches exactly the way she prefers them.

Drawing Class

While I was playing cards in the afternoon, Judy was at the drawing class in the Wajang theater. Today they had a live model: Connor - who plays keyboards with the Amsterdam orchestra. Although he was fully clothed, several of the ladies were offering tips consisting of Grand Activity Vouchers (worth 10 cents) if he would remove his shirt. His shirt remained on.

Judy is enjoying the drawing class and while the room is mostly full, it is one of the activities that doesn't require you to get there early to get a seat.

Crafts Continues to Sell Out

The drawing class goes from 1:30 PM until about 2:15 PM, but by the time Judy gets to the Lido Market (where crafts starts at 2:30 PM) she is often too late to get one of the 100 craft kits allocated per day.

Pub Trivia

Most of our tablemates assembled this afternoon for the 5 o'clock pub trivia held at the piano bar. We had a great time but probably finished in the bottom half of the groups. No one was able to correctly identify the name of Capt. Hook’s ship of Peter Pan fame. The correct answer is the Jolly Roger.

Dinner

Dinner continues to be one of the highlights of the day. Our waiters, Deden and Billy, continue to exceed all expectations. A few days ago I received a comment on my blog from the previous occupants of table 303. I passed on their best wishes to Billy and Deden who were pleased to that their previous guests had such fond memories of their wonderful experience.

We always say that you must be careful what you ask for on a cruise ship, especially on the Amsterdam, and especially in the dining room. If you have any special requests, or if something is not quite right, all you need to do is let someone know and 99% of the time the crew will do whatever it takes to exceed your expectations. On our previous World Cruise in 2016 we enjoyed a dessert called the Cappuccino Bomb. While we are sure that it will appear on the dessert rotation eventually, yesterday we asked if we could get the Cappuccino Bomb this evening as the dessert does take a little lead time. As soon as we started to ponder our desert menus, we were pleasantly surprised as Deden and Billy appeared with Cappuccino Bombs for everyone at the table. It was as delicious as we remember and I'm sure the rest of the dining room will enjoy it when it appears as an option during the regular rotation. A special shout out to our good friend Linda for introducing us to this special treat in 2016.

Queens Lounge

Robbie Howard was the headliner in the Queens lounge this evening. He is a veteran of Las Vegas who had a show there for 11 years. He's a wonderful singer who puts on a one-man rat pack show where he sings hits imitating Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jim Morrison, Wayne Newton, Johnny Carson, Joe Cocker, Andy Williams, Elvis and more. The late show crowd always makes up with enthusiasm what it may lack in numbers. Everyone loved Robbie's show and we hope we will have a chance to see him again before he leaves the ship.

Tomorrow will be another great day at sea and will be our first Gala Ball with a black and silver theme and masks. Masks will be provided if you don't have one.

Community Bulletin Board

There is a community bulletin board maintained behind the librarians desk in the library. There is a picture on the blog showing the location along with another that zooms in on the current bulletin board.

Sounds like a lot of fun. Keep the posts coming, thanks much!

Day 12, At Sea

Settling into a routine

The eight days between Panama and Nuka Hiva will be the longest number of continuous sea days for the entire World Cruise. We enjoy sea days a lot and this long stretch coming early in the cruise gives us a chance to settle into our cabin and a daily routine. This is also a great time to meet new people and renew old acquaintances. Once we start hitting ports with more frequency, sea days can turn into a recovery day after a long day ashore.

The weather for our transit continues to be fantastic. The humidity and temperature are perfect with calm seas and light winds. We are hoping that the good weather will continue throughout our visits to the various Polynesian islands. Time will tell.

Tai Chi

Judy is continuing with her Tai Chi class while I attend the “Coffee Talk with Hamish” when scheduled. I also have to be at the casino cage a few minutes before 9 o'clock to get spots in the daily Texas Hold 'em tournaments. The tournaments are proving to be quite popular, so they often fill up as soon as the casino starts taking names.

Read the daily program

I should learn to follow my own advice about reading the program carefully every evening. I did scan the daily “When and Where” yesterday but I missed the event to make a Polynesian fiber and seashell bracelet. We didn’t realize this was scheduled until we were at knitting and people arrived proudly displaying their new bracelets. We'll scrutinize the daily When and Where more carefully going forward.

My knitting education continues at 10 AM daily in the Crow’s Nest. The knitting group ranges from between 6 and 10 people. I've learned to purl as well as knit but I'm taking it slow. Judy inspects my work after every row so if I do make a mistake I don't get too far before I have a chance to correct any errors.

Texas Hold 'em

I lost the morning game as well as the afternoon game. During the afternoon game I suffered what's called a "bad beat". I had a pair of Kings with another King appearing on the Flop and went All-In. My opponent had a single King and a Five but before the hand was over two more Fives appeared giving him a Full House and beating my Three of a Kind.

Lunch

The weather has been so nice that Judy and I are taking lunch by the Lido pool under the umbrellas near the bar. Judy got another custom-made sandwich while I enjoyed a Dive-inn burger and fries.

Drawing class

During today's drawing class Judy learned about spheres, ovals and volume.

Crafts

Judy made the craft cut today. She arrived a few minutes before the scheduled starting time, which normally means you will miss out as they will have normally run out of kits by then. Attendance was down slightly today and she was able to get a kit. She ‘mod podged’ a section of map to the back of a small clear plastic Cabochon that was glued to a finding as a pendant to wear with ocean colored beads.

Black and Silver Gala Night

Tonight was the first Gala Ball of the world cruise. The theme was Black and Silver with masks that were provided. The ball took place in the Queens lounge from 9:30 PM till 10:15 PM. At 10:15 PM they advertised there'd be a chocolate surprise with the details being kept secret. Having a ball at 9:30 PM required some adjustments to the normal evening schedule. The evening's entertainment usually takes place at 8:15 PM and 10 PM, but tonight the two shows are scheduled for 5 PM and 7:15 PM. With our fixed dining time at 8 PM we decided to go to the 7:15 PM show and arrive a little bit late for dinner. We weren't sure how the crowds would play out for these new times, so we arrived a half hour early to ensure that we get a seat close to the front row.

Sarah Chandler

Sarah Chandler, the saxophonist, and our dinner guest from a few days ago was the entertainer. Whenever we host one of the performers at dinner, our group will sit in the front row of the lower section as opposed to the front row of the upper section. We always like to support the entertainers particularly during the late show when the crowds can be a little lighter.

Sarah Chandler put on outstanding show, opening with an incredible rendition of Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty. She continued playing tunes from a variety of genres and demonstrating her talent on the soprano saxophone, the alto saxophone as well as a flute. Her final song was a powerful performance of the theme song from Riverdance. Sarah started out playing the flute and then finished on the Soprano Saxophone. The crowd erupted with applause at the conclusion and gave her a well-deserved standing ovation.

Dinner

Tonight's dinner featured Alaskan King crab legs, Filet Mignon with Lobster Ravioli and a Roasted Rack of Lamb. As expected the food and service continue to be fabulous. The dining room was decorated with a black and silver theme and each place setting was adorned with a mask. As always, the menus for all the dinners are posted on my blog.

The Masked Ball

We finished dinner about 9:45 PM and headed down to the Queens lounge for the Black and Silver Ball. Hamish, the cruise director, greeted us by the door and posed for a few pictures. The party was in full swing by the time we arrived. The orchestra sounded great and the dance floor on the lower level as well as on the stage were full of enthusiastic revelers. We caught a glimpse of Henk, the hotel director, cutting the rug with one of the guests. The Queens Lounge was almost full but there were still seats available around the edges and we found seats together for the people from our table. A few of us took to the stage to dance a few tunes but for the most part we sat and chatted and soaked in the ambience.

Chocolate Surprise

Promptly at 10:15 PM, waiters streamed into the Queen’s Room with the Chocolate Surprise. They were carrying trays full of an incredible variety of chocolate delights. We sampled a few but there were so many different kinds we didn't get a chance to taste them all.

The party continued well past the scheduled ending time of 10:15 PM and was in full swing at 11 PM when we decided to head back towards our cabin. Our first Grand Ball fabulous success.

Pillow Gift GrandVenture

Back in our cabin we discovered that we had another pillow gift. This time we received two boxed board games called “GrandVenture”, a “Fast Dealing Property Trading Game” which is a Monopoly type game tailored for the 2018 World Cruise. All the properties on the board were the various ports that we will visit with Baltic and Mediterranean replaced by the Cayman Islands and Costa Rica, Boardwalk and Park Place replaced by San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Dakar, Senegal. I've always enjoyed playing Monopoly, and I’d like to give this game a whirl, but it will take some convincing to get Judy to go along, as she is not a big fan of Monopoly.

Loving your reports.

Those masks look lovely.

Loving your reports.

Those masks look lovely.

More pictures from the ball are on the blog...

Thanks for following

Great masks.....and so many neat gifts.....!!!

Really enjoying your fun and informative blog.....thanks so much.....:)

Day 13, At Sea – Enroute to Nuka Hiva, 16 January 2018

A Lazy Day at Sea

The beautiful weather continues as we sail towards Nuka Hiva. There was a little more deck motion than there has been over the past few days, but only the people most prone to seasickness are probably affected. You see a few people walking around with patches behind their ears, but the front desk has yet to put out a bowl of green apples and soda crackers.

Room Service Breakfast

Our day begins with a hot room service breakfast. The room service hang tag menu for this Grand Voyage is identical to any other Holland America cruise and like our previous cruises room service staff is very accommodating towards handwritten changes to the preprinted menu.

Breakfast is always delivered on time and at the perfect temperature. Occasionally I will wander up to the Lido deck and get some French Toast, waffles or pancakes. I haven’t tried writing these requests on the hangtag menu, but I would guess there’s good chance if I did they would be delivered.

Tai Chi

Judy continues to enjoy her Tai Chi class. They may have to start blocking the door to prevent people who want to get an early seat for the follow-on lecture from entering during the Tai Chi class and disrupting the concentration of the students.

Coffee Chat

Martin Beaumont was the guest this morning for coffee chat. We learned that at one point his stage name was Dave Dave which he chose so it would be distinctive and easy to remember. He did mention that having a distinctive name can sometimes work against you if you had a bad show. He shared an amusing anecdote from experience on a Carnival cruise where he performed on the very first day while people were still checking in and the show bombed. He explained that unlike when you do poorly on land where you can simply go home, on a cruise ship you will be staying in the area for another week and have to suffer hecklers while lounging by the pool.

Texas Hold’em

I played three games of Texas hold ‘em today, winning one and losing the other two. For my winning game, it was down to myself and my Texas hold ‘em mentor and tablemate, Rick. At this point in the game the blinds are $3200 and $6400 and with a total of $40,000 in play the winner is decided more by luck than by skillful play. We did have an interesting finish because as it turned out for the last hand we both had exactly $20,000 left. I managed to pair up on the flop to beat Rick’s high card.

Knitting

I have learned knitting, purling and am starting to learn ribbing.

Judy is making great progress on her shawl called “Starting Point”, the details will be posted soon on her Ravelry page.

Lunch with Sarah Chandler

We sat by the pool again for lunch, and were pleased when Sarah Chandler walked by and was able to join us. As you recall, Sarah is an amazing saxophonist, performer and a wonderful person. Halfway through our lunch, Helen Wilding stopped by and joked that she was being mistaken for Sarah and was getting many compliments on her amazing saxophone performance. Helen is the amazing singer we saw earlier, and she does bear a resemblance towards Sarah.

Drawing Class

Judy is having agreat time in the drawing class. Todaythey learned how to draw an Owl. Shownin this picture is a humorous directions which say “Draw some circles – then drawthe owl”

Crafts

Judy made the craftscut today. There is a picture of the sampleand what her completed project looked like on the blog.

Pub Trivia

Our table assembled once again for pub trivia at 5 PM in the piano bar. We are having a good time playing but we certainly won’t win the best triva team contest anytime soon. One of our teammates, Dawn, knew immediately that an octopus had three hearts, much to our amazement. None of us knew that Deborah Winger was the voice of the character E.T.

Dinner

Prime rib was on the menu this evening and it was ordered by most of the people at our table. Judy likes to get an end cut and her request is always satisfied.

Queen’s Lounge

Martin Beaumont was the headliner this evening and he put on a fantastic performance. His first show was outstanding, and he managed to improve on his success with his second show which was even better.

More pictures on the blog, along with menus and daily programs

More pictures from the ball are on the blog...

 

Thanks for following

I know -- I catch up with that about 3 days.

Glad HAL has so many activities to keep people busy on all those sea days.

Loving your reports.

Day 12, At Sea

 

Texas Hold 'em

 

I lost the morning game as well as the afternoon game. During the afternoon game I suffered what's called a "bad beat". I had a pair of Kings with another King appearing on the Flop and went All-In. My opponent had a single King and a Five but before the hand was over two more Fives appeared giving him a Full House and beating my Three of a Kind ...

I don't understand.Weren't the two fives that appeared considered part of your hand as well, giving you a Full House too -- Kings over 5's?

A higher hand than 5's over Kings. I don't understand why the 5's weren't considered part of your hand.

I don't understand.Weren't the two fives that appeared considered part of your hand as well, giving you a Full House too -- Kings over 5's?

A higher hand than 5's over Kings. I don't understand why the 5's weren't considered part of your hand.

You are correct! I must have misremembered the cards in that hand......

How could you say you only had 3 of a kind. You had a full-house.

Dealt 2 kings, The flop showed 1 king and 2 fives. You should be telling us you had a Full-House, not Three of a Kind.

??

How could you say you only had 3 of a kind. You had a full-house.

 

Dealt 2 kings, The flop showed 1 king and 2 fives. You should be telling us you had a Full-House, not Three of a Kind.

 

??

i made a mistake

Day 14, At Sea

Only one more day at sea before we start a string of port visits through the French Polynesian islands. The weather remains remarkably mild and we are hoping it will stay this way during our upcoming port visits.

We are fully settled into our daily routine. Judy starts her morning with Tai Chi, followed by knitting and lunch then drawing class and arts & crafts. I start my day by attending the coffee chat when scheduled, then I join Judy for knitting in Crow’s Nest before I head down to the morning Texas Hold‘em game at 10:30 AM. We have been having lunch by the pool and Judy usually hits the sandwich bar while I move around between Dive-in burgers, the Ramen Noodle bar, or whatever may look good on the buffet line.

During Tai Chi the instructor is continuing to introduce the 24 steps. Today the instructor introduced the move called “Stroking the Pheasant”.

Coffee Chat

While Judy was at Tai Chi, I stop by the Explorer lounge for Hamish’s Coffee Chat. Today’s guest was Helen Wilding who performed a few days ago for the first time and will perform again this evening. Hamish does a wonderful job interviewing the guests. It’s always interesting to learn more about the background of the various entertainers.

Helen is a Mezzo Soprano and she explained that female vocalist’s voices may change in their mid-20s which makes it difficult for women to train as a Mezzo Soprano before that age.

Texas Hold’em

I had a good day with Texas Hold ‘em; losing in the morning but finishing second in the afternoon. Our group of regular Texas Hold ‘em players are very collegial and we’re having a lot of fun.

Knitting

I’m still waiting for my knitting to get relaxing. My progress is slow, and I emphasize the word slow, but I am getting the hang of it. I am going to have to do more than four rows a day to ever finish this project.

Drawing Class

The piano bar singer, Jamm, was the featured model during the Drawing Class this afternoon.

Blackjack Tournament

Before my second Texas Hold ‘em game this afternoon I took part in the first Blackjack tournament of the cruise. The Blackjack tournament consists of several qualifying rounds with each player starting with $1500 in tournament chips and playing seven hands. The total value of your tournament chips is recorded on a board and after all the qualifying rounds, which take place over three days, the people with the seven highest cash totals will reassemble for the finals. I was second highest after the qualifying rounds with $4800. During most cruises you usually need $7,000 to $8,000 to make it into the finals. Due to the light traffic in the casino this cruise, the amount of money needed to qualify was much less than normal. I expect that this will pick up as the cruise continues and we’ll see more participation during future tournaments. I finished second during the finals which earned me a consolation prize of a “Club 21” T-shirt. The winner received $500.

Crafts

Judy was able to make it to Crafts in time do the project. Crafts attendance remains high. Today she made bracelet out of climbing rope that she macraméd to a plastic clip.

Adagio

I had a chance to listen for a few minutes to a wonderful duet that is very popular on Holland America Ships: Adagio. Adagio consists of a violinist and pianist as the featured performers in the Explorer’s Lounge at 6:30 PM, 7:30 PM and 8:45 PM. They are incredible musicians and play a wide variety of classical tunes.

Moulin Rouge Dinner

Tonight, the main dining room featured the Moulin Rouge dinner, which was advertised as French infused and seductively styled. The dining room was decorated in a red and black theme with each table place set with a black or red hat. The waiters were also dressed to fit the theme with red and black outfits. The menu was filled with a variety of very tempting French dishes. You can see the menu with all the choices on the blog where the menus for each day are posted.

Helen Wilding

Helen Wilding was the featured performer in the Queen’s Lounge this evening. This was her second performance this cruise. She again dazzled the crowd with her incredible vocals. My favorite was a very moving rendition of a Les Misérables classic “On My Own.” She shared an interesting story with us about her visit to a small village in the Amazon rain forest while she was on another cruise. She met some young girls who love to draw a have a difficult time getting colored pencils. Helen remembered this and on her subsequent visit to the Amazon she brought 54 kg of colored pencils and other school supplies to give to the children of the village. She sang a beautiful song while photographs of her visit were displayed on large screens.

Love your details that you put into your reports and blogs.

Love your details that you put into your reports and blogs.

Thanks, I try to make them useful references as well as entertaining...

Here is a quick post. Arrived Nuka Hiva!

http://www.theinsidecabin.com

Day 15, At Sea, Enroute to Nuka Hiva

Digital Workshop

While Judy was at Tai Chi, I decided to attend one of the Digital Workshops that are offered on all Holland America Ships. There are 4 sessions per day, usually at 9:30 and 10:30 and repeated at 2:30 and 3:30. Claudia, the Digital Workshop Host, is also available for individual Q and A once a day – hours posted in the daily “When and Where”.

The session I attended was titled “Collaborate with OneNote”. One Note is a very useful program that is part of the Microsoft Office Suite and is also available as a stand-alone program. I use it to keep my tour confirmations, receipts, travel emails, etc all in one place. It will also synchronize everything across all your platforms, so if you keep you tour confirmations in One Note on your laptop, the same documents will also be available on your iPhone or iPad or wherever else you are running a copy of One Note.

I have been using One Note for years, and am familiar with the program. As expected the digital workshop class was geared towards first time users. I was more interested in learning about the workshops structure and facilities, but I always learn something new in any computer class I have ever attended regardless of how basic it may appear on the surface.

I hadn’t originally planned to attend today, but I walk by the Digital Classroom every morning on my way to the casino. There is always a queue, and this morning I decided to stop by around the time the class started to see if there were any seats available. This morning at 8:45 AM, 45 minutes before the scheduled start time, there were already a few people lined up. When I stopped back at 9:28, there were about 20 people in line. I headed to the back of the line and was a little surprised to find about 25 workstations available. With so many workstations, it’s not clear to me why people were lining up so early, especially when there were only a couple of places to sit while you were waiting.

The classroom is very bright, well ventilated with a large (probably around 27 in), modern touch screen monitors at each of the 25 or so work stations. There is a large 55-60 inch monitor at the front of the room with another on the side wall and they both display the instructors work station. Each workstation has a full-sized keyboard and mouse.

I won’t expand on the details of the One Note class here, but I found it very well presented, at the level appropriate to the intended audience, with ample opportunity to ask questions. I was very favorably impressed and would recommend these classes to anyone who wants to learn something more about the topics scheduled.

Claudia was very friendly, approachable and quite knowledgeable about the subject matter. She was skilled at explaining what could be very complex in an easy to understand manner.

Knitting

The Crow’s nest Sit and Stitch attracts anywhere from 6-10 people from 10 AM to around 11:30 or so. People are always coming and going. I get there around 10 am and knock off a few rows before heading down to Texas Hold’em at 10:30.

Lunch by the pool

If you were in the shade today, it was pleasant, but if you were laying in the sun, it got hot pretty quickly. Many sun lovers were taking advantage of the intense rays and were staying cool with frequent dips in the pool.

I had the grilled catfish with mixed vegetables while Judy had another of her favorite custom-made Turkey Panini Sandwiches.

Texas Hold'em

I didn’t place in the morning Texas Hold’em game, but I won the afternoon game – we did only have 6 people rather than 10, but a win’s a win!

Go Pro Vacation Workshop

Judy and I stopped by the Go Pro Vacation workshop in the Piano Bar after lunch. The Photo Staff was there demonstrating all the wonderful features of the HERO 5. It is a very nice camera but we have a Go Pro 1 and 3 and while they are very useful for certain applications we don’t use the ones we have that much right now.

Fashion Show

There was a Fashion Show scheduled for the Ocean Bar at 2:00 PM. One of our tablemates, Margaret, was scheduled to be one of the models, so Table 303 would of course arrive in force. A DJ and an MC warmed up the crowd before the show which started promptly at 2 PM. The bar was not well lit, but a good time was had by all.

Margaret explained later that since she was a model she had the opportunity to buy the $80,000 sapphire and diamond earrings one of the other models wearing for only $40,000! She decided to take a pass.

Pub Trivia

Table 303 is becoming a regular fixture at the 5 PM pub trivia. We have a good time, but rarely beat the average score let along compete with some of the best teams who seem to get perfect scores with regularity. Everyone is donating their Grand Activity Vouchers to me which I am saving up to buy a car at the end of the cruise.

Dinner with Helen Wilding

Helen Wilding was our dinner guest this evening. She is a wonderful conversationalist and we all enjoyed learning more about her background and how she got started in the cruise ship entertainment business.

Note: More and more people are inviting entertainers to dinner, so sometimes it can be difficult to find an opening on their schedules.

Queens Lounge

The HAL singers and dancers took center stage tonight with another wonderful show called “Variations.”

They performed songs from a variety of genres – Opera, Pop, Rock as well as many classics. This cast is especially talented, and we are looking forward to seeing them again and again over the rest of the cruise.

Stargazing

One of the guest lecturers scheduled an “Evening of Star Observation” at the Seaview Pool at 11:00 PM. We were looking forward to seeing the Southern Cross so we hurried to the Seaview Pool a few minutes before 11 PM. There were about 75 people assembled facing the southern sky. The deck lights remained on making it difficult but not impossible to see the stars. At first, I wondered why they didn’t douse the lights to facilitate viewing, but as I thought about all the people who would then be stumbling around amongst other people and deck chairs I realized that leaving the lights on was the correct decision.

The Guest Lecturer was able to shout over the crowd and using gestures and a laser pointer he pointed out the Southern Cross and a few other celestial highlights.

I will try going to a higher public deck some evening and may be able to find a spot with less ambient light. During my Navy days, we would routinely “darken ship” every evening. There were some nights where the night sky was breathtaking, and we could see the stars without any pollution of ambient light.

We were pleased to discover that Judy’s iPhone app called “SkyView” worked on the ship without being connected to the internet. We had to set the location manually – Tahiti was the closest option, but that proved to be close enough and the app was able to highlight the Southern Cross and other celestial features. As with anything new, please try apps out at home before you leave on your cruise. Trying to learn a new app at 11:00 PM at the Seaview Pool can cause unnecessary stress.

Good luck with winning the car, any model in mind?

Allan

Love your reports. Never boring.

Buy a car, LOL. On our first world cruise I realized the complete lack of value of our the damn dollars. If you scrounged and saved by cruise end you might have $30 in Amazon cards yet people acted like they were pure gold. I watched people crawl around on the floor when Bobby Wilson threw a bunch in the air. These were people, in some cases paying $100k to go on the cruise, go figure. Marketing at its best.

A Corvette!

Pete and Judy,

Love following you, your writings are so full of details and so much fun to read and everything is so well organized.

Have a question, to post the W&W as well as the Menus, do you scan the papers you receive? if so, how? do you have a scanner with you? How many hours of internet time did you signed up for? I know connections are pretty slow on board!

Thank you for all the time and money you invest on doing this.

Pete and Judy,

 

Love following you, your writings are so full of details and so much fun to read and everything is so well organized.

 

Have a question, to post the W&W as well as the Menus, do you scan the papers you receive? if so, how? do you have a scanner with you? How many hours of internet time did you signed up for? I know connections are pretty slow on board!

 

Thank you for all the time and money you invest on doing this.

I have an Epson Perfection V39 Scanner to scan everything. I bought the 1000 minute package which gives you a 10pct bonus...

This years internet speed is much improved over 2016. Upload speed is pretty good.