John and Diane are at it Again!

[lindaler]

Love following your blog and can't wait to hear what adventures you have in Peru tomorrow. We will be there later this year and just want to explore the city.

[TiogaCruiser]

In 2012 we visited Monticristi and I bought a panama in its own box, ..grest purchse and the box iss so useful when travelling. We are flying into Chile in a few weeks to pick up a cruise, but bringing in¨wood¨ into the country is on the prohibited list...I´m in a quandry now about packing my Panama.....any advice anyone?

 

Sandy in Spain

 

Slip it in a mailing tube then in your suitcase or carryon.

[Johnny B]

Tuesday, January 14 - Day 11

Callao (for Lima), Peru

 

Although we’ve been in Lima before, it was only briefly, on the way to and from Machu Picchu in 2010, so since we have 2-1/2 days here, we really want to see as much as possible - actually, that should be our middle name. We never understand people who stay on the ship, saying “But I’ve been here before.” Heck, there are places in San Luis Obispo, where we live, that we haven’t seen, so we just keep looking.

 

As I mentioned before, one of the best things about world cruises (there are too many to list) is that the shuttles to the good places are free. While in Callao, we can be shuttled from the ship to the Miraflores area of Lima, about 45 minutes away. We were dropped off in front of the Marriott Hotel and the H. Stern jewelry store, where we were immediately offered Pisco Sours by the H. Stern staff. If you’ve never tried one, you should - it’s like a Peruvian Margarita and so yum.

 

We walked across the street to what we thought was a park overlooking a beautiful beach, but then discovered a set of stairs that took us down to a huge mall which could have been anywhere in the United States. There were all the familiar brands: Gap, Quicksilver, Pinkberry yogurt, Starbucks, KFC - you name it, it was there, but with a better view than almost any other mall we’ve seen. On the ocean side of the mall there were some restaurants with terraces that crept down the hill toward the ocean - with prices to match. I wanted a new swimsuit, but would you believe it? There wasn’t one store that sold one-piece swimsuits, and I’m waaay too old to wear the ones they WERE selling.

 

After exploring the mall, we found a lovely taxi driver named Amparo and arranged a 3-hour tour of the Old City with her. We do love private tours; they’re less expensive and we don’t have to be on a bus with 50 people and wait 20 minutes to get on and get off. It’s amazing how much you can learn from a taxi driver. We drove the half hour downtown and she gave us a driving tour of the major sites: Plaza de Armas, the cathedral, the President’s Palace, etc. Then we parked the taxi and began a walking tour, which we would never have enjoyed from a huge bus. One of my favorite parts of the tour was going into small Indian shops, where paintings, crafts, alpaca weavings and the ever-present tee-shirts could be found. The sales people were clearly descended from the indigenous Peruvian people, being less than 5 feet tall with shiny black hair and wide faces. The women had the most beautiful long braids hanging down their backs.

 

After seeing much of the downtown, including the mysterious block-long line feeding into a local bank (we never did find out why), Amparo asked if we wanted to see another church or go to lunch. Gosh, there’s a tough question. I think it took us about 1-1/2 seconds to say “Lunch!” She led us down a pedestrian mall to a restaurant called Gourmet Peru, where we all sat outside and enjoyed the breezes blowing through. The menu was extensive, including one of the Peruvian specialties: cuy, or guinea pig. Yes, I know you’re going “Yuck!” but it’s very popular here (it probably tastes like chicken). We didn’t order it, but we did order some local specialties, with a beef stew for John, arroz con pollo for me (with enough rice to feed a small nation), and local fish for Amparo. We also found that the menu items came with starters and dessert - for about $7.00 each, including a beer or a soft drink. John had the beer, of course, I had sparkling water, and Amparo had Inca Cola, a very popular drink in Peru which we first saw at Machu Picchu. The lunch was wonderful and incredibly filling. We decided there and then that we’d skip dinner - right!

 

After returning to the ship and taking the requisite nap, we headed up to the aft Lido deck where one dinner choice tonight was a lovely barbecue on board. There were shrimp skewers, barbecue ribs, pork steaks, and huge chunks of sirloin cooked on enormous skewers and sliced for serving. All of this was accompanied by potatoes, rice (with more shrimp), salad, seviche, some of the best mango I’ve ever tasted, and a 4 x 8” table covered with desserts. Did we participate? Of course.

 

It was a wonderful day and we love Lima. Tomorrow we’re going with our friends Larry and Cheryl to Pachacamac, extensive pre-Incan ruins about a half hour away. It should be wonderful, but we’ve decided that we need to fast for the next week.

 

P. S. "Amen" is the correct answer. Good job!

[cruz chic]

I remember that mall looking over that beach like it was yesterday. So fun to hear of places I've been to. Thank you. Can't wait to hear more.

[lostatsea200]

Love your blog, for your information there is a great supermarket about 5 blocks inland from the Marriott also two great native craft market less that 10 blocks from the hotel. If you like to walk both are easy to do.

[Cruise NH]

First is Barbie, our very favorite. We’ve been sharing tables with her since 2007 and just really enjoy spending time with her. Barbie, who lives just outside of Washington, D.C., was trained in the sciences at university, and then later in life worked for the IRS, heading the group that developed on-line filing. After retiring from the IRS, she worked as a contract employee for a company that did business with the IRS, and since 2000, she’s traveled on the world cruise every year. In 2010, Barbie was inducted into the President’s Club, for which travelers need 1400 days at sea. Her favorite activity is dancing, and she is just graceful and wonderful at it.

 

.

 

I love your posts, I dream of one doing the same myself!

 

I'm retired IRS, and of course have been trying to think of who this is. I worked in Product Assurance...she'll know what that is. So I also sent it on to two of my fellow retired former IRS friends and we came up with a guess. I don't want to put a name in here of course. But our guess is the last name is very short...true?

[Johnny B]

Wednesday, January 15 - Day 12

Callao (for Lima) Peru

 

On four world cruises, this is the longest port stop we’ve ever made. We’re here for 2-1/2 days, but it’s for a good reason. The Machu Picchu tours didn’t leave until yesterday morning (rather than from Manta, Ecuador) and they will return late tomorrow morning, just in time for our departure at 12:00. Of course if the tours are late, we’ll just sit tight until they arrive.

 

Today was another long day, but a really good one. After watching the Prinsendam come into port, John and I, along with Cheryl and Larry, took the ship’s shuttle into Miraflores, where Cheryl and Larry had arranged for a car and driver to take us to Pachacamac, a pre-Incan settlement from 700 A. D. Apparently after the Incas came in and conquered the local tribes, they took over the entire settlement and simply built on top of the existing buildings. The ruins are not as well defined as those at Machu Picchu or even in Egypt, but it was interesting to see how they had combined temples and residences as well as how they brought water in from nearby rivers and springs through a complicated set of channels.

 

When one does independent tours, there can be hitches, and that’s what happened today. We wanted to use Amparo, our guide from yesterday, but Cheryl and Larry had already arranged with a lady at H. Stern jewelry to book Javier, a friend of hers. What we didn’t know was that Javier spoke about five words of English, and our Spanish wasn’t so hot. He was a good driver, however, so we got out to Pachacamac easily, but then couldn’t book a guide without waiting an hour. The final straw was when we ran into Amparo, who not only had brought two ladies on a tour, but she had booked a tour guide for them. We had called her last night to tell her that our friends had already made arrangements, but we were all very sorry we hadn’t come with her. Such is life.

 

Anyway, we drove from site to site within the archeological area, reading what was written in English and then hiking about a half mile uphill to the top of the Temple of the Sun. We had been hesitant because it was really hot and humid, but once we got up there it was all worth it. We could see everything: the ocean, the mountains, the city, the rivers and the entire site. On the way down, we ran into Amparo again, who was waiting for her clients to see the site with their guide - grrrr!

 

Once we’d seen as much as we could, we headed back into Lima, with a stop at the Huaca Pucllana, an archeological site that was active between the 5th and 8th centuries CE. It’s huge, covering an entire city block, and it looked like the workers were taking scattered adobe bricks and putting them back into their original form.

 

Finally we arrived back to Miraflores, and since it was almost 3:00, we decided it was time for lunch. We went to Mango’s, a restaurant in that very trendy and upscale shopping center, and the great thing about this one (besides the food) was that the dining areas were on a terrace down the cliff from the rest of the buildings - and it overlooked the ocean. Fabulous! We ordered one starter and a main to share, along with Pisco sours, and boy were they strong! I drank about half of mine and then had John finish it. Because of the beautiful setting, a couple of Peruvian families wanted to take photos, so John became the family photographer. What a great afternoon!

[Johnny B]

Thursday, January 16 - Day 13

Callao for Lima, Peru

 

If you want to rile up the natives on a world cruise, the best way to do it is to make the internet unavailable. Better yet, let passengers log in but not let them be able to access any websites, thereby chewing up minutes to no purpose. Boy do they get cranky! After I wrote yesterday’s blog, I tried to post, and the only result was that I lost the last paragraph, which apparently has gone into the ether somewhere. Then John tried to post on Facebook with much the same result. As we wandered around the ship, it was clear: the natives were restless.

 

There were only 5 of us at dinner last evening, so when Henk, the Hotel Manager, came by, we invited him to sit down and join us. When asked about the internet, he replied that everyone, up to and including the CEO was aware of the problem and they were not only working on getting it fixed (remember, this is the new and improved internet) but they would be doing something to make it up to people. I guess that means extra minutes, since those minutes have just been going down the tubes with futile efforts to communicate. It’s amazing how attached we get to our electronics!

 

As we were heading for our table last evening, I was grabbed and raised off the ground in a bear hug by my favorite bear, George Geary. George is a guest chef until Tahiti, and we just love him to death. We first met him in 2008 and have seen him several times since, the last being at our house for dinner in August with his partner Neil and their friend Jonathan. If you want to laugh so hard you almost can’t eat, invite George to dinner. The most incredible thing was when he emailed me later that week to ask for the salmon recipe. It turns out that he doesn’t like seafood (I didn’t know that), but he loved the marinated salmon. I’ve never had a chef ask ME for a recipe before. He was sitting at Jeff’s table last night, but we get him tonight. After dinner the three of us met in the Crow’s Nest to catch up on all the news (read: gossip) and were there until almost midnight. Several of my friends and I are signed up for his first class on January 20 and won’t even consider missing his Wajang Theatre presentations.

 

This morning we walked over to the Peruvian Market near the ship to get some free (and working) internet, but there were too many people already on, so we used the ship’s shuttle to go to the Inca Market near the gate. Free working internet - what a treat! I finally got to post yesterday’s blog, but afterwards I realized that the last paragraph had disappeared. Oh well, it wasn’t that interesting anyway. On the way back, we watched boxes and crates of foodstuffs being loaded onto the ship. John pointed at one group and said, “That’s Bonipak from Santa Maria.” It certainly was, and the more interesting part of that is that the owner of Bonipak is our neighbor Mitch. I can’t wait to get home (well, really I can) to tell him that we partook of his products.

 

* * * *

 

By 11:45 everyone was back on board, including the Machu Picchu people and the new entertainers. The weather was beautiful and the back deck was jammed for the sailaway party. They always serve hot hors d’oeuvres, and lately they’ve had bacon-wrapped scallops - delicious. Today there was even a raffle for Peruvian prizes, including buckets of Peruvian beer and woven purses. I didn’t win (I never do), but it was great fun and everyone seemed to have a good time.

 

By 12:45 the crowd had dissipated and it was time for lunch. John and I and George sat near the midships Lido pool, our conversation constantly being interrupted by people wanting to greet George. Tomorrow’s his first demo and I’m sure it will be great.

 

We’ve now sailed and are already out beyond landfall. It’s been a busy two days and very tiring - but extremely interesting. I think a nap is in order.

[Spinner2]

Interesting about the internet; while the Statendam was in Callao in November we too had the internet down for a lot of the 2 and a half days we were there; we were told that new hardware and software was being installed. And, we weren't given any advance notice either. I did hear a little talk among staff members that as they change providers the new one isn't fully "on" yet and the former one has lost interest in the contract since it will soon end. I'm not sure how true this is, but our internet was the worst access ever. I'm not talking about speed; we know about that issue; I'm thinking of how often it was down and how poor the hot-spot access often was. There's lots of work needed, it seems.

 

FYI, for others in the future, if you're at the Indian Market in the Miraflores area, (many people from the ship came via taxi here but the shore excursion drops people here too) across the street you'll see a large electronics mall. Outside it looks like a big electronics superstore, but inside it has lots of small booths with major brands you'll recognize. I headed for the local Apple reseller (Apple doesn't have a store in Lima it seems), held up my iPhone and asked if I could use their internet. The manager entered the password on my iPhone when I held it out and provided a chair for me; good access for as long as I wanted to sit there. I told a fellow passenger I happened to see nearby and she had just as much success there with her iPad. Other vendors of different brands are in this mall; I'm sure they'd do as much for one of their customers.

[orangenemo]

Thursday, January 16 - Day 13

Callao for Lima, Peru

 

If you want to rile up the natives on a world cruise, the best way to do it is to make the internet unavailable. Better yet, let passengers log in but not let them be able to access any websites, thereby chewing up minutes to no purpose. Boy do they get cranky! After I wrote yesterday’s blog, I tried to post, and the only result was that I lost the last paragraph, which apparently has gone into the ether somewhere. Then John tried to post on Facebook with much the same result. As we wandered around the ship, it was clear: the natives were restless.

 

There were only 5 of us at dinner last evening, so when Henk, the Hotel Manager, came by, we invited him to sit down and join us. When asked about the internet, he replied that everyone, up to and including the CEO was aware of the problem and they were not only working on getting it fixed (remember, this is the new and improved internet) but they would be doing something to make it up to people. I guess that means extra minutes, since those minutes have just been going down the tubes with futile efforts to communicate. It’s amazing how attached we get to our electronics!

 

As we were heading for our table last evening, I was grabbed and raised off the ground in a bear hug by my favorite bear, George Geary. George is a guest chef until Tahiti, and we just love him to death. We first met him in 2008 and have seen him several times since, the last being at our house for dinner in August with his partner Neil and their friend Jonathan. If you want to laugh so hard you almost can’t eat, invite George to dinner. The most incredible thing was when he emailed me later that week to ask for the salmon recipe. It turns out that he doesn’t like seafood (I didn’t know that), but he loved the marinated salmon. I’ve never had a chef ask ME for a recipe before. He was sitting at Jeff’s table last night, but we get him tonight. After dinner the three of us met in the Crow’s Nest to catch up on all the news (read: gossip) and were there until almost midnight. Several of my friends and I are signed up for his first class on January 20 and won’t even consider missing his Wajang Theatre presentations.

 

This morning we walked over to the Peruvian Market near the ship to get some free (and working) internet, but there were too many people already on, so we used the ship’s shuttle to go to the Inca Market near the gate. Free working internet - what a treat! I finally got to post yesterday’s blog, but afterwards I realized that the last paragraph had disappeared. Oh well, it wasn’t that interesting anyway. On the way back, we watched boxes and crates of foodstuffs being loaded onto the ship. John pointed at one group and said, “That’s Bonipak from Santa Maria.” It certainly was, and the more interesting part of that is that the owner of Bonipak is our neighbor Mitch. I can’t wait to get home (well, really I can) to tell him that we partook of his products.

 

* * * *

 

By 11:45 everyone was back on board, including the Machu Picchu people and the new entertainers. The weather was beautiful and the back deck was jammed for the sailaway party. They always serve hot hors d’oeuvres, and lately they’ve had bacon-wrapped scallops - delicious. Today there was even a raffle for Peruvian prizes, including buckets of Peruvian beer and woven purses. I didn’t win (I never do), but it was great fun and everyone seemed to have a good time.

 

By 12:45 the crowd had dissipated and it was time for lunch. John and I and George sat near the midships Lido pool, our conversation constantly being interrupted by people wanting to greet George. Tomorrow’s his first demo and I’m sure it will be great.

 

We’ve now sailed and are already out beyond landfall. It’s been a busy two days and very tiring - but extremely interesting. I think a nap is in order.

 

 

You DID WN us team trivia the grand final on previous world cruise. LOL Heo

[orangenemo]

Enjoy real holiday without worrying about Facebook and blogging. ;)

Edited January 17, 2014 by orangenemo

[Johnny B]

Friday, January 17 - Day 14

At Sea en route to Easter Island

 

Here we are with the question asked every year: will we or won’t we be able to call at Easter Island? It’s a tender port, so the seas have to be calm enough to allow all those cute little tenders to collect passengers and drop them off on the island. In 2012, the Easter Island dock had been damaged, so the Amsterdam first set up two tenders, side by side, lashed together, as a landing area. That worked well until the seas really acted up in the afternoon, and the tender that was our lifeboat was damaged by banging against the other. It took about a month to repair our lifeboat, but we had been assigned to another in the meantime.

 

Yesterday, during the captain’s 12:45 announcements, he referred to Easter Island as his “nemesis” because he has had such a hard time in the last two years getting passengers onto the island. I would think that HAL would NOT be happy to have their boats damaged, but on the other hand, it’s such an important port for most passengers that the captain is “damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.” I guess we’ll just wait and see after our four sea days.

 

Every morning at 9:30 is “Good Morning Amsterdam,” a show in the Wajang Theatre hosted by Gene, our cruise director, and the young lady who is the event planner. They always have a guest, and today’s guest was our friend George, who talked about his background as a pastry chef and about the cheesecakes that he is famous for. He’s doing a demo class this morning, but it conflicts with Trivia, so I think I’ll have to take a raincheck. He’s making his Blue Ribbon cheesecake (which apparently has won lots of awards, hence the name) and his goat cheese and walnut cheesecake. I’ve been very upfront with George about my dislike of cheesecake (I just don’t like cream cheese - hard to believe, but true), but his class next Tuesday is three courses of other wonderful things, including shortribs, which I love.

 

John’s at “the beach” and I’ll be out there shortly, just relaxing and enjoying the first of our wonderful sea days. As far as I’m concerned, this is what cruising is all about.

[cruz chic]

Thx for the update. I'll have your share of the cheesecake:D.

[Johnny B]

Saturday, January 18 - Day 15

At Sea en route to Easter Island

 

I’m sure that you realize that we are unreservedly spoiled on a world cruise. A passenger doesn’t have a lift a finger if s/he doesn’t wish to, and all necessities are attended to. However, all of this doesn’t happen without the service of the 600 or so crew on this wonderful ship. If they weren’t here, we’d be up a creek . . . (pun intended).

 

There are so many people who make our lives easier on this ship. Our room stewards, Dan and BangBang make our beds, clean our bathroom, and tidy our room every morning, and then they return after we leave for dinner to close the curtains, bring in the lounge pads, turn down the beds, change towels, and leave chocolates on our beds. They work 10 or 11 hours a day, seven days a week and are uniformly cheerful and helpful. If there’s anything else we need, they can’t wait to get it for us.

 

There is a whole raft of people working in the Lido, where we eat breakfast and lunch. Some of them cook, some of them serve, some clean up, but each and every one has a smile and a friendly greeting for each passenger. One of the things that amuses me is that when you ask them, “How are you?” the answer is invariably “Excellent!” I think that must be part of their training. There are a couple of Lido stewards we are particularly friendly with, including Matteo, who chats with us over breakfast and Hendrick, who told us that he likes to speak with us as often as possible to improve his English. I don’t think there’s a crew member who isn’t trying, in some way, to improve him/herself.

 

Most sea days find one or both of us at the coffee bar in the Exploration Lounge, having either Mary or Vilma make us cappuccinos (mine with a pump of chocolate since I’m a coffee sissy). They are officially categorized as “bar staff,” and I think we know every one in that category. Our all-time favorites are Nestor, the head wine steward, and Manny, who serves drinks in the Crow’s Nest in the evening. The wine steward at our table, Louie, was a little quiet for the first week, but he is chatty and extremely helpful now.

 

Since we get free laundry service as four-star mariners, we know there are a lot of people working in the laundry, but we never see them. However, we do know that they do a wonderful job, and when we put out a bag of laundry on a morning, we know it will be returned to us the next afternoon, clean and beautifully pressed. The service is incredible. There are lots of other crew members we don’t know by name, but they can be seen polishing brass or cleaning floors or any of the thousand and one other jobs that keep this beautiful ship looking that way.

 

Then there is the crew, from Captain Jonathan and Hotel Manager Henk, down to the “kids” interning from nautical schools in England and Holland. It’s scary to think of all the horrible things that could happen if they weren’t absolutely wonderful at what they do, but they are, so we wander about the ship, content to let them find the next port, even though at the moment we are smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with the nearest land more than two days away.

 

On a world cruise, there are so many repeat passengers who consider the crew to be “family.” We call each other by first names (even though they often call John “Sir John,” confused by the fact that his last name is St. John), and we’ve remained Facebook friends with several of our former dining room stewards and wine stewards. The greatest “sin” to many of the long-time passengers is being rude to crew members. When John was waiting for his cheeseburger at the newly re-named “Dive-In” (formerly the Terrace Cafe) on the Lido, he listened as one incredibly rude woman repeatedly told the cook, in a loud and derogatory tone, “I can’t understand you!” I think she is the type of person who speaks English in a foreign country, and when she’s not understood, just speaks louder. John just gave her dirty looks, but all around her people raised their eyebrows and put her in a specific category: someone who doesn’t deserve to be on this wonderful cruise because she doesn’t appreciate all that people do for her.

 

We are so lucky to be so well taken care of, and we know it. We certainly don’t live this way at home, so we try to show our appreciation as much as possible, both with friendly words and smiles as well as cash from time to time. These hard workers certainly deserve it.

[rafinmd]

Thanks for the update and I look forward to meeting everybody. Has there been any progress on the internet?

 

Roy

[TENNCruisers]

I think that you have put into words what anyone who has been on a world cruise or a grand cruise on Holland America would say about the crew. We could not ask for a better staff or crew. They are without a doubt, the best in the world!! We are really enjoying your blog. Sorry that you are having the internet problems. Hope that it will be fixed soon.

[shrimp56]

Even those of us on shorter cruises with HAL have experienced the attention and care of the people who make our 'dam ship trip wonderful. Thank you for expressing it so beautifully.

[windsor26]

Even those of us on shorter cruises with HAL have experienced the attention and care of the people who make our 'dam ship trip wonderful. Thank you for expressing it so beautifully.

 

Dianne you say it so well But I wondered about tip[ping on Grand Voyages? I understood that it is included in the fare and the extras are by choice Is this so? Or is this the case only on the full world cruise

[homeschoolmama]

I am wondering that too.

 

Sent from my SCH-I915 using Forums mobile app

[boards]

Thank you for putting the words into print what some of us find hard to say or print as you have done so well.

[Lauranne]

Really nice post on the crew. Louie was our wine steward last August on our Alaskan cruise. We enjoyed him very much. We were a group of 12 and he looked after us so well.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Johnny B]

Sunday, January 19 - Day 16

At Sea en route to Easter Island

 

At home, we have dinner at about 6:30 or 7:00 and then either read or watch a little television, but on board, everything is different. Usually we meet our “group” in the Crow’s Nest at about 7:15 or so, including Jeff, Barbie, Aart, Ellen and for two weeks, George. We have a glass of wine and chat about the activities of the day and what’s coming up, and then at 8:00 we head off to dinner.

 

If you want to, you can have about four or five courses for dinner, but we have two: either soup, a salad, or a shrimp cocktail and then a main - and about every three or four days a dessert. Last night was a wonderful soup and then, because I wasn’t very hungry, a Caesar salad for my main course. John had a dinner salad and then the salmon from the “available every day” menu. Neither of us had a dessert, but even so, dinner tends to last from 8:00 until almost 10:00 because there are nine of us and the conversation, joking and laughter just go on and on.

 

In San Luis Obispo, where we live, we have a really fine Performing Arts Center where we attend every couple of months, but on board ship, there is a live show every night, at 8:15 for the early seating and then at 10:00 for the late (main) seating. It’s really like going to a club or theatre every night, and the fact that it’s all included is just amazing.

 

In the past, they have had three or four “big names” during the world cruise: such performers as Melissa Manchester, Michael Feinstein, Larry Hagman, and Regis Philbin interspersed among the regular shows. However, the philosophy has changed, and instead of big names, they have “better” regular entertainment. For example, last night we had an incredibly talented Polish violinist named Michael Bakkala who had the whole audience participating in some great songs. I mean, how can it be a bad concert when it ends with “The Can Can?” John, who doesn’t like violin solos, really enjoyed it.

 

So far, we’ve had some great performers. We’ve had two comedians, Frank King and Rick Starr; a wonderful soprano soloist, Colleen Williamson; a mind-reader (whose name I can’t recall - no pun intended here, either), a Peruvian folklore show, and a group called “Graffiti: 16 strings, eight legs and four instruments” which was an incredibly lively string quartet which danced around the stage and made everyone laugh. Always there are the Amsterdam singers and dancers, who put on extremely entertaining shows about once a week. We do get amazing entertainment, especially considering that it’s every evening, seven days a week.

 

Today’s entertainment is going to be the best, however. As long as the satellite cooperates, we’ll get the New England/Denver game at 3:00 and the San Francisco/Seattle game (the really important one) at 6:30. We’ve already told our dining table that if the games come through we won’t be at dinner; we’ll just grab something from the Lido and head for the Wajang Theatre, which, along with the sports bar, will be “game central.”

 

At 10:00, however, the 49ers will have won, so we’ll head to the Queen’s Lounge for tonight’s show, which features “The Unexpected Boys,” who do a wonderful job of putting on “Jersey Boys” - the Frankie Valli play. They’re one of my favorite performances of the whole cruise.

 

So, even though bedtime at home is sometime between 9:30 and 10:00, on board ship the evening entertainment is just beginning at 10:00. As long as it’s not a magician or a ventriloquist, we’re right there!

[Traveling Dot]

Thanks for the great posts, really enjoying them. :) Makes me feel a lot warmer reading them here in cold New England.:D

[OldCodger73]

I'm really enjoying following along on your world cruise. Thanks for posting it.

 

Too bad the fourth quarter yesterday spoiled your evening;). Go Seahawks.

[Johnny B]

Monday, January 20 - Day 17

At Sea - almost to Easter Island!

 

What a wonderful day it was - except that the Forty-Niners lost (congratulations, Shannon). We had a great evening yesterday with football food and lots of fans for both sides of both games in the Sports Bar and in the Wajang Theatre. As soon as the second game was over, it was time for “The Unexpected Boys,” and their one-hour concert did not disappoint.

 

Today began, as usual, in the gym, but improved very quickly as our Trivia team won for today (Question: What were the names of Shakespeare’s twins?). As soon as that was over, Barbie and I headed over to the Wajang Theatre and Culinary Center for George Geary’s cooking class. Usually we make three things, but today there were five: A squash soup “shooter” (better than it sounds), fried tofu and lettuce salad (much better than it sounds), stuffed mushrooms, five-spice baby back ribs and pear salsa. After breaking into pairs to prepare the items, we headed to the Pinnacle across the hall to eat them - except that now we don’t eat what we make. Instead, we eat the same things prepared by the Pinnacle cooking crew.

 

This evening was a formal night with a Las Vegas theme. It was good fun, meeting with our regular group in the Crow’s Nest and then heading down to dinner, hosted by our officer, Dorus, a Dutch third officer who was excited to be hosting a table for the first time. He’s a charming young man who not only does navigation for the ship, but in his free time at home races sailing boats.

 

The entertainer was a Turkish pianist who gave us an “Around the World” concert, lasting a full hour and including music from about a dozen countries. The background slide show was fun to watch and to pick out places we had and had not been.

 

Tomorrow is Easter Island! Because of problems with people pushing and shoving to get in line for tenders in the past, this year the routine is going to be strictly enforced and everyone, including four and five-star mariners, is required to have a tender ticket, not only going over but coming back. This should help things immensely, as we saw some very difficult situations in 2012, resulting from people refusing to simply be polite in their dealings with others.

 

It’s almost midnight, so it’s time for bed - got to get those tender tickets early!