Come Along with Bill & Mary Ann Going Full Circle on the 2015 World Cruise -114 days+

[WCB]

Report # 10 Sailing Towards Santa Marta, Colombia January 8, 2015 Thursday Windy, partly cloudy & 81 degrees

 

As we sailed in a southerly direction, the winds and the swells began to deepen through the night. Actually we don't mind it during the late evening, because being rocked to sleep is wonderful. Walking around....now that is something else at times.

 

Our day started with the sun shining in the window, but also the white spray of high waves blowing by. After breakfast in the dining room, we took our usual walk on the promenade deck for an hour or so. The starboard side was mostly sunny and humid, while the port side was dripping wet with spray. Absolutely no one was sitting in any of the lounges on this side. We were hoping for a warmer day, but if our memories serve us right, the weather is always like this during the month of January. As we continue through the Panama Canal and head further south towards the Equator, it will be much warmer. So it's best to enjoy this tolerable weather now.

 

Barbara H., our port lecturer, or location guide as they call her now, gave a lecture on things to do and see it Manta, Ecuador. We always catch up on her talks on the TV. She gives great hints about getting around most all of the ports we will visit. She has always kept us in the loop regarding free shuttles in the ports as well. And that has helped us immensely for figuring out how we will go about planning our day. Taking the organized tours was the only way we always went, but not any more. Or seldom, we should say. Now we pick and choose the highlites we wish to see, and forgo some of the other treks. So on this trip, we plan to do a whole lot of walking and hopefully discovering more good restaurants that serve excellent pizza.

 

We have noticed a difference in the speed of the laundry service compared to the Statendam last fall. With so many passengers having achieved the four star Mariner status, the majority have the complimentary laundry service. Doubt we ever see a one day turn-around, nor do we expect it. It does affect the amount of clothing you need to bring with you. Especially the underwear. Better to have more, than constantly running out.

 

Just for some general information, we can say that the rooms still have two hair dryers....the attached one in the bathroom, and the hand-held one in the dresser. This is a fine point, but we have brought a nite light for the bathroom as well. On the Statendam, the shaver plug shut off with the bathroom switch, making the night light useless. However, the automatic nite light does work on the Amsterdam. With the bathroom switch off, the plug still works.

 

The normal activities continued today. One of our friends is making it a point to attend all of the lectures. She admitted today that the subjects are wonderful, but the deliveries a bit underwhelming. Being a teacher, she can say that with her experience. Sometimes these talks are better to watch at your own time in your room. Less embarrassing to fall asleep in your cabin, than in the showlounge.

 

There is a dentist onboard, according to the ad in the On Location newsletter today. This is the first time we have seen their services advertised for check-ups and repair work. Not to be confused with the onboard dentist, sometimes a group boards that does teeth whitening and other cosmetic procedures (for a hefty price if we remember correctly). But it is good to know that if we have the need for any unexpected work, we won't have to search the port cities for these services.

 

Today was the first chance we had the time to go outside to the aft deck and enjoy what sun there was for a few hours. Much to our delight, we discovered the old, stained lounge chairs have been replaced with new, sturdier lounges. They are designed without arms, which makes getting up and down a little more difficult for some folks. However, we like them much better. They are made with plastic booties that help keep the noise level down when pulled across the imitation teak decks. We do know there are cabins underneath the pool deck on deck seven, and the nose can be annoying for them.

 

Starting the first of dozens of books we hope to read, we had lots of welcomed interruptions from our buddies. They have been making their daily rounds, which included a stop here to see us. Asking if we had fallen overboard, they thought we had changed our schedule. Us? No way, just busy getting organized. No play until all was in place. The only downside were the strong and persistant winds, which literally collected unattended towels and sent them overboard into the drink. Visors, baseball caps, newsletters, and plastic glasses kept blowing past us with the folks chasing them down.

 

Just about then, Henk, the Hotel Director, stopped by to tell us there was going to be a special induction dinner in the Pinnacle Grill for the new inductees (7 of us) on January 19th. The entire population of President's Club members on this portion of the cruise is 19. Including a few that will bring a significant other, the group will be split into small tables in the back room of the specialty restaurant. Henk gave us the chance to choose our tablemates and host. Henk is smart in doing this, because there are some passengers that prefer to sit with specific people, Or to say it nicely, they will not sit with some of the others. This way there will be no surprises or awkward situations. Whatever, we are looking forward to it.

 

Eventually we got tired of trying to read our "real" books that were blowing violently in the breeze. We do not have the new toys (Ipods, Ipods, etc. for reading.) We prefer the real thing. And knowing that it could be easy to sunburn despite the use of #50 lotions, we called it a day by 3pm. In reading one novel, the mention of a toasted cheese sandwich came up in the story, so this became fixated in one of our minds.

 

So we eventually made a visit to the sandwich bar in the Lido, which stays opened until 5pm. The friendly sandwich-maker whipped up a perfect cheese sandwich in minutes, since there was no line at all. A new addition to the sandwich bar is a paper-wrapped foot-long deli sandwich made for quick take-away. Nice idea, especially for the crew members who have little time for their lunch break. The sandwich contents was listed on the glass in front of the basket holding a half dozen of them. Did we mention you can get the pizza at this window as well? We did share a piece, but it had been sitting there for too long, and was really crispy. Nicely said, it was pretty dried up. If you get there during the regular lunch time, it would move quicker and be fresher.

 

Dinnertime came quickly, and we found that our table had still been set for 10 people. We had originally had a group of seven, but now we are six. Our waiter took it upon himself to set the chairs close together, thinking we could visit better that way. But we asked him to space us out, giving us more elbow room. So we will see if he gets it tomorrow evening. If any of us invite company, we will inform Fin by lunchtime for the extra place settings.

 

Showtime featured Livewire, a group singing and playing Celtic music. Three of our tablemates went, so we will report their opinions tomorrow. They all liked the new singers and dancers from the formal evening, so we must make an effort to see them for ourselves.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

[harrodsfan]

Henk gave us the chance to choose our tablemates and host. Henk is smart in doing this, because there are some passengers that prefer to sit with specific people, Or to say it nicely, they will not sit with some of the others. This way there will be no surprises or awkward situations.

 

Really.. people won't sit with other people... really.. ?????

 

I can't imagine being on a long cruise with people like that..

Cliques.. sounds like high school.

[WCB]

Report # 11 Welcome to Santa Marta, Colombia January 9, 2015 Friday Sunny, breezy & 91 degrees

 

Good thing we didn't look at the temperature predicted for today. It may have put us off for staying too long in town. Ninety-one degrees in this part of the world is plenty hot....humid too. One thing for sure, we will need to bring lots of water to stay hydrated. And another thing for sure, we should have brought money with us. Yep, we did it again....forgot the wallets.

 

We had gone to the dining room for breakfast, since we were in no rush to go ashore. It was five years ago that we stopped here, while on the Prinsendam's Grand South America Voyage. Back then, we took a tour for four hours that included a visit to the museum, the cathedral, and a beach resort away from the downtown area. We never saw much more of Santa Marta, so today we planned to stay in town and walk from one end to the other.

 

The locals were running a free shuttle, but it did not go far. Basically, the shuttle took us from the ship and to the gate to exit the port area. It was perhaps a two block ride. Upon getting off the bus, we realized we had left the ship without wallets. Since shipboard life is cashless, using real paper money is not necessary. So with four days at sea, it was an easy thing to forget. The good news is that we did not have to use the tenderboats to get to shore. We would have lost an hour to make that round trip. And how do we know that? Been there, done that too.

 

Anyhow, here are a few facts about Colombia. At one time not very long ago, Colombia was considered the "bad boy" of South America, probably due to the fact that cocaine cultivation and selling was a large part of their culture. Now most of the largest cities are known for their hospitality. Here you have the Andean peaks, the rain forest, savannahs, and beaches...lots of them with modern hotels and resorts. The capital is Bogota, and the population as of 2013 when the Lonely Planet Travel Book listed it was 45,644,023 people of indigenous, African, and European descent. The square miles of the country are 1,138,914 and the official language is Spanish.

 

Our usual stop in Colombia is Cartagena, so stopping here instead was a nice diversion. Armed with the ship's map from their new magazines they give us for this segment, we navigated our way to the beachfront first. Many locals were enjoying the local beaches with vendors selling refreshing fruit drinks and beer. We ran into a slew of tents where folks were selling scores of souveniers, mostly from here we assume. Since there was nothing we needed, we continued on to town. The street map was easy to follow, so we made our way towards the Santa Marta Cathedral. We passed a few passengers we recognized, and chatted about where to go. They warned us that most all of the stores accepted only pesos (2000 to 1 US$). Either that or they gladly took credit cards. We had neither with us, so decided just to go window-shopping. We can say there are dozens of clothes stores and shoe shops. Our friend Maureen told us their grocery store was huge and priced lower than anywhere she has ever been in the world.

 

Finding the cathedral, we remembered that it was possibly the oldest church in Colombia, dated from 1766. It's claim to fame was that Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Colombia as well as other South American countries from Spain, died and was buried nearby here. But not for long, since his remains were re-located. Continuing on, we found the Gold Museum, housed in the Casa de la Aduana mansion, now the Customs House. Even though we had stopped here before, today's visit was much better. We were able to take the time to read all the captioning of the artifacts in the regular museum and the air-conditioned gold room. Being on our own, we like to be able to go at our own pace. The other upside is there is no line for exhibits or more importantly, the bathrooms.

 

It was so hot outside, we decided it was the perfect time to find one restaurant advertised in the HAL booklet. This is when we ran into a problem....one we have also had on other HAL cruises. Sure, the maps show the cafes and restaurants, but fail to mention their opening times. Having our sites set on crispy pizza and ice cold beer, we were disappointed to find the recommended restaurant closed until dinnertime. Bummer. Not wanting to take a chance on another venue, we headed back to the ship instead. And besides, most all of the seaside cafes were filled to the brim already. This is where we would like to make a suggestion in regards to the port booklets with all of the suggested things to see, shop, and eat. It has been our recent experience that not all of the info is current. Specifically, the restaurants and cafes recommended. Since none of the opening times are listed, you never know what is opened, what is not until dinnertime, or have they gone out of business. A simple solution in our minds is to make this booklet available, either by mail or email, so we have ample time to research the places well ahead of the cruise. You can access the shore excursions online, so why not the The Explorer booklet?

 

Right before we boarded the shuttle, we stopped to look in a small shop near the pier gate. Thinking it was a cafe that sold beer, it turned out to be a souvenier jewelry store. An unexpected pendant found a home with us. Definitely not an emerald, but a clever locally-made piece of arts and crafts made with tiny seashells, sand, coral, wood and leaves. Getting back on the ship was a relief, since the air-conditioning helped cool us off.

 

We ordered room service for the first time. We had salads, and split a cheeseburger. Excellent and served rather quickly. By 3:30pm, the ship was close to leaving, and the sailaway would take place on the aft deck. Taking our normal spots at the back railing, we were pleased to find a band playing new and upbeat music. Well, not really new, but much more up-to-date tunes we all know well. 100% improvement. Lots of happy folks were even dancing. Fun to watch as we sailed out of the small harbor, now on our way towards the San Blas Islands.

 

Spending the rest of the afternoon visiting friends, the day evaporated and dinnertime was upon us. Finally, we have convinced out waiters to spread out our chairs so we circle the table. Now we have plenty of elbow room, and can always add the place settings when we invite company. Our missing single tablemate suddenly appeared this evening to explain how he got re-assigned to another table. Now established with a group of mostly men, he thanked us for including him, but he felt obligated to stay at the other table. Not a problem with us. He said he would join us occassionally when Martha and Bob come onboard later in the trip, as he is a friend of theirs.

 

Most all of us were tired or still recovering from colds. In fact, one of us has come down with the nasty bug. It's inevitable, since we would guess that half of the passengers and crew came on the ship with it. Better to get it now, and get it over with. Half of our tablemates went to the showlounge to see the first comedian of the trip, Paul Adams. We are interested to hear their opinion tomorrow, since Maureen did not give him a big thumbs up. Some like it, some don't, so you can't win them all.

 

Tomorrow we will be stopping at the San Blas Islands, not a frequently-visited area.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

 

PS In regards to the service dog on the previous grand voyage, we can add nothing more to the story. So that's the end of it on our end.

[cruz chic]

Nice to hear about today's port. I visited there in 2008 but it seemed to be very dug up and not much there. Proud to say I've also been to san blas island. I'll be looking forward to your report. Thanks for the update.

[bcnvcanada]

First of all, congratulations on making the Presidents Club. WOW

Couldn't believe that all of you most traveled people would have

a problem with seating arrangements at the lunch. Nineteen is quite

a number with so many days. The paxs surely well travel by ship.

Again, congratulations

[sallycruiser06]

Thankyou for taking the time to write for us. Thoroughly enjoying same. Looking forward to reading the next installment...

Suzanne

[WCB]

Report # 12 San Blas Islands, Panama January 10, 2015 Saturday Chance of rain & 80 degrees

 

The San Blas Islands belong to the country of Panama. So here is some info about Panama. It consists of 75, 420 square km, and has about 3, 360,474 people. The archipelago of the San Blas Islands consists of 378 islands, although only 47 of them are inhabited. These islands are home to the Kuna Indians, who came here when the Spanish arrived. They are known worldwide for their embroidered molas, best described as layers of cloth stitched together, then cut to make designs. All of the stitching is traditionally done by hand sewing. The designs range from animals, sealife, scenery, or geometric panels. The more layers, the more stitching, the more expensive they are.

 

You may wonder if we have been here in the past? Well, yes we have, but it must have been over 20 years ago. So we were anxious to see what had changed in that amount of time. One word we could attach to these islands would be "primitive".

 

Since the ship was not due to arrive until 12 noon, we had plenty of time to keep our morning schedule.......breakfast, walking, and computer work. Around 11:30am, we began seeing tiny islands with palm trees, but no civilzation. The seas were a bit choppy, and we wondered if the tenders would be able to get us to shore. The specific island we were going to see was El Porvenir, although there are smaller islands as well we could have seen. On our last visit here, we were able to boat to three different islands, all a bit different. Two were populated, while the third was for swimming in the surrounding waters off of a sandy beach. For sanitary reasons, there was no way we would swim anywhere near here. In a word, there is no sewage facilities, except the surrounding sea waters. You get the picture.

 

Yesterday we received a printed card from the Guest Relations Manager explaining President's Club priority tendering services. Going ashore independantly, we are not required to pick up a tender ticket, usually near the Wajang Theater. And since there are so many guests with 4 and 5 star priviledges, they asked us to go to the front desk, where we would be escorted to A deck, and taken to the front of the line. Oh boy, this sounds like a great way to lose a lot of friends. So we decided we should wait until the rush went over, and go when the line was less.

 

What changed that was three things. The fact that the water looked rough, and it appeared it would rain soon. We have had situation where only a couple of boats got to shore, then the tendering was cancelled. That could happen today, who knows? Gathering our stuff, we went outside our room and found the end of the line was right there. This is when the third thing happened, when one of the staff members came and collected us because they knew we had priority. So there we went, being led down to deck A and put in the front of the line. So we did end up on the first tender with all the rest of the folks that insist on being first.

 

Nothing too much had changed over the years. Most all of the natives were tiny women, small in stature, dressed in their traditional costumes of mola-decorated blouses, skirts, and headbands. They like to wear beaded bracelets on their wrists and their ankles, covering most of their arms and legs. What was too bad was seeing the pile of garbage floating against the shores where the tenderboats landed. The winds and currents must bring this plastic rubbish from all of the islands, where it settles on beaches and boat ramps. Every alleyway had the trash lined on both sides, no matter where we walked. Not that we haven't seen this before, we just had to try to keep it out of our photos. This tells us two things. There was no effort made to clean it up, because besides burning it, there is no place to keep it. And too many ships must stop here regularily. You can guess that by the numbers of little children attempting to get one dollar for posing with kittens or tiny monkeys.

 

New additions including solar panels for lighting and possibly TV, along with small "pizza" dishes for satellite TV. We did see Ipads and cell phones too.

 

Their display of molas made up for the untidiness. Deep colors of maroon and orange seemed to be the favorite colors used for backrounds. Many of the women and young girls were sitting outside the basic houses stitching these designs with a needle and thread. They liked to show us the pinpricks in their fingertips, which one of us knows well, from hand sewing. This is a matriarchal culture, where the women sew and do household chores, while the men and boys gather coconuts and fish. In fact, we saw few men, and those we did encounter, were elderly. (Heaven knows, elderly here may be about 50 years old.)

 

We can say for a fact that only the little kids like their photo taken (for one dollar). The women will quickly cover their faces with a scarf to let you know they do not want their picture taken. Common courtesy would be to ask, but they don't appear to understand much English, nor do we speak Spanish. Also, we did not find them over-friendly. They were there to sell their souveniers, period. Now for the men, that was a different story. One elderly man invited us into his house for a $2. beer. It was a man-to-man conversation however.

 

We spent a couple of hours walking from one end of the tiny island to the other, discovering that the "public bathroom" facilities were still in place. They were two outhouses placed over the water off of a rickety wooden pier.....one at each end of the island. Glad we kept the coffee-drinking to a minimum this morning.

 

Since we are already owners of a boxful of molas, we did not need any new ones. Although that never stops one of us from bargaining. Today, there was little of that. These little ladies are tough. We did purchase four small mola-decorated parrots to hang from our light over the window, just to add some color to our growing garden. By 2:30pm, we were ready to go back to the ship. A few raindrops had threatened during the day, but rain never did occur.

 

The ride took about 20 minutes back, just in time to grab a sandwich in the Lido before it got too late. Around 5:30pm, Captain Mercer came on the speakers to announce we would be leaving much later at 8:30pm, since we were so close to the Panama Canal already. The sailaway party was still held on the aft deck, but we did not attend. We had been invited to visit friends on deck six instead.

 

Dinner was served in a speedy manner, because there was another 9:15pm Name That Tune with Debby Bacon. Two of our dinner buddies left later at 9:30pm, trying not to disrupt the meal too much. It worked out OK, since we lingered to talk with Pamela and Stuart, a really nice couple from Australia. We met them 2 years ago through our mutual friend, Martha. She has excellent taste in friends.

 

The entertainer this evening was a volcalist by the name of Donna Groom, a new name for us. Will report tomorrow on her performance. By the way, the comedian was so-so the night before, we were told.

 

Tomorrow we shall be transisting the canal..........for the umpteenth time we believe. But it is always an adventure.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

[cruz chic]

Thx for the update. I enjoyed reading about it.

[regnig]

Bill & Mary Ann thank you so very much for taking time out of "your" trip to bring us along with you. Reading your posts is the highlight of my day.

[brownblonde]

Enjoyed your blog, as we to experienced the islands back in 1987 when we went to 3 islands. years later it was just one island and we were told that they come from others to the one with their things to sell.

Sounds like nothing has changed, but yes they had electric and tv on our second trip. Not many cruise ships now have that as a stop like they use to, maybe because it is the world they included it.

Captain posted a lady with a pipe and she looked just like the same one back many years ago, no change. No they will not bargain with you, take the money and get behind all the shirts.

[PathfinderEss]

Watched you transit the canal today. Looks like it went very smoothly. Also saw a couple other small cruise ship going thru behind you. One was the Silver Seas.

[Ineke]

Great reminder of our visit to the San Blas Islands back in 2001 on the Amsterdam. We too remember the TV's and cellphones etc., being used behind the primitive fences, and the constant calls for "money, money, money, one dollar, one dollar!". And no bargaining, no smiles, but also the beautiful molas. However, we were told later that many of the inhabitants get on power boats at the end of the day and go home to much more comfortable dwellings on the mainland at night. Don't know if this is true or not, the person seemed to know what he was talking about. Definitely not visited very often, have not seen it listed as a port of call again until now.

Edited January 12, 2015 by Ineke
spelling errors

[SilvertoGold]

Great reminder of our visit to the San Blas Islands back in 2001 on the Amsterdam. We too remember the TV's and cellphones etc., being used behind the primitive fences, and the constant calls for "money, money, money, one dollar, one dollar!". And no bargaining, no smiles, but also the beautiful molas. However, we were told later that many of the inhabitants get on power boats at the end of the day and go home to much more comfortable dwellings on the mainland at night. Don't know if this is true or not, the person seemed to know what he was talking about. Definitely not visited very often, have not seen it listed as a port of call again until now.

 

HAL told us the same about the homes on the mainland, too.

 

We were also told there would be no bargaining accepted by the Islanders, on board or on the island.

[WCB]

Report # 13 Transiting the Panama Canal January 11, 2015 Sunday Chance of rain & 91 degrees

 

What a better way to spend a Sunday, then sailing through the world's oldest shortcut......the Panama Canal. Another aspect we should have remembered was the temperatures, which were predicted to be in the 90's. This is the beginning of the dry season, and believe us, we would have welcomed some rainfall.

 

The transit schedule was listed in the daily On Location newsletter, although it was approximate, due to shoreside officials calling the shots. It seems that passenger ships such as ours are given priority, and we pretty much stick to the itinerary anyway.

 

With the help of a Panama Canal Narrator, we had a continuing commentary all day. Today we welcomed Antonio Grenald, who spoke very good and understandable English, a big help for all those onboard. In the old days, Barbara H., our port lecturer, gave the informative talks along the way. She never missed one thing of interest, sometimes interjecting stories we all liked to hear. Now the rules dictate that she is not allowed on the bridge with the navigation officers, so we really miss her intelligent and sometimes amusing comments. Hope she is able to give commentary going through the Suez Canal.

 

The La Fontaine Dining Room's breakfast times were like on port days.......7:30 to 9am. It was most important to get there early enough to enjoy one of our favorite treats.....Panama rolls. They are made with a sweet dough, then filled with a concoction of a thickened tangerine filling. Today we were good and only had one each. As we continue on the cruise, there will be other occassions that will call for the special rolls. Only then they will be dubbed Singapore, Hong Kong, or Suez rolls. And in readfing the daily newsletter, we found that the baker onboard gave a cooking demo on how to make. Darn, missed it. Gotta start reading the itinerary every morning.

 

There were a few jobs to accomplish this morning before we went out to watch the transit. Of course, for one of us, any excuse to remain cool for a while worked. First, the front desk people needed to know when we would be leaving the ship to go overland. They need this for their records for the port officials to get an accurate passenger count. Without this info, that could mess up the entire disembarkation procedures in the ports where we are gone. One such place will be Mumbai, India.

 

That done, we were off to the library to check with Emily, the librarian, concerning whacky internet minutes charged to our account yesterday. According to our calculations, time was used while we were off on the island. What's with that? Turned out that the internet time was based on Pacific time, and they do not know why. Our biggest problem was trying to log off unsuccessfully. That was where we lost over 60 minutes. Emily could access the exact time and dead time, and agreed that most of it was charged wrong. She credited us back most of the time. Great to know the key people that work here, and understand exactly what we are saying. It appears that most all of last year's internet problems have been sorted out, as it was a nightmare for the passengers and even more so for the staff.

 

The final job was checking with the beverage staff concerning one of the President Club perks....specifically, the complimentary beverage allowance. Our longtime friend Nestor was working in the office on deck three, and kindly explained how it works. Every 15 days, we have a choice of a bottle of liquor, wine, sodas, and or bottled water, or a flower arrangement. This will be so convenient, and will begin once we are formally inducted on January 19th. This has already saved us almost $200. with the water package we did not order before the cruise.

 

Time to go to the aft pool and get our favorite spot at the back railing. It was hot, no doubt about it, but this is the ideal place for photos, we think. When the heat got to us, we can dip in the pool to cool off. The bar staff were passing around copious glasses of ice water and iced wash clothes as well. So much work is being done on the canal, it has been an education watching the progress every year since the project began. Some of the work has involved adding new locks on both the Caribbean and Pacific ends. With the third set of locks, the goal will be doubling the capacity of the canal. Other projects include deepening of the canal entrances on both the Caribbean and Pacific. Gatun Lake and the Culbra Cut will be widened and deepened. The level of the lake will rise for maximum operational purposes too. When will the work be completed? From what we saw, probably not for a long, long time.

 

Twice during the day, iced tea, water, lemonade, and cold face towels were passed among the folks on the outside decks. This turned out to be a life saver because the heat and humidity can do a number on you unexpectedly. Later in the afternoon, skewered fruit and small sandwiches were offered shipwide. Nice touch.

 

Preceding us through the canal was one of the Windstar ships. Sure looked cool as it sailed past us in Gatun Lake with the masts jutting up high in the air. Following us was the Silver Spirit, a Silverseas vessel. We sailed on the Silver Shadow a few years ago, and found it to be luxurious. Every room on the ship was beautifully appointed, and being almost "all-inclusive", they spoiled us royally. We do know that one of the Silversea's ships is doing a world cruise, but not sure which one. Bet that costs a pretty penny.

 

We were out of the last lock at Miraflores after 3pm. And sailing into the Pacific Ocean, going under the Bridge of the Americas well before 6pm. Time to go back to the room and begin downloading photos from the day's transit. Many of these pictures were of birds, such as frigates, egrets, pelicans, vultures, and some hawks we are trying to ID with the help of our bird book.

 

We had company for dinner.....the onboard florists, Eddy and Calista. We have all known them for many years, and we sure had a great time with them. They asked us to please invite them again, which we did, of course. Also new for tonight was the theme of Panama Hat Night. Not only were the waiters wearing the Panama hats, but they handed out one for the ladies, and a different one for the fellows. Actually, we could have used these today in the hot sun. Another nice touch.

 

The entertainment tonight was Ole Ole Rumba Flamenca with a Difference. We rode the elevator with them last night, and they looked like a promising group. We'll let you know.

 

Back in our room, we had two certificates for transiting the Panama Canal. We can add these to our groing pile at home from previous trips.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

[cruz chic]

Thx for the update:).

[WCB]

Report # 14 Sailing Towards Manta, Ecuador January 12, 2015 Monday Partly cloudy & 81 degrees

 

Something someone forgot to mention was that there would be rain in the forecast this afternoon. Come to think about it, Captain Mercer did say there was a chance of sprinkles in his afternoon talk yesterday, but it failed to make the newsletter. Could be these newsletters are printed far in advance. Thinking positively and relying on the fact we have never had rain in this area before, we were certain the sun would peak out, and we would have some quality outdoor time today.

 

Both of us slept good last night, probably due to the fact that we had received a new mattress as we had requested well before the cruise began. A few years ago, we had problems with an older mattress that gave one of us extra back pain every night. We tried many methods to remedy it with the help of the head housekeeper, Shiv. Obviously there were no new mattresses to replace it at the time. We tried adding folded blankets and even a piece of plywood under the mattress. The blankets worked OK, but the added wood was like sleeping on a surfboard. Took that away. Even the pillows look upgraded this year. They are new and firm, just the way we like them. Now when you add the rocking of the ship to the mix, it makes for restful sound sleeping.

 

As always, we have been on watch for little differences with the details on the ship compared to previous years. One very small thing we have noticed is at breakfast in the dining room. Instead of the nice little jam and jelly jars, we are getting the sticky foil containers, usually seen on all the other HAL ships. Upon asking, we were informed that only the Pinnacle Suite section of the dining room (starboard section, lower dining room) get the jars now. We know, it tastes the same, but we liked collecting them. They are great for sorting buttons and small sewing stuff like that.

 

Another strange occurrence has been sudden floods on every deck. There were at least two cabins flooded on deck two, some on deck six, and flooding in our hallway on deck one. Some are slow drips, while others were much worse. A couple of nights ago, fellows were shampooing the carpet midship outside several cabins. They had set up a powerful dehumidifier that ran day and night. It was quite obvious to us, as we passed one room, that the occupants were very upset about the noise of the dryer. They were having a heated discussion with one very pretty Dutch office gal, who came down to them in Dutch. No matter what language is used, you can get the drift by the tone and volume used. After 24 hours, the fan was finally removed. Hope that is the end of that.

 

We had been hoping to join the classes on computers in the Digital Workshop, but the schedule had classes starting at 9am, our breakfast time. And besides, instead of computer classes, it has been all about camera tips and tricks. The same class was repeated at 1pm, so when they get to the Microsoft stuff, we may attend then. We do have a new laptop with us, but it is so different from our first one, and it is hard to adapt quickly.

 

Wanting to get outside and enjoy some sun and fresh air, we headed for the pool deck around noon. Guess what? No sun, but drizzle. It was not cold, but muggy and damp. We set up the lounges anyway, positive the weather would improve. It did not happen. It began to rain steadily, and since our books and other belongings were getting wet, we left. We had to catch up on downloading photos from yesterday anyway. A cute movie, Despicable 2, was on TV, so we ordered room service lunch and stayed in until 6pm. We still feel that the room service burgers are the best….served hot with fresh rolls. And there was only a twenty minute wait.

 

There were only five of us at dinner, since Maureen was invited to the first seating with friends. She did this often last year, but always joined us by dessert time. Being the arts and crafts instructor for several grand cruises, Maureen knows a lot of people. She is very popular. Think she is enjoying her freedom on this trip, being a real passenger, and not tied down to the ship’s schedule.

 

A report on the entertainers came through our tablemates tonight. The Ole Ole group was good if you like flamenca music. Not sure anyone heard the singer Miss Groom, but they were going to listen to Bobby brooks Wilson again in hopes that the show would be better than the first one.

 

The Oregon Ducks and Ohio State Football Playoff was shown in the Wajang Theater this evening at 8:30pm. With snacks and beer bucket specials, they made a special event of it. We chose to watch it in our room while typing this report. Much more comfortable and less calories by far.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

[ScottishMaid]

Report # 13 Transiting the Panama Canal January 11, 2015 Sunday Chance of rain & 91 degrees

That done, we were off to the library to check with Emily, the librarian, concerning whacky internet minutes charged to our account yesterday. According to our calculations, time was used while we were off on the island. What's with that? Turned out that the internet time was based on Pacific time, and they do not know why. Our biggest problem was trying to log off unsuccessfully. That was where we lost over 60 minutes. Emily could access the exact time and dead time, and agreed that most of it was charged wrong. She credited us back most of the time. Great to know the key people that work here, and understand exactly what we are saying. It appears that most all of last year's internet problems have been sorted out, as it was a nightmare for the passengers and even more so for the staff.

Bill & Mary Ann

Is Emily the only librarian this year? And is she the only person covering internet issues also? I can't imagine how she alone could cover everything needed by 1000 passengers from early morning till late evening, especially with eight consecutive sea days coming up.

Thanks for your very interesting and detailed reports.

[Folk Singer]

Fair Sailing and thank you for the Updates.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the info....

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Is Emily the only librarian this year? And is she the only person covering internet issues also? I can't imagine how she alone could cover everything needed by 1000 passengers from early morning till late evening, especially with eight consecutive sea days coming up.

Thanks for your very interesting and detailed reports.

 

I believe, on all HAL ships, the librarian does cover all Internet issues as well as the library itself. We have sailed with Emily many times and she is very competent in both.

[arzz]

Sounds like the water issues we experienced on the Amsterdam Holiday cruise have not been entirely solved ... So sorry for that.

[WCB]

Report # 15 Manta, Ecuador January 13, 2015 Tuesday Chance of rain & 84 degrees

 

The Amsterdam docked at the fishing port of Manta, Ecuador, early this morning.....really early, at 5am. Needless to say, we did not get up for the sail into the busy harbor. The reason for the early arrival was to give some folks the chance to fly to the capital, Quito, 9200 feet high in the Andes. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, having been established in the 16th century. We will be here in the port until 9pm, so that particular tour will be a long one. A few years ago, we came close to booking an overland tour to Quito, Cuzco, and Machu Picchu, but that year they had heavy rains and devastating mudslides. For some reason, we had trouble coordinating flights, so decided to put it off for another time. Good thing we did, or we could have been in the numbers of people lost on the moutainsides that day. Considering the altitude of all three of the sites, we doubt we will take a chance and go there at all. But the Galapagus Islands are quite do-able, so that is a good substitute.

 

The Spanish-speaking population of Ecuador is 14,573,101 people living in an area of 283,561 square miles. Their favorite food is roasted guinea pig, we understand.

 

Manta is a major fishing village, and the largest seaport of the country. Three types of tuna are caught here, among them the yellow and blue fin. Packing plants employ many of the townfolk. In fact, while we walked the deck after breakfast, we saw crates of fresh fish, including the yellow fin, being loaded onboard. Understand that ahi tuna will be on the menu this evening.

 

It is also the home of the manufacturing of the Panama hat, mainly in the town of Montecristi a short drive from Manta. One of the most interesting tours we have taken more than once visits the places where the hats are woven and sold. Local women will weave the agave fibers to create the hats, and depending on the tightness of the weave, they can cost from $15 to hundreds of dollars. Another neat place to see are the tagua nut factories. The tagua is a cream-colored nut that looks like ivory. The main purpose of these nuts was to create buttons many years ago. Now they can be made into jewelry, figurines, and decorative items of art. We did search for some tagua buttons today, but had no luck in town. If we had located a fabric shop, perhaps they would have had them.

 

Here's a tidbit concerning the light blue beach towels made available to us when we leave the ship. On the Statendam, these towels had been delivered to our room for us to use. But if we did not bring them back to our room, there was a charge for them. This did not happen here today. The towels were sitting in a bin for anyone to take. No signing for them, no nothing. Guess this call is up to the hotel director on each ship.

 

Leaving the ship by 10:30am, we took the convenient shuttle bus to the handicraft market, a left turn out of the port gates. Only half of the tables were set up...the rest were due to be there by noontime. The only item we wanted to purchase was a tall shotglass. No, not for tequila shots, but to hold some pens on our desk. From here, we walked towards the other end of town, and to the Hotel Oro Verde. We found a nice patio above the pool area, and got a great view of the beach below. It was so warm and muggy, it was wonderful to sit with the ocean breeze.

 

We ordered a light lunch of cheese empanadas with plantain chips and dips. Ice cold Club beers sure helped to cool us down. Relaxing there for about an hour, we headed up the road to the Supermaxi shopping center. There is a great store there with everything you need, and at good prices. The one item that was not cheap were their bottles of suntan lotion. A medium-sized bottle ran about $19. Next to the market was a housewares store, where we located a large plastic bowl for making popcorn. Now we were set, finding everything we needed.

 

Walking back was easier because we were going downhill. As it turned out, we did not have to walk that far. Right at Murcielago Beach, across from the Hotel Oro Verde, was a parking lot, where a smaller shuttle was taking passengers back to the ship, via a shortcut. That was perfect. And it was also free, like the bus earlier. We got back at 2:30pm, and went back out by 3pm. Since we will be at sea for eight straight days, we thought it would be nice to take a hike on the beach. We did a round trip, watching the pelicans and seabirds diving for fish or shrimp in the waves on the beach. There such must be a whole lot of fish, because the birds numbered in the hundreds. Quite a sight seeing the large pelicans diving right where some swimmers were splashing in the waves.

 

We checked the souvenier stands on the beach for the tagua buttons, but had no luck. We were back to the ship by 5pm, downloading photos and trying to email. The internet speed has been sporatic....sometimes fast, other times sluggish. Seems that the new laptop we have is much faster, although not quite as user-friendly as we had hoped.

 

At dinner tonight, we heard about another cabin flooding on deck seven. Our friends had gone to bed two nights ago, and got up to a "swimming pool" on the carpet throughout their suite. Lucky for them, there was another suite available for them to move in to. Perhaps it is a very good thing that this ship is going into a drydock next May after this cruise is over. The old girl needs some fixing up.

 

Looking forward to eight lazy days at sea. A good way to start the trip was by setting the clocks back one hour tonight. Think this will happen several more times before we reach Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas.

 

 

Bill & Mary Ann

[Folk Singer]

Thank you.

[boards]

Thank you for the update. We are certainly enjoying your WC, except for the water leaks.

[cruz chic]

Thanks for the update. I remember all the tuna in that port. It is quite a production. Those water leaks are something else. Turns me off of cruising that ship.