Join Pete and Judy on their FIRST World Cruise on the Amsterdam

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Approaching Half Moon Cay.....do you pronounce it KAY or KEY???

 

I hear both

 

 

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Half Moon Cay Shore side tenders. Our normal tender platform is broken - but these bigger tenders let us use a different tender platform which is why this tender port was not cancelled.

 

Cell phone service available on Half Moon Cay

 

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Edited May 1, 2016 by The-Inside-Cabin

[jkadventures]

Thanks so much for the responses!

[shrekaus]

Thank you so much for your blog, it has kept me up 'til the early hours following your adventures ( it is now 2.15am here in Brisbane). I have to say that my legs ache from all your walking :).

Now that the Grand Voyage has ended I noticed that Creme Brulee is no longer offered on the dinner menu!

I hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise, I would love to be disembarking in San Diego with you.

Thank you again for your fantastic blog.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Thank you so much for your blog, it has kept me up 'til the early hours following your adventures ( it is now 2.15am here in Brisbane). I have to say that my legs ache from all your walking :).

Now that the Grand Voyage has ended I noticed that Creme Brulee is no longer offered on the dinner menu!

I hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise, I would love to be disembarking in San Diego with you.

Thank you again for your fantastic blog.

 

 

 

Shrimp cocktail is no longer a daily option either

[cccole]

Can't wait for your thoughts about the WC when you return to San Diego. Are you involved with a roll call group on this cruise and how did you change your dining preference? You mentioned that HMC was a tender port that has not been cancelled, are there ports that have been cancelled due to the tender platform problem? As always, thank you for taking us along...Cherie

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Can't wait for your thoughts about the WC when you return to San Diego. Are you involved with a roll call group on this cruise and how did you change your dining preference? You mentioned that HMC was a tender port that has not been cancelled, are there ports that have been cancelled due to the tender platform problem? As always, thank you for taking us along...Cherie

 

 

 

We have same table. Only one person showed first night. Not uncommon - we will see if the other 3 show up tonight.

 

I am on the current roll call, but with only minor participation.

 

Cabo and Santa Barbara are cnx due to tender platform problems. Will be fixed in Seattle.

[Hobcat]

Thank you for taking the time to write your "live from" & blog. I've enjoyed "cruising" along with you.

[PhoenixCruiser]

Thank you so much for your website and all of the detailed posts!

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

 

###

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Day 116, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

 

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale before the sun was up. Disembarkation was scheduled to start around 7AM and I was curious to see the first few people who were in the express disembarkation line which means they have to lug all their own stuff on the ship. There were maybe 20 or so passengers along with some vendors or contractors ready to leave as soon as the ship was cleared. Crew would be disembarking from a lower deck directly on to the pier.

 

A little after 7 am they cleared the ship and the people started flowing off into the terminal. I was able to observe from a small alcove nearby, careful not to add to the mix, but there was never much of a line. After they called the first wave of the normal “Colors” the process came to a stop for about 45 minutes as the shore side did not have nearly enough porters to handle a world cruise disembarkation – where most everyone needed a porter. The Monster RCI Ship “Oasis of the Seas” along with 2 other cruise ships were on turnaround also so there were several ships all competing for porters. If you didn’t need a porter you could leave immediately but would have to wait otherwise, and the ship wisely chose to let people wait in the comfort of their cabins or public areas rather than standing around the luggage collection area.

 

I have been on Celebrity, Princess, Royal Caribbean and NCL in addition to HAL and HAL by FAR has the best disembarkation process. On HAL, you can remain in your cabin untill you color is called, enjoy a complete room service breakfast – which remains the best in the industry (possible exception being Luxury Lines) and complete service in the Lido. However, if you are an early bird – self disembarker or don’t do room service, then this feature may not matter, but I appreciate it VERY much.

 

Other lines will claim they force you out of the cabin to ensure new arrivals can be in their rooms by 11:30. HAL manages to let you stay in your room and let new people in their cabins by 11:30. Based on what I learned on a behind the scenes tour on the Oosterdam, HAL turns around their cabins using a different approach than other lines which may be the reason they can let you stay in your cabin longer plus allow new arrivals to check in by 11:30.

 

NOTE: None of the other cruise lines will allow you to remain in your cabin past 8am or offer room service on the final day. Princess even closed their Omelet station in the Lido on the final day since everyone was involved with moving bags. This creates maximum passenger stress as people are wandering about the ship with their bags looking for a place to sit. With HAL your cruise experience continues until the last moment you leave the ship. They never make you feel rushed to get off. Other lines make me feel like I am “getting in the way” as I wander around looking for an empty seat somewhere.

 

After I observed the process by the gangway I wandered around the public areas, and it looked like any other port day this cruise. The Lido was busy, but not crowded, no one was sitting around with their bags in lounges, no one was waiting in line on the stair cases.

 

Before we left the ship we spotted the crew painting over the Grand Voyage Logo on the front of the ship. Sad to see it go.

 

We left the ship around 9:45 and since we were in transit we could bypass the luggage retrieval area. As we approached customs and immigration we saw the familiar Global Entry Sign – and since we have global entry we were allowed to enter a special line that went directly to an open immigration kiosk – no waiting – where we were processed immediately. We may have only saved 5-10 minutes as the lines were not that long anywhere.

 

Once outside the terminal we took a cab to a nearby Office Depot to pick up a few more USB sticks, some envelopes and more ink for my Canon PIXMA IP110 Printer. We saw at least 10 other crew members in the store and as we walked around other shops in the area, we ran into a few more. The shopping center is pretty close to the port and has a wide variety of shops and restaurants.

 

After shopping here for a bit, we took an Uber to a Barnes and Noble bookstore to check out the magazine rack and browse.

 

We headed back to the ship around 2PM via UBER and were back on the ship by 2:30, well before the 3 PM All Aboard. We made time for another embarkation photo and were soon back in our cabins. NOTE: Uber drivers can gain access to the port area without any difficulty.

 

 

The Lifeboat drill began at 3:30 and was as expected. The ship is sailing with over 1300 guests and with only 33 people from the world cruise it is like being on a different ship. We enjoyed seeing all the new faces, smiling with anticipation of an exciting Panama Canal Cruise and they bring new energy and enthusiasm which will make this “new” cruise a lot of fun.

 

I enjoy talking to new people and less experienced cruisers because they always bring you a fresh perspective and make you appreciate many of the wonderful features of any cruise you often end up taking for granted.

 

The Sail Away was busy with perfect weather. With the large crew turnover and 50% increase in passengers, there were some growing pains in the beverage service area, but they will be ironed out soon once the crew gets settled in. There were at least 150 crew who left the ship and the new crew were all just starting today themselves after long flights. I am sure there were a lot of tired crew working their first shifts. But they were all cheerful and I have never encountered any crew member who didn’t offer me a quick smile the entire cruise.

 

We continue to have table 52, but with a new group of people. There were 6 people assigned to our table of 8 but only one other person arrived and by 8:20 we quit waiting and ordered. We are now back to the standard HAL menu after being spoiled by the upgraded menu for so long. Gone is the daily option of a shrimp cocktail for a starter or Crème Brulee as an always available choice on the desert menu. There are now 7 entrée choices instead of the 8 choices we enjoyed on the World, but hey 7 choices for dinner plus the 3 “always available” is still pretty amazing. We ordered the prime rib and it was excellent.

 

They have also introduced new dinnerware – all white – which I wouldn’t have even noticed except that the soup bowls are much larger, but they are serving the same portion size of soup. They need to dial up the soup serving temperature because when the soup hits a larger surface area, it cools more quickly than it did before. The soup today was a little cooler than usual, but still very good.

 

The Wine Attendant was totally overloaded and she was scrambling all night to try and catch up. The problem was the popular wine packages which are heavily promoted on the first night. Selling a wine package requires much more time from the Wine Attendant because each person ordering one will review multiple choices and have a much longer discussion than usual. They should either overstaff the wine attendants on the first night – if possible – or offer a greater incentive to pre order in advance. We will see if things return to normal tomorrow night. We also have a new Wine Attendant that was probably still getting her sea legs. Another option would be to have the waiters serve complimentary house wine the first night and then people could order their packages throughout the meal.

 

Overall, service was fine and considering our late start we still were finished with our main courses by 9:20. We didn’t have time for desert since the special introductory show was at 9:30 pm instead of the normal time of 10:00 pm for second seating guests.

 

I always enjoy the first night’s show as it typically introduces you to the various musical groups and singers and dancers.

 

Gene opened with a few jokes and introduced the new On Location team. 100% turnover from the World cruise. Details: World Cruise had 2 Show Hosts (Jodie and Erin) and no shopping ambassador. Now we have 1 show host (Joey) and 1 Shopping Ambassador. The location guide is now in the atrium on Deck 4 losing the prime real estate next to the Explorations Café which is now assigned to the shopping ambassador. The World had a 5 piece orchestra, 3 piece band OASIS, 3 piece band Neptune, 2 piece Adagio and the Piano Player. Oasis band is gone and replaced by the HAL CAT singer and a solo guitarist.

 

After the introductions the HAL singers and dancers did nice song and dance routine. The final act, almost a full 30 minutes, was a return to stage of Comedian Buzz Sutherland. Even though his routine was a repeat of his earlier show on the World, his delivery was much better and he had everyone laughing, so I will chalk up his earlier miss to simply having an off night.

 

 

By the time I got to the Casino, the Texas Hold’em cash game was breaking up so I decided to give the new table – Baccarat - a try. Playing Baccarat is a complete no brainer. The player’s only decision is to decide how much to bet and whether to bet on the Player or the Banker. The bet is almost even money and I played 1 complete shoe for 30 minutes and only lost $10 playing $5 hands. I found it pretty boring so I won’t be playing much in the future.

 

Tomorrow will be my first time visiting Half Moon Cay – should be a nice day.

[goodroe]

Many, many thanks for your sharing your journey with us. Your wonderfully descriptive and entertaining reports have been so enjoyable to read.

 

Yes, there certainly is a difference in "grand" voyages, perhaps less so than in the past, but still special. Looking forward to hearing about your "second" cruise home.

[jig]

When we were in the Volendam last year 3 people took care of the wine for the whole upper dining room. Way too much for 3 people to do. I guess there are more staff on the WC. The world has been that HAL has not made a dime on it. Glad you enjoyed it. Might be hard to go back to the regular HAL service. The staff are are amazing.

 

 

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[The-Inside-Cabin]

Day 117, May 1, Half Moon Cay

 

Today would be our first time at Half Moon Cay, or for that matter, any of the many cruise ship private islands in the Caribbean. Since we live on the West Coast we prefer to go to Hawaii instead of the Caribbean since it is about the same distance for us and we can usually find pretty cheap airfares if we travel on the slow days.

 

The weather was perfect as we approached our hover point as we were in water much too deep to anchor, over 2500 feet, at least if the depth meter by the Explorations Café is accurate. Speaking of the Explorations Café, we discovered that it opens at 7am on normal cruises and regular coffee is $1.95 while on the Grand Voyage the Café opens at 6 and regular coffee is complimentary.

 

The island was off our port side as we approached giving us a pretty good view from our verandah as we got closer and Half Moon Cay became larger and larger. My first impression was it was much larger than I expected and far more developed. If you didn’t know otherwise you might assume the island was inhabited full time by simply observing the number of structures present. We learned later that there are 3 full time residents who keep an eye on things when there aren’t any ships using the island with the rest of the daily employees being ferried in from an island 45 minutes away.

 

As the Amsterdam slowed to a stop, the shore side tenders appeared and started to close on the ship. They are designed for cruise ship use and don’t need to use a tender platform, as you load directly onto the upper level from a ships gangway that closes the narrow gap. The boats load very fast and have a capacity of 250 people instead of about 100 for a ship’s tender. Since the tenders are so large and load so fast, there is no need for tender tickets or for priority tendering. Everyone can be accommodated on the next tender.

 

 

We were invited to join a fellow guest, Brad Elliot (He has been the craft instructor on other World Cruises) who had reserved the Private Oasis for the day. This is sold as a shore excursion and costs $1,400 which includes catering for 12 people. There are other options that can support larger groups but I don’t have any information on that. I would guess that up to 25 people would be comfortable but beyond that it would start to feel very full. The cost includes a full bar, waiters, cooks and an onsite manager to ensure everything goes smoothly.

 

Our arrival time was around 8AM and all aboard was 3:30PM. I would be interested in hearing any stories if anyone managed to get left behind here, although I suspect they would send out the search parties to find someone sleeping off in the corner of the island before they would leave. Anyone with a story to share?

 

Around 10 AM we headed down to the tenders and our timing was wonderful as the tender left only a few minutes after we arrived.

 

It was a short 8 minute ride to the island and offloading was a breeze. Once ashore there is an HAL staffed information desk and places you can learn more about the many activities to choose from. Since we were heading to the Private Oasis, we bypassed everything else and went directly to the Oasis, which is a 1620 square foot Cabana with a large table, bar with 8-10 seats, buffet table and a living room style seating area. There is also a hot tub along with a life guard and attendants ready to give you floating mattresses, snorkeling equipment etc. You must remember to bring a towel from the ship which are readily available right before your cruise card is scanned and you get off the ship.

 

Once we arrived we munched on some snacks and a light salad bar, grabbed a Strawberry Daiquiri and headed down to the spectacular water where we picked up a floating mattress and started our lazy day in the sun, sand and surf. What a joy.

 

It was now approaching lunch time, where the chefs who are here for the exclusive use of the Private Oasis were busy cooking up a special menu which included some of the standard fare from the standard HAL buffet and a few special items. One of the big surprises, and I am not sure if it is standard or an upgrade, was some GIANT Lobster tails – the biggest I have ever seen – anywhere. They were grilled to absolute perfection which was amazing as my previous experience with large lobster tails was they were typically a little tough as they were hard to cook with the same consistency all the way thru.

 

 

We enjoy the generosity of Brad and his wonderful company all day and it was a lot of fun. Brad surprised me with a special gift when he presented me with a printed bound copy of all my blog posts since the cruise began. It was very thoughtful and I appreciated it very much.

 

The Private Oasis experience was First Class all the way and if you can gather up 12 likeminded people the per person price is a pretty good value for such a luxurious experience.

 

We headed back to the ship about 2:45 and we were back in our cabins by 3pm.

 

Sail Away had a decent crowd, but not as large as you may think with a full ship. I suspect most people were still cleaning up from a nice day at the beach. We arrived a little late and there were no longer servers walking around with snacks, so we are not sure what they were serving today.

 

We discovered that for dinner tonight the rest of the people assigned to our table cancelled their fixed seating and we never saw them. We are now down to 3 people for our 8 place table. We miss our lively table and are working to try and find other guests, but in the meantime we will hunt down guest entertainers and open our table for open seating passengers.

 

Abba Fab was the featured entertainment tonight. We saw them on the evening we left Funchal and they were so good, we had to see them again, but this time we sat in the second row. The 10 pm show attracted over 200 people – maybe more, so there was a lot more energy in the room. Their show was fantastic with incredible vocals, guitar and piano playing. They plaed several medleys of all the big Abba hits and this is a show not to miss – I saw it twice in less than 2 weeks and am looking forward to seeing them in my hometown of San Diego when they appear in a concert July 21st.

 

 

We set our clocks back 1 hour tonight and we are looking forward to our first sea day tomorrow.

[Btimmer]

We had ABBA FAB on our fall TA or Eastern Caribbean Cruise (they are starting to run together!), and they were fabulous. Glad you liked HMQ. We have enjoyed it on 2 different cruises. Swimming with the Rays was a cool activity and bicycling and hiking the island and climbing the 'mountain' was fun as well.

[jig]

The problem with having extra seat open is that they will bring people to the table whenever. We would see people seated at a table already served and the waiters have to take their orders in the middle of serving you. One of the reasons we went to a table for 2.

As far as the sail away, a lot of people are still unpacking. Not sure what your next stop is but looking forward to your Colombia visit

 

 

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[The-Inside-Cabin]

The problem with having extra seat open is that they will bring people to the table whenever. We would see people seated at a table already served and the waiters have to take their orders in the middle of serving you. One of the reasons we went to a table for 2.

As far as the sail away, a lot of people are still unpacking. Not sure what your next stop is but looking forward to your Colombia visit

 

 

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Haven't seen that on Deck 5 which is all fixed.....since we start at 8 pm probably less people wanting that time for open. They said they would only bring extra people from open if we asked for them each day. We had all 4 from Abba Fab last night...working on 4 more fir tonight. Not confirmed.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Day 118, Sailing towards Cartagena

 

Smooth seas and clear skies greeted us this morning as we started our first sea day on our Panama Canal cruise.

 

Many of the changes of returning to a normal cruise from a Grand Voyage are not obvious until you start to look for something at a particular time or place and only then do you realize that was only a feature on Grand Voyages.

 

Good Morning Amsterdam is no longer as this is a World Cruise Only event. Judy’s daily crafts at 2:30 is also gone but on other HAL cruises one of the Show Hosts will occasionally run a craft project. We will see if anything pops up this cruise for crafts. The Daily On Location still shows a “Crafters Meet” at 9am in the Explorers Lounge. Art work is now populating the Ocean Bar in anticipation for the next auction. I will have to stop by an Auction on this cruise to check out the activity level.

 

We stopped by the Culinary Arts Center at 9am to see the Panama Canal Rolls Demo. I was always curious to see how they were made, so I didn’t want to miss this opportunity. The Culinary Arts Center was 80% full which surprised Donna as she was used to much smaller crowds during similar demonstrations on the World Cruise.

 

 

Making the rolls is fairly simple, prepare a standard yeast dough, let it rise, punch in down and then roll out a thin sheet cutting the sheet into rectangles then filling them with some peaches and folding them over. The recipe was not available as the print shop was flooded last night and all of her recipes were in a box on the floor and were ruined. She will have them printed and available at future events.

 

On our way back to our Cabin we spotted some of the crew getting ready for their drill which would be starting in a few minutes. This always reminds me of my Navy days as shipboard fire drills are pretty much the same on a cruise ship as they are on a Navy ship.

 

Our Cruise Critic Meet and Greet was at 10:30 am today with a total of 5 people in attendance including Judy and me. We chatted with the other couple from Melbourne and a woman from Vancouver BC who was attending without her husband. We met in the Explorers Lounge and we had a lovely conversation for almost an hour. The Australians will be getting off in San Diego and spend 18 days traveling the western USA seeing some of the National Parks and since we live in San Diego we were able to give them a few tips about what to see in San Diego. There were only about 30 or so people signed up for the roll call.

 

There was a Blackjack Tournament today but the entry fee is $20 instead of $10 on the World. The first place prize is double, I guess it all balances out. I entered but didn’t hit any cards and was knocked out early.

 

George held a black jack class earlier that was extremely well attended and we will see if that turns into greater participation in the Casino. I am seeing more action on the slots, but not much more action, if any, on the card tables.

 

 

I had won a free lunch in the Pinnacle Grill back on the World Cruise and we decided to take advantage of the free lunch today. There were only a handful of other guests and there wasn’t any special dress code as many of the men were wearing shorts. We both chose the Tomato Broth with Spicy Lemon Chicken soup for a starter, while Judy selected the Cod Sandwich and I picked the Pinnacle Burger. The soup was fabulous, probably one of the best we had all year, full of chunky chicken with just the right amount of spice. Judy felt it was a tad too spicy, but still very good, so YMMV depending on your preference for spicy food.

 

The Pinnacle Burger was stacked 6 inches high complete with Avocado, Mac and Cheese, lettuce, tomato and more. Judy’s cod sandwich was not nearly as tall with a nice broiled piece of Cod between a bread roll with thin spiral sliced cucumbers on top.

 

For desert I had a delicious warm brownie with coffee ice cream and Judy had the Strawberry Pavlova which she said was outstanding. We had a wonderful lunch, but we generally don’t want to spend as much time in dining rooms and this takes longer than grabbing something in the LIDO. But if you are in the mood for a longer lunch in a nice setting, you can’t go wrong here. We also noticed that some of the evening entrees West Coast Seafood Cioppino were also offered here for lunch. Worth checking out if some of your evening favorites are on the lunch menu.

 

A few other changes from the world were in the LIDO. The noodle cart I enjoyed every day is gone, now replaced by a table for 6. The custom sandwich maker has been replaced by a custom pasta maker. It is the same person, so they aren’t saving any manpower but must believe that more people desire custom pasta instead of custom sandwiches. There is a wider selection of premade sandwiches with all the ingredients listed on the sign in front of each one.

 

The food choices in the food line are now labeled with small, easy to read printed white signs. During the World Cruise the entrees were identified by writing a description with a sharpie directly onto the Plexiglas shield. Even though the signs are easier to read what the entrée is now, the handwritten method was an interesting touch. I will ask around as to why they changed.

 

The sushi bar was previously self-serve, but now you have to ask for a tray to be handed to you over the counter – maybe this is a food safety precaution in place early in the cruise.

 

Early this afternoon we passed very close to Cuba. We thought about the Carnival Cruise ship which was in port making it the first time a cruise ship has visited Cuba in decades. The Seaview pool had more people than on the World, but there were still plenty of deck chairs available.

 

I played in the Hold’em tournament with a new group of people. There was one holdover from the previous cruise. I had horrible cards and didn’t get a playable hand until the blinds were at $800/$1600 (original stake $4000)

 

NOTE – this is $4000 tournament dollars, not real dollars - The buy-in remains at $60.

 

My first playable hand was K J suited and I was the big blind. Only one caller had a history of playing weak hands and she had far more chips than I so I figured she would call my $1200 “all in” easily. She called as expected and since we were the only 2 left we showed our cards immediately before the flop. When she turned over a 5-6 I felt pretty good, since per the book I had a 60% chance of winning with 2 over cards. But, when the flop came 5 5 10, my goose was cooked as I was now staring at trips with only a K high. I managed to get a pair on the turn, but no luck on the River. Oh well, that’s poker!

 

Tonight was our first Gala night and we were joined at our table by all four members of Abba Fab. We had a wonderful time as they are not only great entertainers, they are great dinner guests and we enjoyed our conversation with them very much. We learned that they used to perform a Karen Carpenter tribute show and since Judy went to high school with Karen Carpenter (Judy never socialized with her and only remembers her as someone who played drums in the band) we perked up instantly. I am sure that their Karen Carpenter show would be as wonderful as their current offerings.

 

The Gala Night Menu has returned to the small square menu that folds out – there are less choices than on the world – only 3 choices in each category. A copy of the menu and all menus is on the blog under world cruise reference.

 

Showtime was the HAL cast performing “Jazz Blues Rock and Roll”. We missed the first 15 minutes of this show when it was first performed back between Israel and Greece in April as were going to the Toga Party instead. We enjoyed this show very much. Lots of great song and dance numbers starting with “Bye Bye Blackbird” and closing with “It’s Now or Never” with a few numbers featuring the dancers only in between. Fantastic show which we enjoyed very much.

 

[SilvertoGold]

Agree wholeheartedly with Judy about the Pinnacle lunch Pavlova! My go-to always!

And so is the halibut, although I order no bun, plus scalloped potatoes.

 

Hope you both enjoy the rest of the cruise!

[jig]

Haven't seen that on Deck 5 which is all fixed.....since we start at 8 pm probably less people wanting that time for open. They said they would only bring extra people from open if we asked for them each day. We had all 4 from Abba Fab last night...working on 4 more fir tonight. Not confirmed.

 

 

That's good. We were on the Volendam for 42 days and were late seating as well. We saw it every night. Being brought upstairs.

We're were going on the Veendam in 28 days but have had to cancel. Sad as we love being on a ship. Not sure what your doing in the next stop but we plan to do our own walking tour with a private guide.

 

 

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[The-Inside-Cabin]

That's good. We were on the Volendam for 42 days and were late seating as well. We saw it every night. Being brought upstairs.

We're were going on the Veendam in 28 days but have had to cancel. Sad as we love being on a ship. Not sure what your doing in the next stop but we plan to do our own walking tour with a private guide.

 

 

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We have no plans for Columbia...short day....all aboard at 12:30

[rafinmd]

I wonder why Gene is not doing Good Morning Amsterdam. Alberta Quilter is reporting it is happening on the Zaandam Circle Hawaii, just a regular cruise. Right now we're privileged to have 3 great reports, yours, Westerdam, and Zaandam and it's interesting to see the variation from ship to ship.

 

Have a great second transit of the Canal.

 

Roy

[The-Inside-Cabin]

I wonder why Gene is not doing Good Morning Amsterdam. Alberta Quilter is reporting it is happening on the Zaandam Circle Hawaii, just a regular cruise. Right now we're privileged to have 3 great reports, yours, Westerdam, and Zaandam and it's interesting to see the variation from ship to ship.

 

Have a great second transit of the Canal.

 

Roy

 

I will be looking forward to catching up on other "lives" once I get home. Not sure why some do and some don't - probably at the Cruise Directors Discretion. I do miss the show.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Day 119, Sailing towards Cartagena

 

Another lazy day at sea as we continue south toward Cartagena. There is a little more deck motion than yesterday, but nothing close to what we experienced while crossing the Atlantic last week.

 

I spent the morning in the cabin straightening up and reading. Judy headed off to Donna’s class on making body scrubs. Donna demonstrated combining the ingredients. Her best tip was not to use food coloring to color the scrubs because the food coloring will stain the skin.

 

 

I went to the Blackjack tournament at 12:30 and was able to qualify for the finals at 2 pm. My score of 4100 was the highest qualifying hand which was usually not enough to even make the finals during the world cruise. On the world, you needed at least 5000 to even think about making the finals and usually closer to 7000 as people were far more aggressive and played better. For example, today it was not uncommon to see someone hit a 16 against the dealer showing a 5.

 

After the qualifying round, we stopped by the LIDO to try the custom Pasta bar. It was very nice and I wonder if this is more popular or cheaper than the sandwich maker or just different. It may be easier to serve more people faster once they hit the Alaska Season. I learned that the ship is working on getting the crew to start and think Alaska with its 7 day turns, new passengers every week and repeat, repeat, repeat.

 

The finals for the Blackjack tournament were disappointing. I finished 4th overall and got another Club 21 hat, a free drink and a match play coupon.

 

Immediately following the Blackjack tournament, 6 of us started the Texas Hold’em game and I managed to finish 3rd, just out of the money. Once again my two over cards were beat by trips on the flop and turn. That’s poker.

 

We were joined by Brad, Gloria and Barbara for dinner and they will be permanent additions to Table 52. We now have a good group of 6 people.

 

The service in the MDR has returned to normal after a few start up issues and they have figured out how to get the soup temperature correct as it was fine this evening. I had the Lasagna while Judy had the Cobb salad. Both were very good.

 

We learned that on the World Cruise they would typically serve 70 people in the MDR for breakfast while this morning they served 290. We always get room service breakfast so we haven’t experienced any issues there one way or the other.

 

Buzz Sutherland was in the Queens Lounge tonight. This is the third time we have seen him and he remains just OK. Some people found him hilarious, but I found his act inconsistent and lacking any theme. His show lasted 65 minutes which was quite long by cruise ship standards. He also works in a serious salute to veterans in the middle of his act and while his heart is in the right place, this seems out of place in the middle of a comedy show. This would be better at the beginning of his act before he got rolling.

 

We will be in Cartagena tomorrow for a short day – all aboard at 12:30. We don’t have anything special planned.

 

More on the blog at http://www.theinsidecabin.com

[jig]

We have no plans for Columbia...short day....all aboard at 12:30

 

 

Not sure why , but all the calls are half day. Maybe tides. Shame as I heard it's a beautiful city. Part is kinda far to walk to old town. You should try to hook up with something.

 

 

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[The-Inside-Cabin]

Good Morning Cartagena !!

 

 

 

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