Trip Report Oosterdam Alaska Cruise – July 24-31, 2004 Day 2 of 8

[bryanwal]

Day Two – Sunday, July25 - At Sea

 

I arose at 6:30 – all the others were still sleeping so I got dressed, and being unsure of the weather I wore jeans, but I think as long as I’m not topside, I’ll be OK in shorts. I went up to the Lido with my novel. Out of the bay windows in the Lido I saw Diamond Princess at our port aft quarter, Oosterdam having overtaken and passed her during the night. I chatted for a while with a couple from Oklahoma here with a group from their Southern Baptist Church, and had some bacon and scrambled eggs because I was hungry. After I finished that I went through the Lido pool area, up the circular staircase and on to the observation deck where it was cold and windy, to the Crow’s Nest, perched myself in a recliner at the bow and read. That was quite pleasant, relaxing in the recliner, reading and watching the sea. At 8 I went to the cabin to wake the gang, stopping by Neptune Lounge to request laundry bags as I couldn’t find any in the suite. The concierge said she would send some right over – we intend to take full advantage of the free laundry. At the stateroom, Elizabeth was already up and I opened the curtains to wake the boys as breakfast will be arriving soon. We had ordered a full breakfast from the room service menu last night for delivery between 8:15 and 8:30. I sat down to a second (lo-carb) breakfast of ham & cheese omelet, sausage and bacon. I had a headache since before I got up so I took some Tylenol.

 

After breakfast we walked 3 times around the promenade deck (1 mile), which was very nice – the rear of the promenade deck is open to the aft of ship, unlike on the Disney Magic. There are water fountains arranged along the promenade but several of them don’t work. Then Elizabeth and I went to the Ocean Bar to read, laying on a sofa. The starboard Ocean Bar has smokers in it, which bothered us and we didn’t realize that the port bar on the other side of the atrium is non-smoking. I ordered a club soda and then decided I would get the soft drink card after all, since even though I would rarely be ordering Diet Cokes and didn’t want sugary drinks, I could order club sodas, which would be a change from ordinary water. I stopped drinking diet sodas a few weeks ago since I was on a plateau in the Atkins diet and realized the aspartame was preventing me from losing more weight. As soon as I stopped the diet sodas, I started losing again so in the month before the cruise I lost 10 more pounds (down 45 so far and feeling great!). At 10 when we toured the Pinnacle Grille and the Galley. While we were in the galley, the videographer had us wave at her camera. She caught us three or four more times on the cruise and sure enough, all of the takes ended up in the souvenir video.

After the tour we looked at the menu at the Vista Dining Room for lunch on the way out then went back to the Ocean Bar to read. Jeffrey went to the Club HAL Ping Pong activity at 11 but there was no one there close to his age so he came back. At 12:15 we went to the photo shop to see our pictures, gave back the ones in the life jackets (no good – I’m sure every one looks their best in a life jacket) then headed up to the Lido buffet. The selection was good enough that we stayed. It was fairly hard to find a table. I had beef rouladen, green beans, cantaloupe, mango and cheese, and cheese crab chowder. Jeffrey came back with only pasta and then went out again but the lines were too long. After lunch we attempted to attend the naturalist’s talk on Alaskan wildlife in the Queen’s lounge but the sight lines are so bad that we wouldn’t have been able to see any of the slides so we left. I went back to the room to work on the trip report and to relax and read. I went out on the verandah with a couple of blankets to enjoy the sea air. A small cabinet next to the verandah door contained 5 or 6 of the red plaid blankets you see all over the ship on the Alaska cruise and they sure come in handy. I assume that all staterooms with verandahs must need these.

After a while I came back inside and did push ups, sit ups and stretching prior to a 3 mile run on the promenade deck with Kevin, who kept up all the way and Jeffrey, who tried valiantly to do so. Then we swung by the suite to get Elizabeth and headed to the spa, where we had a good workout on the Cybex equipment. After our workout we came back to the suite to get ready for formal night. I think I’ll miss the full wrap-around promenade on the Mercury next February. We have second seating, which I prefer because our afternoon was not rushed for an early dinner and we had time to enjoy the gym when it was uncrowded.

 

I had rented tuxes for me & Kevin, so this is Kevin’s first tuxedo. I helped him put it on as he was unsure what to do with the cummerbund, the studs, the cufflinks and the bow tie. We went to have formal portraits taken and dropped by the art gallery to enquire about a painting we were interested in by Tomasz Rut – but it comes in at 2140 plus 15% - maybe next time, LOL A kind woman took our picture on the circular stair in the atrium with the Waterford crystal globe as background. We saw her taking a lot of other folks’ pictures, too. Then it was time to head to the Vista Dining Room for dinner – our table mates were no shows – maybe it’s because Elizabeth is French. I ordered the foie gras, lobster bisque (2 servings – love that bisque!), House salad, chateaubriand and sugar free jello with strawberries. Our server tracked down some heavy cream for me to put on the dessert. I made sure I tipped the servers extra a couple of times during the cruise.

 

After dinner, we dropped by the room to drop off cameras and stuff before heading to the show. It’s this cast’s last week before their contract is up. Found a HAL tote bag on the bed plus info for tomorrow, including a notice that the clocks will all be turned back tonight. Incidentally, I don’t know if I already mentioned that each morning that evening’s dinner and dessert menu is left at the suite.

 

In the Vista Lounge we saw “Rockin’ Road” by the Oosterdam Singers and Dancers. It was their last performance of this show as they are at the end of their contract and will all be going their separate ways at the end of this week. There was a lot of energy both from them and from the audience and they really gave a fantastic show – excellent dancing, wonderful singing and a great show. At the end they were crying and Fred, one of the male dancers, was crying so much he couldn’t sing.

I have one complaint about the Vista Lounge – the seating in there, especially the red bench seating with the tall backs, seems very uncomfortable to me, although the staff I spoke with about said they had had no complaints. I prefer the Walt Disney Theater on the Magic.

 

- Bryan Walton