Subject: Report # 124 Sailing Towards Cartagena, Colombia May 3, 2016 Tuesday Partly cloudy & 84 degrees
The Amsterdam sailed directly south ever since we sailed around the north-eastern part of the island of Cuba. Sometime after dinnertime, the seas began to get deep swells, making us rock and roll somewhat. In fact, we thought we may be heading into rain, but when we woke up this morning, the sun was shining brightly in our room. And it was warming up.
We saw a funny thing when we did our walk this morning. A fairly young couple were hanging some wet clothes on hangars on the wall railing on the promenade deck. We have seen people do this on their private balconies, but never on the lower deck. Guess they don't know there are dryers in the laundry room, or the fact that your shower has a cord to dry clothing.
Many things were happening this morning with the live port and shopping show with our port shopping ambassador, Nancy. She took the stage in the Queens Lounge to talk about shopping in Cartagena, Puerto Quetzal, and Puerto Chiapas. She was handing out maps, practical port info, and options for transportation. Later in the afternoon, there was an emerald and colored gemstone talk in the Wajang Theater. We have attended many of these talks in the past and have learned one important thing……….unless you know your gemstones well, don't buy them on shore.
The new future cruise consultant, Megan, offered tips and tricks on getting the most out of your next cruise vacation. There are so many more incentives to book on board, that a lot of people do it.
We have one guest speaker now, Valerie Mock, who dealt with the history of the Panama Canal. Sure hope this is televised, because the transit will be coming up soon. You can never learn enough about the Canal, giving you a chance to enjoy transiting it so much more.
For a change, we decided to get some sun time and book reading time at the aft pool. Expecting a crowd, we were surprised to see there was none. Perhaps most of the folks have gotten too much sun the last few days. We're talking sunburn. So we had no problem getting our usual lounges at the back end. A couple of hours out there was enough, since the wind was blowing strongly across the decks. We had to use all of our clamps to keep the towels down.
At 2pm, we were invited to a wine tasting in the La Fontaine Dining Room. This is one of the 5 star perks, but if you wish to attend and are not a 5 star Mariner, it would cost $15. per person. Wish we liked wine more, but we don't, so we did not go to the tasting. Actually at 1:30pm, a good movie was on TV, so we went without lunch to watch it. The flick was A Bridge of Spies, and was very good.
Even though it was not a gala night, the photographers had a stand set up for photos. The two guys were set up outside the liquor store on deck five, stopping folks as they walked by, or tried to walk by. Not many people stopped for a photo the whole time we sat there.
We had reservations this evening in the Pinnacle Grill Restaurant, the first one this particular cruise. We shared a Caesar salad, then ordered the ribeye steaks. We had sides of French fires, grilled asparagus, and sauteed mushrooms. All cooked perfectly. Even though we had a very light lunch of crackers and salsa, it was difficult to finish the meat. Dessert was a small soufflé and some rocky road ice cream. We will have to squeeze in some walking tomorrow to work off the French fries. The service continued to be excellent in this specialty restaurant, as always.
Showtime featured Buzz Sutherland, a comedian who has been on board for some time now. We were so full and sleepy, we did not go to see him. Better to have a walk outside, where we found the temperatures still high. With the humidity staying high, we will appreciate it when we get to the Canal and into the Pacific Ocean, where the temperature should cool down.
Tomorrow…………..Colombia!
Bill & Mary Ann
