Subject: Report #127 Sailing Towards Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica May 6, 2016 Friday Partly cloudy & 91 degrees
Sure was nice to have that extra hour of sleep last night. Now we are only one hour off of Pacific Time, a reminder we are closer to home. Probably a good time to start thinking about packing, because there is nothing worse than saving it to the last minute.
Today started off with a nice breakfast in the dining room of course. Being that today is a sea day, the room was almost as full as dinnertime. Many more folks are taking advantage of the pleasures of fine dining, as opposed to going to the self-serve Lido. For us, it is the perfect place to touch base with our favorite head waiters, who keep us informed of current events.
One event we could have done without has to do with the internet onboard. At the moment, we have been experiencing problems with being recognized on some regular accounts. We are not alone, as many of our buddies have been having problems since we left Ft. Lauderdale a week ago. We discovered that it is an internal problem, caused more than likely by someone who pushed a wrong button somewhere. Even the staff is experiencing difficulties as well. Hopefully this will be resolved one way or another, because spending hours trying to figure it out is not the way we want to spend the rest of the cruise. Our new guest relations manager, Michelle, was most helpful in working with us trying to consolidate the accounts, but she also was not totally successful. But she did promise to work on it further.
Two talks took place in the Queens Lounge today. The first was one with Captain Eversen with a virtual presentation of the Amsterdam. The title, "Ask the Captain" we assumed referred to guests being able to ask questions. We searched the TV channels, but could not find the talk repeated. The other lecture was delivered by Valerie Mock and was all about the profitability of sugar cane plantations and the slaves that were imported to work the fields.
The rest of the daily newsletter was filled with shopping. First was shopping in Mexican ports, shopping for tours, a $10 madness sale (buy 4 get the 5th free), buying tanzanite, rapid fire art auction, perfumes, diamonds and gemstone sales. Then there is the everyday buy 1 drink, get one for $1 in two bars between 4 and 5pm. And we can say, people are buying much more on this cruise, than on the World Voyage. Great for the company.
The more we thought about it, the better the idea sounded of packing. At least, we wanted to start the duffel with the "breakables"….mostly the gifts we received on the grand voyage. We always bring an ice chest for that purpose, and we had plenty of room for the delicate items. Guess we can thank HAL for not giving us too many gifts on this cruise. It was easier to pack this time.
After four months, we could not remember what we had stashed under the bed, so everything had to come out from there. All of the space bags and convenient smaller baggies were in a suitcase, and we needed all of those to begin the packing. Would you believe it took the better part of the morning and early afternoon to pack two duffels? Believe us, it is not easy to spread things out like you can do at home. The good thing is that most all of the toiletries are gone, making room for some of the souvenirs we bought. Got to admit, we are getting better at selective buying. There are few things we found we could not live without on this trip. Anyway, we have started and if we do a little every day, it won't be so bad. And to make it easier for us to fly home, all of our luggage will be shipped.
Taking several walking breaks kept us sane during the day. The weather remained warm and very muggy as we headed northwest along the coast of Panama today. A real treat came when we least expected it…….dolphin sightings after lunch. There have been very few days that we have seen these displays of jumping dolphins, we began to think their numbers must be declining. We can always depend on seeing more wildlife in the Pacific Ocean, and today was our day. The ship must have cut right through a huge pod, because they continued to jump for as far back as we could see. Now we will be on the lookout daily. The birds are also back. They appear to be boobys, and have stayed with the ship all day. They are a joy to watch as they like to dive for the unsuspecting flying fish.
Tonight was another Gala evening. We were more than curious to see how the folks were dressing. This morning, one older fellow showed up in the dining room for breakfast in a tank top, suitable for the swimming pool. He was given a warning we heard, but was not asked to go change into something proper. We are sure the dress code that was written in the daily newsletter back in Ft. Lauderdale spelled out the details quite fully. But not everyone reads those, or they choose to ignore the rules. Sure would not want to be embarrassed in that way, but you never know if people are pushing the envelope on purpose. Of course, we will be watching tomorrow to see if the same fellow shows up.
Captain Eversen and Brooke walked into the dining room, and spotted us all sitting at the first table on the left. He came right over to say hello to us, which is always nice to know he remembers us. They ended up sitting at the railing in Ellen and Aart's regular table. Nice spot for a private dinner for two.
Instead of having our table for two, we were escorted to a table set for seven, hosted by Peter, the purser. Friends Ellen and Aart arranged to include us and Allen and Sandra at a larger table this evening. Our meal was excellent, especially the soups. Most of us ordered either the cream asparagus or the chicken and rice soup. When the bowls arrived, the veggies and meats were in the bottom, with the broth served afterwards from a large cup with a spout. First time the soup was actually hot in these new bigger bowls. Wonder if this was special for us, or will the waiters continue to do this every night? We ordered the beef Wellington and it was tender and tasty. The evening ended with desserts and coffee at 10:15pm.
We took our usual walk on the promenade deck, and were surprised to discover how warm it still was outside. Little did we know that shortly, it would be raining heavily as we went through a powerful thunder and lightning storm. Watching the action from our window, it was thrilling to see the lightning strike the water so near the ship. Hearing the roar of the thunder was scary. The seas remained fairly smooth despite the storm. Sure hope the worst of it is gone by tomorrow. And we are also glad we are not on any tours to the mountains. Could be a very wet day for the folks heading towards San Jose.
The good news is that Captain Fred informed us that we will be docking in Puntarenas, and not the commercial port of Puerto Caldera. We knew he could do it.
Bill & Mary Ann
