It sure was nice going to breakfast this morning in "Ganville", the new name coined by friends that had stayed onboard for the holiday sailing. Since we all have our favorite tables in the center section of the dining room for breakfast and lunch, and our waiter's name is Gan, he has claimed it his territory. All in good fun, this is the best place to start the day. The food is great, the coffee is always hot, and is served with smiles from our waiters.
Also felt good taking our first morning walk around the promenade deck. The weather was comfortable, even though it was a bit muggy and very cloudy. No doubt about it, later on, it was going to rain. And what a better day to be dreary with showers, because we felt like we were not missing anything outside. Definitely not a pool day.
Nope, we spent the next five hours room-bound, finishing the massive job of finding places for all of our stuff. And you know what? Miraculously, everything found a spot. These rooms on the Amsterdam were built for longer trips such as this one. And since we will be sailing into extremely cold places as well as exceptionally hot places, we had to have a variety of clothing. The cold weather gear went into a suitcase under the bed. That will be perfect for the Antarctica portion of the trip, and the lower end of South America. Once we head north to Santiago, Chile, it should be warm for the remainder of the trip. Tomorrow, we will complete the fine tuning with Command hooks for wall hangings, jewelry distribution, and stashing the "drugstore" goodies in the ice chest. One hanging shoe bag will contain all of the small things that can be found easily, such as pens, cards, tape, paper clips, pins, q-tips, cotton balls, nail polishes, etc. Over-the-door hooks will hold costume jewelry. Tedious work, but in the long run, we only have to do it once.
When we finally got the bed cleared off, we stripped the bedding, and added the thick foam mattress pad. Re-making the bed ourselves, saved our room stewards from the job. They have enough to do. We already notified them that the bed will appear higher, and they were fine with that. Having this extra cushioning on the bed made a huge difference last year, and with the benefit of four pieces of luggage shipped free, we included it in the duffel.
Shipboard life started off with all the usual activities, with team trivia being one of the highlights. Barb is a trivia whiz, and has found a new group along with her friend Karleen. There are no big prizes anymore, but it is more about keeping the minds active. The lectures included port and tour presentations, and discovering Dominica and St. Lucia, our first and second stops. One talk was about the real lungs of the world delivered by guest speaker Ginny. Watercolors and arts and crafts began today, as did intermediate and duplicate bridge sessions.
We stopped working in the room at 3pm to have lunch in the Lido. We were happy to see that the pasta counter had been switched to the custom sandwich maker with pizza on the side. The excellent salad bar began our lunch as always. We did not want to overeat, since we had an invitation to a cocktail party for the President's Club members at 6:30pm. They always have some pretty tasty appetizers there, as well as beverages of our choice.
This party was held in the Explorer's Lounge with the Captain, Henk, and Hamish as greeters. Other officers mingled with the group of 60 or more. Also included were the new inductees, who get in when their days reach 1400. This might be a good time to add that as far as we know, there has never been an " by invitation only" to be inducted into this level. If that was the case, no one would be admitted, as the oldies but goodies would want to remain "special". Two of the inductees happen to be our dear friends, Bill & Leta. As they were each introduced, everyone clapped for them. This was a really nice thing for the staff to do for a change. The number of new PC folks will be 19 on this cruise.
At 8pm, we headed off to another nice dinner, which did last well after 10pm. Tonight's show was the Amsterdam's singers and dancers with "On Tour", a performance we have seen often now. Greg and Heo excused themselves to go enjoy it.
Back in our room, we discovered presents. They included one HAL tote, 2 mini daily planners, 2 messenger bags, and 2 smaller purses that can hold money, coins, key card, and a passport. They can be worn around the neck or across the shoulder, and are suitable for women and men. Then the bad news…..we had to move the clocks ahead one hour. We are sailing east this time, on our way to the Caribbean and down the east coast of South America, so it may be a while before we can set those clocks back an hour.
So right now, the time is 1:20am, and it more than time to try out that new comfortable bed.
Bill & Mary Ann
Monday, January 6, 2020
Report #60 Day at Sea January 5, 2020 Sunday Cloudy with rain & 61 degrees
