First and foremost……Happy Birthday Bill! And what a better way to spend a birthday than on a ship?
Got to breakfast at 8:30am to find the restaurant full of guests already. Now that we have a week left, it sees that everyone is making an effort to do it all while they can. We lost our window table, but got a good one on the end of a four top. Guess by doing that, we displaced someone else.
The Mariner Recognition Event was held in the Gallery Bar at 11am for the top Mariners onboard. This is the medallion awards, where the guests are honored for their days sailed. We would guess that there were 30 people invited at the most. Arriving 5 minutes before the event, we had a chance to speak with the Captain and General Hotel Manager for a few minutes. We had met Captain Jeroen back last September when we did a 7 day Alaska voyage. At that time, cruising was in its test mode after a long time of no sailing. The Captain mentioned that he felt the Zuiderdam was being used for the 2023 world voyage, because there was such a big demand for veranda rooms. Makes sense. Then we asked about skipping the port of Corinto, Nicaragua a few days ago. He said it was their government that was refusing all cruise ships entry into the port due to Covid. Also made sense. Then a few more guests arrived in line, and we moved into the room. Beverages were served as we joined two nice ladies from Victoria, Canada.
We expected the same type of awards ceremony as we attended on the N. Statendam, but it did not happen that way. As the only President's Club members onboard, we were introduced by name first, but no days sailed mentioned, which was fine with us. We had our photo taken with the officers, and took our seats. From there on, the medal awardees were invited to pose with the Captain and Hotel Manager, but no mention of names or days achieved. In other words, it was a non-event for them, which was too bad. The guests had received their medals in their rooms, and asked to wear them to the gathering. We even saw platinum medals, which is 700 days sailed. That should have at least earned a recognition by name. Oh well, we know this would not have happened on Jonah's watch.
A surprise to us, we had been recognized by a lady who looked familiar to us. She came over after the gathering and reminded us of meeting on previous world cruises. She knew all the old timers we know who still cruise. She said she will be on the next one in January, same as us. That will make Barb happy since we recall they were Crow's Nest buddies on the Amsterdam. While we were chatting, two more couples came by to talk. They wanted to know how many days it took to be in the President's Club, which we informed them it was 1400 pure sea days. Eleanor may have had 1100 days, and she felt it was do-able for her. The others didn't have near that much.
During the afternoon, we had numerous sightings of turtles, birds, dolphins, and even a school of sailfish. They mostly stayed under the water, but when one jumped, there was no mistaking what it was. Of course, that kept us on watch for a lot of the afternoon before and after lunch. The Lido was the place for salads and pizza, of course. It certainly was not crowded in there at 2:30pm. The waiter we see every time we dine there, had brought us two medium plates for our pizza that was yet to come. Another waiter, who was busy cleaning tables, must have taken our plates while we ate salad. Neither of us noticed, and thought we were losing our minds. Nope, the crew are just extra good at doing their job. Our first waiter brought us new ones, which we guarded.
While downloading photos, one of us took the time to study the TV grid. Finally discovered that the port talks given on the ship were recorded and put on the room TV's. Duh….only took over 100 days to figure that out. Wonder what else can be found at the touch of the TV remote??? By the way, the TV seems to be working much better, and we suspect their equipment had been tweaked.
During the afternoon, a tray arrived from room service with one frosted chocolate cupcake for the birthday guy. It came with a card from the Captain. The laundry that was turned in this morning, also arrived….same day service. It has been so nice having this perk.
We also got a letter describing disembarkation day, although it is a week away. We will be in no big rush to get off, since our 1:30pm flight was changed to 4pm. We had asked Teresa if she knew of anything that was delaying the ship's departure that day, and she said no, nothing had been changed. It was business as usual at the San Diego pier terminal.
Dinner had some good choices tonight with some Mexican touches. Carne asadas with rice and beans was our entrees. Starters were chicken noodle soup, salad, and phyllo purses filled with spinach and cheese and ricotta cheese and sun dried tomatoes. All good. We were not going to order dessert, but suddenly, several waiters arrived with the same chocolate fudge cake we had last night. Of course they sang the special song they love to sing, and wished Bill a wonderful birthday. Very nice of them to remember, and a great way to end the day.
Tomorrow's port will be Manzanillo, a stop we have only made once. Be nice to go back to see what we remember.
Bill & Mary Ann
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Report #122 Day At Sea Enroute To Manzanillo, Mexico Monday April 18, 2022 My Birthday
