On our way to breakfast, we passed by the Front Desk, and lo and behold, Kuz, a familiar assistant head housekeeper appeared to welcome us onboard. We have known him as Shiv's right-hand man for many years, and we so happy that he remembered us. His office is on deck 3, and we frequently visited the fellows while on the Amsterdam as their door was always opened. Great guys.
The Pinnacle Grill was opened for breakfast at 8am this morning, a day at sea. This venue for the Neptune folks and President's Club members will follow the opening times of the main dining room. On port days, breakfast will be at 7:30am. Easy to remember, although today there were some diners coming in right before they closed at 9:30am. The manager here is Lelik (not quite sure of the spelling) and new to us. We have yet to meet his team of waiters, but they will get to know us as we try not to miss a morning in this fine eatery. Truthfully, the menu is the same as in the dining room, but we are entitled to complimentary fresh-squeezed orange juice, a mimosa, and cappuccino, Americano, or latte coffees. Service was a bit slow, but we were in no hurry to go anywhere. The food was good and the coffee hot. Perfect. And we are seeing more folks we know, like a couple that joined the last segment of the world cruise last year. We always lined up at the Pinnacle breakfast before the doors were opened on the Zuiderdam, getting to know each other by chatting every morning. Small world.
Our big project for the day was unpacking – not a little chore either. It did take 5 weeks of packing a little bit every day before we left for Florida, so it added up. The job took all day with one break and we're still not done. Compared to the Signature Suites on the Zuiderdam, the Vista suites (deck 6) have far less room for storage. We do know that it will work, since we have stayed in Vista suites many times on the Amsterdam as well as on this ship. Back in the "old" days (2007), we were allowed unlimited luggage shipping, so we sent a total of 22 pieces. Not all of them were large, but 22? We never thought about where our things were going to go. So a lot of the clothing had to stay in the suitcases under the bed to be cycled into the mix as the cruise advanced. As the years went by, we got smarter with the amount of stuff we brought. More or less…..
With the addition of a portable set of stacked drawers, we figured one would be enough. Nope, it would take two more if they are still available. Also, the wire hangers that had been left for us disappeared when our room stewards replaced them with the felt hanger. We would need more of the felt ones too. They have been coming in bundles of 10 and 20 and appear to be brand new. By 11am, we had our things stacked high, and decided it was breaktime.
We had been invited to a welcome reception for President's Club members and 3 and 4 star guests held in the Crow's Nest at 11:30am to 12:15pm. The Captain and some of his officers were in the receiving line as usual, however Kumar, our leader directed us to the reserved seating where we got stuck with strangers. Normally we stick around the bar, but the seas were rough today and one of us had to sit down. We have to mention that there was enough motion with the ocean, that one of us felt queasy by the late afternoon. Could be that we got so busy, we never thought about lunch…..we had some snacks and sodas instead. And a few mimosas and peanuts at the reception. The Captain had left to do his noon update, so we missed most of what he said. All we heard was swells and wind along with rain showers all the way to Bridgetown, Barbados. Although the temperature said 75 degrees, we think it was far less with the wind factor.
Out of the blue, a very nice lady officer strolled over our way. She was Jonah, the event planner from the Nieuw Statendam back in 2022. What a wonderful surprise that she has been promoted to Front Desk Manager and will sail with us for the entire trip. Back on that cruise, she took great care of us when we had to be quarantined in Ft. Lauderdale due to Covid for one of our 11-day Caribbean runs. She is one of a kind, and we never forgot her help back then. We look forward to seeing her for the duration now.
Back to the salt mines (our room), we made more progress with many breaks on our cool and windy veranda. At 4pm, there was a block party where all the guests come out in the hallway and share a toast with complimentary sparkling wine with a chance to see either the Captain or Glenn the hotel manager greeting everyone present. We would have popped out to visit our neighbors, but the seasickness prevailed, so we stayed inside working. There will be more for the major segments of which there are 12 of them, according to Kumar. He also said there are a total of 1050 passengers now with 28 of those being in the President's Club. More will be inducted along the way we understand.
There were the usual suspects of activities happening all day. How well they were attended is a mystery to us, as we suspect most of the full cruise passengers were unpacking like us. Dinner time arrived at 7:30pm, and we headed off to the dining room on deck 5. There were more people in here this evening as we expected. One of us ordered one bowl of their room service chicken noodle soup, which came full of carrots, celery, and chicken chunks. No noodles though, but spaghetti was used. I will learn to deal with it by cutting the spaghetti small with my knife.
One of us ordered the shrimp cocktail and the other had one arancini with a Spanish type sauce. Mains were pork belly and parmesan-coated chicken with honey mustard. It was so large of a portion, only half of it could be consumed. Saved a bit of room for a dessert of sliced pineapple and one rice pudding. Our waiters have been very attentive and quick to serve our food. Works for us.
There was a show in the World Stage with a singer by the name of Chloe Lowery who performed timeless songs and iconic hits. Have to admit that like the dining room, it was rather chilly in there. No wonder many folks were wearing sweaters and jackets.
Back in our room, we had a notice to put the clocks AHEAD one hour (hate when that happens) and two boxed gifts of Marie Stella Maris body wash, body lotion and body scrub, all travel sized. This is the brand of toiletries that are used in the Neptune suites we think. We have also been receiving the fancy Lindt Lindor pillow chocolates also….only the best.
One more day of room organizing, and we should be set.
Bill & Mary Ann
