Sea Day #1 (1-31-19)

Thursday, January 31 - Sea Day

I woke up several times during the night and when I peeked out the window I could see the huge waves illuminated by the ship lights. It felt as if we were hitting the swells head-on and the ship was rocking from front to back as we crested the waves.

Bob and I had breakfast in the buffet by ourselves. I went from there to the Crow's Nest for "coffee with the cruise director" at 9:00 while Bob went up to leave a note on the pickleball court. He had taken on the role of "pickleball organizer" and wanted folks to know that there was no chance of playing with the windy conditions.

Coffee with cruise director, Bruce Scudder

Bob then joined me in the Crow's Nest for a bit but was starting to feel queezy. The ship's movement in the Crow's Nest (Deck 9 at the very front of the ship) was really exaggerated so he returned to the cabin.

I also went back to the cabin after the coffee chat and began backing up some of the many photos I had taken in Santiago. I don't travel with a laptop, but discovered the Ravpower Filehub travel router which will transfer files between my phone or SD card onto an external hard drive. I made daily folders on the hard drive before leaving home and during the cruise I planned to back up my photos daily for piece of mind.

At 10:30 the job still wasn't finished but I left to attend the Cruise Critic meet and greet back up in the Crow's Nest. Bob was still feeling sick so he stayed behind. We had already met some of the folks from the online group at the hotel but this time I was focused on meeting a couple of people who we were sharing tours with.

It was fun to get to know some of the other Cruise Critic members and it was lunch time by the time the meet and greet broke up. I went back to the cabin to check on Bob and he said he felt well enough to join us for lunch...but he didn't eat much.

Bob and I had a lot of fun at trivia on our Panama Canal cruise on the Zaandam and wanted to give it a try on this cruise. The trivia challenge began at 1 pm but unfortunately it was also in the Crow's Nest...the worst place for Bob to be when feeling sea sick.

A father and daughter from Australia joined the four of us (Kent, Laurel, Bob and I) to make a team of six. Cruise Director Bruce announced that he prided himself in choosing difficult questions so when we got eight correct answers I was surprised. (Although to be honest the Australian guy contributed the majority of the answers.)

Bob left quickly after the scores were tallied and stayed in the cabin for the rest of the afternoon. I had warned him to be proactive and take some motion sickness meds BEFORE he got sick but he is stubborn and waited until it was too late. He has only gotten sea sick a handful of times on our many cruises, but each time it has been in the Pacific. Be warned!

Kent, Laurel and I went to the first port talk on Puerto Montt, Castro and Puerto Chacabuco with the EXC Guide, Kevin. The talk was interesting, but I HAD been cautious and taken some meclazine so nearly fell asleep. I knew better than to try and make it through the next lecture on earthquakes and volcanoes and went back to the cabin for a nap.

The port talks were very popular and required getting to the theater very early to get a seat.

EXC Guide Kevin had very useful maps and encouraged everyone to take a photo of the screen
with their phones for reference.

After my rest I felt like I needed to get some fresh air. I walked three laps around the ship (3 1/2 laps = 1 mile). As I walked I watched the horizon rise and fall as the ship went over the swells. When I got back to the cabin a second set of tickets had been delivered for the tour that we had already booked, only the tickets were for an hour later. I went to the shore excursion desk and they were just as confused as I was. At first they insisted that we were going to have to change to the later tour but eventually things got resolved and we were back on the earlier tour.

The lower promenade deck was a popular place. After hot weather when we left San Antonio the day before,
walkers were now wearing coats and hats in the brisk wind.

Bob decided some fresh air would also do him good so he walked a bit while I showered and got ready for our first gala night in the dining room. I had registered to have access to the Holland America "Navigator" app on my phone where we could see our online account, activities taking place on the ship and the menus for both the main dining room and the Lido buffet. Most days I saved a copy of the menus for reference but for some reason I didn't get today's. Although we are adventurous and like to try new foods, I'm not one to keep track of everything we ate or post photos of our food.

The Captain's welcome toast was held at 7:45 in the Mainstage Theater. Champagne, pop, and juice were available as we walked into the theater. Captain Chris Norman did a short little spiel and then we watched the evening entertainment, a comedian named Martin Beaumont. Originally a production show was on the schedule, but it was postponed due to the rough seas.

While we were waiting for the show to begin, I checked our onboard account on my phone and saw we had been charged for another tour. I thought it might be related to the mix-up earlier so went to guest services and found we were being charged for a penguin tour in the Falkland Islands. Hopefully the charge will be removed without any further problems.

No late night for us. It was back to the cabin after the show ended to get ready for our day tomorrow in Puerto Montt. The waves seemed to be a little less but we were still going to be rocked to sleep.