Sea Day #4...Our Six Hour Upgrade

January 28, 2023

I nearly fell getting out of bed and walking the few steps to the bathroom. The ship was definitely rocking and randomly jerking. When Bob opened his eyes, I pulled out the meclazine and we both took a dose just as a precaution. From experience we know that once you start to feel the effects of sea sickness it is too late to take any meds.

As I was getting dressed, I started to smell something in our cabin...kind of a burnt rubber odor. I walked out to the back deck thinking maybe the crew was doing some type of maintenance and we were smelling the fumes inside our cabin. Nope. The seas were so rough that there wasn't any chance of work happening outside. 

Can you see the rainbow in the sea spray?

When I returned to the cabin, the odor was more intense. Putu, our room steward, was in the hallway so I had him come check. He agreed there was a smell and left to go call his supervisor. Not wanting to stay and deal with the odor, we went to breakfast.

When we returned, a housekeeping supervisor was just coming down the hall. As soon as she opened our door she got on the phone and called someone from the engineering department explaining that there was a strong smoke smell. Almost instantly a couple of other officers showed up and they determined the problem was a burned v-belt in the ventilation system. The housekeeping supervisor assured us that there was no danger of fire in our room, but we would need to leave to give them time to run fans to remove the odor. 

After getting a professional opinion it was official...our room stunk!

Hallway conference about our smelly cabin.

Bob grabbed a book and I got my iPad and we went to the back deck. After a while a guy from engineering came and told us they had checked out everything in our room and it was OK but they still needed to run some fans to eliminate the smell. For the immediate future, we were homeless.

Getting an update from the engineer.

At one point I went in to check on our room and saw a crew member with a tank of liquid strapped to his back going into the room across the hall. Hmmm...perhaps the guy that the medical department was checking on Tuesday DID have Covid and now they were disinfecting the cabin. Unfortunately the odor in our cabin had not been eliminated or even slightly improved. Putu was in the hallway and agreed it was no better.

I went back outside and Bob decided he would go walk on the promenade deck. Within a couple of minutes he was back. All of the doorways were blocked off because the wind was too strong to be outside. A little after 11 am I went back to check on the room again...and there was still a strong odor, even with the fan running. An officer knocked on the door and said that maintenance was going to work on the situation but we were going to be relocated while they were in the room...maybe for the rest of the day, maybe overnight.

The phone rang while we were talking with the officer. It was guest services informing us that we were being moved to cabin 6101. The good news was that our new cabin was a Vista Suite with a balcony! The bad news was that our original cabin is the very last one at the back of the ship on Deck 7 and the new cabin was the very first cabin at the front of Deck 6! A very long walk between the two.

I quickly started gathering up whatever I thought we might need for the day. Someone from guest services arrived with our new key cards and just like that we were on our way. 

Our new stateroom was lovely...and so spacious compared to our little cracker box cabin. Five closets instead of 2, jetted tub in the bathroom, nice seating area with a large desk and a wall mounted TV that was massively bigger than the one hogging the desk space in our cabin. The balcony was nice sized and very deep. The two chairs reclined and each had an ottoman that would make napping easy. Part of me wished we could stay in the new cabin for the rest of the cruise, but at the same time being so far away from the convenience of the lido buffet and pool made me hope we could get back into our old room soon.

Our home away from home...cabin 6101.

After lunch we attended the 2nd of two identical presentations on the history of the Panama Canal. I could tell Ryan, the CD, knew his facts well and his excitement of going through the canal was apparent. In spite of the interesting talk, I could feel myself becoming more and more drowsy. Once back in our "new" cabin, I gave in and took a nap. Bob did his napping on the balcony. Since the rough seas and strong winds continued, pickleball was not an option to even consider.

There was no word on our room status when I got up so I began watching the movie, "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris". As the afternoon wore on, there was still no communication about our cabin and I was getting concerned. I wanted to shower and get ready for dinner, but would I be able to do that in our own cabin OR would I need to make the long trek to get what I needed and dress in the new room?

Bob and I made a trip to guest services, but got no answers. The staff member had trouble understanding our situation and when he tried to call housekeeping, he said they were all on their break. So we went back to the suite and waited. Dinner time was getting close, so half an hour later I made a 2nd trip to guest services and was told to have a seat while they tried to find out what we were to do.

Eventually I was told it was OK to go back into our original room to shower and the final decision on whether we could stay would come later. No one was working in the cabin when we got there and the very strong scent of room freshener spray had replaced the smoke smell.

It was dressy night in the MDR and we were seated at a table for two. I realized sitting at the table next to us was "Sailor Steve". I had discovered Steve's YouTube channel recently and began watching his videos. He had been on the Zaandam since last October and had plans to live on a cruise ship for over a year. 

I introduced myself and said that I recognized him from YouTube. He only has a handful of subscribers on his channel and was excited to learn that I was one of them! We had a nice chat (not difficult since the tables are SO close together!) Steve asked if he could take a photo with us to show his daughter and he was nice enough to Air Drop it to my phone too. Steve would be transferring to the Nieuw Statendam when we reached Ft. Lauderdale (same as us!) but instead of a week long cruise he planned to be on the ship for months. Following the Caribbean itineraries, he would be going to Europe for the summer.

Bob and I with Sailor Steve

Our dinner service was quick enough that we had plenty of time to get to the 7 pm show in the theater. The dancers were to have performed their show, "Musicology", but due to the rough seas, their show was postponed and replaced with comedian, Hank Denson. I made a quick stop by our room before going to the theater and Putu said that all of the maintenance was finished and we could stay in the cabin. Rather than being disappointed that we had to give up our new suite, I was relieved that we would not have to pack everything nor give up the location that we liked.

Repeating our routine from previous nights, we left the theater after the show and strolled through deck 5 to the Mix Bar. We sat in chairs just outside the bar area and listened to a couple of sets from Clara Vee, the piano entertainer...good music and great people watching as people went between the dining room and other entertainment venues.

CD Ryan showed this large painting near the Explorer's Lounge when he did his "behind the scenes videos". We have walked by it many, many times but never noticed...

...this detail of the painting! 😂 It took us a while to find, but we did!

A cup of tea under the moonlight next to the Sea View pool ended our evening. Back in the cabin, I tried to finish watching the movie I had begun earlier, but just couldn't stay awake. 

Another sea day was coming up, so no reason to get up early in the morning. Perfect!