Sea Day #9

February 9, 2023

Our last sea day. One week cruises are just too short. Even though this cruise was tacked onto a longer voyage, it felt like we had just got settled in and into a rhythm and now it was time to start thinking about packing.

I don't know that we have ever had a cruise with such great weather. Once again we woke to blue skies and relatively calm seas.

The lovely fresh mixed berries were still available this morning at breakfast and I topped the bowl with a spoonful of Greek yogurt. The Zaandam did have some yummy fresh pineapple, but otherwise the fruit was mainly cut up melons that weren't the ripest.

Bob went up to the sports deck for pickleball while I attended the coffee chat held in the BB King lounge. Gage's guests were all six of the Step One dance troupe. They came from different backgrounds and nationalities but shared the fact that they all knew they wanted to be dancers from a very young age. This seven day cruise has four different dance shows scheduled whereas we only saw two dance shows on the fourteen day Zaandam cruise. That was not by design but rather due to the rough seas that caused the shows to be cancelled and postponed several times.

The Step One Dance Company
A sad note to add...Fabio (2nd from left), a dancer from Argentina, was killed in a swimming accident in Curacao less than 3 weeks after this photo was taken. 

I went back to the cabin long enough to do a little packing and then returned to the front of the ship for the "Ask the Captain" Q & A session at 11 am. Part of of the program was the captain narrating a slide show from the bridge, but the more interesting segment is when he answered questions from the audience. I have attended these sessions on various ships and I am always impressed with how witty and humorous the captains are!

Cruise Director Gage Griffin and Captain Eric Barhorst
(At 24, Gage is the youngest Holland America cruise director!)

I took time to browse through the gift shops but didn't see anything of interest. We will have about $40 left from our onboard credit that is nonrefundable and I was looking for ways to spend it!

I met Bob back at the cabin and somehow he had lost his cap going the short distance from the pickleball court to our room. He knew he had it in his hand at one point (because it was windy) but then realized he didn't have it when he got to the cabin.

We went to lunch at the buffet and after getting our food, Bob went to get our drinks. (The servers always took forever to bring drinks...if at all.) When he got to the drink station, his hat was there laying on the counter! 

There were several interesting activities planned for the afternoon but I decided I didn't want to spend the whole day indoors. First, Bob and I went and walked a couple of laps on the promenade deck. I saw a flying fish! The ship sailed through a brief rain shower as we were finishing up so we came back to the room for a short time.

The promenade deck is quite narrow in places.

Ahhh...that wonderful blue water!

Bob ended up splitting his afternoon between ping pong and pickleball. I went to the aft pool and was barely able to find a vacant lounge chair. I went into the pool briefly but the ship was rocking so much the waves made swimming impossible. At one point, a woman sitting on the edge of the pool was completely flattened by a "pool tsunami". She went down hard, but never spilled a drop of her drink. Everyone cheered! The water seemed a little warmer than yesterday but that could be due to the fact that the rocking of the ship was causing the water from the hot tubs to pour into the pool!

It was dressy night and we had planned to go to the dining room as soon as they opened since neither of us wanted a repeat of our last MDR experience. But...Bob lost track of the time playing pickleball and by the time he got back to the room we decided to just eat at the buffet. The decision turned out to be a good one. The buffet was not crowded and the menu was excellent. 

I wasn't sure what this was, but it was so interesting I had to give it a try!
(Crunchy but not much flavor.)

As we were eating, the cruise director made an announcement that the evening's dance performance, In Tandem, had been cancelled due to the rough sea conditions. (That was the same performance that was postponed three times on the Zaandam.) Jose Sarduy, the comedian we saw twice on the Zaandam, was going to fill in. Neither of us wanted to hear rerun jokes.

A check of the Navigator app showed the Billboard Onboard had a set at 7:30 so we went there instead of the main theater. The piano players didn't interact much with the audience or generate much enthusiasm. 

After turning our clocks FORWARD multiple times, tonight we finally got to go BACKWARDS...an extra hour of sleep! No tender tickets are required for Half Moon Cay tomorrow so that should simplify our morning.