Sea Day April 25

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Looking back through the photos I took on this sea day tells me it was a pretty low key day. In other words...very few pictures!

I'm pretty sure that we had a long drawn out breakfast in the buffet. It was so easy to just keep getting coffee refills while we sat and chatted with Jon & Michelle. My ideal cruise would have port days and sea days alternate one after another. Or maybe even two sea days for every port! 

I "think" (that is going to be the theme of this post) that we all went to the Queen's Room at 9:30 for "Adventures with Water Color". Jon wasn't keen on the idea, but succumbed to peer pressure and joined the group. Although no real instruction takes place, the watercolor sessions on our Koningsdam were enough to get Bob and I interested. Since that cruise Bob even ordered us brushes and paint so we can begin our careers as watercolor artists! 😆

Rose, who was in charge of arts and crafts on the ship, was a cute young gal, but admitted she wasn't an artist. She had a degree in set design and from what we observed, her main job description was to pass out supplies and keep the brushes clean. When we attended another watercolor session later in the cruise we realized that her "lecture" was repeated word for word from our initial "class". I got the impression she could have done the class in her sleep.

The art session only lasts 45 minutes which is frustrating with watercolor since drying time is often needed as you paint. The four of us each managed to more or less finish a masterpiece in spite of the ship rocking and rolling. We had to give Jon a hard time following the class. When we complimented him on the volcano that he had painted we learned that it was supposed to be a mermaid! 😂

Some of our watercolor paintings we did on the ship...

Instead of eating at the buffet, we had lunch at the Dive In and sat next to the indoor pool on the Lido deck while we ate. I believe that all classes of HAL ships have the Dive In where you can get burgers, hotdogs, fries, etc. But on the Zaandam there is also a self-serve taco bar available too. Who doesn't love a plate of nachos! It is hard to tell, but the motion of the ship was causing a lot of wave action in the pool!

The waves in the pool were much larger than what they appear on this photo.

Today was the "Cake Me Away' event at the noon buffet so we had to wander in there to check it out. I've noticed almost all of the sugar free desserts served by HAL are just "fluff" and the sugar free cakes were no different. The no-sugar-added Neapolitan cake was just different colored layers of fluff masquerading as a cake! 

The Neapolitan Cake...no sugar added.

The rest of the cakes looked yummy though. If sugar and carbs weren't from the devil I would have had a big slab of carrot cake! (Kidding aside, I am borderline diabetic and try to be careful in my choices.)

The rest of the afternoon is a bit of a blur although I would bet money that Bob and Jon played pickleball. There was always a movie offered on sea day afternoons in the Wajang Theater. Sometimes the title tempted me, but I know I wouldn't be able to stay awake in a dark theater in the middle of the afternoon.

After our "dressy night" dinner in the main dining room the four of us went to the theater a little early for the dance show: In Tandem. This is one dance show that has managed to get cancelled on our previous cruises so we were looking forward to seeing it performed.  I prefer to sit in the balcony for shows on the Main Stage. But for dance shows, Bob likes to be on the floor front and center so we went extra early to get seats. The time goes by fairly quickly as we visit and play games on our phones while we wait. 

When it was time for the show to begin, CD Erin came out and announced that the seas were too rough for the dancers to perform safely. Instead the dance group was just going to do a Q & A session with the audience. It is somewhat interesting to hear where the dancers are from and a little about their backgrounds, but it is not even close to qualifying as the evening entertainment. On the Koningsdam in February, the same thing happened but they just had the comedian switch nights and do a show on short notice. So for the record, we have still not seen "In Tandem."