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Wow! 112-day grand voyage on Holland America's
Amsterdam--what an adventure this was going to be. So we arranged to
have the mail forwarded to Dori, arranged to have our bills paid
automatically, put the gardens to bed, rented a car, and drove to Ft.
Lauderdale.
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As is our usual mode, we boarded early, and spent the day exploring the
boat. We were underway by 6pm and traveled two days until our
first stop at Dominica--see next page for the beginning of our
itinerary.
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Port Everglades at Ft. Lauderdale lies behind a
barrier island, which is also a state park. We watched the world go
by as we waited for the "Sail Away" party--there will be a
party
as we leave each port.
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The next four months the Amsterdam is our home
away from home. We expect by the time we get home we'll be spoiled
and wonder where our room stewards and wait staff have gone.
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 The
captain's welcome was the first formal night. We don't expect to participate in all 19(!) formal events, but this one seemed like fun. At
the reception Captain Jonathan Mercer, a Brit, introduced his main officers.
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From the zodiac tower in the atrium to the
"We are here" navigational chart on our room TV, the
globe in the library, and the
"day-of-the-week" mats in the elevators, we always know
where we stand. (On April 1, the mats in the elevators had people
fooled. They were all different days.)
 
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 The
food is fabulous, varied, and available pretty much all day long.
In spite of that, my plan is that by the end of 4 months, to lose at least 10 pounds and be in better shape through workouts
in the fitness room on the days at sea--both Dean and I do
full work outs. The photo was taken during the first week of the
cruise. (Yes, I know I'm sitting backwards on this machine.)
I also take Tai Chi classes for better balance--on the rough ocean
days, it's more of a challenge. On some really rough days, we work
only on the hand movements while sitting down. No workouts
or Tai Chi when in port, because have lots to see and do, plus we
generally walk our legs off.
 Watermelon art is one of the elegant touches, which we learned
about on a kitchen tour. The kitchen is huge and on the tour, they
provided tastes of various items they were preparing for lunch
that day.
At the beginning of the cruise, we ate in the dining area where
smart casual is required on most nights or formal on those 19
occassions. We had a table for two, but we found ourselves
skipping the long process being waited on and were eating on the
informal Lido deck. We then could sit next to a window and see our
food before we made our selections. We gave up our table in the
dining room.
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Many of our fellow cruisers are quite hefty and
in many ways, the days at sea remind us of the spaceship in the
movie "Wall-e" where the blimp-like humans ride around
on floating scooters and have TV screens right in front of their
faces. If you look at the fitness room above, you can see that the
treadmills, stair masters, and elliptical trainers have TV screens right in front
of your face, even though you can enjoy the view from the huge
windows facing toward the bow. We work hard at not falling into
stride with everyone else.
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Every three weeks Mongolian Barbeque is offered for lunch on the
Lido deck next to the pool. You choose your vegetables,
meat, seafood, and/or noodles and take your selections over to the
row of woks where a cook dressed in a Chinese jacket cooks it for
you. Yes, it's not really the traditional barbeque, but the
effect is similar. We try to be early, because the line can get
very long. We eat light for dinners on Mongolian Barbeque days.
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And then there are the sunsets... We make a point to see the
sunrise and the sunset each day, but as we approached Antarctica
the days were so long that sunset was way past our bedtime
and sunrise was before we got up. This tropical sunset as we left
Barbados was typical. |
During
the at-sea days we attend various lectures, presentations from
the cruise travel guide on upcoming ports, and go to some
concerts--Melissa Manchester was one of our favorites. There is some type of show from comedians to cruise staff broadway
reviews every night--and sometimes in the afternoon.
Sometimes the ship has avian escorts like this Nazca
Boobie,
but we also enjoyed the company of the petrels, albatrosses, or
even the flying fish.
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From Rio to Antarctica, we recorded many sunrises and
sunsets for you.
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  Fresh flowers and arrangements
adorn the
ship in multiple public spaces. Some arrangements are small
like this single mum, while others are much larger.
I took a tour of the
floral arrangements with Freddy, the Dutch head florist. He explained the
themes and challenges of working on the ship. Some of the
containers are fixed like the large vase below, while vases for
other spots are changed. They all have to be stable so they
don't tip over when the seas get rough. Sometimes
the flowers are shipped from Holland, but in some ports, there are
local sources for them. His budget is about $5,000/week.
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The theme at the time of the tour was Argentina
and many of the arrangements included cattle horns or twig brooms.
Later as we approached Antarctica, the flowers were all white. For
Valentine's Day they were red an white with lots of red
hearts.
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