January 6, 2012, the day
has finally arrived. A full year and a
half after booking our World Cruise, the day of sailing arrived. Months of planning and packing, purchasing
items, visas, studying the countries, purchasing shore excursions were over and
we were ready to sail.
After a wonderful week
touring south Florida for the first time with cruise friends, Sally and Ange
DiTomaso, we packed away our last few items and packed Sally and Ange’s car for
the hour and a half ride to the pier. Arriving
at the pier was much less complicated than anticipated, and because of our
stateroom location, we had expedited boarding which whisked us right to the
check in desk. We were among the first to board and went straight to our
stateroom. Our friend, Al had beat us by
about 20 minutes and we were pleased he was just 5 doors from us. Because we
wanted to book a few special events that had limited seating in the Pinnacle,
we made those reservations immediately. Likewise, I had purchased a special
haircut package for haircuts on port days, I wanted to get my reservations in
immediately as well. Soon afterwards, Al
and we headed for the LaFontaine Dining Room for the Mariners’ Lunch. Pam had flown in from Chicago the previous
day and stayed in a hotel, so we anticipated she might get there even before we
did, but we saw her just arriving when we returned from lunch.
Slowly, one by one, our
luggage began to arrive. Because both of
us had packed our clothes in all suitcases, it was a matter of separating them
as we unpacked. By evening, “stuff” and suitcases were all over the room in no
logical order. We found that the cabin
steward we had requested was not serving our area. He was on our ship, but
somehow, through a mixup, other stewards had been assigned. Since the assignment had been made, it wasn’t
possible for Say to be our steward. However we found Evan and DJ to be most
accommodating to our considerable needs given the fact that three were sharing
our room.
We looked forward to
dinner and to seeing Yohat, our dining steward for the first time since our
South Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand cruise in 2009. We immediately spotted both Yohat and his
partner, Herfan from that previous trip and greeted both. Only the four of us were at our table for six
on the first night. I attended the first
brief, evening performance as Barb and Pam decided it had been a busy enough
day.
Saturday, our first full
day found us enjoying a leisurely sitdown breakfast in the special section of
the LaFontaine Dining Room reserved for Navigation Deck guests. We enjoyed meeting the Pinnacle Manager Kim
deKlerck who held the same position on our South Pacific cruise as well as one
of the best Pinnacle servers, Tina, who we also knew from that cruise. Following a AAA reception for those who
booked through them, we attended a lecture given by Tommie Sue Montgomery who
described the colonization of the Caribbean Islands by European powers and the
US. She will give a series of lectures
about the areas we visit as we travel south along the Atlantic coast of South America. In the evening, we enjoyed the musical
talents of Mark Donoghue who performed on the violin, guitar, piano and sang as
well.
The second day at sea was
quite busy in the morning. Most sea
days, the Social Hostess, Adele, joined Bruce, our Cruise Director for “Good
Morning Amsterdam”, a light conversation with various members of the crew and
sometimes guest performers on the ship.
On this day, they interviewed Darin Leonardson, a guest chef on the
ship. That was followed by our first gathering with members of Cruise Critic
who had been corresponding for over a year online before the trip. In the late morning another lecturer, and
retired Navy Captain, Dr. Denny Woodson, lectured on ocean waves along the
Atlantic coast. From the scientific,
geographic, and meteorological point of view, this series of lectures should be
fascinating. We always enjoy the
cultural and scientific lectures that Holland America includes on its long
voyages. The lecture was followed by a half hour of team trivia and finally,
lunch before a more relaxed afternoon. At
a nearby table, we happened to notice a woman with a young girl and another
young woman. As one can imagine on a
cruise of this length, young guests are quite noticeable! We had read on Cruise Critic that there would
be a young girl traveling with her family and her tutor. We had taken special note that they were from
Springfield, IL and that they had traveled to the South Pacific and China on
the Grand South Pacific and Asia voyage in the fall as well. What a wonderful experience for both the
young girl to explore the world and for the recent college graduate whose first
teaching experience was to travel around the world as she taught the 8 year
old.
The first formal night dinner
was capped off with the featured performance by Grammy Award winning singer and
songwriter, Melissa Manchester.
We are now two hours ahead
of Chicago, one hour ahead of New York.
CT
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