At Sea, April 5-8, 2014

Settling into sea life here on board, nice to get three sea days in a row to really help settle in. We received some news yesterday that made a few guests unhappy, the MS Amsterdam will not be stopping in Georgetown, Ascension island, Banjul, Gambia or Dakar, Senegal. Instead we will be spending an additional night and day in Mindelo, Cape Verdi along with an additional day visit to Praia on the island of Santiago, also in the Cape Verdi area. They have also added an additional stop on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. So the ship is abuzz, between guests booked on their own private excursions, to the shore excursion desk to all the ripples in between. We have found out today that the borders of Gambia and Senegal are all but shut down for the fear of the spread of the Ebola viral disease in West Africa, there has been some chatter about this on board and now that lock downs are taking place in this region of Africa, HAL has determined that it is better for the safety of the passengers and crew that these ports be missed. I have noted about this type of change in the past and I still support these difficult decisions made by the Captain and HAL. Apparently there are many shore excursions wait listed in these ports (expensive ones at that) as well as a turn over port for the on board entertainment acts, perhaps this is why we are overnighting in Cape Verdi so it is truly a health concern issue as to why this decision was made.

We continue on... as right after all this news was broadcasted by the Captain himself on came Gene, our excellent cruise director to inform us of the Grand Ball tonight with a roaring 20/30's theme, the Great Gatsby. Life does go on after all, whew... I am writing this in the afternoon just prior to the ball so that I am able to upload quickly tomorrow morning, hopefully in time for your morning coffees. Here are some of the pictures of our night at the final Grand Ball as the 2014 World Cruise starts its wind down. There is one picture I included of a couple in their 80's, can you guess which one? Enjoy...