Tai Chi is always something that we really enjoying doing on these Grand Voyages and we were very happy to see that this very important activity had not fallen to the wayside of HAL cuts. We thank Diana and Ray for getting us going every sea day. We continue to perform these exercises each day through this quarantine period and beyond. Ray certainly had a challenge as he was forced to accelerate his program immensely, overall a great job.
Watercolours, something completely new to us. This is our 5 or 6 Grand Voyage and is the first time that we thought we would try this activity. As it turned out it was a blessing, a great way to retreat for a good hour or hour and a half. We thank Carol and Siri for instructing and keeping the class organized and ready, respectively. We know that this takes a lot of work and time to do and we really do appreciate it. Yes, we will continue and hopefully make progress.
Hamish, the cruise director did a very good job considering the type of information that he had to pass onto us in the later part of the cruise. We really did enjoy the Trivia at 11:45 each sea day, his pronunciation and accent always brought a bit of smile to our faces. We thank our team mates, Ken, Lois, Linda and Rick, hopefully we can pick this up again on some future Dam cruise.
Arts and Crafts, I know that Jan really enjoyed doing these every sea day at 2:30, now I will say the popularity of this activity did push the bounds of people being able to participate. That just tells me that the crafts are just that good. I did participate once when Jan could not and it was a part two of a two part craft. My mind still goes numb at the term, lollipop loop...., LOL. Thanks to the people that helped me with that one.
HAL Chorale, always one of Jan's favourite activities, she certainly does beam when she sings. She will miss all her fellow choir people and the 2:00 at sea sessions.
There are several other activities that we did not participate this time around including the dance and bridge lessons. These classes are all so important and so beneficial to the many different types of guests onboard. We do believe that all the above are all important for HAL to still have on the Grand Voyage menu, they are great for guest moral on sea days, as well as help distribute the guests around the ship and, like in our case, allow us to try something new. I also understand that there are many activates that I have not mentioned here, from all the gaming activities as well as the religious support leaders, as well as the flower arrangements in addition all the information sessions offered by the many talented guests. Again, all important GV activities.
We thank the crew and officers of the Amsterdam, the WC crew are the best and always treat and serve us with professionalism and with kindness. The officers have had to deal with this unprecedented situation and although it appeared that the communication could and should have been better but in light of the situation dealt, we strongly believe that this was a learning curve all the way around and that the officers did deal with progress of the events as best as they could. We were in the unknown, well in fact, we still are, and a deep breathe and a level head approach did prevail. Thank you, Henk, Cristel, Shiv for always having your door open to open discussion.
Finally, Captain Jonathan Mercer, thank you for your leadership and captainship during this final retirement cruise. One for the books as it were, we are only sorry that this would be the final send off. As mentioned to Captain Mercer, we had cruised with him in 2014 and found him to be an excellent captain and a man of honesty and character. At the gangway at disembarkation I saw the look in his eye and all I could muster up was, "thank you". My intent was to tell him, "that it was an honour and privilege to cruise with him again and hoped for all the best in his retirement". With that, I bid him and everyone else, "fair winds and following seas as we move forward from this".
Our final instalment of summary pics... Thanks again for joining us on this adventure, until next time, Stay Healthy and Safe Travels...
Pictured with Carol, our Watercolour Instructor ... Thank you Carol
The future of travel???
