Our weather conditions are pretty much a mariner’s dream, confusing (waves in various directions) but calm seas with only a light breeze so sitting out on deck is very comfortable with about 27 (c) degree warmth, ahhh. We have had some excellent events over the past few days beginning on the 14th with a guest acted play in the Hudson Room. We have the talented Philadelphia based playwright, Albert Sherman and his wife, Kate on board. Mr. Sherman wrote and acted in a play spanning the life of one, Dr. Benjamin Franklin. With his gout and all, Dr. Franklin welcomes all to his private parlour to share with his guests the many chapters of his life. Kate, plays a chameleon like role as she takes on the roles of his many encounters in his life, from his sister, to his French lover to John Adams to many more including his gout, a fantastic job as she used many props she was able to gather from various crew members aboard the ship. A well written, entertaining and comprehensive historical account all presented within a short hour, time does go by so quickly when one is richly entertained. The title of the play is “Words Matter”, hopefully coming to a HAL Canada / New England cruise and / or to a venue near you.
Dinner that evening was with fellow guests, Ed and Dot from Texas, we have participated in a few cruise critic excursions with them and they will be coming to Vancouver in April to join an HAL cruise. We had chatted about having dinner together at some point and tonight was the night. Nice dinner and company.
The 15th was Mariner appreciation day with not only the drink included medallion ceremony but a fantastic lunch followed up by the last Formal Night, Surf N Turf dinner. We also had a star studded Hollywood Night including a chocolate extravaganza. The band was on fire as they pushed the eleven o’clock last song with crowd encouraging shouts of, “one more song, one more song.” A great, fun night to party in all our formal attire, one last time on this voyage. One word about the crowd and the chocolate extravaganza, if you are a late diner and go to the late show, 9:00 pm on this voyage and the show let’s out 9:40pm, with the extravaganza beginning at 9:30pm - you will not be able to participate in the extravaganza. Why, well the ugly side of some cruisers, let’s call them hoarders. They were reports of guests scooping up the chocolates and wrapping them in their napkins to do what with no one knows, are they treats for later, are they treats to last the next few days, are they bringing them home for the grand kids? But it is to you that I say, shame on you, are you so desperate for a free handout that you just can’t help yourself. Thanks for leaving a few marshmallow treats for all that came out of the second show. Sorry, I digress, did I really need more chocolate, not really but it would have been nice to politely say no thank you to the offerings. Those that hoarded should be forced to eat all before leaving the party. Yeah right…
Yesterday was a bit more relaxing with no speakers in the morning, but because we missed the port lecture on San Juan tomorrow (this port talk was a few days ago but due to a commitment we missed it), we had to wait until it spooled itself on the famous channel 27 for the re broadcast - so kind of like going to a talk anyway. Lol. It looks like we will be docked in a different area than usual tomorrow, hmm, we will be using shuttle buses once again to get us into the old town. Why different, well since the ship has been out of the country for over two months, the Zaandam will be under full inspection tomorrow morning. We will just take the shuttle in and just tour around the old town, no big deal really as we have no set plans. We also had the final voting on the photo contest today, sadly, my photo was not selected but we do applaud all the winners, one in each of the four categories: wildlife, portrait, landscape and out of the box. To round out the day, we had a wonderful dinner at the Canaletto tonight, thank you, Jearmelyn for the great service.
A few pics of our past few sea days, hope you enjoy…
Quote of the day, “All you need to know is that it is possible.” - Wolf, an Appalachian Trail Hiker
Words Matter - only a few pics of this well written life of Dr. Franklin
Kate as Gout
Albert as Dr. Benjamin Franklin
Kate as John Adams
With Dot and Ed
With Captain Smit
With Hotel Director, Florin
Traditional elevator pics
With Kate and Albert
Photo contest
Sunset before San Juan
At the Canaletto
With our wonderful server, Jearmelyn
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