Today we awoke about 6 am with no need to be awake that early as this is a day at sea, but it really is habit!
As there is no need to report on something exciting today, I will instead convey an issue that began several days ago. One evening about 7 pm, I was sitting in our room, typing my blog as I often do, and I began to hear somebody slamming their door in the hallway. It sounded like I was in a hotel with a young hockey team and they were goofing around in and out of rooms slamming doors. After 15 minutes, I stood our in the hallway to see who was making the noise and it was then that I discovered the sound was coming directly across the hallway from our room. Directly across the hallways from us are no doors, no cabins, just inner ship mechanics I guess.
So I held my hands on the wall and felt the reverberation of the banging sound on the other side of the wall. I called down to guest services to report the sound and they said they would send somebody up to investigate. A guest services person arrived and witnessed the sound for herself and said she would report the issue to maintenance. About 8 pm, the banging continued about every 15 seconds, so I called back to guest services. They reported that the issue would be resolved in the night.
About 9 pm they called me and offered another room on the same floor to sleep for the night to get away from the noise. J had already fallen asleep on the bed - so he wasn’t bothered by the sound, but I was, so I took them up on the offer. I went and slept in an identical room half a ship away from our current room. By morning the sound had disappeared. Hooray! We did have another guest come and knock on our door that next morning to tell us he was staying at the far end of the hallway, and the banging sound was bothering him! We told him we thought it had been resolved - and at least felt we weren’t being too demanding asking to have the banging sound addressed!
As a kind gesture, Holland America delivered us a plate of chocolate dipped strawberries to our stateroom that night.
Fast forward to the current day. I was awakened in the night last night, by the same loud banging across the hall. I am starting to see a pattern, that perhaps, higher speeds on days at sea (rather than slower speeds between islands while we were in Hawaii) seem to result in the banging sound. So J and I made a trip back to guest services today to advise them that the banging sound had returned. They told us that they will report the issue to mechanical and let us know the outcome. Five hours have passed since we reported it - and we still have banging! Stay tuned.
We enjoyed breakfast in the dining room - where it was very busy. I then headed to an informal coffee hour with Cruise & Travel Director Ian Page where he chatted for 30 minutes about the upcoming drydock of the Zuiderdam and answered questions. We learned there are 1600 passengers onboard and 700 crew. That is a ration of 2.3 guests per crew and those crew members are kept very busy working hard to serve guests.
I then headed to the mainstage where the Shore Excursion Head talked about our upcoming ports including: Apia, Samoa; Suva, Fiji;Dravuni Island, Fiji; Lautoka, Fiji; Nuku’alofa, Tonga; Avatiu, Rarotonga and Aitutaki, Cook Islands. At least two of these ports have no ship’s excursions available, guests are simply able to take a tender to the island to explore a beach independently! It was while sitting up in the third floor of this crowded MainStage theatre, that I sat for the first time without a mask and was very conscious of people coughing on either side of me and behind me. Get me out of here! I want my mask!!!
Lunch in the dining room was lovely, then J headed off to bridge and I headed back to the room to get a headstart on this blog today! Then I enjoyed the good old-fashioned movie Grease on my stateroom TV in honour of Olivia Newton-John!
When J returned from bridge, I discovered one of our neighbours two doors down was packed up and moving rooms with the assistance of a room steward. She was not happy with the noise and had been advised the sound cannot be resolved before the end of the cruise. J and I called down to Guest Services and were again told our concern was being sent up the chain of command to resolve the pounding sound in the hallway.
We then enjoyed dinner and had our usual laughs talking with R & C at the table next to us. We really enjoy their company - though we sit at separate tables! R suggested we take those extra pillows from the bed and encourage the ship’s officers to tie them onto the structural component that is banging so that the sound can be dampened!
When we returned from supper the banging was less frequent, though just as loud - so we will stay put for the time being!
We sit at the same table every night for dinner. Here is J with Wibi (assistant) and Juma (waiter). They treat us exceptionally well!
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