Days at sea do tend to blend together - so I wouldn’t distinguish these days too much without writing down the blog!
After breakfast this morning J and I both went to listen to Ian’s coffee chat with Chris, the Assistant Hotel General Manager. These informal conversations followed by questions and answers are often very enlightening. The most significant take away I learned today was hearing Chris’s answer to the question, “What is the most challenging thing about this cruise?” His answer was, “Revenue. It is always a challenge on these longer cruises.” Say what?
And then I thought about Holland America generating less revenue on these longer cruises and realized the shops on the ship selling Holland America merchandise or jewellery or perfume are NOT busy. Not busy like you would see them humming with activity on a 7 or 10 day cruise. People pack for many possible weather systems on these extended cruises and are quite prepared. My observation is that people on shorter cruises, treat shopping as part of the experience, buying souvenirs like HAL merchandise or whatever….then turning around and having a new audience to buy on the next cruise. And on a 10 day cruise, people might say - lets try the Pinnacle Grill or Canneletto specialty dining one night each (each has an uncharge). We might try the specialty dining restaurants once each on a 50 day cruise….again, less revenue for HAL over a longer duration. So just an interesting piece of information that we learned by attending the coffee chat!
I attended Kainoa and Ian’s talk about our first three French Polynesian ports - Bora Bora, Raiatea and Mo’orea. Once again they provided relevant information about what to see and do at the these ports if you don’t already have your excursions planned.
We all hope to get some blue sky weather like the slide from Kainoa’s presentation!
After lunch in the Lido (and a fun visit with C & R, our usual dinner partners) J went to bridge. I went to the Permission to Dance class - and followed the choreography marginally better and got some exercise. Today was “Cupcake Afternoon Tea” so I decided to check it out. I was seated at a table with three other individuals and we had a wonderful conversation about excursions and other cruise possibilities.
We also heard from the Captain that we passed the Noordam today - as it was heading the opposite direction from us - south. And we heard that the Noordam was unable to use their tender boats to get into the Cook Islands. We are scheduled to visit Avatiu, Rarotonga, Cook Islands tomorrow and have planned an independent snorkelling excursion. I sure hope we can safely get ashore - but the forecast is not looking promising.
Today we received keepsake certificates, customized with our names and dates for Crossing the International Date Line. We will see if we can get them home without bending them!
J and I went to church at 5 pm tonight. J was asked to read the second lesson and he did a fine job! We then visited the Italian restaurant, Canaletto and very much enjoyed it. Rose was our server and she was excellent. Like any very good Italian restaurant, the food was outstanding. The meal began with tapas, then appetizers, then pasta, our main courses and dessert. We had the pasta with lobster and it was particularly lovely. A tremendous amount of tomatoes, pepper, onions & garlic over the pasta with 6 pieces of lobster. More of a thick covering of vegetables over the pasta rather than a sauce - and lots of olive oil! Only the gnocchi lacked a wow factor as we make it better at home!
Then I finished reading my book “Adrift” on my iPad. As it is the story of one man’s survival on a rubber liferaft at sea for 76 days, it gave me a better appreciation of trying to spot somebody in a similar situation on the horizon from our ship!
Fingers crossed, I will have a report of a shore excursion tomorrow - and not another day at sea!
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