Day 21 - Sun 9/30/18 At Sea to Easter Island - 3

Jonathan (CD) & Captain Arno Jutten

This afternoon we received some bad news from the Captain. He announced that, due to bad weather and worsening sea conditions we were going to have to delay our stop at Easter Island by 24 hours and even that stop would be iffy. Later on in the afternoon in his "Ask the Captain" segment he showed copies of weather maps and course plots. Even with the delay, starting tomorrow afternoon we are likely to experience 4 meter seas (13 feet) as we skirt the storm. We slowed down to 13 knots and altered our course to a more westerly course in an effort to let the storm move more southerly.

I led the interdenominational service and spoke on the book of Philemon. James Grant-Peterkin updated a full Showroom at Sea on the current situation on Easter Island and gave a number of practical hints for visiting it. Dr. Toby Sperlich gave his first lecture on the migration of the poulation into this area of the Pacific. In the afternoon James repeated his morning Easter Island presentation and this was followed by the Captain's event. We also participated in the interdenominational Bible study led by Dean. It was on Psalm 34.

After dinner Dr. Sperlich presented a short lecture on migration in the South Pacific, and he was followed by a pianist & guitar player from Texas, Bayne Bacon, whine we've seen before. He's got a dry sense of humor in his jokes and can really play the piano well. He did two medleys: Andrew Lloyd Weber and the Beattles. To finish out the night we watched two hours of BBC documentaries on the South Pacific. I feel like we're back in college, but there's no exams.

Two more sea days and hopefully we can land on Easter Island. When the Captain was asked what would happen if we could not land at Easter Island and if we could take pictures, he jokingly said, "we could do 75 laps of it, and yes pictures could be taken." With that, stay tuned.

Day 20 - Sat 9/29/18 At Sea to Easter Island - 2

Overnight and all day long we continued to motor along at around 20 knots (relatively fast for this hull). The seas have been calm with very little 'motion in the ocean'. While today was full, it wasn't as packed as yesterday which gave it a more relaxing feel.

At the 9am coffee chat, Jonathan, our cruise director, interviewed the Unexpected Boys and we learned a bit more about them. We then had a nice presentation on Leis followed by a Mariner Society event where they award medallions to cruisers who reach certain levels of day's spent on HAL ship's. This was followed by a luncheon in the Rotterdam dining room. Given the popularity of James Grant-Peterkin's Easter Island talks, we skipped the 2:30pm presentation and attended the 4:30pm encore which was less crowded. We took in a movie 'Edie' about an elderly lady who fulfill a lifelong dream to climb a mountain. Al Trujillo is really shining on this segment with his oceanography lectures, and today's was terrific on oceanography characteristics of the eastern Pacific Ocean which we are sailing in. Later he gave a short presentation on desalination of sea water including pictures of the Maasdam's 2 types of desalination equipment.  

Unfortunately, after dinner there was code 'ERT' (Emergency Recessutation Team) broadcast tonight.  

Our evening entertainment was a showing of the 1992 movie, 'Rapa-Nui', a fictional tale about Easter Island and one of their major cultural events. The Main Stage was packed for the 8pm showing.

Guests are really pumped about our upcoming port stop at Rapa-Nui (as am I), and the current programming feeds that. I forgot to mention in yesterday's blog that at 9:45pm on deck 8 (entertainment and shopping deck) there was a chocolate surprise with all sorts of small chocolate goodies being distributed by the wait staff.

I'll make one other observation that the ship's internet is certainly been slow today. If I were paying by the minute, I would be ticked.

Stay tuned for more.

Day 19- Fri 9/28/18 At Sea to Easter Island - 1

Our lazy day at sea turned out to be quite full. We had lectures on the upcoming ports, a history of Polynesian food, Miami (stone sculptures), Seabirds, and mosquitoes, a Tahitian dance class, lunch with friends, an interdenominational bible study, a gala dinner with King Crab on the menu, a crocodile story time with Dr. Cohen, and finally we went to two performances of the main stage show of the Unexpected Boys (a Frankie Valle tribute group). In the second show, Angela was called up on stage and she received a CD in exchange. The show was outstanding and we learned that they will perform 3 more times. They are that good and worthy of the opportunity to perform to perform again. They are an excellent replacement for the stage shows especially when combined with the increased cultural presentations.  

James Grant-Peterkin's presention on the Moai today was totally packed and as a result, his future talks will be presented twice so there is enough seating. He's a terrific speaker with great content and delivery skills.

Tomorrow is packed as well. Stay tuned!

Day 18- Thu 9/27/18 General San Martin, Peru

We awoke this morning in this very small Peruvian port located in a very arid location. In fact, later the Captain commented that he felt he had docked on the moon!

We took a private shuttle to the nearby fishing port of Paracas (about 25 minutes away) and boarded high speed boat ride out to the Ballestas Islands and got to see the ancient Candelabra lines as displayed in a the picture above. Each line is about 9 feet deep and 30 feet wide. From there we went out to the island where we observed literally hundreds of thousands of birds, dozens of humbolt penguins, and many sea lions. All of this was in a scene of crashing waves, scenic caverns, and local fishermen/divers plying their trade. Additionally, the Island is used as a source of guano (bird poop) which is shipped all over the world.

Back at the port we found a restaurant which served ceviche #7 in my search for the ultimate ceviche. This one is at the top of the list and was a bit spicy and included a good cross section of seafood but not much cilantro. We then walked around and did some shopping, had a pelican encounter, and visited the little museum before taking the port shuttle back to the ship.

Back on board we were introduced to a whole new panel of presenters plus two carry overs. 

The Captain received permission to sail the ship on a course that allowed all to see the candelabra formation. That was a nice gesture! Al Trujillo gave a short presentation on his top 10 geological events that can kill you and should be avoided. He was followed by James Grant-Peterkin who gave the first of his many presentations on Easter Island. David Happe shared his story of just visiting Machu Pichu.

Tomorrow we start a series of 5 full days of lectures on a ship running at 18.5 knots (close to full speed) 24/7! Stay tuned. I lurched the ship's high speed Internet package so I can keep up this blog while at sea over the next month. Stay tuned.

Day 16 - Tue 9/25/18 Callao, Peru

We arrived around 9am but weren't allowed to disembark until close to 10am. We needed to take a port shuttle to the main gate as this is a very busy fare. We were able to get on the very first 14 passenger shuttle and when HAL staff saw the number of people waiting to get to the main gate, they added a one time full size bus to take the remainder of the people. Just outside the gate our guide, John Paul, greeted us. Our group of 14 then boarded a nice Mercedes van and we traveled to the Pachacamac Inka Pyramids where we spent 3 hours before driving into the heart of Lima.

At the town square (which was closed off due to possible protests) we enjoyed ceviche #6 on my quest for the ultimate ceviche. It was really good. We were also able to visit city hall and an exquisite mansion where Simon Bolivar once stayed. The sanctuary and catacombs at St. Francis church was an interesting tour with its collection of bones of parishioners who paid money for the privilege of being buried under the church. Afterwards we were able to walk through the now open main square which is in front of the cathedral and presidential office building.

On the way to the van, we stopped for some light snacks (tapas) before heading over to the Water and Lazer light show at Parque de la Reserva. It was an excellent show and I took many pictures and a few videos. We then were driven back to the Callao San Miguel Park where we caught another shuttle back to the ship and we arrived around 10pm after a very full 11 hour day!

Some Lido comfort food was the need of the hour and they served some giant scallops which hit the spot! We talked with friends who had just returned from a disappointing Galapagos Island trip. By now it was time for some needed rest as there was scheduled a visit to a shanty town tomorrow.

I should add that the traffic here is horrific. And the topes (speed bumps) are frequent and kidney jarring to say the least!

Day 15 - Mon 9/24/18 Salaverry, Peru

Today in Salaverry, Peru was a great place to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. 50 years ago I would have never guessed that this would be the location for us to celebrate it. While the ship arrived at 6am, we were not permitted off the ship until around 8am. This busy little port serves Trujillo, a city of around 1,000,000 people. A ship full of soybeans for chicken feed was tied up across the pier from us.

We easily found our guide and our small bus which we rode for the day. We visited the ruins at Haucas del Sol and La Luna. La Luna was the largest and most open for visiting. From there we visited the main square in Trujillo with its baroque architecture, beautiful church and city hall and a prominent house (Urquiaga Mansion) where Simon Bolivar once slept. We then visited the archeological ruins at Chan Chan before heading to Huanchaco where we observed the reed boats and enjoyed ceviche #5 which was quite good.

Back on the ship we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary with dinner in the Pinnacle Grill which was a 5 course meal cooked by a Peruvian chef. It took nearly 3 hours for the meal but we enjoyed the company of a couple from Montreal who both had PhD's in chemistry. We then caught the 10pm variety show with the mentalist and the pianist, Pablo.

We don't arrive in Callao until 10am and have an 11 hour tour scheduled. Stay tuned.

Day 14 - Sun 9/23/18 At Sea to Peru

Today was the last day of our 50th year of marriage and I spoke in the interdenominational service on 4 aspects of love as found in I Corinthians 13:7 (love bears, love believes, love hopes, and love endures) as reflected in our marriage. The remainder of the day was spent in lectures on photographic topics, sea monsters, Andian journeys, hypnosis (not my favorite), a biographical sketch by Dr. Montgomery, a a Chilean flautist, Viviana, who was quite good, and finally a story time story by Dr. Fadiman about a military encounter while trying to work with indigenous people in Mexico.

Now that we are about 1/3 into this new format of cruising, here are my general observations:

Positives:

1. I don't miss the cast shows.

2. There has been great variety and depth in the lecture offerings. Use of major themes is good.

3. The new ports have been great (San Blas Islands, Quepos, Guayaquil).

Negatives:

1. Too many EXC events per day including competing events.

2. On port days, HAL shouldn't schedule key lectures one hour before noon he on board time.

3. No Zodiac opportunity (although it's likely to be very expensive).

A number of our lecturers get off the ship tomorrow or in one of our Peru stops (new lecturers come on board).

Tomorrow we do a private excursion to three major archeological sites near the port of Salaverry, Peru. Stay tuned.

Day 13 - Sat 9/22/18 Guayaquil, Ecuador

It was finally time to arrive in Ecuador for the first time for us. We got up early to be able to watch the sail in up the bay to the container terminal where we were to dock. We arrived just after 7 which was about an hour earlier than had been projected in the program. I watched the docking process from the Crow's Nest and from the Promenade on deck 6. I found my wife and we were able to disembark the ship before the formal announcement was made.

The ship provided a shuttle service to the Parque Iguanas in the heart of Guayaquil about 25 minutes north. We were alerted that this was potentially a bit more dangerous port. We made the second bus and when we were dropped at the park, it truly was filled with iguanas. Across the street was the main cathedral which was quite pretty with lots of stained glass. Interestingly for the first time there were TV monitors throughout the sanctuary which made it easy for the parishioners to view the service,  

We left the park area and headed for the walkway (Malecon) along the river, It's a well done walkway with lots of things to see and do. We even rode the Ferris wheel at the south end of the park. From there we hiked up the 444 steps to the top of the adjoining hill, At the top of the hill, there was a blue and white lighthouse and a very pretty chapel. Just below the top there was a little naval museum with a number of cannons, We met up with some fellow cruisers and decided to find some ceviche and liquid refreshments, So down the 444 steps we went and turned left into the old town and found a restaurant serving ceviche. While the service was really slow, the shrimp ceviche was quite good.

We then strolled back towards the shuttle bus pickup point at the iguana park. While heading there, we eventually (with lots of conflicting directions from locals) found a small grocery store to replenish our Coke Zero supply. The currency in Ecuador is the US dollar and a liter of soda was 80 cents (very cheap)

Back at the ship we did a little shipside shopping with the few local vendors that were there. Onboard the ship we watched the finishing of the refueling operation from a ship docked against us. We now have enough fuel to make it to Tahiti. By the way, the fuel economy of a cruise ship at normal cruising speed is 56 feet per gallon. After that we watched the putting away of the gangway and the eventual release from the dock. All the while we enjoyed conversation with a fellow guest about cruising. The ship pushed away, rotated 180 degrees counter-clockwise, and sailed in the darkness down the river into the bay.

The evening entertainment was a mentalist, Alan Chamo, who was quite good, I went to the story time where Maria Fadiman shared a scarey story about getting lost in the jungle in the dark and falling off a trail. 

Tomorrow we have a sea day on our way to Peru. Stay tuned.

Day 12- Thu 9/21/18 At Sea to Ecuador - 2

It was a nice lazy day at sea today. I'm still trying to shake the cold I picked up and it's a bit better today.

There were four EXC lectures/presentations today: Marsupials, Thoughts on Costa Rica, Impact of Kon Tiki, and Coral Reefs. As we crossed the equator around 10:30am this morning there was a 'ceremony' to initiate selected members of the crew as shellbacks for their first time crossing the equator. After 'trumped up' charges were presented to King Neptune, all of the guilty had to kiss a frozen fish and then get slathered with a very messy paste. The Captain and his senior officers then passed judgement on whether the guilty gas to bake in the sun or jump in the pool to clean off. It was good fun.

Before dinner we walked the Promenade deck and watched the NASCAR and Brown Boobies hunt for fish while sailing alongside the ship. It was great fun to watch.

Day 11 - Thu 9/20/18 At Sea to Ecuador - 1

It's alway nice to have a few sea days after three intensively active ports of call. We set no alarm but we're up by 8:30am.  

Ben Brain face an information presentation on Exposure as it pertains to cameras. His talk was followed by a presentation on Ecuador, an excellent talk on the Geology of the eastern Pacific by Al and a presentation on contradictions concerning contact with indigenous peoples. We enjoyed a terrific lunch with a couple from AZ who share a sewing interest with us. We also visited with friends we met on a previous cruise.

Our afternoon was spent in a port presentation by David Happe and xxxxx. We watched the movie about Mr. Rogers which was so good on so many levels. Even though it was gala night with steak and lobster, we ate up in the Lido as my cold had gotten worse plus there wasn't enough time to eat in the main dining room after watching the movie. It was a bummer when the wine steward couldn't find our bottle of wine after I repeatedly told him where it was. Finally another steward followed my directions and immediately found it. Oh well, it'll last one more day.

The evening's entertainment was a repeat of the Unique 3 women's trio. Afterwards, there was story time with Dr. Jack Hardy.

Day 10 - Wed 9/19/18 Puntarenas, Costa Rica

When life deals you lemons, it's time to make lemonade. That was our theme today after the Captain announced last night that all HAL shore excursions would be cancelled today because of the strikes and political unrest.  

The ship experienced some difficulty in getting to the dock and being tied up. While we were scheduled to be off by 9, it was not until nearly 10 before we could leave the ship. Plus the gangway from deck 5 was at a very steep angle. Later we heard that a more flat gangway was set up. Once we were on the dock, there was no photographer, but there were a number of fellows hawking tours. We eventually decided upon one that would take us on a river cruise to see crocodiles and other wildlife. It was a similar excursion to the one cancelled by HAL, but at less than 1/2 the price at $50pp.  

Seven of us piled in a van along with Juan, our tour guide. Juan was enthusiastic and very engaging as a guide. This was a side job for him and due to the strike he couldn't work that job. We headed out of town for about an hour on a road that was closed a couple days ago by the strikes (a cruise ship scheduled to dock here then skipped the port because of this) and along the way we encountered a group of white faced cappuccino monkeys that would drop down out of the trees and go after crackers. They had a very gentle feel to them as they crawled over my shoulders and head. As quickly as they grabbed the food, they'd move on the the next person or climb back into the trees and scour the scene for more handouts. It was a great encounter and was alone worth the $50.

At the start of the river cruise withCrocodile Man Tours (CrocodileManTour.com), several van loads of tourists (primarily from the ship) consolidated into one long boat for our tour. We went upriver and soon found one crocodile in the river before finding one our guide, Danny, nicknamed 'Osama Bin Laden' (named that because he's elusive). He was huge and we parked right along side him and took a number of photographs. The guide even jumped out of the boat and got within inches of the croc's mouth. We continued up the river and found another crocodile nicknamed 'Lady Gaga' (not sure of its gender) plus herons and egrets and iguanas and lizards. The tour was about 1 1/2 hours long.

On the way back we stopped at a store we had previously stopped at on a previous Puntarenas visit. Back at the port we found ceviche #3 and enjoyed it with beverages and the company of some other passengers. It wasn't quite as good as the previous two. My wife also enjoyed a 'Churchill' ice cream type soda which is unique to this area. We swapped pictures as they had gone on more of a birding trip. As we prepared to walk down the pier to reboard the Maasdam, I realized that for the first time that I had absolutely no money left in my wallet.  

We took showers and then watched the ship leave the pier, back up and rotate clockwise and proceed out towards the open sea while allowing the pilot to climb down into his tender. We now have two sea days to reach Ecuador for our next port of call.

After a very light Lido dinner and conversation with fellow passengers, we attended the lecture on the fall of the Incas. It was really interesting and fast paced. We started to watch the night's movie, a sci-fi film 'The Quiet Zone' but I gave up and returned to the room to update my blog.

It's time to relax for a couple days. I have a little sore throat to try to shake. Stay tuned.

Day 09 - Tue 9/18/18 Quepos, Costa Rica

I had so hoped HAL would work with us in the tendering process. We had 30 people in our group needing to tender as soon as possible but HAL made them all get in line for a tender ticket. We could have removed those 30 people from the group trying to get individual tender tickets off the ship. It's a process I've done many other times on other HAL ships.

The first two tenders were filled with 4 and 5 star Mariners. It didn't take long for them to send tender ticket groups 1-7 (10 persons per group to shore although boarding the tenders in the swell was a bit of a challenge. It was even more of a challenge at a he end of the day when the crew was loading the tenders back on the ship. They were really swinging on their davits.

The road out to the Manuel Antonio National Park was along a narrow and twisty 4 mile long road. There were lots of restaurants and hotels along the way including one restaurant built out of an airplane. At the park entrance there was a search of all bags as one can't smoke or eat in the park. Millie, our guide was wonderful and we discovered lots of flora and fauna including sloths (two varieties), howler monkeys, frogs, bright red land crabs, iguanas, White faced monkeys, raccoon, aguti (huge member of the rat family), large and small grasshoppers, a snake, and more. We were served a light fruit snack and water at the beach. It was definitely well worth it to have a guide.

Back at the port we walked back into town for stop number two on my quest to find the ultimate ceviche. What we found was good, but I need to take more samples. We shopped a bit and bought 12 cans of Coke Zero for half the ship's price. We caught a 3:45 tender and we're back on board by 4:10pm. There was quite a swell when disembarking the tender.

After a couple quick showers, we attended the 4:30pm EXC lecture on Inca Ice Maidens and then watched the two remaining tenders get hoisted back onto the ship. The general quality of the lectures is quite good and the quantity can be overwhelming.

After dinner we were sitting in the Showroom At Sea when we received two pieces of very bad news. First the Captain made an announcement in duplicate that due to continued strike and unrest issues, ALL HAL shore excursions in Puntarenas tomorrow were cancelled and we should make the best of it locally. Then Jonathan, the Asst. Cruise Director took the stage and announced that Joep had a family emergency in Holland and had to return home. He, Jonathan, would be our new Cruise Director.

The Costa Rican folkloric show was okay by me (my wife loved it) and we followed it up with David's EXC story time. This night's story was about the lost treasure of Panama City said to be hidden somewhere near the Manuel Antonio National Park. After that we enjoyed some tea beside the surging waters of the Lido pool.

Stay tuned for what adventures we encounter tomorrow with the entire show descending upon Puntarenas.

Day 08 - Mon 9/17/18 Golfito, Costa Rica

We arrived at this wonderful little former banana shipping port just before 8am. We accompanied by a small flotilla of boats and a couple of Cost Guard boats. We didn't have an excursion planned so we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then made our way off the ship.  

While walking down the pier, we were treated with the view of a number of very colorful small black, white and orange fish. After clearing the port gate we walked up to the main highway and headed east. We stopped in a night mber of little stores and ended up walking some 2 miles before turning around and walking back on a secondary street where found a fabric store to purchase some items to decorate our stateroom door. Then the skies opened up in a tropical deluge! We ducked (pun intended) into a chicken restaurant and had a soda and WIFI while waiting for the rain to decrease.

Back at the main intersection, we walked another 2 miles to the west and found a bank to get some local currency af an ATM. On the way back to the ship we stopped at the Restaurante La Playa for a late lunch and some more WIFI.  

On our way back to the ship we enjoyed some birding (4 species spotted). There were two EXC presentations before dinner (one on Costa Rica and one on the Galápagos Islands). We enjoyed dinner with a couple we met at the interdenominational service. While at dinner the Captain made an announcement that several of the next day's shore excursions were being cancelled due to political unrest activities. At this writing I don't know if this will affect our independent tour scheduled for tomorrow. The ist of canceled tours doesn't seem to match with our tour.

A funny thing happened today. We were walking by the photo area and noted my submission for the photo contest was missing. Later we enquirered and learned it had been stolen, and the photo representative was impressed! They have never had a photo stolen. Maybe I have a winner?

Andrew Kennedy, the comedian, was the entertainment tonight and he was okay. Just didn't find him as deeply funny as the first time we saw him.

The EXC story time was told by David Happe, an EXC guide.

Day 07 - Sun 9/16/18 At Sea to Costa Rica

Normally sea days are pretty relaxing, but the combination of the new format of this EXC cruise and my responsibilities leading the interdenominational service made for a very busy day, The interdenominational service at 9am went well and we had approximately 60 people attend. There was a large interest in doing a devotional time on sea days, so we scheduled that for 4pm in the Explorer's Lounge which we later changed to the Half Moon Room.

Following the international service there was a "Phoneography" session with Ben Brain. As part of that class we walked around the promenade deck taking pictures and then had the opportunity to critique them. It was a very good class and was dominated by iPhone users. I liked one of my pictures so much I entered it in the photo contest.

Afterwards there was another EXC lecture on Tropical Rain Forests and in the afternoon was an excellent lecture by Kim Macquarrie on the Incas where I learned that there was some 6,000 years of civilization leading up to their time. Ben also held a short class on Photo Composition which was very good also. A fellow passenger, Dean, led our interdenominational devotional time after which Angela and I enjoyed a LIDO dinner. All the while we cruised along at around 9-10 knots.

The. Main Stage entertainment tonight was a new show by Mark Donohue. We then went to the EXC story time where we learned that 6 more zodiacs would be loaded in South America. Also there will be no zodiac trips until after the ship leaves Papeete on 10/28. It seems getting permits is a big issue preventing their use in Polynesia.

Most of the EXC tours in our next port tomorrow of Golfito are sold out so we'll just 'Wing it'. Stay tuned to see what we end up doing.

Day 06 - Sat 9/15/2018 Transiting the Panama Canal

This morning I broke my two time tradition and woke up at 5am to see the transit through Gatun Locks located at the north end of the Canal on the Caribbean side. We could see the new bridge and new larger Canal as well as the remains of the failed French attempt at a non-lock style canal. The transit took about 3 hours to go through 3 locks that raised us 85 feet to the level of Gatun Lake and past Gatun Dam.

We didn't have to anchor so we proceeded sailing on Gatun Lake and through the Culebra Cut (essentially the continental divide) until we reached the Pedro Miguel lock which we easily transited into Miraflores Lake. It was a mile sailing across the lake to the Miraflores Lock. Then we were dropped us down to the Pacific Ocean sea level in two stages. It was pretty cool that someone took a webcam screenshot as it passed by the visitor center at Miraflores and posted it online. A short sailing later and we passed out under the bridge of the Americas with Panama City in the background into the open ocean amidst heavier rain showers. The total transit time was just under 11 hours. 

The entertainment tonight was trio of ladies singing under the name Unique3. They covered a range of styles including rock, soul, and Broadway. Tonight we set our clocks back another hour so we are on Mountain time. Tomorrow is another sea day with lots of activities on board. Stay tuned.

Day 05- Fri 9/14/2018 San Blas Island, Panama

Shortly before noon we arrived at our anchorage point to visit San Blas Island, Panama. Prior to our arrival we attended a coffee chat with Joep and Dr. Martin Cohen, an Australian Biologist and a talk on the formation of Panama, 'An Invented Country' by Dr. Tommie Sue Montgomery. My wife attended a presentation on the music and dance of Costa Rica. I watched the Zodiac boat get lowered to the water, boarded, and then tested. There's no word yet on when those will be available.

We ate a leisurely lunch before catching a tender to the Island. It's nice to be a 4 Star Mariner so we can take any tender we want. Upon arrival at the Island, we walked around and took photographs ($1 for pictures of persons). The Island is quite small and a part of a group of some 49 islands and home to the Cuna indigenous tribe. There's a lot of litter all over the Island and if one wanted to swim, a $10/pp boat ride to another unspoiled Island would be necessary. The handicrafts being sold were very colorful with the foot square panels going for $10 to $20. Children with all sorts of pets (dogs, cats, a Ñieque (a giant member of the rat family), parrots, a monkey, a lizard, and other small birds made for interesting camera subjects. For $5 we even took a tour of a house which turned out to be a backpacker's hotel. People generally slept on hammocks and there were a number of little shops for the locals plus there were at least two schools. The dominate brand of outboard motor for their small boats seemed to be Yamaha. There were no cars or bicycles on the island. Solar power and satellite TV was prevalent and I heard one generator running and saw the remains of another.

Back on board the Maasdam, we attended a chat session with 3 of the presenters and learned that the community had just decided a few days ago to move to the mainland.  

After a nice Lido dinner we attended a Kim Macquarrie presentation on the building of the Panama Canal which we are going to transit tomorrow. There was nothing new in his presentation that we hadn't seen in the 2.5 hours of Panama Canal movies the night before. However, his delivery of the material was quite good.

KK then hosted a story telling time about a famous French painter Govin who worked a very short time on the Panama Canal. She also entertained questions about tomorrow's transit of the Canal. We learned we can't use the bow area for viewing the transit as the zodiac preparations are still being completed. She also showed us the Mula (tapestry) that the tribal leader presented the Captain today to honor the Maasdam's first visit to the Island. It sort of like the inaugural port visit plaques that are presented to ships. She'll get it framed.  

Since we plan to get up early for the transit, we went to bed early tonight and skipped a showing of the latest Star Wars movie. Stay tuned.

Day 04 - Thu 9/13/2018 Santa Marta, Colombia

We finally reached our first port of call at Santa Marta, Colombia around 8am. Since our HAL tour didn't require us to be at the meeting point until 8:45, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before heading for the Showroom at Sea.  

Our HAL tour 'Santa Marta Highlights' was excellent. We first visited Simon Bolivar square, the Cathedral, and the museum before driving out to the ranch where Simon Bolivar died in 1830. The trip concluded with a stop at a hotel for a folkloric dance presentation.

After we were dropped off at the ship we immediately caught the shuttle bus from there to the port gate which was no more than a 2 minute drive. At the gate none of the personnel could tell us the time of the last shuttle although we knew the onboard time was 4:30pm. We walked the sidewalk along the beach taking photos and eventually stopped at Ricky's (a Venezuelan restaurant) where we had an excellent shrimp ceviche, fish soup and salad and used their WIFI. We always try to eat off the ship as the food tastes on the ship are for us pretty bland. We then walked around the area surrounding Simon Bolivar square. It was a bustling place, but with lots of construction.  

Back at the port we stopped to use their WIFI, but we ended up using ours as it was faster. I carry a portable WIFI device called GlocalMe and data in this part of the world is only 3 cents per megabyte (that's really cheap).

Back on board just before 4:30pm, I headed up to the Crow's Nest to watch the sail away and Angela joined me later. The sail away was quick and pretty and I then went down to dinner in the Lido where I enjoyed dinner with another passenger, Larry, whom we've sailed with previously. I was also able to show him some iPhone camera tricks. Angela wasn't hungry so she didn't join us.

After dinner I went to the EXC chat session hosted by KK Robbins where she talked about the format and timing of the events and took questions. As a guest, I wasn't very satisfied with some of her answers as were a number of other guests. We are definitely guinea pigs for this EXC experiment. A big issue that came up was the lack of credible maps for the independent traveler (many of us have had this complaint for many years) followed by scheduling major talks during times many of us are off the ship. In her answers, she came across as very 'corporate' which was a disappointment.

The main stage entertainment was a very funny comedian, Andrew Kennedy. He poked good fun at KK who had just given a spiel about how everyone did not need to get off the ship at noon tomorrow at what could be a 1 hour visit at the San Blas Islands. Plus he did a routine on how various presidents would sound as 'Captain' of the ship.  

We finished up the evening watching two movies on the making of the Panama Canal. If someone 15 years ago would have said to me, ' Tim, in your lifetime you'll cross the Panama Canal 3 times!' I would have thought them to be crazy! But it's about to happen a couple of days. Stay tuned.

Day 03 - Wed 9/12/2018 At Sea

After breakfast we attended the 9am coffee chat with Joep, the Cruise Director and Florian, the Hotel Director. They answered a wide variety of questions including many related to the just completed 9 day dry dock. In summary, the dry dock was used for a complete recarpeting and reupholstering of the Crow's Nest, the Lido Market, and the Showroom at Sea along with major engine room repairs especially focused on the cooling system. The zodiacs were added and lifeboat twelve was taken out of service and repairs to it are on going as we sail. All the while the crew lived on board with no hot water or toilets and 600 contractors did their work all over the ship. Some work continues to be done, but it's transparent to me as a passenger. They do need to wash the windows in the Main Dining room. I look forward to more of these coffee chats on future sea days.

The seas continued to be flat and the weather warm and after dinner Angela and I enjoyed watching the planets in the clear night sky which we also did a couple of weeks ago while camped on the Pacific Ocean. The moon, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars were in clear view and we helped other passengers identify the planets using our App.

Rather than regurgitate the daily program, let me summarize by saying that it was another full day of lectures and demonstrations on topics like our upcoming ports of Santa Marta, Colombia and the San Blas Islands, Panama, History and Politics of Latin America, Columbus' explorations of the Caribbean, and strange undersea creatures of the Caribbean. The evening was finished out with the Colombian folkloric dance troupe being the evening entertainment and the daily movie which was about a tailer who was a spy in Panama after the transfer of the Canal back to the Panamanians in 1999. We are really liking this new format!

We had a very pleasant dinner in the Lido with another couple from Western Washington talking about a wide range of topics mostly revolving around travel.  

I heard back from the event manager that I will be leading the interdenominational worhship service on Sunday.

Tomorrow will be our first and only Port of call in Colombia. Stay tuned.

Day 02 - Tue 9/11/2018 At Sea

There were very calm seas overnight and the sleep was really needed. After a quick breakfast I set up nametags for our Meet & Greet (M&G) but learned that they failed to set up coffee and cookies or rope off our meeting area in the Crow's Nest. They even had the date wrong for the next M&G but I was able to give them the correct date. The group was scheduled to be some 120 people and we had around 100 people show up. This was the largest M&G I have ever set up and it seemed to go well.

The 11am presentation was on the background of the marine biologist on board.  

My wife participated in the Colombian dancing class while I spectated. Afterwards there was a lecture on why Christopher Columbus came to the new world. It was pretty basic information and was only 1/2 hour long. Following this we attended the first lecture on photography, 'The Art of Seeing' by Benedict Brain. It was really good. The 4:30 presentation was on the fairs and festivals in Colombia by one of the members of the Colombian folkloric troupe on board.

Tonight was the first Gala night so we ate in the Rotterdam dining room. We joined a table with two couples from North Carolina, two of whom were brother and sister. The service seemed slow and we barely made the 8pm Main Stage show by Mark Donohue. He did a musical tribute of songs using voice, harmonica, piano and violin. His medley of ABBA tunes was worth the whole show. We watched the 5:17 to Paris movie (quite good), and then returned to the Main Stage to hear the last part of Mark Donohue's show including the ABBA medley.

Before retiring I stopped by the main desk and volunteered to lead the interdenominational Sunday services like I've done on prior cruises.

The clocks were rolled back one hour so we will get some extra sleep tonight. It's another full day at sea tomorrow with a full schedule. Stay tuned.

Day 01 - Mon 9/10/2018 Embarkation Day - Ft. Lauderdale

Before taking an UBER over to the ship, both of us got our hair cut at the barbershop and salon across the highway, The first UBER driver, once he arrived at our location, was unable to drive us into the port as he claimed he lost his wallet and had no ID. So we had to call for another UBER and our second driver had no issues. We were quickly whisked to the nearby port where we dropped off our roll on luggage and checked in. Check in was very efficient and because we are 4 Star Mariners, we were ushered upstairs to the 4-5 Star Mariner holding area, Up there we met 3 couples that we have sailed with before and it was like a reunion time. After waiting about 45 minutes, we boarded the Maasdam around 12:30pm.

Once on board, we dropped our things off in our stateroom and wandered the ship to see what changes had been made in the just completed dry dock. About all we could see was the addition of Zodiac boats to the bow of the ship and extensive carpet upgrades. There were no upgrades in our interior room 590. We ate a quick lunch in the LIDO and then just hung out around the ship, and then unpacked before participating in the mandatory passenger muster drill. Afterwards we watched the sail away from the Crow's Nest. We weren't hungry so we skipped dinner.

There was a 4 & 5 Star reception in the Crow's Nest and we visited with several couples we had cruised with before. It was good to reconnect. At 9:30pm, we attended a presentation on the new format of the cruise (no cast singers and dancers), and we liked what we heard. There will be a number of lectures and/or cultural events each day and a few traditional guest entertainers will perform. There are 6 themes for these cultural presentations:

1. History & Perspectives

2. Photography 

3. Food, Wine, & Spirits

4. Active Exploration

5. Science & Nature

6. Arts & Culture

After walking around the ship all day, I would say that the age demographic is much younger than what we've experienced on the Volendam on our Asia cruises.

And we're off to sail along the Cuban coast headed for Colombia. Stay tuned.

Day -3 to -1 September 7-9, 2018

We began our long awaited Golden Wedding anniversary trip with a nice flight from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale. Mt. Rainier was out in its full resplendent beauty. After collecting our luggage we caught the hotel shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express on FL89. With the flight time and loss of 3 hours in time zone changes, we checked in around 7pm.

We ventured across the 4 lane highway (visualize playing the video game 'Frogger') and did a little shopping at the strip mall for some give away school supplies and had a light Subway sandwich for dinner. Back at the hotel we cooled off in our room. I should mention that this hotel is undergoing significant renovations and there is a temporary lobby. Also there are no in room safes or lobby safe deposit boxes. It does have an excellent breakfast menu in a pretty cramped room and an outdoor swimming pool. And so ended Friday before the cruise.

Day -2 Saturday, September 8, 2018

It was a leisurely get up morning as our son was not planning to arrive until around 11am for a visit. He ended up arriving closer to noon, and after they checked in we played frogger again to have lunch at the McDonalds across the highway from the hotel. We spent the remainder of the day just hanging out with him and his girlfriend and blended family of 3 teenage boys. It was a good time to catch up as we had it seen him in about 8 years. For dinner we ate at the Old Heidelberg restaurant which was quite good but the teenagers weren't thrilled with the menu.

Day -1 Sunday, September 9, 2018

It was another leisurely day. After breakfast and after our son checked out of the hotel, we headed over to the Ft. Lauderdale beach (we took an Uber) where we enjoyed several hours together until the thunderstorms came. We said our goodbyes and my wife and I started walking the 4.5 mikes back to the hotel. We took shelter during some especially rainy times, enjoyed a view of the Allure of the Seas cruise ship from the high bridge which opened while we were there.

Back at the hotel we cooled off in the air conditioning and I began to look at flights home. Normally we fly standby, but I couldn't find an available flight. However, I came across a super bargain on the United Airlines site. For $244pp departing two days after the cruise disembarkation, we booked a flight from Papeete to San Francisco. Since it was so cheap, I upgraded us to Economy Plus. 

By the time I turned off my phone at 1:30am, the Maasdam hadn't left the shipyard at Freeport in the Bahamas but was due in to Ft. Lauderdale at 5am.  

Tomorrow we board. Stay tuned.