Day 11 - 10/17/23 - At Sea to Salaverry, Peru
It was another lazy sea day with a number of bright spots along the way. We were in the Hudson Room waiting for the morning interdenominational devotional to start when suddenly there was an exclamation: "Whale!" We passed by a small pod of about 6 whales who were just breaking the surface with another whose tail went vertical indicating a dive. It was quite a thrill to see our first marine mammals.
Following the devotional, Jeremy interviewed the two Peruvian guest chefs in his coffee chat. We ended up signing up for the special dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. I would note that you can book this dinner for 1/2 price if you omit the wine portion. Afterwards, Tom Goltz gave a presentation on Simon Bolivar and Manuela (Revolutionaries & Lovers). It was really good.
I adjourned to the LIDO to catch up on my blog and eventually ate a light salad lunch in preparation for a big dinner. As I was finishing up in the LIDO, we passed a large pod of dolphins and I was able to shoot a bit of video of them.
I also caught up with Jan, a fellow passenger, who was giving away special handmade creations to anyone who asked her. She had made a Facebook post in the Zaandam 73 day thread. It turned out that Angela had seen the post and acquired one also. So now she has two!
In the afternoon Carolina gave a presentation on Salaverry: The Capital of Mariners Dance. She was followed by the future cruise consultant to give a good presentation on future cruises. She classified it by the four classes of ships and clearly explained the methodology of how to book. Most of the itineraries had little to no appeal to us because of all of the cruises we've done.
As it was a sea day, I held my normal session for Cruise Critic members in the Atrium, deck 3, by the organ keyboard. I had many visitors and answered a number of questions before rushing off to our special dinner.
The special dinner was the Seafood Boil which was held in the LIDO. The menu was Ivar's Clam Chowder, a pot of seafood, and a crisp & ice cream dessert. It's very filling and if we do it again, we'll share a pot.
Before the evening program, Jeremy gave us a bit of a scare. He said that it wasn't until 3:30pm today that they secured permission to have shuttle buses to transport passengers from the gangway to the Main Port gate. Since this is a working port, people are not permitted to walk in the port area. If they had not been able to secure this permission, any passengers not booked on a HAL excursion would be kept on the ship. This situation should never have developed this way! We've been to this port in 2018 on the Maasdam and shuttles were provided then. This should not be new information to both the port and to HAL. Last minute scurrying should never have been needed. I don't know who dropped the ball.
The eventing entertainment was the Zaandam singers and dancers (4 of each; 8 in total). It was their first show, "In the Mood", set in the big band swing era and was a throwback to the performance style of HAL from the early 2000's and better IMHO than the Step One Dance Company found on the other ships. Their 10 shows are unique to this ship and this voyage (at least for now).
After the show, we strolled around the deck in the dark to a sliver of a moon. It was rather chilly which is a welcome change from the heat we have experienced during much of the preceding 10 days or so. I ended my evening watching the Phillies - Diamondbacks playoff baseball game where the Phillies totally dominated the game winning it. Angela watched a movie, Chevalier in the Wajang theater.
Comments
Post a Comment