Prepared on Sunday, December 9th
To a certain extent, today was like déjà vu all over again. Weren't we just on Grand Turk, in the Turks and Caicos Islands, about two weeks ago?
I was awake early today, simply because G was awake early today. The difference is that, while he was asleep by 11pm last night, I had finished typing my blog post for yesterday and then, for the life of me, couldn't fall asleep. Hot house orchid that I am, I'm bothered by the sound of the two ventilation fans in our cabin's ceiling. Honestly, it's as loud as the noise in the cabin of an airplane. It's even getting through my SPF (or some such initials) 33-rated earplugs. Are all the cabins on this ship this noisy? I don't know. But this one sure is. G, who could sleep standing up in the noisy cabin of a plane (he attributes it to the US Army) is not similarly bothered. Lucky him.
We were scheduled to arrive at Grand Turk at noon, and so spent the morning having breakfast in the buffet and further exploring the ship, walking from the front of the ship to the back on all the public decks. I am most impressed by the combination library/ Internet cafe/ coffee shop, called Explorations, on Deck 3. Comfortable leather seating, a very extensive selection of books, the current issue of several popular magazines (the latest Oprah magazine has my name on it for our upcoming day at sea), chess games, puzzles, a gorgeous globe...you name it. If it would be appropriate for and look good in a library or bookstore, Explorations has it. The only downside: if you want any of the delicious-looking pastries in the coffee shop part, you have to order an extra-cost, specialty coffee drink. Petty.
I also love the Lido Pool area with its bandstand; hot tubs; plentiful, comfortable loungers; wicker furniture; and, best of all, a retractable glass roof that is frequently opened or closed, depending on the wind and weather. We're enjoying taking our food from the buffet just aft of it out there for our many of our meals.
This ship is fully decorated for Christmas, and I'll be honest: during the day, I'm not a huge fan. Many of the decorations are really gaudy. It's as if the Christmas aisles at WalMart exploded and everything landed willy-nilly on the trees, particularly the ones in the Lido Pool area. The apparent decorating strategy was "if one is good, 37 are better". However, at night, the pool area is transformed, because all you can see are the twinkle lights, and not the thousand stiff, pre-made red and gold velveteen bows, miles of that thick, fuzzy, metallic garland and the hundreds of poor stuffed teddy bears hanging from every tree branch and garland. Is that a Dutch thing (Holland America, like Princess, is a CCL brand, but still maintains strong ties to its Dutch roots)? Am I insulting an entire nationality here, or just die-hard Holland America fans? I'll sandwich my harsh words with another positive...the many large gingerbread houses located all over the ship are darling. They also appear to be real. Someone's worked very hard on these.
I also love the Promenade Deck on this ship. It's real teak, it's wide enough to allow full length padded loungers with plenty of room to actually walk and jog, and it wraps fully around the ship on one level (no stairs to navigate at the front of the ship as on the Emerald). I'll also be spending a lot of time enjoying this on our first sea day.
And I mostly love that this ship feels relatively uncrowded compared to the Emerald Princess. There are plenty of loungers on the open decks, plenty of theater seats, and I've seen few chair hogs. It makes for a more relaxing vacation. Or it should. Read on...
Just before we arrived in Grand Turk at noon, we stopped by the buffet for a light lunch. Holland America has a rule on all its ships: the first 48-hours on board, the buffet is not self-serve, to prevent the possible spread of the Norovirus. All food, all water, coffee, lemonade, etc., plates, silverware, you name it, must be handed to you by a buffet steward. Thankfully, it's just temporary, providing there is no Noro outbreak, because it really slows things down, creates lines and cuts down on the drink service in the buffet. At noon today, that restriction was lifted. Yay! The buffet immediately became more user-friendly, and we were able to get in and out for lunch in less than 30 minutes.
After our quick lunch, while walking back to our cabin to collect our things to leave the ship, we encountered a most unsettling situation that still has us shaken. Right behind me i overheard a conversation between two people. A man said, "Have you checked all the bathrooms?" And a woman frantically responded, "I've checked EVERYWHERE". The man then said, "She has to be really frightened by now." This all happened so fast, but my immediate thought was that a child had wandered off and gotten lost on the ship. These two people approached a nearby officer and I heard the man say to him, "My wife has wandered off and we can't find her and she has Alzheimer's..." and the officer said, "We need to phone the Front Office..." which is what Holland America calls its Pursers Desk.
That was the extent of it. I don't know what happened next; within minutes we were off the ship, but that short episode left both G and I upset. I don't know what bothered us more: that a person who wanders was brought on a cruise or that she wasn't more closely protected when she was. That quick, overheard conversation kind of overshadowed the next several hours for us. I suppose HAL deals with this sort of thing as often as Toys R Us deals with lost kids, but for me it underscored the fact that the passenger demographic on this ship is not only so much older, but many passengers are also in very poor health. We've even been openly told by passengers that this is their (or their spouse's) last cruise- that they are suffering from a terminal illness. Yes, it's life, but it's also damn depressing.
No, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.
But, back to happier things (though you can tell that I haven't quite put this out of my mind)...
The weather was sunny, but quite windy when we walked off the ship. Our primary goal for today was not to plop in a beach lounger at Margaritaville, but to walk to the left down the beach past Margaritaville for awhile. We wanted an exploration day, not another beach day, and so started down the beach in search of wifi and cold beers. We found both at a beach bar called The Local Place. Immediately, 32 emails were downloaded in my iPhone, but just one an emergency, so I set to work dealing with those. I was even able to make a couple of phone calls using my Vonage app. Not great quality, but decent, and it was nice to check in with Mom. It was from there that I posted a couple of days' worth of blog posts.
The Local Place was offering 90-minute island tours on a small tram for $20 per person. Since we've never had an island tour here (only seen the beach area) I was game, but G was reluctant to spend 90-minutes sitting on a tram listening to a tour guide over a loudspeaker. We can pretty much see the entire 6-mile long, 1-mile wide island from the upper decks of the ship, so we simply spent our time walking further down the beach and back. When we returned to the ship, we talked with several passengers who had taken tours. It seems G was right...there really wasn't much to see. Basically, Grand Turk is a beach day, or a diving/snorkeling day (it is surrounded by good reefs) and little more.
Now we know.
We returned to the ship just before sunset, and went immediately to a hot tub. Unlike on embarkation day, the hot tubs are now fairly hot, not merely lukewarm, and a real pleasure to use. We showered, dressed casually (although we're wearing slacks, not shorts, in the evenings, even to eat in the buffet, in case we choose to go to some entertainment on the lower decks afterward), and went to the buffet for dinner.
We had checked the dinner menu in the dining room during our walk around the ship this morning. The exact same menu was being offered in the buffet, so we're not missing out on much. Tonight's menu had a Caribbean theme, and I enjoyed grilled salmon, jerk chicken (Wow. Was that spicy!), sweet potato fries, salad and, key lime pie, which you know I don't like at all.
;-)
No entertainment for us tonight, though. It was tempting. We really enjoy the piano player, Lee, the guitarist Johnny Champagne and the HALCats (they played poolside at sailaway and I got a bit danc-y as we listened), but last night's lack of sleep and today's long beach walk had caught up with me. We returned early to our big (but noisy as an airplane) cabin. We move our clocks ahead an hour to AST tonight, and it's a good night to fall asleep early.
Photos 1 and 2: Christmas decorations in the Lido Pool area by day...
Photo 3: and by night. See what I mean?
Photo 4: one of the many gingerbread houses around the ship
Photo 5: the Promenade Deck
Photos 6 and 7: Explorations
I was awake early today, simply because G was awake early today. The difference is that, while he was asleep by 11pm last night, I had finished typing my blog post for yesterday and then, for the life of me, couldn't fall asleep. Hot house orchid that I am, I'm bothered by the sound of the two ventilation fans in our cabin's ceiling. Honestly, it's as loud as the noise in the cabin of an airplane. It's even getting through my SPF (or some such initials) 33-rated earplugs. Are all the cabins on this ship this noisy? I don't know. But this one sure is. G, who could sleep standing up in the noisy cabin of a plane (he attributes it to the US Army) is not similarly bothered. Lucky him.
We were scheduled to arrive at Grand Turk at noon, and so spent the morning having breakfast in the buffet and further exploring the ship, walking from the front of the ship to the back on all the public decks. I am most impressed by the combination library/ Internet cafe/ coffee shop, called Explorations, on Deck 3. Comfortable leather seating, a very extensive selection of books, the current issue of several popular magazines (the latest Oprah magazine has my name on it for our upcoming day at sea), chess games, puzzles, a gorgeous globe...you name it. If it would be appropriate for and look good in a library or bookstore, Explorations has it. The only downside: if you want any of the delicious-looking pastries in the coffee shop part, you have to order an extra-cost, specialty coffee drink. Petty.
I also love the Lido Pool area with its bandstand; hot tubs; plentiful, comfortable loungers; wicker furniture; and, best of all, a retractable glass roof that is frequently opened or closed, depending on the wind and weather. We're enjoying taking our food from the buffet just aft of it out there for our many of our meals.
This ship is fully decorated for Christmas, and I'll be honest: during the day, I'm not a huge fan. Many of the decorations are really gaudy. It's as if the Christmas aisles at WalMart exploded and everything landed willy-nilly on the trees, particularly the ones in the Lido Pool area. The apparent decorating strategy was "if one is good, 37 are better". However, at night, the pool area is transformed, because all you can see are the twinkle lights, and not the thousand stiff, pre-made red and gold velveteen bows, miles of that thick, fuzzy, metallic garland and the hundreds of poor stuffed teddy bears hanging from every tree branch and garland. Is that a Dutch thing (Holland America, like Princess, is a CCL brand, but still maintains strong ties to its Dutch roots)? Am I insulting an entire nationality here, or just die-hard Holland America fans? I'll sandwich my harsh words with another positive...the many large gingerbread houses located all over the ship are darling. They also appear to be real. Someone's worked very hard on these.
I also love the Promenade Deck on this ship. It's real teak, it's wide enough to allow full length padded loungers with plenty of room to actually walk and jog, and it wraps fully around the ship on one level (no stairs to navigate at the front of the ship as on the Emerald). I'll also be spending a lot of time enjoying this on our first sea day.
And I mostly love that this ship feels relatively uncrowded compared to the Emerald Princess. There are plenty of loungers on the open decks, plenty of theater seats, and I've seen few chair hogs. It makes for a more relaxing vacation. Or it should. Read on...
Just before we arrived in Grand Turk at noon, we stopped by the buffet for a light lunch. Holland America has a rule on all its ships: the first 48-hours on board, the buffet is not self-serve, to prevent the possible spread of the Norovirus. All food, all water, coffee, lemonade, etc., plates, silverware, you name it, must be handed to you by a buffet steward. Thankfully, it's just temporary, providing there is no Noro outbreak, because it really slows things down, creates lines and cuts down on the drink service in the buffet. At noon today, that restriction was lifted. Yay! The buffet immediately became more user-friendly, and we were able to get in and out for lunch in less than 30 minutes.
After our quick lunch, while walking back to our cabin to collect our things to leave the ship, we encountered a most unsettling situation that still has us shaken. Right behind me i overheard a conversation between two people. A man said, "Have you checked all the bathrooms?" And a woman frantically responded, "I've checked EVERYWHERE". The man then said, "She has to be really frightened by now." This all happened so fast, but my immediate thought was that a child had wandered off and gotten lost on the ship. These two people approached a nearby officer and I heard the man say to him, "My wife has wandered off and we can't find her and she has Alzheimer's..." and the officer said, "We need to phone the Front Office..." which is what Holland America calls its Pursers Desk.
That was the extent of it. I don't know what happened next; within minutes we were off the ship, but that short episode left both G and I upset. I don't know what bothered us more: that a person who wanders was brought on a cruise or that she wasn't more closely protected when she was. That quick, overheard conversation kind of overshadowed the next several hours for us. I suppose HAL deals with this sort of thing as often as Toys R Us deals with lost kids, but for me it underscored the fact that the passenger demographic on this ship is not only so much older, but many passengers are also in very poor health. We've even been openly told by passengers that this is their (or their spouse's) last cruise- that they are suffering from a terminal illness. Yes, it's life, but it's also damn depressing.
No, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.
But, back to happier things (though you can tell that I haven't quite put this out of my mind)...
The weather was sunny, but quite windy when we walked off the ship. Our primary goal for today was not to plop in a beach lounger at Margaritaville, but to walk to the left down the beach past Margaritaville for awhile. We wanted an exploration day, not another beach day, and so started down the beach in search of wifi and cold beers. We found both at a beach bar called The Local Place. Immediately, 32 emails were downloaded in my iPhone, but just one an emergency, so I set to work dealing with those. I was even able to make a couple of phone calls using my Vonage app. Not great quality, but decent, and it was nice to check in with Mom. It was from there that I posted a couple of days' worth of blog posts.
The Local Place was offering 90-minute island tours on a small tram for $20 per person. Since we've never had an island tour here (only seen the beach area) I was game, but G was reluctant to spend 90-minutes sitting on a tram listening to a tour guide over a loudspeaker. We can pretty much see the entire 6-mile long, 1-mile wide island from the upper decks of the ship, so we simply spent our time walking further down the beach and back. When we returned to the ship, we talked with several passengers who had taken tours. It seems G was right...there really wasn't much to see. Basically, Grand Turk is a beach day, or a diving/snorkeling day (it is surrounded by good reefs) and little more.
Now we know.
We returned to the ship just before sunset, and went immediately to a hot tub. Unlike on embarkation day, the hot tubs are now fairly hot, not merely lukewarm, and a real pleasure to use. We showered, dressed casually (although we're wearing slacks, not shorts, in the evenings, even to eat in the buffet, in case we choose to go to some entertainment on the lower decks afterward), and went to the buffet for dinner.
We had checked the dinner menu in the dining room during our walk around the ship this morning. The exact same menu was being offered in the buffet, so we're not missing out on much. Tonight's menu had a Caribbean theme, and I enjoyed grilled salmon, jerk chicken (Wow. Was that spicy!), sweet potato fries, salad and, key lime pie, which you know I don't like at all.
;-)
No entertainment for us tonight, though. It was tempting. We really enjoy the piano player, Lee, the guitarist Johnny Champagne and the HALCats (they played poolside at sailaway and I got a bit danc-y as we listened), but last night's lack of sleep and today's long beach walk had caught up with me. We returned early to our big (but noisy as an airplane) cabin. We move our clocks ahead an hour to AST tonight, and it's a good night to fall asleep early.
Photos 1 and 2: Christmas decorations in the Lido Pool area by day...
Photo 3: and by night. See what I mean?
Photo 4: one of the many gingerbread houses around the ship
Photo 5: the Promenade Deck
Photos 6 and 7: Explorations
