Time to Share

I know a few of you, probably very few, think maybe Dan and I fell off the edge of the world!  We haven’t shared much about what’s happening.  So I will give you some tid bits.  First of all we made it seamlessly to Ft Lauderdale where we were met with a blast of very hot humid air.  Traffic at the airport was jammed so it took our shuttle driver almost 40 minutes to pick us up. Our hotel was only a little over a mile away!   We were so sweaty and hot.  The check in process was long!   The hotel had a live band Friday night. The man working the counter had so many things for us to sign.  We have never encountered that before but our room was by the pool.  It had been remodeled with new tile floors, new bathrooms with lovely tile and a spotless refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker.  We showered and hit the king bed. The AC was COLD just how I need it.  Early morning the birds were active and loud in the palms around the pool but that was fine.  We had a bit of breakfast and then were on the first shuttle to the ship.  When we got there about 11 there was no hold up and few folks there.  We got on pretty quickly and by 11:15 they shuttled us off to the Lido.  We started to see a few familiar faces from the Grand Africa cruise which felt like home!   The captain, many of the other head staff and the cruise director were on GA.   By 1 we could get in our room.  Our room was fine but not cool.  That was a red flag immediately.  But we have it a day before we began letting staff know.  Now we are day 6 Friday and they have come every day to measure our temperature or fiddle with something. No change.  So yesterday I wrote to Florin, the hotel manager, and immediately got a very nice letter.  By the end of the day they offered us another room on the same floor.  We checked it out today.  It was not cool and it had a bad odor like it had flooded!!!! So back to the drawing board.  We asked about upgrades but there are no balconies available.  They assure us we will be happy and that they have a part coming for our AC.  I doubt it. 

We met friends from the Grand Asia, Andy and Linda Crowe.   We knew they would be on from Cruise Critic Roll Call.  We have been emailing for months about ports and excursions.  With all their travels they had never been through the Panama Canal so they did have a balcony and were very excited to transit through.  

The Zaandam still has some issues.   The Lido is still very hot and we know this will be mostly a hot cruise!  But the food has been very good!  I’ve had huge shrimp cocktails every night for dinner and Salmon that is perfectly grilled.  They have also had vegetables I like like broccoli, Brussel sprouts, grilled zucchini and yellow squash.  I had really been good about no bread, carbs or dessert.  Still I’m having some bathroom issues since my hospital stay which makes me anxious and uncomfortable but I’m sticking with the miralax and ducolax unless it’s a port day.  

I did forget to mention though that on our first day we left very late from port.  Initially the captain said we were still loading late deliveries of food.  But the next day he told us after the deliveries were all onboard they had a medical emergency and someone needed to be taken off.  A few fellow passengers said they saw an older woman who looked like she possibly broke her arm but that all her luggage went off with her.  No one knew if she would be able to rejoin us or who she was.  

Entertainment has been ok but not great.  They had a comedian and we did go see him.  His best act was impersonating a few famous people and sounds like trains, instruments and awkward moments!  They had a singer we didn’t listen to and then the 150 Years of Holland America which we have seen. Tonight is a ball at 9:00 pm and that is the entertainment.  This girl will probably be asleep as we have a tour tomorrow in Manta, Ecuador. 

Our room at the hotel 



Getting onboard at the terminal

You can see we were one of the first onboard as no one was in the Ludo!

Our guest lecturers.  We have only heard Tom so far and he has been very good. 

Our list of entertainment for two weeks!  We have never had this presented before. 

A beautiful bouquet quite unexpected from Aaron and Tessie our son in law and daughter. 


And the accompanying card :). 

Our first stop in Grand Cayman.  We have been here many times so we got in two hot and humid miles walking to a store where we got a few things for some of the staff we know onboard and a few things we needed.  I was so tired just do to the heat.  It was 89 and high humidity. 

Several characters greeted us!

And some lovely flowers along our walk 




A stunning billboard! 

These were our pillow gifts!!  We got wonderful canvas bags, chargers, hats, wallets and shoulder bags and another bag celebrating the 150 years of Holland!  



Our stash!  

I attended a flower arranging class by John and after the arrangements they raffled off the flowers!  






Next time will be our tour with Ricky Ricardo in Limón.  Tonight we are packing as we move rooms tomorrow and also have a tour in Manta, The Taste of Ecuador.