“Better to see something once, than to hear about it a thousand times” Asian Proverb

Tonight is October 16th and we are enroute to Shimizu, Japan.  We spent two days in Yokohama which is the port city for Tokyo.  We had a tour each day we were here; one a private tour that we found out about from the Cruise Critic roll call site for this cruise and one from Holland America.  When we docked her on Sunday the weather on our daily program said “Chance of Rain”....well, it really should have just said “RAIN”!  That is what we have had steadily for two days.  Our Sunday tour took us to shrines, Asakusa, Tokyo Tower, Odaibo which means artificial islands (shopping area) to a traditional Japanese restaurant where we had lunch, and to a ride down the Sumida River. We toured the Hamarikyu Gardens which is home to the 300 year old pine. The Pine was planted to commemorate Great renovations made by the 6th shogun, Ienobu. The garden now is a family garden of Tokugawa Shogun and functioned as an outer fort for the Edo castle.  Tidal ponds of seawater flow in and out of the area.  At one time it was known as a beach palace for the shogun that ruled. There is a water bus landing here also that follows the Sumida river.  All along the river are lock gates that control the flow of the tides. Salt water fish such as sea bass, striped mullet, goby, and eel inhabit the ponds. As you travel the river you will see 14 bridges that span it. In the spring the gardens fill the visual senses with peonies and rape blossoms: in the fall there are large masses of cosmos.  Close by you can enter the very busy and expensive Ginza shopping district. 

The photos for the last two days are rather grey and dreary looking because that really was experience.  There are over 13 million people in Tokyo and it is evident everywhere you go.  The city and the port area is layer upon layer of apartment complexes.  The areas are clean but not really beautiful if you ask me.  The parks and gardens we saw were very small and at this time of year rather bleak.  We dodged puddles and wet areas everywhere.  It was a challenge to dodge all the umbrellas!  I gave up on carrying an umbrella because pulling up your jacket hood was so much easier.  It also took quite a bit of focus to follow our tour guide and keep up.  It seemed like everyone was out on Sunday paying homage to the shrines or dressing in their beautiful kimono’s to wander about the shrines and gardens having their photo’s taken or just entertaining all the tourists with their traditional dress.  Our guides both days gave us information coming and going almost to the point of tiring us.  For Dan and I we would not return to Toyko...just too many people and really not that much that interested us.  Shopping seems to be big here and so are the prices!  Sunday our tour began at 9 and it was almost 7 pm before we returned to the ship.  They took us to several shopping areas which just wasn’t all that exciting for us.  One of the big things people looked for were the different flavors of the KitKat bars.  We finally found the green tea variety and we didn’t care at all for the flavor.  One tour guide told us that their biggest holidays for sweets is Valentine’s Day and Christmas which is similar to ours but one thing that makes theirs different is that women receive ONLY chocolates on Valentine’s Day; a month later men then are treated to chocolate by women.  At Christmas the biggest sweet thing they have is a decorated cake that typically they buy.  The love having fresh strawberries on the cake which at this time of year is very expensive.  They never have turkey in Japan but their meal is typically chicken.  They still often have rice three times a day and many mothers will cook a very large pot of rice once a week and then freeze portion sizes for later in the week which is much easier for them.  More women are working in Japan and fewer are marrying or becoming mothers.  They actually have lowered the voting, drinking and smoking age from 20 to 18 because they need more voters!  The mayor of Japan is a woman which is very unusual but she is very respected and supported by almost 80% of the population.  She asked people to wear green to show their support for her...everyone took to the stores to find green apparel and soon nothing green could be found!  So then they went to green vegetables that they would purchase and again all the green vegetables were hard to find!  They say she is so loved and respected that they expect her to easily move up the ranks to the next level of authority.  

We were educated about bowing in Japan also and told that for most people a simple nod is the most appropriate response given to others.  

I included a few photos of things the ship provides us when we get to a port.  They easily exchange our currency for the currency of whatever port we are in; each night before a new port they provide us with a small card that has typical sayings, has the currency exchange rate and also provides other usual information for that area.  Often times a free shuttle bus is provided by the city or the port taking passengers easily into town.  

Another interesting fact about Japan is that only 1% of the population is Christian.  The rest are Buddhists or Shinto’s.  But they love to celebrate Christmas and Halloween.  The average age for women getting married is 39 and men is 32.  

We are looking forward to a bit warmer temperatures and less rain.  We will be on our own tomorrow with no specific tour.  Our day there is a short one docking at 8 and leaving by 3.  

Our card for this port

Waterways are everywhere

One of the few gardens with few flowers

Our Sumida River cruise which was more like basic transportation 

Colorful billboards and advertising are everywhere

You can rent a kimono!! It can be very expensive to purchase the traditional hand sewn silk ones. 

Umbrellas everywhere!!

It was the thing to do on Sunday to wear your traditional dress in the gardens and around the shrines to be purified and make your wishes known. 

If you get a bad fortune you tie it to a rack!

Buddah’s are everywhere and its important to notice the position of their hands.  Most of them are holding their hands in a thoughtful gesture contemplating what they will say to you. 

Huge pots in the shrines carry the aromas of incense which seems to relate to good luck when you place your incense stick in the fire. The Japanese  are very superstitious. 

This was our traditional meal.  We had to remove out shoes and sit on cushions with our feet hanging down under the table.  The meal was raw fish (sashimi) miso soup,  tea, bean sprouts, sticky rice, fish soup, an egg pudding and radish pickles.   Not very tasty :(

We will give it a try!

Some of the Shoguns at the temples.
This was the giant Buddha is Kamakura

The toilets in Japan are so unusual!   This one  has a place for you to place your child while the mother uses the bathroom so the child doesn’t get  into trouble

A  purifying water station by the shrine. 

Notice the  most important caption on the map





Notice the sign on the ship as we board today. !   The other photos were the long walkways to the shrine in Kamakura and the huge lily pads in the ponds. 

Kushiro!!!

Finally we docked today.  After turning back our clocks night after night I was awake before 5.  I looked out the window to thick fog and rain.  We had coffee in our room and watched all the immigration folks come aboard as we docked on our side of the ship.  We waited till almost 10:30 before being taken through immigration and then being allowed to get off the ship.  The sun actually came out and the day is cool but nice.  We walked around a bit and found a few landmarks they have talked about.  We wanted to go to the crane reserve but after getting our so late few taxis were left and no tour vendors at all.  We were worried about venturing out too far because our stay here isn’t long.  We went through the Moo and the Egg which are along the wharf for tourists to shop and eat.  The Egg is a fairly large enclosure that had some cultural activities but all the plant life inside was gone.  The Moo has fresh fish, hundreds of packaged items to eat like dried fish, noodles, many types of candy and chocolates, tea and ice cream.  There were a few coffee shops but the biggest draw was free Wi-Fi!   Everyone was wanting to connect with family and get emails.   We walked down town a bit as they told us to check out the 7-11 stores!!  They say a big item here are the different KitKat flavors but after much searching we never found any.  The port area wasn’t really very nice. It’s more of a fishing and commercial port.  We did stop by the museum but again more people here were looking for free Wi-Fi.  We found a nice display of some of the wildlife and fisheries.  I’ll include de a few photos.  

Tomorrow is another sea day and then on to Yokohama where we spend two days and have tours. In all we will visit 7 Japanese ports.  The weather will progressively get warmer.  Tomorrow the Cruise Critic group hosts anotherget together and happy hour.  Last night we had “pillow gifts” which they say only happen on grand or world cruises. They were two sturdy umbrellas.  Before that we got stationary and business satchels with the Grand Asia Cruise and date on them. I took a photo of the front of the ship as they painted in red letters the Grand Asia etc on it!!!  I hope you can see that in the photos.  

I’m going to try and get this blog out so nice we have good service then it will be time to reboard. All is good on the ms Amsterdam!!

This morning from our window as we docked. 

Notice the front of our ship where they painted the Grand Pacific & Far East Voyage!!

Preschool children outside the museum so cute!

The Moo building on the Wharf

Dan with his paper crane and crane in the background!  Ha ha. The closest he got to the crane reserve. 

This is how they decorate their sewer and water plates on the sidewalks. 

They have beautiful metal prints of the area on the overhead street signs 

7-11 in Kushiro. 

They sell shirts, underwear and blankets at the 7-11 along with all kinds of prepared and frozen food!!
All the cars are small and boxy. 

Outside the Moo

Inside the Moo lots of candy 

Fresh crabs!

The Japanese Crane

The Crested Kingfisher

The Fish Owl which is huge and endangered.  Can weigh over 7 pounds.  

At a restaurant the tables had their own stir fry cooker

See the cookers spread out on the tables for the customers at the restaurant by the wharf. 

Fog and Cold! October 12

Since we are getting closer to Kushiro where tomorrow we will dock, we are finally getting better satellite service.  The doom and gloom of the news is back on which is easy to turn off but it also means we will get better internet connections and be able to upload and download.  Today it is about 47 degrees and too cold to be on the deck walking.  Yesterday we listened a good lecture on our port of Kushiro and I will add some of that information.  We also had a good lecture about Japanese Puppetry which turned out to be pretty interesting.  We get a lot of exercise in as we have only used the stairs and then we visit the exercise room too.  I brought my stretch bands so we lift some weights, use the bikes and or walkers depending on how much movement we get up there and then I tried out the bands which is a good workout.  Each night we are turning our clocks back an hour so it’s hard for us adjust to the constant time changes.  But typically for us we go to dinner whether it is in the main dining room or Lido and then we attend the show.  Yesterday the saxophone entertainer Craig Richard gave a mid day concert.  He is just excellent and his music transports you to somewhere peaceful, lovely and totally surreal.  Google him and see him as he toured with Kenny G.  

At 4:30 we met with some of our AZ friends at the Ocean Bar, happy hour, to visit and talk about getting off in Kushiro.  Last night was also another Gala Night which means dressing up if you choose in your gala clothing!  I chose to wear a cute Owl shirt that Tess and I got right before we left on a shopping day :). It was black and white with silver detail in the shape of a large owl and then I wore my owl earrings that she got me awhile back with black slacks, some black dressy sandals that she helped me find and carried a long black drapey jacket.  Dan looked dashing in his black suit.; the theme for the event was black and white so we fit in!  Anyway our friends excitedly shared that several of them had already booked their next cruise!  Two are doing what’s called the Voyage of the Vikings which happens for them in 2019 out of Boston.  It is a 35 day round trip cruise which only happens once a year.  It takes you to Iceland, Ireland, England, Scotland and Newfoundland with ports like Brook Red Bay,  Reykjavik, Alesund, Bergen, Hardangerjford, Rotterdam, Dublin and on and on.  Then another couple told us they just booked the 113 day World Cruise for 2019!  So I’m feeling the pressure! Ha ha. 

We all went to dinner and enjoyed a good visit and a delicious meal; some had broiled lobster tails (two large tails per person) or as I had a delicious steak and vegetables with large shrimp cocktails and several other interesting soups, salads and appetizers.  There was music last night by the ship orchestra but it didn’t start till 9:30 so we all opted to head to bed early.  The seas have still been somewhat rocky and at night it has been just about right lulling me to sleep with enough motion that it is comforting.

Today we were up early at 6:15.  Dan went for coffee and got us some fruit.  We turned on the TV to find the movie Inferno just starting so we watched it till it was over; then we went up early to the theater to listen to the port talk about Yokohama which will be our next port stop.  We have seven port stops now in Japan since they cancelled the two in South Korea.   We exchanged $100 today for the Japanese Yen very easily onboard.  There was no fee to do this and the ship will exchange it back for us if we still have paper Yen.  They do not do any coins so they told us to spend the coins which are in denominations of $1 and $5.  Tomorrow when we get off we will DIY or “do it yourself” in terms of tours.  We are going with two other couples and hope to get a taxi to take us to the crane reserve; then when we get back we will do the sightseeing around the port area.  The weather is to be cool and possibly rainy so again it will be jeans, socks, sweatshirts, coats, umbrellas and gloves!  

Here is some trivia about Japan and our port of Kushiro..

Japan is made up of over  6000 islands.  It was settled in 600 BC

Misty, Kushiro, Hokkaido was mostly a hunter gatherer area.  It is or was  very remote.  Ghengis Khan supposedly was here.

Beautiful robes are made there some just display them. Trade is very important along with shipping. 

Commodore Perry negotiated a treaty for trade. Filmore was the US president.  

Seikan tunnel is the longest under sea tunnel and connects Hokkaido to the mainland; is sits 

500 ft below seabed.  It is the deepest and longest underwater tunnel and the trains travel at 85 mph.  It is a four hour journey to Tokyo in a quick and comfortabl bullet train. 

Breathe taking describes the area for it’s natural views. It is an area known for sea food, agriculture and hiking along with outdoor adventures. Kushiro is home to Japan’s largest fishing centers and known for wetlands. The first wetland to be developed was in Kushiro for Japan.   

Over 2000 species of plants and animals are found in this area with the  Japanese Crane, dragonflies and unique lizards. It is a Diverse ecosystem; the famous crane here is the 

Red Crown Crane.  The 

Crane is a symbol of Japan with the 

International crane center here.

Port is in the center of town. Biking is easy here and it is easy to walk around.  Free Wi-Fi in art museum which is close to the port and which Dan and I will use!

Signs in Japanese and English are posted everywhere making it easy for tourists.  

Dock at the wharf where you can access the Moo and Egg that contain many shops and eating establishments.  

Weather to be about 55. 

Everything is in walking distance and if you 

Go to the bridge and cross over to the Moo you can do shopping and get good coffee.

7 11 stores are here everywhere and have  good atms!  They make different KitKats here like Green Tea KitKat and many people like to purchase these unique flavors when they come to Japan.  

Kushiro washo ichiba 69 shops have everything too but prices can be speedy here.  

Hello Kitty school buses transport the school children and Hello Kitty is BIG in Japan.  

300 yen is $3 and the exchange rate is almost one to one.  

Salmon ale is popular which sounds horrible!  

Ice hockey is popular with a major team called the Nippon Paper Cranes located here.  

A scene from the wetlands area that was shown in the special presentation.

Signs displayed in English and Japanese and things are easily found and accessed.

Our schedule for arrival and departure on October 13th.  We will have our photos for the next blog entry.  

Day 10-1 Still at Sea

As we have shared we are in the middle of nowhere and that being said we have lost most all satellite service. Since we last blogged a few things have occurred.  Two days ago we met up with one of our new AZ acquaintances.  She is a single older lady from Sun City.  We decided to go to afternoon tea I the dining room and she joined us.  They serve you with a large selection of tea choices along with your own cute tea pot!! Then they come around with a variety of small but delicious looking snacks some sweet and some of the meat and cheese type.  I passed on all but not Dan 😊. He has a very difficult time resisting anything sweet.  Anyway another couple from CA joined us and we had a nice chat.  On the way going down to our rooms she took a very bad spill on the steps missing the bottom two. She immediately went down and I could tell it was not good.  I asked her if I should go for help and she moaned “Yes!”    I bolted up the stairs to the dining room while Dan stayed with her.  It took several tries to get someone to understand my dilemma but finally one of the head waiters heard the request and hurried to join me on the step landing.  He brought a pillow to put under her head.  It looked as though she had twisted her ankle and she was in pain.  This gentleman called the medical staff; they came quickly with two nurses and an EMT.  He was dressed in a raincoat type uniform with a big back pack on.  He asked her a few questions and inquired whether or not she hit her head in the fall.  She had not thank goodness.  She had told me previously that her hip had been hurting and that she thought maybe she had dislocated it a bit; I thought this might have been the reason for the fall with her hip giving out.  They did bring a wheel chair but because she was on a landing they needed Dan to help support her along with the EMT to get her down to the chair.  By this time her ankle was already swelling!  I collected her purse and her shoe taken off to examine her ankle. They asked her if she would go with them to the doctor for an x ray and she immediately said Yes!  She told us she would be ok and I gave her one of the little business cards I had made up with all our contact information and room number.  She promised to call us once she got back to her room which is just a few doors down from us. So we headed to our room wary of all the stairs and holding on to the railing at each step with the movement of the boat still noticeable.   After about an hour she called us; she said the Doc was great; from South Africa; he x rayed both ankles and both were sprained.  He ordered a wheel chair for her use, wrapped both ankles and told her to ice them and take Ibuprofen for the pain.  They managed to get her back to her room and on the bed.  We hurried down with ice we gathered from the steward.  She had some small baggies so we bagged up some ice for each ankle and placed them gently over her wraps.  She has a single friend on the boat from Dallas and this friend was securing a wheel chair for her by signing some documents at the main desk.  We told her we would stay until her friend came so she didn’t have to get up to answer the door.  Well, after two days and seeing the doc again she is MUCH better.  She is walking but gingerly and the ankles are more lightly wrapped.  She said she slept well and wasn’t in much pain.  She stayed off them for about two days with getting some of the free movies on board and room service.  

Yesterday was a day for bird watching, whale watching, dolphin watching and reading.  They have an organized book club and yesterday I got my free copy along with about 30 other readers!  The books are brand new; the selection is “The Paradise Guest House” by Ellen Sussman.  It is a story about Bali and the bombings that took place there in 2002; it is fictional but based on that occurrence. So far it is an easy interesting read.  

Dan has spotted an Layson Albatross, a Black Legged Kittiwake ( a new bird), last night a juvenile Peregrine Falcon (permanent residents of the the Aluetian Chain, and the Northern Fulmar (another new bird).  The Albatross can sleep in flight using only half of it’s brain to navigate!  It’s been radio tracked via satellite soaring over the ocean for 6 days without ever flapping it’s wings, just gliding.  Yesterday we spotted several pods of dolphins and a few whales spouting.  I don’t think many folks see what Dan sees and when they see him with their binoculars they are always asking him questions.  One fellow was so impressed with his knowledge that he went to the events coordinator yesterday and asked if Dan could have a small area to share with other passengers about birding.  He asked this man if he would come to dinner with 6 of us to meet Dan and have a discussion.  He said he would but so far we haven’t heard anything official.

Yesterday we went to the movie, “Keeping Up With the Jones’s “ and it was packed to full capacity.  We finally got a little news today.  The Captain of the ship gave a presentation today that really was fascinating! Dan was out on  deck three walking and looking for animals while I was at the well attended talk.  He said it was constant fog and the fog horn has been going off continuosly about every two minutes.  I guess it is so foggy because the air temperature and the water temperature are about the same.  We saw a little blue sky around three but then back to fog.

It probably was the best Captain 

‘S talk I have ever been to.  He had a wonderful active PowerPoint presentation with a lot of interesting facts about the ship, all it’s systems, all the safety features and some of the distinctive features.  He allowed a Q and A session too and there were way more questions than he had time to answer.  He said our whole trip will cost over $1,000,000 in fuel!  He also said we can go for 23 days at 17 knots without refueling!  That was good to know.  Our next refuel port is Yokohama.  The ship has 17 water tight compartments that can each be sealed off.  We can stay afloat if two of them are completely filled with water.  I don’t really want to think about that!  There are over 17,000 sprinkler heads on the ship too with hundreds if not thousands of smoke, heat and CO2 detectors.  Everything is done electronically and automatically on the ship which means less time trying to get someone to an area although you can override the system.  But if a fire breaks out in the engine room the automatic systems take over and give you time to get there while still putting out the fires and sealing things off.  Anyway, he was just a great presenter and speaker and I learned a lot even after all the cruises I have been on about stabilizers, fuel, the bulbous bow and navigation!  Our ship was one of the first ships to have Azipods which are the motorized propellor systems under the boat that can each turn independently of each other 360 degrees. It takes about 2 minutes for one to turn completely.  

After lunch which was a salad for me and something very small for Dan we attended the EXC talk from the expert onboard for all our ports about Japan.  He too is very interesting, funny and enjoyable.  His presentations are usually packed so you come at least a half hour early just to get a seat!  He is practical, has excellent photos and provides up to date information.  Today we learned about Japanese sports, history, manners, hot baths and hot springs and toilets!!   I’ll include a few photos at the end for your enjoyment!  Here are some of the notes I took so I wouldn’t forget!

Sumo wrestling is a big deal.  It has existed for

Many thousands of years. Young boys start at 6 or 7.  These wrestlers have

their own hair dressers for the top knot. And hair must be perfect

Martial arts also is a big deal as we know in Japan.  

Judo is the most far reaching in the world for Japanese sports.  

Here the small guy can sometimes win!!

Baseball is more popular in Japan than anything else!!! Shirts and hats are very expensive.  The high schools in Japan have big championships in August and are exciting. 1872 was when the first baseball was introduced.

There have been 64 Japanese players in major leagues so far. 

Mariners has famous player at age of 42 who was with the Marlins last year but I couldn’t get his name quick enough.  You will have to google that one!

Mt Fuji is one of the most recognizable sites both artistically and geographically. 

Japan is fascinated with ghosts!! Which are shown often in their prints and woodblocks and impressionistic painters. 

Manners and etiquette in Japan say use Chopsticks. There are cheater versions. Don’t play with them.  This is frowned on.  A queue is a line or lining up.  They teach you how to queue properly in school.  

Streets are very clean!!  Littering is terrible.  No street cleaners.  Everyone takes garbage home or uses the litter bins.  

Toilets are unique!! Seats are warm they play music and seats open on their own.  Made with user in mind.  A clean toilet is the highlight of a good business.  You need to be computer literate to use them because everything is digital .  Keep it nice for next person

You always thank those that prepare your meal and for the animals and plants that have given their life for your meal.  Eat every last bite. 

No eating or drinking on trains and train etiquette needed.  Trains are packed

Bowing is appropriate but never fold your hands, never talk and bow together, never walk and bow nodding is fine.  Use two hands for business card.  Don’t physically hand money.  Put it on a tray

No soy sauce on your rice.  Keep it clean.  You can slurp your soup.  Bring a bowl up to your mouth. Never blow your nose or burp at the table. Don’t waste anything.  Never pour your own drink. No tips.  

Black cabs have exceptional service.  They open door for you.  Inside perfectly clean and neat.  Very proud.  They close the door and are strict.  

Onsen is a Japanese hot springs.  Noted for these.  Dates back 3000 years.  Sometimes wounded animals went in hot spring. Cleanse you on your sins and are healthful too. A bath house is different.  Beppu is known for them.  Water must contain sulphur or other minerals and be at least 77 degrees to be a hot springs officially. 

Bath house is just a communal bath. Doesn’t fit the other description.   Can be Inside or outside.   Usually gender specific.   

Shower first before entering with scrubbing yourself down.  No towels in the tub.  

Tattoos may not be allowed in because of members of organized crime associated with gang members. They may ask you to cover up tattoos with bandages. No electronic devices or peeking into other sites. 

They, the ship, will deliver language phrases for every port to passengers with currency and exchange rate.  

Uber is available in Japan.  We arrive in Kushiro, Japan on the 13th which is Friday the 13th!  Ha ha. The weather is still cold with long pants, socks, shirts and sometimes coats!  We did get a nice long email from Tess today and found out she will soon be traveling to see Aaron in Puerto Rico.  I’m so happy for her to have this experience and to be with her husband.  

Let us know if you are following the blog by leaving a comment. You may share the site with others if they are interested but please don’t share the site on Facebook.  

And one last thing... Today we crossed the International Dateline at 6:20 am.    We received an official certificate from the ship with the date.  This means we lost a day and went from Oct 8th to Oct 10th!  THis is the line that separates two consecutive calendar days so that those left of the line in the Eastern hemisphere are always one day ohead of the date in the Western Hemisphere.  This firs happened to Magellan’s crew after the first circumnavigation of the globe.  The dateline can be anywhere on the globe but is most convenient to be 180 degrees away from the defining meridian that goes through Greenwich, England.  Over the years the position of the international dateline have changed several times.  The most recent was in 2011.  This was due to Samoa. THe line now passes between Samoa and American Samoa with American Samoa remaining aligned with the American date.  Samoa made the change because Australia and New Zealand have become its biggest trading partners.   Being 21 hours behind made business difficult because having weekends on backward days meant only four days of the week were shared workdays.  

Here is where we are now; the blue dot....

Japanese Sumo wrestlers here are a big deal..

Here is the digital panel for toilets in Japan!   Notice some of the chooses on the panel for your comfort!

A photo of the actual toilet :) and below a famous woodblock artwork of Mt Fuji which is very popular for tourists to try and see.  They say you have about a 50% chance of actually seeing it.  We have no designated tours to Mt Fuji but hopefully will be close enough on a clear day to actually see it.  
This was a cute depiction of hot baths and them being gender specific in many locations.  

Here is a sampling of traditional Japanese sports...below is a the Mt Fuji art...

Detour!

It has been several days since I have added to the blog.  I guess it doesn’t much matter because when you read this you will probably be reading several before it that all get posted at the same time.  Today is Saturday October 7th.  This was the day we were to be docked at Dutch Harbor, Alaska getting off the ship after 6 days seeing the few sites that are available to see there.  Yesterday in preparation for Dutch Harbor we listened to the travel expert Ian Page talk about the museums of Dutch Harbor and give us some of the interesting history behind this unique location.  We enjoyed his slides and his information and were looking forward to spending some time on land and bundling up for the brisk temperatures that were sure to greet us.  As we left the Queen’s Lounge which is the theater Dan needed to stop by a bathroom.  We wondered into one of the lounges where we met up with one of the Arizona fellows from Prescott.  As we joined him in a comfy seat he asked us what we thought about the captains announcement?  We said we hadn’t heard the announcement and asked what he shared.  He laughed and said “Well, we aren’t going to Dutch Harbor tomorrow!”  We thought for sure he was joking with us because he laughed as he told us but he wasn’t.  His laughter came from the fact that the lounge was packed with folks preparing for an interesting day in port and no sooner had we heard all about it then the captain says that port is cancelled.  The captain shared that the seas would be even more rough than we had experienced and that we wouldn’t be able to dock there with the weather conditions so we were altering our course and heading westward toward Japan!  What we thought would be our longest voyage of sea days is now going to be extended to more like 13 days!  We talked with folks who have done the World Cruise several times and they have never spent this many days at sea!  So....it will be a test for us to see if we can manage with so many days on a ship.  Needless to say we were disappointed to miss Dutch Harbor.  We visited for quite awhile with our AZ friend and then off to a little lunch we went.  After lunch we decided to take in the afternoon movie at the movie theater.  It was An All American, a true story about a Texas football player and how he influenced his coach and his team; a real tear jerker!  After the show we headed back to the room to clean up and decide about the evening.  For some reason I felt a little queasy possibly due to the popcorn I ate at the show but anyway I told Dan to go to dinner without me that I just wanted to lay down a bit.  He came back after about 1/2 hour and said dinner wasn’t really impressive.  We decided to just watch something we had downloaded on his pad so that’s what we did.  We skipped dinner or at least I did, watched a movie we had and then it was off to bed.  We set the clocks back another hour.  We are now on Adak, Alaska time; sunrise this morning was at 9:18!!  The weather is very cool, cloudy and not conducive to walking outside at all.  But we are catching up on reading and taking in the activities on board that interest us.  I haven’t taken many photos yet and I’m not sure how quickly the blogs will upload online once I try but once we get to ports I’m sure I’ll have much more to share.  
All the tables and areas onboard have REAL flowers!

The view from our window has been typically cloudy but we have a little fall decor.  This ship allows absolutely no door decorations outside your room.

Dan is dressed for cool weather in the pool area where the roof opens up when it’s warm and sunny.  The ship is not at capacity with only about 960 passengers; it can hold 1300 about so there are no lines or crowds and it’s easy to find a nice place to relax.

The pool area has a huge chess set if you are inclined to a game of chess.  They also serve fajitas here daily, Hamburg’s and hotdogs made to order.  The entertainment really has been excellent.  We had a saxophone player one night that had played with Kenny G.  He just finished participating in the Ninja Warrior competition on TV.  Then we had Louie Shelton, who was an inductee in the rock and roll hall of fame; he was such a talented performer and both got a standing ovation.  Last night again was the Alley Cats.  

Rough Seas!!

Last night might have been one of the roughest nights we have ever had at sea!  We hit the hay rather early I guess maybe trying to catch up after a few long days.  Our ship repeatedly rocked and swayed and we felt most all the movements.  The best thing was our room didn’t creak or make any noises even with some serious crashes and dips.  We started out the day enjoying coffee that Dan brought from the Lido deck.  Each morning they bring us a small newspaper with many of the same news that we hear on TV but it is nice to have.  We decided to hit the gym upstairs and start our routine for this 80 days.  The gym is well equipped and by the time we got there not many folks were around.  The view is great and the machines have the tv’s provided so you can choose to listen to your own music or watch cable.  

A gal that has organized a tour to Semarang also organized a get together in the main dining room today at noon.  There are about 30 of us in her tour and Dan and I knew about 4 so getting together with some of the others was a nice gesture.  The day was sunny but cool at about 60 degrees and with the wind off the bow it was even cooler.  After lunch we listened to a speaker talk about the global economy and it put Dan to sleep!  So we decided to take in the 3:00 movie which was Hector’s Search for Happiness.  It was kind of a drama/comedy and the theater was packed!  I guess everyone had the same idea.  

The Adagio group was playing at one of the bars when we got out of the movie so we stopped and listened for awhile.  The sun was shining brightly and the seas have calmed down quite a bit.  We are now heading in a more north westerly direction with about 1600 miles to go to get to Dutch Harbor.  We are entering the Ring of Fire which is the area that contains many of the volcanic activities of the Pacific Ocean.  

It’s time to clean up and think about dinner.  Tonight it will be casual at the Lido where we can take our time and enjoy the beautiful view.  It seems a lot of folks feel the same way that we do.

Tonight’s show is a mime, magic and comedy act.  We invited a recently widowed fellow from Prescott to join us.  Hopefully tonight will be much quieter and smooth seas.  

First Day At Sea

October 2 our first day at sea; I wasn’t worried one bit about what I would do but I think Dan was!  Our first night was a little rocky and we felt movement but we slept till 7:30 which for us is late and with a window!  The night was so quiet and so was the room; no creaking or noise from above or below.  Dan made his way up to the lido and got us coffee.  We awakened to find out about the terrible shooting in Las Vegas where so many people were killed and injured...our hearts were heavy.  

We had our first scheduled event at 10:00 at the Crow’s Nest with the meet and greet for the Cruise Critic group. We got there about 10:55 and already the room was packed.  We found our name tags and located a few seats by the window.  The morning fog lifted and the skies were blue and sunny.  We met many of the folks were only knew from their online screen names which was fun.  It was almost 11:30 before I got out of there and back to  the cabin.  Dan noticed we were at that time directly across from from Morro Bay where we had stayed in the camper a year ago Labor Day.  We had a few errands to do; one was taking money to a gal for an excursion on Fiji at Suva; the other was giving folks money back for our arranged tour on Komodo Island; we let them know they don’t pay us but pay the vendor.  Then we had to  go to guest services and present them with a letter from Holland America stating we would be disembarking at Beijing and then re-boarding in Shanghai after our trip to see the Terracotta Warriors.  We also presented them with a letter from our tour vendor in Komodo for the 25 of us that will get out to tour the island and go to the Pink Beach and snorkel.  By that time it was 1:30 and we had not eaten at all so off to lunch we went.  This ship serves you just about everything from behind the glass dividers.  It is much healthier than having all the passengers handle the serving utensils.  I had a nice salad with fresh tuna and Dan had soup and a piece of pizza.  We hurried down to hear the guest speaker today speak of the history of the Polynesians.  He was very interesting with a bit of humor and trivia; at 2:45 we snuck out of the theater and made our way to the movie theater onboard which was very large.  Fresh popcorn was available and we watched The United Kingdom, a true story about an African country, their king and his marriage to a white British woman in the 50’s.  The film was excellent and we really enjoyed it.  By that time it was 5:00 and some of our Arizona friends invited us to dinner with them in the dining room.  We decided to join them and had about 20 minutes to change into dining room attire and meet them at the front entrance to the dining room.  On our way there we ran into another AZ couple and so we ended up with a fun table of 6 for dinner and a good visit.  We all left about 7:30 for the Queen’s Theater which was a do wop group called the Alley Cats.  They sang songs of the 50’s. And 60’s and. were fine entertainers.  They received a standing ovation and came back to sing “Let There Be Peace On Earth” with this being dedicated to the folks in Las Vegas.   

By 9:00 we were heading back to our room.  Earlier in the day we asked our room steward if he could put a foam pad on our bed. We think we must have a new mattress because it is very firm and hard.   He told us he would do that right away and he did.  He leaves us chocolates on our pillows and a cute towel animal each night.  Already we are spoiled and can see that a grand cruise is different than others we have taken in the past.  

Always beautiful fresh flowers all over the ship a HAL signature. 

Below is the pickle ball court. No lines yet. Apparently it got resurfaced. It’s on the side of the ship and on the opposite side is the basketball court. 

On Board!

Today is embarkation day!!  Our flight yesterday to San Diego was great. We joined to new AZ friends on the SW flight and enjoyed talking about our preparations and excursions.  Our hotel was in a perfect location just three blocks from the port.  They picked us up with all our huge pile of luggage and gave us some pointers on what to do for the rest of our day. After settling into our room we ventured out to Little Italy and found a snack to carry us over till we would meet a group of cruisers for dinner. There was a big music fest going on down by the port and the music carried  clear up to our hotel!  A fishing vessel had caught fire Inc the port and the smell was disgusting. They told us to stay away from that area.  We strolled through Little Italy finding something to nibble on till dinner.  Then back to the hotel to rest up till dinner. We met 17 new friends at the Claim Jumper restaurant which is right across from the port.  I took name tags and some of my newly made business cards that Tessie helped me make. Making the cards was a headache for sure but proved to be a hit at dinner. The cards have our names, photo, room number, a map of the cruise and email addresses. That way folks can find you on the ship and can connect with you later f they want once you are off the ship. We had a fun time at dinner putting faces to names we have responded to on the cruise Critic roll call site for our cruise. Everyone thanked us for arranging this and putting it together. We all left about 8:00 and it wasn’t long before this girl was in her pjs and ready for bed. This morning we had a very nice comfortable momentary breakfast with eggs, ham, pancakes, all kinds of juices, coffee and tea with Hersey’s syrup and other flavorings available!!  There was all kinds of breads, muffins, bagels, croissants, yogurts and cereals.  It was just right for us. As I write we are in the lobby of the Best Western Plus Bayside on Ash street waiting for our shuttle to the pier 🚢.

And as I continue we are now in our cabin!!  The problem is now that I am unable to add any photos from my iPhone!!  It just keeps showing photos from over a year ago even though they are deleted from my phone and new ones are on!!  So I’ll just tell you that boarding was easy. We got right into our room. The emergency drill is over and soon we will sail off toward Dutch Harbor. It will take us 6 days to get there with no stops in between. I’ll try to figure out the photos and I will continue to take photos. We just heard from the captain that we won’t leave till 7 pm due to slow loading of supplies!! We have never heard that b fire. They call for swells of 12 feet and winds of 25 knots from the NW. we are going to stick close to the coast line rather than head more directly to Dutch Harbor so already we have adventure!! 

The ship looks very good with new carpeting, new upholstery and all decks refreshed. Our luggage is slowly coming and that’s good because we have four huge suitcases to unpack. Our bathroom is the biggest we have ever had and a bathtub!!  The Lido deck is smaller than we have had but the food so far is excellent. We have fresh sandwiches, sushi, a good selection for the salad bar and LOTS of ice cream!! How could Dan not be happy?!!

We have a sail away party scheduled with our AZ friends at sail away but most likely it will be dark and folks will be at dinner.  Tomorrow the cruise Critic group has a big meet and greet in the morning and we will attend that and put faces to names.

Send me good vibes for being able to post pictures and leave a comment.  If you have left a comment I haven’t gotten them so try again. I set the settings to allow any comments.  

It’s almost time for dinner!! Yummmmy

We Are Off

So at about 7:30 our ms Amsterdam pulled out of port due to supplies arriving late.  We missed the sail away as we were unpacking those large suitcases!!  But we enjoyed sitting outside and mingling with new acquaintances. We had dinner in the Lido and Dan had a baked macaroni to die for dish along with some prime rib which he said was perfect.  I had a large salad with nice tuna and some macaroni too.  We sat with some Arizona folks and had a great visit.  When we got back to our room our last suitcase was here and the bed turned down.  It doesn’t get much better!! See you in Dutch Harbor in 6 days friends !!