Since today is Saturday there would be no morning mass! Sharon can go to either Vigil Mass tonight or Sunday mass tomorrow evening before our Pinnacle reservation. I was happy to notice that the cabin steward had replaced the blue body gel in the shower dispensers for the translucent yellow gel that Sharon and I are accustomed to. Sharon had suggested, wouldn’t it be great if we had a dispenser like that in our new home. We took our time getting to the Lido and I decided to get an omelet for my weekend breakfast. I had to wait in a different line to get some potatoes and sausage patties, and it seemed to take forever. Sharon had scrambled eggs. She regrets how they don’t make the French Toast to order as they did on the ... read more

The morning found us still with a bank of clouds far off our starboard side. It has been this way since we left the Azores sailing under blue skies. The other day I had tried to open the door to the balcony in the morning, but a stiff wind made me use all my force to push the door open. The winds were brisk, it was chilly, and I didn’t spend much time outside. This morning to door opened easily and the early morning air is what I would call pleasant. Sharon went off to mass and I was still finishing up the blog. I asked her to get me a pecan croissant if she found one, and we both understood that I would be meeting her in the Crow’s Nest for Travel Trivia this morning. ... read more

Some folks don’t like “Sea Days”, some folks do but if you do a Transatlantic you’d better make sure you like them. Luckily we do. We had fairly smooth sailing through the night, especially when compared to our approach to the Azores. We were supposed to do our trans-Atlantic crossing on the Nieuw Amsterdam when we booked this cruise nearly two years ago. Last January we were informed that that final leg of our cruise had been cancelled. Sharon supposed it was because Holland America had gotten a charter to remain in the Mediterranean. We learned however that they had instead decided to remain in the Mediterranean for two additional one-week cruises. This is probably a mistake that they won’t make again. We learned that the Nieuw Amsterdam was forced to remain at sea instead of ... read more

We had a good idea the other day, to order some show tickets for when we get back and to take my Mom and a friend when we go check on the progress of the house that we are building in Las Vegas. No good idea goes unpunished. We ordered the tickets online. When we got the confirmation email, it revealed that the date had somehow been pushed forward one week, about the time we’ll be somewhere between the Azores and the Bahamas. Needless to say, the “800” number to call to fix problems like this doesn’t work where we are… and there was no other number given. E-mail you might think would work; however, when you go through Ticketmaster’s “contact us my email” widget and you dot all the “I’s” and cross all the “T’s” ... read more

The seas had worsened during the night and we experienced the gambit of pitch, roll and yaw in our forward berth. More than a couple times could we hear the sea crashing into the sides of our vessel, we would hear the bow plunging into the sea after a swell and then the white spray by our window. Occasionally the spray would hit our balcony and fourth deck window. Sharon made her way to mass. When she returned I was finishing up one blog entry and we went up to the Dining Room for breakfast. I felt like the eggs Benedict, again, and Sharon had her American Breakfast. I made a point to add the potato cakes with my plate; and, again the dining room steward corrected that to hashed browns. Two others at our table ... read more