No Scenic Sight Seeing This Sea Day

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Sharon was a bit rushed to get off to mass by 8:00 AM after a very restful night’s sleep. I began working on the blog and Sharon reported that I would have loved the priest on this cruise, he’s from Australia and apparently has quite a way with words. The viewing from our cabin when we awoke wasn’t promising as we were clearly engulfed by fog and dreary weather. The prospects for any scenic beauty weren’t good.

We went up to the Lido for breakfast, and I had just a bowl of Swiss Muesli. I had quite a difficult time finding and empty table for us, and an even tougher time locating a spoon. There was none with the cereal at the station I’d gotten my muesli. Sharon got her scrambled eggs, potatoes and bacon not quite made the way she likes… okay, not at all the way she likes… it was limp and greasy. They didn’t have the turkey bacon that we’d had on previous cruises today, which has been quite good and usually nice and crisp and not greasy at all.

After breakfast Sharon went back to the room and I went in search of Sudoku in the Explorer’s Lounge. I’m still getting used to this size ship, same as the one we had taken our mothers on, and it took me a while to locate the Explorer’s Lounge. Even then, I had found the “overflow room” and couldn’t find the puzzle forms anywhere. I found the sign saying puzzles are on the shelf in the “History” section; which, I did find and eventually realized this referred to the physical picture puzzles that you must assemble. Yes, I guess people come on cruise ships and work on these puzzles for hours on end. I finally did find the main room on the other side of the Explorer Lounge Bar and got us a few forms (one extra one in case Sharon made any mistakes). They’ve regressed to printing two small puzzles on the same side of the sheet. We took the Sunday challenge, and it did seem tougher at first, and Sharon did need the extra form for the first puzzle. I won both challenges, and in retrospect, even the Hard one could be done using simple techniques. We’d turned the TV on and after discussions of the various ports that we would visit was the discussion of an award winning drink prepared by one of the bartenders onboard. He’d won $5,000 in a worldwide contest and the drink consisted of Blue Sapphire Gin, sweet and sour mix, cranberry juice and a couple other ingredients I didn’t quite catch. I think one might have been lotus infused vodka. The ingredients are all shaken with ice and poured into a martini glass and is a pale pink in color. They said that this was the cocktail of the day.

We’d gotten back our first load of laundry and had enough dirty clothes left over from Oregon to send out a second batch. It is nice having the 4-star Free Laundry on Holland America. It reduced the number of clothes I would have otherwise brought to enable us both to easily meet the 50 pound per bag limit on checked bags.

I finished up writing the blog and Sharon saved us some seats in the Culinary Arts Center for the crab cakes and crème Brule demonstration featuring offerings in the Pinnacle and Le Cirque respectively. The Pinnacle is the premium dining experience aboard Holland America ships featuring steaks and seafood. There is a surcharge to dine here (about $30); but, Sharon’s 4-star cruising status gets us in for half price. One more star and she will be entitled to two free meals. Once per week the restaurant converts to Le Cirque adopting this famous New York City’s restaurant’s style, standards and menus. It’s quite popular; although Sharon and I both prefer the Pinnacle’s menu choices. The surcharge for Le Cirque night is about $50. When I arrived at the Culinary Arts Center Sharon was sitting in the back row. I looked at her with that “This isn’t going to work” look. Sometimes people in the rear don’t get any of the free samples. We’d been to this same demonstration on the New England cruise, so we already knew that we weren’t getting the crab cakes. And we were right. The crème Brule they gave us came in a small demitasse cup, and it was quite good. All Holland America ships have been outfitted with mobile cooking demonstration stations at a cost of $1 million per ship paid for by the Food and Wine Magazine that sponsors these cooking demonstrations. They use induction heating. For some reason, they don’t like using gas and open flame heating to cook with; although, they did use a small blow torch to finish off the crème Brule. While he was finely chopping the onions for the crab cake the host noted that while onions make most of us cry while chopping them, they don’t bother this chef, and she urged him to tell his onion story. As it goes, when he was first starting in the culinary arts business he went to work in a restaurant, and the head chef gave him his first assignment, to chop 200 pounds of onions. He said that by the third onion tears were welling in his eyes, and by the tenth onion he was downright crying. And this was only the first day of one month of finely dicing two hundred pounds of onions. He said, “This is how they train you. After one month, the onions don’t make me cry.”

We proceeded to the Dive In for lunch. We weren’t going to have time to go to the Vista dining room and make it to 1:00 PM Team Trivia. I got the cannon ball burger with fries, and Sharon ordered her plain burger with fries. They gave us a pager, said it would be fifteen minutes, and we went to find a table. I had just ordered our sodas, when the pager went off, less than five minutes so I suspect the burgers and fries were already cooking and there wasn’t any line yet. I added some guacamole to mine from the Mexican self-serve buffet next to the Dive In. When I returned to our table on the port side of the ship our drinks still had not arrived. They did come before I was halfway through my burger, which Sharon would say was only two bites because she thinks I eat too fast. When we’d finished we went back to the cabin to don our Google shirts to go find teammates in the trivia challenge. We were about one half our early. We sat on the starboard side and sat near on elderly couple, he had a big bushy mustache and was drinking what looked like today’s cocktail of the day. I asked him if that’s what it was and he harrumphed. It was definitely a British harrumph. His wife explained it’s a special drink and contains ginger. I suspect he may have been a bit hard of hearing. This didn’t seem to be a likely place to meet teammates, so we moved towards the center front, and soon met up with 2 British couples. I went over to get a couple of sheets from Cruise Director Jeremy and he approved of my “I don’t need Google, My wife knows everything” shirt, asking if my wife was here. I said “Yes” and he said “Good”. I wonder what he meant by that! We nailed the first two questions, knowing the number of strings on a ukulele, and knowing the meaning of the photography term “SLR”. But then came the question that stumped most teams. In the late 1990’s, this brand replaced Coca-Cola as the most recognized brand in the world. Let me just say this about that, when you hear it you will think “Oh yeah, of course”. It isn’t an automobile, or airline (years ago it might have been Pan Am), or computer company (did you think Apple?) or even a search engine (sorry Google fans). If you’re still having trouble, think along fast food lines (even though Subway has more physical locations than the golden arches brand, that one is still number one worldwide).

We showed up for Bingo; but, they weren’t selling the Bingo Sheets because of the lack luster turnout. They were waiting to see if enough players showed up. They took a hand count of the numbers planning to play the $25 three-pack or the $35 six-pack. He had overseen enough bingo to know we had enough players to proceed, so the rush was on to get our cards. Because we had a “family photo” with us (at least I had one of Sharon and me, Sharon was trying to find something on her phone) we qualified for one extra single card for the final game for each of us. He said these could be used today, or on any bingo game if we chose to use it on a later game (I guess if we didn’t feel lucky today). Sharon and I both had the same thought, well, since we’re using this punch and fold technology, what’s to stop you from using the card today, seeing if it wins, and if it doesn’t, then decide it’s not lucky today, fold back the tabs and use it again, and again, and again. I wonder how many “Hail Mary’s” she’ll have to say for having such thoughts. What the caller was telling us is that while they do keep track of what cards are in play with the three and six pack cards that they sell, they don’t keep track of the bonus cards. Also, they weren’t selling the $10 single card packs. Sharon could have been the first to stand in game one showing that she needed just one more number to win, but was reluctant to rise. Two others did stand. Sharon didn’t win. I got to stand in the 4-corner game, and all three of these games went a very long time before someone shouted out “Bingo”. For the blackout bingo with $25,000 bonus if you bingo in 46 numbers or less, someone did stand on call 48, which amazed the caller to come so close. When someone finally did call bingo twenty-two calls later, that early riser was still standing holding his worthless card in his hand. Bingo can be cruel. I haven’t won in four years (when I did win three times on a two-week Alaskan cruise). Sharon’s had an even longer dry spell. I’m sure that one of the reasons is that since that time they’ve been selling the six-pack games, which many players prefer.

Tonight was the formal night and we got all gussied up, me in my wedding tuxedo and Sharon in her sequined gown which hung precariously low on one side and one miss-step (especially by me) could bode a complete disaster for the dress. I needed Sharon’s help with the tie before heading for the dining room. It’s nice having a cabin in the rear and easy access to the dining facilities. We dined at a table for eight. Two women were from a farm in Manitoba, once couple from Vancouver (imagine that) and one couple from Tokyo. Sharon ordered me the seafood cocktail, while I chose the escargot, which I really enjoyed. I also thought the artichoke and carrot soup was excellent. My grilled yellow fin with gelled potato crab and string beans was terrific. I convinced Sharon that she could handle the rack of lamb with tomato couscous. She loved the lamb and she wasn’t going to eat the couscous anyway (and the tomatoes were just a tiny, tiny bit of that. And of course we had chocolate soufflé with chocolate sauce. During dinner the clouds and fog started to lift so hopefully tomorrow will be a better scenic day as we head into Juneau.

I went back to the room to drop of the rest of my bottle of San Pellegrino while Sharon went to play the slots. When I met her in the casino an older Chinese couple were enviously eyeing her action. I sat down next to here. She had gotten down about $15 when she had run it back up and was a bit ahead. She was down about $10 when we left for the show, but she had played for quite some time on that.

The showroom was full for the 8:00 PM show featuring the Holland America performers in a medley from Bollywood to Hollywood. They gave a very glitzy presentation with good singing and dancing. The background special effects were spectacular.

We went and sat in the piano bar to listen to Neil Diamond songs. The bar was full twenty minutes early, so he began entertaining us with other songs, before commencing the Neil Diamond tribute promptly at 9:00 PM. He performed both songs that Neil Diamond wrote for the Monkees, including “I’m a Believer” which Sharon had guessed. But when he said he was now going to sing his favorite Neil Diamond song about a frog, Sharon was stumped… A frog?! I bet she was trying to figure out if he ever wrote something for the Muppets too! The song is “I am I said”. (…Did you ever read about a frog who dreamed of being a king and became one…)



I went to the blackjack table and thought that it was a good omen that I’d started with a blackjack. I’d made a $1 bet for the dealer, so we were both winners. During the next hand I noticed that he’d put two one dollar chips in the area next to the money drop slot where dealers keep their tokes. I asked if he’d paid his hand properly and was told that the dealer only gets paid even money when players make a bet for them and the hand is a blackjack. Boy… that really is cheap of the casino operator (not Holland America). It was another tough night for me, I caught a couple of breaks, but not enough. I decided to call it quits.

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