Land in Sight on Inside Passage

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We started the day by ourselves at a table for two in the Dining Room. It was a glorious day; although, the daylight was barred from our interior cabin, here in the dining room we could see the distant shore as the channel was narrowing. On our northbound journey through the passage over three weeks ago an oppressive pea soup fog had obscured any possibility of scenic viewing. Those who had opted for balconies might have felt cheated; but, not so today. We stopped in the Explorer’s Lounge and picked up today’s Sudoku, and they’ve reverted to the extra small size making annotation difficult. Midway through the Hard puzzle, Sharon was off to the cabin with a, “This is ridiculous…” and that was the end of Sudoku. I too gave up on the Hard puzzle a short time later, asked for an iced coffee mocha; but, had to settle for white chocolate because they were again out of chocolate. How does a café run out of mocha flavoring anyway? And they still had no lid for me to protect against spilling as I walked back to the cabin.



I’d almost forgotten about the Mariner’s Society Cocktails and Awards Ceremony; but, was clued in when I returned to the stateroom to see Sharon sprucing up her outfit. There were fewer people at this reception than the one we went to during our first cruise of the season. One couple got their Bronze Medal; another was scheduled to get theirs but they were visiting with their Future Cruise Consultant; and, Sharon received her Silver Medal. So, if Cruising were an Olympic Sport, Sharon would be a Silver medalist! 300 days sailing on Holland America; and, those are actual sailing days (nearly a year at sea). Sharon got her picture taken with the captain, who seems to like awfully much kissing the ladies on both cheeks (including my lady), and the Hotel Director. There were just a few passengers onboard who had more Mariner’s Society Seniority than Sharon; although, she assures me that will be different on our next couple of cruises.



We were escorted to the luncheon and when one group of three ladies decided to ditch the lunch, we wound up at the first table. We had hopes of making the 1PM trivia which I had to rush off to before dessert during the northbound cruise. We were way ahead of schedule, I think because the ceremony started fifteen minutes earlier. As it turned out, the dessert wasn’t one I cared for anyway. We did however take pause when the Captain gave his noon time briefing. A couple of things stood out, until some emphasis was taken noting that about 1PM we would be boarding the Canadian pilot who is stationed on Pine Island. We just might have our bonus question!



We occupied a prime table up in the Crow’s Nest, and although others seem to have formed teams that keep playing together, we just didn’t seem to attract any players to join us, so we would just have to take them on by ourselves; which, isn’t as hard as it might seem when Jordan asks us the same questions that he did three weeks ago. “Aren’t you just a little bit embarrassed?” Sharon asked. “Well, Maybe a little bit.” I was wondering if this was what if feels like to be one of those retired school teachers who never miss a question, as we seemed to have on our New England cruise last year. We missed five of the fifteen questions three weeks ago; so, we were hoping that we had it in the bag. Jordan threw us a curve because the Bonus Question was Part One for four points, and Part Two for twenty points. Part One was to name the Island that we were passing on our starboard side. I’d already written down “Pine Island”, and confirming this, Jordan added, “The Captain mentioned that this is where the Canadian Pilot is stationed.” Part Two was to write down the numbers 1 to 10 for each of the decks that passengers have access to on the Zaandam. Write down the name of each deck. One point if the name is correct for a deck, plus one point if it’s associated with the correct deck number. We zipped off the first nine decks with no problem: 1-Dolphin, 2-Main (the deck our cabin is on), 3-Lower Promenade, 4-Promenade, 5-Upper Promenade, 6-Veranda, 7-Navigation, 8-Lido, and 9-Sports Deck. But the tenth deck, you need to walk up the outside stairs where you’re standing outside on the roof above the Crow’s Nest. We came up with Observation Deck (which is an actual deck on larger HAL ships); just, not this deck. This is the “Sky Deck”… duh. We got 52 out of a possible 54 points and were the runaway best score. Jordan marveled how a team of just two managed to beat all those other teams (he had allowed teams up to eight because there was a large family of eight that enjoyed playing trivia together). We didn’t have the heart to tell him that we may have had an unfair advantage. When I picked up our two thick HAL Alaska pins, I asked him the story of what had happened. He said, “About two years ago the person in the front office of HAL responsible for ordering these pins for the fleet had considered “cutting corners” by having cheaper pins made. Some samples were provided, and a sample order drafted to show the cost and savings. He decided not to proceed with the cheaper pins; however, he subsequently left Holland America. His replacement was given the job of reordering the pins, and asked to see “The previous order”, was shown the draft order, and chose just to duplicate that. There was an up-cry from Cruise Directors around the fleet; but, the order had been delivered and would keep the fleet in pins for a couple of years. Evidently, there has been a reorder, and HAL is now giving out the higher quality pins on the Zaandam (and presumably on other ships as well).



Seven days really is too short for a cruise, and it is already time to pack to go home. Sharon was nearly packed. I was having trouble getting into the swing of things.



We went to a packed Wajang Theatre for Bingo, and Erin did a great job calling the numbers. She still called the numbers just about everyway that you can: “In the B-Column, we have B-10, that’s B like the Bumble Bee and Ten, B One Zero, B-10, Now leaving the B-Column where B-10 was the last number called.”; but, she did it quickly and the redundancy was done smoothly and people didn’t have time to agonize wondering when she was going to call the next number. If you were playing a six-pack, you needed all of the time that she gave you just to keep up… which is the way that it should be. We came close; but, not today.



Sharon didn’t even need to leave her card with me to finish. We were done in plenty of time for her to make the Vigil Mass. Again, it was standing room only by the time the final worshippers showed up. We went from there to dinner where we had a private table for two, and again, Sharon chose the prime rib while I had the curry veggies and forbidden rice. It is one of my favorites. And we were done in ample time for Evening Trivia.



Erin said today we would be playing “Ship’s Trivia”; which, she may have gotten the idea from Jordan and his trivia that afternoon. In what year did construction on the Zaandam commence. Sharon was certain of her answer: 1998. Sharon knows her DAM ships, so we went with 1998. Erin suggested that the correct answer was 2000. Sharon objected, “She’s wrong! That’s not right!” I reminded her of Erin’s Rule Number Two: Erin’s Answers ARE (by definition) RIGHT! I suspect Sharon is indeed correct, because the ship was delivered in 2000 and we know that it takes about two years to construct such a vessel. I’m aghast neither of us could come up with the number of dolphins in the poolside statue on the Lido Deck (We only ate lunch or breakfast there a dozen times in the last four weeks). We chose three. How could we miss two dolphins? Sharon knew how many crew are on board: 600. And she knew that the names of the godmothers of the Zaandam are “Those Twins.” And I suggested, “The Olsen Twins.” And she agreed, and wrote down Ashley and Haley Olsen. We might have done better just putting down “The Olsen Twins”; because the “Haley” should have been “Mary-Kate”. For the bonus, Erin wanted to know how much the average HAL passenger gains in weight on a HAL cruise. Sharon thought 5 pounds, I thought 10 pounds, so in the name of diplomacy and compromise we went with 5 pounds; besides, Sharon was the official Answer Recorder. We figure, with her sloppy handwriting we may get credit for answers that are close.



There was one Show tonight at 9:30PM featuring a new comedian, and he was very funny as well. After the show Sharon stopped by to say “Goodbye” to Bob (and Good Riddance). She may be looking for a new machine next Fall. We finished packing and settled in for our last night aboard the Zaandam.

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