01-08 Wednesday: Today we are sailing in the Celebes Sea. This is the day to do a few things in the cabin. After that it was a quick lunch at Dive In where we met up with Raine and Mina. We were meeting our group for Mexican Train at the Crows Nest. However, it was impacted so we found a table in the Library CafĂ© where we played from 1p to 3p and then back to the cabin to play a bit of Rummikub and take a rest. We thought about the pool for a brief moment but it is really hot today. I guess there is less breeze or cloud cover. It is 84˚ with 70% humidity but feels much hotter than yesterday for some reason.
We had dinner at Canaletto tonight. It isn’t a very special venue, just a corner of the Lido deck separated from the rest. Service was pretty good. The food was good, but not great. Seems the food overall on this cruise has been lacking. I’ve had a few tasty dishes but the food here is nothing compared to what we had on the Zuiderdam. Staff is great, but the food lacks flavor.
About onboard activities, there are many: Sunrise Stretch, Coloring for Adults, Game Shows, liquor tasting at various times, ballroom dancing, Art Auctions, Cooking Shows, Pickleball Instructions, Bingo, Coffee with Gage (the cruise director), flower arranging, Arts and Crafts, and more…
01-09 Thursday: Today we are in Bitung, Indonesia. This is a small port without a lot of interesting things. None of the tours appealed to us so we just got off and walked around. It was brutally hot and humid. We walked into town, basically had a cold beer, and walked back. The Starbucks seemed to be a destination for some… really? There were 3-4 places selling gold jewelry on the short walk. Everything else looks very poor. There were a lot of children with little notebooks asking for signatures. I think I heard it was a school project for them. Many locals asked for their photo to be taken with us. I declined but several cruisers accommodated the request. Shortly after we returned to the ship it began to rain. By now we are sitting on the balcony playing Phase 10. The weather is pleasant when protected from the sun, having a slight breeze, and sipping a cold drink. The rain lasted an hour or so. As the rain left in came the thunder and lightning. That also lasted about an hour and was anywhere from 2-15 miles away. A fun experience on the balcony. There are a lot of friendly people here and it was nice to see Holland America let visitors onboard. I am sure some of the crew were thrilled to see some family. As we departed hundreds of people were on the dock waving and such. Captain Zoll really played it up big honking at them on departure. There were a few flying fish to see as well.
We
had dinner in the dining room this evening. The one appetizer of Shanghai ribs
was very good. Stuart had the fresh seared tuna. We saw this come on board in
Puerto Princessa. He enjoyed that. I had sweet and sour roasted duck, but it
was overdone and tough, but had good flavor. We skipped the show tonight and
joined friends in the casino. I left early because I was tired (even after my
afternoon nap!) and I was losing. Until now I have mostly stayed “even” with
the bank. Stuart played on and did okay for the day.
(see some photos on Facebook, takes too long to upload here)
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