The Cruise 2015

This report seems to be a mish-mash of stuff. Sort of stream of conscious writing.

Deb had enjoyed our previous transatlantic cruise so we decided to do another. By taking 15 days to cross you mostly avoid jet lag. Though 9 hours difference is tough to overcome. And it's fun.

On March16th we flew to Fort Lauderdale non-stop. We found we could use mileage for our flight so that saved money. Deb found the Hilton Garden Inn had a free airport shuttle plus a shuttle to the cruise ship. This saved a lot of time as well as money. This time it appeared we were the only cruise ship in port.

The ship Holland-America's MS Zuiderdam (link) seemed to me to be nearly exactly like the Nieuw Amsterdam which we were on on our last transatlantic cruise. Everything was located the same, the bars and areas were the same names, the dining rooms, auditorium and Crow's Nest bar were all located the same. Deb said there were some differences. It was decorated with a Venice theme. (extras)
  
This is a repositioning cruise meaning they are moving from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean. These are very low cost cruises. It was about $1K per person for a room with a balcony. If we had had nerve to wait we could have gotten the cruise for even less. 

While they were working on our room and such we had lunch with Donald and his mother Lois.

The cabin was small like previous cruises but adequate. We were on deck 8 near the front of the ship. Cabin 8024. We had a balcony. I liked the shower and the low flow toilet was just fine. We moved in like it was home thanks to Deb.

The lifeboat drill went smoothly. This time they didn't insist that ever single person show up before they dismissed us.
After lunch and a nap we went to The Crow's Nest, which is the panoramic view bar on level 10 forward. We had a drink and waited. We sailed pretty much on time.

So off we went. We did open seating dining and joined various tables and met lots of people. We hooked up with wild and crazy Stephen LaSalle. We had lunch, dinner and other things with him the whole cruise and Rome. He's lives near San Louis Obispo. He's originally from Missouri so has an interesting delivery. He goes to Burning Man most years. Quite a character.
  
We wanted to play more craps on this cruise but the table was usually not busy. That's no fun. We lost a little.

I thought we were going to run up a rather large bar bill. Between the Crow's nest, wine with dinner and perhaps a drink at the show it didn't look good. Actually there were happy hours pretty much from 4pm onward someplace on the ship - $1 off the price of the drink and another drink for $1. Seeing the drink price was about $6.95 it was pretty reasonable.
   We bought the wine package on board ship. We at least saved California sales tax. 
  
We had pre-ordered some gin and champagne for the room, as well as roses and balloons.

You can bring your own wine and drink it in your room for free or pay a $20 corkage fee in the dining room. Many people had a glass of wine in their room before dinner. Some brought a glass of wine to the dining room. We didn't have any way to buy wine or bring it on board as we have on some cruises.

We had a few days that were a bit rough but not really bad at all. At times there was a confused swell which causes the ship to sort of yank around.

I could go through a day by day listing of everything we did but you would die of boredom so here are some things.

- There were daily lectures on various topics. We also went to ones telling about the various ports we were going to see.
- We did not take the ships tour because it was $150 per person. We did take the galley tour (movie).
- We missed the teas this time.
- We planned on walking around the promenade deck (deck 3) on a regular basis. For some reason we didn't do enough of this (movie).
- We had breakfast in our room every day.
- We had a drink in the Crow's Nest every day between 5 and 6. (extras) No guitar player or music this time (movie).
- We participated in the trivia contests. Usually with Simon and Bill.
- We ate lunch and dinner in the dining room every day. (extras)
- We only missed the nightly entertainment once or twice (movie).
- There were three formal nights. Professional pictures were encouraged.
- Deb enjoyed the towel art. (extras)
- No sickness on board ship this time but we did wash our hands regularly.

We didn't watch much TV. There was a movie shown in a theater every day then re-shown the next day on TV. TV consisted mostly of news, trip information, sales and movies.

The cheapest internet package was $100 and up to $300. We opted to skip it. Besides there was no internet, or very slow internet for several days.

Every day or so we lost an hour.

We spent quite a few days at sea. Here are some of the events -

We had the idea that we could learn to play bridge on board so we nipped into a bridge lecture the first day. It was already over our heads so we left and left that idea.

We wanted to play trivia. Simon organized a sort of team of Deb, Me and Bill. Sometime others joined us. It was generally at 3:30 in the Crow's Nest. What a hoot. We played this nearly every day with various groupings of people. Simon was considered team captain. One guy from "Team Hubris" won nearly every time.

We hit the Crow's Nest (movie) every day for the happy hour. March 17th was Saint Patrick's day.

After several days we decided to take a look at the martini bar (movie). It opens from 5-6 I believe. Each day they have three creative martini's. They are smaller then normal martini's. They charge $4 each. We each ordered all three. There developed a regular group who came there every day. After a few days we cut back to two martini's. We often saw Simon there as well as Stephen. Simon was partial to chocolate martini's. (extras)

There were three formal nights. Deb is big on formal nights. The routine is pretty much the same as any night except they have strategically placed photographers to take your picture.

March 19th we had dinner reservations at the Pinnacle restaurant. It was very nice. Deb had a perfect Filet Mignon I had a gigantic and perfect Rib Eye (movie). Unfortunately either the quantity of food or something upset my stomach for the rest of the night. But we had a great time. It was given to us by AAA.
   They also paid for us to go to a wine tasting. I've been to better wine tastings but it was OK.

We also had two dinners with the group at the Italian restaurant. I didn't feel these dinners went over as well as expected. The second time we were all pretty stuffed when the main dishes were delivered - lots of wasted food. They wouldn't let anybody take left overs to their cabins.  

You meet quite a cross section of people. Some quite well off. One couple was doing the transatlantic for the first time because it was cheaper then first class airplane tickets. They were interesting to talk with. They were going to spend several weeks doing river cruises and private tours.

Another couple we had lunch with a couple times and saw around the ship were a bit strange. He had been a ship pilot in Puget Sound. He had a story. He also mentioned always flying first class.

Simon had quite a story. He sort of accidentally got into selling cubicles and office furniture at just the right time. Guess he made a bundle. He spends half a year in Porto Rico and half the year in London.

March 25th Wednesday - Funchal/Madera Azore Islands.

We've been here before. We decided to just hang around town. We took the bus into town. We visited their most important church. We then walked a rather long distance to take the cable car up the mountain. Quite a good view. We watched some of the baskets that slide people down the hill take off, then we went back down.
   We had lunch sitting at a table outside. We walked through the interesting arty neighborhood. We went into a market where Deb bought some flowers for 3€. We then hiked back to find the bus to the ship. On the way Deb bought more flowers for 4€. I bought a bottle of Madeira Port. We had a little problem finding the bus but got help from a friendly policeman.
   Deb got quite a deal on some nice flowers. We couldn't take the wine to our cabin.

March March 27th Friday - Cadiz Spain

We stopped at Cadiz Spain. I think this is where the Spanish Armada was built in 1588. Later the English came into Cadiz harbor and sunk the second armada that was under construction. No mention of this on any plaque.
   We hiked around and finally found Stephen. We were on this square with a church. They had float sort of items apparently to be carried by groups on Easter.
   We proceeded to what Stephen thought was the big cathedral but it was closed. We hiked through parks and enjoyed that a lot. Finally we got on this promenade where we noticed the BIG cathedral. This had to be it. We hiked up to it but decided to have lunch. Quite a nice fun lunch.
   We went up to the cathedral. They were charging 5€ to get in. We took a look and could see it was quite empty and the ceiling was falling down into nets. We didn't pay and didn't enter. BTW it's an old mosque.
   We began walking in the direction we thought the ship was in. However we were unsure. I asked for directions at a little bar. The ship was fairly close. We stopped for refreshments before getting on the ship.
  
We hit the Crow's Nest then the martini bar but took our drinks to our cabin.

Tonight the ship sails through the Straits of Gibraltar but it's too late for us to see it.

March 28th Saturday - Malaga Spain

Not sure how we got into Malaga. We probably walked. We waited around for Stephen but he didn't show. Guess he was waiting at the cathedral. We entered Alcazaba which is an old Arab castle. It has been extensively refurbished. We have been here before but it was, none the less, very impressive. We saw a wedding party. It's a beautiful place. The smell of orange blossoms filled the air. The gardens water is all gravity fed.
   We went back down to the large square near the Alcazaba and sat down for a short drink.
   We then went to the cathedral. Quite a large and impressive place.
   Back to the ship where we had a drink on our balcony and watched the ship pull out.

March 29th Palm Sunday - Cartagena Spain

We have been to Cartagena before but that time it was for a brief one hour stay. We did the short hike in. We took pictures of the large nude man and other statues. We found Stephen. We watched a band of Roman soldiers march around. Stephen was interested in looking over the excavated Roman theater so we paid our Euros and entered. It has been extensively rebuilt. We had fun hiking up and down and all around. I recited a poem on the stage. We discovered there was much more up above. We hiked up and found, of all things, a Leonardo da Vinci museum. Nice but not too impressive. The view was very good.
   When we came down Deb noticed that we were on a parade route. We settled in for a few drinks and hopefully a parade. Sure enough here came the Roman soldiers again. I think they marched by us twice while we were sitting there. We talked to some people from the ship.
   Back to the ship where we watched it leave port.
 
Once again we hit the martini bar then listened to some classical music (movie) before dinner. I've learned to not have more then one or two martinis even though they are small.

Deb had snails with dinner. We went to the show.

March 30th - Monday - On board ship.

This is our last day on board ship. We did our usual things then to the martini bar for good byes. We told Eddie we'd like to have dinner with him. We listened to some classical music and unfortunately had another drink.
   We went to dinner and met Eddie. We were all about three sheets to the wind. Deb asked for extra scallops and they loaded her up. When it came time for desert, after much joking around, we ordered all seven deserts on the menu. We ate them all. Eddie expressed regrets that we hadn't been doing this every night for the whole cruise. Yeah sure.

Next morning we left ship and started the Italian part of the trip.