19 - 10/20/2021 - At Sea to Half Moon Cay

After a very pleasant short stay in Aruba with our friends, it was a smooth night sailing towards our next destination at Half Moon Cay, which is Holland America's private island in the Bahama's.  While some might consider it a cheesy destination, we rather like it because it doesn't have all of the glitz of, say, Coco Cay or Labadee which are theme park type destinations the Royal Caribbean owns.  We woke up around 8am to get ready for this last full day at sea on this voyage.  The coffee chat was with Hyperion Knight, the piano virtuoso.  He was really engaging and we learned that he's studying to be on the TV show Jeopardy.  He's got an excellent grasp of musical history and was a delight to listen to.  

 

Parallel with the coffee chat was the Holland America charity walk, "On Deck for a Cause".  Because we were in the coffee chat, we couldn't do the walk this cruise, although we typically do participate in it.

 

The 10am EXC talk was "Unexpected Heroes" and we've seen it multiple times.  So I ventured out to my photography spot on the Promenade deck and watched the water for an hour.  The water conditions continued to be choppy and I really only saw a few flying fish and a couple of Boobie birds.  The Caribbean waters have not been very favorable to my photographic efforts.  At 11am Hyperion Knight hosted a Name that Tune contest which was really good.  He played the music on the piano and we had to guess either the name of the piece or the artist, or in some cases, the movie it was featured in.  It was good fun!

 

Following a short break for my sushi lunch, Lance Ringnald, gave his memory seminar.  We've seen it before, but it continued to be interesting.  In the next hour Captain Baijens gave his "Ask the Captain" presentation.  His tour of the bridge using photographs and his personal commentary was the best I've seen in a long time.  For the questions, they didn't use an open microphone passed around the room.  Rather, comments were written on cards, the cards collected, and selected comments were read by staff to be answered by the Captain.  There were no Covid related questions asked.  And all of the questions were easy like a softball being lobbed to a major league batter. 

 

Afterwards, I resumed my photographic watch on the rail, but the conditions were poor, so I ended up just sitting on a deck chair relaxing and chatted with another passenger that I had become friends with.

 

Tonight was a Gala Night so we decided to dress up and eat dinner in the Main Dining Room.  We had a table for 6 and were joined by a couple from Texas and two single ladies, one of whom we had previously met.  It was a very pleasant dinner and we ended up going to the late show on The Main Stage which was Step One Dance Company doing the In Tandem show. 

 

We ended our evening with a stroll on the aft deck of Deck 9 (LIDO pool area) trying to see the stars but it was a bit cloudy.  But it was still a nice end to our last full day at sea.  We have a COVID test scheduled for tomorrow morning and then it's Half Moon Cay time with some exciting adventures planned.  Stay tuned.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 09 - 10/10/2021 - At sea to Puerto Vallarto - A dolphin extravaganza

This was a really lazy day at sea. The only presentations we watched were the Q&A session with Ross, our naturalist, and the Port to Table food demonstration after lunch by Steve the Pinnacle Grill chef. This session covered preparation of carne asada and a Mexican soup. Afterwards, I positioned myself port-side on the Promenade deck up near the bow which is about 30' above the water. The view here was unobstructed and I watched a medium sized turtle float by. About an hour later off in the distance I spotted a number of dolphins.    Suddenly there were dozens and dozens of dolphins swimming around the left side and under the ship. They rode the bow wave, the waves off the mid ship hull and elsewhere out away from the ship. The water was clear and one could see the dolphins' images before they broke through the surface. I saw more dolphins at one time over the next hour than I have previously seen at one time. It was impressive and there had to a...
Read more

Day 08 - 10/09/2021 - An Electric Cabo

This morning we woke up at 6:30am to a room temperature of over 80°.     We realized the air conditioning system works on sea water and we are in much warmer water.     So I called the front desk and a representative was     there by 7am and confirmed the readings.     He indicated there were a lot of complaints.   After a quick breakfast, we reported to the Main Stage and our group was the first one dispatched on the first tender.     It was already hot and projected to hit 90°f.     There was an armed Mexican sailer on the pier and we had a bag check.     Our tour coordinator gathered us up and we made our way to a motor coach for a 45 to 60 minute ride to the venues hi hi was located up the west coast of the Baja peninsula.     Along the way several people saw a whale breech!   My adventure this day was to ride an electric bicycle.     I chose this activity s...
Read more

Day 06 - 10/07/2021 - At Sea to Cabo - 1

Southbound we head at about 14.5 knots (relatively slow) and the temperatures are getting warmer.     Today after the 9am coffee chat with the Kazemek's (Beatles tribute singers), Angela saw a pod of dolphins.     I spent much of the day reading my mystery thriller, Deadly Encounter.       I (and others I've talked with) are a bit disappointed in the lack of enrichment lectures on these sea days.     So in between reading my novel, there was a port short excursion lecture, a culinary arts lecture on chili's (quite good) and a cruise critic Meet & Greet.     We were able to connect with Jeff and Nanette who we cruised with us on the Maasdam in 2019 from Japan to Australia.       One high point of the cruise was reached today in that we observed flying fish.     For us, a cruise is really not complete until we see flying fish.     These flying fish were generally flying...
Read more