ON THE SEA, ON THE SEA, ON THE BEAUTIFUL SEA!

I'm going to combine the next two days since yesterday turned out to be a pretty short day without too many plans so to speak. I hope that this entry won't be terribly boring. The real excitement always starts for us when we see our ship for the first time and this is the day!

We left the hotel around noon, boarded a bus and went to the port to embark upon a new adventure.

By the time we arrived at our stateroom, it was mid afternoon.

Our suite was not quite ready, so we had a beer and a burger on the Lido deck and listened to a trio play what our children would call "old folks" music. It was wonderful.

Our stateroom was very nice and comfortable. We had the bedroom area, a sitting room, 3 large closets, a full bath with a tub that had a jacuzzi in it and we also had a veranda ... what more could one possibly want! A home away from home with room and maid service!

We were settled in and unpacked by 4:00. We always get out of each other's way while the other one unpacks since the space is always smaller than we are used to. It makes life much less complicated that way ;-)

After the safety drill on deck, life jackets and all, of course, we took a brief nap and then dressed for dinner.

Once we were dressed, we went to the Ocean Bar for a cocktail before dinner. It was here that we met these darling boys that took good care of us the rest of the trip. Most of the bar help on board are Filipino and they are the most gracious and charming people you'd ever want to meet.

Brian is in the middle and he is the head of hors doeurve for all the bars and special functions on board

and the young man to his right was his assistant. Joseph is on the left and he was our favorite bar steward. He always made sure that the bartender poured us a very nice drink!

We met our table mates for the first time this evening. One couple was from North Carolina,

another from Richardson (he is an attorney and breeds competitive sheep dogs)

and of course, we already knew Jack and Helen from a previous cruise.

We always prefer the late seating so you aren't rushed after coming back on board after a shore excursion.
It was nearly 11:00 before we finished dinner, so we opted to skip the show in the showroom and go on to bed. We will be sailing all night and all day tomorrow and will lose and hour tonight.
Each night that we are to be on board our stateroom steward will do something special with our towels and leave this little surprise along with chocolates on our pillows. Tonight's surprise was a sting ray.

It is now the next day and it's a sea day. We love sea days since there is really no schedule and you can take it easy and catch up on your rest. We thought that we kept hearing a radio during the night. The sound was VERY low, so we really didn't pay much attention to it. We finally discovered the next morning that it was our radio! after the announcement about the lifejacket drill, we had turned the volume down ... we didn't turn the radio off.
Believe it or not, we didn't wake up until 11:50 a.m, so we had slept nearly 12 hours. We must have been more tired than we thought. I can't ever remember sleeping that late in my entire life!

One nice thing about sea days at the beginning of a trip is that they give you the opportunity to explore the ship. The Rotterdam is one of Holland America's Flagships, so it has beautiful appointments.

This cruise line always has a specialty clock in the atrium that is nearly as tall as the ship. This one was especially lovely.

Even the bathrooms are wonderfully appointed. There are orchids everywhere and the Ladies rooms are no exception.

One of the many hallways contained replicas of the Terra Cotta soldiers. Made me feel as though I was back in Xian!

We ended up having brunch in the dining room. It was really lunch, but I had Quiche Lorraine, and that's a breakfast meal for me.

After breakfast we went to the Explorer's Lounge. We were about to start a game of Scrabble when Jack and Helen came in. They had slept late as well and they like to have breakfast in their suite. They didn't sleep as late as we did though!

Since they had gotten up earlier, they were hungry, so we sat with them while they had lunch by the pool. These seal sculptures look so real that you thought you could hear them playing and splashing in the water!

It was 2:30 by now, so we went to our suite, watched a movie and took a little rest on our veranda as the ocean slipped gently by.

There's a Champagne party tonight at 7:00 p.m. in honor of the Chairman Emeritus, so we cleaned up for dinner went to the party and then went on to dinner.

The Captain introduced his officers, and then we all drank a toast acknowledging A. Kirk Lanterman, Chairman of the Holland American Line.

We had a wonderful dinner. I selected Pecan Crusted Rack of Lamb Chops with Lyonaise Potatoes for my entree

and ended up with homemade vanilla ice cream with the most delicious butterscotch sauce that you'll ever eat. It could be addicting!

It was a delicious meal, as they all were, so we are both full and happy, as you can tell by this photograph!

After dinner we went to a show in the Queen's Lounge which was a tribute to Broadway. It featured love songs from many musicals, most of which we have been privileged to have seen. It was all I could do to keep from singing along!

When we returned to our suite, this little creature was waiting for us. I think he's supposed to be a gnome.

We were in bed by midnight. Tomorrow we go to Tallin, Estonia and have a shore excursion scheduled for 1:00 which will last several hours. Hopefully we won't sleep until noon again!

Stay tuned for a real adventure tomorrow.

XOXO, Pcasso