New Passengers Bring Energy to Routine Sea Days
Day 36, Grand Asia 2017
Monday, Nov. 6, 2017 – At Sea
Most of us on the Amsterdam’s Grand Asia cruise are on for the entire 80 days, starting and ending in San Diego. Holland America realizes that not everyone wants such a long voyage. Some people don’t have that much vacation. Others want to miss the sea days crossing the Pacific and concentrate on Asian ports, or just to spend less money.
Our first official segment ended in Hong Kong, where I hear about 50 passengers got off and about 200 embarked. We joke that we can tell who the new people are. They are excited about everything, going from activity to activity on sea days. The rest of us have settled into a more leisurely routine. Eighty days originally seemed so long, so we think we have plenty of time to do things.
The middle segment of the cruise, Hong Kong to Sydney, is about three weeks. So a number of people on this segment are on vacation from work, and thus younger. We “oldsters” laughed when the captain recently issued a Zika virus warning for women who were or might become pregnant. But now we see that there are passengers young enough to take precautions.
Among the contracted staff on board are two florists who create and refresh the many flower arrangements around the ship. Today they offered a class (for about $30) in flower arranging, and we are seeing the results incorporating straw hats. Every few weeks we see a different floral theme. Sounds like a fun job to me.
Kate Ross, a lecturer who joined us in Hong Kong, spoke this morning about the Khmer Empire. She is giving a series of lectures about the history of various cultures in Asia, and joined our table for the gala dinner tonight. When I was in school, we learned little Asian history so I am enjoying her insights and slides. A guest chef, Paulette Mitchell, spoke this afternoon about the unusual fruits we are encountering in local markets. And I whiled away a couple of hours in watercolor class.
Holland America traditionally leaves gifts in guest cabins on each formal (now called gala) night. Nothing showed up tonight, for the second time after a gala dinner this cruise. I have mixed feelings about it – I always want something free, or as a friend always corrects me, “at no additional charge.” But sometimes the gifts are surprising. We recently got a heavy box, about eight-inches cubed, with six appetizer plates. I’m not too sure how I will get them home without going over the weight limit on my luggage. We also have received an umbrella, a large messenger bag, a box of stationery and a small rolling carry-on suitcase (not large enough for the dishes). The umbrellas I bought in Japan turn out to be longer than my largest suitcase, so perhaps I will go to the post office when we get to Hawaii and ship a box home.
I just recently discovered your blog, when a fellow CCer in our 2018 World Cruise roll call posted a link to you. I am now caught up on all your posts so far and have enjoyed them very much. I reminisced about my cruise last year as you traveled through Japan and China and enjoyed your perspective of many of the same places I visited. Our photo albums have many of the same pictures. But, since the cruise for me ended in Hong Kong, I look forward to seeing your posts from Vietnam,, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia-places that I will be seeing soon. I also appreciate your writing style and like the idea of a theme for each post, rather than a recap of what you did, what you ate and who you conversed with each day. I look forward to reading the rest of your blog for this trip. Take care of the Amsterdam, as I am eagerly awaiting boarding her in January!
It will not help with your oversize umbrellas and might not help with some of the other items you have acquired on the trip but I became an expert in US Postal fixed rate boxes while Jackie was working in Guam. As a US territory, the same postage applies to a first class letter or a fixed rate box from a US territory as it does on the so called CONUS (continental US). You would not believe how much clothing I could stuff in the large fixed rate box at Christmas. So, if you new items won’t fit you may be able to ship some other things home from Hawaii or even from Pago Pago, American Samoa. If you cannot use fixed rate box then the weight, dimensions and distance all come into pricing the shipments. The other thing I was able to use was “media mail” for books and sheet music. No promises on delivery interval but shipping a 40 or 50 pound box of books for classroom instruction under $20 was a deal. In that case I was not constrainted by the size of a fixed rate box. Enjoy your warm weather on coming sections of the trip!
Great advice, Julie — thanks! >
I am so glad to see that they are offering flower arrangement classes. I enjoyed the one on Cunard and listed that as a suggestion on a subsequent HAL review critique.