Sea Day


 10:30 PM Wed Jan 4

Today was a Sea Day and the folks here in the Volendam provided us with plenty to keep us busy. Each day we get a Daily Program that gives you the ACTIVITIES at a glance. These range from educational lectures, movies, live entertainment, special promotions and evening attire. Tonight was ‘Casual’. We started with breakfast in the formal dining rooms and we had an amazing selection of choices. I had stewed prunes and prune juice. Need I say more? Along with this I had ‘Swedish Pan cakes, hash browns, scrambled eggs, corned beef hash. David had oatmeal, and buckwheat pancakes. We attended several lectures focused on our shore excursions, essentially what to See and Do Ashore. One focused on tomorrow when we go to Ochos Rios, Jamaica and the other on Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. We were told while in Jamaica to expect to be offered Cannabis every few minutes and to ‘enjoy’ but not to bring any on board. We are going to a Garden and I’ll,write about that tomorrow. 

We had lunch at the Drive Inn which is just a lunch spot next to the pool. David loves the Kosher Hot dogs so I tried one. Not bad but I doubt I’d have another. The ‘French ‘fried were amazing but I o only had a couple as I could eat a pile and I need to try and eat more healthy foods. After lunch they had a Mahjong Meet/game. Unfortunately I did not bring along an current card so took pictures of one with my phone. There were people playing a Chinese version that has no cards. so I asked two side terms if I could join them. They told me; “they only play with experienced players”. I assured them I have been playing since I was a child so they let me play. Well I didn’t win but they were impressed with my hand. Two new friends made. After that we went to a lecture by Dr. Valerie Mock: Spanish Explorers Meet The Americas. She seemed like a brilliant historian and I’ll look her up later. She reviewed the conquistadors, and it was a very informative letter. She talked about The spice trade, Columbus, Pizarro, ‘Cortez and the demise of the Mayans, Incas and Aztecs. Far too much to write about here. Next was Dr. Svetlana Barkanova: Astronomy  101. She will also be giving more lectures-users and does Stargazing on deck at night. Another brilliant lecture. From there we went to a Meet and Greet for our Cruise Critic group. Very nice people. Then our first dinner in the formal dining room. We sat with 3 other people that we will be exploring the world with. Tonight we ended up choosing to see a comedy/magic performance by The Alan’s, then a movie: A Love Song. 

to more Jamaica!

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