MARCH 01: First Sea Day
We did nothing but relax all day, except for the mandatory Safety at Sea drill.
At 1:30, every stateroom TV was locked to a single channel.
Cruise ships are required to conduct the drill every 30 days, and Big Brother was watching, so skipping the exercise was not an option. Each passenger's key card was scanned at the muster station deck. BB tracked whether the safety video was watched to completion, keeping the TV locked on that channel until it was viewed. The captain's announcement is on every speaker in the ship, so there is no escaping it.
Passengers who ignored the drill were tracked down for personal attention.
The drill was a small hiccup of responsibility from which we quickly recovered.
MARCH 14: Second Sea Day
At noon today, we advanced our clocks an hour; the first of three times between now and San Diego. At first, it seemed odd to do it in the middle of the day rather than the middle of the night. After some thought, I realized this benefited the hard-working crew, giving (most of) them an hour less work rather than an hour less sleep. When we were westbound early in the trip, setting the clocks back at night also rewarded the crew with some extra time off. Good plan.All of us with bungalows on the pool deck got together to give our attendant a surprise birthday party. Firdaus, from Indonesia, turned 26 today. A few minutes before he was to go on his break, after which he would report for his evening duty assignment, we presented him with a card, a hat, funny glasses (because Firdaus sees everything), and a cake.
MARCH 15: Third Sea Day
At 0800 this morning, we were 2000 nautical miles from San Diego
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Maintaining the level of communication services that meet our travel needs can get expensive.AT&T's International Day Plan now includes calling, texting, and internet connectivity aboard many ships. Presumably, Verizon and T-Mobile have something similar.
The AT&T ashore cost is $12 per day for the first 10 days of usage in each billing period. A second phone on the same account is an additional $6 per day for the first 10 days. If you keep your phone in airplane mode all day, no charge accrues. On the flip side, once you have accrued the 10 days, there is no additional charge for leaving your phone on except...
On the ship, the cost is $20 per phone with no cap during the billing period.
If you use the phone ashore and on the ship during the same day, only the $20 applies.
One passenger I chatted with had opted for the AT&T plan rather than the ship's internet service plan. He found that voice and text worked fine, but the internet was slow and unreliable. I did some research for him and learned that a ship's system prioritizes its program over AT&T internet connectivity.
The takeaway from the above is to consider your communication options carefully. Think about your priorities. For example, how much internet connectivity do you need versus want? It may be, as Pam & I found, that the combination of cellular service in port and the ship's internet package at sea was the best option.
This did mean that whenever the ship was getting ready to sail, we reminded each other to put our phones in airplane mode. We sometimes kept one or both phones in airplane mode when ashore, but usually activated them to monitor each other's locations and make calls.
Our ship's package included unlimited internet, so we had wi-fi calling that worked surprisingly well, even as the screen flashed that connection reliability was poor. There was a higher-tier internet service that would have enabled streaming services, but at an additional $17/day, no thank you.
MARCH 16: Fourth Sea Day
At noon, we sprang forward another hour, accelerating our return to San Diego.
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looking across one part of one deck of the two-deck main dining room
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A dining room this size may seem intimidating, but we repeatedly found the service pleasant and efficient. The menu was varied and the portions less than intimidating.
In addition to the main dining room, the ship has four specialty restaurants and a large cafeteria. There is a surcharge for a specialty restaurant, but it is not exorbitant. Pam and I get some freebies because of the number of times we have used this cruise line.
Regardless of the venue, some of our fellow passengers take "casual" to a whole new (lower) level, even at formal dinners in the main dining room.
Regarding the word "formal", on post-COVID Holland American, although the occasional passenger wears one, when the recommended dinner attire is formal, the days of tuxedos and long dresses are long gone. It has continued to devolve so that suits are rare. Anyone wearing a sports coat, even without a tie, is in the minority. Now it appears that even a collared shirt is not the minimum. Hats, t-shirts, sandals, etc., while not common, are usually somewhere in our field of view.
As an aside, some people must bring a steamer trunk on board with them based on the varied attire they wear. On this voyage, we have seen things ranging from a multi-colored sequined dinner jacket to knee-high cowgirl boots with leather fringes. Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, which should be interesting.
Am I perhaps too stuffy about our fellow passengers' attire? Probably. Is there a link to a larger societal issue? Yes, but let's not go there.
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