Sea Day #1

Day 3, Friday, January 5, 2024, Rounding the South Coast of Cuba, Heading to Falmouth, Jamaica

The sea is more peaceful today. Quite lovely.

One of the benefits of booking a Neptune Suite is the accompanying Club Orange membership. Club Orange members can eat breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill, if they like. The menu is similar to the MDR breakfast menu, with one or two additions that aren't available in the MDR. The two dining rooms share the same [enormous] kitchen. Jas had Eggs Benedict. I had a stack of buttermilk pancakes, which are served with maple syrup. Of course. 😃

Photos: 1) I love that, each morning, the rugs in the elevators tell us what day it is. 2 and 3) Look at this very cool butter server! 4) The view from our table in the Pinnacle Grill. 5) When we returned to our room after breakfast, our first towel art of the cruise was waiting. A little piggy. (Later in the day I decided it was a dog, not a piggy. Jas thought it was an elephant. What's your take?)

We came back upstairs after breakfast to find our bathroom being supercleaned. We noticed an unpleasant smell in the bathroom shortly after boarding. We thought it would dissipate, but it hasn't. So yesterday, Jas reported it to our concierge, who put people onto the task. We sat in the Neptune Lounge while they finished the task.

Now I'm sitting on the verandah, enjoying the ocean view and Jas has gone to the sports deck to play in a pickleball tournament. When he returned, we went to the Neptune Lounge and put together a light lunch. We found Marilyn in the lounge, doing the same grazing as we were doing, so we took our lunch to M&M's cabin, where we ate on the verandah. We got a view of the world from the port side—north Haiti in the distance. From our starboard verandah, we could see Cuba. At little later, while awaiting a call from my daughter-in-law, I switched airplane mode off and received a text from AT&T that I was in Cuba and our International Calling Plan didn't work in Cuba. I quickly switched off airplane mode and texted DIL to email me rather than calling. Now the NSA is going to think I'm in Cuba. That could never be a good thing!

After lunch, I went to the World Stage to watch a presentation on the Caribbean and the creatures who live there. Water Works: Under the Caribbean. I enjoyed it very much.

Afterwards, I went up to the Crow's Nest and worked on that hard round puzzle again. I was able to get a lot of work done on it, focusing on the two green "petals." No picture today—look back at yesterday or the day before to see this challenging puzzle. I did a little more tonight after dinner, and imagine I will have given the other puzzlers impetus to finish it on Saturday.

Tonight was one of the Gala dinners for this cruise. The dress code is "dressy." I bring a black tunic and black skirted leggings, my standard concert black attire. I had a lovely Indian shawl that had been passed down from a dear friend who died several years ago. Pearls and black patent leather sandals finished off my ensemble, and I felt as dressy as the ladies in their sequins. I even saw a lady later on in the evening sporting a mink stole that appeared to be 75 years old. Maybe it belonged to her mother, and this is her only opportunity to wear it. There are probably no PETA people with buckets of red paint aboard a cruise.

We met M&M for cocktails at the Pinnacle Lounge. Tom and Kerry were dining elsewhere tonight—date night by themselves. ❤️ Then off to dinner. Hendra, the assistant maítre d', greated us after we were seated. Then our affable Balinese server came to ensure we would have a delightful time at dinner. My friend who leads the Bali Fiber Tours that I took in 2018 had taught me how to say "thank you" and "no problem" in Balinese, and it delighted A.A. Honestly, I would challenge you to find one single crew member on any Holland America ship who is anything less than gracious and thoughtful.

Photos: As this was Gala dinner, there were items on the menu that are not usually seen, including special cocktails.
1) Marilyn ordered the De Lijn Gin TOnic, with Fever Tree tonic and seasonal botanicals. It was amazing! 2) Mike and Marilyn, Jas and Jan. Photo taken by our delightful server, A.A., who lives in Ubud, Bali. 3) My appetizer was Crab and Artichoke Dip, with spinach, truffle, and gruyère. 4) For my entrée, I chose Goat Cheese Tart with Caramelized Onion. I asked them to skip the ratatouille, which causes awful things to happen to my g.i. system. Instead, they found other pretty things with which to garnish the dish. 5) My Warm Flourless Chocolate Cake, with caramel sauce, streusel, and vanilla ice cream. 6) Mike's Blueberry Cheesecake with orange cream and streusel. Can you believe that lovely dish has no added sugar? 7) Jas ordered the Dutch Apple Pie with Ice Cream, whipped cream, and powdered sugar. He split his white chocolate 150th anniversary of HAL "medal" with me. Sugar was definitely added to that desert!

After dinner, the four of us went up to the Tamarind Lounge again for a postprandial drink. I had already had my one glass of wine, so begged off to go hear the steel drum band on the World Stage. I stayed for two songs, but then went back up to the Crow's Nest for more puzzling. When I grew tired of that, I went down to the Billboard On Board stage to listen to the dueling pianos. I had connected with one of the pianists on social media a couple of weeks ago and wanted to say hello to him. These two gentlemen do a fine job and really pack in the listeners. Kudos to them and to their agency for hiring them.

And then I had reached the end of my day. I've been having some right knee problems, so took a couple of Advil and climbed into bed.

I'm so happy to be here!