Random thoughts

Random Thoughts

This is a post of items that were missed earlier and some random thoughts.

February 28^th was the big gala with Stein Kruse, the CEO of Holland America. He joined the ship in Sydney and will depart in Hong Kong. They started with the two cocktail parties, one prior to each dinner, and then had a wonderful formal dinner. When we returned to our cabin after dinner there were two blue Tiffany bags on the bed. The gifts were some beautiful crystal bowls... I have to admit, it's probably the first time I've gotten anything in the 'little blue bag' – I kind of hate to toss the bag.

Many of the stewards are looking forward to tomorrow in Bali as they get time with their families. Our steward, Komang, will actually leave the ship as his contract ends. Gusti, will be with us until Hong Kong but he is very excited to see his family tomorrow. We, along with most of the other passengers, have put a little note on our cabin door saying we require no cabin service on that date – so they can have a little more time with their families.

I just realized I have no internet connection so this may not post for a while... now some random thoughts.

• While almost everyone aboard seem to be just regular nice people our neighbors told us of a couple in the elevator a few days ago. It was lunch time and a couple got on with them – our neighbor pushed the 8 button for the Lido and asked the others if they also wanted 8. The answer was "eewww, no we are on deck 7 (that's the suites), we don't go to the buffet; that's where the pigs go to trough". Our neighbors were so stunned by the response they had no come-back – although they've thought of several good ones by now. So... now when we head to the Lido, we always oink a few times first.
• We had a great Crossing the Equator ceremony. Much fun to watch as the new members of the crew were taken to court and made to Kiss the Fish and then get thoroughly smushed with ice cream and other assorted goodies with some ketchup and mustard in there too – then tossed into the pool. The pool will be drained and cleaned before it's opened to passengers again.
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• The Lido pool area looks wonderful right now with all the palm trees and green plants left over from the big party a few nights ago. I hope they will be able to keep them alive for some time as it adds so much to the area. I was talking to the Chief Engineer that we had dinner with (a while back) – he was responsible for all the decorations. We were talking about the cost and that much of it was just hauled off as trash at the next port. They only do one of these huge parties on the WC... the cost for just that one party with all the decorations and performers, etc was about $200,000. They don't skimp on the WC!
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• Jim was out on the bow area here on deck 6 and saw that they have installed the sound blasters as we will be going into some areas where there may be pirates.