Clear, bright blue skies contrasted with the deep blue Pacific as we continued our westward push toward Nuku Hiva.   Good food is one of the joys of cruising and there is not much better than a delicious breakfast delivered to your room. We enjoy a leisurely start to our day

and Holland America’s room service breakfast is outstanding and unmatched by any other mass market line. Breakfast arrived precisely on time, as usual and the weather was perfect so we decided to enjoy our breakfast on our deck.   Even on a “normal” (non Grand Voyage) you can write pretty much anything on the breakfast menu card and it will be delivered with a smile.   But on a Grand World Voyage, the expanded menu card makes ordering all than much easier. The tray is delivered with a small vase with real flowers, a nice selection of jams in small jars with the plates sitting on heavy metal serving plates to keep the food warm as it makes the journey from the kitchen to your room.

 

 

Good Morning Amsterdam opened with the announcement of the winner of the Cabin Stewards towel folding competition. Azed, from Indonesia was the clear winner, with over 300 votes cast. Azed will get to choose a shore excursion of his choice as his prize. His creation was a giant lobster, much bigger than the ones you may find in your room some evening.   The main guests were the dancers who entertained the guests the previous evening. Gene always does a wonderful interview and hearing the performers expand on their backgrounds in an informal setting is a real treat and makes this event a must see event for me.

 

I am slowly collecting Grand Dollars – with a bank of $32 accumulated so far. I attended the Baggo competition today held next to the pool. Baggo is a game called Cornhole in some parts of the USA,   Two teams separated by about 30 feet toss bean bags onto a inclined board with a hole cut out at one end.   The first team to toss 10 bean bags into the hole wins. It took 30 minutes for one team to win collecting the winners prize of $3 Grand Dollars with the losing team getting a single dollar.   Gene told me afterwards that there will be a Grand Dollar redemption event prior to Sydney and to give you a sense of the Grand Dollars’ value – you can trade $5000 Grand Dollars for $100 USD in shipboard credit which means each Grand Dollar is worth 2 cents.

 

The weather was beautiful today and I spent some time wandering around the open decks and checking out the walkers on deck 3. A lot of outside activity everywhere.   I am pleased to report that there is no evidence of people reserving deck chairs and there were always empty chairs available by the pool whenever I happened by.

 

 

 

Today was Sunday and they created a wonderful Sunday Brunch buffet in the lower (deck 4) dining room. The presentation was very nice and while I was too full eat, it was fun to check out the offerings.

 

 

 

 

Our Ukelele class has merged into a single long class.   Our instructor is wonderful and he is providing a fascinating inside to music theory and the structure of music from Rock and Roll to Do-Wop.

 

 

 

 

The final day of our 4 part craft series completed today with the construction of earrings from the wall paper beads we made a few days ago.

I discovered a wonderful Ramen Noodle station near the Pool entrance to the Lido Restaurant. This looks like a small push cart that serves hot ramen noodles along with hard boiled eggs, beef or chicken and other fixins. It was very good and will become a part of my regular food rotation.

This evening entertainment started with the gameshow : Call My Bluff. The Events Manager, Mark, was joined by Gene and Comedian Kermet on stage in the Queens Lounge. Show Host Erin proceeded to read an obscure word and gave each of the 3 “contestants” an opportunity to tell a long winded and sometimes humorous definition of the word. The audience would vote by applause as to which person was telling the truth.   There were 4 rounds and the audience only guessed correctly once.   Three of the words were: Squakyhole, Zumbooruck and Impignorate. It was silly but very entertaining.

 

Dinner was joy as always – service remains perfect – food excellent. We were joined this evening by the ships Doctor, Laura, and her husband, Chas, for the second time.  We learned he is an amateur magician and he entertained us over dessert with some amazing sleight of hand.   He made some lighted balls appear and disappear as you can see in the accompanying photograph.

 

 

 

Tonight’s entertainer was Sarah Chandler, the saxophone player we enjoyed dinner with a few nights ago. Her performance was outstanding and received a standing ovation. She played an Alto Sax, a Soprano Sax and the flute and wore an amazing gold sequin dress.

 

 

 

I have included a copy of the menu for the special “James Bond” Themed Pinnacle Dinner. There was a $79 surcharge that included wine – but was not discounted as is normal for other Pinnacle Dinners based on Mariner status. A copy of the menu is on the blog under Daily Activities along with the On Location Guide where you can read about all the events – and there are many – that I didn’t attend or discuss here.

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