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John and Diane's Amazing Adventure - Part II

Johnny B

By Johnny B,
in Holland America Line

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Johnny B

Johnny B

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April 24 – Day 110

One Day until Vancouver

 

It’s getting worse! We should have known it was going to be bad when they gave us free Champagne and mimosas. Today was the official “Disembarkation Information Meeting” in the Queen’s Lounge. Bruce, the Cruise Director, gave us information and made jokes and talked about customs and immigration forms and then brought on nearly the whole darned staff, including officers (everyone but the captain) and talked about how much fun we’ve had and how we’re all going to miss each other until everyone became teary and wistful and wished it were day 10 instead of 110. Heck, Bruce should have handed out packets of Kleenex instead of drinks!

 

During the captain’s daily infomercial, instead of saying, “This is Olaf, Your Captain” as usual, he began, “Guess Who?” This whole end-of-cruise thing must be catching. He said that 80 passengers would disembark in Vancouver tomorrow, and that instead of staying out in the ocean, we’re traveling this afternoon in the channel between Vancouver Island and the mainland. It’s really quite beautiful. The only people getting on tomorrow are agents from our “Specialists” in Seattle who will remain overnight and disembark in Seattle the next day. Shannon, our agent, will have dinner with us that night. After reading about it during two world cruises, she wants to cork-fork. She’s a sweetheart and an incredibly good cruise agent. (Hi Shannon!)

 

Trivia was fun today. Each team had been asked to submit two questions (and answers) and Bruce chose one of them to make a total of 15 questions. We got 10 right, tying for first. The tie-breaker question asked how many times Caesar Romero played the Joker in the 1966-68 series of “Batman.” The other team guessed 6, we guessed 20, and the correct answer was 19. We lost! The rules say that you have to come closest without going over, even if you only go over by one. Oh well. Our record for the cruise is ten wins, and we are really very satisfied with that. We have had a wonderful time with our little group of six and have laughed a great deal. We happen to think that that’s the point of the whole thing. You try to come up with correct answers, but if you can’t, you try to entertain the group with a hysterically funny one. The nicest compliment we were given yesterday after winning the tournament was, “You guys seem to have so much fun and don’t take this seriously.” Of course we’d kill anyone who outscored us . . . J/K.

 

Tonight is our last (there it is again) Pinnacle dinner. We’re taking Woody and Susie in honor of Woody’s birthday – which was March 16. We may be late, but we do eventually get around to it. I do enjoy the Pinnacle, but there’s just too much beef on the menu for me. A typical meal for me is a Caesar salad and the crab cake appetizer as a main course. Just too much food, and I’m not looking forward to my encounter session with the scale when I get home. If I’m lucky, it will only be five pounds. (As John read this, I heard him mutter, “Five? Who is she kidding?) I’ll let you know – the increase, NOT the total.

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Johnny B

Johnny B

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April 25 – Day 111

 

Today’s beginning was somewhat mixed. It’s ANZAC (Australa-New Zealand Army Corps) Day in those two countries, commemorating this date during World War I when tens of thousands of ANZAC forces were killed at Gallipoli (Turkey). I know that most Americans know that December 7 is Pearl Harbor Day, and that we have Memorial Day, but the people who remember them seriously seem to be fewer and fewer each year. However, in Australia and New Zealand, every year on April 25 the countries almost come to a stop between 9:00 AM and noon to remember the men who died.

 

The service began on Deck 8 aft next to the pool. Larry from the Amsterdam orchestra played “Taps” on his saxophone, followed by one of the Aussie men speaking, with tears running down his face. Then one of the officers picked up the pre-prepared wreath and dropped it into the pool. It was a very moving ceremony.

 

All the time we were there, however, we were sailing into Vancouver, one of the really beautiful sail-ins. We came in under the bridge and then we were alongside Stanley Park and the big, beautiful Canadian flag which flies over it. The sun was just barely up and I really wished that I had thought to bring the camera.

 

When I got back to the cabin, John was staring at me, having been awakened by the “click” when I closed the door upon leaving. Regardless, that got us going pretty early, so it was only 8:00 when we were showered, breakfasted and off the ship. We wanted to take the “Hop On, Hop Off” bus, but it didn’t start until 9:00, so we found the closest Starbuck’s at the top of the ramp and not only found caffeine, but we got in out of the cold.

 

Almost as soon as our tour began, so did the rain. We were glad to be under cover, but the back of the darned bus was open, so it was still cold. The drive around Vancouver was wonderful. It is a glorious city, with hundreds of thousands of acres of park (Stanley Park is the second largest public park on the continent) and tulips absolutely everywhere.

It’s clean and the people are friendly and I think it would be a wonderful idea to come back for a week in August, paired with some time in Victoria. Vancouver is a city with something for everyone: beauty, culture, a wonderful waterfront, shopping, great restaurants – well, you get the picture.

 

After the tour we headed back to the ship (our dock was smack dab in the middle of town) for warmer clothes, and then headed to Gastown, the site of the original city. It’s full of souvenir shops, restaurants, wonderful old buildings, and more views of the water and the snow-covered mountains across the harbor. The rain had stopped, the sun came out and lunch was at a brewpub. We were very good children, arriving back at the ship a full hour before the deadline.

 

The sailaway was almost as beautiful as the sail-in, and it was the first one in some time to be held on the aft deck in the open, even though it was pretty darned cold by then. Now we’re sailing along the coast, via Boundary Pass and Haro Strait toward Victoria, with a snow-covered Mt. Rainier easily visible from our window. Tomorrow is Seattle.

 

I hope you appreciate the fact that I haven’t said anything in this entry about the cruise ending and how sad I am (until now, of course).

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DeltaBC

DeltaBC

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The news this sunday morn had a picture of the Ship the Amsterdam the first of the season in port. In Jan. we boarded in Fort Lauderdale and sailed with you until Buenos Aries Saw the wonderful tango show and ate that wonderful steak can still taste it. Then back on the plane to Vancouver. So we have been following your blog all the way thank you we have enjoyed your trip. Iris and Don

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Kween Karen

Kween Karen

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The Amsterdam is big news in the Puget Sound area today.......arriving as the first cruise ship to start off the summer season. I should have planned to be in Seattle today and just watch people having a good time. Seeing the ship on the news is bringing back such GREAT memories!!

 

Thanks again for taking us along on your voyage!!

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rrogers123

rrogers123

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Welcome home. Really enjoyed your writing about the trip. Jealous, but inspired to try and do it with my wife when she retires! Vancouver is my favorite city in the world. Sort of San Francisco shoved up against Yosemite! Have sailed away from there three times. Safe travel wherever the fair winds take you.

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luvcruisn'

luvcruisn'

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On Sunday, I drove down to Canada Place after my day at work ended, so I could catch the Amsterdam's sail away from Canada Place. I was just in time to watch the ship pull away from the dock and sail out into the harbour. I had sailed on the Amsterdam to the Baltic in 2001, and watching the ship brought back wonderful memories.

 

Thanks for all your writing, John and Diane, it's been great following along. I hope to do a segment of a world cruise one day, but to do the whole cruise seems daunting.

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imacruizer

imacruizer

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I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed vicariously traveling with you on your second World Cruise. Thank you so much for taking time to post about your voyage. Taking a World Cruise is definitely on my bucket list. Your posts make me even more eager to make that dream a reality. I hope you have many more wonderful cruises in your future.

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Johnny B

Johnny B

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April 27 – Day 113

At Sea along the Oregon coast

 

WE ARE PACKED! Actually, it’s easier to pack at the end than at the beginning, in some ways. Before sailing, everything that goes into a suitcase needs to be thought of and considered and reconsidered. “Will I get a lot of use out of it?” “Does it go with anything else?” “Should I bring this or that?” But when it’s time to pack to go home, it’s just get the stuff into the suitcases and find a place to stash them until they’re picked up. Of course there is the problem of where to put all the stuff you’ve bought along the way, but we’re not big shoppers, so we don’t have the problems some people have. One couple up on seven has 27 pieces of luggage – including 7 trunks! I don’t get it, because, even though they’re in a suite, they have only one more closet (4 instead of 3) than we have and the same number of drawers. Where do they put it?

 

Because we’re in a category “F or above,” we each get two pieces of luggage shipped for free. If you pay full price (we did a paid upgrade) for a balcony, you get unlimited luggage, but not us. Because one of our formal night “pillow gifts” was two rolling duffel bags, and because HAL let us ship those home for only $20.00 each, we have a total of 6 pieces of luggage going via FedEx. The beauty of it is that we just put them outside our room tomorrow night and we don’t see them until they get to our doorstep about two days later. Wonderful!

 

Yesterday was beautiful overcast Seattle. Because it was our first port of call in the United States, we had to go through immigration, but it only took a few minutes. Then we took the HAL shuttle to the Space Needle, hopped on the monorail (senior rate only $1.00 each way) and five minutes later we were in downtown Seattle. Our goal was Pioneer Square, the part of the city first settled in the mid-1800’s. That’s where the Underground Tour is located, and we’ve wanted to do that for some time. We talked about it for several years, and then when we were here in 2007 we actually tried to go, but it was sold out for the day. This time we booked online in the morning and made reservations.

 

The tour is fascinating and I’ll try to explain. The city was basically built at sea level, so at high tide, the streets flooded and things were a mess. In 1889 there was a fire, which burned down the whole city. Afterwards, the city fathers decided to be smarter about it. They instructed the people to build two-story structures, with entrances on the first and second floors. Then, over the next 7 or 8 years, the city built a retaining wall, from 10 to 25 feet high, around every block and filled in the street to the level of the second story. Now the second stories became the ground level, the retaining walls kept the tides out, and the original first floors became, in many cases, forgotten basements. (I hope this makes sense).

 

If you want to learn about Seattle’s history and laugh constantly, this is the tour for you. The people who lead the tours tell all kinds of corny jokes and outrageous puns (especially about the problems with a sewer system at high tide). The man who started the tours 45 years ago, Bill Speidel, did it to raise historical awareness so that these old buildings wouldn’t be demolished for parking structures. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams and, as our guide said, “Now we just do it for the money.” Since the tour was full (at 11:00 AM on a Monday morning in April), I’m sure they do that quite well.

 

After a stop at Pike Place Market, we got back to the ship just as the rain began. That was another thing we learned: Seattle gets less annual rain than New York City – shocking, what? The ship is really pretty empty now, with barely 500 passengers, and the dining room last night was almost deserted. We’re down to 6 of our 11 tablemates, but tonight it’s just John and I and Greg and Heo. We’re winding down at an incredibly accelerated rate, with less than two days to go. It will be strange to be off the ship after 4 months!

 

It’s time for bed, time to post this drivel of mine, and the most gorgeous full moon is shining on the water outside our room. Even though it’s forty-something degrees, we stood on the balcony just appreciating the view. There’s nothing like this whole experience.

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cccole

cccole

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"Our" cruise with you has been such a joy!!!! Hopefully one day my husband and I will also be enjoying one of these voyages, but until all of the kids complete college we will enjoy your fabulous adventures. I learn so much from your daily posts and it is wonderful to see how much fun you have. Thank you for taking us along again. Cherie

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JYGresham

JYGresham

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Hi Orlin and Barbara! Just spotted your post and are wondering where you are sailing, either now or on your next cruise, and if you are doing another blog? Tom and I leave in two weeks for a 39 day Transatlantic, Europe, and North Cape cruise on the Prinsendam, and the same day we disembark in Tilbury, are boarding the QM2 to return home to Shreveport. We have fond memories of our meeting you two on our cruise on the Voyage of the Vikings last year and enjoying the great blog you did onthat. Hope all is well with you and yours. Cheers, Joan and Tom Gresham

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TENNCruisers

TENNCruisers

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Hi Orlin and Barbara! Just spotted your post and are wondering where you are sailing, either now or on your next cruise, and if you are doing another blog? Tom and I leave in two weeks for a 39 day Transatlantic, Europe, and North Cape cruise on the Prinsendam, and the same day we disembark in Tilbury, are boarding the QM2 to return home to Shreveport. We have fond memories of our meeting you two on our cruise on the Voyage of the Vikings last year and enjoying the great blog you did onthat. Hope all is well with you and yours. Cheers, Joan and Tom Gresham

Good to hear from you. We enjoyed meeting you as well.

We are doing a riverboat cruise in central Europe this summer and a week in London. If we get to Gulf Shores in Nov we will try to get to Shreveport.

Orlin and Barbara

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Kween Karen

Kween Karen

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Hi Karen,

We are thinking of the 2011 Asia Australia cruise so we may see you on that one. Sounds like a lot of repeat cruisers are already signed up for that one.

Orlin and Barbara

 

Wow! That would be really wonderful!! Keep me posted!!

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