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The Adventures of HAL Newbie "Flying Fishy" on Nieuw Amsterdam! 2/28/16

FlyingFishy

By FlyingFishy,
in Holland America Line

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FlyingFishy

FlyingFishy

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Our journey begins early January during another dark and cold night, in our home just outside of Chicago. My days seemed to consist of endless hours of researching an escape from winter, which proved to be an impossible feat mostly for the following reason: Last year, we had an amazing time on a different cruise line, but the vacation ended with both of us catching the Noro Virus. I was quite adamant about not booking a flu-cruise this year, and Mr Flying Fishy did not like my idea of booking an all-inclusive resort among what he called "the Zika infested death traps of the Caribbean". Both illogical points of view, yet, we were stuck without a compromise, and without a vacation.

 

Every evening for several weeks, constant debate over vacation ideas dominated our free time. Ridiculous conversations sounded like this:

 

"Wow...this resort has unlimited chicken wings, and there's a sports bar so you can watch Blackhawks games! You'd love it!"

 

"Yeah but the flight to 'Happy Papayas and Palapas' require a layover in Dayton, and I will never fly through that airport again!"

 

"Fine. Look at this resort: It has hammocks by every single guest room! You love hammocks!"

 

"What are you talking about? I hate hammocks. Don't you remember our Honeymoon, when a spider bit my forehead while I took a nap in a hammock in Cozumel? I STILL have a scar! Never again will I lay in a hammock..."

 

"Ugh... well, I am not going on a cruise again. We cruise every year. Let's do something different."

 

"Yes, we cruise every year because cruises are the best."

 

"I suppose... but the prices are high this year, and I cannot find a good deal on airfare. Plus I refuse to see another Belly Flop contest by the pool on the Lido Deck again! I hate how immature cruises can be!"

 

"Arghhh... that's it, we're not vacationing this year. Case closed." (This final line was said by both of us, alternating who said it almost every night).

 

I was about to give up. Neither one of us could be swayed, and our hopes of a vacation this winter dwindled. Until one morning, when something convinced me to cruise again. I received an email alert that airfare prices to South Florida suddenly dropped, and being a frugal fishy, along with the cost of an incredible sale with HAL, the price for a cruise vacation now plummeted well below the all-inclusive resort quotes I had collected! We were going to save a FORTUNE with these new found deals! Finally willing to swallow my pride, I convinced myself that the chances of getting Noro again were very slim. Therefore, letting Mr Flying Fishy win this battle, and within a few hours, we booked everything for our yearly vacation. Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam would be our home away from home in just three weeks!

 

Since I have no pictures of the events of this first post, I will share a picture from the one night we called a "truce" to our vacation debates, in order to celebrate our cat's 16th birthday:

 

image.png

 

 

Up next... The day before our cruise: Waking up before bedtime, Skyline Chili in Florida, and our adventures in Aventura.

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FlyingFishy

FlyingFishy

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Hello! The cat's name is Poofy, but I like that name Bootsy! I cannot take credit for the cake decoration. That was done by a lady at Jewel-Osco. If you ever are in the NW suburbs of Chicago celebrating a cat's birthday, I would recommend Deerfield's bakery, but I was in a hurry so Jewel had to make do.

 

Next installment will be posted tonight. I arranged a Post Cruise Excursion for today: a doctor's appointment and a trip to CVS. The tour is taking a little longer than expected.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Our vacation offically started at 3:30am on February 27th when 14 different alarms rang, beeped, shouted, and sang, which jolted me out of bed. The alarm that sang to me was actually my mom, who always volunteers to call on days we have early flights. To her, this could be one of her favorite days of the year; bigger than her birthday, more exciting than New Year's, for she loves to wake up early, loves to talk, and thrives on having a captive audience (namely the receiver of these wake up calls). This time, Mom greeted me with a song titled "Island in the Sun" which dates back to a movie set in the Caribbean of the same name from 1957, by the wonderful Harry Belafonte (famously known for The Banana Boat Song). However, in my grogginess, all I made out from this off-tune rendition were the title words "Island in the Sun", and being of a younger generation, all I could think of was the band Weezer. Probably not my mom's intentions of her carefully planned out song choice and "bon voyage" wishes. Nevertheless, I had Weezer's version of Island in the Sun playing inside my head for the next 9 hours.

 

The car service we reserved arrived promptly at 4:30am and we made it from our home to O'Hare via I-90 very quickly as everyone else between Rockford and Rosemont was asleep, or atleast, not on the roads. Checking in and going through security at 5:15am was a breezer... I mean breeze, and I learned what 10 dollars at a Starbucks in O'Hare can buy: A yogurt parfait, a hot cup of water, and a small serving of tea leaves hand picked by Oprah Winfrey herself. Mr Flying Fishy had a Happy Meal breakfast from McDonald's (toy not included).

 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we will begin boarding flight 1093, service to Fort Lauderdale, in a few moments." So we gathered our things and stood in line for Zone 2... which may have been Zone 42, for everyone else seemed to be apart of the elite Zone 1. This leg of the airfare only cost us 62 dollars each, so I really have no right to complain or be jealous of the entire passenger load sans us, being apart of Zone 1.

 

I had a very enjoyable flight, watching Season 6 of ER (episodes 2 and 3) that I downloaded to my iPad at 4am. My cheapo ear buds blocked out all of the surrounding noise, however, Mr Flying Fishy did not have such luck. The passengers nearby slurped down their 7am libations a little too fast, and became a little too rowdy. Poor husband. He was already so tired, and this certainly did not help matters.

 

We arrived on time, claimed our luggage, and headed to Budget Car Rental for a long wait to retrieve our Nissan Altima. We did it! We were in Fort Lauderdale, with all of our belongings, in our rental car, and it wasn't even noon yet!

 

Mr Flying Fishy and I are certainly creatures of habit. As part of our vacation tradition, we head for lunch (at two different places!) as a kickoff of our time in South Florida. My husband is a native of SW Ohio, and therefore must be fed Skyline Chili once every 6 months, or he dies. Literally dies. I've seen him come close, where we've had to make five hour drives to Englewood or Huber Heights, just so he could have a Coney. Speaking of death, in a real emergency, I am always able to remember my husband's blood type being O-Negative by the way he orders his Skyline Chili (with "No Onions!").

 

I am not a native of Ohio, so therefore, I am allergic to Skyline and cannot even have a bite or I will swell right up and start weezering, er... wheezing. After Mr Flying Fishy had his 3 Coneys and a burrito, we headed to the nearest Pollo Tropical, which is my favorite "fast" food restaurant. It's not fast, usually takes 20 or 30 minutes, but I love a Tropichop with grilled chicken, yellow rice, black beans, onions, and loads of salsa. Plus the music is festive, and a reggae version of El Cumbumchero succeeded at finally removing Weezer from my head. Whew! Completely exhausted, we headed toward our hotel, in hopes of an afternoon nap.

 

That's all for today... I will have to break up pre-cruise day into two installments and post the second half tomorrow.

 

 

Thank you for the birthday wishes for Poofy! Here she is:

 

16poofy.png

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FlyingFishy

FlyingFishy

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What a beauty! What does Poofy do in your absence? Perhaps she'll write a "live from", too.

 

Thank you! Poofy and her "little sister" Gillian have a pet sitter who checks on them daily, who sends updates and pictures daily to ease our mind. I will ask Poofy if she'd like to write a memoir of her week without the humans. Hopefully she will agree to this request.

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I booked a room via Hotwire for The Residence Inn in Aventura, right by an upscale mall (they have a caviar kiosk!) and not too far from the beach. The staff here could not be beat, they were so friendly and professional, even calling our room about 20 minutes after we checked in to make sure everything was up to our standard.

 

Mr Flying Fishy fell face first into bed and was able to get a very long nap while I immediately flung all of my clothes off and changed into a bathing suit, grabbed my sunglasses, and went directly to the pool. After about an hour, I returned to the room to see my Sleeping Beauty snoozing away, so I decided to explore the area and go in search of a black coverup at the mall that I was unable to find in Chicago.

 

Aventura certainly oozes money, with its lush landscape, and highrise beachfront condos. I felt like a homeless bum in my rented Nissan among the high end vehicles, so I headed to the mall, not knowing that I would not really fit in there either.

 

I found comfort in Macy's but was unable to find a comfortable cover-up. So I browsed the rest of the mall, very impressed with a store called Peace Love World, and I still regret not purchasing a t-shirt with big words on the front saying "no wifi. no problem."

 

Picking up Mr Flying Fishy after my mall endeavors, we went shopping for necessities that we were unable to pack. Target proved to be an easy place to do this errand, and afterwards, we went to Publix, Where Shopping is a Pleasure! We now had our bottled water, and cans of soda for the cruise. After a stop at the liquor store (and about a 30 minute wait in line), we headed back to the hotel completely zapped of all energy at the ridiculously late hour of 8pm.

 

Now, if you are ever going to stay in Aventura, do not bother ordering Chinese food or Pizza for delivery to your hotel on a Saturday night. It either does not exist, or the wait will be over 90 minutes. So after this major failure of calling local places ready to place an order, we went to the hotel's marketplace and dined on Pringles and Hot Pockets, which reminded me of our cruise on Carnival Glory in 2013, and the dinner, or lack of, they offered.

We discussed whether we wanted to wake up early and be one of the first people on board, or if we wanted to sleep in. We chose the latter and set an alarm clock for 9am. And off to bed we went, very eager to board Nieuw Amsterdam in the morning.

 

The palm trees I was under at the pool:

 

palm.png

 

The shirt I wish I purchased:

 

nowifi.png

Edited by FlyingFishy
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