Holland America MS Amsterdam Travelogue #6 Day at Sea June 2, 2011

Holland America MS Amsterdam Travelogue #6

Day at Sea

June 2, 2011

Thursday was our second relaxing day at sea. And, that is precisely what we did – relaxed. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast up on the Lido and then began our activities. We were under partly cloudy skies and relatively calm seas. I did hear a couple of people complaining that they were getting seasick – but not nearly as many as the day the seas got to me at the beginning of the cruise. I seem to have my sea legs now and am doing okay – knock on wood – except for seeming to have developed a nice case of bronchitis. Yep! It got me! Luckily I brought lozenges and some cold and allergy meds along with us.

We enjoyed another culinary demonstration down in the Culinary Arts Center. This time our Cruise Director, Jimmy from Australia made crab cakes. Now mind you – this was supposed to be funny, and it was; but Holland America also gave us the real recipe. Jimmy’s version included lots and lots of Tabasco sauce. In fact, he put so much in the crab cake mixture that it would have been spicy hot anyways; but then proceeded to pour it all over the cake once he placed it in the pan full of hot oil. As if that wasn’t enough, when he turned the cake which was now almost crispy black because he said he liked it crispy, he poured the other half of the bottle on the other side. Needless to say he did not get many volunteers to taste his masterpiece! However, he tried it himself and said his tongue was on fire! How odd!

We stopped by the Explorations Café and had Josalito make us a warm coffee latte and Jim read the New York Times condensed version that they provide daily to the passengers and I came down to the cabin for awhile for do a little journaling.

The day continued by attending a Microsoft Techspert hour where you could go ask your questions for the computer guy. The comedian, who performed the other night, gave a talk later in the afternoon on the Secret of Comedy which was interesting and then we stayed for BINGO. And, I won the second game! Had I been the only winner, my jackpot would have been $200 – but I split it with one other lady and so we each walked away with $100.

Before dinner we wandered up to the Crow’s Nest and played Trivia with Jim and Mary from our zip adventure and we won! We got Holland America pins. After that we headed down for dinner in the dining room and then went back up on the back of the ship to enjoy the sunset as the Amsterdam proceeded north up along the Kenai Peninsula on to Anchorage where we will be tomorrow. After not seeing much but open ocean for most of the day, around 9:00 p.m. we could start to see the white tops of the mountains. Spouts from whales could be seen far off in the distance from our table at dinner. We are still waiting for them to be closer and give us a real dinner show!

Till then…