Sea Days

January 17^th Tuesday

11 days at sea, 3994 nm from Florida. We have had fairly calm seas and beautiful sunny weather.  Average temp. 82 and humidity is about 60 percent. Getting our sea legs on, and being rocked to sleep every night with the motion of the ocean.  The Amsterdam is a small ship with a passenger capacity of 1300, and a crew of 600. We are only traveling about 340 nautical miles in 24 hrs. It seems kind of slow but at least it has been relaxing.  Bruce likens it to a “mo-ped at sea”. Only 800 passengers have signed on for the entire World Cruise so we have been quite spoiled by the crew and staff.  The passenger ages have ranged from 8 yrs (with her own private tutor) to around 90. With the average about 65. Have not seen many people in wheelchairs or walkers.  And most are very active. About ¾ of these people have been on this cruise at least 4 or 5 times, with one lady going on 6000 days….we are newbie’s.

 I have been trying to walk at least 3 miles on sea days, and Bruce has been working out in the gym. 3 ½ times around the deck= 1 mile; and some of these people can go fast…..”Excuse me dearie, could you please stay to the right. Thank you so much” At least that is what I hope they are saying, since my I-pod is on and my ears are plugged in with the Best of the 80’s.  Even after eating all of the fantastic foods on board we are actually losing weight…not much but some. We can never complain about being bored on sea days. They have activities going 24/7 if you chose to participate. Trivia, cooking demo’s, card and dancing classes, exercise programs, movies, computer classes…….and on and on. Bruce, the cruise director keeps everyone busy.  I am surprised at how fast the days fly by.  We thought we would be lounging around eating and reading all day….I think I have only read about 10 chapters of 1 book so far. So much for loading up my Kindle.  But we have 66 days at sea, so I think it will get used.  We have also been enjoying the shows after dinner. Melissa Manchester one night and now Doc Severinsen is on board.  They do need to kick it up a notch or so, but maybe that might cause some medical issues with some passengers.  Or wake them up……

We boarded with no problems on Jan. 6^th. It took a couple of hours due to Brazilian Visa’s.  The ship had to make sure everyone had them before boarding.  We already had ours, but apparently about 30 did not. Don’t know what happened to them but we were told a few months ago that we could not board without them. Brazil has been very cranky about that. We surrendered our passports to the ship and haven’t seen them since. Just hope they left with the ship.  Our room is very comfortable. It is bigger than I thought it would be and it even has a bathtub. There are 6 closets, 7 drawers, king size bed, couch and a dresser all in a 200 square ft. room.  And there is still plenty of space to walk around each other.   We were able to unpack 6 suitcases worth of clothes and essentials (about 260 lbs) and find a place for everything.  We were even able to stow all of the empty suitcases under the bed.  We don’t have a balcony, but have a 4by4 foot window that gives us a very good view of the ocean.  I can prop pillows on the bed and have a very comfortable place to sit and watch the sea go by. So all in all, I think we will be very comfortable here. Except for the internet situation. It is very slow…..and it costs us about 40 cents a minute. So it is easier if we log on at night when everyone else is asleep……..Ports are next.