There wasn’t any Coffee Chat this morning due to the crew drill which happened about the same time.
Today is the last sea day before we arrive in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we will clear United States Immigration. Clearing Immigration in Puerto Rico should make things go faster in Fort Lauderdale since we will only have to clear Customs.
Amazon gift certificates
As earlier reported, the Grand Dollars from previous years has gone away and substituted with Amazon gift certificates. Each gift certificate is worth $.10. Vouchers for the gift certificates were handed out for participation in various events from Trivia to Miniature Golf to Shooting Baskets. There is no longer any premium given for those teams which come in first as there has been in the past. A group of us from Table 303 have been going to afternoon trivia almost every day since early in the cruise. My table mates have been giving me their vouchers after the games each day. At 4 o’clock today they announced they will be redeeming the vouchers for Amazon gift cards for the final time this cruise. I took mine down to the Explorer’s Lounge and waited in a short line. They accepted our word for the number of vouchers we had, not bothering to count them up, and then rounded our total up to the nearest five dollars and gave us the appropriate number of gift cards. It was a better process than the Grand Dollars was since we could only trade those in for a limited number of HAL trinkets which we may or may not have any interest in. With the Amazon Gift Cards we were able to buy something on Amazon that we would find useful.
Today I was able to cash in my 340 vouchers for US$35 in Amazon gift cards.
Indonesian Crew Show
The highlight of the day was the Indonesian Crew Show directed by everyone’s favorite assistant dining room manager, Presty. Here is a photograph of the program which consisted of six different numbers:
• Welcome Saman Dance
• Traditional Albutahu & Sipato – Pato Song
• Cendrawasih Dance
• Surprise Song
• Sesonderan Dance
• Kecak Ramayana Dance
We arrived in the Queen’s Lounge around 2 PM and were able to get seats in the first row of the Balcony. The place was filling up quickly and was almost completely full around 2:30 – 30 minutes before showtime. The show was very entertaining, and most people were eagerly looking to spot their waiter/waitress or cabin steward amongst the performers onstage. The next evening, when Judy entered the dining room for dinner, she asked Presty if he had learned those dances when he was in school. He told her that the dances they performed were from a different island than the one he grew up on and he didn’t learn them until he was working on Holland America cruise ships.
Tina, the Pinnacle Grill Manager, and Nasirum, were the Masters of Ceremonies.
Maria Lyn
Maria Lyn was back for her second show this evening. She put on another fantastic show featuring big hits from Stage and Screen, including “The Phantom of the Opera” and “’S Wonderful” from Diana Krall.
