Day 51 – At Sea – 24 Feb

As we close in on Bali, the temperature outside is getting warmer and warmer.  Fortunately, the air conditioning on our Deck, 6, has been fabulous all cruise.  We haven’t had any issues in our cabin or in the Deck 5 dining room.

Coffee Chat

Everyone’s favorite Asst. Dining Room Manager, Presty Sumitra, along with Assistant Housekeeper Made Sumayasa and Controller Jusuf Nouvy were the guests for Coffee Chat this morning.  They were all very engaging and answered questions about their background, their families and what their plans were for the upcoming visit to Indonesia.  Presty only lives 15 minutes from the ship and he plans to bring on 22 guests.  We learned later that Presty will be moving to the Koningsdam later this year and then to the Nieuw Statendam for her inaugural season in 2019.  He will not be on the 2019 World Cruise.

Presty, in response to a question about crewmember training, explained that there is Holland America Training Facility in Indonesia where new employees go through about 2 months of training before being sent to their first ship.  The first month focuses on teaching them what Presty called “Premium English” where they learn the correct syntax and phrasing for working in the service industry that caters to English speaking customers.  The second month is about the specifics of their future duties such as cleaning cabins or working as a food or beverage waiter.

Uchi, a waitress in the Pinnacle Grill, performed a traditional Welcome Dance.  She did a wonderful job and would prove to be the equal of many we would see performing the dance later.

Knitting

My knitting has been on hiatus for a few weeks, but I returned to the Crow’s Nest today to catch up and knock off a few rows.  I picked up a small bit of inspiration while on the yarn crawl.  I even had Judy buy me a Koala project that will be the first to join my UFO (Unfinished Object) shelf, but Judy sighed and said I had to start the project before I could relegate it to an UFO shelf.  We’ll see how it goes.  Stay tuned.

Afternoon

I played 3 Texas Hold’em tournaments and finished in 3^rd place each time.

Today in drawing, Judy continued working on tonal values and shadows.   Ben used an egg for an example and passed it around, so everyone could note the contours and shadows.   Judy was feeling a little impish and sketched a likeness of Ben on the egg before passing it back.

The craft project this afternoon was to hand stitch the final sections together to turn a flat square piece of fabric into an Indonesian Fabric Flower Jewelry Pouch.

Six of us from Table 303 are now established as regulars at Evening Trivia which is held at 5 PM in the Piano Bar.  The room is comfortably full with each team established in their own area.  So far there haven’t been any turf battles.  The game takes about 20- 30 minutes and has proven to be a lot of fun.  We take the questions and answers to dinner and quiz our tablemates while we are waiting between courses.

Room Number Roulette

Our tablemates assembled in the Casino this evening before dinner to play “Room Number” roulette.  Each of us started with $30 and would play for about one hour and then person with the highest dollar amount at 8 PM would be declared the winner – complete with all bragging rights and little else.  Since the Casino only has 8 different colors of table chips, 2 of us played with $1 chips and had to pay attention to where our money was after each spin.  The minimum bet is $1 for any single number or small group of numbers.  There was a $5 minimum for any bet with that paid out 3-1 or lower.

Everyone started out playing their room numbers which for us would be a dollar on 6,2 and 11 or we could put money on 6,2 and number 1 twice.  Peggy was the first big winner when she hit her room number twice in a row!  After our room number bets, people starting betting however they chose for the rest of the hour.  When the spinning stopped, I lost my entire $30, Judy ended up with $32 (winning $2) and 2 of our tablemates won over $150 each.  Collectively, the ten of us ended up about $30 ahead.  I think that our table put more money across the Roulette table this evening than the rest of the cruise combined.

Peggy winning big!

As we were leaving the Casino on the way to dinner, Rick and I pointed out our standings in the Blackjack Tournament after the second round.

Gala Night

Tonight was a Gala Night with a Pan Asian Theme.  All the staff in the dining room were dressed in traditional garb, including our wine steward, Kaye, who normally never wears the theme clothing like the waiters.  Many of the guests wore items with an Asian theme, while most of the rest were decked out in traditional tuxedos and women’s more formal wear.

Sue, the ms Amsterdam nurse was our host for dinner.    Sue is from England and we had a wonderful time discussing her duties and background

Choices for dinner included:

• PANSIT BIHON (Traditional Filipino Noodle Dish)
• CHICKEN, PAPAYA AND AVOCADO SALAD
• FILIPINO STYLE BARRAMUNDl lN BANANA LEAVES
• LAND AND SEA (Filet and Shrimp)
• INDONESIAN CURRY LAMB CHOP
• BALINESE-STYLE ROAST DUCK

Queen’s Lounge

Katei, was the featured entertainer this evening and was billed as a Rock Violinist.  Contrary to recent practice, Katei was clearly advertised in the When and Where as a violinist.  He opened with the Led Zepplin composition “Kashmir” and played other rock classics including Viva la Vida by Coldplay and Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars.  The Amsterdam Orchestra was featured in many numbers and provided a beautiful accompaniment to his violin.