Day 61, Captain’s Gala Dinner

Day 61, Captains Gala Dinner, March 5th

I will be picking up my blog where I left off, back on March 5^th.  My last regular post was over a month ago on March 4^th with a report of our visit to The Bay of Islands.  After I finish the missing days, between March 5^th and March 25, I will re-date everything so they will appear in the correct order when anyone comes back to this cruise in the future.

At Sea, enroute to Sydney, Australia

It was nice to have some sea days after 3 straight days in port.  

NOTE: For anyone contemplating a World Cruise, or cruising in general, you must enjoy the time you have at sea, otherwise you are probably better off with a land only vacation.  There are many repeat World Cruisers on the Amsterdam where the real destination is the ship itself and the other passengers they have come to know over the years.  In many respects the Amsterdam is their winter home.

COFFEE CHAT

I started my day as always by attending the Coffee Chat in the Explorers Lounge.  Today’s guests were “The Alley Cats”, the A cappella group that had performed before we our port call in Auckland. 

Coffee Chat is at 9:30 AM, and at 9:25 Hamish will come over the ship’s public address system and announces the name of today’s guest followed by a rundown of the day’s activities.  There was a time change last night, but instead of Hamish simply making note of this fact, he had the Alley Cats do a sing song version, in perfect harmony.  

Another running joke at the Coffee Chats is that guest entertainers are night owls who often tend to sleep in. Many of them consider the 9:30 AM Coffee Chat as ridiculously early.  To keep this gag going, the four Alley Cats appeared wearing Holland America bathrobes. 

Armando, leader, and creator, of the Alley Cats, explained that he has 2 and sometimes 3 groups of Alley Cats on tour at any one time.  

CRUISE CRITIC MEET AND GREET

Our Cruise Critic Roll Call group held the 3^rd Meet and Greet of the cruise in the Crow’s Nest with about 40 people in attendance.  Kathi made a few announcements including the upcoming Slot Pull.  We had a few new people join us in Auckland and they introduced themselves.

SCHEDULE CHANGE – TAKE 2

The big news today was the second major schedule change.  Routine announcements during the day are never broadcast into the cabins, so when the Captain tells us that he needs to switch over to the circuit that broadcasts everywhere, we know that the news will be BIG.  

He informed us that India would not allow the ship to get a group visa, Sri Lanka and other ports were closing to cruise ships so we would sail around Australia, adding 4 more Australian Ports after Darwin:  Broome, Exmouth, Geraldton and finally Fremantle (Perth) arriving there on the 24^th.  After Perth we would head over to Reunion Island and then pick up the rest of the original itinerary.

Most everyone was pleased with this change as Australia is always popular and most people never get a chance to visit the far-flung cities of Western Australia.

NOTE: While I know the future now as I write this on 10 April 2020 back home in Imperial Beach, at the time, many of us speculated that  Fremantle might be our last port.  We were hoping that maybe we might end up taking a straight shot across to Cape Town and then on to Fort Lauderdale.  

CAPTAINS SPECIAL GALA DINNER

Tonight was a Gala Night, and not just any Gala night, but the Captain’s Special Gala night that was going to be the substitute for the Captain’s Dinners that used to be held in the Pinnacle Grill for guests that that were doing the full World Cruise.  On earlier World Cruises, the guests who were on for the entire cruise, were hosted by the Captain in the Pinnacle Grill.  I suspect this tradition was started when there were fewer guests that did the whole World Cruise.  Now there are so many staying on board for the entire World Cruise, the Pinnacle Grill is booked for numerous Captain’s Dinners over the length of the cruise. The Captain and his Officers were attending these dinners several times a week and those evenings the Pinnacle Grill was not available for other diners who would be paying the surcharge for their meal.   

SEATING CONFUSION

A few weeks ago, everyone was requested to RSVP for tonight’s dinner with their requested seating – early or late.  Dining Room Maître D, Presty, assigned tables a few days ago and everyone who said they were going to attend received a confirmation card with their time and table assignment.  People on fixed seating or with standing “anytime” reservations, would be assigned to their normal tables and times.  People on fixed seating who never appeared at their assigned table, along with infrequent anytime dinners, would be assigned tables based on availability which may be different than what they requested or expected. 

This caused mass confusion.  

Even though everyone received a card with their table and dining time, many people never bothered to look at their table assignment card and simply went to their original table – the one they never used the entire cruise – and were surprised to find that they were assigned elsewhere.   Other people who ate every dinner in the Lido had no idea where their table was and had to be escorted.  The combination of the above slowed down service considerably.  

GALA DINNER

Our assigned dinner time was 7:45 PM, but we arrived around 8 PM. The entrance on Deck 5 was still packed with people just starting to shuffle into the dining room.  We heard later about even larger crowds on Deck 4 and how some people couldn’t even get off the elevators outside the entrance to the dining room.  We didn’t have a problem since we were 15 minutes late and knew where we were going. 

We were joined by another couple, reassigned from Deck 4, and our table was hosted by Future Cruise Consultants – Michael and Joan.  Our new guests spent much of the time during dinner wondering aloud about why they didn’t have their original table, not seeming to comprehend that since this was the only time they had appeared in the MDR all cruise, they probably shouldn’t expect to sit at “their” table.

The Captain welcomed everyone and offered the following toast:  “May we go where we want to and not where we have to”.  Unfortunately, as we now know, we ended up going where we had to, not where we wanted to.

The “Station Band”, normally seen in the Crow’s Nest, was playing background music during dinner.

Despite the crowd, the service was excellent.  The food was fine and nicely presented. Dishing up over 500 rations twice in one evening and maintaining this quality is an achievement.  The portion sizes were smaller than many expected, but probably the right size for what we needed. 

The one item we missed was the chance for a photo with the Captain.  They might have been able to set up a separate photo line for those interested, but it would be hard to gauge demand – not sure how to solve that one.  Nevertheless, they successfully ended the expectation that there will be a special Captains dinner at all, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they simply did away with even this dinner in the future as very few people had much good to say about it. 

The evening’s show was pushed back to 10 PM, to allow for more time for people to get to the show.  This was a good plan as the meals did take longer.

THE MIDNIGHT HOUR

On the Mainstage this evening the HAL singers and dancers performed “The Midnight Hour”.  We enjoy seeing the cast shows. They are always excellent and worth seeing multiple times.  Some of the featured songs included:

• Fever
• Stuck in the Middle With You
• Me and Mrs Jones
• Instrumental – Green Onions by Booker T & the M.G.’s
• I’m Coming Home
• Valerie
• A Little More Satisfaction
• At Last

PILLOW GIFTS

The latest Pillow Gift was waiting for us when we returned to our cabin at the end of the evening. We received two small ceramic boxes made by Royal Goedewaagen.  They were presented in thin mesh bags instead of boxes. We’ll see if we can pack them well enough to survive the shipment to our condo at the end of the cruise.

• HAL Singers and Dancers
• Pillow Gift
• The MIdnight Hour