Day 8, Cruising enroute to Edinburgh, Scotland

Our day at sea started with our usual room service breakfast, which we always enjoy and the galley continues to honor our substitutions and modifications to the standard menu.  We didn’t care for bacon, so we crossed it off and wrote in we wanted some extra sausage – all requests were honored.

We had a special treat this morning when we happened to sail near several United States Navy warships including the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) and the USS Donald Cook (DDG 75).  The Captain made several announcements alerting all the passengers to their presence in addition to reading details about the ships from Wikipedia.

Many passengers rushed to the open decks to watch as the ships all passed us on our port side.  They were probably going 3-5 knots faster than us and they were visible for about 30 minutes until they disappeared over the horizon.

Beth Brown Reinzel had a busy day teaching her class on knitting traditional Gansey techniques.

I signed up for the Texas Hold-em tournament at 11:30 but there weren’t enough people to start the game, I signed up for the game scheduled for 1:30 PM.

Judy and I met back in our cabin for lunch and decided to order a Dive Inn Cheeseburger and Hot Dog from room service.  The price was $4.95 per item.  I contemplated walking up to the Dive Inn Grill, order them there, then bring them back to the room.  This way they would be free (or at no additional charge as nothing is really free on a cruise ship – you pay for it one way or another), but I decided I’d rather lounge in my cabin and that the ten dollars this would cost was not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.  We have learned to budget our onboard spend into the cost of the cruise and then not worry about it once onboard.

NOTE: One nice feature of the ships IntraNet is that it is very easy to check your onboard account.  In all my years of cruising, I have never had a mistake on any of my bills, but there is always a first time.  There was a case of someone at our table that was charged for the incorrect drinks when the waiter got their cruise cards mixed up while taking a big order.  Always pays to check your receipt when you get your drink to make sure that you were billed correctly.

The Dive Inn food arrived in about 30 minutes.  It was good, but I forgot to order catsup for the fries, so remember to order whatever condiments you prefer rather than assume they will be delivered automatically as they would be if you ordered food from hotel room service ashore.

After lunch the USS Donald Cook was once again nearby and the Captain asked the Captain of the Donald Cook if he could give us a closer look.   The Donald Cook obliged and passed us closer on our port side while flying the large US Flag – nice!    She accelerated and passed in front of us before turning and heading back in the other direction.

Here is a video of the Donald Cooks approach

There were enough people for a Texas Hold-em game at 1:30, but unfortunately the Poker Pro table kept freezing up and they had to cancel the game after about 20 minutes.  We did get a couple of free drinks for our trouble so it wasn’t a total loss.

We invited Jesse and Colleen Kazemek to join us for dinner this evening and they graciously accepted.  They were delightful dinner companions and we enjoyed learning more about their background and how they developed their wonderful Beatles tribute show after they met while they were both singing on cruise ships as cast singers.  Earlier in their careers they were both in National Tours of Broadway shows:  Jesse was in Miss Saigon and Colleen was in Hairspray.  They will be leaving the Zuiderdam tomorrow in Edinburgh and head over to the Prinsendam.

Tonight’s show was a screening of the BBC show “Frozen Planet Live” accompanied by live music played by Adagio and the Zuiderdam band.  It was OK, but I prefer live entertainment rather than watching a movie with a live sound track.

• Beth Brown Reinsel
• US Navy