Day 93, Sailing toward the Suez Canal

We continue our trek north today thru the Red Sea heading for the Suez Canal. The weather is pretty nice with clear, but hazy skies and smooth seas. Petra was a long day and we are enjoying the chance to relax.

Today we had a very special guest on Good Morning Amsterdam, Captain Mercer. He shared how he was hired by Holland America directly as the Captain of the Veendam back in 1995. Prior to that he was the master of a large ferry that would cross the English Channel 6 times a day giving him a lot of experience docking large ships in tight spots, which is exactly what HAL was looking for at the time. He met his current wife, Karen, when he was the Captain of the Ryndam and she was a passenger. They now live in Merritt Island, Florida when he is not at sea. He also maintains a residence in the UK. After he discussed his background with Gene, he answered a few questions from passengers before wrapping up the interview before 10 am so everyone could get to Barbara’s port lecture on Livorno, Italy.

Room service cheeseburgers was our choice for lunch today. They arrived in about 30 minutes and were delicious as always.

I stopped by the final Belly Dancing Class at 1 pm in the Crow’s Nest to see how many people were participating. There were about 15 women taking part and they were doing their final practice before their 3 pm show in the Queens lounge later in the afternoon.

As I was heading back to our cabin, I checked out the pool games in progress adjacent to the Lido pool. Gene, Jodie and Erin were running the guests thru the usual games of passing water balloons by holding them between your chin and your chest, passing fun noodles between your legs and other fun games where getting wet is usually guaranteed.

At 2 pm Judy went to the Suez Canal Lecture presented by Vivianne Rowan which she found very interesting and gave her a good overview of what to expect as we transit the Suez Canal tomorrow.

I played Texas Hold’em at 2:30 while Judy went to crafts, where she made a glass pebble magnet decorated with an initial. She chose a Z since there are two Z’s in our last name.

Afterwards she hurried forward to the Queens Lounge to watch the final Belly Dance show which consisted of the instructor leading her students in a demonstration of what they have been learning over the last week or so. They started several minutes early and only performed the one dance they had been practicing. They left the stage before taking their final bow, returning a few minutes later for pictures and to take their bow.

Even though we are now 4-Star mariners, Judy still does our laundry as the large industrial washing machines can be pretty rough on clothes. There is rarely anyone else in the laundry in the afternoons. She has met several other 4-Stars who also do their own laundry. They all say the same thing, expressing concern that the ship’s laundry is too rough on clothing.

I always keep a lookout for the words “Fresh Catch” on the menu as this means that the fish was purchased fresh in a recent port.   Fresh Catch Job Fish was on the menu tonight and it was very tasty and similar to a Red Snapper.

A group called “Casablanca Steps” provided tonight’s entertainment and it was one of the more unique shows of the cruise. The “On Location” guide didn’t give any hints as to what to expect. Casablanca Steps is a 4 man musical comedy act playing songs from the Great Gatsby era ,( e.g. the 1960’s hit “Winchester Cathedral” by the New Vaudeville Band) performing humorous skits and telling jokes aimed for a British audience, or so I thought until some of our UK friends didn’t seem to get the jokes either. There were a few people in the audience who were absolutely howling and enjoyed every minute.

Tomorrow will be an early start as we transit the Suez Canal.

I confirmed that there has been a change in guidance from Seattle that now allows guest lectures to be rebroadcast.  That will be good news – I can now catch up on them after the fact.

• Casablanca Steps