DFR Travels: 2013

East or west, which is best...

Tuesday December 31. [New Year's Eve] Drizzle.

Our voyage is WESTBOUND, circling the globe, and that means we will pass through 24 time zones, losing one hour in each time zone passing. It means that 24 times when we go to bed, we will turn the clock BACK. In other words, and extra hour of either sleep or time up before bedtime. However, when we pass over the International Dateline, west of New Zealand, we will LOSE a full day and that lost day is made up by the 24 time zones we will pass through on the voyage spread over the 113 days at sea.

On the other hand, on a circumnavigation of the globe EASTBOUND, one would be required to put the clocks FORWARD 24 times during the voyage. That becomes a bit of an annoyance and it is hard to believe but it does affect you, especially if one is nearer the poles where time zone changes, or longitudes, are closer together, and can happen almost daily, like between northern Japan or Russia and Alaska. At the poles, one can literally walk around the world by merely circling an imaginary mark on the snow or ice and that is where all the longitude lines meet.

I myself find it fascinating and did not fully understand it when in school and only fully grasped it later in life.

Our dressing mirror near the end of a similar voyage, April 2008. I take photos with me of friends and family and put on the mirror so I see them each day. Through the voyage I add memorable events and memorabilia.Tacky I know but it sure is fun and I see my friends and family every day! Visitors to our stateroom spend considerable time checking it out.

Amsterdam docked at Gibraltar, April 2008.

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On the home front today we said our goodbyes to family, friends and co-workers. It is at the same time exciting and sad. Sad to be heading off to be with strangers for 1/3 of a year except for sister Moe, on for 37 days, and good friends Jim and Gail who will be with us all the way, and exciting for obvious reasons.

In Craig's house earlier today.

Fellette with Jeanette, Adrienne and Alicia saying goodbye this afternoon.

Oh, the pressure...

Monday, December 30. Cloudy.

We only have two more sleeps in our home bed before we head out and I can feel the 'pressure' of having to write an interesting Blog as so many people seem to be looking forward to a little armchair travelling without all the hassle and expense of actually going somewhere. During the days away I am always aware of something interesting that I observe or am privy to, to share with people at home. My camera is always on my hip, even at dinner time.

One of my first concerns is getting connected to the internet on board. This can be easy, or it can be a hassle. The ship has a person whose job is to keep us technologically challenged folks happy. The person is usually well qualified, young and often from some developing or Eastern European country. I usually become very familiar with him or her as we travel around the world trying to connect to the internet under some funny circumstances. This persons job is quite a challenge because it seems that oftentimes people come on board with a new iPad or computer and are expecting to sail around the world while sending emails and photos to friends and family. The drop-out rate of such enthusiasts is quite severe and only those who persist will be successful. It is indeed a challenge.

However I have nothing startling to report or photos to share with you today, sorry, we are now just putting in time until Wednesday afternoon when we leave our home and start the journey. Tomorrow we say goodbye to family that we usually see daily and will not see for four months. It can be a little emotional for me.

A typical day on board...

Sunday, December 29. Drizzle.

When we get on board and underway next Saturday, things will be somewhat hectic as we try to settle in on our new life on the ship. My blog will likely be more on what is happening on a particular day, so I thought that I might give some insight into what options there may be on a typical day at sea, in other words, for 69 days of the cruise.

To start the day, we often call for tea and coffee to our cabin around 6:30.

Around 8:00 we may wander up to the Conservatory, a large eating area, buffet style, surrounded by floor to ceiling windows. We usually end up eating a healthy breakfast, oatmeal, eggs, etc., although on some days we may have a bit of bacon. There we will likely be with friends and get the day sorted. We may then have a few laps of the deck to keep the blood flowing. Fellette may then go to Choir Practice or Bible Study and I may go to a lecture on some interesting subject, or if they have it, Tai-Chi classes.

On occasions Fellette and I may go for an early morning dip around seven, prior to breakfast. Sometimes the pool is shut if it is moving too much, but it is nice to be in the pool floating on your back and see the sun come up and even the moon above, amidst the rigging with all the flags fluttering.

I may get a chance to do some work on my pictures, start the blog, read, or have a nap. Remember the objective is to relax and have a good time, we do our work the rest of the year at home. I have taken some DVD's of lectures by professors on some of my favourite subjects.

Fellette will find a scrabble partner, although Gail, our travelling companion is an excellent player and they may get together.

Lunch is usually with friends, often in the conservatory but once in a while in the dining room. The dining room service is slower and does not have the range if you are interested in making your own little salad, etc. The downside of the buffet is that there seems to be a bit of a scramble as we usually all eat around the same time! One gets a bit tired of doing a dance with your tray around the serving counters.

After lunch, more of the same, with some variety, maybe a Port Lecturer, or a dance class, bridge is always an option although bridge players seem to be obsessive and will likely be the last off the ship if we ever had to abandon ship.

Of course for the shoppers in the crowd there is always the shops to browse in, or the casino.

We are on 'Early Dinner Seating' which has it's pros and cons. Getting dressed for dinner is a time that we really enjoy. That is when I shave and shower have a pre-dinner drink and spend some time with Fellette, catch up on the day's happenings and appreciating where we are and what we are experiencing. We are sitting at different tables than Moe or Jim and Gail so that we all have an opportunity to meet and experience different people. If we five sat at one table we would not get much of a chance to meet fellow travellers. We will have many dinners together though when some people eat in alternative dining rooms and we can bring visitors to our various tables.

The night-time entertainment starts after dinner and runs for an hour. I often do not go but spend time in the cabin, alone, with my books, DVD's, photos etc. Jim and Gail with Fellette and Moe will likely take in almost every show.

There are also movies during the morning, afternoon and evening as well.

During the day of course, the Pool Deck is always an option, sunning, napping, reading and dipping to cool off. They have a snack bar up there and on occasions we grab a delicious made-to-order burger for lunch.

An over-indulgence of food is of great concern, seriously. It takes great discipline to balance your food intake with your expenditure of calories and they really make it difficult with the variety and presentation of absolutely delicious looking foods.

To give you an idea of where my time goes during the day, the foregoing ramble took me about an hour to do.

ms Amsterdam off of Bermuda, April 23, 2008.

Back to work...

Saturday, December 28. Cloudy, mild.

An interesting thing that has taken place on previous World Cruises is the fact that Holland America has a few/several male 'Dance Hosts' on the cruise. Their job is to dance with unattached females and they must be at every occasion where there is a group playing and there is the opportunity to dance. This is a very important part of the cruise for women so inclined and they are very much aware if the host is 'favouring' any particular lady or maybe neglecting some as well I suppose.

They are also encouraged to act as the ship's representative on Shore Excursions, they accompany a tour and report on the quality of the tour and guide, etc. When a Host dines at your table, as does happen, there is complimentary wine that goes with him.

It sounds like a dream job but it is a bit of a grind and I think that it is very hard for them to get some 'alone time'. The age of the gentlemen seems to be in the 60+ range. They are all nice men I must say, at least the ones we have met.

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On the Home Front, Last fall we dug a trench between our property and the neighbour's driveway, and only today did we getting around to filling it with gravel to clean it up and enhance rain water runoff. Time is running out and it was now or never. We had it done by lunch time, [late lunch]! At the same time as we were cleaning up from that we took down the nativity scene, wow, even ahead of schedule.

Fellette took down Christmas while I was getting and returning the trailer. We had dinner at the Gray's tonight, turkey soup and two scrabble games, it will be the last time we see them in four months.

My much younger wife saying, 'Here we go again!'

In the beginning.

An hour later.

Down comes the nativity scene and put the camels in the trailer.

The trailer, tucked away and locked up. Not a bad parking job eh

Don broke two ankles some six weeks ago, he is hopeful the casts come off January 7.

Still struggling with the posting this way...

Friday, December 27. 5:37 PM.

Well, today I thought that I should stop trying to fiddle with two blogs and only do the Travel Blog and attempt to get the bugs out of it.

My day started with a trip to the computer store to try and get a replacement for my newly acquired iPad cover and keyboard: a small part fell of it sometime yesterday and I need toothpicks to start it and turn it off. It's not going to happen!

They gave me a full refund but no replacement, so I went to another shop: not in stock. Next to another store where I found a very nice equivalent one. When I went to the truck I discovered that I had locked the keys inside. My much younger wife, who would never do that, drove down to the madhouse shopping centre and brought the spare set. By now it was too late to do the rest of my errands so I went home for lunch.

Fellette is having the grand girls, Myra and Heidi plus Logan in for a visit and gift exchange that they have done for about 30 years so I went to Craig's build and CTI.

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Google mail is too slow on uploading so I am back to using Mac Mail to send to the blog.

Ready for The Girls.

Too many Christmas treats I am afraid.

The masons and the tilers were there today working.

Front pillars.

The Girls, Myra looked after the oldest three when they were babies. That is Heidi on the right and Grandson Logan, daughter of Linda.

I got Myra unaware as I took this bad photo of Fellette's Christmas present to Myra we made. A bird feeder for blue jays.

More darn experimenting!

Friday, December 27, again.

Now trying G-mail to post.

A very productive day...

Thursday, December 26. Cloudy, some sun.

We had success on several fronts today. We installed trickle battery chargers on two cars, [not an easy job on our cars], fixed up three gate and garage door openers, located a TV cable box that has been missing for three years and costing $3.95 per month, and installed, with Craig's help, a new TV cable box in the upstairs lounge for our house-sitters to use.

We also decorated another Christmas tree with outdoor lights that Wally and Katrina gave us for Christmas. The lights were actually meant to go on a blue spruce potted live tree they gave us but we don't want to plant it here. We will re-gift it to Craig. Wally and Katrina did give us the idea to have a lit tree in the back garden that is visible from our kitchen though.

This blog was posted from my email application on my Mac without going through the blog-site. I hope to be able to do this on the ship so I am practising.

Test

Again

Sent from my iPad

Some info of the Amsterdam

Thursday, December 26. Still playing with posting vis email.

The ship is not what one would call new by any means. It was launched in 2000 which believe it or not makes it now an 'old' ship.

She holds 1380 passengers which is now considered small. It is conservative and elegant, not gaudy at all. The size is such that getting about is not a problem as it can be on larger ships.

Some info that is published.

MS Amsterdam is a cruise ship owned and operated by Holland America Line, named for the northern Holland city of Amsterdam. She is the line's Pacific flagship and is a sister ship to MS Rotterdam. She is the co-flagship of Holland America Line along with Rotterdam.

As with Rotterdam, Amsterdam features a multi-million dollar art collection. This includes a three story tall fully functional Astrolabe in the main atrium which took over 15 years to design.^[4]

During the summer, Amsterdam sails around Alaska; during the winter, she makes grand voyages around Asia, Australia/New Zealand & South Pacific. She also sails an around-the-world grand voyage round-trip from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Fuel consumption of 140 tons (39,500 gallons) of fuel per day at 21 knots speed.^[5]

Same day, again.

Testing

Another crack at this posting thing.

Same day.

That went pretty darn good, let's see how more than one photo goes.

This spring when Wally got the Jag.

Getting wood at Craig

Made for The Farm this summer.

Let's see what this looks like on the blog.

None of this has to do with out trip I am just experimenting.

Another test post from my computer

Thursday, December 26. Cloudy not so cold.

Today I ticked off a few more things related to us being away. That included a trip to London Drug on Boxing Day. Gasp! All in all it was not to bad because I did all my errand shopping in that one store.

In the morning Fellette helped me install Trickle Chargers in our cars because if left standing for four months it is quite possible they would drain down and I would lose a battery as well as all my settings in the car.

In the afternoon we decorated another Christmas tree in the back garden. Wally and Katrina arrived last night with a live Blue Spruce tree and two boxes of outdoor lights and a timer. The intention was that in future years we could decorate a planted tree and see it from our kitchen. However there is no place to plant one without complicating the garden lawn cutting etc. so, we decided to decorate an existing tree, somewhat larger I might say, and ask Wally and Katrina's permission to re-gift the tree to Craig as part of his landscaping that he has to do.

Regarding the Travel Blog: It is quite a commitment to do a blog at sea each day for about four months. The internet connection at sea is absolutely atrocious and unpredictable. I am going to see if I can post directly to my Blog via an email to expedite things and avoid having to use Craig as my intermediary. I think the Blog will be somewhat messier in appearance than when I do it the regular way but I may have to sacrifice quality for convenience. The problem will be with pictures methinks.

Our new tree.

From my ipad

Does it work from this?

Sent from my iPad

Second email to blog test, with a picture.

Second test on this method of posting…

Testing:email to blog

Does this do the job? If so is it an alternative on the ship?

One week to blast off...

Christmas Day, 2013. Cloudy.

Lots going on in our lives with family and Christmas here, but knawing deep in my stomach is the upcoming departure from this very real world here to the fantasy world of cruise life.

There are scant few details left for me to attend to in that regard except that I have most likely forgotten the most important ones!

This is our home for the next four months. Along with some 1300 other souls.

Another test...

Sunday, December 22, 2013. Sloppy and slushy.

According to the tracking records, our luggage shipped last week is in Fort Lauderdale.

I wonder if it is intact? Time will tell.

Testing, testing...

Monday, December 2. Snowy.

As you can see Craig has posted a map of the world showing the route of the journey that we will be taking when we set off January 4.

Stay tuned, I will post the odd bit here as we get closer to the date.

A few more photos...

Friday, April 26. Cloudy, dozy.

We went to bed at 10:00 last night and were wide awake at 1:00. We staggered around for several hours and dozed in the afternoon and then went and did some gardening.

I want to show you a few pictures that continue to befuddle my mind on China. To me, China is unexplainable.

Those carts are parked that way because it's the LAW, not because they are just neat.

Lots of bikes still. But a bike means you are of a lower class, and class matters there.

I don't think I could ever get used to the crowds.

This lady sits and does that all day long and eats at her bench, on some days her kid would be with her. And for not much money.

Meanwhile in the city it's all glitz and Bling.

Night time illumination is everywhere.

I love these things, always have. Those are about three feet high.

You are never far from Big Brother.

Just a local restaurant. Love the vases!

This bus boy could not take his eyes off of us Foreigners.

The entrance to the Forbidden City, a virtual Shrine in Beijing and massive in size.

Typical pose for a Chinese worker. You get what you pay for.

This restaurant was over the top. It was an indescribable experience. These were our servers. Not a word of English. Primarily for rich Chinese.

The parking lot and it's attendant!

Safe and sound...

Thursday, April 25. Hong Kong, muggy.

Thursday, April 25. Vancouver, bright cheery spring day. We had two Thursdays, gaining the day we lost when flying over.

It was a waiting game, again today, but in very relaxing and pleasant surroundings. Eventually we got picked up, driven to the airport and went through security and checked in and soon it was take off time.

We had a dinner and then nodded off for most of the flight as the windows were drawn and it seemed like night, which with our biological clock it was. A light breakfast and down at 5:00 PM to brilliant sunshine and no smog.

We got our car in jig-time and bucked the traffic home. First thing was a visit to the garden which did very well in our absence. Fellette started to unpack while I got the computer cranked up and dealt with some things have to be dealt with by month end.

I did start to download the pictures but my mind is shutting down.

How soon we forget the recent travels and get caught up in our routine daily life.

I hope you enjoyed the trip to China with us.

Cheers for now, Doug