Again, a Sea Day...

Sunday, March 5. 25 C. High overcast sky, choppy seas, long swells. Day 61.

More of the same. However, I, myself, have a feeling of relief that we will finally get to darn Africa where the pace of this cruise should most certainly pick up! In my humble opinion, this has, to date, been the most disappointing World Cruise we have ever been on. And this is number five or six!

Besides some of the Pacific Island ports being a bit iffy, Holland America itself has been a disappointment. Their cutbacks are possibly to be expected because of the terrible losses they experienced because of basically no income for three years but heaping ongoing costs at the same time. 

Ships that are not in use cannot just sit in the water and wait indefinitely, they have to be maintained, repaired and likely reconditioned. I am just stating that as they, Holland America appear to have started sailing again with lower operating costs than previously. The service is the same, excellent, but many, many 'Little Things' are gone. 

We, as passengers, expected some of the port facilities not to be fully up to speed, but I personally never even thought about the number of things that Holland America would eliminate that make the trip, to us, a less than expected vacation: so far! Disappointed, You Bet I Am!

I hope that Holland America will ease up on their 'Spartan Budget' as the cruise comes closer to the end, you know how it works, 'loosen up in the last few weeks to make us forget about the Spartan Budget conditions on most of the cruise’ The list of  little omissions is too long to list and may seem petty, so I won’t.

As of today, we have been to 27 ports in 61 days. A port every 2.25 days.

To come, we have 38 ports in 68 days to go.         A port every 1.79 days.

The difference may not seem like much, but I believe it will make all the difference in the world in off-ship activities and experiences. 

Holland America Staff are trying their best to make the best of a poor situation, I will say that for them.

Remember, this is one mans opinion.

Another Day At Sea…

Look at this near table on deck by the swimming pool. That lady in blue is a tutor, teaching those two young girls. They and their parents or guardians have been on since we sailed. Pretty nice eh!

A partial shot of the Gym that is a beehive in the morning.