As we approach Europe the seas have subsided to 10 or 12 feet. The skies remain partly cloudy. So far we have only experienced a few brief showers. Life is good.
Tonight we will go to Timarind, one of the specialty restaurants for Holland America. The "Have It All" package gave us 2 nights of special dining, along with other benefits. Food and service was excellent.
The headliner shows have been typical. One comedian was good, the other, well we passed on his second appearance.
Tomorrow we dock at Falmouth, England. We do not have an excursion but will get off for a bit if the weather cooperates. It is a small city and also a tender port.
Starting at 7:00 AM or when we dock all passengers need to be screened by UK customs. This usually just means verifying we look like our passport.
Cruising sometimes really is a small world. A couple of nights ago we ran into Marilyn and Skip, neighbors in my Kings Ridge Community.
I mentioned that Marty spent time in Antartica. We'll it turns out that Lynn's nephew, a photographer for National geographic was in Antartica at the same time, probably in the same places. There are not a lot of inhabited places in Antartica.
I have managed to come down with a very bad cold. No going ashore for me. I will rest and hope to be better for our visit to Paris in a few days.
By April 17 I am much better, but will still pass on going ashore in Portland, England. In case you guessed it, Portland cement was developed here.
The ship is pretty quiet today. The crew is practicing emergency skills. Some are learning to drive lifeboats, others fight fires, even the emergency generators are tested.
Yesterday's immigration was smooth as far as I was concerned, but many passengers just don't get it.
Everyone was told at least 4 times what the procedure would be. It was announced, it was in the app, it was in a letter placed in the cabin, in the guests native language I might mention, etc, etc.
Passengers were assigned to groups. When called, procede to the main stage. Have sea pass card scanned, present yourself and your passport to UK officials, have a sticker placed on your card. And you are done.
After all the groups were called, a process that took about 90 minutes for 2600 passengers and 900 crew members, then individual names were announced for all those that didn't show up.
90 passengers were individually called. Then 50 again, then 20, then 10, finally one. The last passenger was called 5 times before they complied. What can I say.
Generally the cruise has been good. I can't blame the cruise line for my cold. Bar service has been good, and servers adequate. In the dining room the staff has varied. Some nights there has just been 1 server, sometimes 2. It did take the front desk 2 attempts to correct a simple billing error, but it did get corrected.
The weather in Falmouth yesterday, and Portland today has been good for this time of year. Sunny and no rain!
Today I discovered a major design flaw in this class of ship. The gangway opens directly to deck 2, the public area deck with shops and bars. There are no door ways, so when we are in Port there is a horrific air flow in the gangway door, down the hallways and up ythe atrium and stairways located fore, center and aft on the ship.
When the outside temperature is cold, every public area of the ship experiences a very cold strong draft.
A minor design flaws that results in big discomfort for guests and staff alike.
This ship has been refurbished since launch, and this could have been easily fixed with the addition of some doors.
Tomorrow, we will be Lehavre, France. We have a 10 and a half hour tour of Paris scheduled, providing I fell well enough. The clocks get set ahead another hour. Room service breakfast is scheduled so we can make our 7:00 AM meeting time for our excursion.