April 12
Our ship, Holland America's “Eurodam,” is the least impressive of any we've been on—confusing layout, no grand atrium, dated-looking. The guests appear to be mostly retirees, but more mobile than the ones on our Hawaiian tour. Many are international. Four at our dinner table are from a Swedish tour (fly over, sail back, fly home), and two at lunch the next day were from Spain.
Our first evening we saw “Butiful,” the Academy Award nominated film with Javier Bardem. The acting was amazing, but the film was overwhelmingly depressing, an odd choice for the ship's first night at sea.
April 13
After a ten-hour sleep, we began to feel adjusted to east-coast time, and began our speed-walking on the Promenade Deck. At lunch, we sat with a charming couple from Majorca. She spoke no English; he said that his was from school, 42 years ago. The other two were women from Sun City, Blufton, SC, although they did not know the Poiriers! One of them, a Republican version of Adelaide, from “Guys and Dolls,” quickly established that this was her first trip abroad, she had left her diamonds at home so they wouldn't be stolen by Gypsies, and “those people” (Spanish-speaking Mexicans) were moving in “everywhere.” Much of our discussion was with the Spanish couple who told us where to find the best flamenco.
In the Silk Den Lounge that evening, we met an interesting retired, married couple from San Francisco. Ron was a teacher and Paul a librarian. The former is four-star Mariner with Holland America (over two hundred days at sea), so he knew all the ins and outs of the ship and gets lots of perks including free laundry.
April 14
Perhaps we hadn't adjusted to east-coast time, because Bob needed a nap in the morning and another in the afternoon. Stew also had one in the afternoon. Or maybe it was just our settling into the slower pace of life on the sea.
Dinner was in Pinnacle Grill, the ship's up-scale restaurant, compliments of our agent who booked the cruise. The highlight was volcano cake, a version of the lava cake we'd had on our first cruise—a chocaholic's dream. Then we met Ron and Paul in the Silk Den for after-dinner drinks. Also with them were a deaf couple, Caesar and Robin, and their ship-supplied interpreter. Caesar signed an amazing story of his moving to this country from Spain when he was in his early twenties and having to learn not only a new language, but a new sign language.
April 15
Bermuda. 70s and sunny. Azure water. Took ferry to Hamilton, a tidy small village with overpriced shoppes. Took ferry back to ship for lunch on board.
After lunch headed out again to walk the area around the ship...King's Wharf...the old Royal Dockyards. Finally found a WiFi spot!
