Cruisin'

Colin, Nathan and I just got back from a cruise with my parents!

It was the first cruise for all of us, and we wanted to try a shorter cruise as a starter cruise just incase it wasn't our "thing". My family has never been really good with boats (and I married a boat lover??) so we weren't sure how the sea sickness would pan out.

So we went on a the Volendam (Holland America) from Vancouver to Seattle, Astoria, Victoria, Vancouver. 

Playing in the pool

Enjoying tea on the deck one evening

This is going to take forever to write if I write about everything, so I'm going to sum it up in sections.

*****

PORTS:

We didn't even get off the ship in Seattle. Been there, done that. Rather sit by the pool and eat. We got off in Astoria for a bit. Took a shuttle bus into "town" and went in almost every store and were back in time for lunch. Mmmm. Food! We got off in Victoria, just because we needed solid ground (although it didn't FEEL very solid). Went for a walk on the seawall and got back on. 

Soaking up the sun in Victoria

*****

FOOD:

I don't think I ever got hungry on the ship. There's no time to get hungry between meals! First, there's the breakfast buffet (oh, I feel sick even writing the word "buffet"), with zucchini french toast, peach walnut pancakes, any kind of meat you want, any eggs you want, omelets made to order... wow.

Then lunch comes. You try to tell yourself that walking around the ship for the past hour has burned off all the calories from breakfast. But you're wrong. Maybe half of one pancake. But the lunch is too good to resist. There's Thai and/or Chinese food, made to order focaccia sandwiches, meat potatoes & veggies, pasta with your choice of amazing sauce, etc...

Before you know it, dinner time has arrived! So we dress up, and make our way to the formal dining room, wondering where you're going to store the food that comes to the table. But that doesn't stop you from ordering 2 appys (shrimp cocktail, crab cakes, pineapple with mango strawberry salsa, mussels, baked brie in phylo pastry), soup (french onion, lobster bisque), and an entree or two. Choose from duck, steak, king crab legs, salmon, and lots of other fancy stuff I don't remember. 

Then as if you're not full enough, why not go to the late night buffet from 11-12 pm? I mean, really. Who needs to eat again at that time of night? But did that stop me from eating fettuchini an hour before bedtime? I think I only ate there 2 times. And small portions.

The restaurants are closed after midnight, and don't open until 6 am (I think...I was never there before 8). But DON'T WORRY, you can order room service at any time. Which we did once, just because we can. We actually fell asleep waiting for it and woke up at midnight (or whatever time it came) so we could eat the cracker and cheese platter, fruit platter, (both platters only had 4 small pieces on them) and apple pie, and then fall asleep again. 

Our table in the dining room was awesome! It was a window seat at the very back of the ship! Best table in the house. One evening during dinner, we watched dolphins jumping behind the boat!

the view

My handsome men on formal night

The King on his throne

*****

GYM:

We went to the gym once for 30 minutes.

*****

ENTERTAINMENT:

Comedy act night one. Song and dance show night two. Female jazz singer night three. Comedian/Hawaiian ukulele player night four (so funny!). It was ok, but would have been nice to see a magician or an actual musical.

*****

OPEN OCEAN:

Oh boy. If I have one piece of advice, it's PACK GRAVOL!!!!!!! I didn't. Luckily, my parents did. And we went through the entire pack, and I spent one night concentrating on not throwing up for hours (after the gravol was all gone). 

We were in open ocean for 2 nights, so, half of the nights. The swells were CRAZY. We looked at Colin's GPS and saw NO LAND at all!! Just the little ship in the middle of a big blue screen. We used the GPS to see how far away from any land we were, and it was 50K! 

This is actually one of my biggest fears. But I went out on the top deck by myself in the evening, and looked 360 degrees around me, and could look past the fear and appreciate the beauty and awe of the scene (granted, the ocean was calm at the time). 

The ocean swells were so bad that it turned the normally calm swimming pool into a wave pool. Colin and I got in it when it was thrashing about, and it threw you around! I've tried uploading a video but it's not working. Too bad!

*****

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE:

Waste. I am guilty too. You eat more than you need, and if you don't want what you've taken off the buffet, just throw it out. 

There were people who were treating the staff terribly. Like they are SO MUCH BETTER than them. It was disgusting. One lady made the sandwich maker change so many things. "Take it apart and put mayo on BOTH sides. I ONLY want ham and cheese. Where's the tomato? I want tomato?". Poor guy. She put him through the ringer. Then he toasted the sandwich and she said, "I wanted it TOASTED not BURNT". Then she waved her hand at him as if it was diseased and walked off. 

Give me a break.

And another lady asked where the decaf tea was. He'd run out so suggested there was some on the other side of the buffet. She was angry. She retorted, "NEVER MIND" and walked off.

Give me another break. You've eaten enough to have the calories available to get your lazy legs to the other side of the buffet and get your own tea. Can't you see he's busy?

I could go on and on.

Another thing that bothered me? The people who are working on the cruise ships are coming from places where they can't get a decent pay. So they're leaving their families for months and months at a time so they can earn a living. The head of the kitchen came to talk to us at every dinner. He has a 5 month old daughter at home, who he's o

nly seen for 5 weeks of her life. I think he talked to us so much because he misses her, and seeing Nathan may have shown him what she may be like. There were only 3 babies on board so Nathan did get a LOT of attention. And when I say "a lot", I MEAN it! 

*****

One thing I was looking forward to on this vacation was that Colin wouldn't be saying "I'm going to work on my boat now". 

What was on the agenda for the second day? A BOAT BUILDING competition! You're kidding me. 

"Oh well" I thought, "At least it's only for an hour". 

How wrong I was. It was an info session where you got the rules. He actually got 2 DAYS to build it, using anything he found on the ship. The competition was in the hot tub on the last full day at sea. It had to float with 12 cans of pop on it in the turbulence of the hot tub. He built it with 32 casino buckets, duct tape and balloons. His ship was the most seaworthy. 

After the competition was over the ships went into the pool. Colin's was the favourite among the kids, as they could use it as a floatation device! They were climbing all over the thing and it wasn't sinking or falling apart. If the judging had been after that occurrence, he would have won more than 3rd place! I was happy with 3rd though, because I got a coffee mug out of the deal!

*****

Nathan always went to sleep in my parents room so Colin and I could go out by ourselves for a bit every night. Like to watch karaoke, go to a late show, or go line dancing! I would insist that people with kids must cruise with sitters!

Well, it was a fun time. Nathan was SUCH a good boy. He really can roll-with-the-punches. I am still wondering though, when the sea legs will go away, as I'm still losing my balance!