We have to go back the route where we came from to reach Katakolon once more and thus we had to go through the Straits of Messina yet another time. We should be entitled to a discount for frequent transits. We should, but I have never heard of it, so I think we aren’t.
Greece is in another time zone than Italy and thus we went an hour forward last night. Holland America is a company which traditionally is doing clock changes. Companies such as Carnival stay on “Miami time” for the whole cruise. This is quite easy in the Caribbean as there are not exactly an abundance of clock towers present. But HAL does it in the Caribe as well, we do it everywhere. Unless it does not makes sense such as during our short evening call at Sarande last cruise. But until we return to Naples in 10 days, we are in another time zone and thus we move the clock forward and later back again. When this is done varies with the situation. Where possible we follow the Golden Rule, never an hour forward on a formal night, which is now called a Gala night. The idea is for guests to enjoy themselves and not having a bummer by losing an hour. What works very well is to give one hour forward the evening of leaving the home port. Guests are still tired from travelling and tend to retire early and can then set their own wake up time as the next day is a sea day.
So we did and the guests responded as expected. At 0700 hrs. in the morning it was very quiet in the Lido Market when I went to breakfast. There were some guests out there of whom the preponderance was male. I wonder why there are always more gents out and about early in the morning than ladies. Have they been sent out to get coffee or are they escaping? One thing for sure, the Lido area was not buzzing with communication noises; most gents were making a deep study of their cup of coffee and solving the problem of whether to stir their coffee clockwise or counter clockwise. A decision process which is best dealt with in total and concentrated silence.
Early morning Lido. The deck is slowly draining dry from deckwashing and BLD has been setting the deck chairs.
Who were not exactly quiet but very busy and very early, were the sailors. Here we always face a conundrum. The Sailors start at 5 am. to hose down the salt from the decks and yes that makes a bit of noise plus they are in the way of the early morning risers. Sometimes we get complaints about this but if we do not do the hose down and do the railing cleaning we get complaints again about the salt crystals which have settled down during the night. When I was staff captain I tried to do it every other morning which worked to a certain extent but it was not perfect. What does work very well is a carefully planned downpour or decent rain shower. I always encourage my navigators to sail through a rain cloud just before sunrise. If it works, I can keep the sailors in bed and the rain does a much better and much more thorough job than 20 sailors with a hose can ever do.
When you switch on your tv, you automatically get a highlight of the day. On embarkation day it is the safety video on other days it can be anything else.
What is definitely not silent either is our TV system and it is a very special one. Interactive TV was first introduced last year on the Nieuw Amsterdam and with the lessons learned it is now implemented on a grand scale on the Koningsdam. Every day a new part of an almost unlimited number of options is added. When we sailed from the shipyard we had 10 movies to choose from and this morning I counted 169 of them varying from very ancient (The wrecking Crew = 1960’s???) to releases not much older than six months. Apart from watching the odd movie, what I like about it is the option to stop the movie, go away and when you come back, you push the start button and it resumes where you stopped. Very clever stuff.
Then you can select various sorts of movies, from action to drama and children. There is a parental control option but I have not found a movie yet which really warranted it.
Apart from the movies and the News there is shore excursion information and information about all the food outlets. Currently you still have to phone 88 for a table reservation but eventually you will be able to do it via the TV. Eventually we will have all the capabilities a five star hotel has as well. In our case it just takes a bit longer as all the applications for the Koningsdam are ships specific and when installed need to be extensively tested. When the Koningsdam II comes out everything can just be copied over. But the first ship of a class, especially a proto type for a company, is a trail blazer in new forms of operations and we do blaze the trail but we do it carefully so we know the trail is a workable one.
Then there are the information channels with what is what and where on board. This is one of the Dutch Ladies in the Grand Dutch Cafe serving Dutch pastries.
Tomorrow we are in Katakolon with sunny skies, nearly wind still weather and temperatures of 77oF or 25oC. It is going to be a warm Greek day.
April 16, 2016 at 10:56 am
Captain Albert – just loving the daily blogs and discovering the K’dam before I am able to board Feb ’17!
So I am beginning to stress out already……..its mid-April and I imagine your days are becoming numbered on the K’dam. Can you share with us what you need to tidy up before departing and when you expect that to occur? I need to start preparing for Albert withdrawl.
dave
April 16, 2016 at 3:14 pm
Up till now it is a fantastic blog like Alaska in 2013 .
Thanks for writing it down and sharing!!
April 16, 2016 at 5:16 pm
My regards to your “Lord and Master” : I am awaiting her beautiful photos from Greece !! Or anywhere else she chooses to take them ! They are always greatly appreciated !
The photos of the dining room, with the ribbed and curved sides, always evoke a sense of sitting in the belly of a beast, while dining ! :-))
April 17, 2016 at 2:43 am
Do you have time to be in the Crows nest, Sunday at 7.30pm?
We would love to see you among the other officers.
Do you get time off, for good behaviour?
Sandra and John
April 18, 2016 at 10:50 am
Thank you for reading my blog.
just found your post. sorry I was not there, but if it was an official function, I did not get an invite so I did not know it was going on.
I hope you are enjoying your cruise.
Best regards
Capt. Albert
April 17, 2016 at 3:46 am
We know what you are doing now. We can hear the alarms over here in the bar.
Onshore in Katakolon.
April 17, 2016 at 9:23 am
please do not tell anybody…….lol
Thank you for reading my blog.
Capt. Albert
April 17, 2016 at 11:25 am
This has been an amazing experience, combining your delightful and interesting reports with the log of friends from MS Amsterdam who are now your passengers for not one but three current consecutive cruises. We went to the South Pacific with them last fall, and now from home can follow your progress through the ports of Europe. More power TO you! Joan and Tom Buell.
P.S. In fact, we started a blog of our own on that SouthPacific cruise, and any one who wants to can find it at joanstrongbuellblog.wordpress.com, of course starting from the bottom up, as blogs do. Our friends, by the way, report as Taftalog on email.
April 18, 2016 at 5:38 pm
Just watching a ship arriving (or leaving) is always an educational event for me, Captain. One morning a zealous hoser-sailor was busy using a hose hanging down from the prom deck attached to a long piece of metal full of holes where the water sprayed from going from the bow to the stern over the hull of the ship. It was clear that the dutiful sailor could not see from the prom deck that doors had been opened and happily swayed his hose straight into the gangway door. From the left to the right, and again from the right to the left. The 2nd Officer and his sailor help were doing a jump dance trying to catch the hose and yank at it to get the sailor’s attention. It eventually was, I think, a Security Agent who just got wet and grabbed the hose to stop this involuntary shower and yelled upwards to stop this business! No need to tell you I was highly entertained; NO TV needed! Simply tune in on an arrival of a HAL ship early in the morning. There’s always something interesting happening … 🙂