Today is Friday the 13th, which scares a lot of people as it is supposed to a bad luck day. For us it turned into a good day, as yet again, on our final day of the cruise we had sunny weather with just a gentle breeze from the South West. That created a brisk wind on the deck as we were sailing against it but as we are only travelling at 16 knots, it was just a brisk breeze, not a storm. When we go to Tilbury, our first day is a port day, so the guests can wind down slowly. Amsterdam is a one day change over day and that means that today is the last sea day, where guests have to pack but still want to enjoy all what the ship has to offer. The Hotel department really pulls out the stops for a good farewell to the guests and that makes for a crowded program.

Thus today we had as extras:

Crew farewell after the disembarkation speech.
Culinary Arts centre with day filled with recipes and party ideas.
Norwegian Fish buffet in the dining room
Indonesian tea ceremony

This is all on top of all the regular items that fill a sea day on a Holland America Line ship. Normal things such as the ending of the Shipbuilding contest that started at the beginning of the cruise. (At this meeting we will see what floats and what not, as all goes in the pool) Final tour guide lecture for Amsterdam, and a lot of: final this and final that, from other contests throughout this three week cruise. Including the final snowball jackpot bingo………….. and who would want to miss that.

By the time the cruise is over, you will need to make a next cruise, just to get over the last day of wrapping up and dealing with the last minute things; as finally getting those photos and going in the ships shops. We have about 65 in transit guests onboard who are staying for the next cruise and they are the ones who do not have to be affected by the hustle and bustle of a final sea day. For shipside it is not much different. We are still in full swing with this cruise, having to prepare for change over day (off loading materials for repairs and then the loading of provisions) and setting things up for the next cruise, as the first day of next cruise is the Kieler Canal and that is already one of the high lights of the cruise.

So for all, in the Front of the house and the Back of the house it is a busy day. For me this day is normally filled with going through all the emails for next cruise to see if everything has been done that is needed and to make sure that I have not forgotten anything myself. The next cruise is one with hardly any sea time and long standby’s so my hours are severely limited in what I can do then. Plus then there is the cruise after to prepare. This is the Celtic Kingdom cruise where last year I had to cancel four out of the 12 ports because of the bad weather. All caused by sever depressions that once all started as hurricanes in the Caribbean. I hope that I will have more luck this year.

Tomorrow we will be in Amsterdam the end of the cruise. We are docking at the cruise terminal and we will be the last ship to do so before Operation Sail is taking over and the whole dock in front of the terminal will be filled with square riggers, schooners and a lot of other old craft. As a result our Eurodam will be sent to the cargo port as she is supposed to call on the 19th. Yesterday, when approaching Oslo we already passed two square riggers who were making their way slowly south, to arrive on the 17th.

The weather forecast looks very good, at least for the morning. Sunny and wind still. They are expecting wind in the afternoon but for that there are tugboats if things get too excited.