Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar.

Happy 2011 to everybody out there in the big wide world. I wish you all a prosperous and healthy year and maybe it the best year ……….yet.

web 2011 The centre piece of the midnight show (and eat) buffet. 2011 ice carving in multi colors.

Onboard the celebration of New Year is one big party, which starts with dinner. Here guests receive silly hats and rattles for use later during the party. At 22.30 the doors to the show lounge open and the guests start streaming in from dinner. There are always guests who go to bed early but at least 500 out of the 700 attended the celebrations this time. A standard part of the festivities is the Black and White officer ball. The officers assemble at 22.45 at both entrances of the lounge to welcome the guests and then at 23.00 Lesley and I lead all of them in a parade onto the dance floor. We normally open with a waltz varie, which means that after a few twirls we split up and invite guests onto the floor. The officers who were lined up in front of the stage do the same and that really starts the ball. Every other dance is a dance with the officers and one of the officers will have an envelope in the pocket. That envelope will be announced at the end of the dance and the lucky guest who was dancing with the specific officer (either male or female) will win a prize.

In between there are champagne walks and trivia contests; all designed to keep the interest from flagging and people from falling asleep. The closer to midnight, the simpler the dances that are played, to get as many people on the dance floor as possible. A few minutes before midnight, Father Time and Baby New Year appear on the stage. Father time was this year a guest, who basically looked the part. Baby New Year was one of the brand new assistant engineers, so the overall effect was very striking. At midnight yours truly rang the ships bell on the stage and we had a balloon drop. The latter was a masterpiece of rigging by the Chief Officer and the Bo’sun. The challenge with the lounge on the Prinsendam is that it only has one level. That means that filling a net with balloons is not so easy as the net will sag down. To avoid that problem, two half nets were made and instead of the balloons coming down from the middle, they now fell out of the side, keep the centre of the net high up.

Then there is the great fun of trying to puncture as many balloons as possible. You would expect that the kids (all 11 of them) would be the most fanatic in going after the balloons but no it is always the older gentlemen. Maybe bit a second youth???? From 23.30 to just after midnight the ship serves free champagne and then the show lounge closes down. The main reason for that is that the midnight show buffet starts at 00.05 in the morning. The party then continues for the energetic ones in the Ocean Bar and for the more reflective ones in the Crows nest.

Thus today was a late start for most onboard and also the officers only did the work that was needed to run the ship and provide the services needed. One of those services was the Mariners party, which was a busy one this time. We had over 40 100 day awardees, 4 with 300 days and 2 with 700 days. In total we had over 150 medal holders in attendance, which is not bad for a 14 day cruise. Only when we do the grand voyages the numbers get much higher as we then have those onboard who make longer cruises on a regular basis and that pushes up the day count.

For most onboard it will be an early night; both to get rid of the last New Years effects and also because we are in port again tomorrow. By 06.00 I will be at Mayaguez pilot station, which is located on the Westside of Puerto Rico. The weather looks good and the chart indicates that the port is angled far enough away from the coast to be out of the swell. Apart from one or two “Puerto Rican” showers which are more or less obligatory, it should be a good day.