Today is the first sea day on this Koningsdam sailing.
After getting ready enough I went in search of coffee and found it’s pretty good in the lido buffet. My brother joined me from the adjoining smoking area which is a nice seating area on deck 9 aft. They even have heaters in the covered area.
Sea Day Morning
It was 57 degrees out and although it warmed up some, it was a long pants kind of day. I didn’t see anyone in the pool the couple of time we went by.
When the buffet food line opened at 7 am we got breakfast. I got an egg benedict.
I was impressed that the egg was poached to order. It was very good as was the chocolate croissant. Also had fruit cup, a slice of breakfast ham and hash brown.
My brother enjoyed the eggs benedict, fresh pineapple and a beautiful made to order crepe.
I planned to attend a lot of events from today’s schedule. At nine I went to the coffee chat with the cruise director and executive chef.
It was in the BB King Blues Club and more interesting than I imagined. I also learned they have lasagna, fruit crisp, fruit plate and cheese plate always available in MDR even though they’re not on the menu.
Then it off to beginning Spanish with Sandra. She’s part of the entertainment staff and Mexico is her home.
We learned helpful Spanish for getting around ports though in my experience everyone I deal with speaks English. The last morning activity was a port talk in the main showroom.
It was really useful as he wasn’t trying to sell excursions. I think they have one of those talks later.
Sea Day Afternoon
I met up with brother E and we went to the main dining room for lunch.
It is the same lunch menu every sea day. I started with tomato soup.
My brother. had the dutch pancake with the rest of his meal and said it was good.
My entree was the chicken cobb salad.
The Beecher’s macaroni and cheese was my brother’s choice.
I finished the meal with the double chocolate tart for dessert.
On my way to my next activity I went by our cabin and saw we had a towel animal with dark chocolate eyes. 🙂
I forgot to mention that the room steward had asked if we wanted morning or evening service of the cabin (only once a day now). We had selected morning. My 1 pm activity was the port to table cooking show. Today a chef demonstrated the carne asada with black bean rice. Boy did it smell good!
I also noticed cup holders in front of the seats in the showroom.
In my Nieuw Statendam write-up I complained about no cupholders. I bet I just missed them now that I see how they’re integrated.
After the cooking demonstration I relaxed in the ocean bar before the next event. While there I chatted with one of the bar staff there for a few minutes. I asked how many passengers onboard this week and she said between 900-1000. It feels like it.
Before too long it was time for coloring at 2:30 pm. I picked the day of the dead mask and spent a fun 30 minutes coloring with about a dozen other people. Then it was off to tea time. I was seated at a table for 8 and I made 7. Each group of 2 got there own tower.
I ordered mint tea instead of the default regular black tea. A funny thing happened when I was taking pictures of my tower. One of the ladies asked her partner to take something off my tower. Her friend explained that it was MY tower; not free rein. Anyway, I asked her what she wanted and since I didn’t care about it let her have it.
Another lady at the table works at the San Diego cruise terminal as a side job and she was really interesting. It was an enjoyable pastime.
The last pre-dinner activity was understanding Mexican food, again with Sandra.
While there the captain announced they had shut down the propulsion to reset it and the ship would be rocking more than it had. The sea has been rough all day.
Sea Day Evening
After getting ready for our early dinner, I went to the ocean bear and used my mariner drink coupon.
It was very good although I’m not sure what’s in it. My brother and I met up for dinner at the appointed time.
We both started with the shrimp cocktail.
There were four large shrimp. The cocktail sauce was a bit spicy but I liked it. I had the artichoke and carrot soup next.
This is where a low sodium diet can suck. This soup needed salt badly. The entrée was a bit disappointing. First of all, it was not filet mignon but rather a slice of tenderloin.
My medium request was really medium rare. My brother ordered the risotto later sin e the portion was SOO small.
I had a bite and it was delicious. We both finished with the chocolate soufflé which was wonderful.
There’s a big time gap between early dinner and the nightly show since they’re just having one due to the low passenger count. Understandable but I go back to the cabin and never left it. We watched food network TV and read before I turned off the light at 9 pm.
Tonight we lose an hour and had the time change reminder card.
Click the image below for the full Where and When PDF.
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