Nieuw Statendam: Sea Day 1

Since it was a sea day we planned a nice and easy one.

Sea Day Morning

I slept in until 7 am and eventually found Steve in the Canaletto section of seating in the Lido Market. He goes up there to read and have coffee if I sleep longer.

This is the first Holland America ship we’ve sailed with these buttons to request a waiter to order drinks. They were also by the pool (which I tried later in the cruise and it didn’t work) and the seating at other casual dining eateries.

I finished my coffee before we headed to the dining room at 8:30.

While there, I admired the lovely yellow roses on our table. I ordered the mushroom eggs benedict for the first time (with gluten free bread instead of an English muffin).

Steve went with his favorite ham and cheese omelette (no picture).

Afterwards we wanted to spend the morning at the pool but no lounges were available at 9:30 at either pool. I decided to do some other things on board as we’ll be at the beach tomorrow.

Instead I went to the flower arranging demonstration. and learned a few things.

Make the height of the arrangement about the same size as the vase.
Put in background greens first then add in flowers.

One of the arrangements made during the session

My last morning visit was to buy future cruise deposits as I had already used the ones I bought in November. Then it was to the cabin balcony reading.

Sea Day Afternoon

There was nothing on the dining room menu we wanted for lunch so off to the Lido Market we went. The worst part is trying to find each other after we get our food; it is busy and long.

My selection of roasted chicken and cobb salad was delicious!

Then it was back to the cabin for naps. We made sure to get to happy hour at 4 pm. This ship has a self-serve tapas bar instead of bringing you pre-selected appetizers to your table. I liked that better and had some sausage.

We met a fun couple and chatted with them for a while. The funny thing is we ended up seeing them many times during the week.

Sea Day Evening

After two rounds of happy hour drinks we said our goodbyes and got ready for dinner. Arriving at the anytime dining venue a little past 6 pm we had no wait for a table for two.

After ordering, we got someone to take our photo.

Steve took one of me alone.

The menu for tonight looked good.

We both started with shrimp cocktail (sorry I missed a screen shot of the appetizer page!).

Then I enjoyed the caesar salad with no croutons.

We both ordered the beef tenderloin and grilled shrimp.

Next course was dessert and coffee. Steve had cheesecake which had a meringue topping.

The flourless, sugar free chocolate cake for me was yummy.

We tried to get into the 8 pm show but every seat was taken. Our backup plan was music! We listened to the first sets first in the Rock Room….

Followed by the BB Kings Blues band. Then we made the 10 pm show.

It was a dance program with unusual integration with the surround screens. We enjoyed it mostly because it was so different than anything else we’ve seen at sea.

Afterwards, we went up to the lido and had some pre-bed snacks before heading to the cabin and finding this guy.