October 18 2012 At sea

Parallel Universe (or Cruise)

I’m thoroughly enjoying this cruise with the beautiful tropical weather we are having during our sea days, just going with the flow and relaxing. Talking to some other passengers, though, I sometimes wonder if we are on the same cruise or if there is a parallel universe in force at the moment. There are a few passengers still unhappy with the unexpected change in itinerary or don’t think the service is up to standard, etc. and state that they won’t cruise on HAL again and so on. I’ve even heard one passenger imply that the change in ports was to save Carnival fuel costs. For myself though, I have received nothing but great service and I have no complaints about my cabin, or indeed the crew or the rest of the ship. In fact, the Westerdam is now my favourite HAL ship. My first cruise with HAL was on the old Westerdam so I have come full circle.

You know when there aren’t many Aussies on a cruise – no daily Australian news is printed – but I have discovered that I can go to the Front Desk each day and they will print a copy for me. At present on TV we are only receiving Fox News which is completely taken up with US politics. I had not realised before how heavily slanted their news is so with my little printout it is great to hear of news from the outside world. The internet is too slow and too expensive to sit and read the news online. 

I did hear though at the morning coffee talk with Ron, the Hotel Director, that as each HAL ship goes into drydock they are now being rewired so that internet and phone access is available from anywhere on the ship, including all cabins. Bandwidth is also being upgraded. Unfortunately the Westerdam missed out on this at the last drydock so will have to wait 14 months until the next drydock to have this upgrade.

I also heard (could be Chinese whispers) that a fix was applied in San Diego before the cruise left but didn't work out - and is thus worse than would normally be experienced.

Tonight, by popular demand, The Unexpected Boys performed again, this time singing a selection of Broadway songs. And like the first time, they received a standing ovation. Unfortunately they will be leaving the ship in Bora Bora. There go the dreams of many female passengers!

Next stop was Karaoke in the Queen’s Lounge. Participants ranged from very good, entertaining, good and those who looked as though they did it for a dare over a drink. Whatever the reason, I spent an enjoyable hour watching their performances. Some have signed up for the Westerdam Superstar competition which will be held later in the cruise.