Let's cruise on the ms Amsterdam

Ahoy, Matey's

Ever since we started this journey back in January, we have been cruising our way back home via some wonderful stops and places ... more beautiful places to see and explore than you can shake a stick at.   Now, as part of that journey home, Vialula and I have left the Persian Gulf and Oman and we are heading south towards the Gulf of Aden, thru the Guardafui Channel and up the Red Sea towards Jordan, where we will see Petra.  We have sailed past Djibouti, Mecca and then Medina on the way up to Jordan.   And then we go thru the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean Sea and into our European part of the trip.  Did y'all hear that?  Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, etc.  We are in the lands of the Bible.  The history around here is as old as time itself.  You can't throw a rock without hitting something ancient or biblical or both.  We look forward to tomorrow as we come into Jordan for 2 days.  Petra is tomorrow.  It is a 13 hour tour where we see the Treasury and all the history of this ancient city and then go to Wadi Rum.  The pictures should be fantastic.  On Thursday, we will have time to go into A'qabah to see the city.

Each day before we come to a stop, we begin to get excited as we look forward to opening a new chapter in this trip's book.   What will we see and experience?  It's like a kid on Christmas morning time and time again.  And likewise, most of our sail away's are in the evening and it is so enjoyable to go up on the deck and wave to the people as they send us off.  We raise our glasses to them and say our silent thank you's for sharing their homes with us, even though it is just a short time.  Vialula has always been good at getting picture after picture of the experiences in her life.  I have always tended to live in the moment and not worry about the picture.  But I have learned that you really need to capture those moments because it will soon become wonderful memories for us when we get home.  It will be soooo nice to look back and relive those moments thru the hundreds of photos we carry with us.  I think we are a little over 10,000 memories right now.  We can't wait to get home and make each and every one of you look at every single one!  Just kidding. 

I tell you all this because to get there we have had to go thru the area of most concern when it comes to the threat of, or dangers of piracy.  We have been churning away at 24 plus knots and I am glad to say that we are soon to be out of the worst parts.  The last pirate attack was in 2017 so I think we are ok.  We have had about 5 sea days and I know I owe y'all a post about this wonderful ship, the journey we are on and what we do when we aren't in some exotic place that we haven't to been before.  Some of the things you will read here you might already know or I have told you about before, so please bear with me because I really don't know how to start this....How about some recent numbers given to us via a ship's log given to us as we complete segments.    This particular segment is thru Mumbai.

Pirates are no joking matter in these waters!

We have 614 Officers and Crew representing 33 nationalities.
We have averaged 16.1 knots.
We have traveled over 20,625 nautical miles so far on this sojourn.
We have used 1,003,212 gallons of fuel.  Yes, you read that right.
We have consumed 162,340 eggs.

I almost hate to put this down, but if you do the math on the fuel numbers above you get .0205589646 miles per gallon of fuel.  That means it takes this boat about 48.64058 gallons of diesel fuel to move 1 mile, give or take.  I think I will move on to some other numbers and let that sink in.

From the kitchen tour we learned the following:  There are 96 people who work under the supervision of the Executive Chef and prepare our meals.   There are 122 service staff members working under the direction of the Dining Room Manager who serve us professionally in the main dining room as well at the Lido deck buffet restaurant.  Then the Chief Steward directs the 23 general service attendants in the clean up and washing of all the dishes.  It is performed all day everyday and each unit operates flawlessly making sure that each and every passenger gets just what they want no matter where they dine.   And don't forget the 24 hour room service offered at no charge. Two specialty restaurants offer even more exquisite dining for those with more discerning palletes.  This is the only extra charge incurred should you decide to use it.  Our dinner with the Captain took place in one of these restaurants, The Pinnacle Grill.

Also from our kitchen, these are our WEEKLY CONSUMPTION AVERAGES of some particular items:

Meat and meat products:  8,500 lbs
Poultry:  3,814 lbs
Fish:  1,875 lbs
Seafood:  2,575
Butter and margarine:  1,175 lbs
Fresh vegetables:  12,500 lbs
Potatoes:   4,750lbs
Ice Cream:  200 gallons
Sugar:  750 lbs
Assorted sodas:  262 cases
6 Champagnes:  450 bottles
Wines:   1,636 bottles
Water:  280 cases

Having fun yet?   Lots of numbers, I know, but it is interesting to know these things.   You can also multiply it by the total number of cruise ships running around out there.   There are a lot more than you think there are too.

How do you go about entertaining 1,380 guests when you are at sea?   I am glad you asked.  I randomly picked up a daily events paper they put in each stateroom at night which lists all the activities going on the next day.  In this one, dated April 7, there are:

9 physical activities offered
3 spiritual meetings.  Jewish, Catholic, Protestant services
29  social activities in a broad range of interests
6 guest speakers of various interests
2 movies in a full size movie theater
2 dinner shows in a large theater.  They bring on new shows almost every stop.   Each one usually plays two shows a night for two nights then they move on.  Singers, dancers, comedians, musical groups, etc.   Quite an eclectic talent pool.
1 piano bar with a good pianist who can't carry a tune in a bucket.
3 dance floors for different styled dancing
endless food with desserts
a large library
a card room
a room for jigsaw puzzles
5 bars
quiet rooms
sports deck with basketball, pickle ball, shuffleboard, 2 ping pong tables
2 pools with 2 large hot tubs
complete spa and workout rooms
saunas
hair salon
a jewelry store
laundries

Lido pool - Deck 8 - Mid ship
with two Grizzly Bear case bronze statues in foreground
The sculptures weigh 2 tons!

Ships in Front of 17th Century Amsterdam -
oil on aluminum circa 2000

Fitness Room elliptical machines (with a view!)

Lido Pool - at mid-ship with retractable roof & two hot-tubs

Beautiful Statues outside Pinnacle Grill

Guest Lecturers at Main Stage

Sea View Pool is where we hang out!

Sea View Bar

Seven Attendants holding animals of Chinese Zodiac
Glazed pottery, Ming Dynasty circa 1600

Library

Dining Room

Bas Relief in cast eco-deco of World's Planispheres

Crow's Next Bar

Coffee Bar

Astrolabium Clock has a tellurium above four clocks, which
shows the exact position of the moon in relation to the earth,
complete with chimes and sounds!  A thing of beauty!

As you can see, you can be as busy or as laid back as you want.  Most days we fall into a routine but we do vary it from time to time.

Fun ship-wide activities to commemorate special days
like crossing the equator!

Themed shows that are relative to ports performed on Main Stage

Amsterdam Singers, Dancers & Band

Ukulele performance on Main Stage by passengers

Dinner with friends!

We have two young men from Indonesia who are our room stewards.  You mention needing anything and suddenly it appears!   They are very efficient, organized and as nice as can be.   Both are married and have children so I know it is difficult for them to be away from home so much.   Most of the contracts the people have on board with Holland are for 9 months.   Then most of them take the 3 months off, be with their families and then it all starts again; sometimes on the same ship and sometimes on a different one.  Like I told you before, the vast majority of our crew is made up of Indonesians, Filipino, Malaysians and Dutch.

Jery & Saeff, our great
room stewards

Josephine, our fantastic
hostess

We chose open seating for dinner time versus a set time of 5:30 or 8:00.   This allows us to just go to the dining room when we choose and sometimes we opt for a table for two or sometimes we opt to share larger tables with folks.  We have met lots of great people from all over North America and elsewhere.   I listed North America because Americans and Canadians make up the majority of the travelers by far.  We usually dine in the main dining room where we experience a wide array of foods from our chefs as well as guest chefs that prepare local foods from the areas we just visited.   We have 15 gala nights on board this trip.   Gala nights are formal nights where they prefer but do not require a tux or a suit for the men and the ladies wear cocktail dresses.  Other nights in the dining room they offer theme nights just to keep the crowd interested.  Last night was a Speak Easy night where they give the gents a gangster hat and the ladies received white gloves, pearls and a flapper hat.  A couple of nights later it is a formal night with an Arabian knight's theme.   It's all in fun.

Our dining room, decorated for a gala night

Indonesia Gala Night

Food is an art on the Amsterdam!

I have enjoyed a variety of wine with just about every dinner I have had.   Eric is my wine steward and he has done a great job of introducing several different wines for me.   Again, we tend to get wines from areas we have visited so I have had several Australian, New Zealand and Chilean wines.  I am looking forward to the European cities as Italy is one of our stops and you cannot have bad Italian wine.....and France too.

Eric, our wine aficionado!

We have an interdenominational Service on Sundays and on every day at sea we have a bible study.  The Sunday service usually draws a little over a hundred people and the bible study averages about 60 each day.   That is about the same size as the congregation at Trinity where Vi and I go, so you know most all of the folks and it is nice to have this family on board to share with.   There is also a Priest and a Rabbi on board too.

Bible Study on sea days with Esther & Reid

Well, I hope that gives y'all a little insight to what we do on a 113 day trip.   Before we left, there were many who asked about such a long voyage.   How we would do being gone so long.  First of all, this isn't really a trip you want to rush.  There is so much to see at every stop that you are leaving too soon as it is.  And it takes this long to go around this big blue marble.   Our sojourn is beginning to wind down and we have so much yet to experience.  Up to now, our itinerary has kept us in a southernly climate.  We sailed off in warm weather down in Florida and we have gone from warm to hot to melting climates.  Jordan is our last possible hot locale.  Temps tomorrow will be right around 90 degrees.   But then as we enter the Mediterranean, it is going to start changing as we head into Europe.  Cooler climates and warm days will be the order until we reach the Baltic regions where we might just end up needing our woolies.  We are looking forward to seeing Melba Jean in Spain soon too.   It will be great to spend some time with her in a new locale and share some of our adventure with her.

Coming into Port is always exciting!

Leaving port we ask
"What will tomorrow hold?"

Thanks for following along.   I hope I wasn't too heavy on the numbers but it is an amazing ship!  It has to be since it is home to so many people for over four months.  Take care and stay tuned for our days in Jordan and beyond.

Vialula and LeRoy

P.S.  Vi wanted me to mention the beautiful flowers also!