January 7, 2013  (Sea Day)

It was another relaxing day at sea although the seas were a bit rough today. The winds were creating large swells and white caps and the ship was rolling from side to side most of the day. It made it a bit difficult to walk without weaving from side to side. We attended the port talk on our visit to Cartagena, Columbia tomorrow. Met up with the folks from CruiseCritic.com, as well as the first LGBT cocktail party.

Jon Bailey’s lecture today was titled “Mom, Apple Pie & the Fourth of July: The Music Man”. A look back at the musical from the 1950’s set in a Midwest town. What fun to see clips of the musical in its day and to look at the language used in the songs of the musical and how they reflect the feeling of the day.

Dan Ostler continued his lecture on the American effort to build the Panama Canal. A look back at how Theodore Roosevelt wanted to make the dirt fly in Panama and so he did. Between the French and American efforts to get the canal built 40,000 people lost their lives. Today it would be hard to imagine that we could lose that many lives building anything.

Today is our first formal night and we bring out the tuxedos and fancy clothes for the evening. This also means that the selections on the dinner menu are filled with such items as lobster, rack of lamb and filet mignon. There are too many delicious choices to choose from. Tonight’s entertainment was a show titled “Hit Me With a Hot Note” performed by the Amsterdam cast. The show included the music of Jazz and Motown legends Duke Ellington, Nina Simone and Ray Charles.

January 6, 2013  (Sea day)

We had our breakfast in the dining room this morning so I wouldn’t eat too much at the buffet.  That Irish oatmeal and stewed prunes just hit the spot.  Mark got in a little tiff with the waiter due to the temperature of his coffee…luke warm.  Next, he will be sending his salad back because it isn’t cold enough.

The weather today is warm and a bit humid as we walk the deck. Three and a half laps around the ship is one mile. We walked two miles before Kent decided he had earned an ice cream from the ice cream bar.

As we head toward the Panama Canal one lecturer onboard is Dan Ostler who lectured today on the French effort to build the Panama Canal.  Ferdinand De Lessups who had built the Suez Canal makes a failed attempt to build a new canal across Panama. Over budget, significant loss of life from yellow fever, under engineered and with no similarities to the building of the Suez Canal he fails miserably. Mostly financed by shares sold to France’s middle class, the French suffer dramatically.

We met a couple of other gay couples onboard today. Fred and Ken from New York, Patrick and Stephen from Boston.

In the afternoon we attended a lecture titled “Another Op’nin’ Another Show: The Broadway Stage – Mirror of our lives” given by Jon Bailey. Mr. Bailey is a well-known conductor, composer and teacher in the field of music, art and architecture. We took a look at how what happens on the Broadway stage reflects and informs the real world we live in.

Our dinner table situation resolved itself. I spotted the couple with the 5^th wheeler heading to the dining room as we were seated in the piano bar before dinner. The Mrs. and I waived to each other but by the time we arrived in the dining room they were not at our table. It appears that they asked to be moved to another table, which was just fine with us.  Now we are four at our table.  Claire and Gord will be great dinner table mates!

Tonight’s entertainment was a comedian by the name of Joe Yannetty, star of stage, screen and television. He was excellent at interacting with the audience and making them a part of the act. His jokes were mostly short quick stories or one-liners. Luckily we were not seated at the front of the theater or we may have been a part of the show.

 We boarded the Amsterdam mid-afternoon and settled into our new home for the next 115 days. Our luggage arrived safely and we found ample room for all of our belongings. We participated in the mandatory fire and evacuation drill before heading out for the sale-away party poolside.  Unfortunately with all of the luggage and supplies that needed to be loaded onto the ship we were ninety minutes late to sail and the sun had already set.  We set out to explore the ship and understand how to navigate the ship. The ship is beautiful with an old world traditional décor throughout. Rich wood paneling, upholstered furniture, traditional paintings and art and fresh flowers throughout the public spaces.  We discover where to find the dining rooms, casino, movie-theater, culinary arts center, library, gym, bars, pools and other public spaces.

Our travel agent sent two lovely bottles of champagne to our room for our bon voyage celebration.  I hope to keep Mark from bathing in it.

We were somewhat apprehensive about our dinner table mates….and rightly so.  As we approached our table (119) we saw two of our four tablemates (a six-top table in all) reading their menus.  They hardly looked up to say “Good Evening!”  But we did get a grunt from them.  I said to Mark, “It’s looking pretty good!”  That was just kidding.

The other two joined us shortly.  This was a couple from Canada.  One was a recently retired pharmacist (Claire, the woman) and the man, Gord, was a retired chemistry teacher.   Claire began talking about socialized medicine in Canada, which triggered something in the gentleman of the first couple.  He proceeded to harang about socialized medicine in the USA, how terrible the government was and how we all were going to Hell in a Hand Basket.  I asked him where he was during the election.  It seems that in October he and his wife drove their 5^th wheeler from north of Akron, Ohio, where they normally live, to the middle of Florida, parked it and voted there, where they live during the winter months.  I asked if he was a cook and he told me about all the wild pig huntin’ and killin’ he did last month.  With so little in common, needless to say we did not talk further about politics (I was afraid he might have brought his gun with him).  We did have a nice conversation about food and he did offer us his menu as ours hadn’t been delivered yet.  Perhaps there is hope for better future dinner conversations, unless they change tables before tonight’s dinner.

We spent the day yesterday with friends. Our hosts Jim amd Phil joined us for lunch with a high school friend of Kent’s from Charleston, Illinois. Jim Meeks and his wife Judy have a home in Boynton Beach, Florida and drove down to Ft. Lauderdale for lunch. After lunch we had a short visit with friends Ed Richards and Warren Kendrick who used to live in San Diego but now split their time between Manhattan and Pompano Beach.

The weather is cloudy and rainy today but our spirits are high and we are excited to get onboard to explore the ship and begin our journey.

We flew from San Diego yesterday to Houston where we had a wonderful lunch visit with our dear friend Anne Paloney. By 11:00pm we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale to spend a few days with friends Jim and Phil before our ships departure on Saturday afternoon.