I’m now three days into this 7-day Western Caribbean cruise on the beautiful Holland America Line Nieuw Amsterdam, and as I mentioned in yesterday’s report, we had some rough seas that made their appearance late in the day on Monday.
As we sailed to our first port of call, Costa Maya, Mexico, we got an early morning wake-up call from the captain in the form of an all-around-the-ship announcement at 7:15 a.m. announcing that we would be spending the day at sea.
In his report, he mentioned that we were experiencing 8-foot seas, which made it too dangerous for the Costa Maya pilot to board the ship. Additionally, the dock at the cruise terminal had waves washing over it, making it unsafe for passengers to disembark.
Along with us, Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas was also turned away, and we spent the day cruising next to each other as we both headed to our next port of call, Grand Cayman.
While many were disappointed, the Cruise and Travel Director quickly put together a revised itinerary of shipboard events. New planners were delivered to everyone’s stateroom, and the schedule was updated on Holland America’s app, Navigator.
This extra day at sea allowed more time to explore the ship and soak up the sun, which many did. Then there were those who were happier than clams to get an extra full day of casino time in! I’m pretty sure Holland America was happy in that regard as well.
When it comes to last-minute itinerary changes like these, as well as changes made to itineraries way in advance, they’re done for various reasons. In this case, it was safety and weather. However, some changes may be due to port congestion, scheduling conflicts, security issues, or a dozen other reasons, which I talked about in this article.
Everyone’s cruise contract specifically states that itinerary changes may be made to any voyage, and there is no obligation on the cruise line’s behalf to provide any type of compensation to passengers due to missed ports or rerouting. However, if a port call is missed, the line will refund passengers the amount paid for port fees and taxes for that destination, which was done immediately and posted to my onboard account.
As far as other compensation, there wasn’t any, and none was expected. I didn’t hear any passengers complaining or looking for any, either.
Let’s take a look at some of the activities that were scheduled throughout the day due to this unexpected change.
Morning Highlights
- Tai Chi at the Lido Pool
- Shuffleboard tournament
- Coloring for adults
- Line dance lessons
- Cornhole
- A presentation by the Cruise and Travel Director on how to take the best Instagram photos of your trip
- Another presentation by the Cruise and Travel Director on the history of the Caribbean’s most famous beverage—rum
Afternoon Highlights
- Mahjong
- Trivia
- Calligraphy lessons
- Ping Pong tournament
- Pickleball
- Origami
Evening Highlights
- Mass
- Ballroom dance hour
- A trio in the Ocean Bar
- Shopping events
- The evening comedy show starring Hank Denson
Lido Market Breakfast Menu
Let’s take a look at the breakfast menu for the Lido Market:
I did manage to sample some Reindeer Sausage on the buffet, which wasn’t bad at all!
When it came time for lunch, since it was originally supposed to be a port day, the main dining room was not scheduled to be open for lunch. However, the crew worked hard and pivoted to opening with a special sea day lunch menu. In addition to lunch in the dining room, the Lido Market was serving as usual, as were New York Pizza and the Dive In for burgers and fries. Here’s a peek at the lunch menus:
Lido Market and Main Dining Room Lunch Menus
While I was working out by the Lido Pool around lunchtime, a kerfuffle began at a table next to mine as a “gentleman” began to berate a crew member over, of all things…a hot dog.
He was going off on this poor young lady because he was “not informed that the hot dog contains pork.” He went on to explain that he “doesn’t eat pork for religious reasons.” He added that he doesn’t eat pork because “pork is killing all of us.”
As this poor crew member stood there taking his verbal abuse, he pontificated—or attempted to pontificate—about how “bad” pork is for people and tried to give her a lesson on nutrition before asking for her supervisor.
I couldn’t take any more of this grown adult male abusing the crew member like this, so I closed my laptop, packed up my stuff, walked over, and said to the young lady, “Excuse me, do you know if I can still get some bacon at the buffet?”
The Comedy of Hank Denson
Prior to heading out to dinner, I took in my first show of this cruise—the stand-up comedian Hank Denson. On Holland America, entertainment is kept “family-friendly,” even though there are rarely many kids or young adults onboard. So “clean comedy” is generally the norm for onboard comedians.
Hey, if Jerry Seinfeld can pull it off, anyone can, right?
Hank Denson’s 7:30 p.m. show was held in the ship’s main theatre, and it was standing room only. His 40-minute set poked fun at the typical HAL cruiser, invoked some self-deprecating humor, and centered around family life as a husband and father.
There was never a moment when a joke made you wince or blush, but his show did have everyone laughing the entire time. Doing a comedy show for a tough audience like this can’t be easy, but his jokes, timing, and content made it look easy, and it was an enjoyable show. Coming from someone who really isn’t a fan of stand-up…that’s huge, Jerry, huge!
Main Dining Room Dinner
After the show, I headed to the main dining room for dinner around 8:30 p.m. The main dining room offers both open seating, where you can walk up at any time, as well as the traditional early and late seatings. While you can walk into the dining room up until 9 p.m., I was still pretty early—but you would think I walked in at closing.
I started off with some French onion soup, which was pretty darn good! Let’s make that “dam” good since I’m on a “dam ship.”
Now here’s where things got rushed.
I ordered a salad and took bits and pieces of two entrées to create one—rustic lasagna and Parmesan-crusted chicken. The salad and the entrée came at the same time, while I was still finishing my soup. As my server cleared my dinner plate with his left hand, his right hand was putting my chocolate dessert in front of me.
I was literally in and out of the dining room in a half-hour, which may be fine for some, but I prefer a much slower pace when it comes to dinner.
Rushed service aside, the lasagna was more like a plate of meat sauce or what was left in the tray, as there really weren’t any lasagna noodles—just globs of meat and cheese. The chicken was a bit tough, and the whole entrée was “cool,” probably due to the fact that it sat there cooling down while I ate my salad.
The double chocolate torte was dense and very chocolatey—a pure treat.
After my head stopped spinning from that whirlwind of a dinner, I headed to the Ocean Bar, where the trio was entertaining. As I sipped on a well-crafted G&T, a middle-aged woman who clearly was enjoying herself and taking advantage of the drink package sat down and struck up some conversation—most of it incomprehensible.
I entertained her as she told me about her cats, plants, and why she couldn’t meet men. Conversation turned to her job back home and what I do for a living. Not wanting to give away all my secrets, I straight-facedly told her I was a Congressman from Idaho. This is a departure from my usual, “I’m a gynecologist.”
For the rest of the evening, she talked political conspiracies. It was then she forced my hand in calling it a night, and I retreated to my room, making it an early night.
We’re cruising towards our next (and now first) port of call, Georgetown, Grand Cayman. We were originally scheduled to arrive at 11 a.m. and depart at 5 p.m., but due to today’s port cancellation, we will be arriving at 8 a.m. and will have a full day ashore.
As always, thanks for following along.
Personal Day-By-Day Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam Cruise Review: