It’s hard to believe that the end is almost near. No I’m not talking about what will happen if Sara Palin actually gets elected president, I’m talking about the end bliss as I currently know it. There are some times in life when you wish time would just stop, this is one of them.
Although we did get an extra hour as we pushed the clocks back last night, unfortunately that hour gets returned this evening. The past five days have been wonderful and I’m wishing I didn’t have to get off the ship on Sunday. I’m very tempted to see if there’s availability for me to stay on another week.
Anyway, poetic waxing be gone. Back to the facts. We sailed out of Grand Cayman on the Holland America Line cruise ship, ms Nieuw Amsterdam, around 4pm yesterday and I watched as we and the other four ships in port continued our journey west towards the setting sun.
Dinner last night was at Le Cirque, the recreation of the famous New York City restaurant. From the china to the menu everything was authentic and under the auspices of this venerable establishment. Duck liver pate, lobster salad, 33 ounces of prime beef carved tableside, burp! It was truly enjoyable.
After dinner we took on the show which was a poorly done version of the Newlywed Game. After dragging out the men’s four questions for nearly forty-five minutes I bailed and went to bed. Taking a 17 minute game show and dragging it out for 90 minutes is not my way of spending an evening. One of my travel companions went to the casino and naturally, she’s still not ahead.
We turned the clocks back an hour as we pulled into Costa Maya, Mexico this morning to a nearly cloudless sky and bright, strong sunshine. Looking out at the land, there’s not much to say about it other than, ugh. At the port is the normal “welcome center” and tourist traps like the Hard Rock Cafe and Senior Frogs. Other than that, it looks like a hurricane came through here and not much was rebuilt. Based on my initial observations, I won’t be exploring a land that dates back to the dawn of man.
Rather than eat lunch in the cabana today, we decided to eat in the Lido buffet. I do like that all the buffets are not self-service. Germaphobes rejoice! The food and service were much better than breakfast two days ago. Of course, most of the tourists are off the ship and people aren’t standing in line waiting for a slice of beef. Being that we’re in Mexico, Mexican selections were the specials of the day, although the lasagna did look good.
We sail from Mexico for our return home tonight at 6pm CT / 7pm ET. Our final formal night of the trip is tonight and I’m not breaking out the tux again. Formal night isn’t enforced on this ship like it should be. Seeing people walk around in sweatpants and shorts on formal nights should not be allowed. That would never happen on the Queen Mary 2, where if you were seen in non-formal attire, you were told to go back to your stateroom and change. I’ll follow tradition somewhat and throw on a suit, but tie be damned.
Right now it’s time to put the laptop away and soak up more of the sun that is turning my red skin even redder.
Personal Day-By-Day Nieuw Amsterdam Cruise Review:
Photo Tour of the Nieuw Amsterdam:
No vacation would be complete without a ton of photos, right? For this particular cruise, I took a bunch of photos of the ship’s interior, pool areas, the stateroom itself, and more. Photos can be found in the Nieuw Amsterdam Photo Tour as well as in the day-by-day review of the cruise at the links above.