Ordered breakfast in the room today so we could eat on the balcony as we came into port. We’ve definitely got the hang of breakfast now so we know exactly what to order and what to grab from the buffet upstairs.
Today’s destination was Half Moon Cay, Holland America’s private island in the Bahamas. The cruise line sends out their own ferries to tender in all the passengers to the island. It was a little funny to think that we were going to a made-up island with no culture of its own. However, it was a very relaxing day. After taking the tender into what must be a man-made marina, we walked down the beach and claimed some chairs under the trees. The water was a little colder here than in Grand Turk, but still a beautiful turquoise blue with soft sand that made it easy to get in and out. Joe, Dave, Marisa, Luke & Cathy stayed in for quite a while John and I watched all of our stuff…or napped! Took a short walk down the beach, but couldn’t stay out too long because the sun was definitely strong. Holland America serves a BBQ lunch on the island so we took a short break to check out the buffet at the Food Pavillion. Spent the last hour or so back on the beach in the water and on the hammocks we found nearby. Hated to leave such nice weather, but last tender back to the ship was at 2:30pm.
Back on board, we returned to the Crow’s Nest for more trivia with Dave, Marisa & Luke. Once again, we got schooled by the older folks with a score of 26 out of 40 something points. Guess the saying is true…older and wiser! Either that or these people take their trivia seriously!
Joe and I decided to take advantage of Mass tonight since we’ll be traveling all day tomorrow and won’t make it home in time. Talk about an interesting experience! The room was packed so the staff wheeled in extra seats. We were definitely the third youngest people in the room. Mass was quick with some impromptu singing by the priest from the Catholic Seaman’s Club of Seattle. There was a good ten minute intermission during Mass when the priest asked everyone to count off so he could get a headcount for Communion. Took a while for the 150 people at Mass to count themselves, and then for the priest to count out all the hosts. Surprisingly Communion went smoothly since the priest picked a super euch tonight, but it was definitely a bizarre Mass.
Tonight was our last dinner on board. Tourino and Kadek, our dining servers, were great as usual! Sampled the tasty oxtail soup covered in puff pastry. Joe liked the duck l’orange, too. In typical cruise fashion, the servers and chefs paraded around with the Baked Alaska tonight for dessert, which was pretty good. We were also serenaded by the dining staff with an Indonesian Farewell song.
After dinner, we sorted through all the photos taken during the week, then watched the end of the evening show followed by The Match Game. Went up to the Crow’s Nest for a few more songs by Matt Murphy, then it was time to pack. It’s hard to believe we’ve been away for only 7 days. It definitely feels like a lot longer. We’ll certainly miss the sunshine and the great service onboard the Nieuw Amsterdam. However, I don’t think I’ll miss omelets or burgers. We had more than our share of each!
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