Hintze Family: Valentine’s Day at Sea!

3rd day at sea. (This is copied and pasted from my journal, written while on the ship—dated Feb 14)

        Missed the whales this morning. The time change (1 hour ahead) over night made it seem like 6:00 a.m. when we pulled into the Bay of Magdalene and the ship had pulled back out by the time we were up and doing. We saw several, 2-3 dolphins, out our dining room window while we were eating breakfast. I love breakfast in the dining room, even without dolphins!
       We've discovered that we like the Explorations Lounge. It is a library filled with computers, puzzles, newspapers, magazines, and, of course, lots of books.
       There's been an incident this afternoon. The Captain came on over the intercom and commented that we had probably noticed that the ship was moving much faster than earlier in the morning. There was some sort of an accident during the rehearsal of the Oosterdam Dancers. One of the male dancers was injured. The injury is serious enough that we will be making an emergency stop at Cabo on the way south. We weren't scheduled to stop there till Thursday. We will pull into the bay and they will lower one of the life/tender boats and take him to ashore where an ambulance willing be waiting to take him to a local hospital. The ships' captain referred to as a "life or death emergency". (Meanwhile, we got some preview pictures of Cabo San Lucas, and we are looking forward to our visit on the way back north on Thursday.)

Taken through the window of the Explorations Lounge.

I hope all will be well. We have been told that we will arrive in Puerto Vallerta tomorrow morning right on schedule.

Frank and I walked a mile this morning. We know that three laps around the Promenade deck (#3) is one mile. We chose to walk up on the Observation deck (#10). It felt really good after a big breakfast of Eggs Royale-- poached eggs and salmon on an English muffin. Of course before that I had half a grapefruit and apricots, and a cinnamon raisin bun. The food is wonderful on this cruise. Even so, I find it quite easy to choose yummy healthy food, most of the time.

This afternoon I got in the Seaview pool. It's aft on the Lido deck--adult only. The water temp was perfect. All of the deck chairs were taken but we found chairs by a table, and when pulled up a second chair for my feet, it was almost as good as a deck chair. At one point an activities guy came out to organize games. So, I participated.

Had to swim with a balloon to the other end of the pool--about 15 yards, climb out of the pool and waddle back with the balloon between our legs. The waddling part is harder than it sounds! The second game was "fill the bucket by wringing out the towel that has been soaked in the pool and passed over head to the back of the line". The third contest was a belly flop contest. The other team had a man with a very suitable belly. He did a great flop, but it seems that our belly flopper had a swan-dive version of a belly flop, our team won all three games. I got a pretty cool Holland America bag. It was fun to participate.
It's pretty amazing, the contrast between Carnival and Holland America. Carnival was definitely " party" oriented-- which we have dubbed "naked, drinking, singles" . Well, maybe not naked but definitely scantily clad. This cruise is lively, but more retired couples, quite a few families, and a much more dignified personality. The acoustic guitarist near the Lido pool is just now singing Jack, Jack, Do It Again, and several "older" people are singing right along. It seems I fit in here better than I'd like to admit! Although, most of the retired set don't have a 12 and 14 year old along, or if they do, it's their grand child, not their own child!
Speaking of the 12 and 14 year old--they are having a blast. They spend some of their day at the kids' club--Dinah at HAL, for 9 to 12 year olds, and Caleb at the Club, for 14 to 16 . We see them regularly. They each quickly found an LDS friend, siblings, actually, from Calgary, Canada. Caleb is uncomfortable with the language of some of the other teens up at the Club and tends to not participate in many of the group activities. He likes the video games and the basketball court. (End of journal entry)

After swimming, Frank and I moved in near the family pool , in the central area of the Lido deck. Dinah wanted to swim, and wanted us to watch her. I considered getting in, but the water was much cooler in this pool. So, I learned, sort of, how to play Mah Jongg. A cute little lady from Calgary, Canada, formerly of Moscow, Russia (they immigrated in 1977) was setting up the board and asked, randomly, if anyone wanted to learn to play. So, I moved over and sat down at her table. She had me read the instructions, which made no sense, and then she explained it to me, rather quickly with lots of details. Her husband, Simon, started to clarify a point and she said, “Simon, don’t say anything. When I explain things, people always understand. Not when you do!”

I don’t think it would have mattered either way. I was totally confused until two other ladies joined us, one chose to play, making it a foursome, which is preferable, and the other lady sat by me, and helped me figure out what to play. By the end of two games I was a little more clear, but when I sat aside and the four of them played, they played really fast and I had to really work to keep up. It was a fun, new experience.

The dining room was beautifully decorated in honor of Valentine’s Day.