When I first started my blog I was very uncomfortable posting. I had to use a cheat sheet and as you all know had a little difficulty with posting photos due to my own techno-dyslexia and just plain stupidity. You will all be so proud of me. I no longer use a cheat sheet. I no longer feel uncomfortable making my way from “my stuff” to internet connections of “my blog” and have become a super cyber chick. I now even use the internet cafes with ease. It is true that you learn by doing.

Had a short tour of Ushuaia (You shoe I a) including an old prison. The wind was bitterly cold but quite pleasant when in a sheltered area. The city is surrounded by mountains with snow. Actually, the city reminded me of Vevey, Switzerland, close to where my daughter, Dana, lives. I could not resist this photo. This is a working heater in the prison fueled by natural gas. This cat didn’t move from its napping spot even with at least 100 people wandering around.

I have mentioned all the nice people I’ve met but like on all cruises or in all situations there is at least one not so nice person. We had our sail away up in the Crow’s Nest when leaving Punta Arenas. This was suppose to take place about 7:00 pm so I was ready for dinner and looked quite presentable in red sweater with silver accents, midcalf black wool skirt and *!@# stomping boots. In other words I looked very cute. As I walked in I spoke to several people I knew at the bar but because there is smoking there I chose not to sit at the bar but I didn’t see anyone at the tables that I knew. I walked over to the cushions that are located aft by the windows and sat down. There was a couple sitting at a table some distance (at least 6 feet) from the cushion but I was sitting at the corner of “their” area. The man asked me “Do you plan to sit there?” To which I replied “Well, I guess so.” He then said “You are blocking our view.” I said “Sorry” and moved over. He then said “You are still blocking our view.” I moved over some more. Now, you have to understand that I was not even remotely blocking their view. About that time the people at the table next to me invited me over to sit with them. I nearly knocked them over as I jumped from where I was sitting at their suggestion. I later told them what they had saved me from and they were so irate that they loudly proclaimed in no uncertain terms what I should have said to him. At that point he and his silent wife left.

Sail away wasn’t on time as the overland tour to Antarctica was late getting back to the ship due to the airplane having mechanical problems. This overland cost $4800 for a single person and lasted 11 hours including 5 hours on the ground in Antarctica. In other words to have bragging rights that you stepped on the ground in Antarctica it cost you $4800.

I had not planned a tour at Punta Arenas but my new friend, Joan, has been fighting a secondary infection from a cold (sounds familiar to me) and gave me her tour ticket because she didn’t feel up to taking the tour. I really enjoyed the tour. We went to the “end of the world” which really is the last point of the South American Continent. Ushuaia is the most southern city but since it is on an Island it doesn’t count according to our Chilean guide. Of, course, our Argentinean guide disputed this. Apparently there is a certain amount of rivalry between the two countries for bragging rights.

Magellan is the hero or possibly the villain of Punta Arena and this is his monument in the main square. Lots of music and dancing and the obligatory shopping stalls were also in the square. Ellen, another new friend, helped me negotiate the prices on a couple of Kayden and Kylie purchases. These are my two little grand babies.

Another new friend, Peggy, is notorious for turning purchases into fashion statements such as wearing a table cloth over her shoulders or a table runner tucked into a belt. No one thought it strange that she found this fur hat with feathers standing straight up and bought it. She did plan to take the large ostrich feather out of the hat so you could more readily see the rest of the feathers.

I mention my new friends. I have met numerous people who are most friendly and we are hitting it off famously. The three I have mentioned are also CSI clients but I could and will mention more in the future that are not CSI people and yet we have become friendly. Next episode will detail a run in with a not so nice chap.

We have had cold weather while cruising in the Golfo Corcovado and the Darwin Channel. Seemed to warm up around the Amalia Glacier but turned quite nippy again around the Straits of Magellan.. It then got very windy and cold in the Patagonian channels and Canal Cockburn. I will cover Punta Arenas and Ushuaia in two separate posts. There is not much to say about just cruising in this area of the world. Magnificent, majestic awesome, great. Ok, that is it.

I have a tour later today so I have some time to catch up on my blogging. How is it you can be so busy doing nothing. Cruising is like retirement. Never enough time in the day to get everything done.

A couple of events to commemorate before I get busy on Puerta Montt. My girls turn 28 years of age today and they have now been a part of my life for 17 years. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Rachael and Robin. Laura, John and Grace Topping ‘s youngest girl, and Michael’s youngest niece, just graduated and is now a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army and destined for Germany. Grace sent photos and she does look radiant. CONGRATULATIONS Laura. Way to go.

Also, I just read the comments to my next to last post and Congratulations to Charlie and Don on booking the WC on the Queen Mary for 2011. Thinking that far in advance while on another ship for another WC makes my head hurt. Next time I am in an internet café I will look at the itinerary.

Puerta Montt was almost a mile from where our tenders dropped us. It was such a pleasant day I decided to walk and I was very pleased I did so Just a lazy walk along side the water with a couple of parks along the way. I walked around the town , which was not for tourists, but for the locals. Weather held for the walk back a couple of hours later. And, that was it.

Once you get behind writing it is hard to catch up. I have at least two more episodes after this one to complete before my tour tomorrow.

The Antarctic Orange Ball is what it is called. The Antarctic is all white so they use Orange to mark humans and things to be able to see them. Thus we have the theme for the ball. Most everyone wore a splash of orange. The photo is of Melvin, one of my tablemates and Dowd, our cute waiter with the obligatory orange stocking cap and orange bowtie for good measure.

I have played bingo a few times and have won three times for a total of $86. This is what you call big time bingo, cruising style.

HAL has given us some nice gifts. A beautiful log book, navy blue stocking cap and scarf with the HAL logo, a nautical map of the straits and horn and I received my **pin. I don’t think it gives me much more in benefits than my *pin. CSI gave us a light blue fleece jacket and large tote bag back at the Westin Hotel.
The gifts have been good quality.

Met three more people who were on the QE2 but I only recognized one of them. All very nice people and a lot of fun.

CSI threw a great party for us. Apparently there are 170 of us doing the world and we are now at 169 after Gloria’s death. I met a lady at the party named Shirley. She is sharp, witty and a real kick. Birthdays came up and I mentioned I would turn 70 on the cruise. She looked at me and said “Young lady, I could be your mother.” She is turning 90 in November. Even though she walks with a walker she sure doesn’t show it in any way. I now call her mom. Another gal sitting with us also indicated that she could be my mother. Even though she looks 75 she is 85. Still sits at the bar and has her smoke. Our Captain (who is young, good looking and personable) came over to say hello to us and shook my hand as I was the newbie at the table.

The Amsterdam’s speed is at 22.5 knots and I remember the QE2 was capable of about 10 knots faster. QE2 is over 90,000 tons; Amsterdam 61,000. QE2 965 feet long; Amsterdam 780. Width about the same. QE2 holds 2,058 guests; Amsterdam 1,380. We are not full and after Buenos Aires we will have around 800 passengers on board. No lines, no waits for elevators, and food gets to our table hot and fast.

I now realize I used the wrong word; I should have used the word nobility and not royalty . I would enjoy having more nobility on board such as Lord Kay but alas, that is not to be.

For those of you posting on my face book, because of the costs of internet time I am not using my face book. Use the comment section of my blog and contact me there in stead. For those of you shocked shocked at my having a face book site you can just think of me as cyber chick .

Valparaiso is not one of my favorite cities and I had toured there before. The most memorable thing to me about Valparaiso was the containers at the dock. They were piled so high and looked like skyscrapers with streets between rows of them. That was two years ago. Look at the port now and you can see the difference in the worldwide economy.

We are now on our way to Isla Robinson Crusoe which is a part of Chili. This is where Daniel DeFoe got his inspiration for his book based on the experiences and/or legends of Alexander Selkirk. Seas are quite high so unless they are calmer next to the island there is no way the Captain is going to allow a tender. We are rocking and rolling and have had a degree of this for about 12 hours. Thirty to forty knot winds. I am in my element. As I am writing about this the Captain just announced unless the bay is calmer we won‘t be able to tender so we are in a wait and see mode.

The Captain did maneuver the ship to give us more protection from the wind and we were able to tender to shore. Lovely island; very clean and no hovels. High peaks and lush greenery a welcome relief to the big cities. It would be fun to stay here for a month or so.

This post has a variety of subjects. There were a lot of questions in the comments that I will try to get to first. Such as the service of Cruise Specialists and our leaders. First, the names of our CSI leaders are Tom Mullen from Birmingham, England and Ellen Bethel who lives just North of me in Poulsbo, Washington. They are very nice and Ellen is bubbly and chatty. Tom is more reserved. Second, CSI is doing a good job. The Amsterdam doesn’t have a special room with staff for world cruisers only. CSI fills that void by having representatives on board to answer questions.

My cabin is on the Main deck. This is the third deck up. It is also mid-ship which can be disconcerting. I have had a hard time discerning between Fore and Aft. When you are either aft or fore you become oriented much faster. At least that is my experience on this cruise, I think. It could be dementia. And, for my dear Lord Kay, the bottle is my fitness water not a baby bottle.

I went to my first specialty dinner at the Pinnacle Grill---the South American Dinner. The service and ambience is a little better than the dining room and the food is a bit better. I bought the package of 10 dinners for the price of 8 dinners. My purpose was to buy the package so I could go to the ten specialty dinners, Some of the themes---mystery dinner, French dinner, South African dinner, etc. I will reserve judgment on the relative value and report in a future post.

The photo of the geoglyphs is the part of the Arica post I felt that I couldn’t post under Arica.

Coquimbo is a working man’s town and is the port city for La Serena . Nothing special about the city and I just walked around a little, went to the internet café, and back to the ship to get my camera which I had forgotten. The weather is still quite cool but as the day goes on it does warm up. I changed to a cooler top, grabbed my camera and I was off again. There was only one photo I wanted so I could post here and that was of the zig zag stairs. As I was taking this photo I heard a shout “JUDI”. My cabin neighbors and fellow cruise specialist tour buddies were the ones shouting at me. Jennie was up by the stairs taking a photo when a tall lanky young chap grabbed her camera knocking her glasses to the ground. Locals saw what occurred, called the local police but the lanky chap was long gone. Now I knew why there were so many blue clad police in my photo. They felt I should not be walking around alone so I went back to the ship with them.

Arica, Chili is a city where when you leave you say “Been there, done that”. I enjoyed my tour and one of the highlight was the Christ the Redeemer Chili style. Unlike Rio’s Redeemer we did not have to take a cog train up the hill. The bus took us close to the top and the worse was dusty sneakers from walking the rest of the way. I didn’t see any tourist police and feel we didn’t need them. The statue appeared to be about a third of the size as Rio’s Redeemer. There were no clouds obscuring the statue from time to time giving a mystic quality to it like Rio’s Redeemer. I definitely did not feel the same power.

Eiffel’s presence is in this town in the form of several buildings including the San Marcos Church, which is a lovely cream-colored building. The Geoglyphs of Lluta are a series of hillside drawings representing llamas and humans and were quite spectacular.

I felt that the sites mentioned above were the highlights of our visit to Arica but since I covered pigeons in my Lima post, I couldn’t resist this pigeon poop stained path.

In posting photos I have found that 3 at a time is the limit so one of my photos for this post will be on the Coquimbo, Chili post and I will point that out.

Well the grimmer side of world cruising has begun. One man who was taken away by ambulance has died and Gloria, a lady I had lunch with once, died Saturday morning . I believe she was with CSI also. I have heard that approximately 10 will die during our cruise. We have had two in less than two weeks. Sir Richard who was one of Gloria’s table mates wrote a note to her family telling them that she was not among strangers. She was playing bridge, laughing, and doing what she loved to do, cruising. He asked that this note be placed with her belongings . He is such a neat guy and makes me laugh. He is traveling alone but one of his friends, Grady, is also on this cruise. He is the straight man to Sir Richard’s dry sense of humor. I know everyone was concerned (including my dear Lord Kay) that I did not have a member of royalty keeping me company. Sir Richard has now become my traveling royalty on this trip.

I have been trying to walk a mile a day on the promenade deck plus putting in a good mile walking all over the ship and shores. I believe the jeans are just a bit tighter so desserts must go as a regular to the night meal. We had chateaubriand last night cooked to perfection. Melvin, one of the guys at my table, is delighted to eat the extra meat which I set aside before starting my meal.

I have decided that this is really a young group of cruisers. I am guessing the average age is around 72 and that is very unusual. I have met so many people taking this cruise that aren’t even getting Medicare yet and find myself on the side of the elders especially when I have my next birthday on this cruise. You .all will recall I do hit the big 70.

I have been musing about why I do not feel the anticipation of forging new friendships with the ccers. When we were posting on our thread for the QE2 2008 world cruise we were forging alliances so we would have a group on board. This group of ccers were already an alliance. Most of them were renewing friendships and not looking for new alliances. I do not mean this as criticism; it is what it is. We do have a luncheon today and I will go with a smile on my face and my mind wide open.

LATER: I enjoyed the luncheon and laughed and giggled with some of the gals at the luncheon today. I am still open minded,

We are preparing to leave Callao and Lima, Peru. We have been here two days. One of the reasons I booked this cruise was the fact we are going to stay two days in several ports. This gives you time to do different things rather than just one tour.

I took a tour the first day to get a feel for the two cities, We went to the Plaza Mayor and Lima is taking part in the worldwide decoration of plastic cows. I have a dozen or more photos of these artistic cows. My favorite though is this one which contains a grill in the middle and , of course, the proper utensils.

Another of the highlights of our tour was the Cathedral and a working monastery with wonderful grill work and old tiles. The story about the tiles is that a man was condemned to death for a crime. The Franciscan fathers had ordered the tiles and had piles of them but no one knew how to do tile work. This criminal convinced them that he was a tile layer so they commuted his sentence and he worked for 28 years mounting the tiles and eventually it came to light, he didn’t know what he was doing. Many many mistakes. Some of the cherubs have more than two legs.


Just outside the cathedral I saw this adorable girl feeding the pigeons and couldn’t resist taking her photo. Also, the pigeons up on the ledges. We continued on with our tour and saw too many things to enumerate.

The next day a new friend, Glen, a postman from Canada, took the free shuttle and he introduced me to an internet café so I learned how to use their computer and was able to read your comments. The charge is only $1.00 an hour which is a bit better than $.35 a minute on board. My next post will give all the details of the price structure on board. So, Don, my Dear Lord Kay, please keep reading. It is quite obvious why I guard my computer time for doing nothing but posting to my blog and checking my email while on board.

The sail away was fun. We had a trio and six dancers on the dock performing as we sailed away. I do miss the hundreds and at times thousands of people waving from the shore that we experienced on the last world cruise of the QE2.

Some more on ship life. I now remember my waiter’s name. He is as cute as a button and his name is Dowd ((David). Most of the crew is either Indonesian or from the Philippines. Dowd is from the Philippines and Jessie is from Indonesia or maybe I have that backward. I will no for sure in time. I have included a photo of one of my towel animal friends that Jessie makes for me.

Since we have crossed the Equator we did receive a very nice certificate (suitable for framing) called Crossing the Equator Certificate and it is signed by our Captain Olav Van Der Waard.

I attempted the Tech workshop but it was beyond my capability and I was afraid it might confuse what I am currently doing. If I am totally comfortable with my current blogging then I might give it a go next segment.

All in all I am very satisfied with the people I have met on board and I am sure friendships will develop in time. Most of the ccers don’t seem to be of that nature and I think I have mentioned to you that was my impression from the boards before I even boarded. Kind of a closed club to newbies and I am a newbie as far as HAL world cruises are concerned.

I have met several people that were on the QE2 and have enjoyed reminiscing with them. Remember Chloie (sp?)? The very tall silver haired man (so tall I look eye to belly button) that also did trivia. I recognized him immediately but he didn’t seem to recall me; we had a nice chat in spite of my gender.

Tonight is the Black and White ball. This is our second formal so I am looking forward to dressing (not that I walk around nude ) . This is the opposite of the QE2. I use to look forward to not dressing formally.

We really have been lucky weather wise. I don’t do well in extreme heat which is normal for this area. It has been most pleasant and Manta, Ecuador was no exception. My first impression of the landscape of Ecuador was that it was dying. Brush, trees and plants were that dirty grey brown that denotes dying vegetation. I have included a photo of an interesting tree with this dying look. Our guide explained that everything was very much alive and as soon as the monsoons came it would turn green within no time.

I have also included a photo of a little house. You will notice that the second floor is not complete. Apparently, the Ecuadorians can start their houses and if they don’t have the money to complete the house they can wait until they do have the needed cash. In Turkey I saw a similar situation but in that country it was because the government decided to put additional taxes on a house with an additional story.

The people here like in Costa Rica are exceptionally nice. I don’t buy a lot for myself while I am traveling but I found so much I wanted in Ecuador I had to borrow $5.00 to complete my purchases. I now sport a woman’s panama hat and a necklace and earring set made of their vegetable Ivory. The vegetable ivory is made from a palm tree and they make wonderful things with it.

One of the photos I am including is of a coca cola truck. I am trying to set forth here some of the sights that interested me. Not a travelogue. First, the photos take time to download and at $.40 a minute you don’t want to waste time on their wireless system.

I read your comments and in time will get to the subjects. I do think I know why you couldn’t comment on my last post. I was having difficulty posting those photos. I was doing something that was just plain silly and I won’t make that mistake again so hopefully you all will not have a problem again.

My cabin is on the starboard side so if our captain brings the ship in forward I am usually on the side of activity. By the way this Captain appears quite young and has a personality that reminds me a lot of our first Captain on the QE2. For those of you who were not on the QE2 with us he was the wonderful Captain that we had for most of our voyage and then our next Captain left a lot to be desired.

I have been attending the Cooking demonstrations and they have been enjoyable, go to the enrichment lectures and the port lectures. I do trivia once a day, try to walk a mile or two everyday, and need to go to the gym to work with weights. The food is so good I know I am not being very good but the desserts are not on my menu anymore except for the ones I just can’t do without. The first week was a dietary disaster but I am in control now; at least for the day.

It is surprising how many writers are on board. I am now reading a book by one of them about growing up in Wales. My grandfather was a welchman and grew up in Wales so I find I am interested in the subject. My grandfather died when I was about 17 so I never had a chance to ask him questions concerning his childhood when I was old enough to be interested.

My next post will be about our stop in Manta, Ecuador.

Our first port was Puerto Limon in Costa Rica and my first visit to Costa Rica. Yes, Rachael, I did get your key chain. Those of you who were with me on the QE2 will recall from time to time my going crazy looking for that elusive key chain. I did take a tour to the tropical rain forest. I have been to the rain forests in Washington and Alaska but this was my first tropical rain forest.

We saw some very interesting creatures including an inch long bullet ant and apparently it was just a baby. We also saw leaf cutter ants on the march, howler monkeys, sloth, many birds and two interesting frogs. A red one is called the strawberry dart frog and the other the turquoise dart frog. Both are very poisonous and their venom was placed on the natives arrows to kill their prey.


The next day we entered the Panama Canal and it was quite pleasant. We didn’t run into the 100 degree heat with 100% humidity like the last time I was here. Very pleasant weather. The narration was good but our narrator on the QE2 was even better. I lazed on the shady side of the deck and visited with everyone who stopped by.

I was not much interested in a tour nor was I interested in going into Panama City. I walked around Fuerte Amador watching the locals and looking at the sights. Our wonderful weather has changed and it was about 90 degrees and 100% humidity so I came back to the ship and decided it was a great time to work on my next post. I am going to attempt including some photos. The turquoise frog, the bullet ant, my cabin and table mates. The cabin is spacious, clean and lots of closet , drawer and shelf apace and as you all know, this is an absolute must for me.

The reason I said I was going to attempt the photos is that my first attempt was an abject failure and apparently I didn’t read my instructions well. I also intend to get into more of the personalities on board but I am reserving judgment on some. Mostly, the people I have met are just great with one exception. I met a most disagreeable man (notice I did not say gentleman). As always I said hello and made the statement “that I hoped it would not get real hot outside while transiting through the canal. “ Just making conversation. His answer was well if you don’t like it stay inside. I was a little taken back so I indicated that I would do both, inside and out. He became quite fierce in his seemingly denunciation of me with another louder utterance of stay inside if you don’t like it. Thankfully the elevator doors opened and he left, before me I might add. As I followed him I noticed a couple out of the corner of my eye and the wife was pointing at him. I got the distinct impression she was at one time also a brunt of his nasty behavior.

This post is mainly for those of you who are contemplating booking a world cruise or segment on the good ship Amsterdam in the future. As most of you will recall I took a week cruise with my Robin to Alaska and coincidentally we were on the Amsterdam. It enabled me to become acquainted with the ship, service, food, etc. I was very disappointed in the service and crew but very happy with the cabin and food. I was assured that the service by the crew of the world cruise would be wonderful. THEY WERE RIGHT! My what service. My cabin steward, Jessie, is great, personable and always there. On the other cruise I never even saw the steward except once at 12:00 pm to reconfigure the bed to what was ordered. My first request for this to be done was at 2:00 pm. Again the bed wasn’t right but Jessie had it corrected within the half hour. He is leaving funny towel animals for me just as if I was a kid.

Food, oh what dinners we are having in the dining room. Try Filet mignon, Alaska king crab legs, and MAINE lobster tail. Those were my choices of entrees the first three days. How can they keep this up? I’m still struggling to remember our waiter’s name but I will in time have his name etched in my brain. He is a marvel. The service is spectacular and this is welcomed after the very poor service on our Alaska cruise. After the first day I didn’t have to remind him of petite portions or decaf espresso with a lemon twist. Magically everything is exactly what I requested that very first day.

Check-in was a breeze. No long lines and everything was complete in 15 minutes or less. And, to my delight, the photo of my boarding is great. I look so cute and I have never taken a good boarding picture ever ever ever.!

I used Cruise Specialists (hereafter referred to as CSI) as my agent. To my delight my travel agent was one of the persons sent to assist in the final stages. It was wonderful to see Shannon in person. We had a great party and dinner and since I was seated at the head table I was able to meet the President and his wife. Our two fearless leaders, Tom and Ellen, were also on hand to greet us. I haven’t had enough contact with Tom yet to give you a feel for his personality but Ellen is a fun loving ready for anything type of person. Last night she was wearing an elegant outfit that was black and the same color as Doc Severinson’s suit (shocking coral) and she managed to get a photo of the two of them on stage. My kind of girl.

CSI was responsible for our travel arrangements to a shopping center and transfer from the hotel to the ship. Both endeavors went perfectly. Kudos to CSI and my agent, Shannon.

This post is mainly for those of you who are contemplating booking a world cruise or segment on the good ship Amsterdam in the future. As most of you will recall I took a week cruise with my Robin to Alaska and coincidentally we were on the Amsterdam. It enabled me to become acquainted with the ship, service, food, etc. I was very disappointed in the service and crew but very happy with the cabin and food. I was assured that the service by the crew of the world cruise would be wonderful. THEY WERE RIGHT! My what service. My cabin steward, Jessie, is great, personable and always there. On the other cruise I never even saw the steward except once at 12:00 pm to reconfigure the bed to what was ordered. My first request for this to be done was at 2:00 pm. Again the bed wasn’t right but Jessie had it corrected within the half hour. He is leaving funny towel animals for me just as if I was a kid.

Food, oh what dinners we are having in the dining room. Try Filet mignon, Alaska king crab legs, and MAINE lobster tail. Those were my choices of entrees the first three days. How can they keep this up? I’m still struggling to remember our waiter’s name but I will in time have his name etched in my brain. He is a marvel. The service is spectacular and this is welcomed after the very poor service on our Alaska cruise. After the first day I didn’t have to remind him of petite portions or decaf espresso with a lemon twist. Magically everything is exactly what I requested that very first day.

Check-in was a breeze. No long lines and everything was complete in 15 minutes or less. And, to my delight, the photo of my boarding is great. I look so cute and I have never taken a good boarding picture ever ever ever.!

I used Cruise Specialists (hereafter referred to as CSI) as my agent. To my delight my travel agent was one of the persons sent to assist in the final stages. It was wonderful to see Shannon in person. We had a great party and dinner and since I was seated at the head table I was able to meet the President and his wife. Our two fearless leaders, Tom and Ellen, were also on hand to greet us. I haven’t had enough contact with Tom yet to give you a feel for his personality but Ellen is a fun loving ready for anything type of person. Last night she was wearing an elegant outfit that was black and the same color as Doc Severinson’s suit (shocking coral) and she managed to get a photo of the two of them on stage. My kind of girl.

CSI was responsible for our travel arrangements to a shopping center and transfer from the hotel to the ship. Both endeavors went perfectly. Kudos to CSI and my agent, Shannon.

I’m here everyone and what a beginning to my around the world adventure. First, the flight was smooth, no shoe bombers, short fused shorts, or disruptive behavior. In other words it was a most boring flight. But, remember boring is good when you are flying. One of my bags was the first out of the chute and the other one showed up a minute or so later. You ask ---so, what is this beginning I first mentioned. Well, it was at this point the fun began. No Holland American Line person could be found. I waited about 15 minutes and then pulled out the instruction sheet and was informed if there is no agent have them paged, which I did. No HAL agent. After another 15 minutes I had them paged again. No HAL agent. So, I pulled out the trusty instructions again and was informed to call an emergency number, which I did and there was a recording saying that no one was there. So, I walked back to the baggage claim area and fortunately there was the agent.

This agent scolded me for leaving the baggage claim area after having her paged but did proceed to find me on her list of incoming passengers but with no time of arrival or flight number. After much to do about the paperwork she did make up a voucher for the Super Shuttle which was to take me from Miami to my hotel in Fort Lauderdale, about a 20 minute trip. She made sure I was on the right shuttle , with the right driver.
WRONG. Think Gore vs. Bush; hanging chads, butterfly ballots and that whole stupid thing. After all, I was going from Dade County to Broward County.

After dropping another couple off at another hotel and another couple off at the airport to pick up luggage that went to that airport instead of Miami, it was my turn. She proceeded to drop me off at the Westin beach hotel. Now, this was after I kept saying it is located on Corporate Avenue, Drive or whatever and she assured me there was no problem. Needless to say, it was the wrong Westin Hotel. Some very nice girls managed to call her dispatcher to inform her of this fact and since she had stopped for a McBurger and McCoffee (No doubt with the $5.00 tip I gave her.) she wasn’t far away. I then asked her if she knew where she was going and she gave me assurances that she had it covered. After wandering around for another half hour or so she was given instructions again and tried to drop me off at the same Westin Hotel for the second time. Super shuttle, Super stupid.

Finally, after two more telephone calls to the Westin Hotel and continuing travel directions I was delivered to the correct hotel. My trip from Seattle to Miami was 5 hours; then 4 hours from time of arrival to hotel.

As a side note I am sure you have all heard that this area of Florida is freezing and the strawberry and orange crops are in danger of being lost. The Super Shuttle had no heat so this tourist was also in danger of freezing .

Only 24 hours plus before I leave. Passport and visas are in hand. I even took a quiz to find out my packing personality. Apparently I am a systematic suitcase stuffer and frankly I can’t argue with that conclusion. My two large bags are at the port waiting for the good ship Amsterdam and hopefully we will all be reunited.

I will spend two nights in Fort Lauderdale before boarding and there is a dinner for Cruise Specialist clients Tuesday evening. I like this because it will give us all a chance to get acquainted including meeting our travel leaders Tom and Ellen.

My next post will be on board and I am sooo ready to be there. I am also ready for some summer like weather while in countries in South America and plan to work on a sensible tan.