August 22, 2015-Inside Passage, sailing towards Vancouver, dinner at Canaletto

ZAANDAM

Today there is no port so we can sleep in a bit.  However, my inside alarm clock is not in sync with that bit of information so I'm up early as usual.  Start  to do some packing as we will disembark the ship tomorrow.  Then it's off to Rotterdam for breakfast.  Richard tries the oatmeal with milk and raisins, a bagel with lox/capers, bananas, juice, and coffee.  I have eggs over easy/medium, hash brown pattie, toast, fruit plate, and coffee.  My queasiness is subsiding.  I continue to take the sea calm  pills  since I got them yesterday.

View from our table at Rotterdam Dining Room

Bananas for Richard

Fruit plate for me

Oatmeal with raisins

Bagel, cream cheese, lox with capers and red onion

Eggs over easy/medium, hash brown pattie, toast

Since we don't have to get off the ship this can be a day to just relax.  I do laundry.  I use the ship's computer to touch base with family.  I spend time in the Lido hot tub.  Richard catches up on some reading.  I do a crossword puzzle.  We have lunch by the Lido pool-Dive In.  Hot dogs, fries, coke.  Delicious.  We people watch.  We watch and listen to the organ in the atrium.  The value of this organ is $650000.00  It is a beautiful, impressive baroque-styled organ.    Browse through the shops.  Wander around the ship.  Richard observes the art auction.  Later at around 3:30 pm we partake of the Royal Dutch tea time in Rotterdam.  We have tea of course and canapés and sweet treats.  Yummy!  The sliding top of the Lido pool is open to the sky.  Must be because the weather is sunny and in the mid-high 70s.  From our verandah we can see the BC ferry, fishing boats, more civilization as we get closer to Vancouver.  Today is the last day to buy any pictures that were taken during this cruise so we go to the Photo Gallery to look at our pictures.  Pictures were taken when you first embark the ship, each gala evening at Rotterdam Dining Room, each port, and on deck while at Glacier Bay.  For $39.90 I get our embarkation picture and the first gala evening picture.    They turned out ok.  Some people were spending $$$$ and getting many more pictures than we did!

Very impressive

Where I got my sea calm pills

       Beautiful flower arrangement

Cooking shows/demonstrations

Lido hot tub

Place your order

We get the Dive In Dog and the Dog Paddle and naked fries

They have burgers too

Taco bar

Scenery from our verandah while we do some packing

Royal Dutch Tea

Sitting on our verandah  

The Roy Kristian

Hi

Lido pool with open top-sunny with blue skies!

Back in our stateroom the twilight again is just awesome.  In a blink of an eye it's time to get ready for our last dinner.  I've made reservations at Canaletto for 7:30 pm.  Tonight we dine Italian style.  Extra charge for this place is $10 pp.   The menu suggest ordering 2 small plates and 1 large plate to share.  We order the Canaletto salad to share and the Zuppa di Pesce-a soup of mussels, clams, shrimp, scallops, cod, vegetables in a tasty broth.  For our large plate we pick the sautéed veal piccata served with lemon angel hair pasta.

Canaletto salad large enough to share-Boston lettuce, roasted beets, gorgonzola, candied walnuts, raspberry vinaigrette

Richard had the Zuppa di pesce-mussels, clams, shrimp, scallops, cod, vegetables, tomato saffron broth

Sautéed veal piccata with lemon angel hair pasta, capers, and kale

Dessert-gelato with biscotti and blackberries

Limoncello creme

I'm feeling better so we go to the Mondriaan Lounge where we catch some of the Dancing with the Stars at Sea Finale.  I was blown away by the dance moves of some of the passengers who were vying for the championship.  We couldn't stay to the end but to me they were all winners.  Had to finish packing!!  Per the Vancouver disembarkation information letter we received in our stateroom our bags have to be packed, tagged and placed outside our stateroom door by 12:00 midnight tonight.   We also find a card on the bed that reminds us to move our clocks/watches forward 1 hour as we sail into a different time zone.  Tomorrow we disembark our ship in Vancouver.  Our cruise is over.  If I hadn't suffered with the motion sickness this would have been so much more than it was.  I really regret not being able to fully enjoy all the onboard activities.  Richard said they were all great.  He went to a cooking show, observed the art auction, saw Darlene and the HALCats perform, listened to piano entertainment, saw the Zaandam singers and dancers perform, saw the comedian's act.   The ports and excursions we chose to do were exactly right for us.  We loved having a stateroom with a verandah.  The food was so much better than I expected.  The staff were always smiling.  Service was great.  No complaint whatsoever.  Our stewards kept our stateroom immaculate.  Fresh flowers, fruit.  The towel art.  The ONLY negative to the cruise and this would be any cruise line is that there just is not enough time in the ports to do everything you want to do.  At least this applied to us.  Am I sorry we did a cruise?  No.  Holland America was a good choice for us and I would cruise with them again as long as I had motion sickness medication with me from the start!!