We left San Diego about 5pm on Oct 22 on Holland America's Oosterdam. Holland America is our preferred cruise line and the Oosterdam is a Vista Class ship and bigger than the other ones we have been on. She holds about 1800 passengers, compared to the 1200 or so we are used to. We had 5 sea days on the way to Hawaii and because of a medical evacuation that required the ship to be turned around, we had 6 sea days on the way back from Hawaii. Some people would go crazy with that much free time, but we thought it was great. What to do? Well, sleep late, eat, read, eat lunch, watch a movie, nap, hit the casino, eat dinner, hit the casino, watch a show, hit the casino, go to bed, you get the idea. I saw a couple of movies in the theater, we watched five dvd's we brought from home in our cabin, plus a couple on tv, Marcia went to two wine tastings and read a couple of books, we each actually went to the gym a few times each, I spent most of my free time in the casino, we went to several of the shows, Marcia went to a couple of the Veteran's get togethers, we chatted with Whit and David and other folks we met on board and in general we just chilled out. We would actually (jokingly) complain that shore days interfered with our naptimes.
Some pics to show that we actually do know how to dress up for formal nights. We went to three, but only got pics from two. Service in the dining room was kind of slow, so we ended up eating most of our meals on the Lido deck.
Our number one favorite splurge on this trip was the unlimited laundry. This ship didn't have the coin laundries like some of the other ships, so you would have to send out your dirty clothes in these tiny, tiny little bags and they charge like $4 for a pair of pants and $2 for a pair of socks. We paid $49 a week and got unlimited laundry. Stuff it in a bag, send it out and they bring it back the next day in a basket, all nice and clean and folded. Since we already had 4 days of dirty clothes when we got on the ship, this was great. Marcia has already decided that we will do this on all cruises in the future. Since I'm the one who always does the laundry, I find this somewhat amusing...
And, everybody's favorite, the towel animals that would grace your bed every night when you came back to your room. Here are a few of our favorites:
Now on to the islands!
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