Sunday Jan 29, 2023
Hi gang! We had a very relaxing sea day today. And sadly it’s our last sea day of our cruise. I really can’t believe our cruise is almost over (wait… we still have 4 days!) but it seems to have flown by.
We really didn’t do much of anything (of course we didn’t miss a meal)! We did attend two talks. The first one was on the 150 year history of the Holland America Line (HAL). They were founded in Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1873. They only had 70 passengers on their first voyage. Over the next few decades, as 11 million immigrants wanted to come to the USA, HAL captured a large part of that market due to the simple fact that they treated people with dignity.
Many cruise lines took advantage of immigrants and over charged them and stuck them in steerage class. HAL gave them 3 meals a day and built an immigrant hotel with reasonable rates since many had to wait for a ship crossing. In 1912 the Titanic launched, so to check out their competition, Hal sent the founder’s son to be on the maiden voyage but sadly he perished with many others.
Over the next few decades, HAL adapted to the many changes in the world such as World War II, transatlantic flights and even Covid. Their merger with Carnival Cruise Line has helped them grow their fleet. I know, I know, you think I’ve been on HAL so long I’m drinking the Kool-Aid! Lol
The other talk was a Q&A with the Captain. He was very funny and just talked about how he steers the ship and all the automation that’s used. It was very informative!
In the evening we went to dinner and watched parts of both NFL Playoff games. The Philly/49ers game stunk (I wanted the 49ers to win!) and the Chiefs/Bengals game was a mail biter right to the end. Congrats to the Chiefs!
Tomorrow we are in Punte del Este, Uruguay. We’re taking a half day tour of the city with our friends Sue and Stuart. I’ve actually been here before and the area really is a nice beach town. The weather is supposed to be perfect, sunny and 75! Hope everyone had a great weekend!
PS: I was finally able to post a few pictures last night but when I went to post more, they did not go through so not sure I can post any tonight. Grrrr
The Wandering Italian 