Monday, 10 September 2012
Sailing the Gulf of St Lawrence and the Cabot Straits  

Although we have been forced to miss two ports (Shetland Islands and St John’s, Newfoundland), it looks like we have skirted the worst of the bad weather.  Although it has been raining quite hard all day, there is little wind and the seas are calm.  Surprisingly we have had good weather for all our port stays (except for a little rain the second day in Reykjavik), and the captain has promised that fair weather will return when we arrive in Halifax tomorrow (for our now two-day stay).  There are lots of activities to keep everyone busy on board the Eurodam—if one chooses to participate.  I have been using the time productively to edit my more than 1,000 photographs taken on the cruise (so far), with which I will bore everyone after I get back to Tucson.

The food and service in the dining room continues to live up to HAL standards.  I have a table to myself on the balcony of the dining room and my two servers, Nandi and Teddi (both from Indonesia), are cordial and helpful—especially when it comes to removing lobster tails from their casings and removing the central bones from fresh fish.  Having said that, however, I do think the menus have changed over the past four years, moving away from classical cuisine to more trendy and adventurous recipes.  So far there has been no escargot and only one serving of paté!

Anthony, the wine steward from two of my previous cruises on the Eurodam, has returned to the ship after doing an around-the-world cruise on the ms Amsterdam—which is why he wasn’t on my cruise to Norway and Scotland last August.  He is working the other side of the dining room, but when I went over to greet him, he remembered my first and last names without any hints.  Last night was the Philippine Crew Show, in which he performs, but I just couldn’t stay awake long enough to take in the midnight show.

Tonight is the final formal night and the Officers’ Black and White Ball.  The late-night “snacks,” which used to a highlight of cruising, are pretty much played down now-a-days.  I wonder if there will be a chocolate buffet at all on this cruise.

All the rain today makes me miss the sunny and warm skies of Tucson.