January 17 – On the Tasmanian Sea

Well, yesterday was intended to be our visit to Brunie, Tasmania but the seas were too rough to bring the ship to port so we continued on to our next destination – Milford Sound in New Zealand. This means 3 days vs 2 days at sea. We were disappointed but what can you do?

So what is there to do “at sea” you may ask…

Everyday there are multiple activities per hour starting at 7am. Some are classes, some are group exercises, and some are open activities such as playing bridge in the card room or doing puzzles in the Crows Next room.

Here are some of the items for today… These are posted in our Holland America App – each day varies a bit.

7am: Meet and walk a mile around ship deck (3 times = 1 mile) and we can do this anytime. Or group stretch, Pilates $20

8am: Tai Chi, Morning Catholic Prayer, Tour de Cycle $20

9am: Souvenirs on pool deck, Inch of gold sales (The Shops area has various specials all day), Zentangle in the Art Studio, Stretch and release, (more sales)

10:00: Poker Tournament, sales, Bridge 10-4, Cooking demo, coloring for adults, Liquid face lift, Relieving back pain (complementary footprint analysis to reveal cause of back pain…)

11:00 Major daily educational presentation (these are pretty interesting). Tomorrow’s is “Divergent Oceania, Art Auction registration and auction, Design your own water bottle (in photo deck area), Bingo with prizes up to $1,000, Certified pre-owned Rolex event!, Jewelry auction, Origami Folding,

11:30 Health Seminar – eat more to weigh less, Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine

1:00 Another educational presentation in World Stage Theatre – Aotearoa – The Maori Story, Ladies Pamper Party (!), Permission to Dance – line dancing I think, Guided Painting on Canvas $25

2:00pm and throughout the afternoon: One more big education presentation, poker tournament, ping pong tournament, sales of Tanzanite, Poster seminar, movie in large auditorium, Martini mixology, pickle ball, team trivia challenge, have your portrait taken, tongue and pulse analysis!, massage sampler, various locations for happy hours or tastings, etc.

Evenings: Entertaining on big stage: They present a “big” show at 7:30 and 9:30 each night – Either Dance, Men singing or a comic. There is also Dualing (really excellent) pianos and singing, rock and roll somewhere, and the casino of course.

You get the idea… Besides the above there are two different pool areas, various areas to sit and read and a nice borrowing library. I’m sure I left activities out but you get the gist of how people can stay busy, and they do.

What have we been doing? So far…Playing bridge a bit, walking the mile+ walk, reading, attending educational/what to see next presentations, checking out the evening performances.