Monday, November 20 – Valletta, Sorta

Free at last! Free at last!  Following the shortest quarantine in the ship’s history – less than 24 hours – D was able to have breakfast in the MDR and to go anywhere he wanted.  Of course, he was advised to take it easy the first day, so breakfast was soft-boiled eggs and toast.  It was reminiscent of watching his father eat the same thing every day for eternity.  The only difference was that there was no springer spaniel to catch buttered toast.  [Are you reading this, Linda?]

As for Malta, we saw the major archeological sites as well as some of the historical ones in 2009 and had decided before the noro episode to stay aboard today.  Several of the MDR staff expressed curiosity about Valletta and Cuba, so D tried to connect the laptop to the printer in the “library” to print out our journals, but to no avail.  Our journals may would probably have bored or confused the waiters anyway.

So today is “bits and pieces” day.

LAUNDRY As 5-star Mariners, we are entitled to free laundry service.  This is the only benefit for staying so long with HAL [other than enjoying the ships and trips] that we relish.  We used to cram as much stuff as we could into a laundry bag and send it out when it was full for $20 a bag [the cost the last time we did it].  Now, we send out smaller batches almost every day at no cost.  The math here is like the current Federal budget debacle – we have spent a bazillion dollars in order to save twenty. 

Better than saving money is the effect the free laundry has on packing for a long cruise.  The laundry service has been so good that we could, in theory at least, need no more than 3 of anything to survive the seven weeks we will be here.  Consider socks: one pair to wear, one pair in the laundry and one pair for tomorrow.  For items that do not have to be changed every day, such as the shirt that is only worn to dinner, only two are really necessary.  And, if like D, you bring only one style of shirt, everyone will think you have been wearing it for the full seven weeks!  Almost every night, the question of what to wear is answered by, “I’ll the blue shirt.”

ODDBALLS It seems every ship and trip has its characters.  The previously mentioned shameless shoeless are not the most interesting, just the least hygienic.  There’s the know-it-all who walks through the Lido at lunch time in a ship’s bathrobe and stops to talk to people, mostly about himself.  There is Costa who is also full of himself and who has to talk to everyone about you-know-whom.  We were talking to him one morning at breakfast when he suddenly turned away and started a new conversation with people leaving the MDR; only when they left did he deign to allow us to finish our story.  Costa has forced us to do something we have never done before – we go out of our way to avoid him [Today it meant an extra round-trip on the elevator on the way to breakfast].

We have a “hat lady” on board, too.  On a previous Grand Med, there was a little old lady who was slightly short of a full deck and who had brought a collection of hats with her.  She may have worn a different one each day, but the point is that they had names and she held conversations with them.  This year’s iteration has a collection of pork-pie hats in a variety of colors, one for each outfit she wears.  The colors are truly coordinated but the cumulative effect is not one of style but of pretension.

The passenger list includes Jack, a retired surgeon [so we are told] who travels alone.  We have been on HAL ships with him before.  Despite his white hair, he bears an amazing resemblance to actor Sam Waterston.  What makes Jack interesting is that he is almost completely blind but manages to navigate the ship using only his cane.  He is quite sociable and is in the Ocean Bar every night with a group of regulars.  He eats by himself but then joins another table when he is done.

THE SHIP Every ship also has its own peculiarities.  On the Veendam, one of the elevators has been out of service since Day 1 and another in the same bank is often not in service.  Since there are only two banks of elevators – eight cars if they were all working – any loss of service has a great effect on passengers.  We talked today about a ship-based Waze system which could tell passengers the quickest way from A to B depending on traffic conditions and elevator usage.

On other ships, we have noticed marked differences in the air temperature as we walked the corridors.  We would soon be able to predict when the temperature would drop or when it would feel warmer.  This is probably a result of zone heating and HVAC.  On Deck 5 of the Veendam, the difference, as we walk from our cabin toward the stern to go to the MDR, is aroma.  That sounds too inviting, so let us stay “odor” or “stench” instead.  As we approach the end of the hallway, we are assailed by the smell of raw sewage.  For the sake of the passengers who have cabins in that area, we hope it is just in the hallway.  There is no way we could spend seven weeks in a cabin that smelled like an outhouse.

TOMORROW – Day Two in Malta