Before we left, lots of people asked me what you do on a ship for 10 days of a sea crossing.  Not to worry – the Nieuw Statendam has plenty of programs all day long.  In fact, I’ve had a hard time finding time to write the blog during our sea days because we have been so busy.  It will be even worse when we start stopping at a new port every day.

Every evening we get The Daily, which is a brochure that lays out all the classes and programs for the next day.  Here are some of the programs we have been doing that are on the schedule.

At 9:30 every morning there is a “coffee chat” with some of the staff of the ship.  The Cruise Director, Stephanie, runs these.  So far the most interesting has been with the Staff Engineer.  He gave us lots of good statistics and explained how the ship works.  The ship has two Azipod propellors, a bulb that helps cut down on water resistance at the front, and stabilizers that minimize rocking.  In addition, the ship has its own water treatment plant, electrical generators, and sewage treatment.  Very interesting.

Cruise Director Stephanie presents other programs during the day.  There is usually a program at 11 a.m. on some aspect of the culture where we are going.  Then at 1 p.m. she gives a port talk where she highlights one of the ports we are going to.

Every evening there is some kind of show.  So far my favorite has been the comedian, Mike Delamont.  He manages to be clean and hilarious as the same time.  My favorite joke so far:  Holland America tells the comedians that they can’t talk about drugs, but there are probably more drugs on board a Holland America ship than any other line.  Its just all us old folks get our drugs with prescriptions.   He performed two nights and was wonderful.

There is a small company of singers and dancers.  Two male singers, one female and five dancers.  Their shows have been fun but not spectacular.  The best singers so far were The RKs who did Rock and Roll music from the 50’s and 60’s.  They were wonderful singers and musicians.  As well as being funny.

Every afternoon and evening there are movies.  There are trivia contests and other shipboard games.  Every evening three bands play in the lounges.  Our stateroom is right below the Rolling Stones Lounge, which means that we get to hear the band every night.  Fortunately we like the music they are playing.  Because we can only hear the bass and drums, Tom and I play “Name that Tune” every night.

There are plenty of programs to enjoy and Tom and I have taken advantage of them during our “relaxed” days at sea.