Anderson South America Misadventure Day 19 – On the Pacific Ocean “This is Your Captain Speaking” March 22, 2020

Anderson South America Misadventure Day 19 – On the Pacific Ocean “This is Your Captain Speaking” We woke up this morning and the ship was so still I thought that we were in a port or at a dock. I looked outside, no, we were moving, but the water was so still. It looked like the surface of a pond, you could see reflections in it. This is the calmest I have ever seen the Pacific Ocean. The captain usually comes on sometime between noon and 12:30 to let us know the weather, location, speed, etc. Today he came on at 2:15 and said “This is your captain speaking. I need everyone to listen and pay attention to what I am saying.” When you are on a cruise this brings a certain dread. Kind of like if your partner in a relationship says “We need to talk.” You know it is not good and your inner child wants to cover your ears and hide in your blanket fort. After brunch and trivia we came back to the room. I had considered stopping at the shops to see if I could find a watch that maybe had a built in pedometer. We have on board credit to spend and if we do not spend it we loose it. But we are not attending the evening show so we can go after dinner. This was a lesson is not putting things off. Rob and I were about to go for a walk so that I could take pictures of the calm water and we could get some fresh air. This is when the captain came on. They had a sudden upswing in passengers and crew going to the medical center with respiratory symptoms. In order to halt the spread of anything we were all told to immediately return to our cabins. We could be remaining here for the next few days or for the remainder of the cruise. Oh, yippee. We were assured that we would receive dinner and it would be delivered to our room. I tried to get a Coke Zero, yeah, I have given up waiting for that. I also have a weekly injection that I keep in the medical center. I get the shot on Sunday and was going to pick it up at 3:00 when they opened. I called to ask about this. I kept saying that I did not have a set time to get the shot but just sometime today. Well, it is almost 10:00 so I guess that is not happening today. We were told that dinner would be delivered from 6:00 – 9:00. The suites are on decks 6 & 7. We are on deck 2. You know that they are going to serve the people upstairs first. I checked outside at one point to see if we were getting a menu. They are washing the doors and the walls in the hallway. When I tried to shut the door so that no one could see that I had opened my door my shirt got caught on the lever handle on the outside of the door. I had to stop the door from closing, get my shirt loose and then shut the door. One of my more graceful moves. We were told that they would set our tray down then knock on the door. I would hear someone out in the hall and look through the peep hole. They delivered two big bottles of water. Then I heard clinking of glass or dishes. I could see that the room across the hall had two bottles of wine, one white one red. Come on bring the food. I finally heard them knocking on doors nearby. Then they knocked on our door. I waited a bit before I went to the door and peeked out. This guy was standing there so I waited. He knocked again and announced dinner delivery. OK, fine, I will open the door. Wow, that tray was heavy. It was also 8:40. I wonder what time the people on Deck 1 got their food. We had two different appetizers, two different dinners and one plate that just had mushroom risotto, a slice of rye bread and a roll. We called that one the carb plate. Rob had a glass of wine. We figured that they gave us two bottles of wine in the hopes that people would drink and not complain. We were lucky, we got two glasses of white although Rob was not thrilled with it. Rob and I both went to the medical center with respiratory issues last week. Mine was a sinus infection and I really wish that I had a t-shirt that read “It is a sinus infection, I am not contagious” for when I cough. Rob has had a dry cough he has run a temp off and on. I wonder if the doctor brushed us off too quickly. I am getting tempted to call the medical center again to have them come check him out. He was told that it was a cold and to not worry. Oh well, just another day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anderson South America Misadventure Day 27 - In the Caribbean "Plague Ship of the Caribbean" March 30, 2020

We spent a good portion of the night in our transit of the Panama Canal. They had really bright lights shining which I could see under our curtains. I would move the curtains because I wanted to see what was going on. The bright lights would hit Rob in the face, wake him up and he would yell at me. I could hear machinery going and people yelling and there were lights. So I would move the curtain again and Rob would yell again. It was a long night. Then I could feel the ship moving and I knew that we had cleared the canal. That was a big relief. When we hit the open water and the ship started to rock something started to make a knocking sound. Rob got up to figure it out. One of the bottles of wine that we got over a week ago was in the cabinet. Since Rob made me get rid of my water bottle raft supplies the wine bottle was banging around. See, he should have let me keep them. We had the alarm set to wake us up early so that we could do a live spot on Good Morning America. We got dresse...
Read more

Anderson South American Misadventure Day 20 - "Day Two of Confinement and We are Both Still Alive." March 23, 2020

We slept late this morning. I mean why would we get up early? We have nowhere to go. We got up and got ready for our day. We got a schedule of events for the day. Well, we got the schedule for the meals and for events that they would be showing on a channel of the TV. We get to play trivia twice a day. I have a shot that I need to take once a week. It is kept in the refrigerator in the Medical Center. On at sea days the Medical Center opens at 3:00. We were confined to our cabin at 2:15. I called the front desk to explain that I needed this shot, I take it every Sunday. No particular time but sometime on Sunday. By 10:00 I gave up on waiting for it. I called the front desk again at 9:00 this morning to ask for me shot. They transferred me to the Medical Center. The person who answered the phone had to ask what to do. They told him to just bring it to my door. He said that he would be here soon. OK, I am a day late but it is not a huge problem. I called Donna to find out when they got...
Read more

Message to Florida Officials March 30, 2020

To all of my Florida friends. Please use this script to contact your elected officials. We need to be able to disembark. There are sick people on this ship, they need proper medical care. Script for phone calls or emails to elected officials in Florida: As a resident of (city/Florida/the USA), I am (writing/calling) you to voice my support for the docking of the Holland America MS Zaandam in Fort Lauderdale later this week. The ship has over 300 American Citizens on board, none of whom have been on land since March 14, and they need our support now more than ever. Four people have lost their lives because countries along their route turned them away and denied them the medical care they desperately needed. One of those people is an American citizen. Now that the ship has crossed the Panama Canal, we need your help more than ever. We appeal to you to let our ship dock in Port Everglades. The healthy can undergo the necessary screenings and begin self-quarantine. The sick can have acce...
Read more