Day 10 & 11 - Puerto Limón, Costa Rica / At Sea

Sunday January 12

When we woke up the wind was still going strong. The itinerary says that we should be in Puerto Limón from 7:30 am to 5 pm. This is where we wanted to do an excursion. We had booked it two days ago and then Kate and David had decided to do it too. We were to board a historic, recently restored open-air train, see the countryside and Tortuguero Canals. We have already been in Costa Rica's National Park (this blog and the next one) and were really looking forward to it.

View from our balcony at 8 am: the buses were lining up. Many more were coming. But all had to leave again. The captain announced that he just couldn't dock the ship. The wind/waves were moving the ship side to side and front to back and it was just too dangerous for passengers to walk off and on and the ship could also be damaged. He kept stressing that safety first was important as disappointing it was for all. So, we had an unscheduled "day at sea".

James and I were fine. We liked spending days at sea on deck 3 were the ship's movements were not so noticeable. Laying on one of the deck chairs was quite relaxing. We did worry about Kate and David though. They didn't feel so well and decided to stay in their cabin most of the day. Eating for them was out of the question. We only saw them once in a while.

Besides playing our card game or dice there was plenty of entertainment. At 2 pm there was an "Ask the Captain" session on the Mainstage. Very interesting.

Singer Colleen Williamson also performed and we really liked her. She was very good. She told us that she lived in Mount Juliet, Tennessee.

The towel art: is it an anteater or an elephant? No telling.

Monday January 13

This day and the next are the two scheduled "At Sea" to go back to Fort Lauderdale. The weather got steadily better.

We all enjoyed deck 3. I should explain probably that Kate, James and I could use the HollandAmerica Navigator on our phones which uses the ship's WiFi but only for this purpose. It has a chat feature which means we could tell each other where we were or what our plans were. It didn't ping though. You just needed to once in a while check. 

I took this photo to remind me ... we saw plenty of flying fish when we were walking our rounds on that deck. 

James and I had to eat lunch with the crew today. That's what I call it having heard Onslow say it on an episode of BBC's "Keeping up Appearances". Kate and David have an invitation for tomorrow's lunch.

James decided he didn't want any dinner since he had that lunch. Neither did David. I really didn't need food either but I fancied a bit of that lobster. With the Navigator on your phone you could also check that day's menu. Kate didn't have much food lately so wanted some dinner so the two of us decided to go by ourselves. Girls night out! We skipped the starter and I enjoyed the surf and turf.

I should have skipped the dessert too. The tiramisu wasn't worth the calories. Sorry.

I think we went to the trivia game, listened to the piano guys, had a nightcap in one of the bars.

It had ended up being a nice relaxing day. Our cabin steward forgot us that evening. No "When & Where" for the next day, no little chocolates, no towel art. Oh well ...

Step count: 

Sunday = 11,840

Monday = 11,176