{"id":11938,"date":"2017-08-04T11:57:49","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T15:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=11938"},"modified":"2017-11-27T18:39:32","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T23:39:32","slug":"our-first-sea-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=11938","title":{"rendered":"Our First Sea Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday – August 4, 2017<\/p>\n

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The ship\u2019s Fog Horn woke me up at 5:30 AM. \u00a0We\u2019re off the western coast of Nova Scotia traveling in a Northeasterly direction. \u00a0It\u2019s still foggy and 63 degrees at 7:38 in the morning. \u00a0The Rotterdam has traveled 350 nautical miles since leaving Boston and has 265 nm to go to reach Sydney, Nova Scotia, our next port of call. \u00a0The Atlantic Ocean is calm and 480 feet deep in this location.<\/p>\n

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We\u2019re getting used to the good ship Rotterdam and are learning where everything is located. \u00a0Most of the space on the ship is taken up by cabins for passengers. \u00a0The ship\u2019s crew\u2019s quarters are below the first deck and have no windows or portholes.<\/p>\n

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Deck 3 has a walk-around \u201cPromenade\u201d and cabins which open directly onto that public space. \u00a0Most of everything else for passengers is on Deck 4, 5, or 8. In comparison to newer ships, the Rotterdam is relatively small with about 1400 paying guests and a crew of 600.<\/p>\n

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Everyone moved their clocks ahead one hour last night to Atlantic time, so I woke up early. \u00a0We enjoyed our buffet breakfasts in the Lido Cafe. \u00a0I had yogurt with fruit & granola, and assorted herrings and smoked salmon. \u00a0Unlike other cruise ships we\u2019ve been on, the buffet has servers who dish out passenger\u2019s requests instead of serving yourself.<\/p>\n

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We walked around the ship before taking the \u201cGalley Tour\u201d of the large commercial kitchen hidden away behind the dining rooms. \u00a0We had taken \u00a0a galley tour on a Princess cruise which was interesting however this one was much quicker with very friendly workers. \u00a0In this huge stainless steel kitchen we saw the storage & dish washing facilities, fresh fruit & vegetable prep areas, the bakery, and meat & poultry section. \u00a0The master chef stood along our tour path and greeted all the passengers in a friendly manner. \u00a0It was a very quick tour, but fun.<\/p>\n

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Then at eleven o\u2019clock we went to a presentation by guest lecturer Jim McParland who talked about Canada\u2019s Atlantic Provinces where the Rotterdam will be going in the next few days. \u00a0He was a retired Canadian high school geology teacher. \u00a0The photos in his slide show were good and his talk was very informative. \u00a0Jeff and I decided it would be fun to explore more of the Maritime Provinces when we have time.<\/p>\n

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We just had enough time for a quick light lunch at the Taco Bar at the Lido Pool, before rushing to the next lecture: What to See and Do in Sydney, Cornerbrook, and Red Bay. \u00a0\u201cLocation Guide\u201d Barbara talked about and showed slides of our next three ports. \u00a0She also gave us handy hints about what we might need in these places, like insect spray and Canadian money. \u00a0She also spoke of what to expect to see at these locations in Nova Scotia, Labrador and Newfoundland.<\/p>\n

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By mid-day, the sun was shining brightly. \u00a0There was very little wind and the seas were calm. \u00a0I wondered what the weather was like in Nova Scotia and at home.<\/p>\n

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The Rotterdam has many cozy and inviting corners to sit and relax, unlike other ships we traveled on. \u00a0So, in the late afternoon, we found a comfortable couch up on the ninth deck lounge and stayed for a while listening to our books on tape. \u00a0We had a light dinner in the Lido Marketplace and afterwards walked once around the Promenade Deck. \u00a0A thick dense fog closed in around us by nightfall and the ship\u2019s Fog Horn began to blare its gloomy warning sound at regular intervals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday – August 4, 2017 The ship\u2019s Fog Horn woke me up at 5:30 AM. \u00a0We\u2019re off the western coast of Nova Scotia traveling in a Northeasterly direction. \u00a0It\u2019s still foggy and 63 degrees at 7:38 in the morning. \u00a0The Rotterdam has traveled 350 nautical miles since leaving Boston and has 265 nm to go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,31,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canada","category-cruising","category-eastern-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11938"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11945,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11938\/revisions\/11945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}