Congratulations to Joe and Toni who had twin babies March 4. That’s all I know so far.
When returning to the ship, we have to go through security. It’s not usually extreme. Even those under 75 get to keep their shoes on. Sometimes HA (Holland America) runs the security, sometimes the local government does. When returning from Sidney, local government was running security, They confiscated my pocket tool, which is permitted by HA policy. It was no biggie. The next day I retrieved my tool from Guest Services. Last night, I received a note addressed to me (not us) that said “With our sincere apologies”, along with a plate of sweets. I was quite surprised. It was totally unnecessary, and totally fun.
We’ve been going through rough seas since we left Sidney. The captain canceled out planned stop at Milford Sound. For most of us, this was a one-hour stay-on-the-ship photo op, but there was the option of an overland excursion to visit New Zealand’s beautiful Fiordland National Park. If we had followed our original course, the seas were heavy enough that they might have damaged the ship. Nobody I know objected to the captain’s decision to reduce speed and go around the worst of the storm. Danita felt sea sick the first day. Yesterday she felt better. The most serious casualty was the fine whiskey store. They ignored the captain’s warning and did not properly secure their merchandise. Yesterday, their store was closed and they were packing up what little was left of their stock.
We have one other unrelated casualty. Mom got a new prescription from her doctor. Her normal mail order prescription service says they can’t deliver it and cancelled the order. I tried to get the doctor’s office to forward the prescription to the local drugstore. The doctor’s office doesn’t always answer the phone, preferring to call back. Fortunately, Mom has plenty of the old prescription on hand and it’s working good enough. I understand the doctor’s need to batch up their work, and everything is OK. But it’s not the best possible outcome for Mom. I’ll try one last time today.
That’s all for now. I hope this finds everybody doing well.