April 4 – At Sea-Atlantic Ocean. Well we're on the home stretch now, at least on this cruise. When we get to Rotterdam we have to catch a train and head to Amsterdam where we board Tauck's Swiss Pride for a cruise through the Netherlands and Belgium. That cruise will be for 10 days. We catch a train to London from Brussels and get our rental car to see some of England.
Right now we are slowly packing and prepare to make the run to the other ship. We've been metering our laundry so almost everything will be clean when we change ships because laundry on HAL is free for us and on the Tauck ship I'm sure it will be very expensive. When we are on our own in England we can take a day to get everything sorted on that end.
The ship will be fairly empty. I've packed everything I can before the last day. My big suitcase is pretty heavy but I'll only have to handle it on and off the train to Amsterdam so I should be ok. On the other hand by small bag is pretty light so that's an advantage.
Tonight's entertainer was Denise Thimes, a blues/jazz singer. She was very good. She got the HALCats involved with solos quite a bit and they are so good that's always a plus. She said she has sung for three queens, the Queen of England, The Queen of Thailand and the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. She then sang the song that each queen requested she sing. I couldn't believe Queen Elizabeth II's request, 'Route 66". Didn't know Her Majesty was a fan of the southwest. It was a very enjoyable show.
April 5 – At Sea-Atlantic Ocean. Ditto, plus packing!
April 6 – Southampton, England. Unless you are disembarking you can't get off the ship today. We'll only be here until 10AM when we leave for Rotterdam. We waited until 8:30am to go to breakfast so we wouldn't be there when the people who are getting off will be.
It was pretty empty for breakfast. Seems like most of the people who are still on are Dutch. Some are from the USA and Canada and are going to visit relatives in Holland. There are a few non-Dutch Americans and Canadians, a few Aussies and some Kiwi's and even some Brits but very few. There are only about 400 passengers on the ship. There are a host of contractors that have been getting on at various ports. Some were at breakfast and more were at lunch. They stand out because they are all about half the age of the average passenger and maybe less.
Tonight we cross the channel and then the cruise is over. Yikes!! We've almost finished packing. Just can't pack some things until we get up in the morning. Our big suitcases are out in the hall for pickup 4 hours ahead of schedule.
We almost never go to the show the night before we get off the ship but especially not tonight. We got an hour back just before we got to Southampton but we have to go forward tonight to get on Dutch time. There's only one show tonight and that's at 9:30 which is really 10:30 and won't be over until 11:30 and we have to be up at 6am ready to face a long travel day. So, no show.
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