We’ve just completed 2 full days at sea, arriving tomorrow morning back in San Diego where some passengers will disembark, new folks board, and others (like us) stay put for the next leg to Hawaii – although we still have to disembark and re-enter through a port customs check.

Sea days are when I most miss our Viking experiences, with expert guest lecturers (astronauts, diplomats, professors, scientists, etc) presenting in-depth programs, arts & crafts classes, cooking demos, and lots of live music throughout the day. That latter feature is probably what I’m missing most with Holland America. Yes, there are bands/musicians in 3 “bar” venues on deck 2 after 8 p.m. nightly, but during the day it’s generic recorded radio-style music over the sound systems throughout the ship – no pianist, no string duo, no acoustic guitarist/vocalist entertaining around the ship or during afternoon tea or cocktail hours. There’s a grand piano on deck 2 outside the Club Orange dining room, but no one plays it. The ship’s atrium leads to an art gallery (for sale by auction), shops and the casino, as opposed to being a social space in which to sip, converse, and be serenaded.

Don’t get me wrong. We’re enjoying this cruise. There’s nothing the matter with what Holland America offers, and it’s to be expected with the big price differential between the two cruise lines that they can’t provide the same experience, but if I could afford Viking all the time, it’s what I’d choose. That opinion is highly personal of course, and there are undoubtedly people whose first choice would be different from ours. That’s why it’s nice that there are so many options for different styles and budgets.

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But back to our specific sea day experiences. Yesterday, while Ted spent the bulk of the day editing photos, I added several activities to my online itinerary: a talk on The Great (Mexican) Empires at 10, another talk on The Wizard of Wireless (Marconi) at 2, a movie (Selena) at 3, and the evening performance by Step One Dance Company after dinner.

One of the pluses of the talks on the Koningsdam is the theatre venue itself with its huge wraparound screen. The talks may not be as personalized as Viking’s, but they’re still VERY interesting, and the visuals are much, much better. The exctalks are comprised of filmed images and interviews supplemented by narration by the Cruise Director using the script on a teleprompter, which means no Q&A afterward, but our CD Kristen reads them beautifully and with an enthusiasm that brings them to life.

It was really fun hearing about the ball game pok-ta-pok again within the talk about Mexico’s Great Empires, especially since we’d had so much fun watching the games in Mérida! Episode 376 – Pok ta Pok

The second talk, focused on Marconi’s innovations that revolutionized communication, was fascinating, and included insights into how ships use radio waves in navigation and communication.

Sea days also include many, many shopping promotions (which I avoid), Bingo (at a cost), team trivia, and small group art activities (independent free ones, and guided ones with a fee), but those overlapped with the talks I wanted to attend. Options, right?

Of course, in between ship-sponsored activities there are the siren songs of food, cappuccinos, smoothies, Bloody Marys, comfy lounge chairs, and my own supply of on-line library books to enjoy.

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We enjoyed dinner in the main dining room, followed by another wonderful dance performance, this time enhanced by great vocals from the male singer from the band that plays in BBKing’s Blues Club. We also watched as 3 couples competed in The Game of Love (think The Newlywed Game), and caught some of the music in Billboard Onboard and BBKing’s to round out our evening.

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Today, my “itinerary” included the exctalk A City On The Sea (a behind the scenes look at life on our cruise ship, from engine room through laundry, galleys, and front of house, to navigation) at 10, a cake display in the Lido Market at 11:30, and an afternoon “Tech for Travellers” talk about capturing, editing, and posting photos, which I hoped would give me some new hints for improving our blog. Ted took in the morning talk with me, and then we headed our separate ways until it was time to get ready for dinner.

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Ted and I both popped into the World Theatre to watch passengers play Deal or No Deal for up to $1000 for the on-stage players, and a chance for a free cruise for those who purchased play cards but who were not chosen to be onstage.

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“Tech for Travellers” turned out to be a session by the Cruise Director aimed at teaching the basics of photography to Android phone users, and then showing those unfamiliar with sharing photos electronically how to do so. Not useful for me, since Ted does our blog photography on his digital SLR, I use an iPhone and iPad, and we’re pretty darn proficient at sharing, so I headed off to read in our room where I could simultaneously charge my iPad.

We had dinner reservations in the Pinnacle Grill, one of the ship’s extra cost specialty restaurants, one dinner at which came as part of our “Have It All” cruise package. Pinnacle specializes in steak, but on our Alaskan cruise we were disappointed by its inability to deliver a proper medium rare. Recent comments in the ship’s Facebook forum indicated that inconsistency was still the norm, so we had some misgivings going in for this second visit, but… dinner this time was perfection, as was our very personable waiter, Arif, who had the timing of courses down to a fine art.

We started with soups: wild mushroom poured over a sourdough crouton and goat cheese crumbles, and a lobster bisque poured over chunks of tender lobster meat. Then it was on to steaks, and desserts.

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So that’s it for the first leg of our cruise. We disembark, and re-embark, tomorrow for the cruise to Hawaii, beginning with 5 sea days. Expect lots of food photos… and “radio silence” for a few days.