We’re well and truly settled into our stateroom, with clothes in closets and drawers, electronics plugged in, and toiletries arranged on the bathroom counter.

Our cabin was supposed to be a “large interior”, described as a Quad (2 lower beds, 1 sofa bed, 1 upper), although there are only 2 of us occupying it. If we were sharing it – with grandkids, for example – the third and fourth passengers would cruise for free, except for taxes, gratuities, and optional drink or wifi packages. Keep in mind that passenger 3 would have to sleep in a twin bunk that folds down above the main bed, and passenger 4 would be sleeping on a twin size sofa bed, so perhaps “free” wouldn’t be such a fabulous deal for an adult.

Without flights this cruise works out to $216CAD per person per day ($160 USD pp/pd), which is our least expensive cruise to date. That price includes a single device per person wifi package, gratuities, and virtually unlimited drinks; whether we choose to make those drinks specialty coffees, pop (“soda” for our US friends), bottled water, fresh smoothies, or something alcoholic is up to us. We both agree that we need wifi, especially if I’m going to blog, and we’d certainly never opt not to pay crew gratuities, knowing how dependent (right or wrong) the crew are on them to supplement their families’ lives at home. That leaves drinks as the thing we could economize on. By buying a Plus “package” the drink portion amounts to $17 per person per day. We’d reach that amount with 2 lattes and a glass of wine.

In total, that $216 per person is about double what we average per person living on land and cooking for ourselves, but both the food and the experience are completely different.

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The “typical” interior cabin floor plan we were shown when booking the cruise looked like this:

Of course, there is no balcony, and also no windows. That’s unusual for us on a cruise, but not unusual when we’re on land renting a furnished lower level suite where the bedroom is often windowless, and after all we’ll be spending only minimal time in our stateroom. On the plus side, it’s about 200 square feet/18 square metres in size, compared to the average balcony room at 174 square feet/16 square metres (not counting the balcony), and it will be dark for sleeping!

But… here’s where the SURPRISE! comes in.

When we boarded, all of a sudden instead of Cabin 1034, our boarding passes indicated Cabin 4060, up on deck 4, thankfully still midship, with huge windows but no balcony since the lifeboats are RIGHT THERE. Also no nice big couch and chairs, (just a love-seat), no in-room refrigerator, less accessible closet space, and a disconcertingly loud fan. In theory, it’s a pricier room than what we booked, but it’s a bit unnerving to simply be moved without any prior notification. And no, there was nothing “wrong” with our booked room to explain the move – someone else is in it! Plus, our new room has a bathtub. Normally that would be a disadvantage, since neither of us like tubs, but from a practical standpoint it just means a bigger than cruise-ship average shower that we have to climb into.

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Bottom line, it’s “fine”, and a cruise is definitely not all about the cabin.

Starting our itinerary with a couple of sea days means needing to find either activities or a quiet place to read – or both. Holland America doesn’t have the variety or calibre of guest lecturers that Viking does, but they do have their video EXC® Talk lecture series billed as “featuring captivating regional stories told by local experts and narrated by your Cruise & Travel Director”. The trend toward educational opportunities while cruising is, in my opinion, a positive one. We’re never too old to learn.

Today, I started with our CD, Valerie, for her daily coffee chat, which this morning featured the Human Resources Team. These folks deal with every issue you can imagine that 837 crew could encounter, and are a vast font of knowledge. It was eye-opening!

From there, it was off to the World Theatre for an EXC® Talk called Alaska Up Close: Pacific Giants, all about the whales that live and migrate along this coast. This is a talk HAL does on their Alaskan cruises, but which also applies to the northwestern Pacific waters, and there is a small chance we could see whales today or tomorrow off the coasts of Oregon and northern California.

I’ve seen that presentation before, last summer on our Alaskan cruise, but Valerie is one of the most dynamic speakers I’ve heard in a while, and made the presentation really come to life.

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Having had no breakfast, the 11 a.m. cooking show in the Rolling Stone Lounge seemed like a good time to start my day with some Vitamin C and vegetables (aka a Bloody Mary) courtesy of the smiling Jasmyn. There’s no question that cruising is not our normal dining/eating routine.

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The dish being created in the demonstration was a barbecued salmon bowl with mango salsa & grilled asparagus, which will be on the menu in the main restaurant 2 days from now.

Valerie introduced the 5 kinds of salmon using the fingers of her hand : chum (rebranded as keta) for the thumb, sockeye for the index (the finger you’d use to poke someone in the eye!), king (chinook) for the middle/longest finger, silver (coho) for the ring finger, and pink for the “pinkie”.

Executive Chef Menil, with HAL for 15 of his 35 years as a chef, told us about the fact that HAL sources 80 kinds of sustainably raised fish, and serves only fresh salmon. Along this cruise, HAL picks up fresh fish at EVERY port. He called it “port to table” cuisine.

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Chef had all kinds of tips about the cooking process, like cutting foods that oxidize (like avocado) last, and never sharing your chef’s knives. “Knives are like wives, not for sharing !” Something new that I learned was only to cut cilantro once, to keep the edges from blackening. Also, only add a citrus marinade to fish at the very last minute, so that the acid doesn’t “cook” the meat – think about dishes like ceviche, where the seafood is “cooked” by the lime juice.

He also hilariously compared modifying recipes to learning to drive. Start out driving the speed limit, then after you get your license you can crank up the speed – if you crash the car, go back to driving the speed limit.

As the salmon grilled, he told us great stories about “leftover cooking” (the way paella, biryani, and rice pudding all originated) but also said that when he goes home he doesn’t cook except on Sundays, because his family thinks they’re allowed to complain!

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Off to the Lido Market next for lunch: a crusty Italian sandwich, some roasted vegetable antipasto, and the highlight of my day: PINEAPPLE SOFT-SERVE! (There’s a different flavour each day of the week, like the coffee specials in the Crow’s Nest.)

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After lunch, more of Valerie – who I’m beginning to think is the hardest worker on the ship after the Engineer and our cabin stewards. This time it was part of HAL’S “Up Close” talk series in the theatre: Board Games, specifically the history of those available on the ship. Chess originating in 7th century India, checkers with its deceiving complexity and almost infinite number of moves, mahjong with its relatively modern ties not only to China but also to the Jewish-American community, and dominoes so very beloved in the Caribbean all cross the boundaries of time and nation. And there are the myriad card games, the earliest of which dates back to 9th century China. Watching Valerie speed-talk through 52 card stories in 3 minutes was hilarious.

After all that learning, I searched out a place in the sun to read, and settled in the Ocean Bar, to which we returned for pre-dinner cocktails and live music.

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The ship’s evening dress code was “dressy” (casual is the default) so Ted pulled out his dress pants to wear with a button-up shirt, and I chose the vintage sari silk dress I bought at a market in Padua Italy in June, dressed up with a gold leather belt and filigree earrings.

Dinner was again at a shared table, where conversation flowed – and we even shared ramekins of escargots!

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Returning briefly to our room before the evening show, we were greeted with this “puppy” and some dark chocolate Lindt truffles. Nice!

We’re being spoiled, and are very grateful to the crew – both seen and unseen – who make all this happen.