Cartagena, no photos

 I will add photos later, when there's better internet. I'll change the name of the blog at that point.

We arrived in Cartagena very early in the morning. Quick breakfast on the Lido (and a quick Hello to Afint and Prem, who I met standing in the guest services line) and then off to the World Stage for shore excursion staging. There seemed to be a very slow moving line to get in, but it turned out it was the bottled water line and we could go right in. It was pretty ful, but we finally saw some empty seats. And who should be right next to us but Kay and Bill from last night, which was good because we couldn’t remember Kay’s name. She commented that she always tries to call Bill by name a few times during the meal to help people remember his name, “But he doesn’t remember mine”, delivered so deadpan that the woman in front of us had to snort with laughter. The time went quickly and then we were on our shore excursion.

It was called “A Snapshot of Cartagena”, and that’s what it was. 11 of us piled in a van with Cesar, another guide (Carmen?) and a driver, and squished all of the sights into 3 hours. We went up to the hill with the Convent (actually an Augustine monastery) and down to the fortress and into the walled city and all the time Cesar was telling the history of Colonialism (apparently nothing happened before Columbas 1502) and saying “take a picture here and then it’s time to go.” And also telling about how he started as a busboy and worked his way up.  The tour ended at a yacht club on the harbor where we had what was billed as snacks but was actually a very tasty lunch. Oddly, the group didn’t seem to connect – there was very little talk around the table. Back on the van for the last ride, and then a small fiasco boarding the ship. We’re not sure we’d recommend this particular tour. We were only in Cartagena for the morning, and all the shore excursions seem to have returned at the same time. So there was a huge line waiting to get on the ship with no shade and nowhere to sit. They were passing out water and lemonade but it was a definite error on their part. We are confident that they will be hearing about it from many passengers.

Dave went to hang out in the Mix bar and walk around the ship; I stayed in our cabin and fought with the internet trying to get the blog up. At 4 I gave up and went up to do bootcamp. There was only one other person (afternoon classes are never as popular) and we got to chat a bit during Suyash from South Africa, the instructor, as he tortured us. I already knew that the fitness center, spa, and salon are a separate company that contracts with HAL; what I didn’t know is that they contract with all of the other cruise lines as well. Suyash came from Norwegian Cruise Lines most recently. He also tolds us that P&O makes the staff clean their own cabins, which made them completely out of the question in his mind. Also that P&O are part of the same organization as HAL and Carnival. We’re taking a short P&O cruise while we’re in Australia in April so that will be interesting.

After the workout, a shower, and then down to the dining room for dinner; there was very little line and we got a 6 top with some nice folks – not as good as last night, but perfectly acceptable. After dinner we sat in the Ocean Bar for a while and listened to the band; it was just guitar, bass guitar and drums (no vocals or keyboard) playing some nice instrumental jazz. One thing about this cruise, and I don’t know if it’s just Zaandam or if it’s all over HAL, is that both the music volume and the air conditioning are kept at much more comfortable levels than on past cruises. So we can enjoy the music without covering our ears or freezing (Bubster, you’d be freezing). At 9 we went to see the show, a dance and light show extravaganza that we were both skeptical about; it turned out to be well done, even magical at times. It was a good way to end a good day. Sadly, no towel animal again tonight.