23 November 2024–Surprise!: We noticed this morning around 8:00 A.M. when we were supposed to dock at Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal, that the ship was still moving. The location of our ship on our room TV showed that the ship was nowhere near the port of Sao Miguel. Rather, the ship was sailing south of the island. Sure enough, the Captain’s announcement began: “We are not able to dock at Sao Miguel today; we must unfortunately cancel this port.” When this cruise began, we were told that the enhanced disinfecting protocol had been enacted and that it was being enforced. This was due to several cases of “gastroenteritis” prior to getting to Rome. OK, then. We boarded later than we might have because the ship needed time to thoroughly disinfect from top to bottom. All sorts of health-related protocols have been in place since we boarded. But today…Port Authority at Sao Miguel asked our captain not to dock at their port because they did not want to introduce any illnesses to their island. They had had a fire about a year ago that “impacted their hospital,” and they do not have the resources to deal with widespread illness of any kind. So…we sailed all day. That’s fine, the activities director added some activities/programming, and away we continued. The weather is mild (around 70 F), but it was a little windy all night and all day. There have been some sprinkles, depending on our location at the moment/sunshine at other times/clouds at yet some other places. But the ship has been rocking. It’s kind of funny watching us trying to walk from place to place as if we were all drunk, really! To my knowledge, people aren’t getting sick to their stomachs or anything…. So, we missed our opportunity to hook into internet and cellphone coverage while being docked at port today. Rather, John and I will try to purchase a one-day service tomorrow, Sunday. Today’s activities were ship stuff, including presentations, even a towel animal demonstration. A sail away party was held on deck, but we did not go. From what Dad saw, it was not well attended. After all, we had already sailed away from Europe this morning when we did not stop at our very last opportunity. People did other things instead. One of the performers on the ship was to have disembarked in the Azores today, and he was unable to do so. For him, there are some problems that are quite costly because he not only has another contract in four days, but he also was to fly home to close on the sale of his house. Because his buyer does not want to wait until he has his next break after the holidays, the sale was cancelled. Uggh for this poor guy! Evidently, canceled port days are extremely expensive for the ship, too, because, for example, this particular stop might have been a provisions refill opportunity before heading out into the Atlantic where no land is available for a few days. Additionally, the ship will reimburse all Holland America Line endorsed excursions for its travelers, but these fees are not reimbursed by the tour providers to Holland America. Oh, well, these things do happen and are always a possibility on ships. We had a terrific day at sea, anyway. As Grandpa used to say, “que sera, sera.” P.S.: We are adjusting our time clocks back by one hour for the third time overnight. That means that by tomorrow morning, Sunday, November 24, 2024, we will be four hours ahead of all of you in the midwestern United States, not seven any longer!
Our Travels 