It worked!

The coins we dropped in the pirate's chest did the job. Our 6 days crossing the Atlantic were fairly uneventful though we did have one day when the sea was a bit rough. Thankfully it didn't cause us any problems but that obviously wasn't the case with everyone on the M/S Maasdam. The staff discreetly placed bags by the elevators for those guests that felt a bit queasy moving about the ship.

example of our cabin steward's handy work

Before we left home we had only one concern about this trip......fear of boredom. What the heck would we do during the long sailings across the pond? That question was answered our first night aboard.

Our cabin steward placed a tri-fold pamphlet on our bed next to our towel animal and chocolates. The brochure listed all the next days' activities. Beginning at 7 AM we were offered everything from stretching to trivia to live entertainment. One of our favorite programs on sea days was the Explorer Series. Guest lecturers shared their knowledge of   everything from improv theater to international terrorism. The best by far was Frank Buzzard, the retired chief engineer of the International Space Station. He was fascinating!


I also took advantage of their classes on Windows 10. Apparently I wasn't the only one who had not embraced Microsoft's newest offering. Said computer company sponsored the Digital Workshop. It helped that we had a 30-something instructor with a great personality. Molly gave up her career as a kindergarten teacher to work on Holland America. What a perfect career to prepare her to teach a bunch of gray hairs (ok,so I only have a couple of gray hairs). It also helped that she was a graduate of my husband's alma mater. Go Cougs!