They went by quickly   Between a few last swims before we got north into the colder weather, a few last games of Mexican train dominoes, some final dinners (for a while) with friends, and packing the five sea days flew by. 

One of the highlights was a second orange party, theoretically honoring the Dutch Royal House.  Captain Mark Trembling had a Q&A during this week.  One cruise mate asked why he chose to go to sea.  He said that when he was 14, at a job day at his school, a graduate who went to sea told the class that his job included visiting interesting places and dancing with pretty ladies while drinking cocktails.  Captain Mark said “That’s for me.”  He said he is living the dream, except, of course for drinking cocktails, which as Captain he wouldn’t do.  He did enjoy the Orange Parties, as well as other social events.   

Another highlight was a display of towel animals by the midship’s pool.  In the past we had a towel animal on our bed each night.  Post pandemic they only appear on special evenings.  This makes sense because laundering the towels after making the animals takes water and power.  Cutting this perk saves on carbon emissions and pollution.  It was nice to be able to visit a menagerie around the pool.

There was a set of lectures explaining some of the newer terms in our weather forecasts including “atmospheric river.”  The lecturer has written a book that is still in the editing process and used us as a test bed for some of his ideas.

For me one of the week’s highlights was a concert “Lost music of the Holocaust.”  The pianist in the classical trio, Manual Cini, is going through old Nazi archives to discover music written in the Dachau concentration camp and transcribing it.  He’s focusing on the music of Leon Kaczmarek a Polish prisoner who was conductor of the camp orchestra.  Kaczmarek took German poems he found in the camp library and set them to music.   He also set poems written by fellow inmates, several of who did not survive.  He wrote one setting of a poem by an SS public relations officer on orders of the camp commander.   His music is surprisingly uplifting.   He wanted to raise the spirits of his fellow prisoners not depress them. 

The trio was joined by a member of the ship’s rock band playing viola and singing lieder.  A few hours later she was screaming Janis Joplin at the orange party.

Kaczmarek survived the camp and was repatriated to Poland where he conducted choirs and died in 1970.

On the final night the kitchen staff paraded through the main dining room singing, to receive the cheers of everyone at the tables.  Some sort of public recognition of the behind-the-scenes staff is a Holland America tradition.

But, perhaps the best part of the last five days was time staring at the ocean, pretending to read, and evening walks enjoying North Pacific sunsets.