The ship’s revised itinerary left us with 3 relaxing days at sea in a row. We used the opportunity to do some of our favorite shipboard activities: trivia, mixology class, and specialty dining. Trivia is always a great place to meet people. On this cruise, one of our trivia partners, Joan, has over 1200 cruise day credits (the most of any passenger on the ship). She reads the dictionary for fun and knows more trivia that anyone I’ve met. Mixology class is always fun and a great place to meet younger folks. (On Holland America, younger refers to anyone under 60 years old.) Usually, mixology also offers the best value for booze on board, but the new daily $3 cocktail sampler is a close competitor.

For dinner on Tuesday, we ate at Canaletto, the onboard Italian restaurant. It was unexpectedly delicious and we left stuffed. I was a bit worried about eating there because the first time we tried it (several cruises ago), Valerie was extremely unhappy with the calamari. I guess Holland America must have learned from the experience because calamari is no longer on the menu.