Mea Culpa

Some people say the whole world is sad

Because their own small thoughts are blue.

Yet you cannot say the road is bad

Because you have a pebble in your shoe

The Cheerful Cherub by Rebecca McCann

First, I'm sorry for the interruptus to the tale of our travels. Part of it was because of my own crappy attitude. I don't like spewing my discontent around. Heaven knows, there's enough of that going on everywhere!

So I decided to wait until I figured out why I was feeling so negative about this trip, aside from the masking debacle which I've already complained about ad nauseam. Yes, we experienced some legitimate causes for discontent--a dark hair discovered on my plate under my steak on formal night , the general downsizing of both portions and choices in the main dining room, the frenetically overworked staff (a ratio of about 800 to 2200 passengers is a recipe for problems), mechanical problems in the thermal suite that were never addressed for the entire 21 days, upselling in the main dining room and around every corner--I could go on, but it would serve no purpose. 

I finally realized the main problem was my expectations. I was looking for the same Holland America we fell in love with back in the early 2000's. I remember the feeling of being cossetted by elegance at every step. A particularly choice moment of each day was settling into a lounge after the main evening theatre show to bask in the music of an incredible string quartet while white gloved attendants offered Belgian chocolates.  There was no need to go to a specialty restaurant because the main dining room served lobster and host of other decadently delicious things with no hint of upselling. The ship sparkled with cleanliness and the crew/guest ratio seemed much better. 

But it's 2022 now. The world has changed and cruising has changed with it. HAL has lost a couple of years' revenue and piled up a mountain of debt. Carnival, its parent company, just announced a 4th quarter loss of nearly 2 billion. All nine of the brands under the Carnival umbrella (Carnival, Princess, Holland America, Cunard, Seabourn, P & O, P & O Australia, Aida, Costa) are treading water.  If they are to survive, they must increase revenue and decrease expenses. 

It was foolish of me to expect nothing to have changed.

So, while I love a bargain as well as the next girl, I have to reconcile myself to higher prices, higher fees and add-on's, and lowered expectations of what I'll be receiving for my grudgingly spent dollar. (I am enough my father's daughter to be...shall we kindly say...frugal! The DH always claims this trait of mine is part of why he was able to retire early.) However, "less for more" is our new normal. It's true at our local market and gas station and it's also true for cruising.

I've gone back and added lots of photos to the previous posts for this trip and going forward, I will share the things that were fun & memorable & just plain fascinating without complaint. Besides, in addition to Guatemala (new to us country!) and Costa Rica, we still have the highlight of the voyage, the Panama Canal to transit! 

Here we are with Casper, the Food & Beverage officer, on board the Viking Star for our incredible 2022 World Cruise. It's hard to describe how amazing the staff, the ship, the itinerary, the experiences were during that entire voyage. We were spoiled rotten. Now I have to keep reminding myself that not every cruise ship we board will have received the memo that we are actually secret royalty and must be treated as such!