Today is the last of four sea days before the MS Volendam arrives into Hilo, Hawaii. So today I wanted to share with you a little about how you know just what is happening any particular day on the cruise. Every evening you receive a copy of the daily program, which on Holland America Line is called Explorer.
The Daily Program
The front of the program starts with an introduction to the port being visited or a small article about the ship. With the bottom half outlining the entertainment options for the evening.
As you open the program out, the inside is split into five columns. The first four columns are Explore Our World, Explore Food and Entertaining, Explore Technology and Explore Wellbeing. The fifth column is called At A Glance and summarises everything from the other four columns.
You can detach the fifth column from the rest of the newsletter to take with you throughout the day. With everything in the fifth column being described in more detail in the first four columns. The reverse of the fifth column also includes all the information about when food and beverages will be available for the day.
Explore Our World
If you want to find out information, these are the activities that will provide you with information. Here you will find things such as presentations by the travel guide about upcoming ports, information from shore excursions and port shopping. But also I have found that there have been some guest speakers on different topics such as cooking or classical music.
Explore Food and Entertaining
If you enjoy cooking demonstrations than this section is likely of interest to you. Each day there is a range of different activities here from cooking demonstrations, to hands-on cooking classes and even napkin folding.
Explore Technology
Onboard the ship they have a Microsoft Digital Workshop. A place where they teach a range of sessions about how to use different programs on your computer. Mostly to do with staying in touch with home, cameras and Windows.
Explore Wellbeing
The one thing that you will often find more activities in than any other section is the wellbeing area. These activities are things like talks about health topics, sporty activities, and gym and spa activities. The place to find things to do rather than to find places to sit and watch or listen.
At A Glance
You get this list of all the activities that are happening through out the day sorted by the time they are taking place. You can also detach this section so that you do not have to take the whole program with you.
Finally on the reverse of the program is some useful information about all the different dining options and services that are available on board and what times they are open for the day. Finally at the bottom of the page is the daily movie which they play a few times throughout the evening.
Getting Ready For Port
I hope that this has been a good overview for you of what the daily program includes. During the next three days, I will be visiting ports in Hawaii. I hope that I will be able to share a little bit more after these ports about what some of the activities are and also a little about the ports I get to visit in the next three days.
