The whole ship was in a festive mood on Christmas morning. I assume that Holland America planned to be at sea on Christmas day so there would be no shore excursion distractions.
The formal festivities began about 9:30 am with Christmas Carols. We all gathered in the ship's atrium to sing. They passed out sheets with the words to the classic songs so no one was left out of the singing. As we sang, the crew walked around with trays of Christmas cookies and eggnog. Confetti snow was sprinkled from the upper level of the atrium for added mood. The kids loved it....several tried to make snow angels on the lower level where the confetti snow accumulated. I think that everyone felt the spirit of Christmas even though we were so far from home.
Later we all moved to the Vista Show Lounge for Santa's arrival. There, Santa held court and called for children, by age group, to come up and sit on his knee for photos. Each child got a gift from Santa. There weren't all that many kids on the ship. My guess would be 30-40 out of the 1,800 guests on board. They didn't actually stop with the kids, even adults were given the chance to sit with Santa. The teen and 20's guys tended to ignore Santa so they could get up close with Mrs Claus for the photo. Lots of fun.
In the late afternoon, we passed by Haiti's western coast on the island of Hispaniola.
Pardon my playing with my new camera a little. This is "Moon over Haiti"
As we sat on our veranda, we noticed dolphins following the ship. They were actually a fair distance from the ship and the light was waning so the photos were difficult to get. My 200mm lens wasn't really enough so I had to enlarge the dolphins in Photoshop to make them more visible. This is really pushing the limits of quality a bit but at least we have something to look at.
More camera fun. It was a nice evening. We sat on the veranda until dark.
Another day at sea tomorrow.
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