by Joe Koshuta, TravelPage.com

January 1, 2000 - Happy New Year from on board m/s Volendam:

At the stroke of midnight, the ship's horn let out a mighty blast and the night sky was filled with fireworks and lots of confetti. The band played Auld Lang Syne, champagne corks popped and everyone ran around hugging each other shouting Happy New Year. In the Atrium, a special recorded version of Dick Clark's rockin' New Years Eve was played but I'm not sure how many people saw that since everyone seemed to be up on the Lido Deck.

It was nice to see passengers of all ages participating in the event. The ages ranged from children under a year to a gentleman who was 102 - quite a range. Party hats, streamers and noise makers had been handed out throughout the evening and everyone looked appropriately silly for the big event. The ship was decked out with strings of lights and the crew had done a good job of transforming the lido pool area into a big dance floor with the number 2000 floating in the pool. The "2" was broken in half when I passed the pool at 12:30 so I guess someone must have jumped in to mark the big event.

The party continued well into the morning and the band was just starting up another set when we retired around 1:30 AM. The clock's were set back an hour as we headed towards Cozumel which is yet another benefit to celebrating the New Year at sea - you get an extra hour to ease into it. Too bad they didn't change the clocks at midnight as we could have celebrated the big event all over again.

For those of you interested in Y2K issues, life at sea was about as uneventful as it appears to have been at home. During the Captain's cocktail party last night he mentioned that the dreaded 7:00 PM EST (12 Midnight Greenwhich Time) had passed a half hour earlier and everything was continuing to work just fine. We did have a bit of a chuckle though as we were sitting at the Ocean Bar right at 7:00 PM and the bartender could not get the computer to work. She ended up writing up the tab by hand.

This morning began with breakfast in bed and as we are at sea all day, I plan to make as relaxing a day as possible. I hope all of you had a great evening last night.