Just back from the Veendam attn: Ruth C.

[kakalina]

We just finished the disaster that was disembarkation from the Veendam. I will write a review later, just know that it was a true FUBAR from the beginning. :mad:

Ruth C: Can you believe that two days into the second cruise they ran OUT of pillow chocolates! :eek: Did they not know how long the cruise was or how many passengers there were :confused: . They also ran out of the Elemis body wash!

The weather was mostly bad ( not Hal's fault ) but made for some miserable beach days.

We dropped Kryos off for todays cruise and the embarkation hadn't started as of 2pm!! We had planned to reboard and lunch with her but it was so late we had to leave and start our own looong journey back to Arizona.

To date it was the blandest and most disorganized cruise we have had with HAL :( .

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Oh Trish, that is really too bad:( You always find a good time on a ship. Plus I have always heard such great things about the Veendam, (including the great 4 days we had on her last September) I wonder if some of the problem is the port it leaves out of?:confused:

[Love Cruises]

Oh no - no chocolates!!!!

Sorry to hear of your displeasure and the Veendam. We know from reading in the past your other posts you are not one to complain but one to rave about our "dam" ships. So it definitely had to be very upsetting to you.

We just got off the NOORDAM (on 3/21) and were very displeased with the scheduling of the old reliable daily events on HAL, namely BOARD GAMES for prizes and numerous sporting events for those "dam dollars". On this 11 day Caribbean cruise, there were absolutely NO ORGANIZED BOARD GAMES and only "2" events daily for dam dollars (1 sporting game and Trivia). How were activities on the VEENDAM?

I look forward to reading your more lengthy review soon!

[RuthC]

Trish, they ran out of chocolates early on the Voyage of the Spammed, too. :( Fortunately, they picked up suppies of them once we reached Hawaii. Then I got doubles (and a few more!) for the rest of the cruise. :) I came out ahead. :D

This trip has been a mess for you from the time you hit Florida. I do hope your drive home is a safe one, and that once you get the stress of disembarkation behind you that pleasant memories will bubble to the top.

[Jade13]

We loved the Veendan BUT

They ran out of Elemish body wash???? That mint wash is the best stuff they offer.

[hammybee]

May the Goddess of FUBAR please move on.

Have a safe trip home.

[kakalina]

Love Cruises: The activites had absolutely NO prizes at all with the exception of the daily trivia, which I never miss, but the few others they had ( such as Taboo, outburst, etc, had no prizes.

RuthC: You are right and once we have rested and reflected on our cruise I am sure my usual sunny disposition will return. Right now I am angry and frustrated, we had planned to spend some time with my good friend Kryos and that went the way by the wayside.

They changed out all the senior staff half way through the cruise and that may, I repeat may, have had something to do with it but truly, I have my doubts.

Quite honestly the food was very bland and tastless and the energy level of the staff seemed to be at an all time low. It may have been my perceptions we will wait and see how Kryos feels about her voyage, she may have a totally different perspective.

[rocks]

Hi Trish!
Sorry that your cruise ended on a bad note. I'm sure Rita was disappointed to miss spending some time with you guys too! We rode up to NY with her to get on the Amsterdam last Oct. & she spoke of the fun you had on the 30 day cruise. I hope she has a good cruise.
Did you get to meet Shy (waiter on the Veendam)? We haven't heard much from him lately.
Hope you have a safe journey home,
Pat

[kakalina]

Rocks: Rita was disappointed, but we are re-booked for the 30 day cruise together so we will have some quality time then. Shy is still on the Lido line and doing well.

Hammybee: I am not sure I understand what you mean by the " Goddess of Fubar", perhaps I am too tired right now to comprehend. No, we did not miss a flight ( another reason we are glad we do not fly ) I was just reporting that many others did.

[tomc]

I leave on the Noordam NYC-Caribbean-NYC in ten days. You will get a running commentary during that time on "Live From The Noordam 4/11." I'll let you know how things go during that time, although I'm still hoping to be bumped to a fall cruise.

[hammybee]

Hammybee: I am not sure I understand what you mean by the " Goddess of Fubar", perhaps I am too tired right now to comprehend. No, we did not miss a flight ( another reason we are glad we do not fly ) I was just reporting that many others did.

This Goddess of ( Fouled -up beyond all recognition) is the evil sister of the Upgrade Fairy. When we are visited by this goddess we hope that she moves on quickly- that's all, as in enough is enough and I sensed you had had more than enough of this vacation.

That you did not miss a flight is proof that she has indeed moved on, and your passage home will happen according to plan.

Get some rest and tomorrow is a new day and this will be behind you.

[Toad]

Too tired to write now but let me just say, that Kakalina is right! Disembarkation was a MESS! We didn't get off until noon. Food was definately bland and the choices few...... MEAT LOAF as a choice when all else fails? Will write more when we get home.

[liv2cruise4ever]

Hi Trish!
Sorry that your cruise ended on a bad note. I'm sure Rita was disappointed to miss spending some time with you guys too! We rode up to NY with her to get on the Amsterdam last Oct. & she spoke of the fun you had on the 30 day cruise. I hope she has a good cruise.
Did you get to meet Shy (waiter on the Veendam)? We haven't heard much from him lately.
Hope you have a safe journey home,
Pat

Not to hijack this thread, but I just have to say "Hi" to Pat and Dan. We leave on the Golden Princess in 11 days. Miss ya :D

[gentlemancruiser]

Too tired to write now but let me just say, that Kakalina is right! Disembarkation was a MESS! We didn't get off until noon. Food was definately bland and the choices few...... MEAT LOAF as a choice when all else fails? Will write more when we get home.

Kakaline,
I'm glad you didn't have to miss a flight. My mum is now staying in Tampa until Tuesday evening!!! They were scheduled on an Air Canada leaving at 12:50pm today, but they didn't make it.
The earliest they are able to leave is Tuesday at 7pm, and they will arrive home at 12:10AM wednesday.
This was thier first HAL cruise and they enjoyed it, althought she said they did get sea sick one day.
There was a few things that they missed like the chocolate, but they didn't let that ruin thier cruise.
HAL has arranged for this accomodation, but they are now uncertain if they are going to indeed pay for it. The HAL rep said 'yes' at the airport, but now the hotel is saying differently. They book air independantly because of changes in thier flight times.

[rocks]

Sure hope you & DeeDee have a GREAT time on your cruise! How was the one in Jan.? SO glad you are going again so soon! Keep it up!
Bon Voyage!
Pat

[Krazy Kruizers]

So sorry to hear about your cruise and disembarkation.

Can't wait to read your review.

[the2ofus]

Is this change in on-board activities specific to certain ships or across the board to all HAL ships. In other words, are there a couple of lazy CDs or has HAL mandated the cut-backs? Same question re: the lack of interesting menu selections - head chef or HAL?

Will let you know what I find after our return from our Volendam cruise in JUST 9 DAYS!! I wil make an effort to be aware of these things, although I'm usually a go-with-the-flow kind of person.

[Atomica]

Sorry to hear you didn't have a great time on the Veendam. I'm interested to hear who your CD was, because when we were on the Veendam last May, we were very unimpressed with the CD - no trivia, no games, no organized activities of any kind, and when there were, frequently no staff showed up. This was in stark contrast to the trip I took on the Veendam in Sept 2005, when everything was superb. Look forward to reading your review.

[Capital Cruiser]

To echo what Kakalina and Toad said, disembarkation from the Veendam yesterday almost had me reduced to tears, and I am an experienced traveller with a lot of previous travel "challenges" behind me.

On top of the problems going through the immigration process (see the thread about Veendam's late arrival), we arrived for disembarkation in the Rubens Lounge as directed to find that my 85-year-old mother was not on the list for wheelchair assistance, this despite the fact that it had been reserved almost a year earlier, had been reconfirmed before and after boarding, and I was holding written confirmation from the Guest Relations Manager. The person in charge of the wheelchairs told us he would be happy to help, but only after everyone on his list had disembarked. Since there were only about five wheelchairs and many people requesting assistance (this cruise featured a large number of elderly guests), we elected to disembark on our own. When our number was called, we left the Lounge, only to join the hoards in the elevators and stairwells. To make a long story short, they were callling way too many groups at a time, and the crowd was so thick (think of people crowding into a rock concert) that I was amazed no one fainted or tripped. There was only one person scanning people off the ship and no one to help people going down the gangway (which was rather steep for people with mobility issues).

Inside the terminal, it was impossible to get one of the few available porters. The HAL red-coated assistants were either overwhelmed or not knowledgeable (sending you the longest possible route to get to the airport bus, only to find that bus was full and you had to go all the way back to get the next one. (Remember, this is an 85-year-old and her somewhat younger daughter lugging two carry-ons and two wheeled suitcases).

The bus arrived at the airport full of folks who had already missed or were about to miss their flight, and were met by a HAL rep who did not have a clue as to what to do (except to insist that everyone stay on the bus until all of the luggage was unloaded). To be fair, a lot of people were whining over missed flights when they had not even confirmed that their flight had already departed.

Although our flight was scheduled late enough that we did not worry about missing it, the whole disembarkation experience wore both of us out and had me seriously thinking (for a while) of never cruising HAL again. However, on reflection, it was a very enjoyable cruise. Unlike the others, I liked the food and found the crew fun and helpful. I did note that there were not very many activities, but I am one who is quite content with a good book and comfortable chair, so I did not mind (although it would have been nice if they had not repeated all of the movies the second week).

Like the others, my first thought when I noticed the absence of chocolate was for RuthC. I thought our cabin steward had simply decided not to give us any more chocolate when he noticed that we weren't eating ours, but apparently no one else got any either. They must have stored the chocolate with the missing Mariners Pins.

By the way Atomica, the cruise director was Douglas Dunnell. He came on board at the start of this cruise, so I don't think he can be held responsible for the activities, or lack thereof.

[Chivalrygirl]

We tried to book a balcony cabin on Veendam for Sept. New England/Canada, they had sold out so decided to book on the Grand Princess instead. I have been disappointed since, talking to my brain and saying of course Princess will be as good as HAL, and the answer coming back, no it won't. Reading these comments I am beginning to think that just maybe we have had a lucky escape. I am sorry you had not such a good time.

I will be interested to read your review also.

[Atomica]

By the way Atomica, the cruise director was Douglas Dunnell. He came on board at the start of this cruise, so I don't think he can be held responsible for the activities, or lack thereof.

Thanks for the info. Not the CD we had (I can't remember his name - I'll have to dig up my old daily programs).

It sounds like you endured one h*ll of a disembarkation. I can sympathize - I went through an absolutely horrific one on the Norwegian Sun two years ago that had me just seething with anger by the time I finally got off the ship.

[Randyk47]

We were on the cruise with Kakalina and the highlight was meeting several of our Cruise Critic friends. Quite frankly we rate this cruise as our next to worse of our 6 HAL cruises, only slightly beating out a 7-day Oosterdam cruise. The food was OK to poor, the service in the dining room only marginal, and the ship ran out of all sorts of things. Weird stuff like the pillow chocolates, cheddar cheese, peanuts, limes, etc. Also the first time we've ever been given new key cards during the cruise. On the seventh day we, I think along with every passenger, were given new cards as ours were expiring at midnight. According to the CD they'd accidental coded 7 days into the cards at the terminal and the only way to fix the problem was to issue new cards. Guess they ran out of blue cards as many of us got gold ones as replacements. Disembarkation was a mess, a really big mess. Even with a cab driver who must have driven in NASCAR races we missed our plane by 15 minutes. That 15 minutes cost us over 5 hours and instead of arriving home at 4:30 PM we got home at 9:30 PM. Probably, in the scheme of things, not a big issue but we us both having to go to work today what turned out to be 5 hours sleep was not a great memory from the cruise.

Now, to be honest, not all was bad. We met some great people and really enjoyed Trisha and Virgil and Gerd and Anna from here on CC. Add that to a few others and the company was great. The itinerary was wonderful. A couple of ports, either because of late arrival (getting to San Juan at 4:30 PM is kind of a waste) and early departure (left Aruba at 3 PM) were really a bummer and a bit of a waste. The staff in the Crow's Nest was wonderful and some of our all time favorites will include Sonny, Angel and Dennis. :) Suri was an excellent cabin steward and was high on my wife's list to smuggle home. :D The ship was in great condition and was kept spotless throughout the cruise. Too tired still to write more right now so I'll kind of hold off for a couple of days and give a better review. :o

[sarplum]

We hve a handful of chocolates left from the Veendam in December
if anyone wants them.

[gentlemancruiser]

Randyk47,
You should count yourself lucky. I just got a call from my Mum at the Toronto airport. They have finally made it half way home. They were one of the first people to enter the theatre for immigration.
Their next flight leaves Toronto in about 1 hour so the should be home sometime within the next 2 hours.
HALs started giving them a run around about paying for thier accomodation.
When the HAL air they booked got changed they decided to book their own air so they wouldn't have to spend the day in Tampa. I guess the jokes is on them now, because they ended up spending 3 days in Tampa.
Their flight was scheduled to Depart Tampa at 12:50pm on Sunday, but they only got to the airport 12:45.
The Air Canada agreed to rebook them at no charge and HAL said they would pay for thier accomodation, but when they went to check out today, it wasn't arranged. The hotel had NO information.
It's a good thing they have insurance.
BTW, this was thier first HAL cruise and the did enjoy it, although they were sea sick one day.

We were on the cruise with Kakalina and the highlight was meeting several of our Cruise Critic friends. Quite frankly we rate this cruise as our next to worse of our 6 HAL cruises, only slightly beating out a 7-day Oosterdam cruise. The food was OK to poor, the service in the dining room only marginal, and the ship ran out of all sorts of things. Weird stuff like the pillow chocolates, cheddar cheese, peanuts, limes, etc. Also the first time we've ever been given new key cards during the cruise. On the seventh day we, I think along with every passenger, were given new cards as ours were expiring at midnight. According to the CD they'd accidental coded 7 days into the cards at the terminal and the only way to fix the problem was to issue new cards. Guess they ran out of blue cards as many of us got gold ones as replacements. Disembarkation was a mess, a really big mess. Even with a cab driver who must have driven in NASCAR races we missed our plane by 15 minutes. That 15 minutes cost us over 5 hours and instead of arriving home at 4:30 PM we got home at 9:30 PM. Probably, in the scheme of things, not a big issue but we us both having to go to work today what turned out to be 5 hours sleep was not a great memory from the cruise.

Now, to be honest, not all was bad. We met some great people and really enjoyed Trisha and Virgil and Gerd and Anna from here on CC. Add that to a few others and the company was great. The itinerary was wonderful. A couple of ports, either because of late arrival (getting to San Juan at 4:30 PM is kind of a waste) and early departure (left Aruba at 3 PM) were really a bummer and a bit of a waste. The staff in the Crow's Nest was wonderful and some of our all time favorites will include Sonny, Angel and Dennis. :) Suri was an excellent cabin steward and was high on my wife's list to smuggle home. :D The ship was in great condition and was kept spotless throughout the cruise. Too tired still to write more right now so I'll kind of hold off for a couple of days and give a better review. :o

[Randyk47]

Indeed, relative to some others, we do count ourselves lucky to have only experienced the 5 hour delay in getting home. In all honesty it wasn't just HAL who had a problem Sunday. This particularly sailing had a significant number of non-US passengers and it took a lot of time clearing US Immigration and Customs. At 11 AM, 2 hours after docking and about an 1 and 1/2 hours after they started the process, Immigration was still looking for passengers as their names were being called out over the loudspeaker system. One couple's name and cabin number was announced at least 3 times over a 15 minute period between 11 and 11:15 AM. I'm not pointing fingers, I don't know if it was a case of not enough officials or poor organization or reluctant passengers and it most probably was a combination of all. Add late arrival and certainly less than wonderful terminal organization to the mix and it was a huge mess. Might add I've heard all sorts of reasons for the late arrival, everything from prop problems to weather to bad navigation.

[straittman]

I too experienced the April Fools Day disaster on the Veendam. I was very satisfied with everything on the cruise except for the disembarkation and the items they ran out of. I have never seen such a disaster. There were no announcements regarding what the problems were, especially why we were late docking. There has to be something done about enforcing the rules regarding those passengers who do not appear for immigration inspection. I heard at least 8 to 12 names being called, some more than once. I know some upset people were ready to go and kick those cabin doors in. One answer could be that some passengers were continuing onto Europe and did not know they also had to pass immigration as they were not leaving the ship. I missed my flight, 12.30 departure, and finally arrived home 26 hours later. Although HAL did pay for the hotel accommodation, they would not pay for the restaurant meals and other expenses.
I also had to pay a fee to have my air tickets reissued although I had used the HAL Airplan.
I was quite near the end on the immigration process, red card #13 and it was a long time before the first passengers were allowed off the ship. HAL in their wisdom allowed those passengers who had made their own travel arrangements off the ship first instead of those passengers who had booked through HALAir and consequently many missed their flights. There was only one computer being used at the gangway to check passengers off. The luggage was laid out by color but not in numerical sequence which added to the confusion. We were traveling with Delta and they were not able to cope with the large number of people who needed to rebook flights. In fact while I was waiting in line Delta had to call in extra agents to handle the numbers. HAL should have informed Delta and other airlines to expect a large number of passengers with travel problems.
I have tried to claim my extra expenses through my Trip Interruption Insurance but they are demanding to be provided with an official explanation of why I was late disembarking from the ship. Was it mechanical problems, weather etc before they will even consider my claim.

[Toad]

Straitman: Please let us know if you find out what the problems were..... Thanks.

[Copper10-8]

This particularly sailing had a significant number of non-US passengers and it took a lot of time clearing US Immigration and Customs. At 11 AM, 2 hours after docking and about an 1 and 1/2 hours after they started the process, Immigration was still looking for passengers as their names were being called out over the loudspeaker system. One couple's name and cabin number was announced at least 3 times over a 15 minute period between 11 and 11:15 AM. I'm not pointing fingers, I don't know if it was a case of not enough officials or poor organization or reluctant passengers and it most probably was a combination of all. Add late arrival and certainly less than wonderful terminal organization to the mix and it was a huge mess. Might add I've heard all sorts of reasons for the late arrival, everything from prop problems to weather to bad navigation.

Very sorry to hear about all those problems on Veendam. Was any mention made on on the next to last day as to why she was late getting into port? Weather? Sea conditions? Mechanical?

Once she got there, here's the problem, once again, and it is starting to irk me to no end! If people (I'm talking about non-U.S. citizens) don't present themselves to Immigration and/or to the Front Office (everybody regardless of where they're from) to settle their on-board accounts, the ship will not be cleared, period, and disembarkation will not start! It happened to us last Monday on Oosterdam. No matter how many announcements (plus it's a standard part of the C/D's disembarkation talk the day before) are made, there are still lames that either don't understand, don't want to understand and/or totally ignore them.

I agree 100% that something should be done to these rocket scientists because they are holding up the entire ship with, in your case, the described (chain reaction) consequences. In the case of Immigration, I'm pretty sure that it is them (the Immigration officials) and not HAL, who are refusing to let the disembarkation process begin. In the case of bills not being settled, it is more than likely HAL.

It's time to start punishing these braniacs for their total lack of responsibility!

[Randyk47]

There were a number of rumors as to what caused the delay but no "official" announcement by the captain or other ship's officer. Indeed, the rumors included mechanical, weather, and sea conditions. I do know that the whole cruise was somewhat plagued by higher than normal trade winds, especially those legs that were exposed to the Atlantic without benefit of being inside the islands. The winds across the deck were so strong the first couple of days out of Tampa that it was almost impossible to be out on decks other than the Lido.

[Jemima]

Please see my part one of the following Veendam cruise. Our 4/1 cruise was wonderful - ship, food, activities, crew, captain, entertainment. The only glitch was a very late start to embarkation, but ships are sometimes late. (We were told by one source that the late arrival was due to winds.)

[Gerd]

Hello all,

because did traveling again after the cruise, I only today post en review about our recent MS Veendam Cruise – out of Tampa on Sunday March 18.


I fully agree to each post about the chaotic disembarkation procedure on Sunday April 1.

Actually there was no correct and adequate information given for the reason about the late arriving at Tampa. We finally was docked only at around 9 AM instead of 6 AM. But I remember me, that the last day we did not at all cruise on full-power – or as the Captain mentioned while under way to Grand Cayman "the pedal on the metal".

So as there maybe was a nautical or weather reason for possible late arriving, they should know that and could just adjust the speed. And till 1 AM on the morning of Tampa arrival, there was no significant traffic ahead and also not strong winds. And at about 6 AM, again there was not rush hour around. But the approaching speed to Tampa harbor was really slowly…..


Immigration procedure was a mess - not at all concerning the US officers – at least the one for non-US citizen, because they where really friendly and fast.
But at around 11.30 AM they still was searching for people in order the vessel could finally be cleared.

As an result, they integrally stranded close to 50 % of passengers in Tampa FL, especially at Tampa airport was a large amount of people with missed flights.

And because of Eastern- and Spring-Break, almost all later starting air plans where before already fully booked. And as for our part, we also missed our flight. And we did quiet a lot off different counter visits, in order to find another Airline which did has again capacity for an Washington DC flight.




And it is really true, that some of the so well known HAL parameters was changed, canceled or missing – i.e. the pillow chocolates.



And as I already mentioned in my post concerning "Bands on Board" which was started by "vanders", there was no more an entitled Crows Nest Band.:confused:

The cruise director named one evening to me, that Seattle has chosen it, because they do no more make enough money during evening time.

But one think is unfortunately true – a Show Orchestra, which is well dedicated for the Rubens Lounge, is by far not an adequate Dance Band for the Crows Nest…..!!

And we particularly do really like those Filipinos Dance Orchestras, because they really know, how one can – and should play dance music at the Crows Nest.

And we also should mention, why today they think that a louder music is a good music. …?!? This is valid for the orchestra and also for the DJ.


And another point is also unfortunately true. It looks like that today to became a Disk Jockey, means no more, that one should understand what dance music is, and in which rhythm, and in which order one could play different type of music styles. Und also they ignore, how one could regulate the sound system in order that the music sounds on its best.




But let’s stop here with negative talking.


The over-all cruise result is really satisfying for us.

We did have a good time on board and a shore. O.k. on some port it was raining, but at a high temperature level, and while on holiday – who cares ?!?


All dining room, and Lido essays where on a rich and high level. This includes particularly the stewards on each point of view and around the whole vessel.

We meat a view of friendly CC members and had also fun with other passengers and stuff people.


It is truth that HAL do not offer a fun ship behavior (and let’s pray, they never will), but it was adequate to the age range of passengers.

But at some point, HAL should also look a bit into non-US leisure activities, because this is a weak point. Karaoke is one of it – they do not at all hase one single German or other international languages songs on the provided list….

But I was really surprised about some passenger song capacities, i.e. Tricia’s presentation was very good.


And for us, the last sea day was a particularly day.

By one hand, because we did celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, and by the other hand, it was on this day, where we won the on-board cruise raffle for an future Caribbean Cruise !!!!




Happy cruising to everybody

Anna & Gerd




Our marvelous cruises :

MS Ryndam – Wayfarer – March 1997
MS Noordam - Transatlantic Island Hook - April 2001
MS Volendam - Southern Caribbean - April 2002
MS Volendam - Westfarer Caribbean - April 2004
MS Prinsendam - Windmills & Waterford – September 2004
MS Westerdam - Western Caribbean - April 2005
MS Statendam - Hawaii Circle - September 2005
MS Rotterdam - Vikings and Czars – July 2006
MS Veendam - Southern Caribbean – March 2007

106 days - 29'479 Nm


Future Cruise :

at least a 7 day Caribbean Cruise in the next 18-month => just won from its MS Veendam raffle, oh happy cruising days....

[kakalina]

Hi Gerd, Anna and the twins :) . It is good to hear from you. I am sorry that you all missed your flight. We were wondering about that after we started talking about everyone.

It was great to meet all of you and I am sorry that you never got up and sang at karaoke. I was looking forward to that. Thanks for the compliment :o I promise it would have been better if I hadn't caught a cold.

I am anxious to read your review. Hope we sail again one day and glad you made it safely home.

Trisha

[Randyk47]

A warm "Hi" to all my CC friends from the 18 March Veendam cruise! We especially had a great time chatting with Trisha, Virgil, Gerd, Anna, and, through Gerd, the twins! The friendships established on the cruise are some of our fondest memories and we'd love to cruise again with all of you. :) Certainly this was not an awful cruise....I don't think there is such a thing though I guess it is possible. Carey and I are settling back into the day-to-day routine of work and I just returned from a week long conference in Kansas City. Carey has one more week in her present job and then moves to new position with a different agency, something we didn't find out about until a week after the cruise. Big promotion for her and makes my decision to retire next year, at least retire from the government, a little easier. Anyhow, after a bit of reflection we decided to cruise again! The fact it's not on HAL has really little to do with the Veendam cruise, though I can't say it didn't play some part, but really is the very unique opportunity to visit some of the smaller Caribbean ports. Our fellow cruisers might find it funny that the ship we'll be on will be the Blue Moon that we saw in Isla De Margarita. Had no idea at the time but the ship will be pulled off line to dry dock, refitted, and relaunched later this year as the Celebrity Quest. So we're ready to go again! :)

[Capital Cruiser]

Congratulations, Gerd, on winning the free cruise raffle. I had a strong premonition that I was going to win it, but if it couldn't be me, I am glad it was you!:D It was really nice meeting you, Anna, and the twins. I am glad you enjoyed the cruise.

Congrats as well to Carey on her promotion! Lots of luck in the new job.

Randy, you and Carey wasted no time in booking your next cruise. Hope you enjoy it. With your cruise booked and Gerd's in the wings, I am starting to get jealous. However, I have some serious health issues to deal with before I can contemplate my next vacation. Hopefully by next cruising season, I will be fit to go again.