A BUGGY Situation Oosterdam 16 - 27 November 2015

OK, my thoughts of an excellent 11 day Southern Caribbean cruise aboard the Ms Oosterdam, which just happens to be the 1st cruise ship we cruised on back in May 2008 to Alaska. Hook, Line and Sinker, she hooked us!! We've been HAL cheerleaders ever since.

So, we flew from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Ft Lauderdale the day before the ship was due to depart with no problems. Spent the night and up and out to the ship via Taxi at 10:00am EST. No idea of the taxi cost, I leave that info for hubby to worry about, afterall I'm on vacation and worrying about minute costs is not part of my vacation.

MON 16 NOV 15 Sail from Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Arrived at Pier 21 at 10:10am EST. Picked up my rental scooter from the Special Needs at Sea Kiosk just outside the doors and was whisked through TSA's X-Ray machines and my being hand wanded (normal for me since I have embedded medical devices and mobility issues.) Then onwards to check in and up to the Suites/4&5 Star Mariner/Handicapped Waiting area.

On board the ship at 11:30am EST on the dot! In our stateroom by 11:40am EST. Room Steward "Jon" stopped in and we gave him our requirements for standing orders of no

cleaning agents (He said he'd had notice of that), daily ice requirements and other incidentals. I put the Wireless doorbell on the door and took the base set out with me to

"My Penthouse" Verandah, where I sat until just before the Passenger Safety Drill (Muster Drill).

Speaking of the Passenger Saftey Drill (Muster Drill).......I was sitting on my scooter just about 10 feet from any other passengers (due to my scent allergies) and my Life Boat Captain came over to me and stated that I was to report to the Ocean Bar and a "Trainer" would come to me. I reported in to the Medical representative Stationed in the

Ocean Bar and she looked at me with confusion... Anyway sat for a couple minutes before a male Fitness Center Crew Member came to me and stated he'd be my trainer...

Training done, I hauled my backside to the aft elevators and was the 1st in and at my stateroom just as the last lines were loosed. We had a nice sail away from our stateroom verandah with a wonderful couple from our Roll Call that I hope to keep as friends for the rest of our lives:) Love you John and Sharon!!!

TUE 17 NOV 15 Sea Day

WED 18 NOV 15 Sea Day

THU 19 NOV 15 Philipsburg, Saint Maarten

FRI 20 NOV 15 Castries, Saint Lucia

What can I say but they were beautiful days to sit out on my verandah and watch life passing by as I read my ebooks, drank my coffee and smoked.At 10:00am EST we had our little informal (not arranged through HAL) Meet and Greet

in the Captains Corner of the Crows Nest. We had about 20 or so show up (though hubby and others think there were more...What do I know? I was to busy chatting and enjoying the fellowships of CC Members:)

Someone mentioned on CC a few weeks ago that pastries, sandwiches and other goodies from Explorations Cafe are free, so I decided to try them out... Yeppers, even if they

are miniscule, they are free and you can have as many as you wish. After that I went back to my verandah and vegetated throughout the rest of the cruise, only emerging for Pinnacle Grill, Le Cirque, Canaletto and a foray or two to the Aft Lido's Sea View Bar to take advantage of my $50.00 Free Beverage Card and my fellow cruisers.

FRI 20 NOV 15 Scenic Cruising Soufriere Bay

I love St Lucia, EVEN though we had a "Buggy" situation develop as we departed Soufriere Bay. Seems that the gnats of St Lucia decided to hop on board and attacked

at least 15 staterooms, with mine being one of them. Seems that those of us who had our verandah lights on as we took on our Island Excursion passengers and then as we very slowly left the Pitons behind. Our Steward "Jon" aka "Jonnie" had just turned our room down and moved to another stateroom about 15 minutes before and as we went to go back into the stateroom I noticed what appeared to be grafitti (Lots of it) which when I tried to brush away just seemed to float right back to the same spots.....This does not look right (even to a legally blind woman.......) So I took my glasses off and with my nose nearly touching the graffiti and screamed to hubby that we had BUGS!!!!!! He also attempted to brush them away with no luck.... Let me say this so that it is in perspective....There were not just 2 or 3 gnats!!! There appeared to be thousands!!! And NO, that is NOT an Exaggeration..........

So, next step was to call the Neptune Lounge and get some help.........LOL, that was a funny conversation, which went something like this:

Neptune Lounge Concierge "Lawerence": Good Evening Mrs Jett how may I assist you?

Me: Ah Lawrence we have a major problem in our stateroom. We have bugs, LOTS of them, all over the bed and the room!!

Neptune Lounge Concierge "Lawerence": You have bed bugs? (At the last 2 words his voice became a bit scared sounding)

Me: No, not bed bugs, but bugs. Look just come down and see for yourself and get them out of here, Please.........

Neptune Lounge Concierge "Lawerence": On my way.

Two or three minutes later the doorbell rings and Lawrence walks into the room and is immediately struck by hundreds of gnats. He then almost immediately contacts our poor Room Steward and a below deck crew member (I say that only because of his khaki clothes) I presume is the head of maintainance to comer up with some sort of spray (according to the exterminator it has a very minute scent to it, but.......).

The Exterminator arrived and said that we'd have to leave the room for about 20 minutes as he sprayed and our steward cleaned everything up. It definitely worked. We

went to bed without a bug disturbing us:)

I do have to say that the next day as Jon was doing a deep clean of the stateroom, just to make sure he got every dead bug, his supervisor came in and we talked for a few

minutes. He said that ours was 1 of 15 reported with the "Buggy" situation. For some

reason Deck 6 aft seemed to get hit the hardest. Thinking it over it was the verandah lights on and the drapes open so the indoor lights were also on and calling the little bugs with temptation..........

SAT 21 NOV 15 Bridgetown, Barbados

SUN 22 NOV 15 Fort-De-France, Martinique

SUN 22 NOV 15 Daylight passing Mount Pelee

MON 23 NOV 15 Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis

TUE 24 NOV 15 St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.

Did nothing in these ports except kick back and relaxed the days away.

WED 25 NOV 15 Sea Day

THU 26 NOV 15 Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

Rain, Rain and more rain..........Ah such is life when you cruise. Weather is fickle and we go with the flow. Seas were swelly (is that even a word?) With 10-20 ft waves,

winds blowing up to 55kph starboard, so needless to say, HMC was a couple of trys and then the Captain decided to err on safety and we headed onwards at a slightly slower

speed towards Port Everglades. About 2 hours later we had beautiful skies and swells died down and the day ended with a gorgeous rainbow. Just before my 8pm bedtime the wind rain and waves picked up again until just before we entered the jetty's at PE.

FRI 27 NOV 15 Debark Ship Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Left the ship and hated to be doing so.........

BEFORE I FORGET........I can honestly say NOW that CC member chengkp75's comments and debunking of the toilet paper myth is in fact TRUE!!!!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=48243470&postcount=14

While preparing to enter the Queens lounge for the medallion ceremony I stopped in the Deck 2 Handicapped Toilet and HOLY CHIMICHANGAS!!! I had the best Toilet paper ever.......... Two Ply, nice and soft and did not come apart when used. Life was good!!

I think our next cruise in April I will definitely ask my steward to get me a few rolls for usage on board.

VALUE-ADDED ITEMS (OBC's)

Guest 1

Dine Around Pin Grill & Canaletto

Promotional 100 Minutes Of Internet

Promotional-Two $50 Beverage Cards

Guest 2

Dine Around Pin Grill & Canaletto

Dining venues:

Hubby did the Main Dining room so He will have to answer those questions.

Pinnacle Grill x2 meals. Had Steak Diane Blue both times and cooked to absolute perfection each time. 5:30pm Seatings in a hidden corner had me almost protected from

scents. It also got me faster service because most folks want to eat later. I ate Mashed potatoes and sauteed Mushrooms with my Steak and no deserts.

Pinnacle Grill Le Cirque 1 meal. Oh My, I am still in love with this additional charge with my Chateaubriand Blue with no sides and Chocolate Soufle.

Canaletto x2 meals. Oh My, I LOVE this venue. I had the Baked Lasagna with pomodoro sauce both nights (It is not on the menu, but is offered if you ask if they have anything else) Learned that the Pasta is all made fresh on a daily basis. I thought it tasted freshly made and when asked it was verified. It also explains all the bags of Semolina being loaded on to the ship while we werestill in port.

Breakfast Room Service.......What can I say other than everything came on time and perfect temps and the orders were always perfect. Crew News, my hubby, kept you all

posted about the temps so if you have questions ask him.

I do not do shows or other entertainments, so cannot answer any questions about them.

I can say that I had the bejeebies scared out of me one evening while sitting at the Sea View when a young black gentleman came up behind me and gave me a HUGE

hug...........Seems it was one of our friends, Darrell, who was on the Nieuw Amsterdam as one of the original BB Kings Blues Band!! Also a few minutes later discovered my

favorite Beverage Manager, JJ, was on our ship. Funny that even though I am not a drinker, I meet so many people there that become friends with us for life:)

So that's it...Went, Done it, Came home and looking forward to our next cruise in just over 4 months:)

Joanie

Glad you had a good time despite the bugs!

Thx for the review. The bugs would have freaked me out.

Thank you for your review Joanie.

Loved it.

Sorry about the bugs. We have been to St Lucia many times and never experienced anything like that.

We are doing this cruise next week and are hosting a party as we leave St. Lucia! I hope the gnats do not reoccur as we are also in an aft-wrap (deck 5).

What time did you first notice them - so we can be on the lookout???

We are doing this cruise next week and are hosting a party as we leave St. Lucia! I hope the gnats do not reoccur as we are also in an aft-wrap (deck 5).

 

What time did you first notice them - so we can be on the lookout???

It is likely that if you leave you're curtains closed and balcony light off, the bugs will not be an issue.

Thanks for your review. It sounds like the housekeeping staff has debugging protocols in place! [emoji220]Great to hear that they make the pasta onboard.

Joanie, thanks for your review and I'm delighted you had such a wonderful cruise. Hope you don't mind but your "BUG" story had me laughing out loud. Also pass on thanks to your DH as his "live from" thread was full of lots of great information and he took time to answer all asked questions.

Time to start wishing you life away until your next adventure! :D

Thanks for your review.

We are doing this cruise next week and are hosting a party as we leave St. Lucia! I hope the gnats do not reoccur as we are also in an aft-wrap (deck 5).

 

What time did you first notice them - so we can be on the lookout???

Dave it was probably around 5 or 6 pm that we noticed them. It was shortly after we left Soufriere.

Joanie

Joanie, thanks for your review and I'm delighted you had such a wonderful cruise. Hope you don't mind but your "BUG" story had me laughing out loud. Also pass on thanks to your DH as his "live from" thread was full of lots of great information and he took time to answer all asked questions.

 

Time to start wishing you life away until your next adventure! :D

It was a funny situation that I could have let get me down. But instead I decided it makes a great story and the cruise even more memorable:)

It is likely that if you leave you're curtains closed and balcony light off, the bugs will not be an issue.

Very true. But I like to read as we sail away from port and this was a fluke that has not happened to us beforore when we left from there. I just know that I will not turn the verandah lights on until there is enough wind moving that the gnats cannot hold on:)

Mr Boston, Sir, You are so wicked:D The bug in the middle of the sentence made me laugh AFTER I tried to clean my monitor:)

Joanie

Did I understand you correctly - you had Steak Diane? Did the PG bring it back?! Please tell me that's true - for all the ships!

It is likely that if you leave you're curtains closed and balcony light off, the bugs will not be an issue.

That will be hard to do since we will have a number of people out on the balcony, but I will try.

Thanks for the review Joanie!

Thank you for your review.

Hi Joanie, So glad you and DH had a great relaxing vacation. As you know, we're hoping for snow here! Enjoy being in the sunbelt. Blessings, m--

Did I understand you correctly - you had Steak Diane? Did the PG bring it back?! Please tell me that's true - for all the ships!

Steak Diane is no longer on the menu but if you catch one of the PG chefs, they can make it happen for you. The have all of the ingredients on hand so it is only a matter of their willingness to make it for you. Advance notice is needed.

Thanks for sharing your report.

Keith

Thanks for the review.

Sorry about the bugs, glad the rest was great.

Yikes to the bug story!

Thanks for the review, and for all the details your husband posted. We're on the Oosterdam in a few weeks, and you gave me plenty to look forward to (minus the bugs!!)

Did I understand you correctly - you had Steak Diane? Did the PG bring it back?! Please tell me that's true - for all the ships!

No, it is not back on the menu, unfortunately. HOWEVER, per a mention on someone else's review a few weeks ago, if the PG Chef has the ingredients to make Steak Diane, you can request it when you make your reservations (On Board) for whatever night (EXCEPT for Le Cirque night). The Chef does request that the reservations be at least 24 hours prior though.

We were not the only ones to request it. I know of at least 5 others who requested it and received it as requested:)

Joanie

What exactly IS steak Diane?

tender steak medallions with chop. garlic and shallots and a sauce made from cognac or brandy (some say sherry). Just yummy!

Found a recipe on google.

I couldn't read your review as it was just too hard on my eyes, but I did see the bug thing mentioned. The same thing happened to us once when I asked for bug spray - they asked us to vacate for 4 hours and tore the cabin apart assuming I meant bed bugs, but it was a mosquito.:( They didn't get the mosquito but we did later that night.

A gnat here and there wouldn't bother me, but a swarm of gnats would give me the heebie-jeebies. Kudos to HAL for fixing the problem so quickly.