washiotter

This maxim became something of a byword for my family on our recent first HAL cruise! At least once a day we would remind each other: “downgrade your expectations, and then downgrade them again.” It never failed to inspire an attitude adjustment!

There's one other thing I want to talk about, that I am worried is not going to go over well! A little context on this trip, for us: we're a middle-class family and Mr. Otter and I both work full-time. The last time I traveled (other than visiting my mom for the holidays), I was on a Red Cross disaster relief deployment. The last time we vacationed together as a family, we rented a cottage in the mountains and did a lot of hiking. This trip was a special experience for us. A lot of things that really seem to bother other people on this board are... not even on my radar. Like, there were times that I had to get out of my chair and walk over to the bar to order a drink. Once my cocktail was missing an ingredient. There were a bunch of kids on board, and they weren't silent. Sometimes other people's used dishes sat on tables for a while. Once there was a spot of what looked like chocolate on the edge of our tablecloth in the MDR. There was a charge for lobster tails and for ordering more than one appetizer in the Pinnacle. Our stewards asked us if we wanted turn-down service, it wasn't automatic - and because we said no, that meant that sometimes when I went to pour myself a glass of ice water in the evening, most of the ice in our bucket had already melted. These things didn't make it into my daily recaps because I just didn't care about them. I don't have the kind of history that makes me expect everything in my surroundings to be precisely to my liking. And because I don't, I had a fantastic time. The level of service on HAL is more luxurious than 99% of humanity ever gets to experience. I kind of feel sorry for people who get upset about it not being enough! I felt really grateful to be able to have people catering to my pleasure to this extent, and so did my family.

Wrap-up thoughts: I was very pleased with our family's experience on the Nieuw Statendam, and so were my husband and kids. I'm pretty sure that we'll be cruising again - Mr. Otter and Ms. 18 are particularly enthusiastic about the idea of a Panama Canal transit, so that might be next. I think we've learned some things that will make the next cruise go more smoothly. Highlights: Our port strategy of finding one or two things to experience deeply, rather than trying to get a general overview of all the tourist sites. I did a lot of research, and I'm really happy with how that paid off. The interactions we had with locals went over particularly well with the family. The itinerary - this was a well-chosen variety of cities. Food quality in the MDR, Pinnacle Grill, and Tamarind. We had many excellent meals. BB King All-Stars. Mr. 14 and I never got tired of listening to them. The crew - almost universally kind, warm, helpful, and attentive. Our room stewards did a great job at looking after us and the kids. Have It All worked really well for our family. It was particularly nice for the kids to be able to order all of the smoothies, mocktails, sodas, and coffee drinks they wanted without having to ask us for permission. I tend to penny-pinch and was glad to be relieved of that responsibility - for them and for myself. Cruising worked really well for Ms. 18, who is autistic - it helped to have some things stay the same (the room, the restaurants, not having to pack and repack) while we also experienced a lot of new things. She had a fantastic time. Nice variety of activities onboard, with an energetic and personable cruise director (Claire) and entertainment host (Jose). We tended to be pretty tired in the evenings because it was such a port-intensive cruise, but it always felt like there were things we were missing! The ship was sold out, but didn't seem excessively crowded. It was a very international crowd, which we enjoyed. At 49 and 56, Mr. Otter and I felt like we were in the middle third of the age range. This was a 10-day cruise during the school holidays, and so there were a bunch of parents in their 30s and 40s on board and a fair number of younger adults as well. Everything was very clean and well-maintained. Mixed Feelings: The quality of food in the Lido varied, with some things very good (especially the made-to-order crepes, omelets, and eggs Florentine) and some things just okay. The quality of the evening entertainment on the mainstage was a little uneven. We had interior staterooms. We turned out not to be bothered by the absence of windows, but I would have liked to have had someplace to sit other than the bed. I never wound up ordering room service for breakfast because there was nowhere to eat it. The room did have an impressive amount of storage, though. We thought that our meal at Rudi’s Sel de Mer was nothing to write home about. It was fine. I sometimes thought "I mix a better cocktail than this at home."

My husband bought some future cruise credits!

Day 10: Kiel. Okay, there is a new thing that I’m excited about that everyone with cruise experience already knows, and that is: the joy of staying on the ship at a port, when most people have gotten off. Kiel didn’t look exciting. We could have taken a long bus ride to Hamburg, but that didn’t appeal either. So instead we stayed onboard, relaxing in the quiet. This morning, Ms. 18 and I bought day passes to the thermal suite. There’s a huge hydrotherapy pool, sauna, steam rooms (aromatherapy and non-), special showers, a cold plunge, and heated ceramic loungers. Y’all, I am TERRIBLE at relaxing, but I felt every scrap of tension drain out of my body. It was so. Lovely. Hung out on the nonsmoking side of the Sea View pool, which I’ve decided is my favorite place on the ship, to watch sailaway. It’s the first day of Kiel Week, which is apparently one of the largest sailing festivals in the world, so there were lots of pretty boats making life exciting for the bridge crew. We had dinner at Rudi’s Sel de Mer, where we drastically overestimated how much food we could eat. We got the Fruits de Mer appetizer to share (along with our individual appetizers), and that was spectacular. My entree, however (grilled swordfish with tapenade), was just okay. Mr. Otter got the rack of lamb and thought it was excellent. Mr. 14 and I packed in a hurry so we could catch the last BB King set, which was outstanding. We both really, really enjoyed the band on this cruise. Tomorrow morning, we disembark and then fly home in the afternoon. Thanks for traveling along with me! I’ll post some wrap-up thoughts when I get home.

Some of the scenery was interesting. We mostly read our kindles & kids listened to music. There was no wifi on the train and no cafe car to buy snacks. Morning snack: carton of sweet, milky iced coffee and a big cookie. Evening snack: pretzel roll with very tasty real butter, peanuts, big candy bar/cookie thing.

It worked out to about 2 1/2 hours each way on the charter, and we had 7 hours in Berlin. Rick Steves says it’s not worth it, and I’m sure it isn’t if you frequently visit Europe, but we had never been to Berlin and hugely enjoyed it.

It was expensive - at $180, it used virtually all our HIA credit. However, it was incredibly convenient - literally a three-minute walk from the gangplank to the chartered train - and we wouldn’t have felt comfortable venturing so very far from the port on our own. The “Berlin on your own” thing included a light morning snack and a more substantial evening snack, cartons of water, maps, and a guide on the train who could provide advice.

Today we went to Berlin. A city which is considerably inland! We docked at Warnemunde, and HAL chartered a train that stopped just outside the port. We chose the option to explore the city on our own. We visited the Brandenburg Gate briefly, then went on to the Berlin Wall Memorial. Mr. Otter and I both felt very emotional about that, having been at formative ages when the Wall came down. The one scheduled activity we had was a tour with “Berlin Underworlds,” which took us down into a civilian air raid shelter from WWII. This was an absolutely fascinating tour. Alas, no photos were allowed, but we saw (among other things) walls painted with phosphorescent paint that are too dangerous to touch; a bomb that an enterprising German woman defused and turned into a stove; materials from the pneumatic tube mail system that operated from the 1860s to the invention of the fax; and a FREAKING ENIGMA MACHINE. We finished our day at the DDR museum, which had great exhibits with sarcastic commentary about life in the former East Germany. We got back to the ship to find that they were hosting a Bierfest, including a grand variety of beers, bratwurst, and a German oompah band. It was a lot of fun! We met a lovely Bavarian couple, who told us they were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the music and beer. Really good day, is what I’m saying.

Thanks for explaining why I shouldn’t have liked it! I’m glad I did enjoy it, though.

Day 8, at sea. Today I did VERY LITTLE and enjoyed every minute of it. We went to the presentation “A City on the Sea,” and found it fascinating. For those who haven’t seen it, it uses interviews, video clips, and animations to explain behind-the-scenes information about how the ship operates. It was really enjoyable! Three facts that surprised me: 1) The ship makes its own drinking water using energy from waste heat from the engines. 2) All the bread, rolls, and pastries are made onboard - none of it is frozen. 3) When they built the ship, the staterooms were made in a factory as prefab boxes, and slotted into place whole. The rest of the day, I hung out: in a big comfy armchair under the roof by the Sea View pool, reading; on my bed playing card games with Mr. 14; at afternoon tea with both kids; at trivia with Mr. Otter (we tied for first); in a lounger on the Panorama deck, napping. Tonight was the Gold Gala, and one thing we have learned for the future is to make an MDR reservation for gala nights. We waited for a table in the Ocean Bar for a good half-hour. The food was excellent, the service a little slow and a little uninformed - for example, our waiter balked at serving Ms. 18 a cocktail and told us he would have to check because the drinking age is 21. (In fact, it is 18 on cruises that leave from Europe, and she did get her Lemon Drop.) But again, fantastic food: I had escargot and grilled asparagus and artichokes, filet mignon with shrimp, and chocolate lava cake. We all agreed, however, that Mr. 14’s arctic char was the best dish on the table. Watched the Step One Musicology show and went to bed early, because tomorrow will be a long day in Berlin.

(Yes, I submitted a glowing “Let Us Know” about the waiter.)

Surely we can all agree that every trip or vacation includes a Meltdown Day, right? It’s part of the circle of life? Well, my meltdown day was Day 7, Stockholm. Today was ROUGH. I had thought that we could get where we were going by public transit, but we got massively confused and lost and turned around. I may have done some crying at a bus stop. (May have, hell. I did.) It took us more than an hour and a half, and a lot of extra walking, to get to the Vasa Museum. We were already so tired! The Vasa is amazing, utterly amazing. It’s a 17th century warship, built, decorated, and over-decorated at astounding expense, that made it a full 1500 meters on its maiden voyage before sinking. They pulled it up 333 years later and restored it. We all really enjoyed the museum. I was afraid that it would be way too crowded, getting there at 10, but it was totally fine! As long as you maneuvered around big tour groups, it was no problem. The morning’s debacle took a lot out of us, and we decided to take a rideshare back to the ship. But we had a hard time setting our destination and communicating with our driver. We wound up with more than a mile walk back to the ship, on a hot, dirty pier, when we were already exhausted. I was worn out, limping, worried about Ms. 18 who walks with a cane, and feeling pretty terrible about getting things so wrong after I worked so hard to figure out all our plans in advance. We finally made it back onboard. I decided that the one thing that would redeem my day was watching the sailaway through the Stockholm archipelago, so I went right up to the Crow’s Nest with my book and STAYED there. I got a great lounger space. Started with a fortifying cup of tea and a few more discreet tears, then switched to Aperol spritzes. Got my composure back. Really enjoyed the sail out of Stockholm. We had another excellent dinner in the MDR, which started with a close shave: we all ordered the Thai beef with pickled papaya appetizer, and none of us thought about Mr. 14’s peanut allergy until I looked down at my plate and said “DON’T EAT IT.” Fortunately, he hadn’t taken a bite yet! Our waiter was an absolute gem - took away the beef, brought him some soup, had his entree and dessert marked for special handling, and finally brought Mr. 14 tomorrow’s gala menu and had him select his meal. It will all be handled specially. The whole time he was really kind and didn’t make Mr. 14 feel embarrassed or singled out. We finished up the evening at the Cantare show, which had ups and downs but was generally enjoyable. Tomorrow is a sea day. Whew.

Yes, the sauna is called Loyly, and you can see the ship from there! If you walk out of the port, you go right past it. It’s right next to the Eiranranta tram stop, where we caught a train downtown.

Day 6: Helsinki. So it turns out that five port days in a row in fascinating cities is a lot. Today we were in Helsinki, and we did it in a pretty minimalist way. We took public transport downtown and climbed the steps of Helsinki Cathedral for the views. We paid a ludicrously touristy but also super fun visit to the “Helsinki Flying Theater,” which is like a low-rent version of the Disney ride Soarin’ - you’re in front of a 3-D movie screen in a seat that banks and jolts to give the impression of movement, and there are special effects like snow. We browsed for souvenirs and ate Finnish food in Market Square. And then we were done being intrepid. The family went back to the ship, and I spent a luxurious hour and a half at a beautiful public sauna that was just a ten-minute walk from the ship. I really wanted to have that classic Finnish experience, and I’m so glad I did! It was lovely, completely lovely. Obviously I didn’t take my camera into the sauna, but here is the relaxation room and the ocean plunge. You might be interested to know that the Baltic is COLD in June. Came back, napped for two hours, had an elaborate and delicious dinner at Tamarind. We were all just blown away by how good it was! I had citrus scallops, lobster potstickers, crispy duck, and the mango posset. Now I am sipping peppermint tea in a cozy lounger in the Crow’s Nest, overlooking the ocean. Life is pretty great.

Sorry, I don’t know! We pretty much picked the first place we came to. We were tired!

There was a shuttle bus for $10/person, round trip. If there are one or two of you, it’s a better deal than a taxi.

Yes, beef carpaccio. It was delicious!

Day 5, Tallinn, Estonia. Okay, you know how you see ridiculously beautiful tourist brochures, and you know the real place can’t possibly look like that? Tallinn looks like that for real. It’s a fairy tale fantasy. We did two activities today. First, a tour of the Hotel Viru KGB Museum. The Viru was the only place in Tallinn where foreigners were allowed to stay, because it was crawling with KGB agents and littered with microphones. The KGB left in a big hurry when Estonian independence happened - most of their things were left in place, and those things are STILL in place, right down to the overflowing wastebaskets and what our tour guide referred to as “the Soviet smell.” We were super lucky and got a guide who actually worked at the hotel in the late Soviet era. His stories were detailed and fascinating. Then we took a two-hour walking tour of medieval Tallinn with a private guide for just our family. She was amazing! She mixed together medieval legends, ghost stories, Estonian history, personal stories (she was present at the Singing Revolution as a little girl), and details of everyday life. She spent half an hour longer with us than we’d booked, and even negotiated our cab fare back to the ship so we wouldn’t get ripped off. She was a treasure! And the city was just ludicrously, ridiculously, perfectly fairy-tale pretty. All-aboard was at 7:30, and unsurprisingly, the MDR was pretty busy right after that. I was given a pager but only had to wait about 5 minutes. We had a lovely, personable, very attentive waiter - I think our experience our first MDR night must have been an anomaly. I had an excellent lamb dish, with two appetizers because I couldn’t decide. Another perfect day!

Mr. 14 tells me not to be surprised, that this is just what I get for 18 years of serving family dinner every night. “Grab and go” doesn’t feel right to him at dinnertime.

🤣😂 The “fur coat” for the herring was vegetables and sour cream, fortunately not mold - although the colors were weird enough that no one else in my family would try it! You’re 100% right, that was the panorama deck. My family has been ruthlessly mocking my inability to understand where I am on the ship. “WHICH way is forward?”

Ms. 18 has a quiet nature. She likes the Dutch Cafe and the Crow’s Nest. Mr. 14 is loving the entertainment, games, and trivia.

Day 4: Riga, Latvia. Wow, we had a perfect day in Riga today! We started out by wandering through Vecriga, the old city, getting somewhat lost but admiring the architecture. We had two activities planned for today. First was a trip to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. Although the people of Latvia have a long history, they were first made an independent country in 1918. That lasted only until 1940, and was followed by fifty years of brutal N*zi and Russian domination. The museum tells that story in broad strokes, but also in intensely personal detail, with artifacts and individual stories - like the woman who reached down while she was being forcibly deported and snatched up a handful of Latvian soil, which she managed to keep hidden during 16 years of exile. They had the little cloth bag of soil on display. It was fascinating and affecting - highly, highly recommended. Our second activity was a tasting tour of the Riga Central Market. “The tasting amount will be sufficient for you to feel as if you have had a light lunch,” said the tour website untruthfully. We spent a little over two hours in the market, which is located in several old German zeppelin hangars and is the place where ordinary Rigans do their shopping. Our guide led us through the various sections talking food, cooking, household budgets, cultural traditions, and small business practicalities. On the way, we tasted TWENTY-THREE different Latvian foods and four drinks, not counting bottled water and the tea/coffee we had at the end with our fresh homemade donuts. Here’s my list of everything we tried: . The only things I didn’t like were the smoked pigs ear (like chewing on a rubber band) and a chocolate-mint liqueur. The best things: the donuts, the smoked chicken leg, the fresh mackerel, “herring in a fur coat,” the dark rye bread with fresh butter. We wondered before the tour what the weirdest offering would be. In retrospect, I’d say the cheese made with nettles was the weirdest idea, and the weirdest experience was the bread soup - a Latvian delicacy where they boil dark bread into a sort of pudding, with warm spices like cinnamon and bits of dried fruit. When we got back onboard, Mr. 14 and I were lucky enough to grab a couple of loungers on the promenade deck, in front of the window. We watched as the ship traveled back down the river to the sea. I’m a little surprised by how much my teens are into dinner in the MDR! I thought they wouldn’t want to spend the time. Tonight I had fresh Norwegian sea bream, and it was exquisite. The service was 100% different from the treatment we got on the gala night - warm, friendly, and attentive. After dinner, another BB King set - I really enjoy them - and the World Stage performance, the same classical pianist we heard on embarkation day. This was a pretty perfect day!

Day 3: Visby, Sweden. okay, before I post about our first port of call, I have to announce that the BLOOM IS OFF THE ROSE, because I ordered a drink tonight that I hated. Clearly HAL went downhill right after my first drink of the evening. 😭 (In BB King’s, I recommend the Hoochie Coochie, which is bourbon, pineapple juice, honey syrup, and cinnamon. I do not recommend the Blues Rita, which is cloyingly sweet.) We had our first port of call today: Visby, Sweden, on the island of Gotland. It’s an impossibly quaint and pretty town with cobblestone streets and ancient buildings everywhere you look. It was a major Viking center, and later, a Hanseatic city. The medieval town wall is still intact. The Gotland Museum is one of the very best history museums I’ve ever seen. They have a remarkable collection of prehistoric “picture stones” and vast heaps of Viking silver. They trace the history of the island from the Stone Age to the Reformation, with exceptionally well-thought-out presentation and interpretation. Apparently, people still find Viking hoards on the island to this day, and you can trace the history of the island’s trade routes by looking at where the coins in the hoards come from. This picture is a hoard that a group of schoolchildren found in a rabbit burrow. Visby also has thirteen ruined churches inside the town walls! After a very Swedish lunch, we visited one that was spectacular, Saint Karin’s. Then we walked around the town until we were all exhausted. NB: it was a lot harder to find a taxi BACK to the ship, which we did not realize until we were already all dragging. But we triumphed. Tonight was the culinary council dinner, which didn’t look that appealing. As a family of Marylanders, we resisted with difficulty the urge to go sneer at the “Baltimore spiced crab cakes.” Instead we had Mongolian barbecue in the Lido. In the evening, Ms. 18 finished her book over gelato and the rest of us had fun watching the Secret Identities game show. There was a big, lively crowd. Then we turned in early because the clocks are moving an hour ahead tonight and we’re pretty tired.

Plenty of puzzles. The games are your typical mass-market stuff like Scrabble, Pictionary, Blockus, Monopoly, Apples to Apples, Risk. If you’re a board game hobbyist you will want to pack your own.