ShipsAreTheBest

All Captains has different personalities, I suppose. I thought I read on Captain Albert's blog in recent months that HAL was doing away with the Captain's welcome toast.

Without knowing a lot of the particulars of your trip, I will say that you are less likely to hear from or see your captain on an Alaska cruise, particularly if there is a lot of fog. The captain and staff captain have to split their time on the bridge when there is fog, and the time not on the bridge is spent doing the paperwork/inspections/meals/sleeping that he has to fit in. Usually the captain will spend the night hours on the bridge in this case because he can plan his rest periods a bit better than the staff captain, who has to supervise the deck department during the day.

I find that in longer sea voyages with less port time and more sea time, you are far more likely to see the captain out and about because the schedule is much less demanding.

Shipboard incidents are not occurring with any more frequency these days than in the past, and in fact are less likely, probability wise, than before for any given ship.

Agreed. What has changed is the Internet (and sites like this) where information gets shared quickly including information that wouldn't make the news. 20 - 30 years ago, this wasn't the case, yet "stuff happened" on cruise ships and only those on board would know about it. After the cruise, only word of mouth would spread the story!

Interestingly enough, the first three Princess ships were named that way: Princess Patricia (one of Canadian Pacific's coastal steamers chartered by Stanley MacDonald in 1965 - hence the name Princess Cruises), then there was Princess Italia (officially just "Italia", also chartered) and then in 1968 Princess Carla (officially "Carla C" chartered from Costa Lines and the first ship to wear the "Seawitch" on her funnel). It wasn't until 1973 when the Island Venture was chartered and became Island Princess was the naming convention we know now was adopted. Island Princess, of course, was sister to Sea Venture which became Pacific Princess in 1975 and the rest is history...

I stand corrected, HAL ships have only been registered to Willemstad Curacao, before returning back to Rotterdam as homeport, so they have always been under Dutch flag, just a tax friendly home port in the early seventees.

So in the early 70s, the fleet was registered in Willemstad, Curaçao and still flew the Dutch tricolor much as today P&O/Princess/Cunard ships are registered in Hamilton, Bemuda and fly the Red Duster. In the 80s, the Nieuw Amsterdam and Noordam were registered in Philipsburg, St. Maarten while Rotterdam (V) remained registered in Willemstad. As new ships came on (starting with previous Westerdam) the new ships were registered in the Bahamas. Eventually, due to a better tax climate, all of the ships returned to the Dutch register (at Rotterdam) except for Veendam which remained Bahamian until about 10 years ago or so. The reason was at the time, there weren't enough Dutch officers to man all the ships, so British officers were used. Now Dutch law permits EU citizens to command and be officers, so Veendam was reflagged to the Netherlands and you have a mix and match of Dutch, British, Irish, and Canadian officers (and I'm missing a few other nationalities , I'm sure)

I think that may be somewhat unique to HAL, since both the yard and the nominal home port are in EU countries. It may have to do with taxes or duties. Most ships are not officially "registered" at all until the owner gets title. The shipyard gets a temporary "permit to sail" from the country where the yard is, to allow sea trials.

I've seen photos of the Queen Mary 2 flying the French tricolor when she was undergoing sea trials (as she was built in France).

I think a lot of it also depends on Seymour Narrows and when slack water is there. If the ship gets to make it on an early tide, there is more time to dawdle around and do scenic cruising once north of there. If they miss the slack water and have to wait until the next one, there is less time - then it's pedal to the metal (as Captain Albert likes to say) to get on to Tracy Arm.

One of the other features besides draft and hull form in deciding how much punishing a ship can take is the length of the bow to the superstructure. And here, Rotterdam (V) clearly has the advantage.

Having never sailed Prinsendam, and only Rotterdam for 7 days as a 13-year old some 35 odd years ago, I can't offer a first hand comparison, but my gut tells me Rotterdam is the sturdier of the two. Having said that, I also suspect Prinsendam is well-built.

Thank you for your great review! Brought back many great memories as we were on Maasdam about a month before you, reverse itinerary. Great ship, great crew and marvelous weather! Just a beautiful trip!

Quebec bridges

Confederation Bridge and Maasdam

Also, depending on the time of year you go, on the Boston to Montreal run after you leave Charlottetown, PEI, you might go under the Confederation Bridge which was neat. Also interesting bridges to go under after Quebec heading up-River to Montreal as well as at arrival in Montreal.

I did Boston to Montreal this past July. Maasdam is a wonderful ship, no worries there. Can't offer an opinion about the reverse direction. Because of where we live (north of NYC) we rented a car to Boston and then took Amtrak the day after arrival from Montreal to home. Whatever direction you do, I encourage you to add a day on either or both ends if you've never been to either Montreal or Boston, because they are great cities with lots to see as well!

It's important to note that Stein Kruse has oversight responsibilities for P&O Australia too. Ryndam and Statendam aren't being sold, but transferred. So, yes, while it might be a bit strange for the last voyage, I don't imagine you would have to worry about reduced maintenance. Maybe if they were selling to another company, but since it is an internal Carnival Corp transfer, probably not.

There's actually a good explanation. The flag at the bow is referred to as the jack (flown from the jack staff). On HAL ships (perhaps all Dutch ships), a small version of the Dutch flag is flown. On British (and Bermudian) and Bahamian ships, the company house flag is flown. On US ships under government ownership (think Navy) the "jack" is flown - (which is the blue field with 50 stars from our flag). It is not the same as the ensign, hence the size is smaller.

On the stern, on all ships regardless of registry, the national ensign is flown. Here it is larger in size to be easily recognizable. It is flown from the ensign staff (on the stern) when docked or at anchor. When underway, and within territorial waters, it shifts to the gaff on the mainmast (aft). On modern ships, there is no main mast so it flies from the foremast, or more properly now the radar mast, in the center and highest position.

On the ss Rotterdam (V), there was a gaff on the crossbar between the smoke uptakes. Whenever she was underway in territorial waters, you would see the Dutch ensign flying up from the gaff between the stacks.

Yes, pods have been a technical challenge for many lines. That's what made this issue with the Veendam somewhat surprising, because so many propulsion related cancellations on other lines have been pod-related. But, they do make the ship's incredibly maneuverable. The first HAL ship with pods was the Amsterdam. Every one built since in the HAL fleet has azimuthing pods.

It is not just a propeller. In the old days, there was a fixed pitch solid propeller on a shaft. Damaged props could be easily changed out with the vessel in the water in short order. Now, they are variable pitch and attached to pods both fixed and "azimuthing" (moveable). Extremely more complicated to repair. Just like your tv or oven. Way more complicated. In most cases, the ship will be in dry dock while the offending pod is removed and replaced with another. Guess what? All new cruise ships face the same issue.

Veendam does not have pods. She has shaft driven propellers which are, as you correctly stated, variable pitch. From the now-deleted Capt. Albert blog, it appears the issue is with the pitch control mechanism, which they tried to fix with divers but evidently couldn't hence the dry dock. Fingers crossed for those on the first non-cancelled sailing that all goes according to schedule!

This is going to be a problem in other places too I suspect. Ever wonder why the Queen Mary 2's funnel is so squat when you compare it to the size of the ship? Because she wouldn't have fit under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge if it were the size originally contemplated (and that would have made the ship a little more visually appealing, IMO).

Thanks for your review! Glad to see you enjoyed the Veendam. We've been on her 3 times. Interesting that you also saw Hilby. He's a regular at our county fair in New York every August. He's very funny and talented. I knew he occasionally does HAL ships (as well as others).

B-deck. Followed by C-deck. Ok, sorry for being cute, but it's true! On Veendam, A-deck is also known as Deck 4, with the lower numbers at the bottom (like a building). B-deck contains working areas and crew cabins, mess, and recreation areas. Although I've only stayed on Main Deck on the Veendam and Maasdam, I've never heard anyone complain of noise. Anyone forward on Main or A decks will hear thruster noise on port arrivals early in the morning, and if the ship is anchoring, the chain running out. Other than that, will have to let those who have stayed on A-deck on the S-class ships speak to their experiences.

I would be hard pushed to name a cruise ship that was registered as London, even the QE2 had Hamilton on the back.

The entire P&O fleet in the not too distant past (and former sister line Orient Line) were all registered in London. The original Princess Cruises fleet as well, after they were bought by P&O. Canberra, Oriana, Oronsay, Orcades, Arcadia, Pacific Princess, Island Princess... Shall I go on?

QE2 was registered in Southampton and remained so until she was retired from the fleet. Cunard ships prior to that were registered in Liverpool. QM2 until recently was also registered in Southampton. Now most of the Princess, P&O, and Cunard fleets (maybe all?) are now registered in Hamilton, Bermuda, which does permit them to continue flying the Red Duster.

As someone from the States who has long admired P&O and its rich history, if they want to emphasize the "Britishness" of their ships they could start by returning London as the port of registry for their ships and maintain officers from the UK only...

Loving your review looks like you're having a wonderful time. Seems strange to see an escalator on a ship. Will look forward to a tour of the kitchens. Do HAL charge a fee for the galley tour?

 

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What's even more amazing is the Rotterdam (V) of 1959 had escalators that ran from the galley on C-Deck to the two dining rooms above on B-Deck! That ship was of an advanced design in so many ways.

Mtn2Sea, really enjoying your review. Your photos are stunning. This particular itinerary has had my eye for the last two years!

One more thought: I can guarantee that no matter what episode you watch, if a scene took place in a cabin it was definitely NOT filmed on board. They were entirely too small in reality to pull that off. Some of the decor (door knobs, wall mounted lamps with shades) were reflective of reality, but that's where any similarity ended!

For additional information, go to this thread and read through it. I responded several years ago to a similar question and give some hints about what to look for when watching episodes as to what was real ship vs a soundstage and even some clues of which ship (Pacific Princess or Island Princess) they filmed on since both were used interchangeably even though Pacific Princess was the star the show!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=719342

It's grey topped with white, which (I believe) was her original color. It was only later on that HAL went to the dark blue hulls topped with white.

Yes, those were her original colors. HAL didn't go to the "midnight blue" hull until the very early 1970s (the same time the orange funnel with the three "waves" appeared). Only the Nieuw Amsterdam (of 1938) survived in the dove grey livery until her retirement in 1974 (or was it '73?). The dove grey, however, didn't appear until the '50s. The hulls were black and white before that (Nieuw Amsterdam first sailed as a black and white ship).