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Have fun!

I didn’t paint as much as I thought that I would. A few painters got together in the mornings and painted together in the lido area. I never made it to that. There are smaller palettes made for travel than what I brought. Sometimes they are called travel palettes or even nano palettes. Below is a picture of mine which is more of a standard small palette. You can see that all of my supplies and the palette fit in a ziplock bag. I only packed three brushes. I could’ve gotten by with one brush. I use a mix of different brands of tube paint that I squeeze into the palette and let dry.

Final Thoughts: I am back home. What a trip! We loved it. We loved Holland America. I would really enjoy a TA again and can only imagine doing it on HA (or Cunard $$ 😬) Most likely I’ll be cruising on other lines before that happens though due to our being budget cruisers and living near the port of Tampa. Food: Very good. Strong points were fish and bread followed by beef and veggies. Dessert in general and cheese selection in the lido were the weak points. Entertainment and Activities: Very good live entertainment. Crafts were uninspiring. Enrichment was 50/50. Daniel was great the guest speaker was not. Plenty to do. Service: Very friendly. Our serving team was OK our cabin stewards were great. Front desk excellent. Ship:Good condition for its age. Clean. Understated elegance with lovey art. Lots of pleasant areas to see the ocean from inside. Crows Nest and Promenade deck really added to the experience. I could easily have done this cruise in an inside cabin due to all of these areas. I do miss an old school atrium that goes all the way to the top and has a bar/entertainment on the lowest level. Cabin: It had everything we needed and we were quite comfortable. The bed and bedding were nice. Plenty of storage for us although a drawer in the desk would be nice. The tub which I was looking forward to was small. For many it would not work to use as a tub. Fellow Passengers: Very friendly and polite. A really nice bunch of people to be around. Sometimes we did get tired of talking about cruises and travel though. That was the main theme of conversation. Overall I would highly recommend Holland America. Thanks for coming along with me!

Thanks for the review

The Rolling Stone Lounge band was exceptional on my recent cruise! Also, the guest entertainers in the main theater were very good as well. I was on a TA so not sure how that affected the amount of guest entertainment or not. One was a fabulous violinist.

Yes but my package was the elite one. My limit was $15 a drink.

@Niagarawine I just looked at my statement now that we’re back on land. I have a bunch of .50 cent charges too. It looks like a charge for going over the drink price. I had the elite package so that shouldn’t have happened. I think it is actually where I often added an extra .50 tip. When onboard and I checked my account it looked like it was the tips not an extra charge for drinks. I’ll havetoinvestigate further

I may have had the name wrong. It was most likely Airpo taxi. Here is a website that I found. Airpotaxiservice.be If memory serves me right our driver was Jeff.

This was a wonderful cruise and experience. We are now visiting family in Germany. I’ll do a sum up of my thoughts after I’ve mulled it all over for a few days 😃

Two small luggage storage areas on each end of the car. Best for carryon or smaller Almost useless overhead bins. A purse or half full backpack would fit there. No one used them. A carryon can just fit under your seat. For our larger piece we slid it under the spot where two rows meet backwards.

Disembarkation Day- Ijmuiden After an MDR breakfast we just walked off the ship. (We did self-assist) There was a very brief check of our passport with 2 questions and a stamp. It took about 25 minutes for an Uber to come. We went to the airport for about $62.11 with tip. The HAL shuttle would’ve been $39 pp. Once at the airport we went down one level to the train station. We took the intercity train to Venlo. You just scan your credit card as you walk down to to the tracks and scan again when you leave. It was quite easy. There is not a lot of storage for luggage. After a time we figured out how to get it out of the way. That was a bit stressful at first.

The pea soup was good but the version on Dutch/Orange night was better. The asparagus was very good. I was so happy to see it on the menu as I didn’t get to try white asparagus while in Bruges today. The brisket was so tender and tasty. The tri tip beef was also really good. The perfect plate would’ve been the brisket with the sides from the tri tip beef The Baked Alaska was a much more manageable size than PG’s. The ice cream to cake ratio was better and the cherries were tastier. (The quality of the ice cream wasn’t as good). Overall I prefer this version. We caught Inna’s second show. She is quite talented. Then we caught the last two sets of Rolling Stone. It was excellent again. I’m not sure how long their contracts are but Christina announced she unexpectedly had to leave but hopes to be back. She really brought the whole show together. Hopefully her replacement will be just as good.

Went up to the Crows Nest one last time before dinner. Someone counted and they could see 43 ships. The wind farm was also amazing but I didn’t get a picture

@dragonmaster can you help out please? I didn’t personally make the arrangements.

Someone helped us tonight with a wine question named Julius. I am not sure if he is the Celler Master or was someone working under him.

I was surprised too. It may be because people post personal videos to YouTube while on their trips, similar to Instagram/FB. So maybe they consider it a social media platform

We were docked next to Rotterdam today. It really didn’t look that much bigger than Zuiderdam. Also, I’m not sure why or how but some staff seem to know my nickname.

Either yesterday or the day before a luggage scale showed up in the elevator area near my cabin. That’s a nice touch. A local marching band played outside as guests were embarking today. The staff captain is part of the band and performed with them. I forgot my camera. Ugh

Sorry I posted in the wrong thread. I can’t delete the post. 🙊

Day 14-Zeebrugge: It was a little cooler today but sunny and comfortable for most of the day. We met up with two other couples from the roll call for a shared taxi into Bruges. Thanks to @dragonmasterfor arranging it. The company was AirPro Taxi. Our driver was prompt, professional and reliable. We were dropped off right at the market square. We first got coffee/beer a cafe right on the square. Then we took a canal tour. This was lovely and short walk from the square. The city is so walkable and we felt safe the whole time. We walked around and enjoyed the architecture, bought chocolate and lace. The requisite waffle was incredibly delicious. We also got frites at the Halve Maan brewery. We had a little over an hour left before the return taxi. On a whim we decided to jump on the city tour bus. Some of the info was a repeat of the canal tour but some was new. If I had to pick one I’d do the canal tour.

Day 14-Zeebrugge: It was a little cooler today but sunny and comfortable for most of the day. We met up with two other couples from the roll call for a shared taxi into Bruges. Thanks to @dragonmasterfor arranging it. The company was AirPro Taxi. Our driver was prompt, professional and reliable. We were dropped off right at the market square. We first got coffee/beer a cafe right on the square. Then we took a canal tour. This was lovely and short walk from the square. The city is so walkable and we felt safe the whole time. We walked around and enjoyed the architecture, bought chocolate and lace. The requisite waffle was incredibly delicious. We also got frites at the Halve Maan brewery. We had a little over an hour left before the return taxi. On a whim we decided to jump on the city tour bus. Some of the info was a repeat of the canal tour but some was new. If I had to pick one I’d do the canal tour.

My husband was able to Zoom a meeting with no problem under the premium level. I can watch YouTube on the premium level. Mainly the stream level is for those that want Netflix etc. It’s more about sites being filtered out than bandwidth from what I understand.