POA1

I ordered the EBP instead of trying to upgrade HIA because it's our first cruise an half a decade and we would like to jump right into our research without having to worry about upgrading the SBP.

A note on our booking: We opted not to get Have It All. We're going a la carte with the Elite Beverage Package and booking all our specialty dining on our Mariner discount. I also bought the Premium WiFi package for a single user. Being a geek, a have a router that can serve as a hotspot for us and all our many devices. I guess we'll call it either, "You'll get nothing and like it," or "Have It Your Way." Shout out to Burger King, circa 1974.

The price went up to $55/pp/day back in early November. We got in the neighborhood of 10 emails telling us to upgrade before the price went up.

It's so close, yet so far. Here's the Nieuw Statendam from the balcony here at the Institute.

I will check in the name of exploration. We are loaded up with books on our Kindles. We get them from the Broward Public Library - best use of our tax dollars, by far. It will be interesting to see what the Library looks like. Too bad the Pier 77 webcam isn't up. Maybe we'd see a Bookmobile pulled up alongside the white trucks.

Thank you for the invitation. We are going to be up in the cabana area, because for reasons I cannot explain, we keep booking rooms on the starboard side, which faces away from both the webcam and our condo. I think I finally rectified that for our spring 2024 Rotterdam sailing.

I've ordered an UberXL for later this morning. When you are so close to the port, you don't have to make any hard decisions about what to take and what to leave behind. I'm pretty sure that people in the grand age of ocean travel, with their steamer trunks and wardrobe cabinets had nothin' on us. Also, the Snow Globe of Awesome, unlike the Bubble of Awesome, can't be deflated.

Thanks. We find that a positive attitude can do wonders. Also, when something goes wrong, I've always realized that I can mine it for comedy gold. And, speaking of the Bubble of Awesome.... It's the holidays, so we've gone up to the attic and fetched the Christmas version, "The Snow Globe of Awesome."

When we first cruised on the old Noordam in 1994, we brought a couple of prepaid calling cards along so we could keep in touch. We each carried a book in case we needed extra entertainment. Today we have a laptop, two tablets, a Kindle Paperwhite, two smartphones and my trusty travel router. Progress is wonderful!

Thank you! Even though we've been watching the ships steam in past us for 16 years, it's still very exciting when you know, "That one's mine!" Huge thanks to everyone who posts in the daily fleet report. I don't get to read it every day, but when I do, it always brightens my morning.

Oops. That last post says "better on" instead of bet on. Sure, I can blame it on my phone's auto correct, but still.. A typo this early in the game is a little embarrassing. The Nieuw Statendam sailed in a little while ago and she is now safely tucked into her berth at Terminal 26. The Ruby Princess is sailing by now and has blown her fog horn a few times. As much as I like the toots during departure, they're not as endearing before dawn"s early light.

That's probably not as fun a game as it would sound. You could probably just better on "Maker's Mark on the rocks" and let it ride. On the other hand, we discussed purchase the Elite Beverage Package, so I suppose I'll have to branch out. The Christmas Cocktails sound intriguing.

When @LAFFNVEGAS was on her last cruise, she posted a daily "What Am I Going To Have For Dinner Tonight" thread which @Huskerchick really enjoyed. I'm not sure how that will work in person since we're on the same ship and in Club Orange together. We should probably avoid creepy staring though. 😉

If it weren't for my lovely wife, I would still be thinking about packing instead of being ready to go now. The electric shocking collar can really focus a fella on the task of putting things into the suitcase. In unrelated news, I'll try to use the 16 point font when I post from my computer. CC doesn't seem to want to allow font size changes from my phone.

To rub salt in the wound, they added Grand Turk in as a substitute for Curacao. We'll just float off the coast for a day and it'll be like, "Neener, neener! You can't come ashore."

We received our boarding time and boarding group in late November. Out Group is A, which is great. The boarding time is 1:00 PM which is a little later than normal for Group A in Port Everglades. That's either because the ship is returning from Europe after dry dock and there are inspections and immigration - or, because they want to ensure an awesome time for us and they want everything to be perfect for us. (We travel in The Bubble of Awesome, which, according to the cruise contract, guarantees an excellent experience.) We will probably make the long, arduous journey to the port a little before our assigned time. The only thing we have planned as an immediate to-do is to make our Pinnacle Grill Lunch reservation for Monday. We have all our other dining locked down.

The March 29th - April 7th version. Sadly, we are missing Curacao on our trip. We were supposed to do the ABC Islands and now we're doing the AB Islands, with a "sea day" where Curacao should be. Because a 40-mile trip from Bonaire to Aruba makes for a heck of a sea day.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the water.... Ladies & Gentlemen, Boys & Girls, Moms & Dads, Teens, Tweens, Youngsters, Toddlers and Wee Little Shavers - It's that time again. The National Institute of Cheer has stoked the boiler on the blogging machine and we're going full steam ahead with our first "Live From" since Christmas of 2018. That's five long years without a voyage on one of Holland America's blue-hulled beauties. This cruise will be our first on the Pinnacle Class and we plan to cram in as much "research" as possible into a single week. Our goal is to log as many firsts as we can. To that end, we booked our first Club Orange, first Vista Suite and first meal at Rudi's Sel de Mer. We were a little limited on vacation this year, so we opted for a 7 day sailing instead of our preferred 10+ days*. Way back in 2019, we had planned on another holiday cruise, but the schedule didn't come together. We planned another Christmas cruise for 2020... and we all know what happened then. We waited a while after the restart because we really wanted to have a "normal" cruise. This is a very familiar itinerary for us. We've been to Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Thomas, and Half Moon Cay many times over the year. We even had a few weeks' worth of land vacations in St. Thomas and San Juan. We don't really need to explore the ports. That will give us more time to focus on the ship and what the Nieuw Statendam has to offer. * - Disclaimer: We have a 9 Day Southern Caribbean booked on the Rotterdam in March, so my whole "10+ Days" thing looks a little weak.

Thanks for your work on our behalf!

I'd take issue with whomever chose the cabin. We pay close attention to what's over, under, and around any room we choose. In most cases you can find staterooms in the same category which are in better locations than others.

Have a safe flight!

They're the real menus for the MDR and Lido. Depending on the itinerary, they may match exactly. For instance, if you are doing a 7 day Western Caribbean and the ship is on that itinerary, you will likely see the same menus. If the ship is on a 7 day Eastern Caribbean now, you'll be one menu cycle "off." We're on the Nieuw Statendam tomorrow. We've been watching the menus as the NS does her transatlantic to Fort Lauderdale. It's a different voyage in a different market (Europe v's Caribbean,) so I expect our menus to be a little different. Either way, it's kind of fun to watch and read.

Do you mean like Nami Sushi and Tamarind? 😉 They have had two Asian restaurants for ages. There is also the Asian station in the Lido. "Asian" covers a lot of ground. You could have Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean. Each is pretty distinctive. There are four major Chinese cuisines, and arguably 8 or more important regional ones in China. The beauty of specialty dining is that it gives us choices. (And remember, if you decide to skip the specialty restaurants, that's still a choice.) We'll definitely try Morimoto when the opportunity presents itself. We've eaten at 3 of his restaurants and enjoyed them all. DW is planning to try the Morimoto lobster in at some point during the cruise. I also have high hopes for Sel de Mer this coming Thursday Being an equal opportunity diner, I'm also looking forward to the Dive In and I have my fingers crossed for Wiener Schnitzel.

VH is fully obstructed. VF is partially obstructed. Highest category depends on the ship. Among them, VQ (spa), VS (aft), V or VA.

Your typical 7 day sailing has a younger demographic than longer cruises. It's also more likely to be a getaway vacation and keeping up a party pace is more sustainable than it is for longer voyages. Following my own infallible logic: We are young! We are on a week long cruise starting on Sunday. We bought the EBP, premium wifi, and have dinners booked at the PG and Rudi's (before it goes away 😉) We'll also do a PG lunch. This is totally what the hip, young, cool kids do - while wearing dungarees and listening to rock and roll music.