Sunmail

We sailed on the New Statendam in October and I really enjoyed the food choices in the Lido. The pasta station has GF pasta prepared and ready to go with your sauce of choice. I also got it plain and put it in salads to give some heartiness to them. The stir fry station also had delicious selections along with white rice. Their fried rice has gluten. I agree that the sad part is that the gluten free breads, muffins, cookies, pancakes are all at the ice cream station. At breakfast it's not too bad but to get bread for a cold cut sandwich at noon is very time consuming and frustrating. The hotdog stand has gluten free buns and the GF pizza was pretty good considering. The main dining room staff adjusted whatever I ordered by removing sauces, etc. and replacing with GF options when possible. I really appreciated the effort. The main thing for me is to be able to participate in food events and I felt well served in that regard. Essentially all of the servers were well informed on what has gluten and what doesn't. I also cannot have dairy or soy and they were equally informed on that.

Going to see the flamingos in Bonaire was amazing. The first time we cruised there we went to Kleinaire snorkeling which was ok. I heard people talking about the flamingos so much that we cruised there again just so we could see them. The excursion did not disappoint. So much pink in the wild!! It was a standard ship's tour but I don't remember which ship or tour. ):)

Thank you for the reply. All of this is really good to know. I will assure my parents (80s) that there will be plenty of things their speed. They will love riding the HOHO and listening to the guide!

I talked with AQV yesterday since our river cruise starts on the 1st and no docs. Their document vendor has gone out of business and quit fulfilling document distributions almost completely. We might still get the docs but AQV is scrambling to get some info out to passengers in email with the remainder of the docs/tags available at cruise check-in at the hotel in Minneapolis. We can use our confirmation from the travel agent to travel with. Sounds like it will work out. This is our first river cruise so I really hope it goes well. We are travelling with my elderly parents and this could be a great way to get them out more.