John and Diane's Konigsdam Adventure

Sounds great can't wait to meet you guys when we join the ship on the 24th

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Great report just saw Louise and Brian are also onboard.

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Thanks! Keep the posts coming. :)

Going on the King to ring in the New Year!

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Friday, October 14, 2016 - Day 3 of 28

Unexpectedly At Sea

Our itinerary specifically states that we are to be in Sicily today, so why are we peacefully floating around the Mediterranean? This morning at about 7:45, the captain came on with an announcement that the Force 9 winds and really troublesome seas had forced the cancellation of our call. In our cruise experience, we’ve had to cancel tender ports several times, but this is the first time we’ve had to cancel a port where we’d be docked. According to the captain, the harbor facilities were inadequate to ensure our safety, so off we went. A sea day on a crowded ship (2600 passengers) is a busy time, as illustrated by the computer lab I’m sitting in right now. Every table and chair is occupied and the “tech guy” is ready to pull out his hair with the number of people needing his help. The other negative about a cancelled port is the poor crew; they had planned to have seriously reduced duties on the ship but it’s busier than ever. Dianne, the barista in the Explorations Cafe, is flying around behind the counter making everyone’s coffee (including mine: grande non-fat capp with one pump of mocha).

I prefer sea days, but I’m just not used to all these people.

Yesterday was a wonderful day both in and out of Naples. We took a taxi to the Naples Archeological Museum and found all the things that we missed at both Pompeii and Herculaneum. There were frescoes, statues, glassware, and an entire room of erotic art; much of it looked like wishful thinking to me. I think that every tour to Pompeii and/or Herculaneum should finish with a visit to this museum - it makes a much more complete look at the devastation that took place in 79 A.D.

After a couple of hours enjoying the museum, we taxied back to the ship (taxis in Italy are really pretty reasonable), had lunch, and then enjoyed the empty ship, since almost everyone was visiting Pompeii, Herculaneum, or the Amalfi Coast. Since we’d done that, we just enjoyed a quiet afternoon on the ship, including a well-deserved nap.

One of the things we have found in two dinners onboard is that the food on this cruise is every bit as good as the food on the world cruise. The portions are much smaller than they used to be (which we’re glad to see), and the flavors are delicious. I had a single egg roll as a starter and then noodles as my main. I swear, I’d eat noodles every meal if I could - pad thai is a particular favorite. Once, on a 10-day overland in Thailand I had pad thai for 8 dinners. A gentleman in a suit crossing the dining room caught my attention, so I went in search of him and found out that our old friend Hardy had been promoted from one of several section managers in the dining room to assistant dining room manager. We chatted for quite a while and enjoyed catching up.

After dinner we decided that it was time to head to the main showroom, the World Stage, for the evening’s show. The venue is amazing. It encompasses two levels (without a balcony - just lots of steps) and must seat a thousand people. The ship’s singers and dancers performed and I realized there were 12 of them - 3 singers and 9 dancers, whereas on the Amsterdam it was usually 4 singers and 4 dancers. It’s a theatre in the round, and one of the most incredible parts is that scenes are projected onto the rounded walls of the theatre - either African savannah, a fire, or anything that supports the songs being performed. We were certainly impressed.

After the show and an announcement that it might be rough during the evening and night, we hit the sack, for the best night’s sleep I’ve had in eight weeks. John agrees!

Great report thanks for posting

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We've been to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy - hauling our one suitcase each onto planes, trains and automobiles and now we look forward to actually unpacking those two suitcases as well as the one we had shipped from California with the "cruise clothes."

Enjoy your cruise. But I've got a question on your 'shipment' when and to wear did you ship the 'Cruise Suitcase'? Was it just a normal suitcase or did you pack it into something else too.

Who did you use to ship and what was the cost?

TIA

We just shipped a plain old suitcase using Luggage Forward.com. For a suitcase up to 50 lb, it was $325 - more expensive to a ship than to an address. We thought it was expensive, but both UPS and Fed Ex were much more. Hope this helps.

Loving the reports.

We wouldn't miss the tubs -- all tubs in our house have been converted to showers.

There have been a few times when we missed a "docked" port because of weather.

We just shipped a plain old suitcase using Luggage Forward.com. For a suitcase up to 50 lb, it was $325 - more expensive to a ship than to an address. We thought it was expensive, but both UPS and Fed Ex were much more. Hope this helps.

I ship a large duffel via Luggage Forward.

J & D,

Glad someone we know is finally giving a report on the big ship. We board the Oosterdam in Barcelona on the 22nd then switch to the Prinsendam in Civitavecchia on Nov. 3rd to head back to FLL. Maybe we'll be in port together someplace. I'll check your itinerary.

leslie & handler

Nope, looks like you all are way ahead of us. We don't get back to FLL until November 19th. We'll see you in January.

leslie & handler

Saturday, October 15 - Day 4

(Happy Birthday to Me!)

Cagliari, Sardinia

What a wonderful place to spend a birthday! Cagliari is a lovely small city built from the port up the hill to an ancient Roman fort and amphitheatre. It’s the capital of Sardinia and a little bit of Italy in the Mediterranean. For the most part, the weather has been lovely, but when we returned to the ship and decided to sunbathe by the aft pool, it began to sprinkle - and then it began to pour. We got out in time, and then, almost as soon as it started, it stopped and the sun came out again, so we headed out again.

Dinner last night was a real treat. The night before, during a conversation with Suta, our waiter, John teased me about liking noodles so much. Yesterday in this forum I commented that I spent almost every dinner in Thailand over a plate of pad thai, and I had made the same mention to Suta. I ordered salmon for dinner last night, but when it arrived, my plate was filled with pad thai, which was not even on the menu! Suta had arranged for the chef to make it as a special treat, and it was delicious. One of our favorite parts of sailing on Holland America is that the crew is soooo great. They will, as you can see, go out of their way to make us happy and it certainly earns our loyalty.

The show last evening was also a treat. It was The Flyboys, a group of four young British men wearing brown and white saddle oxfords while singing pop songs in wonderful harmony. The theatre was virtually full, and the response to the singers was enthusiastic. After the performance, they were in the lobby (with their CD’s) and I mentioned to one of them (the cutest one) that we’d seen them on the Amsterdam world cruise. He responded that that was their first shipboard performance and he was very glad to hear that they’d been remembered.

This morning, after our usual AM routine of the gym, breakfast, and showers, we took the port-provided shuttle to the main street of Cagliari (pronounced Cal-ee-ari) and began “the long march.” Our goal was the Roman fort at the top of the hill, but our walk had a break when we wandered through one of the piazzas and decided it was cappuccino time. The fact that the cafe had free internet had nothing to do with it, of course! After finishing our mid-morning sustenance, we walked inside the cafe and saw the most incredible display of gelato ever. There must have been forty different flavors, including “internet” (who knew?) and “What’s App.” I still have no idea what they tasted like.

We continued up the hill, trying to follow the ship’s map, but that didn’t work too well. Although we never found the fort or the amphitheatre, We did get way up the hill and had a wonderful view of the city and the harbor. On our way back down the hill, we stopped at the same cafe to sample the gelato. John had amarena (cherry) and chocolate rum, while I had limone (my very favorite) and licorice (I know, some of you are getting sick as you read). I do love licorice, though, and it was pretty darned good.

Once back at the ship we had our “lying in the sun and the rain” adventure and then had a light lunch. There’s a purpose behind the “light” part of it, though. This evening we’ll be celebrating my birthday at La Mer, one of the ship’s specialty restaurants, this one specializing in seafood - but with lots of other choices. We want to be really hungry when we get there. I’ll be reporting on it tomorrow - stay tuned!

Can't wait to read your next instalment! We're so excited to be on Kdam in the spring and you are helping to add to the anticipation!

Thanks for your reports. Happy belated bday ! Looking forward to your thoughts on Sel de Mer.

. <snip> Saturday, October 15 - Day 4

(Happy Birthday to Me!)

Cagliari, Sardinia

 

What a wonderful place to spend a birthday! Cagliari is a lovely small city built from the port up the hill to an ancient Roman fort and amphitheatre. It’s the capital of Sardinia and a little bit of Italy in the Mediterranean. For the most part, the weather has been lovely, but when we returned to the ship and decided to sunbathe by the aft pool, it began to sprinkle - and then it began to pour. We got out in time, and then, almost as soon as it started, it stopped and the sun came out again, so we headed out again.

 

 

This morning, after our usual AM routine of the gym, breakfast, and showers, we took the port-provided shuttle to the main street of Cagliari (pronounced Cal-ee-ari) and began “the long march.” Our goal was the Roman fort at the top of the hill, but our walk had a break when we wandered through one of the piazzas and decided it was cappuccino time. The fact that the cafe had free internet had nothing to do with it, of course! After finishing our mid-morning sustenance, we walked inside the cafe and saw the most incredible display of gelato ever. There must have been forty different flavors, including “internet” (who knew?) and “What’s App.” I still have no idea what they tasted like.

 

We continued up the hill, trying to follow the ship’s map, but that didn’t work too well. Although we never found the fort or the amphitheatre, We did get way up the hill and had a wonderful view of the city and the harbor. On our way back down the hill, we stopped at the same cafe to sample the gelato. John had amarena (cherry) and chocolate rum, while I had limone (my very favorite) and licorice (I know, some of you are getting sick as you read). I do love licorice, though, and it was pretty darned good.

 

Once back at the ship we had our “lying in the sun and the rain” adventure and then had a light lunch. There’s a purpose behind the “light” part of it, though. This evening we’ll be celebrating my birthday at La Mer, one of the ship’s specialty restaurants, this one specializing in seafood - but with lots of other choices. We want to be really hungry when we get there. I’ll be reporting on it tomorrow - stay tuned!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you :) :)

Great report on Cagliari - thank you. :). It's on our itinerary next year and we are looking forward to our stop there - more so, now that I have read your report.

Looking forward to your reviews.

I enjoyed your reports from your round the world cruise from last year.

Keep up the great writing.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2410808

In case you haven't seen the thread, The link is to a current thread on this same HAL board about a new breakfast room service menu. Which breakfast room service menu is currently being used on your sailing? Thanks for any info.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Hope it is your best one yet!

Your reporting is truly appreciated, thank you! Hope the Sel de Mer met your expectations;).

Have a wonderful cruise, looking forward to reading about your ongoing experiences/impressions.

All the best

So happy to find you on the Koningsdam! I've followed your wonderful world voyage blogs in the past, and have enjoyed them immensely! Your opinions and insights are of particular interest since I board K-dam December 4th - and despite some concern over some of the differences in this new class of ship I'm really looking forward to giving her a try!

Sue/WDW1972

Hey John and Diane, Happy Birthday, too bad you missed Sicily, love Taurmina and Mt Etna. Looking forward to meeting you on the 24th! ???We are on the Sundeck 11, do you know if they serve any breakfast items at the explorations cafe? Do they sell any kind of prepaid coffee/tea card?

Leaving for Italy on Monday (19th)

Scott and Marilyn

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October 16 - Day 5

At Sea en route to Gibraltar

This is a BIG ship! Our cabin is quite far forward, and we like to spend time at the aft pool, so there is a great deal of walking back and forth. I swear, it seems that we must cover at least two time zones between the two locations.

Last evening was my birthday dinner at Sel de Mer (Salt of the Sea), and it was incredibly good in all categories: the food, the service, and the ambiance. Since we were a half hour early for our 8:00 reservation, we settled across the hallway at the Ocean Bar for a couple of limoncello spritzes: limoncello, prosecco, and soda. Pretty darned tasty. We had asked for one of the small booths in the back of the restaurant and they were nice enough to put us there. As soon as we sat down, our server greeted us and, within a couple of minutes had delivered a mini-baguette, a beautifully carved serving of butter, and a plate of goodies, including black and green olives, two kinds of ratatouille, pesto, and olive spread. All of them were delicious.

We started with two very different appetizers: I had three seafood salads (crab, shrimp, and tuna tartare) while John had escargot. The dining implements he was given to go with those funny little snails could have been used for dental surgery! I loved my crab and shrimp salads, but I’m not too big on raw fish, so I only had a couple of polite bites of the tuna. John helped on that one, though.

The restaurant has a special each evening, depending on the day of the week. Saturday’s special was choucroute garni, an Alsatian platter combining sauerkraut with a pork chop, a couple of sausages, and some boiled potatoes. John opted for that one and thoroughly enjoyed it. He’s anxious to return on a Sunday, since the special that evening is lamb. My main was the seafood platter, consisting of a salmon filet, scallops and a couple of giant shrimp (oxymoron of the day). Since the mains don’t come with any side dishes, I ordered a rice pilaf, which came served in a cute little cast iron pan. The three types of seafood are probably my favorites, so needless to say, I found it quite a treat. Since we have a wine package, we just ordered a Pinot Grigio from it to accompany our meal.

We planned to order the profiteroles for dessert, but our server brought us, instead, a cute little birthday cake consisting of a bit of chocolate cake and about a quart of whipped cream. There were no complaints from me on that score!

We both highly recommend Sel de Mer. Our one change next time will be that we will skip the starter course and just order a main - there’s just too darned much food! The nicest thing about almost all of the specialty restaurants is that, as 5-star Mariners, we get 50% the surcharges at all but De Librije, the Dutch restaurant which is “in action” only once a cruise. It’s a Michelin 3-star restaurant in The Netherlands, so we don’t mind skipping the discount. While all other specialty restaurants have a set surcharge, Sel de Mer is a la carte, so you pay what the menu says. Our dinner, including two starters and two mains came to $60, of which we’ve been billed $30.00. We had an additional charge of five dollars and change for a bottle of Pellegrino, and next time we’ll just ask for tap water. Overall, it was a great place to celebrate a birthday.

Today is our first planned day at sea. We skipped the gym so that we could get to the interdenominational services at 9:00, interestingly enough, led by a Catholic priest. Since the day is beautiful, sunny, and about 75 degrees, we spent about two hours in a lounge chair ruining our skin before heading in for lunch. Life on a ship is really, really good, and we’ve got 23 more days of it.

P. S. Question #1 - In about 700 days of sailing, we've used room service ONCE, so clearly not an expert on it.

Question #2 - There are croissants, etc. in the Explorations Cafe for your breakfast as well as some very good coffee and cappuccino.

I'm glad I found this thread! My DH and I have most likely been on some of the WC's and Grands with you on the Amsterdam (my fav ship). I'll be looking forward to your comments and thoughts on this very different ship. As long time sailors of the Amsterdam, we are used to the peace and quiet (and less people) than on larger ships. We will be on the B2B starting 12/4.

Belated Happy Birthday and have a great time!

Linda R.

Sounds like a great evening. Loving your blog and good to here the dining room is working,according to precious reports very disorganized crowded and food not hot. Safe travels

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Great report on Sel de Mer. Happy to hear you had a great birthday celebration there.

I'm perplexed on our De LIbrije though. The mariner website says that mariner discounts do apply to this dinner.? Strange.