Jump to content

Live from Rotterdam--7-10-10 through 7-17-10


TracieABD

Recommended Posts

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Sitka

This vacation is going entirely too well. I know that I keep saying it, but one more time for the folk in the cheap seats… I may never come home!

We woke early today. Breakfast was a bit of a boondoggle, as we thought that the MDR opened at 7 am but in fact, it opened at 7:30. We ended up in the buffet for breakfast, and it was fine. I had crepes and grapefruit.

We decided to take the ship’s sponsored shore excursion called Sea Otters to see the Alaskan wildlife. I have to say, they did not disappoint. We saw eagles, gray whales and humpback whales. The best part was the sea otters. Our captain was able to get the boat very close to the little fellows and we could really study their cute little faces and their almost human mannerisms. I am wondering how Richard would feel about having a sea otter live in our bathtub… I think I will name him Bradley!

After the tour, we walked around Sitka a bit and then Richard and I separated once again. (This is getting to be a regular thing for us). I attempted to return to the boat. I have to say attempted, because Sitka is a tender port and the tender I was on decided to quit about a half mile from the ship. Now, you may find this surprising about me, but I can swim a half mile—I am just not sure I could swim it in 45 degree water before hypothermia set in. Instead I decided to amuse my fellow tender-mates with a humming rendition of the theme from Gillian’s Island— Only one other couple found this slightly humorous… Oh well! The engineers final got the old girl running and we made it back to the ship.

I decided to eat in the MDR. I was seated in a very empty dining room at a table for two. I had ginger soup, salad, and chicken Korma. Lunch was great. And quiet. And fast.

After lunch, I went to the thermal spa to read, but I kept falling asleep. I had it all to myself for the full two hours that I was there. I dressed and attended Trivia. No win today as I did not have the fabulously intelligent Richard with me … I need to ensure my win tomorrow by bringing my own “ringer”.

Tonight was formal night. We decided to eat with our new friends, K and B. We love them, as they are fairly new in their marriage and are really happy and enthusiastic to be with one another. They are also well-read and witty. Best of all, they think we are funny!

We have had a bunch of fun together, and I am grateful to have met them.

They all had surf and turf and I had the carbonara. We were informed that tomorrow is the Master Chef debacle, oops, I mean dinner, so we made another reservation at the Pinnacle Grill. (Thanks to those of you on CC who have warned us of this evening).

The dessert extravaganza was also on the Lido Deck this evening. We slithered upstairs to be greeted by EVERY SINGLE GUEST on the Rotterdam! At no time has this ship felt even slightly crowded until this little event. I learned an important lesson tonight: There is such an entity as “too much of a good thing”. We took one look at all of those desserts and promptly lost our appetites. What can I say? We each had one Crepe Suzette and slithered back to Deck 7.

Tomorrow is Ketchikan. We were there last year, so we have decided to just walk around town and do our own thing. The weather has been a bit gray and dribbly, and I am pretty sure that we will see more of that tomorrow. Fortunately, I have my rain suit. For those of you who have not heard my litany on my rain suit—here goes. I hate getting wet, so I used to have a rain suit that I bought for $9 at Walmart. It was bright yellow. All of my friends would make fun of me in my rain suit, calling me the Gorton Fisherman or the Morton Salt Girl. Until they were soaked from the rain. There I was, warm and toasty and dry, albeit wrapped up like a giant yellow banana. I finally upgraded last year to an all black, Columbia model that cost significantly more than $9, but is still keeps me warm and dry. Now, I just look like Johnny Cash. My husband told me that I look gangsta’! I will wear it tomorrow in Ketchikan, just like last year. I wonder if any of the locals will remember that I wore the same outfit twice… hmmm…

I will post more tomorrow.

Take care,

Tracie-Lynn :):)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

July 15, 2010

Ketchikan

Another day, another poached egg (well, two eggs, as they seem to travel in pairs)… Still no durian. My husband is crushed.

We walked around Ketchikan and bought the requisite souvenir T-shirts and stuff. I went for a long walk looking for reasonably priced Diet Coke for my husband. FYI nothing is reasonably priced in Ketchikan. Big surprise—it was sunny in Ketchikan!

When I returned to the ship, I ate lunch in the MDR. Another meal with my book. That is a gift for me. In my land-life, I am pretty busy being engaged with people for the majority of everyday. A little solitude is just what the Dr. ordered. I had oranges with watermelon salad, corn chowder, and ziti.

We played (and lost) at trivia. <insert frowny face here>, so I salved my bruised ego in the spa. I had a combo package that was very relaxing. Bronaugh was a wonderful therapist. I left feeling like wet spaghetti. I liked the spa services so much today, I booked some more for tomorrow!

It was Indonesian Tea and I felt the need to sample that menu. It was delicious and felt really special. For those of you who don’t drink tea, they also serve really yummy Sumatra coffee that is prepared in a French press. The banana fritters were delicious, but I am not a fan of the green, squishy coconut thing. If I cannot identify at least 3 of the ingredients in any dish, I probably won’t eat it. This was one of those items…

We had a reservation for the Pinnacle Grill (again). I had the onion soup, the Caesar salad, and the beef skewers. By the way, they set that meat on fire! My husband, a real man’s man, really loves it when someone sets his meal aflame… We also had the baked Alaska. They set that on fire, too. My husband was suitably impressed with my food choices. Food and pyrotechnics—what more could a man ask for! Naomi was an extremely attentive server and did everything possible to make our meal special.

Tomorrow is our last full day on the ship. It is pretty busy, which flies in the face of the purpose of this cruise, which was for me to relax. Oh well, that is out the window. I will have to go on another cruise (and another) until I get that relaxation thing down. I am not expecting any miracles.

Sign me—Loving HAL-

Take care,

Tracie-Lynn:):)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't wait to sail in two weeks! Thanks for posting your review. It seems like your week has flown.

 

Tracy, did you make your Pinnacle reservations before or during sailing? Just curious how far in advance these things need to be planned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tracie:

 

Enjoy the warm Sunny day at sea. We deserve it! Good talking to you this morning. I have enjoyed reading your posts. While you were walking around, I went on the Ducks and then stopped at an internet station. Also checked in with my Secretary and Girl Friday to make sure all was well with the Parish.

See you around the ship!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tracie,

 

I have thoroughly enjoyed your review very much. I just booked this cruise last week after coming home from a Carnival 6 day Caribbean cruise. I am so looking forward to enjoying it.

 

Is it possible to see enough at all the stops without taking excursions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your day to day recounts of your Rotterdam cruise!

 

Very entertaining ... ;) :)

 

 

Just wondering .. if you see this post, can you do me a favour?

On disembarkation morning, can you take a few shots of cabin 3350 for me?

I'm considering this CA cabin for an upcoming sailing. A few shots of the inside, and the outside "lanai" area.

 

 

Happy travels!

 

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

July 16, 2010

At Sea/ Victoria

Oh, I am starting to get sad, as our cruise comes to an end… This was our last full day at sea.

I rolled out of bed at a ripe and early 8:45am. I had to make my first crucial choice of the day—breakfast in the MDR or yoga. No challenge here—I ate an egg white and sundried tomato frittata and drank cappuccino. No one from the yoga class came and beat down my door, so I assume I was not missed. Whew. So far, we have managed to avoid the buffet on all but 2 occasions. The first was for breakfast on the one day that I could not get my stuff together enough to set out the hang tag. Our other Lido experience had to do with my husband “pre-gaming” his dinner with some salmon carpaccio. We will probably not make it up there for the rest of today either.

We signed up to do the cooking experience. Our menu was to be mushroom soup, spicy scallops, stuffed pork chops and chocolate-chocolate chip cookies. We were super excited about this, and waited all week for our turn. It was interesting as we were divided into groups of 3. I was on the pork chop group. It was fun to make the pork chops, but we received very little instruction. I really, really, really NEED some cooking instruction as I think that dinner comes from a little window in a brick wall. I come from a long line of non-cooks. We always knew that dinner was finished when the kitchen was on fire. Richard on the other hand is a good cook, especially with his super manly crock pot or the grill. We had the opportunity to eat our creations in the Pinnacle Grill, though this was an odd experience. They served the soup and put the scallops in the soup, but not all of the scallops… Then they served our main course. There was a pork chop on a plate. Alone. Without any of its side dish friends. Finally they served our cookies. Now I know for a fact that we made dozens of cookies, but only received one. I want to know where the rest of the cookies went. They were the best part of the meal.

We tried again at trivia, and for once the Whalers did not win. We did not win either. All I have to say about trivia is: could they ask any more esoteric questions???? Ok, maybe I am being a sore loser. Hmmmm.

Once again, I decided to drown my defeat at the spa. Micia was a wonderful therapist for my body exfoliation and massage. I was hard to leave when my treatment concluded.

Today was the cupcake tea!!!! Tea and cupcakes are two of my favorite things in the whole world. Combine them together and I am over the moon. They had lots of different types of cupcakes and they were the big ones. I only sampled the vanilla cupcake, and the rest looked really yummy. I know that it would be labor intensive, but maybe they should make tiny cupcakes. Funny thing: they served chocolate and strawberry milk! I can’t remember the last time I had strawberry milk. I felt like I was 8 again!!!

Surprise! While I was indulging, my fabulous husband signed us up for Future Cruise Deposits! Yay! That means we will have to go on HAL in the future!!! Yippee!!

We headed into Victoria tonight. We docked about an hour late, but at least we were able to dock. The sun was out and it was warm. We walked into Victoria and had dinner at the Empress Hotel in the Bengal Room. They had a decent curry bar and we enjoyed the jazz trio and the elegant décor.

We also went ‘round to Ralph’s for a maple crème. Wow, when did they get so spendy? We walked back to the boat and I stopped to pet a lot of dogs. Whenever I begin to accost people and their little puppies, it is a clear indicator that I am homesick for my dogs and am pretty ready to get home to them.

These are some things that I learned on my first HAL cruise:

  • The unlimited laundry package is worth it! ($49.00). I begin to sweat profusely and itch if there are more than 5 items in the laundry basket. This was a nice way to manage that particular peccadillo of mine. It kept me out of the laundry rooms (imagine that!) and we still had laundry done daily! The laundry comes back neatly folded or hung and in most cases, pressed.
  • You can cruise without eating in the buffet. ‘Nuf sed there.
  • In spite of popular opinion, they do not roll up the sidewalks at 8:30 pm. Last night, as I was wandering the ship, there was so much going on. The shops were open, there was a show happening, a movie being screened, a singer in the Ocean Bar and a Beatles sing-along in Mix. Lots of folk were out milling around and the overall feel was lively.
  • While Holland lacks a couple of the bells and whistles that Princess has, the overall ambiance and attention detail makes Holland really special.
  • HAL has the “suck-up” thing down to a science. We only encountered two indifferent employees in the entire week on board. Everyone other employee went above and beyond their duty! The service certainly exceeded our expectations in every way.
  • The sushi is not yummy. Though most cruise ship sushi is not yummy.
  • My husband insists that I mention the Rotterdam need more trash bins in the hallways so he can conveniently jettison his gum.
  • I will sail on HAL again, and probably sooner rather than later.

This is most likely my final post until I get back to Charlotte. I have really appreciated your comments, and it was a hoot to take you on my cruise.

Because of Cruise critic, I have met such interesting people like SailorKate, Freddi, rewr1 and others at our Meet and Mingle. I really enjoyed meeting Himself and having so many fascinating conversations.

Until I can return…

Take care,

Tracie-Lynn:):)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your day to day recounts of your Rotterdam cruise!

 

Very entertaining ... ;) :)

 

 

Just wondering .. if you see this post, can you do me a favour?

On disembarkation morning, can you take a few shots of cabin 3350 for me?

I'm considering this CA cabin for an upcoming sailing. A few shots of the inside, and the outside "lanai" area.

 

 

Happy travels!

 

:)

 

We just came back from the same cruise and spoke with many people in lanai cabins. All of them were very happy with their cabins!! I have some shots of the lower promenade if that helps. I will have to post them later tonight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tracie:

As I write these lines you are probably off the ship. I do not go off until 9:15 or 9:30. It was nice getting to know you. Have a safe trip back to Charlotte, N.C. I mentioned Father Scarcella to you. If you ever run into him in Charlotte give him my very best.

Bon Voyage and God Bless

Fr. Mc Geean

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tracie - Thank you so much for your extremely funny and very witty blog. I have so enjoyed following your adventures during the week. My husband and I are taking this same cruise on the Rotterdam the week of September 11th, so I am so looking forward to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...