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Westerdam Panama Canal April 15, 2011


bcirish

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Hi bc

 

looks like there is getting to be more interest. I told all the cousins to join CC and post. I know one did, and asked me how to post, but no action yet.

 

Can add Bill and Kay (brother and sister of Jim from Albuquerque to roll call. They signed up 2 weeks ago)!! They are also from Albuquerque--we are turning into quite a large group.

 

In DC this week, then no trips scheduled for a while--yay!! Hoping it stays that way. Next scheduled trip is college reunion in upstate NY.

 

Let's keep posting so we can be visible to others!

 

Mary Lynn

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here is our lastest update for the roll call - be sure and update your board names. Welcome to Allan and Marlane - your last trip sounds delightful- it is an area we have not traveled in to date but figure that Australian comes first.

 

Please check the list and let me know any changes.I will traveling for most of the month of May so off internet unless I find a WiFI- off to the East coast for baptism of youngest Granddaughter and then some sightseeing in DC and AC- have s a couple of wineries to check out out that way.

 

BCIRISH - Ed and Barbara from Chicago first posters

NOWHINERS - Mary Lynn and Doug - first posters

BOARD NAME? - with nowhiners Carol and John from Michigan

BOARD NAME - with nowhiners Kitty and Jim (also in Albuquerque)

BOARD NAME - with nowhiners - Jim and Cindy from Saginaw Mi

HIGH SEAS TEXANS - George and Rand - Fort Worth Texas

RAJKR74 Rick and Joyce - Springfield Oregon

SKI WW - Allan and Marlane from Victo Harbor, Ontario

BOARD NAME - with nowhiners Bill and Kay from Albuquerque

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Just finished looking at your pictures Rick and really enjoyed them. The digital work shop on board the HAL ships is an excellent activity for those long sea days and I also learned a lot. As a matter of fact when I got home I went out and got a new computer with Windows 7. The blog I started on the Amsterdam can be seen at:

 

allanstravels.spaces.live.com

 

Allan & Marlane :D:D

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Woo-Hoo! So excited to find this. I had no idea a roll call would have started over a year before the cruise date. Glad I decided to finally look.

 

You can add us, Brad & Sheri Gordon, to the roll call. We live in Southern California, so will be disembarking in San Diego. :( But, a 16-day cruise is better than no cruise. :)

 

We will both be turning 50 in 2011, so this is our Happy Birthday to Us present. :D

 

We have been on 2 previous cruises, both with HAL, and both to Alaska. Going through the Panama Canal is on our bucket list, and it's time to start working on that list.

 

Excited to meet all of you.

 

Sheri

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Just finished looking at your pictures Rick and really enjoyed them. The digital work shop on board the HAL ships is an excellent activity for those long sea days and I also learned a lot. As a matter of fact when I got home I went out and got a new computer with Windows 7. The blog I started on the Amsterdam can be seen at:

 

allanstravels.spaces.live.com

 

Allan & Marlane :D:D

 

Allan,

Alright, the first thing I jumped on while looking at your pictures in your blog was how did you get a tour of the Bridge? I have not been able to figure out how one gets a tour.

 

Rick

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Woo-Hoo! So excited to find this. I had no idea a roll call would have started over a year before the cruise date. Glad I decided to finally look.

 

You can add us, Brad & Sheri Gordon, to the roll call. We live in Southern California, so will be disembarking in San Diego. :( But, a 16-day cruise is better than no cruise. :)

 

We will both be turning 50 in 2011, so this is our Happy Birthday to Us present. :D

 

We have been on 2 previous cruises, both with HAL, and both to Alaska. Going through the Panama Canal is on our bucket list, and it's time to start working on that list.

 

Welcome Sheri and Brad,

 

We are adding new people every day. We did this cruise last year, albeit with a little different itinerary. Here's a link to our pictures from that cruise:

 

panama cruise 2009

 

Panama Canal Transit-2009

 

You will have fun. We said we would do it again in a heartbeat. We are doing a B2B starting 4-8-11 with a 7 day Caribbean cruise first. Staying on board and taking the Panama cruise to San Diego. Last year we went all the way to Seattle where our daughter drove up and picked us up. That's only a 5 hr. drive. We did Half Moon Cay last year and really wanted to do it again but this 2011 Ft. Lauderdale to Seattle cruise did not have it on the schedule.

 

 

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Hi Sheri and Brad

 

I'm glad you found the roll call too! We've had it going since February--I think! (bc--is that right)?

 

Now that we have some native Souther Californian's with us, we can start asking about post cruise hotels and things to do!! I'll start-- I am thinking a day or two, maybe more in San Diego after we get off (kicking and screaming!). Any ideas on good hotel deals, even in inland areas? Probably zoo and vineyards on our list. saw the Midway, gaslight district, etc last time. i am thinking sitting by a pool/beach--will early May be too early? Any suggestions would be great!!

 

Don't forget about our wine crawl!!

 

Mary Lynn (and Doug and the rest of the No Whiners gang)!!

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Just booked today, first time on HAL. We are Mike & Karen from Alberta, Canada and will be going through to Vancouver. We have cruised before but not to Panama, so can hardly wait. We will be celebrating our anniversary while on board. Can't wait.

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Just booked today, first time on HAL. We are Mike & Karen from Alberta, Canada and will be going through to Vancouver. We have cruised before but not to Panama, so can hardly wait. We will be celebrating our anniversary while on board. Can't wait.

 

Welcome Mike and Karen,

We did this cruise last year and loved it so much we are doing it again. Check some of my previous posts for links to our photo albums from last year. Just like you, we took the cruise last year to celebrate our 35th anniversary. I think that's a good idea on your part!

Rick & joyce

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Thanks Rick & Joyce...It is also our 35th anniversary and we are looking forward to this cruise...

Your pictures are great, look forward to meeting you both:)

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Thanks Rick & Joyce...It is also our 35th anniversary and we are looking forward to this cruise...

Your pictures are great, look forward to meeting you both:)

 

Joyce and our daughter along with some other friends are driving up to Victoria in late May for a week. We have gone to Vancouver a number of times along with a week in Banff. Gorgeous country!

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I've just been reading the reviews of past Westerdam passenagers and am always amassed by how people on the same ship can have such a different out look, from never again to the best ever. The people that complain the loudest about the food and service, I wonder what their life is like off the ship. We have always enjoyed the HAL ships, everything is not always prefect but nothing to complain about, we don't live like that at home. We find the staff and service is always top notch. We are looking forward to this cruise.

 

Allan & MArlane :D:D

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I've just been reading the reviews of past Westerdam passenagers and am always amassed by how people on the same ship can have such a different out look, from never again to the best ever. The people that complain the loudest about the food and service, I wonder what their life is like off the ship. We have always enjoyed the HAL ships, everything is not always prefect but nothing to complain about, we don't live like that at home. We find the staff and service is always top notch. We are looking forward to this cruise.

 

Allan & MArlane :D:D

 

You get out of it what you put into it. Don't sweat the small things. You're on vacation and also on a cruise ship, what can be so bad about that?

You can go thru life with a smile on your face or a frown.....I chose to smile.

Like you Allan, we have had nothing but excellant service and a fun times on the Hal Ships. I think the Westerdam was even better, having to deal with the "swine" flu problems we had last year in having to cancel our 4 Mexico stops. To turn the ship around and reschedule stops in Nicaruaga and Guatemala along with excursions, totaly impressed me!

Rick

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Welcome to Brad and Sheri and Karen and Mike. I too am looking forward to this cruise. We love the Westerdam and look forward to a long trip on her. We board in Ft Lauderdale and stay on til Seattle. We are actually thinking about driving from Seattle back to Chicago and seeing that part of the US along the way. Still have some time to think about that. We have done the train from Seattle and that was great but now we want to see more.

 

The strange part that although we have mostly been on HAL and next year we will be on three different lines. I am a bit concerned about the RCCL because it is considerably larger and a very different kind of ship but decided we will never know unless we try. Besides - I like the itinerary - several ports in Spain and 2 in the Canary Island and the price is great. We love TA's so how can we lose!

 

We are cruising with our Dam Wine Crawl Survivors friends( met them on the Westerdam January of this year) in February in the Caribbean, the Panama in April and the Tansatlantic in October from Barcelona. I love the planning and am constantly researching online.

 

My Spring Concert is over - all went well and my choir members are feeling great about this production. Now it is time to wrap birthday gifts for a grandson for today ( he will be the big 3) and then pack for the East coast trip for baptism of Katie - our youngest gchild ( 6 mo) and then on to DC for a few days and on to AC to see some cruise friends and leave some money.

 

We will actually be home over Memorial Day this year - my Men's Choir is performing for the city celebration. During June I have a photography show and other than that we will concentrate on golfing and pool time until we go to St Martin for a couple of weeks in July. Promised to do some cruise port research for Feb cruise although we go to St Martin every year - our cruise friends have asked us to check out a couple of things since we will be there anyway. As I said before - I love to travel - fairly new to cruising but very hooked!

 

Below is the newest update and again welcome to our newest roll call members - great to see you joining us and posting!

BCIRISH - Ed and Barbara from Chicago first posters

NOWHINERS - Mary Lynn and Doug - first posters

BOARD NAME? - with nowhiners Carol and John from Michigan

BOARD NAME - with nowhiners Kitty and Jim (also in Albuquerque)

BOARD NAME - with nowhiners - Jim and Cindy from Saginaw Mi

HIGH SEAS TEXANS - George and Rand - Fort Worth Texas

RAJKR74 Rick and Joyce - Springfield Oregon

SKI WW - Allan and Marlane from Victo Harbor, Ontario

BOARD NAME - with nowhiners Bill and Kay from Albuquerque

GORDONS4 - Brad & Sheri Gordon from Southern Ca.

cardev - Mike & Karen from Alberta, Canada

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Allan,

Alright, the first thing I jumped on while looking at your pictures in your blog was how did you get a tour of the Bridge? I have not been able to figure out how one gets a tour.

 

Rick

Marlane's cousin works on the ship he's the DJ. I'm still trying to get a tour of the engine room. It was very interesting to see the bridge, even with all the modern automation they still use paper charts.

Allan:)

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Marlane's cousin works on the ship he's the DJ. I'm still trying to get a tour of the engine room. It was very interesting to see the bridge, even with all the modern automation they still use paper charts.

Allan:)

 

Ahhhhhh.....an inside job? That's pretty neat. After going back and reading your blog I maybe did not need to ask that question. Have you got any connections on the Wedsterdam?

Rick

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And a new Wine crawl is born!!!! We will be flying into Florida for this particular cruise so will be taking advantage of Total Wine which is close to the port and available on line for pre ordering - the only thing that I found is that I would have preferred packing for shipping so I could check it going on to the ship. This winter we drove so we brought our own sturdy packing case and checked a case of wine - not worth it to me to drag it onto the ship myself. Wow - penthouse suite - looks to me like a great place to crawl! ON our cruise to Europe las spring - we took two cases with us - which works out nicely.

 

Finally decent weather here - over 80 today and I am not complaining! I am so ready for no coat weather!

 

With our last crawl - folks ordered from room service and then brought along to the room to share. Others had favorites which they had brought on board with them and they shared that too. The best part of the crawl was having the chance to get the visit with the folks that we had met on the board. We are getting close to a year but know that the time will pass quickly.

 

Seems to far to focus on excursions but find that it is great fun to research and look for possibilities - most of these ports are new to us - we spend more cruise time in Europe - have not been in Mexico except for Cozumel so this will be fun. Supposedly most of the cruises to Panama do not actually pass through the canal so this will be a real treat- SIL has done and really enjoyed-

Take care all and Happy Holidays - be it Easter or Passover!

 

 

Just read your review from your Jan cruise, sounds like a good time was had by all. We did something along those lines but it was a room crawl. We had a table of 13 for dinner. We did lots of ship board activities together and one day we visited everybodies cabin and had a drink in each one. Some cabins where so small half the people had to stand in the hall and others had three bed room suites. It's nice that on HAL ships you can bring wine on board, most other lines take it all away until you get off at the end of the cruise. Looks like this board is starting to get busy, welcome to all, hopefully we can have a meet and greet so we can get to know our fellow cruiser's. Looking forward to meeting every one.

 

Allan & Marlane :D:D

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Funny part of the Crawl was that we started with idea of going room to room then opted for pool area since there were quite a few of us. Had permission and then the wine steward saw how many bottles of wine we had and got greedy - said we could stay but there would be a cork fee- ( over 40 bottles of wine - that adds up!! ) So we say no problem - pick up our bottles and head for one of the suites- we still wonder what the neighbors must have thought!

 

I think part of the fun was actually being together and our group (friendships only through roll call board) did not want to be separated - we were all afraid we might miss out on something. We repeated it on the last night with all the wine we had left. It was great fun. Must have worked cause most of us are cruising together in Feb.

 

Right now I am on another board which is crazy IMO - there are over 5,000 posts ( averages 150 a day) and the cruise is 18 months away - I am finding that I do not even look at it because they are so consumed with choosing a name for the group - they are fighting over the name ( I understand there are 30 choices) and have an independent voting site to prevent cheating and then there is the flashing pins to ID roll call members when we are on and off the ship., they have booked out two hotels, considering looking into a charter flight, have signups for all activities which they will have posted on sea days with everything from golf competitions booking a dining room for a meal - a bit over the top for me - am thinking that I am a true HAL person and if it were not for the itinerary and the price I would be canceling because of the intensity of the board - They are very excited and that is great but I find it very intense.

 

We seem very civilized and that is nice :):):D

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wow--the other cruise sounds very serious!! They must have a lot of free time to do all this stuff 18 months out! All I have been doing lately is monitoring what people are paying on hotwire and priceline for hotel rooms this time of year. I need to have info for when we bid next year. Now we are thinking of flying to Orlando a few days before, go to Universal to see new harry Potter ride, then drive down to FLL to meet everyone the night before we leave.

 

Anyone look at excursions thru HAL or private companies fro our ports yet? I was going to wait until we got closer.

 

Mary Lynn

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Last year we had looked into a non-Hal snorkel excursion with Jolly Pirates. But there was only a 1/2 hr window between when we were expected to dock and the excursion left. In addition if we missed the start of the excursion they would not refund the price. We did not book it luckily since we were late on getting into port that morning.

 

http://www.jolly-pirates.com/index.php

 

But now they will refund: "In the unlikely event that your cruise ship arrives late in port or not at all, your credit card will be refunded before you ask." We may try this. The following link has one picture of the Jolly Pirate ship. In addition we are scheduled to be in earlier than we were last year.

 

Our friends took the HAL excursion: De Palm Island--"Ticket to Paradise" $79 last year, that is being offered next year again. The first 5 pictures are of this trip are in the link below. They are labeled.

 

http://cid-07afc87cdf2f6dca.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/panama%20cruise%202009/2009%20Panama%20cruise%20Excursions

 

The remaining pictures in the link above are of the bus tour we took of the island. We got off the ship and walked out on the street where operators were selling the tour for $15 per person. You just got on one small air conditioned bus and took a 3 1/2 hr. tour of two thirds of the island. It turned out to be pretty good tour even though we were a little nervous about doing it. We did not take down the name of the company but there were 6-8 buses just outside the security gate. The tour operators work the people coming out of the gate to get on their bus.

We stopped many times and had time to shot many pictures along with a good tour guide. They brought us right back to the dock or they would let you out anywhere downtown if you wanted to shop later.

 

Since we are getting off in San Deigo we can not see the excursions that are listed for Astoria Oregon in our booking number. Astoria is about 2 1/2 hrs. from our home. We have been up there a couple of times so if someone who is going all the way to Vancouver can get us a list of those excursions we can let you know what we think might be the best ones to do.

 

Rick

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In regards to the wine crwal...I like the idea of going from cabin to cabin...a progressive cocktail party. IF there re too many of us to fit in some cabis at the same time we could go in groups and perhaps all meet up in one of the suites at the end. Just an idea. We just want to be agreeable and socialize with our new frineds! I am enjoying reading the other posts on this roll call, and excited to see others planning with anticipation as we are. We are having cruise ship withdrawal after our last voyage....

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We have never done a wine crawl. I am wondering how many is "too many" and what about considering the size of all of our cabins. For example, a smaller inside definitely has less room than a suite. Other categories have different amounts of space.

 

maybe what I'm asking is how does a wine crawl work--I sort of thought we all start at one place (lowest deck/cabin?) then work our way up a cabin at a time thru decks??

 

ML

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