The Official LAFFNVEGAS "Live From The MS Westerdam Thread"

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Why Lisa persists in posting these old pictures of her and her DH, I'm not sure. Maybe she's worried that we'll think that she's becoming far too young "at heart" on this trip. My on-board spy did catch up with her just outside the casino on formal night and snapped this:

 

 

 

Dave, after laughing so hard I was crying, Tom says Wow you are looking pretty good in Dave's picture;) I do feel quite yourng today.

 

 

OK a brief review of what we did so far today, we went into Ocho Rios and did a little shopping. There was this Caribbean Topaz ring calling my name, then we bought some shirts at Margaritaville and some Blue Mountain Jamaican coffee for some friends. Then came back for another session in the Alpha Capsule and spent the day in the Thermal Suite and Hydro Pool.:p :p Well, better get ready to go to dinner it is also about time for Sail Away from Ocho Rios.

 

 

Signing off.... Live from the MS Westerdam

[Ziggy7]

Sail, Captain Jack was still here last night at the Captain's Reception.

 

Here's Captain Jack

Oh my Lisa, after seeing this pic, I had to run and get my glasses on, I couldnt believe you were posting a pic like that !!!! wheeeeeeeeew!

 

You 2 look wonderful and look very happy, thanks for sharing with us!:)

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Wednesday March 16th 2005

 

We are past our half way point of this cruise and that is all so sad. He time is going by oh so quickly.

 

I have pretty much already given you the break down of today’s activities. Like I warned you we are not the most active people when we cruise. Although this afternoon I used my free pass for the Hydro Pool and Thermal Suite plus had my second session in that Alpha Capsule. Today’s session of that was the calorie burner that lasted 45 minutes but got extremely hot, some where around 170 degrees with cool air blowing on your face. Made it thru about 40 minutes before I had to lift the capsule and get a drink of water, not really sure of I got any thinner but who knows maybe Dave got a picture ;-)

 

Dinner tonight was actually pretty good, it all my HAL cruises I do not remember having eaten chicken as a main entrée for dinner but I had the Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast. It was so tender and tasty. Tom had the Roast Beef with Horseradish crust and said that was also good. I also had the Crab and Artichoke Dip for an appetizer and the Chilled Avocado and Smoked Salmon Soup. After dinner we went out side and walked around the Promenade Deck a few times. So far the shows have not interested me although tonight is the Filipino Crew Show. One of these times we will stay up to see that but tonight I actually want to go to bed early. We are in Grand Caymans tomorrow and we are doing the Swim with the Stingrays with the private tour group Nativeway. Luckily we have priority tendering so we can get off early for that tour. I know many of you want to hear about that.

 

I will add tonight a picture of Tom while we were shopping today.

 

Signing off…….Live from the MS Westerdam.

 

[cruznon]

Lisa,

 

This is great! How marvelous of you to share your cruise with us. LOVE the pictures! Your posts make me smile. I love laid-back sea days, music in the lounges, etc.

Enjoy...

[stanford's girl]

Thanks for the updates and the great pics. :) You and Tom look so happy in your formal outfits. Too bad that others didn't follow your example.:(

[jhannah]

Hey, mon. Tom looky like he chillin' in da Caribbean ways! Love the pic! And I feel your pain with regard to the disembarkation countdown. It all seems to slip by so quickly.

[dakrewser]

My spy on board was laughing so hard that he couldn't snap a picture of Tom with da locks:)

[LAFFNVEGAS]

[font=Verdana][color=#000080][font=Verdana][color=#000080]Good Afternoon, and Happy St Patrick’s Day March 17th 2005

Well, it is 3:50 and we got back on the ship about 30 minutes ago from a very FULL day in Grand Caymans. There are 7 ships here in port and the Westerdam is close to one of the smallest. The weather is beautiful and very warm and extremely windy and the seas are very choppy so you know what that means. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in a tender. I had booked a Swim with the Stingrays back in June of last your for today. The excursion was for 9 AM, the ship did arrive in Georgetown about 6:30 we were scheduled to be here at 8 am which was good since it did get us a bit closer for tendering. We went down to the tender gangway at 8 AM and waited just a few seconds and Tom was the first one on the first tender, I myself waited and watched everyone get soaked from the waves splashing and was the last person to board the first tender. We got ashore quickly and found a rep. from Nativeway. We waited for about 30 minutes for them to round up all the others from other ships for their tour. We then followed them to a bus. During the short ride to the harbor where they keep their boats we could see so much damage still from Ivan. In driving down Church Street you could easily see which way the hurricane came across and all the uprooted large trees. One thing nice with Nativeway they take out small groups, we had only 25 on our boat. The water temperature was warm but the water was very choppy. I was also amazed at all the mass of boats with hundreds of passengers all to swim with the stingrays. Even though we had a small group we had lots and lots of Stingrays by us. This was great because it gave us all a lot of time to spend with the rays. Several were scared but I thought it was a wonderful experience. Tom does not swim at all nor does he like to get wet so he stayed on board the small boat and took pictures from there. I also had with me an underwater camera. We each got to hold the stings rays several times and had them rub our back and of course kiss them. We were out with the rays about an hour, we then went over to the coral reef area where they take you to snorkel. By that time the waves were extremely high and most of us elected to not snorkel it was almost to the point of being dangerous. All in all it was a wonderful experience and a great day. The part that will be bad is I got one heck of a bad sunburn on my back. Yes, I had on sunblock but some how the salt water just washed it away.

We did walk thru town and did a bit of shopping, I purchase a new piece of Swarovski.

Getting back on the tender was another experience. Of course the line took at least 45 minutes to wait for the tender and we got in line at 2:30. Grand Caymans is a wonderful port but I think next time I will check ahead of time to see how many ships will be in port.

Well, it is getting close to time to get ready for our last Formal night. Tonight at 10:30 is also the Dessert Extravaganza. Those of you might remember the Thread About How Many Lobsters Do You Eat? Well, tonight is Tom’s night, we already warned our tablemates.

I will report more later,

Signing off….

Live from the MS WESTERNDAM positioned just off Georgetown, Grand Cayman.

[/color][/font][/color][/font]

[Oceanwench]

Great shot!!!

Just the thought of The Dessert Extravaganza has added 5 pounds to my weight ... yum! Hope there is lots of chocolate!

[Pudgesmom]

WHAT A PICTURE!!!!

Wow! Just that one experience would be worth the price of a cruise. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Beth

[Ziggy7]

[quote name='LAFFNVEGAS'][font=Verdana][color=#000080][font=Verdana][color=#000080]Good Afternoon, and Happy St Patrick’s Day March 17th 2005

Well, it is 3:50 and we got back on the ship about 30 minutes ago from a very FULL day in Grand Caymans. There are 7 ships here in port and the Westerdam is close to one of the smallest. The weather is beautiful and very warm and extremely windy and the seas are very choppy so you know what that means. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in a tender. I had booked a Swim with the Stingrays back in June of last your for today. The excursion was for 9 AM, the ship did arrive in Georgetown about 6:30 we were scheduled to be here at 8 am which was good since it did get us a bit closer for tendering. We went down to the tender gangway at 8 AM and waited just a few seconds and Tom was the first one on the first tender, I myself waited and watched everyone get soaked from the waves splashing and was the last person to board the first tender. We got ashore quickly and found a rep. from Nativeway. We waited for about 30 minutes for them to round up all the others from other ships for their tour. We then followed them to a bus. During the short ride to the harbor where they keep their boats we could see so much damage still from Ivan. In driving down Church Street you could easily see which way the hurricane came across and all the uprooted large trees. One thing nice with Nativeway they take out small groups, we had only 25 on our boat. The water temperature was warm but the water was very choppy. I was also amazed at all the mass of boats with hundreds of passengers all to swim with the stingrays. Even though we had a small group we had lots and lots of Stingrays by us. This was great because it gave us all a lot of time to spend with the rays. Several were scared but I thought it was a wonderful experience. Tom does not swim at all nor does he like to get wet so he stayed on board the small boat and took pictures from there. I also had with me an underwater camera. We each got to hold the stings rays several times and had them rub our back and of course kiss them. We were out with the rays about an hour, we then went over to the coral reef area where they take you to snorkel. By that time the waves were extremely high and most of us elected to not snorkel it was almost to the point of being dangerous. All in all it was a wonderful experience and a great day. The part that will be bad is I got one heck of a bad sunburn on my back. Yes, I had on sunblock but some how the salt water just washed it away.

We did walk thru town and did a bit of shopping, I purchase a new piece of Swarovski.

Getting back on the tender was another experience. Of course the line took at least 45 minutes to wait for the tender and we got in line at 2:30. Grand Caymans is a wonderful port but I think next time I will check ahead of time to see how many ships will be in port.

Well, it is getting close to time to get ready for our last Formal night. Tonight at 10:30 is also the Dessert Extravaganza. Those of you might remember the Thread About How Many Lobsters Do You Eat? Well, tonight is Tom’s night, we already warned our tablemates.

I will report more later,

Signing off….

Live from the MS WESTERNDAM positioned just off Georgetown, Grand Cayman.

[/color][/font][/color][/font][/QUOTE][size=3][color=black][color=seagreen][b]Happy St Patrick’s Day to you too![/b][/color] Arent those the friendliest creatures! Love the pic of you ! Ok where did you find the Swarovski, I sure hope it was a good price, and last question, have you met doone yet ?????[/color][/size]

[LAFFNVEGAS]

[font=Verdana][color=#008000]Live from the MS Westerdam Thursday March 17,2003

Good Evening EVERYONE, Hope you all had a wonderful St Patrick’s Day. About the most green that I had was the aloe vera gel I have been putting on my sun burn. I know I really should know better and I thought I prepared but the back just took a beating. The back is bad but at least it is not the legs, I have had a severe sunburn on the legs when I was on the Zuirderdam 2 years ago.

Well, first I will report that this Formal night was Night and Day opposite from the first formal night. I saw so many more men in tux, tonight I would say about 25% or more. That was a nice change but some of the women still did not look appropriate. I think they might have been turning away people from the Vista Dining Room that were not dress formal. After dinner we were having after dinner drinks in the Explorer’s Lounge and we saw a couple that were wearing extremely casual clothing walk toward the Dining Room and Tom and I both commented they were not dressed for the night, they were walking fast like they were heading for the dining room. After a few more minutes they came walking back from the dining room and walking at a much slower pace. Just my guess they may have been turned away. Well, at least tonight gave me faith that cruisers can dress up. Not sure why we saw so few the first night.

One thing I must comment on that I have not since we boarded I started writing. The service in the Vista Dining Room is by far the worse I have ever encountered. We can barely get the servers attention to be friendly and get to know them let along get any type of service. Now many of you can tell from things I have already commented on like cold breakfast from room service that we are not loud complainers. But… I have basically complaining tonight. Out of 6 total cruises this is by far the worst. Yes, I know they were speeding up our dining time and slowing down the earlier to do the Baked Alaska Parade on time but, basically the service has stunk the whole week. Besides the lobsters being by far the very worst we have ever had (the best was the Ryndam last November) Tom was only able to get 2 Lobsters. He even requested more and they just fell on deaf ears. Actually the meal tonight over all was not good. I had the asparagus soup and it was barely warm and the steak with the lobster was cold. I know many of you may thinking my next comment is bad, but… I think this will be the first time we do not tip above and beyond in the Main Dining Room. Of course we will leave our tips in place but we have always tipped generously at the end, definitely not this time. Now Prey our Room Stewart has been wonderful and we will definitely tip him extra.

I am not sure what the problem is here on the Westerdam but over all friendliness is not here, not like the Ryndam and the Oosterdam. We were so impressed with the Ryndam and the service we had received being in a suite that this cruise is a major let down. Now do not get me wrong, we are still on a cruise and enjoying every minute but over all it is lacking the feel that both the Ryndam and the Oosterdam had.

Tom’s additional comment is even a bad cruise with poor service is better than no cruise at all.

We are very much looking forward to the Maasdam in July, we have a feeling that we too will join the group that agrees that the smaller ships are much better, yet….I still think the staff on the Oosterdam was wonderful.

Tonight is the Dessert Extravaganza and it is now almost 10:15 and the viewing starts at 10:30, I was afraid I would not be able to stay up but it looks like I might. I will report on that tomorrow.



Signing off Live from the MS Westerdam.

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[stanford's girl]

[font=Arial Black][size=3]Lisa,[/size][/font]

[font=Arial Black][size=3] Don't feel bad about not tipping the dining room staff above and beyond the required amount. I work in the restaurant biz and the amount of tip you leave should reflect the level of service you received. Since they did not go above or beyond, then they shouldn't expect you to either. [/size][/font]

[Ziggy7]

[quote name='LAFFNVEGAS'][font=Verdana][color=#008000] I know many of you may thinking my next comment is bad, but… I think this will be the first time we do not tip above and beyond in the Main Dining Room. Of course we will leave our tips in place but we have always tipped generously at the end, definitely not this time. [/color][/font][/QUOTE][font=Arial][size=3][color=black]Knowing you Lisa, we know you would much rather have the service than keeping your extra tip, after all if we keep tipping bad service, thats all we will get, so I say honor those who really earn it and keep your extra tips :)[/color][/size][/font]

[seesea]

Lisa,

Sorry to hear about the bad dining room service on Westerdam. Do you think this is related to the new gratuity policy? We had great service on Holland America cruises before this new policy was implemented.

Just hope the service improves before our 12/04/05 sailing on Westerdam. We are also booked on Maasdam for 09/17/05.

[Vic The Parrot]

BRAVO!!


Hi Lisa!


Thought I'd pop in and say hi. I caught the first 2 pages of your sojourn earlier this week, and now I'm playing catch-up.

Thanks for the photos, nice of you to share them here.
Almost every one brings back fond memories for me.
That shot of the stingray is neat! Those critters are adorable.



Enjoy the rest of the cruise, and looking forward to hearing more. BTW .... tell Tom the rasta hat is 'him'


:)

[HeatherInFlorida]

Lisa, I still think the service has a lot to do with who is onboard at the time you cruise. I'm not sure it's the ship itself. You were so happy with the Oosterdam yet when we cruised her in November 2004, we were not at all impressed with the service.

Luckily I need very little service so no cruise can be ruined for me either. Heaven knows the service I get here at home is non-existant!!!

I have to say you are looking better every day!!! So it must agree with you:)

[macable]

Lisa & Tom, Have enjoyed your cruise logs very much! They are like a "virtual cruise!"
I am so puzzled, by the indifferent service in the DR.
We were on the 2-13 sailing, our first on HAL, & I was overwhelmed with the level of excelent service in every area of the ship. We were in upper level 8PM and from day 1 our servers were the most accomodating I have ever had on a ship, remembering every little detail of our likes & dislikes.
This was also true in the Ocean bar where we went for cocktails before dinner, the Servers there knew our preferences after the first night and were always there with canapes & smiles.
I agree that the lobster & steak dinner was under par, but when I asked for them to leave off the steak, our server brought me another tail, without me asking.(they ARE tiny!)
My Sister & Hubby are sailing with you & I bragged so much about everything ...I hope she doesn't think I'm nuts!
So sorry that you are finding service lacking, we are not complainers & you don't seem to be either.
Glad to hear that you're having fun anyway, hope service gets better.

[dakrewser]

I'm becoming more and more convinced that the service level begins at the top and filters down. It's only tangentially related to the new tipping policy in that the best stewards will be doing all they can to transfer to ships and itineraries where better tips can be found. But it's also the job of the hotel mgr to do everything possible to attract the best staff to his ship and see that the managers and supervisors are thoroughly indoctrinated in good service.


As an example, our DR service in January on the Oosterdam was great - even better than on our fall '03 cruise on the Volendam, in the Caribbean. Ship, itinerary (and thus pax mix) and senior staff have much more to do with it than the vagaries of tipping policy, IMNSHO.

[RevNeal]

Lisa,

After being busy I've sat down to take your cruise with you ... sad to read that things haven't been as grand as we both know they can and should be. The service being bad is simply not acceptable, and certainly not the HAL norm that we know and love. I guess I'm going to have to pray that either the staff gets their act together over the next 7.5 months, or the get some additional (new) staff and Hotel Manager to get things whipped into shape.

One note ... the youthfulness of your fellow passengers is most probably due to the fact that this is Spring Break for lots of people. It's always a danger to cruise in March ... and for that very reason.

I pray the remainder of your cruise is a joy and that service improves. "Until we meet again" on or next to another dam ship!

[jhannah]

Sorry things are less than they should be. Perhaps part of it is the timing which impacts the demographics. Maybe not. But there are some HAL senior staff who tend to run a "tighter" ship than others.

[Time2sail]

If the service you receive (such as Lisa and Tom are experiencing), what would you do? It appears they are making the best of it, but I think I would speak to someone in management on the ship.

Lisa, I am enjoying your live coverage of your cruise and your pictures are wonderful. You look beautiful and Tom is very handsome in the formal attire.

[cruisinjudy]

Lisa, we just got back from Ryndam and I just read all of this thread. We had the same experience on Westerdam in the dining room in September. We did not tip over and above on that cruise for the dining room staff, but we did give extra to our room steward. On our Ryndam cruise we just got off, our dining room staff did a great job and we did tip over and above. I am glad your meuslix improved. I had it everyday!
I love all the pix!

[kryos]

[quote name='LAFFNVEGAS']… I think this will be the first time we do not tip above and beyond in the Main Dining Room. Of course we will leave our tips in place but we have always tipped generously at the end, definitely not this time. Now Prey our Room Stewart has been wonderful and we will definitely tip him extra.[/QUOTE]
I don't think that's bad at all. In fact, I think you are very kind (maybe too kind) to leave the auto tips on there for the dining room staff. To my way of thinking, the auto tips are for adequate service, something extra at the end of the cruise is for extraordinary service ... and NOTHING is for poor service. Believe me, I have walked out of restaurants without leaving the server anything ... not very often, thank God. But it has happened. In those cases, I only take that action after having unsuccessfully tried to resolve the problem with my server beforehand. I also make it a point to inform the manager as to why I opted not to leave a tip.

If I were to consistently fail to get the service to which I am entitled, I would not only remove the dining room staff's tips, but I would write a very detailed letter as to the reason why and leave it with the purser's desk when I removed them. I would also forward a copy to Seattle when I arrived home.
You and your DH paid good money for that cruise, and you seem like a reasonable person. There is no justification for your constant disappointment in the dining room.

But ... then ... removing auto-tips ... that's just me. I'm probably not as nice a person as you and your DH are.

Blue skies ...

--rita

[Cruising Jake]

If you remove auto tips doesn't that impact everyone else. Your excellent room steward would suffer. I consider the auto tips part of the basic cost of cruising. After our cruise last November we left the auto tips in place even though we received far less than exemplary service in the dining room. I did send a letter to Seattle and noted it on our comment card. The response from Seattle was pretty much nothing.