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Lindy is "Live from the Eurodam"

lindalans

By lindalans,
in Holland America Line

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lindalans

lindalans

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We are still sailing up the St John river to Jacksonville and things are much calmer. This port is not equiped for big ships so now they are trying to get Immigration here for us. Still don't know how things will pan out about changing flights/hotels etc but we are all safe and that's all that matters. The crew and officers on the Eurodam are AWESOME. The Captain is more than awesome and I hope he can get some well needed rest now. We have never felt unsafe and he has kept us updated. Truly a hero in all our eyes.

 

I'll update and finish reporting when I can...I'm just trying to use up my last few minutes of internet time.

 

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

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Harley57

Harley57

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We are still sailing up the St John river to Jacksonville and things are much calmer. This port is not equiped for big ships so now they are trying to get Immigration here for us. Still don't know how things will pan out about changing flights/hotels etc but we are all safe and that's all that matters. The crew and officers on the Eurodam are AWESOME. The Captain is more than awesome and I hope he can get some well needed rest now. We have never felt unsafe and he has kept us updated. Truly a hero in all our eyes.

 

I'll update and finish reporting when I can...I'm just trying to use up my last few minutes of internet time.

 

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

 

So glad to hear you are safely in port. Thank you for the update

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kazu "Live from...." Rare

kazu

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We are still sailing up the St John river to Jacksonville and things are much calmer. This port is not equiped for big ships so now they are trying to get Immigration here for us. Still don't know how things will pan out about changing flights/hotels etc but we are all safe and that's all that matters. The crew and officers on the Eurodam are AWESOME. The Captain is more than awesome and I hope he can get some well needed rest now. We have never felt unsafe and he has kept us updated. Truly a hero in all our eyes.

 

I'll update and finish reporting when I can...I'm just trying to use up my last few minutes of internet time.

 

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

 

Thanks for the update - so glad you are all safe:) That's the main thing!

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lindalans

lindalans

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.....continued

9pm

We are waiting for disembarkation arrangements.

9:30pm

JC has informed us that passengers will be disembarked in 4 groups. Blue, Lime Green, Gray and Red.

We are in the Lime Green group and disembarkation will take place at approx. 5am. Our luggage has to be outside the cabin doors no later than 11pm.

Because I need wheelchair accessible transportation we will be in bus number 1. This bus will take us to a warehouse where our luggage will be. We will identify our luggage and then it will be put on the bus that will transport us to Fort Lauderdale , which is a 7-8 hour trip.

At the moment all disembarkation times are approximate and will depend on the weather in the morning. A continental breakfast will be served in the dining room starting at 3:30am. A full breakfast buffet will be available at 6am for passengers leaving in the last two groups.

October 27th.

Absolutely nobody was allowed to disembark the Eurodam on the evening of Friday the 26th after we arrived at Jacksonville yesterday afternoon. All immigration forms had to be filled in and dropped off in the Front Desk area by 5:30pm on the 26th and we didn't get our luggage tags until 10:45pm and had to have luggage out in the hallway by 11pm.

 

We had a wake up call for 3:30am and had a full service breakfast at 4am. By 5am the hallways were conjested with people waiting to take the elevators down to the gangway, despite being told that only blue and lime green (which we were) tags could disembark.

 

It was really bottlenecked and some passengers where darn rude when an official told me to get in the elevator (in my wheelchair) as soon as the doors opened as only 1 bus would be wheelchair accessible, and I had to be on it!

 

There were 47 coaches and two small wheelchair accessible shuttle buses which could only transport 1 wheelchair. On my bus there was Carole and Stan, myself (in my wheelchair) plus 1 lady with a walker. Our driver had come in from Orlando.

 

itwas precisely 6am when our shuttle pulled away from the front of the Eurodam and we had to be escorted out of the area by a police car. Other coaches were escorted out (3 at a time) by police cars also. Security was very tight.

 

We were taken to a hanger at JAX airport where we had to identify our luggage from over 4000 pieces that had arrived there. Our luggage was then put into the shuttle bus we were traveling in. It was precisely 7am when we pulled away.

 

It was 1:25pm when we arrived at the airport in Fort Lauderdale.

 

We are now in our hotel room at the Days Inn in Hollywood where we will stay the night before boarding our Westjet flight home tomorrow (28th). I am extremely tired!

 

Everyone did an awesome juggling act to get us safely docked and ashore. I will never be able to praise our Captain enough for the tough decisions he had to make during our final 3 days aboard.

 

As we sit here watching the path of Hurricane Sandy on TV and now over Jacksonville, I can only pray that the Eurodam, its officers, crew, and new passengers are safe. I do know for sure that they couldn't be in any better hands than Captain van Donselaars!

 

__________________

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bcnvcanada

bcnvcanada

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Thanks so much for the continued updates. Given the time frame, logistics it sounds like it worked out okay. Wow, you got a tour of Floridia, from one end to the other though the ride 7 plus hours must have been hard. HAL sounds like they were are able to handle the changes, pax on the ship and transfers to southern Floridia. As for the pax on the ship, being rude seems to be the norm these days. So glad that you are where you where suppose to be tonight. Have a safe flight home. Again thanks for taking the time to share this adventure with us.

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RuthC

RuthC

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I'm glad HAL was able to coordinate everything, and it's worked out (so far). Have a good night's rest; you deserve it.

Doncha just love :rolleyes: those people who have to jam up the disembarkation areas, even when they aren't scheduled to leave for a while? A couple of cruises ago I was trying to get to the wheelchair assembly area from what was to become the disembarkation area. I could barely get through, what with all the people already jamming the entire area. The ship hadn't even been cleared yet!

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lindalans

lindalans

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Arrived home late Sunday night after a long day on planes. I had started with a sore throat on Friday and by Monday it was a full blown cold which has now gone onto my chest and i have lost my voice, so will finish my report as soon as I feel better.

 

I hope everyone arrived home safely!

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  • 4 months later...
pc31rpm

pc31rpm

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Linda. Hi Bob in Seattle. Been off this site for a couple of months and am still not familiar how it works. Trying to find your pictures from the Eurodam. Can you help. Here is my email address in code. Bobcarol...then las two letters of our name mc then AT comcast dot net

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RuthC

RuthC

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Linda. Hi Bob in Seattle. Been off this site for a couple of months and am still not familiar how it works. Trying to find your pictures from the Eurodam. Can you help. Here is my email address in code. Bobcarol...then las two letters of our name mc then AT comcast dot net

Lindy hasn't posted on the HAL board in a while, but this post may be of help to you:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=36278252&postcount=316

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