LAFFNVEGAS LIVE from the Zuiderdam to Alaska (version 2013)

[c-legs]

Hi, Lisa

Had the pleasure of meeting Joannie ( IRL JOANIE) and her DH at the pier today in Vancouver.

She is so looking forward to join you and other CC folks tomorrow when Zuidy turns up in Vancouver....

I'll be looking straight at the starboard ''aft wrap'' stateroom they have as she told me she has a rather voluminous CC party planned....hopefully, Zuidy will dock stern in...otherwise....I'll '' miss the show''.

Hope the Alaska cruise to follow for you is overall as pleasant as the coastal.

Thanks for your ''roving reporter'' installments. I love reading those.

Cheers

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Friday May 10, 2013

 

Good Evening from Victoria BC while on the MS Zuiderdam.

 

Let me tell you I am one very tired cruiser. It has been a very full day.

Started the morning sleeping in, yes oddly I am one that always wakes up right at 8am if it is my day off. This morning we woke up at 9:35am. Now I will say i woke several times in the middle of the night with a very strong smell coming thru the door. It was an extremely strong clue or epoxy type of smell. Possibly even a smell of glueing down carpeting. It was so strong I had to put the sheet over my nose and hold it. Fortunately I fell back to sleep and the smell was gone when I woke up much earlier in the morning.

 

I went up to the spa to enjoy the Thermal Suite one last time since I only purchased it for 4 days. Got back to the cabin about 11:45 showered and dressed and we went to go go to the MDR for lunch about 12:20. To my surprise there was a long line waiting to get in and we looked and the menu and were not very impressed so headed to the Pinnacle. We really love the Pinnacle lunch. I probably should not of eaten that big of lunch but had the Burger and of course the SW 5 Onion Soup.

 

Then dobiemom aka Marcia and I met in the Show lounge for the Butchard Gardens and Butterfly Park tour. It was am amazingly beautiful day in Victoria, temps around mid 70's but especially at the park it felt very humid.

We had 45 minutes to sped at the Butterfly place, then we were to have 2 hours at Butchard since we did not get there till 5 and we were to be at the bus by 7.Well slight communication error the park it not open late and it closes at pm. Marcia did do the quick tour and saw most of the park, then because this body is not in the best of shape and not use to walking like I use to my legs were hurting so we headed back figured we would have an ice cream cone and Marcia would go back and see a bit more. To our surprise we did get soft serve custard like cone but but they were locking up the gift store :( Well here it was a few minutes after 6 and they are basically shooing us out of the park. Of course our bus was the only group of people there. As nice as the weather was we cold have easily stayed another hour. I used my phone as a camera and will post some of those pictures once we get to Juneau.

We got back to the ship around 7:30 ish and went with Marcia and her sister to the dining room in open dining since it was too late for our dining. Tom had eaten earlier in the Lido. I honestly was not that hungry but had a few items but it was from the International menu which actually is not one of my favorites so I am glad we have reservations next Friday for the Pinnacle. It was close to 9 at that point of finishing and I thought it would feel so good to go up to the Spa one last night, unfortunately the Hydrotherapy pool was closed which it was a good thing I called. If I had walked up there I would have been quite upset.

 

Well I think that about catches me up for today :) many suite cases in the hall and it really is a good feeling know we are not packing up and we still have 7 more days.

 

I think I am going to call it a night and sign off.

 

Signing off from the Beautiful and Elegant MS Zuiderdam.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Here are a few photos from earlier today when we arrived, plus we got the new version of Explorer starting tonight for tomorrow.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Havng a hard time getting pictures to upload into CC tonight

 

[Copper10-8]

John: Are you on the Ziderdam?

 

No Sir; just got home from Staples Center! :)

[Himself]

No Sir; just got home from Staples Center! :)

 

I thought you might be as you were giving specific locations at specific times.

[Himself]

Lisa: I am sorry the Buchardt Gardens closed so early. Later in the Summer it is open after dark.

Have a good day in Vancouver and a great cruise to Alaska!

[Vict0riann]

Laffnvegas, you certainly picked the right day to be in Victoria yesterday. It was such a beautiful day! Today is cloudy and there's a threat of showers - although it's only allowed to rain at night here. It's actually Butchart Gardens - butch + art. I guess at one time there must have been a "d" in it, but the name was Canadianized! It's not boo + shard, either, as many people pronounce it, thinking of a French-Canadian influence, I guess. Just FYI. Wouldn't it be easier if it was Smith! Cheers, Ann

[Storylady]

Havng a hard time getting pictures to upload into CC tonight

 

[ATTACH]270834[/ATTACH]

 

Since you are getting an "On Location" Daily Program seems to indicate that HAL is planning a few special Alaska destination activities onboard. If so, you could you mention a few of them. They are usually indicated by the highlighted "On Location". That is what they did for the Hawaii cruise. It seems they are trying to enrich the programs on those cruises that are in a certain destinations that have repetitive intineraries--Hawaii, Norway and now Alaska?

 

Thanks for taking the time to post on CC and include photos.

[Copper10-8]

Zuiderdam is on the move! Just came out of Burrard Inlet and is now sailing in the Strait of Georgia, passing Bowen Island. By the looks of it, she and Zaandam will be passing each other sometime tonight or early morning in the Strait or inside Discovery Passage

[sail7seas]

Zuiderdam is on the move! Just came out of Burrard Inlet and is now sailing in the Strait of Georgia, passing Bowen Island. By the looks of it, she and Zaandam will be passing each other sometime tonight or early morning in the Strait or inside Discovery Passage

 

 

Don't forget to wave!!! :D

[Copper10-8]

Actually, Statendam is not far behind Zaandam, so it'll be a double rendezvous in the night for ZUDM

[Himself]

What time is the Zuiderdam going through the Seymour narrows?

[Copper10-8]

What time is the Zuiderdam going through the Seymour narrows?

 

I would guestimate, about 0200 tomorrow morning Father

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Saturday May 11, 2013

 

Good Evening from the Beautiful and Elegant MS Zuiderdam

 

Tom's favorite comment is that Cruising is hard work and why do we keep doing this :D ?

Well today was one of those tiring full days.

 

We did sleep in till abut 8:30 despite the continuing announcements for disembarkation that started much earlier. Since we were not changing cabins it was nice to just ignore and sleep in ;)

 

We did have to report to the Atrium Bar at 10am for those that were intransit meaning we were doing a B2B. While waiting to get off I saw our friend Dustin who was just coming on board as the Guest Relations Manager. Got a big hug from him, it was good to see him since we have not seen him since last year here on the Zuiderdam. Shortly have 10 they escorted us all off and separated those of us that were going intown and those that wanted to return to the ship. Marcia Tom and I decided we wanted to find this Dunn's Deli that had Montreal Smoked meats. They are famous for their Rueben's which is what I wanted to try. This Dunn's Deli is about 1.5 miles from Canada Place so we took off walking of course mostly up hill a bit. It was after 11:30 when we found the place and had lunch. It was good but and yo could tell the meat quality was excellent but the taste was just a bit different than any of the three of us were use to. Also a bit pricy but I expected that. But I will say this they had the most beautiful bathrooms in a restaurant I think I have ever seen. The tile on the walls were like a piece of art work. Sort of on the Art Deco decor style but very nice. Now this probably only in the women's bathrooms but they gave you a choice of cheap toilet paper of this ad for Charmin extra soft. Pretty funny how many CC reviews have you read that some one wrote about getting Charmin TP. Afterwards we walked over to this Korean Market that was very different. Saw some interesting food I would have like to taken home but kind of hard to do.

I would say we got back to Canada Place around 12:40 of course we had to wait in the US Customs Line before we could board the ship, although the line did go very quickly. Then skipped where it said to go to HAL check in and just followed the signs for Crew check in and instransit guests. OK I have to say that after walking a lot yesterday then today knowing full well we walked over 3 miles these short legs were hurting. The hardest part was actually going to the Life Boat Drill. I do not thing I have ever heard them repeat this many cabins that have not reports. I should have counted but I am pretty sure it was over 30 cabins.

 

After Live Boat Drill we went to 5191 which was Joanie's cabin for Sail Away Party. Met some more CCer's that just joined us. I will attempt to post the pictures after I post this. We had a very nice Sail Away out of Vancouver and we left right on time!!

 

We had 6:30 dinner reservations in the Pinnacle with Vegasrealtor aka Dave and Diane, we had dinner with them on Thursday. Since we both live in the Vegas area we have a lot to talk about. We had another excellent dinner. I had the Thai Chicken soup again, this time it had a kick ;) it also had a lot of chicken. Yes not the same as last week. The I had the seafood trio, then I ordered the Halibut with Prawns, the prawns were excellent but the Halibut was really just too dry. Tom ordered the Bone In RibEye which he thought was excellent. We ordered our bottle of wine from the Navigator package but oddly there had to be a hole in the bottle because Tom and I finished it off with no problem, not sure who we need to talk to about these bottles of wine having holes in them ;)

 

Melodie and Ron and late reservations in the Pinnacle but before we left we went over and sat with them for bit and chatted. It is always a lot of fun with there are friends on board and you keep running into them.

 

Well I have to say it was an excellent FULL first day for our 7 days to Alaska.

There was some very nice scenic cruising this evening just wish it was not quite so overcast but it was so much warmer today than it was last year this same day in Vancouver.

 

I think it is time for me to get this posted, get my feet up and do some reading.

 

Signing off from the Beautiful and Elegant MS Zuiderdam.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Here are some more pics from today

 

sorry neither tapatalk or CC's new app will upload anymore photos tonight I may have to wait till I can do it on my phone in Juneau

[Copper10-8]

Lisa, this coming week and the week after (when you disembark) is HAL's SMC (Senior Management Conference) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands - actually held on the SS Rotterdam V in de Rotterdam harbor/Katendrecht this year. In Zuiderdam's case, Capt. Turner is going in the 2nd week, her Staff Captain, Chief Engineer and SEHO (my old boss;)) this 1st week, and her HD will go mid-week of this coming week . Have a great remaining cruise and remind Dustin Maasdam will always rock over Zuiderdam!;)

[JamesEM]

Have a great cruise.

[Watson's aunt]

Hi

 

Hope you all have lots of sun and calm seas. Wish I was with you. I be back next year on the Amsterdam.

 

 

MAry

[Copper10-8]

ZUDM is now north of Vancouver Island in Queen Charlotte Sound

[Himself]

ZUDM is now north of Vancouver Island in Queen Charlotte Sound

 

Tonight should be formal night, the clocks set back one hour and the crew Mass will be at 11:15 PM in the Hudson Room. I wonder who the lucky priest will be.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Sunday May 12th, 2013

 

Good Evening from the Beautiful and Elegant MS Zuiderdam.

 

Happy Mother's Day!!

 

It seems like it has been a very long day yet it started out late because would you believe that Tom and I did not wake up till 10:35am. I have not slept in that late in many years. But you know there is just something about sleeping on the ship.It actually was a very dark rather gloomy over cast day the full day into this evening with on and off rain showers. Which is very typical for Alaska.

Since we slept in so late it obviously was way too late for breakfast so we made it an early lunch. Marcia stopped by our cabin just as we were going to go to lunch so she joined us. They were having a Mother's Day Brunch in the Main Dining Room so we went down to see what was on the menu. There was actually not anything that interested us , actually a rather limited strange menu so we headed to the Lido. Fortunately we hit there before the lunch crowd and was able to find a table. Of course the are still in there cautionary stage of treating everything like code red, which was funny because when we boarded on Tuesday it was service like normal.

 

Our CC Meet and Greet was in the Crow's Nest Captain's Corner at 1pm we had a nice turn out and actually I believe pretty much everyone that participated in the Roll Call attended. Unfortunately no Officers or HAL Crew stopped by. A few of us sat around in the Crow's Nest for an hour or so afterward just chatting.

 

This evening was the first Formal night but I found it interesting that the menu did not seem like a Formal night menu plus you know how it usually has the special big menu and it is called Captain's Welcome Aboard. There was nothing like that. In all of our HAL cruises Tom has always brought his Tux to wear, he decided several weeks ago he just was not going to bring it this time. He definitely was not in the minority. I think we maybe saw 3 men wearing Tux in Early upper dining but what I did find interesting that I had not seen in years were the coat jackets available for those did not have one. Tom wore a black suit and still looked quite nice and he had a lot less to pack. Dinner was actually pretty good Tom had a type of Peppercorn Steak and Shrimp and I had a Parmesan Breaded Veal Cutlet that was really good. After dinner we did our usual walking the shops not sure why but I did pick up a couple of those nice women's T's that have the bling on them that are two for $30. Which really is not a bad deal considering these are nice quality.

 

The Captain's Welcome Aboard Toast before first show was to be at 7:45 and show at 8 we figured we try the show not sure if we had seen it before the way they described it. Interesting first for us in all of our HAL cruises many of which have been Alaska we have never had it where the Captain could not make it to the Captain's Toast. Due to the weather conditions the Captain could not make it, of which I totally understand. Just surprising that in all of our HAL cruises this was a first. Although what I could not understand is why they could not still bring out the other Officers?? I think it would have been nice to at least introduce by the Cruise Director the others. They instead just kind of did a toast, did the silly big confetti champagne bottle then started the show. Unknown of he was able to do it for the late show. Well the show was unfortunately the exact same show we saw last year on the Zuiderdam and the same show the previous year on the Westerdam and a few other Dam ships. Sadly the costumes were looking old and especially the wigs the dancers and singers wear.

 

After the show we headed up to the Crow's Nest, in Alaska it stay light out quite late so it was not at all dark and probably would have been lighter if it was not raining. We stayed up there for about an hour and a half and headed back to the cabin.

 

Tonight we gain an hour setting our clocks back. I is now about 11pm and we have a ship's electrician in our cabin. We have no lights in the bathroom. It started out where it took a few times to attempt to get the lights on, then I was in there and it just went out. So now we shall see if we get lights ;)

 

Tomorrow is our first Alaska port stop Juneau, this will be our 10th time here and we will be docked down at AJ docks which is NOT close to town. If these hard rains keep up this may be a first where we stay on board the ship.

Tonight when we came back to the cabin we had the Today on Location and I very nice booklet called Your Alaska Explorer. It is 12 pages and breaks down each port with more information than we have had in the past. As well as on the front page of this has Your Alaska Cruise breaking down the port schedule, times and suggested dress. This you normally would see on the Explorer when you first board the ship. The interesting thing I did find is they plan to have the Next Formal Night on Wednesday which is the day we go to Glacier Bay rather than Thursday when we go to Ketchikan like we did last year.

 

Update on the lights in the bathroom, the electrician played with the lights for a while, then took out the lights and said he would be back. I honestly do not think it is the bulbs but rather a short or a ballast because they were coming on and off.

 

Well I guess I will sign off to post this.

 

Signing off from the Beautiful and Elegant MS Zuiderdam.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Lisa, this coming week and the week after (when you disembark) is HAL's SMC (Senior Management Conference) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands - actually held on the SS Rotterdam V in de Rotterdam harbor/Katendrecht this year. In Zuiderdam's case, Capt. Turner is going in the 2nd week, her Staff Captain, Chief Engineer and SEHO (my old boss;)) this 1st week, and her HD will go mid-week of this coming week . Have a great remaining cruise and remind Dustin Maasdam will always rock over Zuiderdam!;)

 

John, yes I believe that the Hotel Director leaves when we arrive in Skagway. And yes I will tell Dustin, I think I will get a laugh out of him on that ;)

[innlady1]

Thanks, Lisa!

Any lights yet in the bathroom?

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Thanks, Lisa!

Any lights yet in the bathroom?

 

Hi Sheila, yes we got lights working about 12:30am good thing we were not planning on going to bed early we had several workers coming I and out of our cabin. I knew it was not the bulbs but it was a faulty switch in the wall which the had to replace.