Dave's Live from Eurodam Trans-Atlantic, Aug. 27 - Sept. 12, 2013

[NMLady]

Thank you once again, Dave, for taking the time and expense to share so much of your cruise with us. The port sightseeing photos were awesome. But I also enjoyed the menus, port info photos, newsletters and everything else you photoed. Those towel animals were great.

 

Have a safe return to VA. I'm looking forward to your next cruise. :)

[mamaofami]

Thank you, Dave, for taking us along on your cruise. Interesting to hear there was liver served on the Eurodam. I'm hoping to have it on Noordam in January.

[RetiredMustang]

Thursday, September 12, 2013, Debarkation Day

Well, that was one of the quickest trips back from cruise we have ever done. We were back in our home in Virginia before noon.

This morning we got up early, and went out on deck for the approach to New York cruise port. We watched as Eurodam sailed under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge (reflexively ducking as the stack cleared the bridge by what looked like a small margin) at about 4:40 a.m., which was ahead of what the Captain had predicted the night before.

We then passed the Statue of Liberty at just on 5 a.m. I failed miserably to get a shot in focus of either the bridge or Lady Liberty – my camera is just a small point and shoot, and the darkness and my shaky hand conspired to get colorful blobs.

I did manage to get one shot almost in focus. Yesterday was the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The city had lighted the Twin Towers memorial beacon, and I got a shot of that and the new World Trade Center all lit up:

We berthed a bit before 6, about a half hour or so earlier than expected. Expedited debarkation passengers were released about 6:35 or so. We cleared customs and immigration at 6:45, and found no cabs outside the terminal at pier 90. Luckily, I remembered a cab rank across the street from pier 88, at 48th St., so we hoofed it there and got a cab with no line. We arrived at Penn Station just after 7, where they was also no line at the Amtrak ticket counter and had bought tickets for the 7:17 a.m. regional train to D.C. in time to board. A completely pure-luck precision, perfect-timing evolution.

We had the cruise log in our mailbox this morning, and I realized that the port guide had a page for New York City as well, so I got shots of both of those documents:

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Now, I am clearing up some files. I took a great many shots of the ship and things that I did not post. I won’t post them all now, but do have a few you might be interested in. We were in an SS cabin on the 6th deck, and Joanie has lots of shots of those cabins and other areas of the ship for those interested. (Joanie, grab all you want, and if you want slightly higher-res, let me know.)

But here are a few that may interest you:

The atrium bar:

A spa room I found open one day while wandering:

Two shots of the cabanas on deck 10, above the Lido pool:

A shot of the menu sheet they had in a Lido-deck cabana:

And the Explorations Café:

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

To continue with some ship shots,

The Explorers Lounge:

Explorers Lounge chocolates (the smaller ones were dark chocolate over coconut, and the larger ones were rice krispies treats. I didn’t try the white – that’s not chocolate in my book):

The Hydro pool. They had it open on embarkation day, so I snapped a shot – it is closed the rest of the time unless you pay to use it:

Our table (#82) in the MDR, dressed for formal night. We asked for and received a two-top, and the one we got was right on the rail. We loved it:

One of the many floral arrangements on board. We are used to great flowers on HAL ships, but both DW and I commented that it seemed the Eurodam did even extra this cruise:

And, finally, the result of another chance to play with my new-found panorama photo toy, a shot of the Crows Nest:

More later,

Dave

[cruz chic]

Dave, it's been great! Thx again.

[RetiredMustang]

Well, with that, I will wrap up this blog, unless you have questions I might be able to answer.

(I also updated my signature block, and changed my avatar. During the cruise, DW took a candid of me that does look like me, with a usual bemused smile. It is certainly more up to date than the one of me in the tux.)

Some of you commented about the time and expense I undertook to do the blog. As for time, DW said it kept me out of trouble, and I truly enjoyed it. I wrote the posts in Word throughout the day before logging on, and I downloaded, cropped and re-sized the photos beforehand as well, so that when I logged on, I did the uploading and posting only, not the writing while on line.

So far as expense, I was required by my office (and our kids) to be reachable by email, which we were to check daily, in case of emergency. So, I had to purchase an Internet package, anyway. I just went ahead and bought the 1,000-minute one, and with the first day 10% bonus, had 1,100 minutes to play with (more than an hour a day of online time) over the cruise for $250 plus the $3.95 activation fee. I consider that a good deal, as I had a blast.

I have done many blogs in the past, but this is the first one I’ve tried to do with so many photos. I had used the Cruise Critic photo galley before, but they had a file size limit of 250KB, which is only a photo of about 600 x 800 pixels or so. I swear when I shifted from photobucket to CC early in this cruise that the 250KB limit was still on, but by about the third day of using CC, I noticed the size limit increased to 2.5 MB, which easily accommodated the file size I wanted to use (1024 x 576 for most of them). I was also unsure if CC would allow me to file photos of printed material. It appears they did (at least so far). But, on reflection, I thought that the CC photo gallery was probably created at least in part so CC’ers could do blogs.

One final thought/comment: Many of you wrote that you were planning or would like to do this cruise. This was the third time we did it, so we clearly like it. But, you should seriously ask yourself a few questions before making final payment:

1. Are occasional rain, fog and overcast skies acceptable? We have had sunny days, including at least part of the day in Prins Christian Sund twice before this cruise, but every cruise has had at least one port/scenic cruising day with a rain-out day, and usually more than one. Can you enjoy sailing the fjord in the rain? By late August/early September in the North Atlantic, it is fall, not summer any more.

2. Is occasional cold weather acceptable? We had frigid days, even bundled up, with time spent on deck. Pack in layers, including a rain coat or poncho if needed. But, it is a great way to escape the hot, humid summer weather.

3. Are occasional heavy seas acceptable? On all three cruises, we encountered at least one day/night with seas over 7 feet and 50+ knot winds. This is the North Atlantic we’re talking about. If you are a somewhat queasy sailor in the Caribbean, you might want to think about it before booking this one.

If the answers to yourself are “yes,” then go for it!

Thanks for joining us on our cruise to the North once again!

 

Dave

Edited September 12, 2013 by RetiredMustang

[Copper10-8]

Very nice Dave, thanks! Awesome shot of the beams of light/911 tribute in NYC

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you are home safe.

It truly has been a wonderful blog.

[whogo]

Excellent thread. Thanks, Dave.

[Buffalo Man]

Great Dave! I can't wait until we do it next year. On the train to Virginia are you able to check your bags? We live in Silver Spring and I would love to take the train home.

[RetiredMustang]

Great Dave! I can't wait until we do it next year. On the train to Virginia are you able to check your bags? We live in Silver Spring and I would love to take the train home.

 

No, we did not check our bags. We did not have time this trip, as the train was boarding literally as we were buying tickets. But, we usually don't. We can manage the bags, since we pack so that we can use expedited debarkation, which requires you to handle your own bags without help. The Amtrak regional train cars have spaces in front/back where you can stow your large bags, so we usually just put them there. When we are not dashing for a train, we get a redcap to help us get the bags down the escalator to the train car (for an appropriate tip, well worth it).

 

When we got to D.C. Union Station, we took a cab instead of Metro to Arlington (hey, today still counts as part of the vacation ... :D) so we didn't have to wrestle the bags through the turnstiles and onto/off the Metro trains.

 

Dave

[CruiseWhere]

Thank you Dave not only for all your posts and pics (which I thoroughly enjoyed), but for also taking the time to do all of this!!

[leonidas]

Thank your very much for letting us be a part of your beautiful journey. I really enjoyed your report and your beautiful pictures.

 

Kind regards,

Gina

The Netherlands

[Copper10-8]

Dave, are those robes hanging inside the Cabanas?:eek:

 

[mollyanne]

This was a terrific review, Dave! Thanks for all your hard work. I love how you were on the train an hour and a half after docking!

[rafinmd]

Welcome home, Dave. Had the schedule worked, would it have been beneficial for you to continue on the train to Alexandria. Apparently, though, you just missed the 7:05 and it looks like the next one would have been 10:35.

 

Roy

[RetiredMustang]

Dave, are those robes hanging inside the Cabanas?:eek:

 

 

Yes they are. I took that photo early on in the cruise, and I suspect that the robes disappeared soon; that they were there to advertise what was available. They were also in the Lido-deck ones. I never saw anyone in the deck 10 cabanas during the whole cruise, but on the last couple of days, there were people in the Lido ones ... and they had robes.

 

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Welcome home, Dave. Had the schedule worked, would it have been beneficial for you to continue on the train to Alexandria. Apparently, though, you just missed the 7:05 and it looks like the next one would have been 10:35.

 

Roy

 

 

Roy,

 

No, the 7:17 terminated in Union Station. I live in Crystal City; Alexandria Amtrak station is a bit closer than Union Station, but not much, and would probably take longer overall.

 

Dave

[Typhoon1]

Thanks for taking us along. Time flies when you're having fun.

[soccerpapi]

Dear Dave,

 

I really enjoyed tagging along on your cruise adventure on line.

 

Thank you very much for taking the time, effort and expnse to bring us along with you and providing such detailed information and photos. You did a great job, thanks again!

 

soccer

[jaspersmycat]

I saw this on the HAL blog page:

 

"Yes, it’s true, the towel animals have taken over Eurodam‘s Lido Deck. On a recent sea day, guests were treated to a Towel Animal Zoo around the Lido pool created by the stateroom staff who came out at 6 a.m. to fashion 584 towel animals. To construct the 65 different types of origami-like animals, they used 240 bath towels, 240 hand towels, 180 bath mats, 300 face cloths and 120 beach towels."

[ankorway]

Are you signed up for the Meet and Greet - I think we are at about 62 cruisers now.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1657934

 

Yes, we are signed up for it. Working on some tours now.

[pbnjrockette]

Thank you for the wonderful pictures and information!!

[ankorway]

Thanks Dave for all the time, cost and effort on sharing your cruise, You definitely got us psyched up for our upcoming Eurodam cruise. Great job!:D

 

New York Sail-away tomorrow afternoon.

 

Thank you for the trip. Wonderful photos. They came through after I waited for a couple of days to log in. Shirley