Hawaii and Tahiti.....Welcome to Paradise with Bill & Mary Ann on the Statendam

[Candiaccruiser]

I hope everything will be better for you now that you are now officially underway.

We look forward to hearing about all your adventures.

Happy sailing!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[Johnny B]

Hi Bill and Mary Ann,

It's great to read another of your wonderful blogs. We hope our boarding in SF for the WC goes more smoothly than yours did. We'll be boarding with our extra (non-shipped by HAL) luggage and several cases of wine. BTW, are you boarding in SF or in FLL?

 

It seems Barbie has the table worked out - an 8-top for 7 of us, with room for an officer or, in a pinch, guests. We are really, really looking forward to it. Right now we're traveling in Europe (Krakow today) for 7 weeks, and we're tired of lugging suitcases around. Ah, the joys of cruising. See you soon.

[Overtime4me2]

Looking forward to your upcoming posts, as I always do. Enjoy the rest of your cruise! :)

[WCB]

Report # 3 October 5, 2013 Saturday Hawaii & Tahiti....Welcome to Paradise with Bill & Mary Ann on the Statendam

 

Life at sea has begun to fall into a comfortable pattern already on the second day of the cruise. Breakfast in the dining room went well, with the waiter seating us at a "romantic table" for two on the railing. That phrase always gets a chuckle from both of us, since we just celebrated our 46th anniversary this past summer. Not exactly newly-weds. The service was excellent, enhanced by the special attention from our buddy Pras who seemed to watch out for us.

 

The lower promenade deck was not too crowded with walkers this morning. The weather has been fine, but far from hot and tropical. The sun was out with clouds on the horizon. However, the sea breeze kept the temperatures cool....too cool for sunning at the aft pool. It was just as well, because we had two dates this afternoon involving meetings.

 

Finding a cruise for next year this time, we booked two back-to-back trips for next fall. One is to Alaska, and the other is back to the Hawaiian Islands. The future cruise consultant onboard is a young lady named Heather. She was very helpful and knowledgable. And she even entered us into a contest that has a prize of $200. shipboard credit to be used on this trip. Really doubt we have a chance to win it, but you never know. We did win some free internet minutes on the world cruise this year......a first for us.

 

At 11:45am, we met with our travel agency's hosts and our small group in the Crows Nest for cocktails. Speeches were not needed since there was only about 15 of us. The hosts, a married couple, split up and visited with each of us. We met a nice older couple from Arizona that rather enjoyed the double manhattans. No wonder they felt the need to make it to lunch in the dining room before it closed. One good thing....they were not driving.

 

At 1:30pm, we were invited to the first Cruise Critic meeting, also held in the Crows Nest. However, no one was there. The event had been moved to the Explorers Lounge. We just needed to find it. This ship is laid out differently compared to the Amsterdam. The room names are the same, but they are located in different parts of the ship, as well as different decks. By the time we got there, the meeting was in full swing with several officers speaking to the rather large group.

 

The main subject discussed was our stop in Fanning Island. One of the members had been there a few times, and told us that the natives are most receptive to donations of practical things. Useful things such as pencils and paper for the kids were recommended instead of bringing pillow candies. Adults like the toiletries, and surprisingly, newly purchased medical supplies....bandaids, lotions, even prescription medications. Of course, cash would work too. We think the ship's staff will organize that task before we arrive there.

 

We chatted at the meeting until well after 3pm, realizing that we needed to get something for lunch before the sandwich bar closed. This would be our first walk through the Lido on this trip. It was also a great time to go there since there were no lines or crowds at all. It was apparent to us that much refurbishing has happened on this ship. Everything looks rather new......carpets, drapes, upholstery, etc. Actually, we noticed this yesterday upon entering our stateroom. Even though this ship is over 20 years old, everything in the room has been updated. The bathroom has large tiled walls and floors, with new light fixtures and a new tub. The counter top is dark with a speckled pattern. All the plumbing fixtures have been replaced. The best part was the bed, which appears to be new. The carpets, window coverings, and the couch upholstery have been updated as well. Sure hope this happens on the Amsterdam's dry docking, scheduled for this upcoming December. The ship desperately needs sprucing up. (A note to ourselves: There is one less closet in this room, but 2 rows of drawers under an over-sized desk.)

 

We still had two jobs left for the day. One was signing up for the internet, which was fairly easy following their printed instructions. The other was making dinner reservations for our two complimentary meals in the Pinnacle Grill. Choosing two dates that were two weeks apart was easy. When we returned to our room, we found an invitation to join our hosts for a dinner there, but wouldn't you know it, they chose one of the same evenings. It took a quick telephone call to switch evenings for another one. Jobs....done.

 

Tonight was the first of seven formals on this trip. The menu choices were not too exotic, but there seemed to be something to please everyone at our table. The portion sizes have seemed to shrink, but that should save us some calories we do not really need.

 

Showtime included a welcome toast from the Captain, followed with a performance from a 5 man group called Tribute. We will relay the report on the show tomorrow, since, as usual, we did not attend. It was a long day, but we did get a reward of turning the clocks back one hour tonight. We always like that.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

[Krazy Kruizers]

Report # 2 October 4, 2013 Friday Hawaii & Tahiti...Welcome to Paradise with Bill & Mary Ann on the Statendam

 

Our first day found us traveling to a new beginning port and finally embarkation on the Statendam. Despite our wishful thinking, it was not going to be a pretty day. At the risk of sounding "negative", we can only report the facts as they occurred. And in hind sight, things could have been worse, such as missing the ship or losing our luggage.

 

All went smoothly from the time we woke up at 3am, to our ride to the SFO airport, compliments of our youngest son, with a dropoff time around 6am. This last minute flight had been arranged by the cruise line, and as we explained yesterday, we needed to bring four pieces of luggage instead of three. Keeping three of those pieces under the 50# weight limit, only one would weigh in at 70#. We paid the fees and will submit this bill once we board the ship as instructed by the folks at the HAL office.

 

The nice thing about flying from SF to San Diego is the fact that once you get comfortable on the plane, you are landing with the flight only being around 1 hour and 10 minutes. The weather was just as nice in San Diego as it was in SF. HAL reps were there to meet us at the baggage pickup point. They directed us to gather our stuff, and wait for the next bus, which came much sooner than expected. We are not exactly sure how many people were boarding today, but since this ship began their trip in Vancouver, we assume the majority were already onboard. That should have made embarkation procedures much easier, right?

 

Assuming the embarkation staff were prepared to deal with us "misplaced persons" or those of us that were due to get on the ship in San Francisco, was too big of an assumption. A total of three agents, along with their supervisor, could not find us in their computer, therefore, they were unable to log us in. For some unknown reason, this had to be done on the ship itself. In the meantime, we were told to wait in the area usually designated for the 4 and 5 star Mariners and the suite people. That worked, because we could bond while complaining about this strange situation. Comparing notes with each other, we found that some folks drove to San Diego, while others were flown in the day before and overnighted. It seems everyone got a different amount of compensation with their last minute travel arrangements.

 

While we were waiting twiddling our thumbs, another younger HAL rep strolled over to all of us and informed us we would have to leave these seats, because we were sitting in a designated handicap area, although no sign was posted. Add insult to injury. One lady, already wearing a foot cast said she qualified, and was not going to move. Another nice elderly man with a walker also refused. That's when another experienced rep came over and saved the day by telling the younger rep to back off and leave us be. This was not the way to begin a wonderful vacation, and she was only making the situation worse.

 

Eventually, we were summoned to the check-in desk to find that we had to give all the info we had already provided for our boarding passes. Somehow it was lost. It was a feat to be able to locate our little address book with emergency phone numbers. Those things always get buried in the bottom of the purses. We were given room keys, but the dining info was incorrect, since we never requested open seating. Oh well, we can change that once onboard.

 

Getting onboard was another thing however. Our new room keys did not work. Oh no, what else can go wrong, we were afraid to ask? Now we had to go to the front desk to have new keys made and our photos taken once again. At least, the dining room assignment was correct on the new keys, and we were pleased to find that the keys worked to get into our rooms, which were ready for us thank goodness.

 

The two hour fiasco with embarkation procedures had done us in, so we decided to leave the ship and take a walk to find a good place for lunch. By the way, there was no special Mariner lunch offered in the dining room. Before signing out at the kiosk, the nice security officer reminded us to have an ID with us as well. We did have our drivers licenses, but they had expired. He said that would not work, so we went back to our room to retrieve the current ones. Sure didn't want to risk not being allowed back on the ship, because at this point, we expected anything could happen.

 

It's wonderful what a good walk and an equally great lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe can do. Of course, at this point we had not discovered while unpacking later that one of us forgot all their dress slacks for casual dinner. You can guess which one of us forgot that, because for the next five or six days, someone will be wearing black stretch pants with a glitzy kitty decal on the leg. Honolulu should be the perfect place to do some shopping...........

 

Speaking of shopping, we purchased some room snacks at CVS at the Horton Plaza after lunch. If we had more time, this is a very nice mall to explore while stopping for a day in San Diego. We also noticed that a free shuttle from the pier was offered to go to Seaport Village, another good touristy spot to stroll. Like we said, if there was more time, that's what we would have done, but half a day was going to be OK. Truthfully, having been up since 3am was starting to wear on us, and we did have to be back onboard by 4pm. After all, our favorite muster time was at 4:15pm....not to be missed. At least that went smoothly, except for the passengers in two cabins that failed to attend, which held up the drill even longer than usual. More bonding occurred as the folks grumbled.

 

During the course of the afternoon to early evening, we met several staff members, including our room steward. The list of requested room amenities we had submitted two months ago to ship services had not been done at all. That included a refrigerator and a pedestal fan. Those arrived soon after we reported them missing. Our room steward, Asep, took care of the rest. The housekeeping manager knocked on our door next to inquire if we were set, and to apologize for any inconvenience. Right before dinnertime, another officer asked the same questions and said to inform him if we needed anything else. We have to say they really helped to save the day. We certainly hope that the staff followed up with everybody that had problems boarding today, regardless of their Mariner status.

 

Dinnertime came quickly at 8pm. Joining table 65 on the second level of the dining room, we found our new tablemates to be a fun group. The food and service was fine, although there was no prime rib entree usually offered on the first evening of a sailing. Come to think of it, this cruise is already into the fifth day of its sailing, so that's why it was missing. An added pleasant surprise was finding Pras, our head waiter from this years world cruise, on this ship. Earlier in the day, we had run into Bart, the former culinary and hotel manager on the Amsterdam, and Gil, one of our favorite bartenders.

 

After the experience of today's events, we were glad the day was over, and we could put the stress behind us. Hopefully it will be smooth sailing from here on forward.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

 

 

I am enjoying your review.

I have to say that for all the times we have sailed out of San Diego there was never an area for Suites passengers to sit in.

It has always been a terrible mess in that port.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Just finished part 3 -- excellent.

[cruz chic]

I'm enjoying your thread. Thx so much.

[DFD!]

Bill and Mary Ann:

 

It's great to have you back on line again. Your reports are always great fun to read. Thanks for sharing your South Pacific adventure.

[DaveOKC]

Funny how there are 7 formal nights on the 26 (or so) day portion, but NONE on the 5 day section we were on. Formal nights usually have the better menu options I have found and our 5 day menus were nothing to brag about IMO.

 

DaveOKC

[Keith1010]

Excellent report.

 

Keith

[Candiaccruiser]

Really enjoying reading your reports. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this so that everyone can "share" in your adventures.

Happy sailing!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[WCB]

Report # 4 October 6, 2013 Sunday Hawaii & Tahiti....Welcome to Paradise with Bill & Mary Ann on the Statendam

 

Sunday morning found us beginning our day with a good breakfast in the dining room. Some of the tables for two are placed so close together, you may as well be sharing the table with another couple. We don't mind, but the people we were seated next to said good morning, but they said we really don't like to talk much this early in the day. We agreed with them, and laughed it off. But little by little, the conversation between us began, and never stopped until 10:15am. Turned out the four of us were among the last to leave the room. Funny how easy friendships can start sometimes.

 

The sun was out most of the day, but the Captain mentioned we were heading into a cloudbank. We did sit out at the aft pool for a while and found that entertaining. A pair of Hawaiian dancing girls were giving hula lessons poolside, and they did draw a fairly big crowd trying to learn the moves. Even though we still have somewhat of our summer tans left, we knew that the further south we travel, the chances of sunburn increase. And besides, we had a date for wine tasting at 2pm.

 

Living in northern California all of our lives, you would expect us to be wine lovers. We are not, although we do enjoy a good whisky or scotch. Red wines leave one of us with a massive headache....a good reason to avoid it. But we do enjoy learning about the cultivation, fermentation, and bottling of the product. And being 5 star Mariners, we were invited to the Navigation wine tasting complimentary. It turned out to be a good choice.

 

The Cellar Master is Ferdinand from the Philippines, a very witty charming fellow who knows his stuff. Everyone at our table agreed he was funnier than any comedian on the ship. Well, it could have been the almost bottomless champagne they poured for us that made him even more entertaining. Ferdinand even demonstrated how to uncork the champagne bottle with a large metal spatula. He really wanted to use a sword, but he said security forbid him to bring one onboard. He successfully broke the neck of the bottle off, sending the cork still in the glass across the room. Pretty cool trick.

 

Our job was to see, swirl, smell, swish, and not spit, but swallow the two whites and two reds. Once again, our table of folks sat well beyond the tasting time enjoying each other's company. It was just one of those kinds of days where time was not a priority. No rush to go anywhere. That's the beauty of sailing.

 

Feeling a bit light-headed, we felt it wise to grab a sandwich in the Lido before they closed. It was freezing in there, so we didn't linger very long. Even at dinnertime, the gals complained that they had been chilled in the showlounge and the public rooms all day. They came prepared for dinner with a wrap and a sweater. In a few days, once we near the Hawaiian Islands, they will more than likely be complaining about the heat and humidity. We can handle that, but do hope it will not be raining too much. Liquid sunshine as the natives call it.

 

One nice thing was that we sent the laundry in this morning, and it was returned later this afternoon.....still warm. Great turnaround and free service too.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

[cccole]

I am thrilled that you are posting from this cruise. It sounds like you are enjoying everything so far and there are some other fun guests onboard. I know you have been to Honolulu a zillion times, but...one of my favorite stops for snacks is the K-Mart, and there is a thrift store across the street that often has some fabulous Aloha shirts and maybe some slacks for the "one" who forgot his. Thanks for posting, it's always a treat to ready your daily reports!!! Cherie

[woldridge]

I am so happy to see you are posting on this cruise. I always follow your posts, but I am especially excited about this one as we did the reverse of what you are doing (except continued on to Alaska) this spring on the Westerdam. I am wondering if October or April is the better time to do this itinerary as I want to do it again. We did not miss any ports, so I am wishing the same for you and will be anxious to hear weather and sea reports. Have a great trip!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Lazy sea days are wonderful.

[Copper10-8]

WCB; don't forget; Black & White Ball tomorrow nite! ;)

[PathfinderEss]

Glad to hear the public rooms are cool, just the way I like them but your right when you get to those humid places it might change.:D

[comfortcove]

Best wishes for a wonderful cruise! It sounds like a dream intinerary. Have fun!

 

Nancy

[Gr8Mariner]

I've heard that the compensation for PAX who were flown from SF to San Diego was wildly different...any debate onboard?

[WCB]

Report # 5 October 7, 2013 Monday Hawaii & Tahiti...Welcome to Paradise with Bill & Mary Ann on the Statendam

 

Another day at sea, and the ship has not found sunny weather yet. The temperatures remain in the low 70's with following breezes. Occassional light sprinkles have kept most folks inside the ship during the day. Turned out to be a good day to watch TV movies, because not too much else is on. We have lost the CNN feed, along with TNT, Cartoon, ESPN, and other related channels. Fox has remained, although they go into the "freeze frame" mode quite often enough to drive one crazy. The internet has remained operational which is good.

 

Numerous activities have been happening shipwide. They include everything Hawaiian such as learning the hula, playing a ukulele, cooking Hawaiian dishes, and speaking the native language.

 

Lectures include talks on the shoreside excursions given by Location Guide Kainoa, a true Hawaiian. Coral reef fish were discussed by Dr. Jay Christofferson in the showroom. Speaking of the showlounge, we could hear the rehearsal before noontime of the singers and dancers for this evening's performance of Unforgettable. So we quietly went in and watched the major part of the show. We were surprised to discover they were very good entertainers. Truthfully, we have not attended many shows in the past, so it is great to see the improvements, at least on this particular ship.

 

There are some peculiar times for Happy Hour on this ship. They appeal to the earlier dinner crowd since the buy one, get the second for $1.00 only happens in the Ocean Bar and Crows Nest from 4 to 5pm. Then 6:30 to 7 pm in the MIX....way too early for the 8pm dinner guests. That is discrimination in our book.

 

Other grumblings from our tablemates involve the absense of printed information on future cruises. The few flyers that were displayed on the rack by the future cruise consultant's desk have been gone since day one. There is even a sign saying to read the flyer, then please return it to the rack. They seem to be taking this "go green" policy a bit too far. People like brochures and booklets to read at their leisure, especially when trying to choose a particular cruise to book in the future. The funny thing is that there is never a shortage of flyers on your doorslot for the Greenhouse Spa treatments..........

 

Did we mention that there is a large number of German folks onboard? Like over 400 in fact. The gentlemen love to wear red pants and matching shoes during the daytime. Must be the rage in Europe perhaps? Another big percentage is Canadian and of course, American. What we have not spotted yet are any kids. Nor did we expect to see any on a trip that was initially 35 days long, especially during the school season.

 

The dinner menu is still a little disappointing. Good thing we added a lasagne to share tonight, because one of our entrees was not up to par.......the pork chop. Not much of it was edible. Hate to complain, because our waiters have been very attentive so far. There is always the trusty daily alternate menu, which we may have to try more often when in doubt.

 

The clocks went back another hour tonight, which is always welcome.

 

Two more days at sea, then we will be in Honolulu, Hawaii. Hope we see some sun tomorrow.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

[woodworker&knitter]

Thank you for your great write ups on dally activity on board the elegant ms. Statendam . I am surprised about the pork chop. We sailed from March 29 till May 12 on ms. Statendam and I found the pork chop to be very well cook, not dry at all and had very little fat. I actually commented to the Dining Room Mgr. on how good it was.

I look forward to hear about the Black and White Ball.

[PathfinderEss]

Not untypical to have overcast weather the first 3 or so days. Hopefully it will be better when you get closer to Hawaii. :)

[KirkNC]

Funny about going green, they said they were doing that on the Prinsendam last month but every time we came back to the room, there were five or six flyers from the spa:rolleyes:

[Storylady]

Make sure to go to all of Kainoa's talks and demonstrations. He is one of the best travel guides we have had in a long time. We had him on the Zaandam for the Hawaii and Mexico cruise. We have had good talks on Hawaii in the past, but Kainoa's personal insights make him exceptional for the Polynesian cruises.

[JamesEM]

Thanks for sharing, enjoy reading your reports.