Merry Cruise-Mas and Happy New Year! Live from the Zuiderdam-- December 27th, 2013

[TracieABD]

Hi friends,

I was so stunned by my delicious meal at the PG last night, that I forgot to post my addition to the thread.

 

Today had an interesting start. My husband and I got up to go for our morning walk. Upon reaching the Explorer's Cafe, we found the coffee station abandoned. There was quite a line of people waiting, and it was 7:23 (the "daily" said they open 7 am). We went down to the Promenade Deck to walk (with no fuel on board). As we rounded the deck, we noticed a little tippy boat, a Coast Guard Cutter, and a Coast Guard Zodiac. We continued to walk, when the captain came over the announcements to tell us that the tippy boat was in distress, and the Coast Guard asked our ship to provide leeway shelter. As I watched the process, one of the captain's staff came up next to me and I was able to ask him some questions. It seems as though the tippy boat broke a fuel line, and lost all of its fuel. Because, the captain and crew of the tippy boat live aboard, they refused to abandon the boat. The USCG brought them fuel and oil and a bag of cloth (?), not sure if it was clothing or not. I asked the member of the captain's staff if the men on the tippy boat were hungry. He abruptly walked off and started talking into his walkie-talkie. Eventually, they released the ship, and we sailed off.

 

We continued our walk and had a bit of breakfast and then went to hear the captain in the Crow's Nest, as he graciously answered questions. He did mention that they provided fuel, food and water to the crew of the tippy boat, which made me feel so much better. (Yes, you can accuse me of being my brother's keeper... I want everybody to be fed.)

 

I went to the Thermal Suite and as it is a sea day, it was a bit crowded. I was a little shocked to see children in the TS, as we were told that this was an adult only area. (Please, before anyone thinks that I am "anti-child", I am a life long educator and advocate for children). As the steam rooms are fully operational, and heated to 120 degrees, this is not a safe area for children. When it was mentioned to the staff at the spa, they seemed quite surprised.

 

We had lunch in the PG. We are becoming regulars there. I thought lunch was delicious, but my husband's burger was slightly over done, making it a bit dry. Anyway, he is off trying to secure additional reservations at the PG throughout the week, because we are enjoying it so much.

 

Tonight is formal night. We are in fixed dining for the late seating. We were moved to a different table for two, as another couple wanted our table. The location of our first table was at the front of the dining room, and I guess one member of the couple has mobility issues. We love our new dining staff! Score! Sadly, someone displaced a group of six at a table nearby, and there was almost bloodshed... OK, that is a slight over exaggeration, but one of the women did stomp her foot. So it was sort of like dinner and a show! Everyone was dressed up, but we did see the spare jackets at the maitre'd stand. We shall call those "the jackets of shame".

 

We are in for the night. We are enjoying the DVDs. And you can now order movie snacks and popcorn from room service for a nominal fee. We both work so much, that it is a vacation for us to just sit and watch a show. Never happens at home.

 

Well, that is probably enough for one night. We will be in the Caymans tomorrow to swim with the stingrays. I am fine with ocean livestock, but I am a bit worried about driving the jet ski. (Even though we live on a lake, I have a rather poor history with our water-faring devices... long story). I hope I don't set anything on fire. Just saying...

 

Tracie-Lynn

[erewhon]

Thanks for your updates.

What is the charge for the popcorn?

[TracieABD]

Hi Friends-

It was another wonderful day! We arrived in the Caymans a little early, and had to tender into port. Sadly, this cruise has just struggled with the tendering. If they say it will be 30 minutes, bet on 90. I think this is wearing my husband a bit thin--- but then again, it might be good as we could stand to lose a pound or two.

 

Once we reached shore, we were picked up by a taxi and taken to our privately arranged shore excursion. We rode jet skis to Stingray City. Once there, we were able to feed the critters and play with them. At the thought of having food, they are quite friendly. We took another drive to a private beach and then back to the original spot. I actually drove my own jet ski AND nothing caught on fire!!! Bonus! It was a bit rainy and choppy, so we kind of got a bit of a workout.

 

I spent the afternoon camped out in the Thermal Suite. It was super quiet there. And then returned to the room for our LeCirque dinner at the Pinnacle Grille. Dinner was delicious. I had a Caesar salad, butternut squash soup (the best I have ever had), steak, and chocolate soufflé. Truly yummy.

 

OK, I have to go to bed now. More tomorrow!

 

Tracie-Lynn

[cruz chic]

Tracie, how could you forget about us;):D? I look forward to your updates. There is no doubt about it, tendering is a pita. So glad you are enjoying your cruise. Thx for the update.

[bumperoo]

Thanks for keeping us updated with your daily adventures! Seems like you are enjoying yourself and creating a great vacation for yourself, Enjoy and thanks!

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am loving your review.

[TracieABD]

Happy New Year, Friends-

 

We have left Roatan, Honduras, and are heading toward Costa Maya, Mexico. Today's shore excursion left us exhausted! We went on a private shore-ex with Victor Bodden Tours which included zipline-ing (is that even a word???) and playing with little capuccine monkeys. (I am a little afraid of monkeys, after a feral baby monkey hugged my leg in India-- and I watched all of the mommy monkeys bristle. That is a story that could have ended very, very badly. Fortunately, the baby monkey let go when his (?) mom clicked at him... Whew. Most terrifying moment of my life). Well, the little cappucine monkeys were adorable and they sat on our heads and ate dried bananas. We saw quite a bit of the island, ate some rice and beans with the locals, and flew from the trees. And that is how I ended the year 2013. Not a bad ending, indeed.

 

We keep attempting to get consistent coffee and service from the barista (I use that term loosely) in the Exploration Cafe. Albert Einstein once said that "insanity is making the same mistakes and expecting different results." Maybe we are insane, but I really feel that in order to be a barista, you need to pass logic and memory tests. If a person orders the same coffee drink three days in a row, chances are they will want the same coffee drink on the fourth day. (insert memory here). If a person orders, let's say, an iced latte, does it make sense to pull the espresso shot over ice? (insert logic here)Not so much.

 

We had dinner in the main dining room and it was "holiday festive" dress (which is code for formal night). There was a man in a tuxedo t-shirt. The did not make him wear the "jacket of shame". Thought you might want to know that the urban legend does exist. I have witness it, but at least he didn't wear his robe. We met a lovely young lady from the West Coast who is on this cruise alone. We invited her to dine with us and she accepted. We had a delicious dinner. My husband had surf and turf and I had the linguini and veggies. I have eaten more red meat on this cruise than I have in the last 6 months total. I need some veggies to balance out all of that cow. It is now 10:00 pm and I am in bed. Yep, that is how we roll. New Year's Eve and we will be asleep by 11:00.

 

I hope that you all are celebrating in super fun ways. I think getting an extra hour of sleep will be super fun for me!

 

More tomorrow!

Tracie-Lynn

[sue117]

I hope that you guys have been able to find at least one geocache at your ports! We too are big cachers we are theTank Hounds) and we incorporate caching into all,our cruises ( especially when we cruise different countries!!) good to see another geocacher cruiser! Check out our cruise reviews (in our signature block--is there a signature blck when i reply using tapatalk?!? lol) to see some of the caches we have found while cruising.

Happy new year!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[erewhon]

Thanks for your update.

 

Happy New Year.

[TracieABD]

Hi Friends-

We are at the El Tropicante in Costa Maya and guess what??? They have free internet! Yay! We are sitting on the beach and eating nachos and surfing (the web, that is). Ah! Joy! My husband has been feeling very unplugged this trip. Me?, Not so much. But it is nice to surf around.

 

I hope you are having a very nice first day of the new year! We sure are!:)

Tracie-Lynn

[canadianbear]

Hi Friends-

We are at the El Tropicante in Costa Maya and guess what??? They have free internet! Yay! We are sitting on the beach and eating nachos and surfing (the web, that is). Ah! Joy! My husband has been feeling very unplugged this trip. Me?, Not so much. But it is nice to surf around.

 

I hope you are having a very nice first day of the new year! We sure are!:)

Tracie-Lynn

 

 

Loving your updates! I bet you are having a much nicer first day of the new year being on a cruise:D

 

That's a shame about the Explorations Cafe and I think unusual. I have always had very good service from them with no issues. He must be new at the position and maybe not liking it?!!! I've never heard anyone be challenged like that.

 

Yay for free internet! Have continued fun on your cruise.:)

[cruz chic]

Good to hear from you. Some of the staff in the explorations are so good, some not so much. I remember one that was very grumpy. Maybe you have the same one on the ship.

[cruz chic]

Tracie, looking forward to hearing about the rest of your cruise. I hope everything is ok.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am missing your reports Tracie.

Hope everything is all right.

[TracieABD]

Hi friends. Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. We had terrible Internet the last day on onboard and drove home yesterday. Got home, and found that we still do not have Internet service. So I'm really struggling to get the bare minimum done with my cell phone. I am hoping that our cable company will be here tomorrow to fix The problem tomorrow. And then I will complete the thread. Overall we had a wonderful cruise, make though a few things were a little off. I'm so grateful that you all followed along. And will post as soon as I have decent Internet so I can type. Thanks, Tracie-Lynn.

[SilvertoGold]

Happy New Year, Friends-

 

 

 

We keep attempting to get consistent coffee and service from the barista (I use that term loosely) in the Exploration Cafe. Albert Einstein once said that "insanity is making the same mistakes and expecting different results." Maybe we are insane, but I really feel that in order to be a barista, you need to pass logic and memory tests. If a person orders the same coffee drink three days in a row, chances are they will want the same coffee drink on the fourth day. (insert memory here). If a person orders, let's say, an iced latte, does it make sense to pull the espresso shot over ice? (insert logic here)Not so much.

 

Tracie-Lynn

 

I know what you mean! It is such a disappointment to get a drink just the right way and then, never again! Usually it is a problem of different "baristas" making things differently: then you can just wait until the right one is working, but sometimes it is as you relate.

 

Had the same problem in the Crows Nest and Ocean Bar: would love to be able to get the same drink made the same way twice!

 

Thanks for this fascinating thread! Really an enjoyable read.

[cruz chic]

Thx tracie. I was worried so I'm glad to hear you are ok. Will look forward to the rest.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad to know that you are home safely.

We can wait to read the final part of your review.

[bumperoo]

Glad that you are safe at home and look forward to your final thoughts!

[startwin]

Welcome back, Tracie! Loved your reports and looking forward to the wind-up one.:)

[Skorpora]

I am really looking forward to your next post. Your cheerfulness and enthusiasm jumps right out of your posts, and they are just wonderful to read! Thank you for taking us along :) Good luck with the Internet issues you're having.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[TracieABD]

Hi-

I am going to attempt to finish this from my super-duper slow-as-molasses computer. I still have no internet, but have jacked into my mother's (with her permission, of course), so we will see how this goes...

 

I think I last left you on the sunny and sandy shores of Costa Maya (where I encountered ***free internet***!:)

 

Once we returned to the ship, we relaxed for a bit, watched a really strange movie, and went to dinner in the MDR. If memory serves me correctly, I had the watermelon gazpacho and the gnocchi. The soup was lovely, and I will probably try to replicate it at home this summer. The gnocchi (which Pandu, our super waiter pronounce gu-nocki) was fine, a bit starchy, but fine. I had one of my best desserts EVER! Watermelon Pie- It was a bunch of sorbets and chocolate chips and cookie crust. My husband loved it much more than his Cherry Pavlova--(which inspired a rather lively discussion of dog behaviorists vs. Russian ballerinas).

 

We tried to finish our weird movie, but gave it up and went to bed!

 

I will make a stab at our final sea day in a bit!:)

[cruz chic]

I'm sensing you like watermelon. Thanks for your effort to finish your review to keep us entertained. I need all the help I can get. I'm telling anyone who will listen that we have had almost 4 feet of snow since nov 1. This is more then we usually get in the whole year.

[TracieABD]

Hi Friends-

Our final sea day... :( sniff, sniff...

 

We were not early risers. We did make another attempt at an iced latte in the Exploration Lounge. And guess what??? There was a new guy! His name was Rudy, and he seemed much happier to be there! He did have a very strange method of pulling coffee which entailed getting everybody's orders in line, and then filling the orders. We thought it would be disasterous, but it actually went quite quickly. As a side note, his coffees were the best we had up there!

 

We had breakfast in the MDR. I ate COW (this is what we call Cream of Wheat at home). It was very good. Just the way I like it.

 

We then headed out to do the On Deck for a Cause (the cause being various cancer research organizations). I walked for my friend Lindsey and my husband walked for me...:o We did our 10 laps and then I went to lunch. It was Indionesian lunch, but I did not partake in the Nasi Goreng. I really ate a salad.

 

After lunch we napped and then I headed to the Thermal Suite for the last time. It was pretty quiet, but crowded. I did encounter a very, very, very unhappy woman in the locker room who was insistant on telling me everything that was wrong with the cruise. Talk about a buzz-kill. Sheesh.

 

We ended up having a surprise reservation at the Pinnacle for the evening. We thought we had made a reservation for the Cannelleto, but alas, we were directed to the PG. Yay us!!! We were thrilled. (The PG was pretty much sold out for the entire cruise unless you wanted to eat at 9 pm). We had a lovely dinner and were warmly greeted by most of the staff, after all, we had eaten there 4 times.:)

 

Our final activities of the night was what we refer to as Santa Night. We spend a bit of time tracking down different staff members to drop off our envelopes (yes, for those who MUST know, we leave the auto-tips in place, as well). It is a bit of a pet peeve of mine to walk into the MDR on the final night and it is pretty empty... Even though we don't love that dinner, and normally eat in specialty dining, we ALWAYS stop by to say good-bye and properly thank our staff.

 

Then we packed...:rolleyes:. Yuck. And watched Gatsby--- Yuck.

 

The next morning, disembarkation was a bit of a boon-doggle. This was clearly the fault of customs and not HAL. We walked off the ship at 9:30 and cleared immigration at 10:40. We survived, but there were a lot of grumbly people.

 

We picked up the car at the Park and Go and were on the road by 11 am. We were supposed to stay in St. Augustine for the night, but it was cold. So we just drove on home, where it is cold!

 

And there you have it! My goofy live-from. I will summarize the whole mess in my next post.:)

 

Tracie-Lynn

[TracieABD]

Hi Friends-

These are my final thought... just my opinion-- no flaming!

 

 

The Excellent::D

• The Pinnacle Grille- I had the best steak of my life there. I also loved Le Cirque.
  
• Our wait-staff in the Main Dining Room- Pandu was an absolute ray of sunshine!
  
• The Assistant Headwaiter in the MDR - Ari did everything in his power to make our dining experiences comfortable. By day two, he knew our names and our preferances. He would not call me by my first name, though... always by my desigation and my last name. (after all of that work in grad school, I can live with it).
  
• The A/C in our stateroom- 8100. It was cold! I had to ask for extra blankets.
  
• The public areas on the ship were spotless and really, really shiny.
  
• The captain had an amazing affect and personality.
  

The Good:)

• The food in the MDR was consistently good. There were a few standouts, and some not so much.
  
• The cruise director tried his best. There was quite a bit of sales pitch, though. More than we like.
  
• The Thermal Suite was lovely, and I spent over 13 hours there in the course of a week. I do wish they would post quiet signs in there, though. Oh, and it was markedly price higher than I have ever seen.
  

The Meh...:o

• The passenger make-up was a little strange. We heard that the there were 2100+ sailing (capacity is 1906), and only 300 Mariners. We met many HAL first time cruisers and plain-old first time cruisers. There were some really unhappy and pushy people on board. This is a big departure from our other HAL cruise.
  
• The staff seemed worn out. There was an overall lack of enthusiasm. This included our room steward. We normally love, love, love our room steward, and this time---nope. He really struggled with simple items (like taking the laundry). We did hear from some of the cheerful staff that the two 7 day turn around cruises were really hard on them. I believe it.
  

The Ugly (and here is where I get myself in trouble):eek:

• The decor... I swear, it looks like New Orleans threw up all over that ship. What were they thinking??????:confused: Each day my husband and I would play- spot the tacky decoration. Just take the light fixtures in the public rooms-- huh???? I would love to meet the person who thought this one up. Just saying.
  
• Our stateroom... in desparate need of a major overhaul. Yes, the room was little bit on the tiny side, and we can live with that. The furnishings were just plain shopworn. And the bathroom was scandelous, including the caulked holes in the floor.:eek: The couch was on its last thread-bare little leg as was the carpeting. And don't even get me started on the "art". (refer to comment #1 in the ugly section).
  

What I did not do:

• Eat in the buffet... (fear of Noro)
  
• Play trivia... I usually live for shipboard trivia. Not sure what happened here.
  
• Attended any of the shows. Just didn't go.
  
• Swim in the pools.
  
• Eat in Cannelleto (but I really did mean to), Terrace Grill, or Chocolate Extraveganza (if they had one-- Not sure about this)
  
• Participate in Dancing with the Stars- you DO NOT want to see me dance
  
• Gamble
  
• Have any spa treatments (I normally do, but I chose to refrain this trip)
  
• Shop on board... (ok, ok, I did buy some Suduko puzzles. Does that count?)
  

Overall, I had a great cruise and a really good time. I would definately cruise with HAL again, but maybe not this ship.

 

We did score this cruise an 88-90 out of 100, so that will tell you something.

 

Well, thank you for following along! I had fun sailing with you!

 

I am happy to answer questions...

 

Tracie-Lynn