We are alive and on the Amsterdam 2014 Holiday Cruise

[Ocean Dancer]

We love catararmans, we love Nevis.......was the sandal guy there? He measures your foot, and after your tour he has a homemade pair of sandals awaiting for you!!

And we love rum punch.....sounds like you enjoyed some too!!:D

Happy New Year!:)

[arzz]

December 31, 2014 - Happy New Year to All

Guadeloupe

 

Well, today we were at an island I have never visited before. I somehow missed that this island operates on the Euro and brought no Euros with us. US dollars not accepted, no credit cards either. Ooops!

 

On board information on this port was more scarce than any HAL port I ever remember visiting. We received a shopping guide - the usual four page fold out handout. The front page was blank except to say "Guadeloupe" and list the local stats and port agent. The back page was a full page ad for Diamonds International even though, mysteriously, they do not list Guadeloupe among their locations. Opening the folder, the right hand page was totally blank and lined like notebook paper with a small message at the top "Notes" - the left hand page had a small map and listed one shop: L'Habitation Duty Free Shop located in the Harbor area - the rest of this page was also blank.

 

OK - on to the HAL Explorer magazine that was placed in our cabins on arrival - this publication had a page for every port on this cruise ... except ... wait for it ... Guadeloupe.

 

In the morning we each had a small xeroxed map of the downtown area at Pointe-A-Pitre where we docked placed in our mail slots.

 

We were pretty tired from our day in Barbados - so we opted to stay in. The nice thing about a Caribbean cruise for us is that there is no pressure to get off and see stuff - it is just to get warm and relax and we are doing plenty of that. Comments from a few on board that we asked about their time on the island:

 

1) from folks who do not speak French: not worth the time - "the only response we could get from shop keepers was the price of items not even information on the item itself (like what spice is this?)"

 

2) from folks who do speak French: they were delighted that it was the most like a foreign country of any island that they have visited yet

 

3) from folks who do not speak French: Very difficult - used an ATM to get Euros, went to the Aquarium and could not find a cab to go back -- the island folks did not seem to understand our questions or be very helpful to us

 

4) from someone who took a 4 and a half hour HAL tour that lasted for over six hours with no lunch included and no lunch stop said that the biggest issue they had was that everything they saw was very far apart and they therefore spent huge amounts of time on the bus - the tour was too long

 

I guess it may have been a good island to miss. They are, apparently, not well set up for tourism. We had questionnaires about the island to fill out so I hope those that had important comments shared them. It seems that if the island wishes to have a tourist industry they may have to make a few adjustments.

 

Tonight was New Year's Eve. Formal night. During the day the ship blossomed black and gold streamers, "Happy New Year" banners, and other sparkly decorations that were added to the Christmas decor. The dining room was dressed up with white seat covers and table streamers in black and gold. Folks received hats ... either white feather tiaras that said "Happy New Years" in black, or blue foil covered top hats that said "Happy New Year" ( that is most folks received them - mysteriously there were none at our table and frankly we didn't ask as I do not think any of us would have worn them).

 

This evening's dinner was the first night that I felt that my dinner was more than just good, it was superior. I ordered smoked salmon and caviar on fingerling potatoes expecting to see little beads of black caviar - instead the salmon was decorated with large beads of red fish roe.

 

The New Year's Eve Celebration Salad was just that - a nice salad with a balsamic fig reduction.

 

For the main course I ordered the "Basil Crusted Veal Rack" in full knowledge that when I asked for medium well done it might be tough. In fact it was incredibly tender and wonderful and was covered with a very tasty porchini-masala sauce (should the menu have read "Marsala" instead of "masala"?) and it was accompanied by Parisian vegetables (carrots and squash cut into spheres) and sugar snap peas. The veges were just crisp tender and sweet.

 

The dessert was fresh strawberries in a brandy snap basket with Champaign sabayon creme. Not only a great presentation, the basket was crisp and buttery, the berries excellent.

 

Sorry to go on about the food - I usually don't but it was a very nice dinner.

 

At 11 pm the parties started - one in the Crow's Nest with very loud music (I think it was from the DJ) and one in the Queen's Lounge with the HAL cats, cruise director, et al. We dropped into both. The one in the Crow's Nest was only sparsely attended - the one in the Queen's Lounge was standing room only. In the Crow's nest there was lively albeit very loud music - in the Queen's Lounge there was live music and games to win bottles of champagne. At both parties we were greeted at the door with glasses of champagne which were refilled as needed. We stayed in the Queen's Lounge to welcome in the New Year and then retreated to our cabin nest.

 

I do believe that the parties went on for some time as we could hear the celebration in the Queen's Lounge from our forward cabin ... the first time that the entertainment has penetrated as far as our cabin. This is not meant as a complaint - just an interesting tidbit. We have friends who live above the Queen's Lounge who do share in anything that happens there.

 

Happy New Year to all!

[Krazy Kruizers]

It has been years since we have been to Guadeloupe. Sounds like not much has changed there -- except for what they now accept for currency.

 

Happy New Year to you.

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

We stopped in Guadalupe a couple of years ago on another cruise line. I would agree it is not set for cruise tourism. We took a ship's tour which was very nice but those who wandered around town made similar comments to those you heard.

[arzz]

January 1,2, 2015

 

Oh, Bowls ... no Balls

 

I will get to the title later. January 1 we were in St. Martin. Been there several times and would have like to take a taxi to the French side and had lunch ... but it was New Years Day and the word was that many things would be closed - especially on the French side. There were also several behemoth sized ships sharing the port with us (I estimate about 10,000 +/- addtional souls) - seemed like a no brainer to just stay on board and enjoy the shipboard life when everyone else is gone.

 

So ... we spent the day doing Times Digest crosswords, reading on our veranda, played trivia and just generally had a nice, quiet time. I don't even remember most of what we did as it was so quiet and lovely. I do remember the small white butterflies that were all over on the outside decks, even in the pool area of the lido, and a few unfortunates floating later in the day in the gutter on our veranda.

 

In preparation for the Grand World Cruise that begins on Monday afternoon - as soon as they can shoo all of us sometimers off the Amsterdam - the crew was busy during the day painting the 2015 Grand World Voyage logo on the front of the ship.

 

Yesterday we were in San Juan - one of my favorite ports. Last time we were here it was pouring. It poured so hard we could not even see the terminal building - we were on the Eurodam and elected to stay on board and have lunch at the Tamarind. Yesterday was different. It was extremely humid and the early morning brought some drizzle, but it was an otherwise spectacular day in Puerto Rico.

 

DH had signed up for a zip line adventure in the Rain Forest - it left early morning and thus I was alone. I used my time to walk into Old San Juan - I walked up to the San Cristobal Fort and then zig zagged my way down. A nice walk, even in the hot humid tropical weather. DH spent the time zig zagging across 8 zip lines in the rain forest and had a marvelous time. It was a well run adventure except that he felt like the Old Man from the Sea, as most of the folks who chose that excursion were much younger. He returned healthy and with all of his fingers so from my perspective it was a win.

 

In the evening we had reservations at the Pinnacle. I enjoyed some spectacular lamb chops finished just as I requested (with asparagus and sautéed mushrooms) ... and DH enjoyed a filet. With great anticipation I had looked forward to trying out one of POA1's chocolate bowls (balls) for dessert ... NOT on the menu. I enjoyed my berries for dessert and DH enjoyed his Baked Alaska with the Cherry Garcia ice cream ... but we were disappointed.

 

Once again we found no reason to break our time honored tradition of not going to hear the evenings entertainment - a comedian. Nothing personal against the entertainment but we prefer to return to our cabin nest after a fine dinner.

[Lizzie68]

Great reports - I'm going to miss this thread when you get home.:(

[cruz chic]

Funny about the chocolate bowl. Any dessert that is tasty is sure to suffer a quick death on hal:D.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Loving your review.

 

Looks as though the chocolate bowls (balls) are not fleet wide.

[bcummin]

We are so pleased that you got to return to the Amsterdam. Your last voyage was far too short :)

Thank you for taking us along to the Caribbean.

 

Barbara

[POA1]

Sorry for getting your hopes up about the chocolate bowl. I'm hoping that they're in the process of rolling it out and it wasn't just a one time thing.