Live from the Westerdam - Panama Canal Repositioning

[pv girl]

Thank you for taking the time and the dollars for a live report. And do not feel bad for posting negatives. We all need to hear the good, the bad, the ugly, in order to make informed decisions, and to know better what to expect. And when these comments come from regular and respected CC members, we feel they are honest and fair. Keep it up and have a great trip! How fortunate for 2 daughters to cruise with their mother and what fun you all seem to be having - treasure the moments.

[TheSecondSister]

Leisurely morning involving some trivia, much relaxing, coffee and .... whales! Yay! Lunch in the Lido. I really really really don't like avocados (mush is not a food), so I was happy to snag a pre-made spicy chicken salad sandwich without it. I can vouch for the premade sandwiches - fresh, tasty and no standing in line, but it's nice to have made to order sandwiches available. Just in case there's nasty avocado in there. :D

 

Gerry, sorry your liver will be underutilized for a while but should we need it we'll be happy to give it a work out. I never fix a Bloody Mary at home but sure do enjoy them while on vacation!

[kazu]

I think you should give the Pinnacle Grill a second chance!:D If you have some of the same wait staff we had in the Spring, you will find that once you get in -:eek: - you will love it!

 

I'll second that motion.

 

do give it another try before you discard part of your amenity for being in a NS

[Himself]

The cruise is going great, but lest you think we are 100% HAL cheerleaders, I am going to interject an acrimonious note here. Please feel free to skip, as in the total scheme of things it is minor and petty, and we have already moved on with an easy solution:)

 

The On Location daily program listed breakfast served from 8am to 9:30am in the Vista main dining room this morning. The Pinnacle Grill breakfast for suite guests corresponds with the main dining room schedule. So we showed up at 9:15am at the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast, at which point we were informed by an immaculately groomed and lovely young lady that breakfast was no longer being served. I mentioned that the daily program indicated otherwise. She called someone on the phone and was told that breakfast was being served on sea days from 7:30 to 9am. Too bad so sad, no breakfast.:confused::(

 

So I went to speak with the concierges in the Neptune lounge, and sure enough, because of the new repositioning itinerary, the current breakfast hours for sea days is now indeed 8am to 9:30am. But after all our running around, the Pinnacle Grill was by now closed for breakfast. The manager there was not aware of the changed schedule as the crew had been doing 7 day Alaska trips for several months. Apparently change is hard.

 

So we hightailed it to the main Vista dining room, where we got in by the skin of our teeth, and the staff were happy to accommodate us. Conclusion: As the breakfast menus in the Pinnacle Gill and the MDR are identical, and the MDR staff have their act together, from now on we will enjoy our breakfasts there and dispense with the Pinnacle Grill.

 

The Neptune lounge concierges were very apologetic, but you only have one chance to make a good first impression, and the PG flunked. End of tirade, my tiny violin concert is done. Sorry to play a discordant note.

 

 

If that failed you could go where I go for breakfast--the Lido!

Edited September 29, 2015 by Himself

[Himself]

I am enjoying the thread and the Blog. Please keep both going.

[Himself]

I just read your daily Blog and enjoed it. Have a great day in San Diego.

Edited September 30, 2015 by Himself

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Disembarkation in San Diego the morning is a clusterfark, with everyone required to process through immigration. But it's a gorgeous, sunny day, and we will post an update later.

[cruz chic]

It's iften a hot mess in San Diego even though the locals deny it. Pretty much every debarked I've done there is anything but smooth.

[frankc98376]

Too bad we can't take the speed and efficiency of Customs and Immigration at pier 91 in Seattle and the location and convenience of the San Diego terminal and blend them into one.

 

The ship is coming from Seattle, Alaska, and a stop in Vancouver- it's not like it has been around the world. Two weeks ago on Westerdam we got up from breakfast in the PG at just before 8:30 am, walked off the ship, collected our luggage, went thru customs check and were in the parking lot shuttle in about 20 minutes. We pretty much didn't stop moving once.

 

I sailed out of San Diego many times back in the 80's on Pacific Princess to Mexico and don't remember any problems getting through the terminal at disembarkation. They are going to succeed at driving the cruise lines away again due to passenger and shipboard frustration at the delays and hassles.

Edited September 30, 2015 by frankc98376

[Krazy Kruizers]

ok here's some preliminary research results:

 

They have a lovely selection of ready-made sandwiches in the Lido, AND they will also do the custom-made sandwiches. The ready-made selection changes daily. The tea selection in the Neptune Lounge is Harney and Sons. I will report when I know what tea they serve in the main dining room and Lido.

 

We have the same captain, hotel director, and cruise director as we had in May - Captain Rens Van Eerten, HD Mark Pells, and CD Shane Michaels, so we're in good hands.:)

 

Saturday Vigil Mass is at 5pm.

 

Mariner's reception from 3-4pm in the Crow's Nest.

 

Life boat drill at 4pm. Bon Voyage party at 4:30pm at the Seaview pool.

 

The Neptune lounge concierges will host a reception this evening for suite guests in the NL from 7-8pm. Hors d'oeuvres and a selection of wine/sparkling wine will be offered.

 

Thank you, Sapete, for taking such good care of our cabin:)

 

 

Thanks for all your information.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks, Frank; we will look out for Michael and Tim. Actually, all the crew have been great so far. We especially like our dining stewards at table 29 in the upper dining room.

 

Ok, some more observations:

 

Bigelow tea served in dining room (yay!):)

 

We don't have to do the lifeboat drill in either Vancouver tomorrow or in San Diego, because we did it today in Seattle. Yay again!

 

Since more passengers are boarding in Vancouver and San Diego, the ship feels sparsely populated this evening. The Lido was positively calm this afternoon:)

 

Ryan the "on location" guide is a sweetie. He ran up three flights of stairs and back again in three minutes to bring me a deck of playing cards.

 

We like piano player Mike a lot. One of the better ones.

 

I will try to find out who's the chaplain for you, Fr. Himself.

 

The food has been very good so far. See the Second Sister's blog for details.:)

 

 

Thanks for the update.

[Krazy Kruizers]

The SecondSister

I have been reading your blog.

Wonderful job.

Hope we have that new Embarkation lunch on our upcoming cruises.

Wonder why the Mariners brunch was so early in the cruise?

[qsuzi]

Disembarkation in San Diego the morning is a clusterfark, with everyone required to process through immigration. But it's a gorgeous, sunny day, and we will post an update later.

 

Thanks for the accurate description. :D

P.S. I'm following both blogs. Both are fabulous and loving how you organize your blog and how/where you insert your pix. BRAVO!

Edited September 30, 2015 by qsuzi

[0bnxshs]

Disembarkation in San Diego the morning is a clusterfark, with everyone required to process through immigration. But it's a gorgeous, sunny day, and we will post an update later.

 

It's iften a hot mess in San Diego even though the locals deny it. Pretty much every debarked I've done there is anything but smooth.

 

It's a shame that this seems to be the norm. We were prepared, based on comments here, to experience the same thing, but in April of this year we were through the whole process so quickly and on our way to the airport that it really made us wonder why all the complaints. While I am not denying that others have had trouble, we had zero trouble or holdups when we debarked here.

 

Probably had something to do with being the only cruise ship in port that morning, but we were very pleasantly surprised after reading all the horror stories about debarking here.

Edited September 30, 2015 by 0bnxshs

[Old As Dirt Mom]

The problem was all the non-US passengers had to go through immigration with the CBP folks in the Vista lounge first, before US passengers could be processed in the terminal. There were delays because of passengers that didn't present themselves and who had to be paged. Then all the transit and disembarking pax had to get off before the new pax could get on. The crew had to open up another exit ramp on deck A because there was such a bottleneck on the deck 2 ramp. The shore staff didn't seem too conversant with handling a ship that was both in transit AND embarking new pax. We were the only cruise ship in town, and we used the old terminal. I thought the HAL staff did the best they could given they were dealing with circumstances over which they had little direct control. Services onboard continued smoothly.

[Himself]

Disembarkation in San Diego the morning is a clusterfark, with everyone required to process through immigration. But it's a gorgeous, sunny day, and we will post an update later.

 

 

 

It happens in the Caribbean when we come into Key West or St. Thomas in the Eastern Caribbean.

[ski ww]

I enjoy reading your blog. I`ve been reading about the new dress down in the MDR even for formal nights so sad. We really enjoyed San Diego & next time we`re there would like to spend more time exploring. Looking forward to reading more about your cruise.

Allan

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Just want to mention the musical entertainment offerings. We are very partial to Piano man Mike, but there are other venues as well:

 

The Adagio duo (classical piano and violin) perform nightly from 5-6pm and 7-10pm in the Explorer's lounge.

 

B B KING Blues Club does 3 shows nightly at 8:45, 9:45, and 10:45 in the Queen' s Lounge.

 

The Band plays most evenings in the Ocean Bar from 5-6 and 7-10, but they are not playing tonight, and I'm guessing they might be providing the music for the "All for Love" cast production show which will take place in the Vista lounge at 8 and 10 pm.

 

In addition, we have had guest performers in the Vista lounge, and a resident DJ who provides music nightly for dancing in the Northern Lights disco and the Crow's Nest.

 

Piano man Mike is one of the most enjoyable pianists and performers we have encountered on HAL. He sings well, plays a wide repertoire, and interacts well with his audience. He's also quite funny.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Just want to mention the musical entertainment offerings. We are very partial to Piano man Mike, but there are other venues as well:

 

The Adagio duo (classical piano and violin) perform nightly from 5-6pm and 7-10pm in the Explorer's lounge.

 

B B KING Blues Club does 3 shows nightly at 8:45, 9:45, and 10:45 in the Queen' s Lounge.

 

The Band plays most evenings in the Ocean Bar from 5-6 and 7-10, but they are not playing tonight, and I'm guessing they might be providing the music for the "All for Love" cast production show which will take place in the Vista lounge at 8 and 10 pm.

 

In addition, we have had guest performers in the Vista lounge, and a resident DJ who provides music nightly for dancing in the Northern Lights disco and the Crow's Nest.

 

Piano man Mike is one of the most enjoyable pianists and performers we have encountered on HAL. He sings well, plays a wide repertoire, and interacts well with his audience. He's also quite funny.

 

 

Thank you for your updates.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sadly we have also experienced poor immigration in San Diego.

For some unknown reason they just do not know how to handle it.

We have done quite a few cruises where some of us were staying on for the entire cruise. Others were leaving. New passengers were arriving.

And many times those of us who were staying on could not leave the ship until after 10:30. And the ship was not cleared until that time either causing many passengers to miss their flights.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

I'm adding something on a personal note. Briefly - Mom lives with me, and while she is still a vibrant, active woman, well able to maintain a large degree of independence, in the 4 years since my father died she has displayed an ever-increasing need for order, structure, and routine in her life. She is no longer spontaneous, and prefers to adhere to a consistent daily schedule. That makes shipboard life a good choice for her, but makes shore excursions no longer as interesting or exciting as they once were, because of the impact to her daily physical routine. You will find in my sister's blog more mention of shipboard life than our port experiences, and this is because we have elected to do fewer excursions than we normally would on this trip with mom. So we might seem a little dull:)

[Himself]

Karin:

 

Thanks for the update.

[mcmarya]

We did the westbound transit in April and had the same crew--super! Really enjoying the blog and live thread.

 

We have debarked in San Diego a few times without major problems. The thing I find interesting is that, once you leave the ship, no one seems to be checking anything. Some of the time they have taken our customs form and waved us through without even looking at passports. So, in our experience, if there is a wait, it is almost entirely before you leave the ship--when the deadbeats fail to show up for immigration processing and hold everyone up.

[SilvertoGold]

I'm adding something on a personal note. Briefly - Mom lives with me, and while she is still a vibrant, active woman, well able to maintain a large degree of independence, in the 4 years since my father died she has displayed an ever-increasing need for order, structure, and routine in her life. She is no longer spontaneous, and prefers to adhere to a consistent daily schedule. That makes shipboard life a good choice for her, but makes shore excursions no longer as interesting or exciting as they once were, because of the impact to her daily physical routine. You will find in my sister's blog more mention of shipboard life than our port experiences, and this is because we have elected to do fewer excursions than we normally would on this trip with mom. So we might seem a little dull:)

 

NOT a little dull!!! The blog is really interesting and enjoyable! Nice photos, too (food is always a good thing!).

 

I actually enjoy reading more about shipboard life than shorex. Been there and done that, I guess. Shipboard life has all the interesting bits!

 

Keep up the good work, both here and on the blog!

 

Really appreciate all the time you ladies spend on this!!

[0bnxshs]

We did the westbound transit in April and had the same crew--super! Really enjoying the blog and live thread.

 

We have debarked in San Diego a few times without major problems. The thing I find interesting is that, once you leave the ship, no one seems to be checking anything. Some of the time they have taken our customs form and waved us through without even looking at passports. So, in our experience, if there is a wait, it is almost entirely before you leave the ship--when the deadbeats fail to show up for immigration processing and hold everyone up.

 

We were off the ship on the same cruise as you at 8:30am the morning of disembarking, pretty much on time. The ship had to page a couple of passengers a couple of times but that was it. Again, thankfully our fellow passengers were mostly compliant with the ships requests to appear. I really don't think it's so much the land-side people as it is the passengers and the crew being prepared with forms, etc.

 

Love the blog and the thread. I know it's a major effort to do. But you definitely have lots of fans here enjoying your cruise with you. :)