10/22/05 Oosterdam Cruise

[seadrifter]

Brian - Thank you for a great review. I have been hanging on every word and can't wait for the next installment. Makes the three month wait til our cruise a little more bearable:) . -g.

[KSCnCA]

Yes, thanks for the review. I thought that the ship's time was always same as local time. Was this something different, or is it always done that way in PV?

 

I also thought the ship changed to local time. So did the ship time and local time coincide in Cabo and Mazatlan? I have tried to do searches for time zones and different sites give different results. I sure hope we can get off in Pto Vallarta in time to make our (private) Canopy Tour at 11 am (without begging!).

[cruisecrasy]

Monday morning we woke up with Cabo in sight! It was still dark, and the lights of the city were beautiful. The sun came up just before we passed the Cabo Arch. We anchored off shore and tendered in. The tenders are the lifeboats. Very efficient. No wait, just got on the tender and away we went.

But of course before going to shore, we ate at the Lido for breakfast. The scrambled eggs looked just as bad as they did in the Vista, so I had a bacon omelette made for me. Yummy! I had the potatoes and some ham and some waffles. The waffles were great, and became a regular item for me. Fresh squeezed OJ in the lido, but the Vista only had concentrated OJ.

By the way did I tell you in the 5 months prior to the cruise I lost 71 lbs? I actually had the stupidity to tell friends that I intended to eat properly and gurenteed I would loose weight on the cruise. :) More on that at the end. anyone want to guess how many pounds were lost on gained during the seven days?

After a great breakfast we tendered out to Cabo. We walked the boardwalk to the shops. bought my wife a ring at the "ship recomended" shop. Got a good deal on it. Then we walked about 4 blocks to REAL Cabo, away from the yuppie tourist area, to where there was real mexican food and good deals to be had.

Spent several hours shopping with our wives. Funny side story...

My wife needed some sunglasses. A street vender had some "raybans" (ya right), for $10.00. My wife likes them. I say I'll give you $5.00 for them. My wife says out loud, "give him ten, he's poor". Terri, Scott's wife starts chewing me out for trying to rip off this poor guy. CRAP, shutenzee your mouth women! Ok, finally he says OK to $5.00.

Next vender sells me a No Fear tank top for $10, 9, 6, 5, ok I'll take your lousy $4.00. Now the women are talking down the venders for purses from $12.00 to $4.00 etc.... Hey how about when you were mad at me for getting $5.00 sunglasses? But by then the women were on a roll! They were underbidding what I would have offered! :)

We have lunch at a little dive in the hood, any 4 tacos and a beer or soda for $5.00 USD. maybe the best tacos of the trip!

Went to Cabo Wabo, Scott and Terri had Strawberry daquiri's, Patty and I had virgin strawbery daquiri's. We did a little more shopping and then back to the ship. It was about 4:00PM. What a great day in Cabo!

Went back to the pool and tool a nice dip. Took a nap in the cabin. Time to get ready for the first formal night. There were Photographers EVERYWHERE! After taking 1,234,323 pictures including one with Captain Murcer, we ate. Being a guy I can't remember many of the meals, but in the Vista dining I never met a meal that I didn't LOVE. We also saw several shows but I can't remember what nights we saw which shows, so I'll just mention a show every once in awhile. If you were there, don't dog me for giving the wrong night for the shows.

We saw the rockin road show or whatever it was called. I thought as well as my friends that it was a very good show. The female singer was supurb! She had a set of pipes (don't go there, I mean vocal pipes) that were awesome. The lead male and her did not have chemistry though. Overall out of ten I would give the show a strong 7. After the show we walked the decks again, and then retired into our rooms. What a great Monday!

 

Tuesday in Mazatlan to come shortly!

Brian

 

that the day in Cabo is the first formal nite - is that correct? Curious 'cause usually they are held on sea days and as the day before was one shld have been that nite..

Thanks.

[huntram]

Yes, thanks for the review. I thought that the ship's time was always same as local time. Was this something different, or is it always done that way in PV?

 

Ya weird, the ship time was changed from Pacific to Mountain time, but we did not change to Central time for P.V. Didn't make sense to me either.

 

Brian

[huntram]

that the day in Cabo is the first formal nite - is that correct? Curious 'cause usually they are held on sea days and as the day before was one shld have been that nite..

Thanks.

 

I warned you that as a guy I would muff the dinner specs. You are indeed right, the first formal night was Sunday at sea, the second was thursday also at sea. The days are starting to blend! :eek:

 

Brian

 

P.S. I will do Thursday later today (after work)

[cruisecrasy]

I warned you that as a guy I would muff the dinner specs. You are indeed right, the first formal night was Sunday at sea, the second was thursday also at sea. The days are starting to blend! :eek:

 

Brian

 

P.S. I will do Thursday later today (after work)

 

cldn't have made it to formal nite if it had been the Cabo day - not back to ship early enough when we go in late Nov. Really looking forward to the next installment - u are most kind to post the review and are making it fun to read ...many thanks.

Happy cruisin'!

[huntram]

Finally a day of rest! I was afraid I would get "cabin fever"! How could I with everything to do? I'm pooped and want to rest now. We sleep in and go to the lido for breakfast. Those waffles are getting adicting. When am I gonna start eating smaller portions? How about Saturday when I return home! :D I am getting so afraid that I'm gonna gain back 15 lbs of what I have worked so hard to lose! After breakfast I go to the spa and weigh myself. It's in KG instead of LBS. There is a conversion chart but only in 5 lb increments. Seems like maybe 5 lbs gain or so, so what the heck, I'll keep eating.

We lay around the pool, and work so hard at doing NOTHING! This is the life! I decide to kick back in the Lido pool. Unfortunately there is a snot nosed 10 year old jumping off the ledge the penguin statues are on. He keeps jumping at me, and splashing me. I ask him to stop. He informs me that he's not diving so can continue to splash me if he wants. I show him the rule board that states "no horseplay". The demon spawn does not care and says he can do whatever he wants. I ask where mom and dad are. Dad is on the other side of the pool (where he is not jumping), and tells me Jr. can do as he pleases. Asks me why I hate kids. I tell him I love well behaved kids. He tells his kid to continue splashing the old guy (me). I advise him not to be surprised when his kid turns out like him. :D

That infuriates him. His kid imitates dad and tells me again he can splash me if he wants to. Dad tells him to shut up. I inform dad that he should be proud of his kid, because he is acting just like him. I choose not to raise my kids that way, but hey he's your kid! Dad is not happy, and tells jr. again to splash me. I offer that I am gonna have a crew member through him and his kid out of the pool, but if he wants him to jump at people, have the rugrat jump at himself, and then I don't care. Apparently he only wants his kid to bother other people and the kid stops. Such is life!

6:30pm is our free reservation in the Pinnacle Grill. We choose thursday so as not to have 3 "formal" nights. Bacause it was our anniversary Mike the Maitre'D gave us a window table for 4. I believe I shared earlier that is was our 30th and Scott and Terri's 25th. Also earlier in the day I saw Maire'D Mike at the Lido Buffet. Asked him what was the best meat at the Pinnacle. He highly recommended the Porterhouse. Patty and I decide that one of us would get the Porterhouse the other the fillet. Patty gets the Porterhouse, Terri the small fillet, Scott the Porterhouse and I the large fillet.

Sorry sir but we just ran out of the porterhouse! What???? Mike said it was the best. Please check and see if you have 2 left. OK sir.

Yes we have ONLY 2 left I need to put in the order before anyone else snags them.

Ok, we rush to give him our order. The fillet was AWESOME. I had it with the horshradish sauce. Mild but flavorfull. The porterhouse was tasty but a little tuff. Worth getting, but I was happier with my fillet. Overall the service was good, a small step above the Vista, as was the food. Worth $20.00 extra for it. Nope. However in the hypothetical it would be an outragous bargain for $20.00 off the ship.:rolleyes:

We needed leave quickly to get to the show on time. They chased us down and requested we return for a moment. Hmmm, what's wrong, it was free so we aren't skipping out on the bill! they brought out an anniversary cake. They seemed disappointed that we had tried to leave before they could give it to us. They wrapped it up in foil and made a basket handle out of the foil. A very nice touch!!!!

I think this was the tropical show. Jimmy Buffet songs and others like his. Good singers, nice stage props and costumes. We had heard negative things about the shows before the cruise. We were pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed every show we saw.

We walked around the decks for awhile and then went to bed. Other then the snot nosed, demon seed, now I know why tigers eat there young situation , this was a very nice day on board. I could get used to this!

 

Next Friday at sea, and then the disembarkment day.

And to include a little suspense, how much weight did I gain (or lose).

 

Brian

[tumeroll]

Spent several hours shopping with our wives. Funny side story...

My wife needed some sunglasses. A street vender had some "raybans" (ya right), for $10.00. My wife likes them. I say I'll give you $5.00 for them. My wife says out loud, "give him ten, he's poor". Terri, Scott's wife starts chewing me out for trying to rip off this poor guy. CRAP, shutenzee your mouth women! Ok, finally he says OK to $5.00.

Next vender sells me a No Fear tank top for $10, 9, 6, 5, ok I'll take your lousy $4.00. Now the women are talking down the venders for purses from $12.00 to $4.00 etc.... Hey how about when you were mad at me for getting $5.00 sunglasses? But by then the women were on a roll! They were underbidding what I would have offered! :)

 

 

Tuesday in Mazatlan to come shortly!

 

Brian

 

Just got word from your boss.

He is thrilled with your bargaining for cheap goods and will be asking for you to take a sizeable pay cut. After all fair is fair.

[mechcc]

Brian - really, really enjoying your review, but you should of offered $2.00 for the sunglasses and settled at $3.50.

 

Please keep the installments coming.

[huntram]

 

Just got word from your boss.

He is thrilled with your bargaining for cheap goods and will be asking for you to take a sizeable pay cut. After all fair is fair.

 

I realized I was making way to much. I offered to reduce my pay by 75%. The boss was adamament about only cutting it 50%. He is a better negotiator then me, so I settled for a 55% cut in pay.

Thanks for the incentive to reduce my pay to a fair salary. With all the money I saved in Mexico I actually feel like I got a raise!

 

Brian

[huntram]

Brian - really, really enjoying your review, but you should of offered $2.00 for the sunglasses and settled at $3.50.

 

Please keep the installments coming.

 

What's funny Maggie is that if he asked for $20.00 I would have been happy giving him $10.00, or if he had started at $5.00 I would have not settled for anything above $2.50! :)

 

Brian

[mechcc]

What's funny Maggie is that if he asked for $20.00 I would have been happy giving him $10.00, or if he had started at $5.00 I would have not settled for anything above $2.50! :)

Brian

 

I know what you mean. It's really hard to tell what a fair price is sometimes, that's why I start at a really low price to see where they go. Sometimes I've been cussed out in languages I don't understand but that's okay also. Then when I'm really being harrassed by vendors, I also cut the price way way down to get them to leave me alone. But then there are those few times that I really want the object and will give a better first bid. My husband says I embarass him at times but then when he wants something, he has me do the negotiating. :D

[huntram]

Ok ,even I am getting board with my review, so I'll make this short and sweet. Friday was another rest day. Kicked back in the cabin, watched part of Anchorman with Will Ferrell on the movies on the T.V. Kicked back by the pool, and on the verandah. Do you get the idea that we took it easy Friday?

At 8:00pm we went to the Vista for diner. Sure enough our teas and soda's were where they belonged. Cheppy came by and as usual pushed the chairs in for the wivies, set the napkins on our lap, and then we were given the menu's. He confirmed that Scott and I were getting our steak and lobster, and Patty her Lobster only (2 lobster tails). It was very tasty! Of course everything has been. During desert the staff performed their goodbye song. It was very emotional, and we enjoyed it very much. We were almost in tears when we said goodbye to Cheppy and Anne. Anne hugged me, and Cheppy hugged Patty and Terri. We had really bonded with both of them. (we had seen them several times away from diner, and they both shared personal stories about their lives away from the ship). I loved having the same table and wait staff.

Went to the show that night. It was a variety act with Drew and Angela the magic act. Again they were very good. Whyte, which was a 60's type music act. Whyte was the two English brothers last name. They played Monkees, Beatles, etc... Technically they were pretty good, but they had NO charisma. Wanna hear some Rock & Roll? Yaaaaaaaa the crowd said! Unfortunatly I never heard any! I was pleased we missed their show earlier in the week. Finally the "revue" act sang some more songs. I liked them very much. Overall the shows were very good.

Walked the ship one more time, and then went to bed. BTW the ocean got moderately choppy with 4 to 7 foot swells. You could hear the hull hitting the swells during the show, and since it is in the front, you could feel the boat rockin! Somehow I didn't get sick, although Scott was getting close to lettin chunks fly!

Random thoughts that I forgot to mention.

The Desert extravaganza was not so extravagant. I could have missed it, and would next time.

Why do parents let their small children run wild on a ship? Bad things could still happen to them, and furthermore it's their snotty kids, not mine, so you watch them!

The towel animals are pretty cool! Thanks Djoko.

Why didn't I get cabin fever? It sure would have made it easier for me to leave the ship!

Why does my wife have a need to purchase photos from the ship? We took hundreds of digital photos!

Janice, (Stanford's Girl) Thanks for the engaging conversation! It was a pleasure to meet you and Willie. God Bless you, and hope to see you again!

If I think of more I'll add them later.

Disembarkment

We were driving back home so no plane to catch. We took a late disembarkment time. Called the parking lot (SDAP)and they showed up in about 20 minutes. Just had to show immigration my ship card and I was on my way. No hassles at all.

 

This was my first cruise. Always thought it was tooo expensive. We got a bargain on priceline.com. Payed 725.00 pp for a SS room. Not much more then a nice hotel, and what a view from the verandah! I am hooked!

 

Now the moment of truth.. How much did I gain back from my prior 71 lb weight loss?

 

I actually lost 2 lbs. !!!!!! Don't understand how, cuz I ate, ate, and ate again! Of course I did use stairs as much as possible, walked the ship alot, walked in Cabo, and swam alot. Terri told me I must be sick, cuz she saw how I ate! :D But I'll take the 2 lbs. anyday!

 

Thanks for reading, I hope everyone enjoyed the reviews and...

 

God Bless you all!

 

 

Brian

[stanford's girl]

Brian,

I really enjoyed reading your review. Brought back a lot of good memories. I hope our paths will pass again someday. If not on a ship, then somewhere else.:)

Hugs to you, Patty, Scott, & Terri.:D

 

BTW~~It must have had something to do with that ship because I lost 1 pound!! LOL

[kryos]

Other then the snot nosed, demon seed, now I know why tigers eat there young situation , this was a very nice day on board. I could get used to this!

See ... this is why I stay out of the pool when kids are in there. The next time he splashed me, I woulda held his head under for a bit ... put the fear of God into him ... and probably into dad too.

 

Remember, people tend to leave you alone if they think you're nuts. :)

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[jhannah]

The next time he splashed me, I woulda held his head under for a bit ... put the fear of God into him ... and probably into dad too.

Or not. This sort of guy would probably just go ballistic. :rolleyes: And we wonder where society went wrong!

[mich2]

Thank you, Brian, for the excellent review. We are boarding the big "O" in 23 days for the same trip. Your review was very enjoyable to read. We talked about it each night and looked forward to each new installment. Thanks for the insights on what to look forward to (and what not to look forward to).

 

Happy Cruising!

[kryos]

Or not. This sort of guy would probably just go ballistic. :rolleyes: And we wonder where society went wrong!

I don't know what it is with some parents today. Their kids can do no wrong. If there's a problem, it's the teacher's fault, the camp counselor's fault or the other child's fault. Never my precious child.

 

I remember "in the day" ... when I was growing up. The teacher was ALWAYS right, and if the teacher said I was mouthing off, I got punished ... no questions asked.

 

Not saying that philosophy is always the best, but it sure beats the alternative. After all, at least 99% of the time the teacher IS right.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[kryos]

Sorry. 'Nother double post. :(

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Tinknock50]

Very enjoyable reading!

Thanks!

[SDHALFAN]

Thanks Brian,

 

That was a great review. I've been pretty unhappy over the fact that my beloved Ryndam is leaving San Diego for the east coast, at least for all of 2006 as I understand it, and I wasn't too thrilled about maybe "having" to cruise on the Oosterdam. However, you have made it sound like so much fun - except for that "demon seed" in the swimming pool - that I guess I'll give "The O" a try.

 

Thanks again - I enjoyed every word.

 

Valerie:)

[huntram]

Thank you all for reading the review. I see this thread has had over 1800 views! I hope it has been entertaining to everyone. Sorry about the inconsistancies as to which night was which. Once I got on the ship, days starting to melt together.

As I said this was my first cruise, I was afraid I would be disapointed because after reading and mainly lurking on this forum for 6 months I had HIGH expectations. Those expectations were beyond met!

Again I want to tell Janice that it was a pleasure to meet you and hubby. I appreciate the talk on the last night we had in the hallway.

 

God Bless all and happy sailing!

 

Brian

[stanford's girl]

Again I want to tell Janice that it was a pleasure to meet you and hubby. I appreciate the talk on the last night we had in the hallway.

Thanks Brian.:) We feel the same way about you. I'm sure our talk will someday benefit someone else who's path I will cross. I hope the car ride home went OK.

It really was a glorious cruise, wasn't it?:D

[LoveLifeAtSea]

Brian ... thanks for sharing your week onboard with us! From everything you posted I can definitely see how you joined the rest of us and is now HOOKED on cruising!!!

[huntram]

Brian ... thanks for sharing your week onboard with us! From everything you posted I can definitely see how you joined the rest of us and is now HOOKED on cruising!!!

 

Thank you susan. Now let's read Janice's (Stanford's Girl) adventures. That was a hoot about Willie's pants. Even though we were 2 doors away from them (just a coincidence), and I recognize much of what she is writing, it is great hearing it from her perspective.

 

Brian