Dave’s Trip To, Around and Into Australia, Sept. 26 – Nov. 23, 2016

[RetiredMustang]

Never heard of excursions from Kona to VPN. Would have been a lone day even before custom delay's and traffic. Did the bus turn around at the Thurston Lava Tube? If so that would have been disappointing. The most scenic is the drive down to the ocean. The variation in lava is amazing and beautiful. Especially the foliage that is coming back. Enjoy the rest of your cruise. I'm enjoying your travel reports.

 

 

(The internet is a bit spotty today' date=' but I think I can get a couple of posts in.)[/i']

 

No, the bus went to the Thurston Lava Tube and then backtracked to Volcano House; we did not take the road down to the coast. I suppose it was because we only had about 3 hours in the park before we had to head back to Kona and just didn’t have time. We originally were scheduled to visit Hilo, and had planned to visit the park from there, and were happy that we could get it from Kona, even though we knew it would be a long day in a bus.

 

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 5, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

Today was a lazy day at sea, with drizzle and rain all morning. We had good intentions and poor execution, to go to the lecture, to read a good book (instead of the whodunit we did read), etc. We both did manage to do something related to exercise – DW did a few laps around the deck, while I went to the Crow’s Nest and watched the rain pelt down on the roof of the fitness center.

 

In any case, we found ourselves seemingly soon at happy hour and then into dinner. Here are the MDR dinner and dessert menus:

 

 

 

 

 

 

DW had the cauliflower soup for starter and I had the greens. We both had the tagliatelle alla Conti, one of our HAL favorites. Then we figured we could enjoy the chocolate cake for dessert, since we had both done exercise-related activity earlier in the day.

 

More later,

Dave

Edited October 6, 2016 by RetiredMustang

[erewhon]

Interesting to read the menus, thanks for posting.

[Karennella]

Yes, thanks for the menus. Interesting cultural difference, just with the starters. Here we rarely see fruit as a starter in a restaurant and cold soup is not especially common. Mains and desserts are all quite familiar.

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 6, at sea

 

 

Today is the second Gala night of the cruise, and another day at se on the way to Samoa. Here are the first four pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 6, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

Here are the other two pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[trub]

thanks again Dave for your amusing and informative blog!! i too enjoy my excercise on a cruise watching the ocean with a makers mark in hand:)

[RetiredMustang]

Dave, would you please find out if the breakfast room service order can be modified to customize one's own request? (Like a Chinese restaurant, one from column A, one from column B, etc.) Is the alternative to order three different breakfasts and waste the food one does not want, to get the food one wants?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

brainyblonde (and others who had similar questions),

 

 

I went to the Front Office and asked the question – what do I do if what I want is not listed on the menu? Can I get it, or am I limited to what is listed? An example I gave is “what if what I want is a boiled egg and toast?”

 

The person at the desk went in the back, presumably to speak with the room service people, and came back and told me that I could write anything I wanted on the card if it wasn’t there. So, if I wanted orange juice, boiled egg and toast I would put a 1 in the box by the orange juice on the list, and then for the boiled egg and one slice of toast, I would write it in somewhere on the card, the logical place being the space at the bottom of the cold cereals list.

 

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 6, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

We encountered a beautiful sunrise about 6:15 Hawaii times this morning. According to the scan chart on the TV, we were at about 10 degrees, 50 minutes north latitude. Here are some shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[Alberta Quilter]

brainyblonde (and others who had similar questions),

 

 

I went to the Front Office and asked the question – what do I do if what I want is not listed on the menu? Can I get it, or am I limited to what is listed? An example I gave is “what if what I want is a boiled egg and toast?”

 

The person at the desk went in the back, presumably to speak with the room service people, and came back and told me that I could write anything I wanted on the card if it wasn’t there. So, if I wanted orange juice, boiled egg and toast I would put a 1 in the box by the orange juice on the list, and then for the boiled egg and one slice of toast, I would write it in somewhere on the card, the logical place being the space at the bottom of the cold cereals list.

 

Dave

 

Thank you, Dave, for your tireless research on our behalf! And thank you for your very informative posts. You can be sure I'll be checking our room service menu in a couple of weeks!!

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 6, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

To continue with some photos of the ship, here are some of the Mix:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 6, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

More shots of the Mix:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[cccole]

The ship looks like it is in fabulous shape!!!! All the areas you send photos of are beautiful.

 

When you left Kona and said you had a sea day I had to look at your itinerary. I could not imagine a sea day if you were seeing another Hawaiian Island. I wonder how they chose which two Hawaiian ports to visit. I love VNP and I hope you feel it was worth a very long day, I have never done a day trip from Kona side. Again, thanks for letting us cruise with you. Cherie

[Lovely other]

brainyblonde (and others who had similar questions),

 

 

I went to the Front Office and asked the question – what do I do if what I want is not listed on the menu? Can I get it, or am I limited to what is listed? An example I gave is “what if what I want is a boiled egg and toast?”

 

The person at the desk went in the back, presumably to speak with the room service people, and came back and told me that I could write anything I wanted on the card if it wasn’t there. So, if I wanted orange juice, boiled egg and toast I would put a 1 in the box by the orange juice on the list, and then for the boiled egg and one slice of toast, I would write it in somewhere on the card, the logical place being the space at the bottom of the cold cereals list.

 

Dave

 

I tried this with the new room service menu on the Koningsdam and it never worked ...I was very disappointed with the new menu where you can't really order simple items like toast and eggs ...shame :(

[erewhon]

brainyblonde (and others who had similar questions),

 

 

I went to the Front Office and asked the question – what do I do if what I want is not listed on the menu? Can I get it, or am I limited to what is listed? An example I gave is “what if what I want is a boiled egg and toast?”

 

The person at the desk went in the back, presumably to speak with the room service people, and came back and told me that I could write anything I wanted on the card if it wasn’t there. So, if I wanted orange juice, boiled egg and toast I would put a 1 in the box by the orange juice on the list, and then for the boiled egg and one slice of toast, I would write it in somewhere on the card, the logical place being the space at the bottom of the cold cereals list.

 

Dave

 

 

Thank you for this information.

 

Thanks for the super photos.

Edited October 7, 2016 by erewhon

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 6, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

Dinner tonight was fitting a Gala evening. There were a lot of special dishes, such as beef Wellington and osso bucco. Here is the combined dinner and dessert menu:

 

 

 

 

DW and I both started with the Italian wedding soup. A note – all of the soups have coe with the solid ingredients in a bowl, and then the server will pour out the broth over the bowl. I will try to get our patient servers Ayep and Ronnie to let me take a photo some time. Not important at all, just something different. The soups as usual have been fabulous; HAL always makes great soups.

 

For main course, DW went with the beef Wellington, and I had the pheasant breast. It was good, but as a farm-raised bird, it was not that noticeably wild-tasting, but more so than domestic chicken, for example. For dessert, we both went with one of our HAL favorites, the Grand Marnier soufflé.

 

More later,

Dave

[wander]

Lovely Other - so what would they bring you, nothing? or something you did not order?

[Dutch Diver]

Oct. 6, at sea (Cont.)

 

To continue with some photos of the ship, here are some of the Mix:

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

 

Oct. 6, at sea (Cont.)

 

More shots of the Mix:

 

More later,

Dave

 

It seems very quiet in these photos, but I'm assuming that you've taken these at a time when no one's there. How full is the ship? Are there any areas that get very busy (at trivia, for instance)?

[brainyblonde]

Thanks, Dave, for your clarifying the new room service breakfast hang tag with the staff. If we all write in what we want when we cruise, rather than the set choices, we may send a message to HAL. I imagine there will be hiccups on an individual basis. Nonetheless HAL must have a team of "experts" who determined that for efficiency or whatever, the change was a good thing for them. A very small issue, but still disappointed with the "streamlined" breakfast room service. No more whining, though!

[Sherry H]

Dave,

Are all 3 laundry rooms open to passengers?

Thanks

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 7, at sea

 

 

Another lazy day at sea (or at least I hope!) Here are the first four pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 7, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

Here are the other two pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

It seems very quiet in these photos, but I'm assuming that you've taken these at a time when no one's there. How full is the ship? Are there any areas that get very busy (at trivia, for instance)?

 

Yes, I generally try to take photos of the ship spaces when there are few people about. The ship is not at capacity, but close -- I've heard there at 100+ on board.

 

And, yes, some areas can get crowded at times, like the Lido at noon, the Lido pool area during late morning to afternoon, the Ocean Bar at happy hour, etc.

 

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Dave,

Are all 3 laundry rooms open to passengers?

Thanks

 

I believe so. I know the one on our deck (9) is quite popular. But, we enjoy one of the best perks of being 5-star -- free laundry (yay!) -- so we have not personally used the laundry rooms.

 

Dave

[fatcat04]

Thank you Dave for the breakfast card information. Very good to know. I know in the past we had been able to do that even with the more extensive a la carte style menu they had before. Good to see they are still very accommodating in this respect.:)

 

And YES.. HAL does do soup well. We rarely skip soup. Our son loves their chicken noodle. Glad you enjoying some game birds while on board. Some of my favorite cruise menu items are game, don't get it very often otherwise.

Edited October 7, 2016 by fatcat04