'Twas the Week Before Christmas - Live from the Eurodam

[Cruising-along]

Thank you again for bringing us along, I have loved every post!

 

One thing I may have missed, and am curious about. Earlier you posted:

 

"As an alternative, we are going to try a HAL excursion to St. John. The official name of the excursion is "St. John: National Park Island." It's a boat ride to St. John and a panoramic drive throughout the island. Ooooh! There's also a chance to shop. (How exciting!) The excursion sells for $69.95. This will be the first ship's excursion we've done since 2005. We're more of an "on your own" type of people. I'll let you know how this works out."

 

Was it really awful? :eek: Or ok? We'll be in St. Thomas in a few weeks and are looking at this excursion. Thanks in advance! :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Love all your reports.

[POA1]

Thank you again for bringing us along, I have loved every post!

 

One thing I may have missed, and am curious about. Earlier you posted:

 

"As an alternative, we are going to try a HAL excursion to St. John. The official name of the excursion is "St. John: National Park Island." It's a boat ride to St. John and a panoramic drive throughout the island. Ooooh! There's also a chance to shop. (How exciting!) The excursion sells for $69.95. This will be the first ship's excursion we've done since 2005. We're more of an "on your own" type of people. I'll let you know how this works out."

 

Was it really awful? :eek: Or ok? We'll be in St. Thomas in a few weeks and are looking at this excursion. Thanks in advance! :)

 

It wasn't bad. We were limited in our choices because DFIL could not do anything in the water. You drive around St. John in one of those big taxi trucks and you get a guided tour. There isn't a whole lot to see from the road though. If you like the water, I think the Trunk Bay excursion would be better.

 

Truth be told, if it were just us, we'd have taken a taxi to Udder Delight for alcoholic milkshakes. Then we'd have gone to Megan's Bay. Udder Delight is between the golf course and Magen's Bay. We rented a house in St Thomas for a week with friends and anyone passing Udder Delights was required to call the house and get everyone's milkshake order. It's not a fancy place, but it's delicious.

Edited December 23, 2016 by POA1

[kazu]

How was your De Librije dinner POA1?

 

Did the two of you enjoy it?

 

If you want to wait until you get home with decent internet it can wait ;)

 

Happy Holidays to you and Huskerchick.

Edited December 23, 2016 by kazu

[Cruising-along]

Thank you! Good to know it wasn't too bad.....we aren't overly fond of a day in the sun, so it's hard to find other things to do in the Caribbean. Will try to check out Udder Delight too. :D

[POA1]

Okay little buckaroos... I've got a 4G connection thanks to BTC and T-Mobile. I've hotspotted and synchronized a bunch of my scans. Prepare for a data dump.

Daily Programs:

 

Second Sea Day - 12/22/2016

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFicHJ7ISU1Mb7dotUOhycUtzKZ1yAuLtbw/

 

Half Moon Cay Day - 12/23/2016

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFgW938fh09OAZuxFjB2rkpJka78vhwhwjU/

[POA1]

How was your De Librije dinner POA1?

 

Did the two of you enjoy it?

 

If you want to wait until you get home with decent internet it can wait ;)

 

Happy Holidays to you and Huskerchick.

 

We thought it was excellent. DW likes Le Cirque better. I prefer De Librije. I would have liked it more if I ordered my first choices - but we wanted to try everything so I wound up with the Sweet Breads and the Duck Breast. Both were perfectly cooked, but they wouldn't have been my fist choice. I'll post pictures when I get home. The amuse bouche was stellar. Full description with the photos, but there was a duck liver mousse lollipop with a ligonberry gelee coating that was amazing if you like that sort of thing. We do.

 

There was no 4 star mariner discount on the De Librije dinner, or at least it hasn't shown up on our statement yet.

[POA1]

Dive In Menu

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFh5JOl3jFZMG51ufqJOWVcSgWeVrtpKuUA/

[POA1]

New York Pizza Menu

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFjPANnctvJEKZPlrinn1dHlmKAMLMQhG_I/

[qsuzi]

Living vicariously through every one of your 5 Star Reports. THANK YOU!

[POA1]

De Librije Menu

 

This a a specialty dining option on the Eurodam, Rotterdam - and I think the Konigsdam.

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFjndMzF9JdGPqXRTF3sts2gybwEKRLBr5Q/

 

Wines are paired with each course and they're nice, full glasses of wines, not just tastes. Cost is $69 pp. I believe that you can get the dinner without wine for $20 less (like we would ever do that!)

 

If you are looking for the "winners" in the judgement of your humble cruise reporters, it's:

 

• Oysters
  
• Pork Belly
  
• Bass with Speck Ham
  
• Cod
  
• Dessert: Pick 'em
  

Ironically, those were DW's choices. I took the alternates - because discovery and exploration and all that.

 

 

 

If you can talk someone in your party out of the duck mousse lollipop in the amuse bouche, do so. Especially if you like foie gras or duck pate. Tell them that you think it's basically liverwurst and they won't like it. Trade them the tomato. (It's the middle of the 3. This will make more sense when we post the pictures.)

[POA1]

Holland America has new style cordial glasses. They're nice, frosted glass with a metal medallion on the front. There are evidently 5 or 6 different designs, but ours are all the same: an anchor motif. If we had our "A" team of researchers, we'd already have every design. Unfortunately, DFIL isn't super fond of post dinner shots. Also, ours is a 7 day cruise. With 2 specialty dining meals, we would be hard pressed to collect the whole set taking only 5 dinners in the dining room.

 

[POA1]

It started to rain while we were on Half Moon Cay, so we came back to the ship to grab lunch and enjoy the cabana.

 

Enjoying a Poohbycolada in the Cabana

[kazu]

We thought it was excellent. DW likes Le Cirque better. I prefer De Librije. I would have liked it more if I ordered my first choices - but we wanted to try everything so I wound up with the Sweet Breads and the Duck Breast. Both were perfectly cooked, but they wouldn't have been my fist choice. I'll post pictures when I get home. The amuse bouche was stellar. Full description with the photos, but there was a duck liver mousse lollipop with a ligonberry gelee coating that was amazing if you like that sort of thing. We do.

 

There was no 4 star mariner discount on the De Librije dinner, or at least it hasn't shown up on our statement yet.

 

De Librije Menu

 

This a a specialty dining option on the Eurodam, Rotterdam - and I think the Konigsdam.

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFjndMzF9JdGPqXRTF3sts2gybwEKRLBr5Q/

 

Wines are paired with each course and they're nice, full glasses of wines, not just tastes. Cost is $69 pp. I believe that you can get the dinner without wine for $20 less (like we would ever do that!)

 

If you are looking for the "winners" in the judgement of your humble cruise reporters, it's:

 

• Oysters
  
• Pork Belly
  
• Bass with Speck Ham
  
• Cod
  
• Dessert: Pick 'em
  

Ironically, those were DW's choices. I took the alternates - because discovery and exploration and all that.

 

 

 

If you can talk someone in your party out of the duck mousse lollipop in the amuse bouche, do so. Especially if you like foie gras or duck pate. Tell them that you think it's basically liverwurst and they won't like it. Trade them the tomato. (It's the middle of the 3. This will make more sense when we post the pictures.)

 

Thanks very much for sharing your insights and preferences.

 

Sounds like a dinner we will enjoy :). Much appreciated :)

[POA1]

Thanks very much for sharing your insights and preferences.

 

Sounds like a dinner we will enjoy :). Much appreciated :)

You're welcome. Photos to come once we get home.

[POA1]

A few days back, I posted about the lack of holiday music. It's picked up a bit. There is some on the PA. The steel drum player rotates some holiday cheer into his repertoire as well. The topper was when we were visited by carolers in our cabana. Rod and Brian are part of the holiday crew choir.

 

 

 

 

Even though they're only a duet, they refer to themselves as the "Cabana Boys Choir" - a play on Vienna Boys Choir.

[pspehar]

https://mygutinstinct.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/corn.jpg

[POA1]

This probably isn't news, but the Eurodam has no librarian. The excursions girl was there, in what used to be the librarian's desk, the other morning when I was working. She should have has a sign that said, "Not the librarian," because she got upwards of a dozen library related questions while I was there. This was in roughly a one hour period.

[POA1]

This will probably be my last report before Fort Lauderdale. We're in the Pinnacle tonight, so we took care of of our MDR waiters and wine steward last night. We took care of our room stewards this morning, and we've been taking care of the bar staff as we go. All our thank you notes and tips have been delivered.

 

We'll pack most of our stuff this afternoon so we can enjoy the evening. We'll break protocol and change after dinner tonight so I can can pack my blazer and get our luggage out in the hall. (Boo.) Seven days is just too short.

[POA1]

One last funny story before we sail away from Half Moon Cay: We got our "lost" eastern Caribbean hour back last night, so we were going to get an extra hour of sleep. Knowing this, we ordered room service breakfast for 9 am and told DFIL to come over to our house at 10 o'clock. We then proceeded to work on our research, sometimes even doubling our workload. We got back to the room a little after midnight and pulled our emergency premade sandwich from the mini fridge. Having snacked, DW (the smart one) went directly to sleep. I, being of little brain, decided to write some stuff for you guys that I could post in the morning. Then I read some of my book. I went to sleep around 2:30.

 

At 7 am, there was a knock on the door. It was room service. Not ours, but apparently the Lebowskis wrote our cabin number down. (They were having oatmeal.) A half hour later, our room steward, having seen our breakfast get delivered, and thinking we were up, brought our laundry.

 

At 8:45 — still 15 minutes before we were supposed to get our breakfast delivery - my father in law called to say he was on the way. He missed the time change announcement, note card on the bed, and big notice on the front of the daily program. He also managed to miss the first line on the inside of the program.

 

We need a nap now.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Have really enjoyed all your "Live" reports.

[RuthC]

Seven days is just too short.

Isn't it, though. Barely a long weekend.

 

But seven days is long enough to read several hilarious posts, and try to commit to memory some great variations on otherwise well known Christmas songs.

Thanks for the laughs.

[hpf]

Thank you for all your research, now when we go aboard tomorrow we will just be able to relax and sing your great carols ? songs? whatever, they were all great. Enjoy your last night aboard the Eurodam.

 

Helen

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Great pictures..

[sue1898]

Holland America has new style cordial glasses. They're nice, frosted glass with a metal medallion on the front. There are evidently 5 or 6 different designs, but ours are all the same: an anchor motif. If we had our "A" team of researchers, we'd already have every design. Unfortunately, DFIL isn't super fond of post dinner shots. Also, ours is a 7 day cruise. With 2 specialty dining meals, we would be hard pressed to collect the whole set taking only 5 dinners in the dining room.

 

 

Oh, I will need to collect a new set. I also am not fond of sweet after dinner shots but to get the other eat I found very accommodating waiters who brought me empty ones and changed my SBP a nominal fee (not always).