* LIVE from the Rotterdam - 30 day Passage to Spain and Western Europe - Mar. 30th*

[Appalachian Mountain Mama]

Kazu, the pics of the cooking class were great and now with your extended comments about it sounds like something I would be very interested in. Is there more than one class offered and how many people to a class? Thanks so much for these great posts, it's making the wait for my cruise go a little faster!

 

 

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[kazu]

Kazu, the pics of the cooking class were great and now with your extended comments about it sounds like something I would be very interested in. Is there more than one class offered and how many people to a class? Thanks so much for these great posts, it's making the wait for my cruise go a little faster!

 

 

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Hi,

 

Yes, we really enjoyed the cooking class. It was fun.

 

A maximum of 12 people for the hands on cooking class.

 

There were two offered on our first segment. I chose the latter one as I preferred that menu.

 

Book as soon as you get on board (they fill fast) and ask what the different menus are and you will have one that appeals to YOU.

 

thank you - I'm glad my posts aren't boring, yet.

 

Do let me know if they are and I will try to change them up.

 

Cheers from lovely Cartagena.

 

 

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[kazu]

After enjoying the Cathedral, we walked some of the amazing winding streets of Malaga and ended up (planned ;) ) in our favourite spot - Plaza de Merced. We had told friends they could find us there.

 

At one end of this square is the birthplace of Picasso. walking diagonally down you can hit the museum of Picasso. Makes sense.

 

I'm surprised they haven't changed the name of the square to Picasso Square. LOL. A lot of locals are here. The tapas are very good.

 

We started at one spot had a drink, met our friends and then moved as we prefer the other restaurant's offerings for tapas.

 

they also have a deal where you can get 6 tapas for 15.50 euros versus the 3 euros per serving.

 

Plenty for the four of us. Food porn alert.

 

 

 

The tapas were enjoyed by all.

 

for "Las Ninas". Take a look

 

 

 

 

 

A little story I will share later about our Sangria. Need to head back to the ship and cannot try DH's patience with trying to use some wifi.

 

Here is our menu from last night - yes, it was Gala night.

 

 

 

For those keeping track, the waiter said it was Maine lobster (frozen of course previously). It certainly wasn't Caribbean. This Maritimer knows the difference.

 

Gotta go catch the ship before it sails. Back later

 

 

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[Appalachian Mountain Mama]

Oh Kazu! Gorgeous flower arrangement!

 

 

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[Krazy Kruizers]

Catching up

Wonderful pictures.

Good idea to keep lists of everything on your iPad.

The flowers are lovely.

And those tapas look yummy!!

[ger_77]

Loving the food porn, your flowers are gorgeous, and I'll have one of those tubs of sangria, please!

 

Smooth Sailing! [emoji3] [emoji3] [emoji3]

 

 

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[fancy234]

Mom and dad must be in heaven with all those tapas and sangria !! I am hungry just looking at it! Also you have found places with great prices and nice portions for all to enjoy! I am very impressed with the quality of these meals for the price because as we know good tapas can add up in price !!

 

 

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[kazu]

Thanks KK & Appalachian.

 

Glad you liked the flowers.

 

 

 

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[kazu]

Kk, since the HAL website is free onboard, I could access the faqs and then just did a screen shot.

 

the tapas were absolutely delicious

 

 

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[kazu]

Mom and dad must be in heaven with all those tapas and sangria !! I am hungry just looking at it! Also you have found places with great prices and nice portions for all to enjoy! I am very impressed with the quality of these meals for the price because as we know good tapas can add up in price !!

 

 

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Your father was very impressed Olivia.

 

the tapas were very reasonable at both spots that we chose.

 

Since we have been here before we kind of knew where to go.

 

 

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[kazu]

A little incident at the tapas bar though.

 

The waiter lost control of his tray and sangria and beers were all over me, my purse and my tote bag. Thank heavens my purse and totebag are fairly waterproof. Both my camera and Ipad were spared getting wet.

 

Once back to the cabin, I hit the club soda in the mini bar and the loofa to scrub both. It looks promising. The purse has no signs. The tote bag is still drying but I believe I got all the red wine from the Sangria out.

 

Accident or no, we had a great time - a very relaxing enjoyable day. We know we have to pace ourselves as we have some heavy days coming up.

 

For the 5* Mariners out there, happy to report that I was refunded for my first PG dinner & I was not charged for the Cooking Class.

 

Principles....it's all about principles.

 

Doesn't matter whether the glass is half full or not, it's always refillable.

 

Our sailing yesterday to Cartagena was so smooth. The water was like magic. And the dolphins seemed to enjoy it too! Saw a school of them. Probably taking advantage of the ship stirring up the fish for them? They didn't stay long but it was fun to see them.

 

Timewise, we are leaving Cartagena and sailing to Barcelona. We will need to bid farewell to a lot of CC members on our roll call, but quite a few are staying on and we look forward to welcoming those joining us tomorrow in Barcelona.

 

Here is the When and Where for our Cartagena day

 

 

 

 

And the menus for this evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[kazu]

We arrived in beautiful Cartagena today at 7 am.

 

It's a short day here as all on board is at 1:00 pm as we have to go full speed ahead to Barcelona.

 

We "parked" on the right side and this was the view that awaited us when we stepped out onto our balcony.

 

 

 

 

It's Semana Santa here (Holy Week) and Spain is famous for it's processions. Had we been in Malaga last night, we could have caught one of their best ones. Antonio Banderos (of Zorro fame) was leading the procession. Dam, we were leaving too early.

 

Thought the same thing today as Cartagena's procession is in the afternoon, but as we were sitting by the Cathedral, it played Ave Maria on the bells three times. Usually a good sign, I had my eyes out. We were running tight so started walking back to the ship.

 

The crowds were pouring into the street, the chairs were all lined up and people had staked out their place for a while. LOL.

 

As we were heading down I heard the drums and stopped. It was only the beginning of the procession but I was happy I caught some of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[kazu]

Cartagena is a lovely spot to visit. Easy to visit on your own. A bit of archaeology for those interested and plenty of spots to stop and rest and soak in the ambience and savour the favour. And watch the people.

 

Not enough time to hit the old fortresses, but I was quite happy with my 1/2 day. So happy that I "pushed the envelope". Kazu always returns to the ship early. Today we boarded at 12:53 pm. (all onboard time was 1:00 pm). And, we were not alone. A lot of people were grabbing every second in this beautiful spot and warm weather.

 

We are really lucking out with weather so far. Tomorrow Barcelona is called to be 72 degrees again. This is pure heaven, considering we packed layers. I'm sure that will all change when we head north though.

 

A few views of our sail a way...

 

Hopefully you can make out the forts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple things of note. We (those on the collectors' cruise) received our shore excursions for the next segment today with the offer to book now so we had advance chance before those boarding in Barcelona were on board. My one is booked but friends are taking advantage of the offer.

 

Another thing is that our concierge called to see if we were staying on board or exploring Barcelona and about what time please? It seems to be partly to keep track and partly to make sure that the right priority is put to the staterooms for tomorrow with embarkation. I told her the steward need not worry about us - just give us clean towels. I'll make sure to mention it to them tonight.

 

 

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[kazu]

Tomorrow is the end of the first segment - so here is the Cruise Log for those that enjoy them

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is tomorrow's Navigator. Not sure if they are now calling it that for the first day or if the "When & Where" (previously On Location) has changed names again or I just didn't notice on our first day when we embarked?

 

 

 

 

Lots of suitcases outside. Not sure how many are staying on board, heard 300 but not sure if that is accurate or not.

 

I do know only 8 of the suites are staying on.

 

 

 

 

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[kazu]

A few pics from Malaga for those who might like them.

 

 

This is the plaza that we love to have tapas at.

 

 

 

The fantastic fortress Alcazaba - well worth a visit. It's huge. DH and I got lost when we visited.

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely Malaga from the sea:

 

 

 

 

 

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[kazu]

I think I am mostly up to date now.

 

For rafinmd, the Interdenominational service the other day was not hosted by the priest, but, Mass was at the same time.

 

I think I have caught up and with the questions. The only one I can't answer is upping the Explore 4 package. Most of us on our roll call did not take it because of the "deal" we got earlier.

 

If I find no one who has done it, I will ask my trust wine steward Rod (should have thought of that sooner) if such a thing is permitted. He is probably one of the best on board and the most reasonable that would do it if it could be done.

 

Questions? Ask away please.

 

Want the thread in a different direction? Just post and if I can, I will.

 

tomorrow will be a busy day with a lot of people getting off and on and after that we are getting pretty port intensive. We have a number of private tours booked and are doing very different things on some of them. So, stay tuned. There is a lot more to Italy than Rome and Florence and we are planning on going to some great places. At least we hope so.

 

Cheers from our sailing to Barcelona from the lovely Rotterdam.

 

I'll probably be at the next one so will re-confirm for you

 

 

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[kazu]

Loving the food porn, your flowers are gorgeous, and I'll have one of those tubs of sangria, please!

 

Smooth Sailing! [emoji3] [emoji3] [emoji3]

 

 

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Thanks Geri.

 

The Sangria was delicious and HAL offered it today as well.

 

Believe it or not, their sangria was pretty dam good.

 

I was surprisingly impressed :)

 

 

 

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[RJ2002]

Very much enjoying your reports. Thanks for taking the time from your vacation to share the experience with us.

[PSR]

Hi,

 

Yes, we really enjoyed the cooking class. It was fun.

 

A maximum of 12 people for the hands on cooking class.

 

There were two offered on our first segment. I chose the latter one as I preferred that menu.

 

Book as soon as you get on board (they fill fast) and ask what the different menus are and you will have one that appeals to YOU.

 

thank you - I'm glad my posts aren't boring, yet.

 

Do let me know if they are and I will try to change them up.

 

Cheers from lovely Cartagena.

 

 

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Enjoying this "LIVE from" a lot! Sorry if this has been asked before, but where do you sign up for the cooking classes?

[rafinmd]

Some comparisons

 

I think it is fairly rare when there are concurrent reports on Cruise Critic from the Zaandam and all of it's R-class sisters but this is happening now. In addition to my reports we have several threads on the Amsterdam World Cruise, btimmer on the Volendam's trans-Pacific from Asia to Vancouver, and kazu's reports on the Rotterdam transatlantic. With relatively modest internet access the only one I've really been following is the Rotterdam but I've found it interesting to compare some of my observations with kazu's.

 

She commented on the footwear the deck crew is wearing, with crocs becoming a new standard. That hasn't happened yet on the Zaandam; both the deck hands washing the decks each morning and the stewards working with the lounge chair cushions have been wearing standard safety shoes.

 

She also mentioned the stairs. I believe she said that the stairs were carpeted with a contrasting material on the top and bottom steps on each flight. That's partially true on the Zaandam. The midship stairs are that way, both the main staircase and the extra one between decks 3 and 5. Both the forward and aft staircases have a contrasting color on the bottom step of each flight but not the top and the stairs in the atrium only have a different shade on the center landing.

 

https://aroundamericabitbybit.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/zaandamstairs.jpg

 

I'm not quite sure what the rationale is but there are 2 Mariner tiles for the R-class ships, one for the Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the other for the Volendam and Zaandam. I would have guessed it would be the Rotterdam vs the other 3 given the modifications to the Rotterdam's aft deck but that's not the case.

 

https://aroundamericabitbybit.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/zaantile.jpg

 

She also noted the format of the menu for Gala nights as a 4-panel card form. That appears to be fleet wide as I've seen it both on the Koningsdam and the Zaandam. I kind of like the new format; it does a nice job of printing to a pdf from the new Navigator app.

 

One thing that appears to be better on the Zaandam, at least for this cruise, is the internet. It was poor this afternoon but has generally worked reasonably well.

 

Roy

[erewhon]

Enjoying your posts, gorgeous floral arrangement, super Proteas.

 

Mike Mahn is a great Hotel Director.

[ribzzzone]

Hey all hope this is Robbie (ask mr &mrs dorado) hope everyone is having fun and keep up the posts

 

 

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[kazu]

Enjoying this "LIVE from" a lot! Sorry if this has been asked before, but where do you sign up for the cooking classes?

 

Front Desk or concierge if you are in a suite.

[kazu]

Hey all hope this is Robbie (ask mr &mrs dorado) hope everyone is having fun and keep up the posts

 

 

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Robbie, I will be sure to share with Frances and Jose. Thanks. We are having a great time so far.

[kazu]

Some comparisons

 

I think it is fairly rare when there are concurrent reports on Cruise Critic from the Zaandam and all of it's R-class sisters but this is happening now. In addition to my reports we have several threads on the Amsterdam World Cruise, btimmer on the Volendam's trans-Pacific from Asia to Vancouver, and kazu's reports on the Rotterdam transatlantic. With relatively modest internet access the only one I've really been following is the Rotterdam but I've found it interesting to compare some of my observations with kazu's.

 

She commented on the footwear the deck crew is wearing, with crocs becoming a new standard. That hasn't happened yet on the Zaandam; both the deck hands washing the decks each morning and the stewards working with the lounge chair cushions have been wearing standard safety shoes.

 

She also mentioned the stairs. I believe she said that the stairs were carpeted with a contrasting material on the top and bottom steps on each flight. That's partially true on the Zaandam. The midship stairs are that way, both the main staircase and the extra one between decks 3 and 5. Both the forward and aft staircases have a contrasting color on the bottom step of each flight but not the top and the stairs in the atrium only have a different shade on the center landing.

 

https://aroundamericabitbybit.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/zaandamstairs.jpg

 

I'm not quite sure what the rationale is but there are 2 Mariner tiles for the R-class ships, one for the Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the other for the Volendam and Zaandam. I would have guessed it would be the Rotterdam vs the other 3 given the modifications to the Rotterdam's aft deck but that's not the case.

 

https://aroundamericabitbybit.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/zaantile.jpg

 

She also noted the format of the menu for Gala nights as a 4-panel card form. That appears to be fleet wide as I've seen it both on the Koningsdam and the Zaandam. I kind of like the new format; it does a nice job of printing to a pdf from the new Navigator app.

 

One thing that appears to be better on the Zaandam, at least for this cruise, is the internet. It was poor this afternoon but has generally worked reasonably well.

 

Roy

 

 

 

Thanks for the comparisons Roy.

 

Interesting on the crocs for the crew on the outside decks. Lester (our favourite Retreat bar guy) did say it was the new uniform - fleet wide. Wondering if the Rotterdam got it first? Being a flagship and all?

 

Most of our internet issues were due to the crossing I think. Strange as when we crossed on the P'dam I never lost internet last time. Must be the path that was chosen?

 

At least now we have ports where I can get a bit of wifi (without pushing DH's patience) so it looks like I may not have to start a "go fund me" account for kazu's internet. LOL.

 

 

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