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'Twas the Cruise During Christmas - Zuiderdam 2018


POA1
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6 hours ago, POA1 said:

 

That's not the everyday chicken. It's the Chef Rudi chicken. I think the everyday chicken is just a breast. If my brother in law were here, he'd be have ordered it by now. 

Oh darn.  Yeah...you were clear on that.

Anyhow, good to know your BIL orders it regularly.  Must be okay.  That's good info in and of itself.

😊

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12 minutes ago, AncientWanderer said:

Oh darn.  Yeah...you were clear on that.

Anyhow, good to know your BIL orders it regularly.  Must be okay.  That's good info in and of itself.

 

I order the every day chicken once or twice a cruise (10 - 14 day cruises mostly) and really enjoy it. I find it cooked well and a nice change of pace from the sometimes very different entrees that are available.  Not sure it comes with much on the side so sometimes I get potatoes with it. 🙂

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2 hours ago, AncientWanderer said:

Oh darn.  Yeah...you were clear on that.

Anyhow, good to know your BIL orders it regularly.  Must be okay.  That's good info in and of itself.

😊

I'll see what we can find out. It sounds very similar to the one my father-in-law ordered. We're in the Pinnacle Grill Saturday night, so I won't be able to check until Sunday. 

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Several people have reported that they could not order doubles on the beverage packages. Initially, I wasn't going to answer the question because we've never run into that restriction before. However, times change. Policies change, and it's possible that there is a restriction on doubles. So, I decided to test the problem. While it does not rise to the level of heroism of taking a bullet, catching a grenade, or stepping in front of a sword - - I tried to order a double from various bars around the ship. Call it taking one for the team.

 

I cannot say, with absolute authority, that you can order doubles everywhere, I'm pretty darn sure that *I* can.

 

Conclusion: Doubles are no problem. Just remember that a double counts as two drinks. (This may not need explanation, one never knows. Do one?) 

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4 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Several people have reported that they could not order doubles on the beverage packages. Initially, I wasn't going to answer the question because we've never run into that restriction before. However, times change. Policies change, and it's possible that there is a restriction on doubles. So, I decided to test the problem. While it does not rise to the level of heroism of taking a bullet, catching a grenade, or stepping in front of a sword - - I tried to order a double from various bars around the ship. Call it taking one for the team.

 

I cannot say, with absolute authority, that you can order doubles everywhere, I'm pretty darn sure that *I* can.

 

Conclusion: Doubles are no problem. Just remember that a double counts as two drinks. (This may not need explanation, one never knows. Do one?) 

Lol thanks for taking one for the team! They had a 3 minute rule on Oosterdam 🙄...first I’ve ever heard of that. Once I ‘made friends’ with certain bar staff all was well. Just wondering if it’s now a fleetwide  policy. 

 

 

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10 minutes ago, KrissyCruises said:

How are you doing on getting double pours with Elite package?  I had a problem with that (for the first time ever with a beverage package) on Oosterdam earlier this month. 

Really enjoying your reports! TY!

 

Not trying to come across as smug, but I simply asked. That's all. I don't normally ask for doubles because we try to cultivate relationships that provide us with value. If we've done our job well, the ice in our glasses melts really quickly and we have to order a "water back." 

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What a difference a day makes. The MDR was sparsely attended because we were in port until 10:00 pm. I ordered our wine "straight through" and this is what our table looked like before any of our food courses hit the table. 

 

IMG_20181221_195538.jpg1048982483_PerfectlyClear.jpg.45d498e548dc0b6fb97e357679ea0cb1.jpg

 

I took a more overhead angled photo, but this one is better. 

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18 minutes ago, POA1 said:

 

Not trying to come across as smug, but I simply asked. That's all. I don't normally ask for doubles because we try to cultivate relationships that provide us with value. If we've done our job well, the ice in our glasses melts really quickly and we have to order a "water back." 

Yikes sorry...

Thanks for the research though! I occasionally find it more convenient to get a double and was surprised it was a problem after many cruises w/beverage packages.  I’m thinking it may be up to the discretion of beverage manager. 

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25 minutes ago, POA1 said:

What a difference a day makes. The MDR was sparsely attended because we were in port until 10:00 pm. I ordered our wine "straight through" and this is what our table looked like before any of our food courses hit the table. 

 

IMG_20181221_195538.jpg1048982483_PerfectlyClear.jpg.45d498e548dc0b6fb97e357679ea0cb1.jpg

 

I took a more overhead angled photo, but this one is better. 

Great shot!  My DH orders straight through as well. It let’s the reds breathe as well as having your wines available with their proper course 🙂

Edited by KrissyCruises
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7 hours ago, KrissyCruises said:

Yikes sorry...

Thanks for the research though! I occasionally find it more convenient to get a double and was surprised it was a problem after many cruises w/beverage packages.  I’m thinking it may be up to the discretion of beverage manager. 

 

I did not mean to come off as being harsh. It wasn't my intent.

 

You are correct that things like this are at the discretion of management. Back when the program first started, the computer enforced a 5 minute time limit between orders. The problem for the staff is that they'd have to work twice as hard and use double the glassware. This is especially true for things like my drink, which is liquor + ice. In the unfortunate event of a measured pour, I'll have 1.5 ounces of whiskey and a lot of ice in a glass. When you factor in the inevitable evaporation, it's not a long lasting beverage. So, even back then, the staff would pour doubles 

They just kept your card at the register for a re-ring once the five minutes had passed. 

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1 hour ago, ski ww said:

Thanks for doing all this scientific research, this must distract from your holiday or is this more of a working holiday? Enjoying your posts, keep them coming.

 

Science never sleeps. It naps a lot though. 

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Our evening of clean, bright entertainments began with Lincoln Center Stage's movie themed program at 6 pm. We arrived about 20 minutes early to score good seats. Even though we were in port yet, the performance wound up being full. The movie program is pretty accessible, so even if you are not a fan of classical music, you'll probably enjoy this one. They did a Schumann program at 7 pm and repeated the movie program at 9.

 

But by 7 o'clock, we had moved on to the Ocean Bar to listen to the pianist. He was also doing music from film scores, so the start of our evening was tied together thematically. The pianist, a gentleman from Russia who my phones autocorrect will not allow me to type, did a wonderful arrangement of "Cheek to Cheek.". Michelle noticed that he didn't seen to be reading the music. Sure enough, he was doing his own arrangement - from memory! (He does use the music on his tablet for other numbers though.) 

 

We finished the evening up with the final BB King set. Great as always. 

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11 minutes ago, POA1 said:

The pianist, a gentleman from Russia who my phones autocorrect will not allow me to type, did a wonderful arrangement of "Cheek to Cheek.". Michelle noticed that he didn't seen to be reading the music. Sure enough, he was doing his own arrangement - from memory!

 

He sounds like a very talented pianist!  

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8 hours ago, KrissyCruises said:

Great shot!  My DH orders straight through as well. It let’s the reds breathe as well as having your wines available with their proper course 🙂

 

Thanks.  I tried to take an overhead shot, but while it did capture the wine, it also wound up being a pervy down-shirt shot of my wife, so I went with they eye-level one.

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Have you experienced any high winds while at sea and do you have any sea of the wave heights? We will be sailing on her the first week of January and have booked a guarantee so our cabin will probably be forward where motion is the most noticeable    

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1 minute ago, Moerin78 said:

Have you experienced any high winds while at sea and do you have any sea of the wave heights? We will be sailing on her the first week of January and have booked a guarantee so our cabin will probably be forward where motion is the most noticeable    

 

Quite a bit of wind, but not a lot of motion.  Our balcony door was whistling from the wind for the better part of the first sea day. Not too loudly, but not melodically either.

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2018-12-22-Curacao-Card-sm.jpg


Greetings from Curaçao in the former Netherlands Antilles. The port stop in Curaçao is a long one, lasting from 7:00 AM until 11:00 PM. That’s because our next port stop, Aruba, is only 70 miles away.  When we first came to Curaçao, they used to have a fireworks display at sail away.  That’s not been the case the past few times we called on the island. For sparkly night time enjoyment, the Queen Emma pontoon swing bridge is lit after dark. Its… what’s the word I’m looking for… Picturesque.


Our hopes were crushed when we realized that we were arriving on a Saturday and the Senior & Co. Curaçao Distillery wouldn’t have tours operating. They operate tours on weekdays and we were hoping to sample all the colors: clear, orange, blue, red, and green – as well as the specialty flavors: rum raisin, coffee, chocolate, and tamarind. I had visions of decorating our in-room Christmas tree with colorful Curaçao miniatures. So much for that plan. It probably wouldn’t have worked anyway, given that we don’t have an in-room tree.


Moving on to Plan B: My father-in-law had eye surgery a few years ago and he’s not supposed to snorkel or get seawater in his eye. He’s also not big on going to the beach, so we wanted to come up with something non-beachy. I found a Historic Walking Architectural Tour from the Curaçao Tourist Board.  There are two sections to the tour. Each is about 2 hours long. The total distance for the two segments is 4.25 km or just a bit over 2.6 miles.  Copper recommended a café near the Queen Emma Bridge, with nice views of St. Anna Bay.  This is almost like a real excursion!


If this sort of thing interests you, a PDF of the tour is available here.  To up the geek factor, I created a .MOBI file version for my Kindle Paperwhite. I figured that was easier than trying to carry 26 sheets of paper from the PDF printout.  If you would like a copy for your Kindle or other e-reader, you can get it here.  Amazon has instructions on how to send the files to your reader. We tested the file on the Kindle Fire 8 HD, the Paperwhite, the PC Kindle reader, and both the Android and iOS Kindle apps.  (When the Institute of Cheer goes geek, it goes full-throttle nerd.)


https://www.curacao.com/media/uploads/2015/07/15/CTB_Walkingguide_2015.pdf


Map-2018-12-22-Curacao.jpg

 

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1 hour ago, kazu said:

 

He sounds like a very talented pianist!  

 

He's very good and it seems like he works longer sets than the other musicians, although that might just be our perception.

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A little more information on the wine price mismatch between the MDR, the bars and the specialty restaurants.

 

The MDR was pretty dead last night because we didn't leave Bonaire until 10:00 pm. This was excellent timing since it was the day for our wine steward's mid-cruise performance evaluation.:classic_wink:  Other than the snafu the first night and on gala night, he's been great. Really great. I asked him about the price difference between the MDR's list and the others is because they're in the process of reworking the wine lists, which is something @RetiredMustang alluded to in his thread.  The Zuiderdam's not fully changed over yet. The wine stewards can override the prices if they're wrong in their POS, so it pays to know your stuff. I would really like it if they had to yell, "Price check at Table 1" like they do in grocery stores, but I can't get everything I want. (If I did, where would i put it?)

 

The current MDR wine list is not as robust as the one we had in 2016. However, you can actually get more wines if you know where to look.

 

The emphasis now seems to be on the wine packages which can slow things down for folks who don't know what they want. (I guess it slows things down for everyone else.)  Keeping with my grocery store metaphor, I'd like something akin to the 10 items of less check out lines. Express wine tables in the MDR for people who know exactly what they want ahead of time. Granted, that would be just a small subset of tables, but maybe it would encourage people to be prepared.

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Daily Programs Galore!

 

The Department of Scanning Things is pleased to announce that it's all caught up on the When & Wheres.  It feels like it's earned a drink, so I am taking the department out for holiday cocktails before dinner.

 

December 20, 2018 - Sea Day:

 

https://www.evernote.com/l/AFhnpF2TRTlOroxyL0XvgKdtqBFbyjAPG4g/

 

December 21, 2018 - Bonaire:

 

https://www.evernote.com/l/AFgtChdjD-pHbolKotSNnUcdbkpP9Z7Y46c/

 

December 22, 2018 0 Curacao:

 

https://www.evernote.com/l/AFiOil-GQD5Mh4-xl3Zh93oksiSOtOGrgRc/

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Sometimes my head is just a place to keep my hat.... Remember how I needed dialing instructions for room to room? Well... I have allergies and carry a fair amount of tissues with me (the good, 3 ply Kleenex Ultra Soft kind) but I remove them from the box because they take up less room in the suitcase. When we unpacked, I put a pile of tissues on the night stand on my side of the bed. I moved them this morning and saw this:

 

IMG_20181222_105022.jpg217147892_PerfectlyClear.thumb.jpg.383dfc8e9c7b0a6819a3a759e200982e.jpg

 

It's a good thing I walked to school. Otherwise, I'd have been on the short bus. 

 

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