The Fleet Report and Daily for Sunday December 11th, 2022

[rafinmd]

I got very busy yesterday and never posted a December 10 sunrise so here it is,  December `10, 2016 was a sea day on the Seabourn Odyssey on the way to Fort Lauderdale:

 

 

The one for December 11 is from my 2013 Prinsendam Amazon cruise.  On December 11 we visited Alter do Chao:

 

 

Roy

[puppycanducruise]

@*Miss G*Sending you prayers for strength at this difficult time.

[grapau27]

3 hours ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

Good morning from a cloudy, windy and much cooler central Texas.  It is currently 56F and may reach 62F this afternoon.  We had a nice rain with thunder about midnight.  We are expecting rain again tomorrow afternoon through Tuesday morning.  I hope it ends before we head to DH's doctor's appointment Tuesday.

 

I agree there are too many apps on my phone and tablet, and I only use a small percentage.  I'll often go the web-site instead of the app. I can support the food drive for needy animals and UNICEF Day for Change.

 

The Billy Sunday quote is one I totally agree with.  I've seen too many professed Christians acting very un-Christian like and spouting hatred and bigotry.  I also agree with @ger_77 Gerry, that you can be a Christian or spiritual without going to church.

 

We'll pass on the meal and the drink.  I'm not sure what we'll have for dinner tonight, but it will be easy and can be eaten in our laps.  The kitchen counters are still covered with cookies, which hopefully will be completely decorated by dinner.  The drink with so many varieties of rum would put me under the table.  The wine sounds good, and we've enjoyed many bottles of Cote du Rhone.

 

Djupivogur is one Icelandic port we have missed, although we did stop at another port on the east side of Iceland on the Prinsendam in 2017.

 

@kazu  Jacqui, sending positive thoughts that the weather gods will look kindly on you, and you'll be able to fly to San Diego on time.  If not, with going early, there is wiggle room to get there on other days, which I hope is not the case.

@mamaofami  Carol, I'm sorry you were not able to attend the Bar Mitzvah in person, but glad you were able to watch via zoom.

@StLouisCruisers  Sandi, that is good news that the Christmas decorations arrived and are being put up now.  Your DD's tree is lovely.

@smitty34877  Terry, I'm sorry you will not be able to go to your son's for Christmas.  Hopefully, this time next year (and really, way before then) you will be as good as new.

@ottahand7  Nancy, I'm sorry your DB will not be able to attend your 70th birthday party.  I'm glad he is getting PT and OT, and hoping he regains his strength soon.

@*Miss G*  I hope the family member with the devastating health news is doing better.

@grapau27  Graham, best wishes for your procedure tomorrow and your doctor visit Tuesday.

 

Lenda

 

 

1 hour ago, marshhawk said:

Good Sunday Morning Dailyites!  Another rainy day in GA.  Storms are coming in from the west this afternoon, expecting lots of rain.  Which is now unfortunately way too much rain, and with that storm that @kazuposted about,  we will get hit even harder on Tuesday.  That's quite a storm.

 

@grapau27Thank you for posting Father David,  and good luck on all of your medical procedures that you are having this week.

 

I love butternut squash, my dad was responsible for veggies on the holidays, so we always got mashed butternut, mashed potatoes and mashed turnips.  Personally I like them roasted instead, but growing up with two yankee parents, every thing in the 50's and 60's was boiled and mashed.  Oh, and creamed onions.  I still love those. It's amazing that with all that soupy food we ever developed bones.  My mother would even make creamed celery.  (gag me).

 

I would really love to go to Iceland , my friend Debbie says she wants to go, but DH says it's just another way to have to spend money...Which means to have to work more.  LOL.  I do appreciate all the photographs that you all post.  DH says he wants to post, but does not know how.

 

For the last three Saturdays we have been watching our favorite holiday movies, which means we will really  have to cram them in next weekend.  Week, one, was Love Actually, Week two was The Holiday, Week 3 (last night) was The Last Holiday.  And now we are down to the Oldies,  Holiday Inn, White Christmas, and then on Christmas Eve, It's a wonderful life, and Scrooged.   

 

So back to the DH wanting to post pictures, what do you all think of Shutterfly?  Can I gift him that for Christmas?  I know with the loss of sight in one eye, he has not been taking as many pictures, but he was a good photographer, and I think he needs to get that hobby back.

 

 

 

11 minutes ago, dfish said:

 

Wishing you the best for tomorrow, Graham.

 

 

It was wonderful that you could watch the ceremony, but you are right - it isn't the same as being there and seeing people in person.

 

 

Your daughter is very talented.   Beautiful tree.

 

 

I'm glad you were never positive and that your DH is now negative.  Bummer on having to wait until the 14th for the ship to test.  

 

 

How disappointing that you cannot go this year.  I would run shuttle service for you if I were closer.  Let's keep next year in mind and make it happen.

 

 

Prayers that he will be home for Christmas.  I know the hospital and rehab staff really work to get patients home by then.

 

 

What an interesting memory.  How old were you?

 

 

That sounds really good!   

 

 

I am sorry about the devastating health news for a family member.  Warm thoughts to you that you can find peace and comfort.  If we on the Daily can give  you some support, let  us know.  We're here to do that. 

 

 

What an experience.  It is a good thing you were with your grandson.  

 

Thank you for those pictures!  You are helping me decide what to do there.

 

 

Thank you, Jack, for the beautiful pictures.  I am more excited for this port now.  Can't wait to see those eggs!

 

 

So happy you are feeling better and better.  Maybe some chocolate would speed up the recovery?

 

May they rest in peace.

Thank you Lenda,Annie and Debbie for your kind sentiments for my op tomorrow.

Graham.

[Heartgrove]

@grapau27 Graham, I hope your surgery goes well tomorrow.

[grapau27]

14 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

@grapau27 Graham, I hope your surgery goes well tomorrow.

Thank you Jack.

Graham.

Edited December 11, 2022 by grapau27

[marshhawk]

I didnt know Shutterfly wasn't a membership for Cloud Storage.  But that's what i am looking for, somewhere for DH to post hic pics and be able to see them.  

[erewhon]

@richwmn  Rich, Thank you for posting the Daily, and locations of the Holland America Line Fleet.

@rafinmd  Roy,  thank you for the Care and Celebration Lists.

Will be back later.

[MISTER 67]

Good morning from beautiful Southwest Florida.

Just back from our Nieuw Amsterdam cruise, it was a mixed bag and sad to say our worst HAL cruise with 24 of them on BHB's and 69 cruises overall. We sailed to the Eastern Caribbean with stops in Turks and Caicos, San Juan, St. Thomas and HMC. No review on those places as we very seldom get off the ship anymore, we did walk around Havesight in St. Thomas for about an hour. I read my usual 3 books for the cruise and actually started a 4th.

I'll do a short review rating certain aspects from 1-10 with 10 being the best.

Embarkation -10. We arrived at the PE midport garage at 10:15, started the check-in about 10:30. First gentleman we met asked if we were vaccinated, after replying in the affirmative he sent us to a lady a few yards away who asked for our cabin number, gave it to her and she checked our name and then printed out our boarding passes from a hand held printing machine, the pass looked like a cedit card receipt. No one asked for the boarding passes that we printed out on our home computer, sort of strange. Next stop was a lady who guided us with facial recognition and ask to see our passport. Last stop was a lady that handed out our embarkation number cards, as 4 star Mariners, we had priority boarding and went straight up the escalator to the priorty boarding area and we actually boarded the ship at 10:55, this is the fastest we ever boarded a cruise ship and was as painless as could be.

Next stop was our cabin to drop off our carry-ons, the cabin was ready even at that early hour.  We booked a large inside cabin on the recommendation from the the gentlemen who we booked this cruise with on the Rotterdam last April. It was cabin 8045 and was about a 1.5 times the size of a standard inside cabin, the cabin gets a 10.

We then headed up to the Lido for lunch which started some problems for the week. We both had soup and sandwiches with the sandwiches being the pre-made, they were a joke with 1 slice of ham and wilted lettuce, the soup was good. A tradition for us is to always have HAL's famous bread pudding for dessert on our first day, trust me it was not bread pudding, it was more like bread soup, just terrible. We are not complainers and didn't say a word but only had a spoonful of the pudding

 

 

 

as we left the Lido shaking our heads. The bread pudding the next day at lunch  was what we have come to expect with HAL bread pudding.  The next morning things didn't improve in the Lido, I love Lox and bagels with cream cheese, so I'm looking at the Lox in serving line and instead of the usual fresh looking pink color of lox, this lox was grey, I still tried it and it was terrible with a fish taste and I only had one bite. The next morning I'm waiting for our side of the Lido to open , one of the Lido maitre d's told me that the other side was open but I explained to him that the lox on our side looked nice and fresh and pink while the lox on the other side was the grey garbage. The rest of the week they only had the grey stuff and I never had lox the rest of the week.

I think it was Wednesday morning and I decided to have some French Toast with sausage and scrambled eggs, the French Toast and sausage were great but I couldn't believe when I had my first bite of the scrambled eggs, they were just about frozen, someone forgot to heat the eggs up as they had the eggs in a container which I found out when I returned my breakfast to the serving line and the young server who gave me the eggs in the first place. I told her my eggs were frozen and she gave me look like she knew that someone forgot to heat up the eggs. I told her to fry me up a couple of eggs sunny side down. 

I had 2 omelets during the week and they were both very good.

All in all the the meals and desserts in the Lido the rest of the week  pretty good but we had some that weren't. My rating for the Lido is 6

The MDR was also a letdown,  its obvious the food budget for HAL has been reduced with quality and quantity suffering. We ate 6 nights in the MDR and there was nothing outstanding. Very disappointed when one night I had Dover Sole and it couldn't have been more than a 2.5 ounce serving. 2 nights later I had the broiled haddock and again it was very small serving. The chefs also salted the entrees and soups way too much. Last night was the best meal of the week as we both had the prime rib. Rating for the MDR was 7.5.

Entertainment on Holland America ships has been a problem for quite a while now, Music Walk is OK but it's becoming old. The Main Showroom is were things are really bad. I'm sorry but Planet Earth and The History of HAL is not entertainment. We want live singers and bands, not the canned stuff that HAL feed us, we were on 3 Celebrity cruises this past summer and fall and there is just no comparison on how much better entertainment is on Celebrity not only in the showroom but in all the other lounges on the ship. For HAL to not have live entertainment in the beautiful Ocean bar during the evening cocktail hours is a crime. Entertainment -7.

Service throughout the ship was as usual outstanding though there was only cabin service in the morning, no evening turndown service and 4 chocolate mints each during the week which was left on the desk in the room. We've been on 7 cruises since Nov of 2022 when we felt it was fairly safe to cruise again and this cruise was the first one we didn't have twice a day cabin service and that includes the Rotterdam last April, and t this is not the fault of the crew. Service gets a 10

The ship was very clean and gets a 10 for cleanliness.

The ship is getting older but still in pretty good shape with furniture and the carpeti ng in great shape, some rust and scratches  here and there, Shipshape gets a 9.

We do the early walkoff and were off the ship at 7:15 this morning and in our car by 7:30 and made it home by 9:45, pretty good time for the 160 mile trip and it was a little on the foggy on Alligator Alley this morning, I usually do 5 over the limit. 

All in all I'm going to say that will be our last HAL cruise for awhile and we will stay with Celebrity and Princess until there are some changes for the better on HAL. This review is not just me speaking as we talked to quite a few people and they all felt the same was as we do that HAL has cut down a little too much.

I'm a little tired and  I probably left off some things but i will be happy to answer any questions. Please show me some slack as I'm not the greatest typist and writer on the planet but gave it my best.

The good news, I'm back on the golf course tomorrow morning.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2022 by MISTER 67

[StLouisCruisers]

Just had sunset at 6:02 so here is a photo of it on my TV screen.  No balcony to run out onto!  On our way to Aruba. Going to try to read before evening activities. 

[StLouisCruisers]

7 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

Good morning.  I remember being issued a UNICEF box at school and carrying it with me as I trick-or-treated.  Everyone had coins prepared in piles to hand out along with candy.  That was back in the day when some neighbours made you perform a trick before they’d hand you a treat.  When we immigrated to Canada, from England, we arrived in October.  On Halloween we went to my aunt/uncle/cousins’ house (they’d immigrated two years prior) and stayed in because we had no idea what the heck was going on.  That was the first and only time I was ever scared on Halloween.  👻

 

I tried a Hurricane my first time in New Orleans.  I couldn’t believe I could walk down the street with it and kept waiting for someone to stop me.  That was a fun trip.

 

I won’t be making butternut squash risotto but I will be roasting it to go with our roast pork and Brussels sprouts this evening.  I had some use-or-lose bananas so I’ve made a lovely banana nut bread for dessert.

 

I haven’t been around or posting much these last few weeks.  Some devastating health news from a family member kind of shut me down, along with some other issues.  Posting in this thread, today, shows me that I’m coming out of it.  Now that I am starting to function, again, I have a lot to do.

 

Healing thoughts and prayers go out to those who need them.  I will take a look at Father David’s sermon later, @grapau27.  Thank you.  Have a peaceful day, everyone.

 

 

Miss G I'm very sorry about the terrible health news your family member had.  It really hurts when that happens and I hope your coming here now is a help to you.

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, lindaler said:

Good morning all. I have had my grandson visiting this weekend since I won't see him for three months due to cruising. We had a ball. Friday we went to the art walk where his dad, my son was a big puppet. It was fun and lots to see. Then last night we went to watch a musical boat parade. About thirty boats all decorated and paraded by throwing gifts and showing off all their lights. It was fun and beautiful and interesting. The bad thing was there was so many people trying to get on the dock attached to a restaurant sponsoring the event. There were also people standing on the upstairs patio above the dock. About half way through the dock suffered from all the weight and started with breaking boards. Someone cried that Run the dock was sinking. Well, many did and the panic was bad. The dock didn't sink, only suffered broken boards and will need repair. More suffered from trying to get off then from the dock having cracked boards. It was a valuable lesson to teach my grandson. We just stood by a supporting piling and hung on so we were not knocked down. I told him I would tell him if we were in danger and we saw the whole parade without ever being in danger. It was the "fire" in a theater mentality that he learned to ignore and use common sense. 

Hope everyone on here is having a good day. Prayers for those who need them. Thanks for all that make this a great place to be.

 

 

Linda, I'm so glad you were with your young grandson when that happened and you weren't hurt at all.  Fast thinking on your part and a good lesson for him to learn.  Take care and please enjoy those cruises!

 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Thank you Lenda.

On Tuesday I have a hospital appointment at Biomechanics appliance department about my foot pain and a doctor's appointment later.

Graham.

Graham, best of luck to you tomorrow at your procedure and hospital appointment.  We'll all be thinking of you and wishing you the best care possible.

 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Lovely tree Sandi and nice spindles on the staircase.

Graham.

 

Thank you it is a lovely tree.  And the spindles too, lol! 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Mtn2Sea said:

In August, we stopped in Djupivogur while aboard the N. Statendam.  We took an excursion to “The Valley of the Waterfalls.” Shortly after leaving the port, we got off the main road onto a one lane dirt/gravel/rocky road. A total of seven vehicles participated in this caravan over a pretty barren landscape. The ride was a bit rough, but we were able to see numerous beautiful waterfalls during our four hour tour. Prior to returning to the port, we stopped in an open vista and had coffee/hot chocolate and either “matrimonial” cake (an Icelandic specialty) or a rolled up pancake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for adding your photos today of our port in Iceland.  Such a lovely country, isn't it?

 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

Thank you Rich, thank you Roy, thank you Debbie, thank you Cat Shepard, and thank you Dixie for your daily contribution! And thank you all for being here!

 

We visited the port of the day, Djupivogur, last year on our circumnavigation cruise of Iceland on Viking Ocean. Djupivogur is a town and municipality located on the eastern end of Iceland. It is the site of an art work by Sigorour Guomundsson. "The Eggs of Merry Bay" are a replica of the 34 nesting birds that live in the area. It also has the Langabou which is one of the oldest commercial buildings still in existence in Iceland with the south wall dating back to 1790. 

 

For the cruise, it was a stepping off port for other paid excursions in the area. We chose to participate in the VO  "Included Excursion" which was an hour or so walk around the town culminating with a recorded musical performance emanating from a boom box inside of a re-purposed oil tank. The accousitics were actually very good!

 

Tendering to shore.

 

The tender landing.

 

Downtown Djupivogur.

 

The Re-purposed Oil Tank on the outskirts of town.

 

 

The OIl Tank ceiling.

 

Merry Bay 

 

The Eggs of Merry Bay, or "Eggin i Gleovik"

 

Closeup of one of the eggs.

 

The South wall of  "Langabuo"

 

Tendering back.

 

Stay Safe!

 

- Jack

 

 

Your photos of Djupivogur show us how unique a place it is.  Thanks for letting us view them.

 

 

 

 

4 hours ago, marshhawk said:

Good Sunday Morning Dailyites!  Another rainy day in GA.  Storms are coming in from the west this afternoon, expecting lots of rain.  Which is now unfortunately way too much rain, and with that storm that @kazuposted about,  we will get hit even harder on Tuesday.  That's quite a storm.

 

@grapau27Thank you for posting Father David,  and good luck on all of your medical procedures that you are having this week.

 

I love butternut squash, my dad was responsible for veggies on the holidays, so we always got mashed butternut, mashed potatoes and mashed turnips.  Personally I like them roasted instead, but growing up with two yankee parents, every thing in the 50's and 60's was boiled and mashed.  Oh, and creamed onions.  I still love those. It's amazing that with all that soupy food we ever developed bones.  My mother would even make creamed celery.  (gag me).

 

I would really love to go to Iceland , my friend Debbie says she wants to go, but DH says it's just another way to have to spend money...Which means to have to work more.  LOL.  I do appreciate all the photographs that you all post.  DH says he wants to post, but does not know how.

 

For the last three Saturdays we have been watching our favorite holiday movies, which means we will really  have to cram them in next weekend.  Week, one, was Love Actually, Week two was The Holiday, Week 3 (last night) was The Last Holiday.  And now we are down to the Oldies,  Holiday Inn, White Christmas, and then on Christmas Eve, It's a wonderful life, and Scrooged.   

 

So back to the DH wanting to post pictures, what do you all think of Shutterfly?  Can I gift him that for Christmas?  I know with the loss of sight in one eye, he has not been taking as many pictures, but he was a good photographer, and I think he needs to get that hobby back.

 

 

Annie, just go to the Shutterfly website and sign up as a member.  You can upload all the pictures you want there for free (at least they've never set a limit for me and I have TONS of them there).  Just never try to look at them while at sea on the Volendam with my DH's HP netbook, okay?  They refuse to work with us.  haha!

 

 

 

 

4 hours ago, Cruising-along said:

Good morning all!

Feeling a little better yet this morning, this thing is finally letting go.  I can't comment on the food and drink yet, nothing much sounds good to me yet.  I think this is the first time in my adult life I haven't had chocolate or wine for a couple weeks! Horrors!!!   😅  I love the quote and agree with others and @ger_77.  

 

I hope everyone has a good day and anyone under the weather feels better soon.  Prayers for all on the care list and cheers to all on the celebrations list.

Happy to hear you are feeling better today!  Soon you'll want some chocolate and wine, won't you?

 

 

 

2 hours ago, marshhawk said:

I didnt know Shutterfly wasn't a membership for Cloud Storage.  But that's what i am looking for, somewhere for DH to post hic pics and be able to see them.  

See above message.  I hope you join and enjoy uploading and storing there whenever you want.

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, MISTER 67 said:

Good morning from beautiful Southwest Florida.

Just back from our Nieuw Amsterdam cruise, it was a mixed bag and sad to say our worst HAL cruise with 24 of them on BHB's and 69 cruises overall. We sailed to the Eastern Caribbean with stops in Turks and Caicos, San Juan, St. Thomas and HMC. No review on those places as we very seldom get off the ship anymore, we did walk around Havesight in St. Thomas for about an hour. I read my usual 3 books for the cruise and actually started a 4th.

I'll do a short review rating certain aspects from 1-10 with 10 being the best.

Embarkation -10. We arrived at the PE midport garage at 10:15, started the check-in about 10:30. First gentleman we met asked if we were vaccinated, after replying in the affirmative he sent us to a lady a few yards away who asked for our cabin number, gave it to her and she checked our name and then printed out our boarding passes from a hand held printing machine, the pass looked like a cedit card receipt. No one asked for the boarding passes that we printed out on our home computer, sort of strange. Next stop was a lady who guided us with facial recognition and ask to see our passport. Last stop was a lady that handed out our embarkation number cards, as 4 star Mariners, we had priority boarding and went straight up the escalator to the priorty boarding area and we actually boarded the ship at 10:55, this is the fastest we ever boarded a cruise ship and was as painless as could be.

Next stop was our cabin to drop off our carry-ons, the cabin was ready even at that early hour.  We booked a large inside cabin on the recommendation from the the gentlemen who we booked this cruise with on the Rotterdam last April. It was cabin 8045 and was about a 1.5 times the size of a standard inside cabin, the cabin gets a 10.

We then headed up to the Lido for lunch which started some problems for the week. We both had soup and sandwiches with the sandwiches being the pre-made, they were a joke with 1 slice of ham and wilted lettuce, the soup was good. A tradition for us is to always have HAL's famous bread pudding for dessert on our first day, trust me it was not bread pudding, it was more like bread soup, just terrible. We are not complainers and didn't say a word but only had a spoonful of the pudding

 

 

 

as we left the Lido shaking our heads. The bread pudding the next day at lunch  was what we have come to expect with HAL bread pudding.  The next morning things didn't improve in the Lido, I love Lox and bagels with cream cheese, so I'm looking at the Lox in serving line and instead of the usual fresh looking pink color of lox, this lox was grey, I still tried it and it was terrible with a fish taste and I only had one bite. The next morning I'm waiting for our side of the Lido to open , one of the Lido maitre d's told me that the other side was open but I explained to him that the lox on our side looked nice and fresh and pink while the lox on the other side was the grey garbage. The rest of the week they only had the grey stuff and I never had lox the rest of the week.

I think it was Wednesday morning and I decided to have some French Toast with sausage and scrambled eggs, the French Toast and sausage were great but I couldn't believe when I had my first bite of the scrambled eggs, they were just about frozen, someone forgot to heat the eggs up as they had the eggs in a container which I found out when I returned my breakfast to the serving line and the young server who gave me the eggs in the first place. I told her my eggs were frozen and she gave me look like she knew that someone forgot to heat up the eggs. I told her to fry me up a couple of eggs sunny side down. 

I had 2 omelets during the week and they were both very good.

All in all the the meals and desserts in the Lido the rest of the week  pretty good but we had some that weren't. My rating for the Lido is 6

The MDR was also a letdown,  its obvious the food budget for HAL has been reduced with quality and quantity suffering. We ate 6 nights in the MDR and there was nothing outstanding. Very disappointed when one night I had Dover Sole and it couldn't have been more than a 2.5 ounce serving. 2 nights later I had the broiled haddock and again it was very small serving. The chefs also salted the entrees and soups way too much. Last night was the best meal of the week as we both had the prime rib. Rating for the MDR was 7.5.

Entertainment on Holland America ships has been a problem for quite a while now, Music Walk is OK but it's becoming old. The Main Showroom is were things are really bad. I'm sorry but Planet Earth and The History of HAL is not entertainment. We want live singers and bands, not the canned stuff that HAL feed us, we were on 3 Celebrity cruises this past summer and fall and there is just no comparison on how much better entertainment is on Celebrity not only in the showroom but in all the other lounges on the ship. For HAL to not have live entertainment in the beautiful Ocean bar during the evening cocktail hours is a crime. Entertainment -7.

Service throughout the ship was as usual outstanding though there was only cabin service in the morning, no evening turndown service and 4 chocolate mints each during the week which was left on the desk in the room. We've been on 7 cruises since Nov of 2022 when we felt it was fairly safe to cruise again and this cruise was the first one we didn't have twice a day cabin service and that includes the Rotterdam last April, and t this is not the fault of the crew. Service gets a 10

The ship was very clean and gets a 10 for cleanliness.

The ship is getting older but still in pretty good shape with furniture and the carpeti ng in great shape, some rust and scratches  here and there, Shipshape gets a 9.

We do the early walkoff and were off the ship at 7:15 this morning and in our car by 7:30 and made it home by 9:45, pretty good time for the 160 mile trip and it was a little on the foggy on Alligator Alley this morning, I usually do 5 over the limit. 

All in all I'm going to say that will be our last HAL cruise for awhile and we will stay with Celebrity and Princess until there are some changes for the better on HAL. This review is not just me speaking as we talked to quite a few people and they all felt the same was as we do that HAL has cut down a little too much.

I'm a little tired and  I probably left off some things but i will be happy to answer any questions. Please show me some slack as I'm not the greatest typist and writer on the planet but gave it my best.

The good news, I'm back on the golf course tomorrow morning.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much for taking time to tell us about your cruise.  I have to agree with you about so many things you mentioned.  Things just aren't as great as they were, and I understand about all the problems, but I don't have to like it!  I pray that they can work themselves back to where they once were.🙏

[JazzyV]

Good afternoon. Thanks for the Fleet Report/Daily.

Some apps are quite helpful; I'll salute food drives for needy animals and UNICEF day for change. Good quote. I like the meal but too many carbs; also like the drink and wine.

I haven't been to Djupivogur.

 

It seems the day got away from me. It's cloudy and cool here. I've been doing some stuff around the house and also researching the area where my house is, trying to find old maps with lots laid out. 

 

@grapau27 Thank you for Fr. David's sermon today. I hope your appointments tomorrow and Tuesday go well.

@kazu I hope the weather doesn't interfere with your travel plans.

@mamaofami Technology came in handy for you for the Bar Mitzvah.

@StLouisCruisers Wonderful tree by DD. Prayers for her upcoming foot surgery.

@summer slope Good to hear about the negative tests.

@smitty34877 Unfortunate you won't be able to join your son for Christmas this year. 

@ottahand7 Sorry DB won't make the birthday party but hopefully he'll be there for Christmas. 

@*Miss G* Prayers for you and your family.

@Quartzsite Cruiser Good luck finishing the cookies. Pictures?

@lindaler How scary about the panic on the dock; that's how people get trampled! I'm glad you two were safe.

@0106 Great zoo photos.

@Mtn2Sea @Heartgrove Thanks for great the Djupivogur photos.

@marshhawk I just watched Love Actually yesterday, for the first time, having heard a lot about it recently.

@Cruising-along Good to hear you're feeling better today. 

@MISTER 67 Welcome home. Sorry to hear the cruise wasn't up to standards. 

 

Prayers for the Care List and CHeers for the Celebration List.

Stay safe everyone.

[Ichiban Nekko]

Hello Dailyites!

 

It is wonderful to read the Fleet Report and all your subsequent posts.

 

Since we seem well on the road to recovery, I think @rafinmd Ray can remove us from the Cares list. We even went for a drive to a few adjoining towns today, woohoo!!

 

While I always appreciate the F&B contributions, our dinner will not be risotto but a poor man's beef stroganoff since I have some ground beef thawed, LOL. The wine sounds divine, but the antibiotics take precedence. Of course, the memes always brighten my outlook and the photos from your Icelandic adventures stoke the travel 'itch'. Bless you all for your caring. And sharing.

 

@StLouisCruisers  I just love your daughter's tree -- in all its iterations. Truly wonderful.

@grapau27  Graham, we wish you all success tomorrow!

@Cruising-along  Hope you continue to improve and recover. Certainly, we understand.

@kazu  Jacqui, Jacqui, Jacqui: List up girl! You are gonna get on that ship if I have to drive to NB myself to get you to a place where you can fly to San Diego. If there is any person on this thread who deserves this, it has to be you. No matter what you have gone through, you are always there for each and every one of us. With grace, humor and compassion. So get packing. Oh and forget cleaning up the wrapping paper stuff etc; I guarantee it will wait for you. Just sayin'

 

DH thinks his ears are trying to clear. That would be absolutely terrific, because then he can use his hearing aids! 'Nuff said. 🙄 Only a few more days of antibiotics left for me. And then 

 

 

 

 

Best wishes to all,

-Cat

[aliaschief]

2 hours ago, MISTER 67 said:

Good morning from beautiful Southwest Florida.

Just back from our Nieuw Amsterdam cruise, it was a mixed bag and sad to say our worst HAL cruise with 24 of them on BHB's and 69 cruises overall. We sailed to the Eastern Caribbean with stops in Turks and Caicos, San Juan, St. Thomas and HMC. No review on those places as we very seldom get off the ship anymore, we did walk around Havesight in St. Thomas for about an hour. I read my usual 3 books for the cruise and actually started a 4th.

I'll do a short review rating certain aspects from 1-10 with 10 being the best.

Embarkation -10. We arrived at the PE midport garage at 10:15, started the check-in about 10:30. First gentleman we met asked if we were vaccinated, after replying in the affirmative he sent us to a lady a few yards away who asked for our cabin number, gave it to her and she checked our name and then printed out our boarding passes from a hand held printing machine, the pass looked like a cedit card receipt. No one asked for the boarding passes that we printed out on our home computer, sort of strange. Next stop was a lady who guided us with facial recognition and ask to see our passport. Last stop was a lady that handed out our embarkation number cards, as 4 star Mariners, we had priority boarding and went straight up the escalator to the priorty boarding area and we actually boarded the ship at 10:55, this is the fastest we ever boarded a cruise ship and was as painless as could be.

Next stop was our cabin to drop off our carry-ons, the cabin was ready even at that early hour.  We booked a large inside cabin on the recommendation from the the gentlemen who we booked this cruise with on the Rotterdam last April. It was cabin 8045 and was about a 1.5 times the size of a standard inside cabin, the cabin gets a 10.

We then headed up to the Lido for lunch which started some problems for the week. We both had soup and sandwiches with the sandwiches being the pre-made, they were a joke with 1 slice of ham and wilted lettuce, the soup was good. A tradition for us is to always have HAL's famous bread pudding for dessert on our first day, trust me it was not bread pudding, it was more like bread soup, just terrible. We are not complainers and didn't say a word but only had a spoonful of the pudding

 

 

 

as we left the Lido shaking our heads. The bread pudding the next day at lunch  was what we have come to expect with HAL bread pudding.  The next morning things didn't improve in the Lido, I love Lox and bagels with cream cheese, so I'm looking at the Lox in serving line and instead of the usual fresh looking pink color of lox, this lox was grey, I still tried it and it was terrible with a fish taste and I only had one bite. The next morning I'm waiting for our side of the Lido to open , one of the Lido maitre d's told me that the other side was open but I explained to him that the lox on our side looked nice and fresh and pink while the lox on the other side was the grey garbage. The rest of the week they only had the grey stuff and I never had lox the rest of the week.

I think it was Wednesday morning and I decided to have some French Toast with sausage and scrambled eggs, the French Toast and sausage were great but I couldn't believe when I had my first bite of the scrambled eggs, they were just about frozen, someone forgot to heat the eggs up as they had the eggs in a container which I found out when I returned my breakfast to the serving line and the young server who gave me the eggs in the first place. I told her my eggs were frozen and she gave me look like she knew that someone forgot to heat up the eggs. I told her to fry me up a couple of eggs sunny side down. 

I had 2 omelets during the week and they were both very good.

All in all the the meals and desserts in the Lido the rest of the week  pretty good but we had some that weren't. My rating for the Lido is 6

The MDR was also a letdown,  its obvious the food budget for HAL has been reduced with quality and quantity suffering. We ate 6 nights in the MDR and there was nothing outstanding. Very disappointed when one night I had Dover Sole and it couldn't have been more than a 2.5 ounce serving. 2 nights later I had the broiled haddock and again it was very small serving. The chefs also salted the entrees and soups way too much. Last night was the best meal of the week as we both had the prime rib. Rating for the MDR was 7.5.

Entertainment on Holland America ships has been a problem for quite a while now, Music Walk is OK but it's becoming old. The Main Showroom is were things are really bad. I'm sorry but Planet Earth and The History of HAL is not entertainment. We want live singers and bands, not the canned stuff that HAL feed us, we were on 3 Celebrity cruises this past summer and fall and there is just no comparison on how much better entertainment is on Celebrity not only in the showroom but in all the other lounges on the ship. For HAL to not have live entertainment in the beautiful Ocean bar during the evening cocktail hours is a crime. Entertainment -7.

Service throughout the ship was as usual outstanding though there was only cabin service in the morning, no evening turndown service and 4 chocolate mints each during the week which was left on the desk in the room. We've been on 7 cruises since Nov of 2022 when we felt it was fairly safe to cruise again and this cruise was the first one we didn't have twice a day cabin service and that includes the Rotterdam last April, and t this is not the fault of the crew. Service gets a 10

The ship was very clean and gets a 10 for cleanliness.

The ship is getting older but still in pretty good shape with furniture and the carpeti ng in great shape, some rust and scratches  here and there, Shipshape gets a 9.

We do the early walkoff and were off the ship at 7:15 this morning and in our car by 7:30 and made it home by 9:45, pretty good time for the 160 mile trip and it was a little on the foggy on Alligator Alley this morning, I usually do 5 over the limit. 

All in all I'm going to say that will be our last HAL cruise for awhile and we will stay with Celebrity and Princess until there are some changes for the better on HAL. This review is not just me speaking as we talked to quite a few people and they all felt the same was as we do that HAL has cut down a little too much.

I'm a little tired and  I probably left off some things but i will be happy to answer any questions. Please show me some slack as I'm not the greatest typist and writer on the planet but gave it my best.

The good news, I'm back on the golf course tomorrow morning.

 

 

 

 

Excellent review and supports some of our recent experiences. Especially the use of the Showroom at Sea. Thanks and welcome back.

[RedneckBob]

2 hours ago, MISTER 67 said:

Good morning from beautiful Southwest Florida.

Just back from our Nieuw Amsterdam cruise, it was a mixed bag and sad to say our worst HAL cruise with 24 of them on BHB's and 69 cruises overall. We sailed to the Eastern Caribbean with stops in Turks and Caicos, San Juan, St. Thomas and HMC. No review on those places as we very seldom get off the ship anymore, we did walk around Havesight in St. Thomas for about an hour. I read my usual 3 books for the cruise and actually started a 4th.

I'll do a short review rating certain aspects from 1-10 with 10 being the best.

Embarkation -10. We arrived at the PE midport garage at 10:15, started the check-in about 10:30. First gentleman we met asked if we were vaccinated, after replying in the affirmative he sent us to a lady a few yards away who asked for our cabin number, gave it to her and she checked our name and then printed out our boarding passes from a hand held printing machine, the pass looked like a cedit card receipt. No one asked for the boarding passes that we printed out on our home computer, sort of strange. Next stop was a lady who guided us with facial recognition and ask to see our passport. Last stop was a lady that handed out our embarkation number cards, as 4 star Mariners, we had priority boarding and went straight up the escalator to the priorty boarding area and we actually boarded the ship at 10:55, this is the fastest we ever boarded a cruise ship and was as painless as could be.

Next stop was our cabin to drop off our carry-ons, the cabin was ready even at that early hour.  We booked a large inside cabin on the recommendation from the the gentlemen who we booked this cruise with on the Rotterdam last April. It was cabin 8045 and was about a 1.5 times the size of a standard inside cabin, the cabin gets a 10.

We then headed up to the Lido for lunch which started some problems for the week. We both had soup and sandwiches with the sandwiches being the pre-made, they were a joke with 1 slice of ham and wilted lettuce, the soup was good. A tradition for us is to always have HAL's famous bread pudding for dessert on our first day, trust me it was not bread pudding, it was more like bread soup, just terrible. We are not complainers and didn't say a word but only had a spoonful of the pudding

 

 

 

as we left the Lido shaking our heads. The bread pudding the next day at lunch  was what we have come to expect with HAL bread pudding.  The next morning things didn't improve in the Lido, I love Lox and bagels with cream cheese, so I'm looking at the Lox in serving line and instead of the usual fresh looking pink color of lox, this lox was grey, I still tried it and it was terrible with a fish taste and I only had one bite. The next morning I'm waiting for our side of the Lido to open , one of the Lido maitre d's told me that the other side was open but I explained to him that the lox on our side looked nice and fresh and pink while the lox on the other side was the grey garbage. The rest of the week they only had the grey stuff and I never had lox the rest of the week.

I think it was Wednesday morning and I decided to have some French Toast with sausage and scrambled eggs, the French Toast and sausage were great but I couldn't believe when I had my first bite of the scrambled eggs, they were just about frozen, someone forgot to heat the eggs up as they had the eggs in a container which I found out when I returned my breakfast to the serving line and the young server who gave me the eggs in the first place. I told her my eggs were frozen and she gave me look like she knew that someone forgot to heat up the eggs. I told her to fry me up a couple of eggs sunny side down. 

I had 2 omelets during the week and they were both very good.

All in all the the meals and desserts in the Lido the rest of the week  pretty good but we had some that weren't. My rating for the Lido is 6

The MDR was also a letdown,  its obvious the food budget for HAL has been reduced with quality and quantity suffering. We ate 6 nights in the MDR and there was nothing outstanding. Very disappointed when one night I had Dover Sole and it couldn't have been more than a 2.5 ounce serving. 2 nights later I had the broiled haddock and again it was very small serving. The chefs also salted the entrees and soups way too much. Last night was the best meal of the week as we both had the prime rib. Rating for the MDR was 7.5.

Entertainment on Holland America ships has been a problem for quite a while now, Music Walk is OK but it's becoming old. The Main Showroom is were things are really bad. I'm sorry but Planet Earth and The History of HAL is not entertainment. We want live singers and bands, not the canned stuff that HAL feed us, we were on 3 Celebrity cruises this past summer and fall and there is just no comparison on how much better entertainment is on Celebrity not only in the showroom but in all the other lounges on the ship. For HAL to not have live entertainment in the beautiful Ocean bar during the evening cocktail hours is a crime. Entertainment -7.

Service throughout the ship was as usual outstanding though there was only cabin service in the morning, no evening turndown service and 4 chocolate mints each during the week which was left on the desk in the room. We've been on 7 cruises since Nov of 2022 when we felt it was fairly safe to cruise again and this cruise was the first one we didn't have twice a day cabin service and that includes the Rotterdam last April, and t this is not the fault of the crew. Service gets a 10

The ship was very clean and gets a 10 for cleanliness.

The ship is getting older but still in pretty good shape with furniture and the carpeti ng in great shape, some rust and scratches  here and there, Shipshape gets a 9.

We do the early walkoff and were off the ship at 7:15 this morning and in our car by 7:30 and made it home by 9:45, pretty good time for the 160 mile trip and it was a little on the foggy on Alligator Alley this morning, I usually do 5 over the limit. 

All in all I'm going to say that will be our last HAL cruise for awhile and we will stay with Celebrity and Princess until there are some changes for the better on HAL. This review is not just me speaking as we talked to quite a few people and they all felt the same was as we do that HAL has cut down a little too much.

I'm a little tired and  I probably left off some things but i will be happy to answer any questions. Please show me some slack as I'm not the greatest typist and writer on the planet but gave it my best.

The good news, I'm back on the golf course tomorrow morning.

 

 

 

 

Mister67,

 

Thanks for the review. Sorry for the issues on the ship. We are currently on the NS and very pleased with service and food, though we have not gone to MDR in 9 nites; prefer speciality restaurants every other nite then light snack in between. I agree with you about the entertainment. We have switched to Celebrity for 70% of our cruising. They still have live band in showroom, singers and dancers and Las Vegas type shows from first nite to last nite! 

[MISTER 67]

25 minutes ago, RedneckBob said:

Mister67,

 

Thanks for the review. Sorry for the issues on the ship. We are currently on the NS and very pleased with service and food, though we have not gone to MDR in 9 nites; prefer speciality restaurants every other nite then light snack in between. I agree with you about the entertainment. We have switched to Celebrity for 70% of our cruising. They still have live band in showroom, singers and dancers and Las Vegas type shows from first nite to last nite! 

Probably part of a plan to make the dining room food so bad that they are forcing passengers to go to the specialty restaurants. We tried to get into the Pinnacle but being old geezers all the early times were sold out and we won't eat at 9pm, heck sometimes we go to bed at 9PM. We did have a 5:30 time at Canalletto on Friday and had an excellent dinner.

Celebrity Main Dining Room is still very good and they have a outstanding Lido buffet with unbelievable variety. Glad your cruise is going well. We made record time making it to exit 167 in 2 hours and 12 minutes with home only 2 minutes from there.

Edited December 11, 2022 by MISTER 67

[Seasick Sailor]

Good evening Daily-ites from beautiful Rotterdam.

 

We left our hotel this morning at 10:45 on the hotel van. Arrived by 11 and literally walked through embarkation and onto the ship at 11:20! Cabins were not ready til 12:15 and MDR not yet open so we had a cocktail and lunch in Lido. Fish and chips were just out of the hopper and very good. I had my favorite salad. (All veggies)

 

Our luggage from Luggage Forward did not arrive until 2:20. Ship was sailing early at 3:00. Yikes I was a wreck!

 

2 hours after sail away the Captain said we were heading towards Miami to transfer a critically ill passenger.

 

We are eating in Pinnacle tonight. Mushroom soup, halibut, asparagus, spinach and baked potato. Creme brulee for dessert.

 

Our cabin 5054 is a very nice fully accessible room. The door way is wide, the bathroom is wide, no step. Roll in shower and seat. Access to balcony a bit tough as I can barely pull the door open, but there's a bar that turns into a ramp that's easy to access. 

 

The ship has decorations going up.

 

 

After dinner drinks ordered and back to our cabin to unpack. See you tomorrow!

[Cruising-along]

1 hour ago, StLouisCruisers said:

Happy to hear you are feeling better today!  Soon you'll want some chocolate and wine, won't you?

Thank you Sandi.  I certainly hope so!!!  Just not yet.

[DeeniEncinitas]

8 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

Good evening Daily-ites from beautiful Rotterdam.

 

We left our hotel this morning at 10:45 on the hotel van. Arrived by 11 and literally walked through embarkation and onto the ship at 11:20! Cabins were not ready til 12:15 and MDR not yet open so we had a cocktail and lunch in Lido. Fish and chips were just out of the hopper and very good. I had my favorite salad. (All veggies)

 

Our luggage from Luggage Forward did not arrive until 2:20. Ship was sailing early at 3:00. Yikes I was a wreck!

 

2 hours after sail away the Captain said we were heading towards Miami to transfer a critically ill passenger.

 

We are eating in Pinnacle tonight. Mushroom soup, halibut, asparagus, spinach and baked potato. Creme brulee for dessert.

 

Our cabin 5054 is a very nice fully accessible room. The door way is wide, the bathroom is wide, no step. Roll in shower and seat. Access to balcony a bit tough as I can barely pull the door open, but there's a bar that turns into a ramp that's easy to access. 

 

The ship has decorations going up.

 

 

After dinner drinks ordered and back to our cabin to unpack. See you tomorrow!

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

So happy for you sis and Allen! Have a beautiful cruise both of you deserve it so much!!

We are home and happy!! A lot of rain in San Diego today! Watched your sail away!

Happy Sailing and enjoy your time! Will toast you tonight! 
Love Denise🥰

[CrabbyPatti]

Good Evening Everyone!

 

     Iceland looks like a wonderful place to cruise too............one of these days we just may go!  Someone must have looked in my pantry for the meal today, as I am using a butternut squash tonight to make a Harvest Salad with some chicken on the side!

      Thank you Roy for keeping Dad on the rotation.  He was hospitalized November 25th and stayed for 10 days, hospital tried to discharge him earlier but I put my foot down and said not until they deliver a hospital bed  (hospital was in charge of that!) as it took 5 fireman and a sling to take him from his bedroom to the ambulance the day he was admitted (usually he could walk but was too weak).  I am giving him IV antibiotics via a "pic" line every day.  Folks, please make sure you have a patient advocate if you go to the hospital,  I firmly believe Dad's health would have been compromised if I had not been their to intervene.  (I still think the medical resident is trying to recover, when I questioned him and told him he was wrong and he needed to see the attending!  He didn't know I have been a critical care/emergency nurse longer then he has been on this earth! and yes I was right!)

       I realize that Dad is failing, but he was awake, smiling and said a few words today to celebrate his 88th birthday.

       Dad, his wife and I actually talked about our Panama Canal cruise plans (on hold for the moment) not sure how much he followed, but he was smiling while we talked.  I am so glad we have Alaskan cruise memories to share, he really enjoyed it.

        Everyone take care and thanks for being so kind to all.  I really appreciated this group while we were in the hospital, it is a kind, thoughtful group, that I could escape too while waiting in the hospital.

Denise

[erewhon]

Another busy day on the "daily".

Along with some other posters, including @kazu and    @ger_77   we agree with the quote.

Thank for photos of today's port of call.

@StLouisCruisers  pleased to read that the Volendam is now  being decorated.

The Christmas tree decorated by your daughter is lovely.

@MISTER 67  thank you for taking time to review your cruise.

@Seasick Sailor  wishing you a great cruise. 

Thank you to @dfish and @StLouisCruisers for excellent multiquotng today.

We have an overcast Monday, expected temperature 17 C.

Time to "Feed " the Christmas cake with some brandy.

Stay safe, take care everyone.

 

 

 

[marshhawk]

@erewhonNothing worse than a hungry Christmas cake.  Feed it well.

 

And for the winter that is about to reach most of us.....

[RedneckBob]

1 hour ago, MISTER 67 said:

Probably part of a plan to make the dining room food so bad that they are forcing passengers to go to the specialty restaurants. We tried to get into the Pinnacle but being old geezers all the early times were sold out and we won't eat at 9pm, heck sometimes we go to bed at 9PM. We did have a 5:30 time at Canalletto on Friday and had an excellent dinner.

Celebrity Main Dining Room is still very good and they have a outstanding Lido buffet with unbelievable variety. Glad your cruise is going well. We made record time making it to exit 167 in 2 hours and 12 minutes with home only 2 minutes from there.

We book speciality restaurants months in advance on short cruises so 5 pm is no problem. Hope we make it to Exit 161 and Pilot fill up in 2 hrs and 12 minutes next Saturday.

[richwmn]

I believe everyone knows that I am boarding Zuiderdam on December 22nd for the holidays followed by the World Cruise. I do have the internet package for the duration, but it will be difficult to post the daily each day. All the information is also posted on halfacts at halfacts.com/daily. Tonight I completed setting up the site with the general information that is included each day, such as locations, quote, meals, and others. With this completed, each day halfacts will have the initial daily post which someone can copy and past to start the thread each day.

If someone will do this each day, I would appreciate it. I will check in most days but it will be at varying times since I will be in each time zone over the next few months. If anyone wants to contact me for more information please email me at richwmn at gmail dot com.

 

Thanks

 

Rich

[kochleffel]

20 minutes ago, richwmn said:

I believe everyone knows that I am boarding Zuiderdam on December 22nd for the holidays followed by the World Cruise. I do have the internet package for the duration, but it will be difficult to post the daily each day. All the information is also posted on halfacts at halfacts.com/daily. Tonight I completed setting up the site with the general information that is included each day, such as locations, quote, meals, and others. With this completed, each day halfacts will have the initial daily post which someone can copy and past to start the thread each day.

If someone will do this each day, I would appreciate it. I will check in most days but it will be at varying times since I will be in each time zone over the next few months. If anyone wants to contact me for more information please email me at richwmn at gmail dot com.

 

Thanks

 

Rich

 

I'm willing to do it when I can, but it would be best if one or two more people would share the responsibility. I'm not a naturally early riser, and I will be away for at least a few days, but any day that I sign in and see that it's not already done, I'll post it.

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

A late good evening after a busy day.  The good news is the cookies are finished.  Tomorrow I'll try to get the two boxes of cookies in the mail, and get the ones for our neighbors ready to deliver.

 

@lindaler  Linda, I'm glad you had a great weekend with your grandson.  I'm glad you knew what to do when the dock boards started breaking, and what a great lesson for your grandson.

@0106  Tina, thank you for the great pictures of the zoo lights.

@Mtn2Sea  Thank you for the pictures of today's port. 

@Heartgrove  Jack, thank you for your pictures too.

@Cruising-along  Carolyn, I'm glad you are finally getting better.  I agree that two weeks with choclate or wine is a horror story.

@*Miss G*  i'm so very sorry there is not a good outcome for your family member.  Just remember we're here when you need support or to just vent.

@bennybear  Beautiful pictures, Brenda, and the way I like my snow.

@summer slope Dixie, I'm glad you are still negative, and that your DH tested negative on your test.  Sorry you have to wait a few more days for HAL to test him.

@JazzyV  Vanessa, I have a picture of the finished cookies on my phone. I'll post it when I finish this post.

@Ichiban Nekko Glad you both are feeling well enough to go for a ride.  

@Seasick Sailor Joy, a little late, but BON VOYAGE.

@CrabbyPatti  I'm glad your Dad is well enough to be home, and that you can still laugh and smile together.  I agree, you need an advocate when dealing with the medical community.  We were lucky that DH was able to advocate for himself these last two months when I wasn't present.  It good to have two sets of ears listening too.

 

Lenda