Live(ish) from Westerdam Xmas/NY cruise from Auckland 20Dec22

[boeckli]

3 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The stollen and speculaas were nice, we often have stollen at Christmas and Rolf was sulking because he forgot to get some this year so he's happy now. The Christmas cookies looked very colourful but were a bit tasteless and too sweet. But without mince pies it wasn't an OzKiwi Christmas! 🤣 Hopefully dinner will make up for that.

 

I never really got into mince pies and I would sulk too without stollen at Xmas - unless I was on a cruise, that would compensate ... 🤣 I made sure to buy mine at Aldi as soon as they came out 😉

[MMDown Under]

20 minutes ago, boeckli said:

 

I never really got into mince pies and I would sulk too without stollen at Xmas - unless I was on a cruise, that would compensate ... 🤣 I made sure to buy mine at Aldi as soon as they came out 😉

i dont like stollen  maybe it is the marzipan.

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

i dont like stollen  maybe it is the marzipan.

You can get stollen without marzipan - Butter Stollen. That's the one Rolf likes.

[Blackduck59]

Ahoy Julie and Rolf. Look at me late to the party. I just now found your thread and spent some time reading it. Thanks for your reports, we are looking at HAL for our Down under adventure now. I like one itinerary on Noordam but my TA says that ship is old and we may not like it. We will know more about "old" HAL ships after our Easy Coast cruise on Zaandam in the summer.

[possum52]

7 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Thanks Marion. 

 

I can't recall if I posted about this earlier but it's a bittersweet Christmas for me this year. We've been doing NZ cruises as a nice way of catching up with family and friends in NZ, especially my only brother in Dunedin. Sadly he passed away two weeks ago. We are spending the day with my SIL and nephew tomorrow.

Sorry to hear about your brother's passing Julie. I am sure it will bring comfort to you all to spend tomorrow with your SIL and nephew. ❤️

[OzKiwiJJ]

We had a very enjoyable Christmas dinner. I started with the salad which was beautiful, then delicious turkey, with plum pudding for dessert. There were Christmas crackers on the table so we all had the paper hats to wear. Well done, HAL.

 

 

 

Edited December 25, 2022 by OzKiwiJJ

[boeckli]

5 hours ago, Blackduck59 said:

we are looking at HAL for our Down under adventure now. I like one itinerary on Noordam but my TA says that ship is old and we may not like it. We will know more about "old" HAL ships after our Easy Coast cruise on Zaandam in the summer.

 

I'll be going on my third Noordam cruise this February (after 2018 and 2019) and would be happy to then answer any particular questions you may have. Which itinerary are you interested in?

Edited December 25, 2022 by boeckli

[SilvertoGold]

9 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

i dont like stollen  maybe it is the marzipan.

Very possible :)  We have an eggnog stollen that is really good!

[SilvertoGold]

8 hours ago, Blackduck59 said:

Ahoy Julie and Rolf. Look at me late to the party. I just now found your thread and spent some time reading it. Thanks for your reports, we are looking at HAL for our Down under adventure now. I like one itinerary on Noordam but my TA says that ship is old and we may not like it. We will know more about "old" HAL ships after our Easy Coast cruise on Zaandam in the summer.

Oh!  The Zaandam is an R class, built in 2000, small and very elegant. It is a really lovely ship but a different experience if you are used to large, newer ships. Personally I love it, but many do not because of the limitations of its size and the not-too-new staterooms, although they are larger than on the newer ships.  The Noordam is a Vista Class, built in 2006, and fairly recently renovated. We enjoyed Alaska on it for 2 weeks this September and several cruises in the past decade.  A medium size so there are fewer limitations and it is a more elegant and comfortable ship than HAL's larger ships.

 

Enjoy your Canada/NE cruise, it is a winner!

Edited December 25, 2022 by SilvertoGold

[Pushka]

I've been travelling along with you as I'm desperate to go on a post Covid cruise but still have 137 days to wait. 😂. 

 

You mentioned table mates, which I've found can make or break a cruise where there is a requirement to have the same table and people each night. Is that what HAL usually requires? Seems like you've struck gold with yours.   Another CC person and I shared a Cunard world sector with someone who was doing  a half world cruise, and I guess they were sick of the new heads bobbing up each new sector and let's just say, we didn't click. Not just with us but all the others just boarding. She took her turns in disliking each one of us. 

Edited December 25, 2022 by Pushka

[Blackduck59]

10 hours ago, boeckli said:

 

I'll be going on my third Noordam cruise this February (after 2018 and 2019) and would be happy to then answer any particular questions you may have. Which itinerary are you interested in?

I don't really want to hijack Julie's thread but the cruise we are interested in is a 16 day Auckland to Sydney at the end of February into early March 2024.

[boeckli]

3 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

I don't really want to hijack Julie's thread but the cruise we are interested in is a 16 day Auckland to Sydney at the end of February into early March 2024.

I had a second look at that one myself just yesterday 🙂

[MMDown Under]

22 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

I don't really want to hijack Julie's thread but the cruise we are interested in is a 16 day Auckland to Sydney at the end of February into early March 2024.

That would be excellent as you could have a land holiday on each end.  Good time of year for NZ.

[cruiser3775]

On 12/24/2022 at 7:57 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

This is the Westerdam version of Australian pavlova:

 

 

Love the gingerbread houses and the Christmas decorations, but that so-called Pavlova is absolutely disgusting.  Surely the ship chefs could have looked up what a proper Aus/NZ Pavlova individual serve looks like:

 

Edited December 26, 2022 by cruiser3775

[NSWP]

49 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

Love the gingerbread houses and the Christmas decorations, but that so-called Pavlova is absolutely disgusting.  Surely the ship chefs could have looked up what a proper Aus/NZ Pavlova individual serve looks like:

 

I agree poor excuse for a Pav.

This is the real thing..

[arxcards]

On 12/25/2022 at 11:42 AM, OzKiwiJJ said:

Last night thete was a Christmas concert put on by the officers and crew of Westerdam. It was lovely event. The highlights for me were the Filipino choir and everyone singing Silent Night at the end.

 

 

Step One Dance Company - no chafing? 

[OzKiwiJJ]

4 hours ago, arxcards said:

Step One Dance Company - no chafing? 

Step One were great but the others outshone them.

[boeckli]

Westerdam departing Port Chalmers on Boxing Day (screenshot from the Royal Albatross Cam)

 

[MMDown Under]

3 hours ago, boeckli said:

Westerdam departing Port Chalmers on Boxing Day (screenshot from the Royal Albatross Cam)

 

You get a great view of the Albatross sitting on their nests from the ship, when they are sitting.  What time of the year do they nest?  

[OzKiwiJJ]

9 hours ago, boeckli said:

Westerdam departing Port Chalmers on Boxing Day (screenshot from the Royal Albatross Cam)

 

Thank you! 😘

 

I tried to get on to the webcam as we were approaching Taiaroa Head but the internet onboard is pathetic.

[OzKiwiJJ]

On 12/26/2022 at 9:18 AM, Blackduck59 said:

I don't really want to hijack Julie's thread but the cruise we are interested in is a 16 day Auckland to Sydney at the end of February into early March 2024.

Hijack away, Lyle. Par for the course on our threads.🤣

 

What ports does that cruise go to. Ours is a 14 day cruise so I imagine your cruise will have at least one extra port.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Port Chalmers is one of my favourite ports for many reasons, not just because it was my home town up until aged 8. The downside to Port Chalmers is that it is about half an hour's drive from Dunedin City. The road follows the coastline so is very scenic. 

 

Although we were right next to the working container wharf we were able to walk off the wharf to the cruise terminal - they just created a wall of containers between the ship's part of the wharf and the working area. Very clever. 

 

Queen Elizabeth was also in port so it was probably pretty busy first and last thing. We avoided the peak times as we were getting picked up and dropped off by family.

 

Shuttle buses were provided, again NZ $20 one way and NZ $35 return. Note these prices are set by the bus companies, not the cruise lines althought it seems like they have set standard prices in both Dunedin and Christchurch. Personally I think it is a fair price as it is a true shuttle service, running directly from the port to the Octagon in Dunedin snd back. The buses appeared to leave regularly, not waiting until they were full to capacity, which means they are doing more trips than they would if they waited to have full buses. Yes, local buses are cheaper but much slower. I've never taken a local bus to Port Chalmers but I reckon it would take close to a hour one way.

 

We were lucky to get window seats in the Crow's Nest for sailaway. It was even more fascinating than usual as Queen Elizabeth left just before us so we could clearly seevthe meanderings of the shipping channel as we followed along in her wake. It's more convoluted than you notice when there isn't a ship in front of you. 

 

We didn't see any albatrosses flying but I think I caught a glimpse of one standing up on the hillside.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We had a quiet time with family sharing memories of my brother. My nephew had unearthed my brother's old photo album with many photos of my family from before I was born to when I was in my teens. I went through the album taking photos of all the ones that had special significance to me, like this very early one of me and my brother, probably taken at my christening.

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

I'm going to have a little grumble now, about the service in the dining room at night. We have lovely waiters, who are trying their hardest, but who are clearly overworked and not quite coping.

 

We are the only couple on our table with the Have It All package, the others are buying wine packages as they go so have their wine on the table if left over from the previous day or order new bottles immediately they sit down. We like to look at the menu before choosing our wines. We can only get one glass at a time and often it's been very hard to get a second glass when we actually want it. Also some of the wines we like that are covered by our package are out of stock so we end up paying more for something outside our limit. Also because the wine service is so erratic we are a bit loathe to try wines we don't know as it would be impossible to get a replacement quickly enough if we didn't like something.

 

Over the past couple of days the waiters have been getting confused over who ordered what. On Christmas Day they first tried to serve me a different appetiser to the one I'd ordered but rectified that quickly. Then they tried to serve me ham instead of turkey. This one took a bit more time to sort out as they had to make a run to the kitchen to get another serving of turkey. Last night Rolf and I both ordered the same things - onion soup followed by salad then oxtail. I got served my salad first but Rolf got the soup. The waiter dashed off so fast I couldn't get it changed. After clearing those plates he started laying the cutlery for my main course. Um, no, where's my soup? Then just as the mains were being served we were told, very apologetically, that they had run out of oxtail. We had to choose different mains. My second choice was fish but I had already got wine to match the oxtail, so had to order another wine and, of course, the one I really wanted was out of stock! Grrrrr! 

 

I have to say most of the Coral Princess waiters we encountered seemed to have a better understanding of how passengers like us like to match wine to food than our Westerdam waiters.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We have just finished cruising through Dusky Sound which is my favourite of all the sounds even though it is slightly less spectacular than Milford Sound. I love Dusky Sound because it is the most pristine of the fiords the cruise ships pass through. It is only accessible by sea, there are no roads into this remote part of Southland. I'm always aware of what a privilege it is to be able to cruise through this beautiful area. 

 

We entered Dusky Sound as we were just starting breakfast in the buffet. We had managed to get a table near a window on the starboard side which is the most interesting going from the south. Unfortunately the windows were very dirty. Initially it wasn't too bad as we could see through them but as the ship turned and the sun came fully onto the windows we couldn't see a thing so as soon as we finished breakfast we headed back to our portside cabin for the remainder of our transit. The view on that side is of Resolution Island which is much more rugged than I recall on previous cruises through here. Perhaps the peaks were hidden in mist on those transits but today we had glorious weather with clear skies.

 

Wake view from our midships cabin as we curve around Resolution Island.

 

The peaks of Resolution Island. They look far more impressive in reality than in this photo.