Any Veendam questions?

[Orlandocruiser]

We sailed on the Veendam in December and had a cabin on the Main Deck just forward of midship. Most of the time we felt no motion at all and even on the one rough night we had we were very comfortable. We felt so little motion that we would have to look out the window to see if we had docked yet. :)

[Bay2Beach]

Thanks for all your information!!

[sandiego1]

Most of the time, I didn't feel a thing. We had 1 night of bad weather - thunder, lightening, downpour of rain. Some of the lounge chairs at the aft pool were actually blown into the pool. We heard this from our waiter in the Crows Nest. We asked him why his hair was so wet. He told us that he had to go into the pool to retrieve them and didn't have time to dry it before he had to report to the Crows Nest.

 

Anyway, that night things were moving pretty good. The hanging lamps in the Dining Room were swaying as was everything else. After dinner, we hit a huge wind gust and the ship badly listed to one side. It was a little disconcerting, but I didn't feel that we were in any danger. I actually had to take off my high heels to walk! The next day the Captain announced that the wind gust had changed from 16knots to 75 knots in a matter of minutes and took them by surprise.

 

When we got back to our room that night, all of the drawers in our cabin had slid open. Luckily none of my potions and lotions fell off the vanity or the wine glasses, ice buckets, etc. off our bar (if we had titled the other way, they would have been on the floor). We went up to the Crows Nest to watch the storm as you are at the top/front of the ship and you are surrounded by glass on 3 sides. Dancing was tough that night :) . We were all going this way and that. It was very entertaining.

 

By the time we went to bed, the rocking had subsided a bit. I decided to take an anti-vert pill before bed just in case, but don't think I really needed it. My in-laws took them daily. My MIL suffers from motion sickness from cars, planes, boats, etc. W/ the anti-vert she had no problems (they cruise often).

 

I've only been on 3 cruises. The last time was on the Constellation and it was a much larger ship. Except for this one storm, I didn't notice any difference in the motion between the Veendam and the Constellation.

 

Hope that helps!

[Gabrielle R.]

My Husband and I are planning a vacation at Christmas. I was wondering how the ship was at Christmas? Lots of kids- or not too bad? Anything special for Christmas dinner? Sailed once on HAL 3 years ago, considering going again. Thanks for the post- Lots of questions I had were answered- Thank You!:rolleyes: Gabrielle

[Donna Kincaid]

Dear Sandiego1,

I certainly appreciate all the information on the movement of the ship. I guess I don't really need to be concerned. I always take Bonine as a precaution anyway, so I don't think it would affect me badly. I'm glad you had a good trip. Thanks again. Donna Kincaid

[sandiego1]

I was a lurker on these boards for months before my cruise. It was our 1st HAL cruise and I felt I didn't have any experiences w/ the cruise line to rely on. Now at least I can contribute a little and help someone else.

 

The Veendam is a lovely ship. You'll enjoy sailing on her Donna. I liked the size. Big enough such that there was plenty to do. Small enough that I could walk around and easily find my husband and in-laws after I went to the gym, spa, whatever.

[kbert92069]

I'll be on the Veendam in June.

 

What provisions do they have for off loading digital cameras if any? Do they do prints? CDs?

 

Do they have a traditional photo processing service on board too? (I'm bringing both kinds of cameras)

 

Any recollection of costs would be nice too.

 

Thanks

[sandiego1]

sorry - I have no info for you regarding printing photos or downloading digital pics. I have a 1GB card for my digital camera and have yet to run out of room on it during a 1 wk trip. Took about 180 pics on this one cruise.

[I Luv Crusin]

Thanks in advance!

 

1) Should we bring beach towels or does HAL supply them.

 

2) Where is a good place to meet up with other CC members.

 

3) Our cabin recently was changed so I have the wrong luggage tags. Should I pre-print labels to put on the tags when we get to port?

 

4) Where are the laundries located onboard the ship?

[flashdog_1]

HAL supplies the beach towels for port days. There will be bin to put them in upon your return.

 

We got back a week ago today from the Guatemala/Belize run, and the ride was absolutely smooth. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

[dam1050]

Thanks for all the great info Sandiego1 ...

 

I was wondering if the Veendam has modern digital numeric safes in the room, or the old type which requires a credit card/magnetic field swipe to operate?

 

I remember on the Statendam a couple years back having to carry around a credit card (as well as room key card) for 18 days which I'd have rather had kept locked in the safe .....personally I prefer the safes where one programs in my their own "pin" # to access.

 

Dave

[RuthC]

I remember on the Statendam a couple years back having to carry around a credit card (as well as room key card) for 18 days which I'd have rather had kept locked in the safe .....personally I prefer the safes where one programs in my their own "pin" # to access.

There's never a need to carry around a credit card that you prefer be in the safe---you can use any card that has a magnetic strip. A AAA card will do fine---even an expired credit card with the numbers half cut off!

This info might not help you, but could be helpful to others.

[sandiego1]

As RuthC wrote, the safe uses a card w/ a magnetic stripe. I thought of bringing my library card to use, but forgot. So we just kept out 1 credit card.

 

Lots of towels at the pool and you can bring them to the beach. They also have pool towels at the disembarkation point so you can just pick a few up when you leave the ship (and drop them off there when you return).

 

I have no idea where you would meet other CC folks. Have you tried the roll call board?

 

Wrong luggage tags - I think they were color coded (could be wrong). I would contact HAL or your TA to get their advice on how to handle. I had to hand write all our info on our tags. They didn't have the cabin #, etc. on them when I got them from the TA.

 

Laundry - We were on the Navigation deck. There was 1 laundry room almost directly 1 flight below us. We were in S-12. I believe it was opposite cabin B150. There are laundry rooms on every deck w/ guest cabins, except our deck. They are shown on the deck plan map.

[TampaBrad]

Just got off of the Veendam the 25th after a great week. I'll agree that

Faulkner was not the greatest cruise director. However, it didn't

affect my overall good time on the ship. His assistant Gary seemed much

more personable. Overall, I'd say the entertainment was good but not

great, not as good as the Royal Caribbean cruises I have taken. there were other ares that made up for this, though. I'd give the Veendam

high marks, overall.

[HERKIMER417]

I promised myself that I would do more than play bingo on this cruise. DW and I attended the free culinary demo. The chief chief and an assistant go thru some of the things that they do in the kitchen.

 

It's held in the theater and it was standing room only. They went over the amount of food stuffs consummed by the guests and crew and demonstrated some new things. It lasted about 45 minutes.

 

There was also a tour below decks of the cooking facilities.

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The culinary class that is new after the SOE upgrades and set in the theater as well. This was offered on the two sea days and the afternoon that the ship was in Costa Maya. The Pinnical Chief chef was the instructor - the class lasted many 90 minutes and cost $29.

 

WHEN YOU BOARD GO DIRECTLY TO THE SHIPS OFFICE AND SIGN UP. There is a lot of confusion on this even with ship personnel.

 

They gave you an apron and chef hat to put on and keep. We prepared a Mango spach ( a cold soup), a Talapada ? in Venezulan sauce ( a fish in a red tomato sauce) and crepes with chocolate covering them.

 

You make enough for the entire class and then eat it. It was gooood! :p

 

I would never put some of the ingredents in my own cooking but not to look dumb I tried it - I was glad I did. The chef point out how the mango spach would change flavor when chilled. He had us try the stuff warm and then later after being in the fridge for 30 minutes - what a diffenence - a completely new flavoring.

 

The chef was able to give individual attention to each person attending and kept humoring us thru out. If not for his help I would have never gotten the art of crepe making.

 

They offered the same class on Monday as the afternoon in Costa Maya - the second sea day had a different class. As I recall they make a volcano cake.

****************************************8

 

The other class I attended was a mixology class in the crows nest. They have this on afternoons at sea as well. The cost was $7.50. You just go to the crows nest and have a seat.

 

The bartender shows you how to make three drinks and then you drink them. Three very good drinks:D . The first was a lemon smooth ?, the second was grapefruit cosmo, and the third was something with cucumbers in it. They hand out ingredients list in the cooking class and have not gotten to this point in the mixology class. They should - by the third drink I couldn't remember what was in the first.

 

My wife keeps asking when I will make the crapes. I'm still trying to recall the process for a grapefruit cosmo. :cool:

 

J

[shipcafe]

[FONT=Book Antiqua][COLOR=blue][B]SanDiego1 :[/B] Thank you SO much for your information on [I]Veendam[/I]. I'll be on the April 8th sailing and would LOVE to see any photos you may have taken![/COLOR][/FONT]