Live from the Koningsdam, it's a Solar Eclipse! April 5th to 27th

[cruisn71]

Having enjoyed many Live reports, I am going to be trying my hand at this.  My DW and I will be boarding the Koningsdam on Friday. April 5th for 22 fun filled days aboard the ship.  I am not as rigorous a scientist as the Institute of Cheer, but I'll try to provide some insights I haven't seen covered much on these boards.  I certainly like to 'hack' my breakfasts in the Lido and will share some of my creations.  I like seeing what I can turn into a benedict.

[oakridger]

This cruise sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. I'll be following along with you!

 

Happy sailing to you and everyone on the Koningsdam and other eclipse cruises.

 

~Nancy

 

[canadianbear]

Will follow along too and hope you have a great cruise! 

[Haljo1935]

Bon Voyage! I'll be here following along. Safe travels- enjoy your cruise!

[ski ww]

Bon Voyage, should be an interesting cruise watching the eclipse at sea.

 

[McDeb2119]

Sounds like a great cruise!

[cruisin'teach]

We are on this cruise too, Will be eager to read your perceptions as we travel along!

[Hogladyrider]

Following along as well!

[xLibLabLady]

DH Jerry and I wil be on the cruise with you!

[brnowl]

WE will be on the cruise as well!

Jill and Lee

[LoveHAL]

Marty (LoveHAL) and Ricki will be on board the "Beautiful and Elegant" Koningsdam. It will be our 40th HAL Cruise since our first in 2002 and as my CC hame indicates, every one has been a joy. Our cabin, on Deck Four, will feature a San Antonio sign (as well  VIVA FIESTA) on the door. At sail-away, we  usually are at the aft of the Lido Deck - Usually wearing a tan baseball cap with a Kinky Freeman, how hard can it be? imprinted on it. Ricki is 5' tall with shoulder length hair.

 

The total eclipse will also be passing over San Antonio - but projections today are for possible overcast conditions.

[cruisn71]

Now the adventure begins.  We have arrived at LAX and will be driving down to San Diego.  Departure went smoothly. Light volumes at security and US customs so we breezed through.

[quilty964]

Enjoy your cruise!  Our weather forecast for the eclipse is not so good!  Hope you get to see something good.☺️

[mooseridge]

Thank you for your live cruise report.  We'll be following along too!  Hope you have a wonderful cruise.

 

Mooseridge

[cruisn71]

The drive from LA to San Diego went fairly well.  We did experience some of the famous LA rush hour traffic.  Once we were out of LA it flowed smoothly and we made great time to San Diego.  We are staying at the Hampton Inn Downtown.  Our room is clean, the water is hot and the AC is cold. 

 

We ate dinner at Las Hadas Bar and Grill.  They have a gluten free menu and were extremely knowledgeable and helpful in adapting dishes.  The food was great.  Would recommend for anyone with dietary restrictions.

[kelliebiz]

Enjoy! I’ll be on the 4/6 Volendam out of SD, and we won’t experience totality. We will be in Cabo the day of the eclipse and have approximately 95%. Should be fun to see even though it’s not 100%. I look forward to your 100% eclipse impressions! 

[cruisn71]

Day 2 in San Diego.  After a long recovery sleep, I visited the Midway Museum.  Very impressive display of military aircraft and the history of US Carriers.  CVN 70 and CVN 72 were both in port.

 

They day was rounded out by shopping for a few necessities that were left at home and dinner at a nearby Persian restaurant called Darband.  The food was lovely and copious.  Huge servings of rice.  We were offered small plates with lentil stew and rice pudding which the restaurant serves to break the Ramadan fast.

[cruisn71]

Embarkation day!

 

We chose a late checkout from the hotel and ended up going to the port around 2:30.  There were no lines or crowds and we breezed through security and checkin in just a few minutes.

 

Our cabin was ready, but it seems like they missed some of the paper work getting the room ready.

 

We had to do a full muster drill today.  It has been 6 months since Koningsdam did her last muster drill, so we were the lucky pax who got to do it.  The drill is much nicer on the Pinnacle class ships.  Due to the narrow promenade decks, the muster stations are inside.  We were at the deck 3 atrium and had lots of seating at the Dutch Cafe.

 

We attended music trivia at 6:30 in the BB King Blues Club.  The topic was across the decades.  We played with some people we had met on our last cruise.  We won with a score of 29 missing only one song title.   I knew it was Taylor Swift, but I didn't know the title of the song. The prize was a Northen Europe HAL pin.  We were missing that one from our collection.  The cruise host was a lot of fun.  I think trivia will be great on this cruise.

 

We have late fixed dining.  Dinner was good as usual.  I had the Habenero Shrimp cocktail to start and it was not at all spicy. My main was the  Enchilada Barbacoa and I enjoyed it.  I have attached the PDFs of the Lido and MDR dinner menus.

 

hawaii_final_updated_print_this.pdf s_pacific_lido_dinner_2023_r_vis_sig_v1_-_menu_01_en.pdf

[cruisn71]

This morning has started off with breakfast in the lido.  Just went the standard eggs Benedict.

 

That was followed by a visit to the thermal suite for a soak in the pool and getting caught up on posting.

[canadianbear]

Sounds like you’ve settled right in!!!   Have a wonderful time!

[CruiseDuckDuo]

Enjoy!  We wanted to do that cruise too, but we didn't have the time to take off from work that long without it impacting our Koningsdam cruise on the 27th, or our Eurodam cruise on May 11th.  For the eclipse we're just going to fly to Nashville, and adjust our viewing location to somewhere between Cleveland, OH and Texarkana, TX based on weather forecasts.  

[cruisn71]

1 hour ago, CruiseDuckDuo said:

Enjoy!  We wanted to do that cruise too, but we didn't have the time to take off from work that long without it impacting our Koningsdam cruise on the 27th, or our Eurodam cruise on May 11th.  For the eclipse we're just going to fly to Nashville, and adjust our viewing location to somewhere between Cleveland, OH and Texarkana, TX based on weather forecasts.  

Good luck finding clear skies!

 

The Captain came on for the noon announcement and explained the timing of the Eclipse and that they will point the aft of the ship towards the sun to maximize the deck space for viewing.

[cruisn71]

There is a special corner in the Lido today.  The theme is an American menu.  Hopefully, we get the full series of corners since we have so many sea days.  I had the corn dogs and potato wedges.  the dogs were decent, but had been sitting a bit so they weren't crispy.

 

Lido lunch menu attached.

s_pacific_lido_lunch_2023_-_menu_02_en.pdf

Edited April 6 by cruisn71
added detail

[syesmar]

16 hours ago, cruisn71 said:

…The Captain came on for the noon announcement and explained the timing of the Eclipse and that they will point the aft of the ship towards the sun to maximize the deck space for viewing.

I see on HAL’s FB page they will be livestreaming from ms Koningsdam during the eclipse (stream begins at 1:30pm EST). Sounds like a wonderful cruise so far! Thanks for sharing your adventures @cruisn71
 

Livestream link here:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/280694885081850/

[cruisn71]

3 hours ago, syesmar said:

I see on HAL’s FB page they will be livestreaming from ms Koningsdam during the eclipse (stream begins at 1:30pm EST). Sounds like a wonderful cruise so far! Thanks for sharing your adventures @cruisn71
 

Livestream link here:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/280694885081850/

Thanks for the link!  I didn't know they were going to live stream the eclipse.