My First “Live”- Zuiderdam May 11, 2024 TA

[cccole]

I also want to tell you how much I enjoyed your "first" live.  It was fabulous.  Your descriptions and photos were great, made me want to visit some of your ports.  I loved that you took your water colors.  Do you have a set that you travel with?  And can you share any of them?   I'm thinking of doing the same on a 28 day Islands of the South Pacific cruise, but I need to practice.  Thank you again for letting us cruise with you both.  Have a great visit with family, Cherie

[westerdam]

It looks and sounds like a fantastic Atlantic Crossing! I so regret not being able to do it now even more! I was supposed to go with a friend of mine but he backed out just a few days before we were going to book.  C'est la vie!

[mawvkysc]

Final Thoughts:

I am back home. What a trip! We loved it. We loved Holland America.
 

I would really enjoy a TA again and can only imagine doing it on HA (or Cunard $$ 😬) Most likely I’ll be cruising on other lines before that happens though due to our being budget cruisers and living near the port of Tampa. 
 

Food: Very good. Strong points were fish and bread followed by beef and veggies. Dessert in general and cheese selection in the lido were the weak points.
 

Entertainment and Activities: Very good live entertainment. Crafts were uninspiring. Enrichment was 50/50. Daniel was great the guest speaker was not. Plenty to do. 
 

Service: Very friendly. Our serving team was OK our cabin stewards were great. Front desk excellent. 
 

Ship:Good condition for its age. Clean. Understated elegance with lovey art. Lots of pleasant areas to see the ocean from inside. Crows Nest and Promenade deck really added to the experience. I could easily have done this cruise in an inside cabin due to all of these areas. I do miss an old school atrium that goes all the way to the top and has a bar/entertainment on the lowest level.  

Cabin: It had everything we needed and we were quite comfortable. The bed and bedding were nice. Plenty of storage for us although a drawer in the desk would be nice. The tub which I was looking forward to was small. For many it would not work to use as a tub. 

 

Fellow Passengers: Very friendly and polite. A really nice bunch of people to be around. Sometimes we did get tired of talking about cruises and travel though. That was the main theme of conversation. 

Overall I would highly recommend Holland America. 
 

Thanks for coming along with me!

Edited May 30 by mawvkysc

[mawvkysc]

On 5/26/2024 at 4:23 PM, cccole said:

I also want to tell you how much I enjoyed your "first" live.  It was fabulous.  Your descriptions and photos were great, made me want to visit some of your ports.  I loved that you took your water colors.  Do you have a set that you travel with?  And can you share any of them?   I'm thinking of doing the same on a 28 day Islands of the South Pacific cruise, but I need to practice.  Thank you again for letting us cruise with you both.  Have a great visit with family, Cherie

I didn’t paint as much as I thought that I would. A few painters got together in the mornings and painted together in the lido area. I never made it to that. There are smaller palettes made for travel than what I brought. Sometimes they are called travel palettes or even nano palettes.  Below  is a picture of mine which is more of a standard small palette. You can see that all of my supplies and the palette fit in a ziplock bag.  I only packed three brushes. I could’ve gotten by with one brush. I use a mix of different brands of tube paint that I squeeze into the palette and let dry. 

[cccole]

45 minutes ago, mawvkysc said:

I didn’t paint as much as I thought that I would. A few painters got together in the mornings and painted together in the lido area. I never made it to that. There are smaller palettes made for travel than what I brought. Sometimes they are called travel palettes or even nano palettes.  Below  is a picture of mine which is more of a standard small palette. You can see that all of my supplies and the palette fit in a ziplock bag.  I only packed three brushes. I could’ve gotten by with one brush. I use a mix of different brands of tube paint that I squeeze into the palette and let dry. 

Thank you so much.  I really am going to practice and give painting a try on our cruise in 2026.  I will probably stick to 6x8 paper.  Again, your daily reports were so fun to read.  Cherie 

[BetsyS.]

Thank you for all your reports and pictures. I enjoyed reading your updates. My stepfather and I will board the Zuiderdam on July 20 in Boston. We're looking forward to it.

[mawvkysc]

3 hours ago, BetsyS. said:

Thank you for all your reports and pictures. I enjoyed reading your updates. My stepfather and I will board the Zuiderdam on July 20 in Boston. We're looking forward to it.

Have fun!