Saga Rose Greenland Voyager August 2007

[Druke I]

Be sure to check out the Holland America boards today. Interesting thread (and photos) of Prinsendam being escorted by a Dutch frigate off the coast of Somalia, to preclude any problems with pirates.

 

Also, for you smaller, classic ship fans, check out http://www.maritimematters.com, for a very good photo essay (by Peter Knego) of one of my favorite ships, Sea Princess nee Kungsholm, aka Victoria and Mona Lisa. She just went aground in the Baltic! We had the pleasure of sailing her, Osaka Japan to Vancouver BC via Honolulu, 5-89, as Sea Princess, under the Princess flag.

[Saga Ruby]

Be sure to check out the Holland America boards today. Interesting thread (and photos) of Prinsendam being escorted by a Dutch frigate off the coast of Somalia, to preclude any problems with pirates.

 

Gee whiz, what gorgeous pix! The photog in the frigate's helo has quite the eye. Since I'll be on Prinsendam next May, these photos have me ready to board for sailaway today. The first deck above Main Deck, in the port bow with a large picture window, is my cabin. Can you imagine being in the cabin, looking out the window, and a naval frigate is sailing right alongside? Zowie!

 

Whether RVL Sun or Prinsendam, that is one fine-looking ship. I know I was recently teasing about seeing behemoths in Civitavecchia, but these gorgeous photos of beautiful Prinsendam clears the head from the ". . . of the Seas" ships.

 

Thanks for the heads' up, Michael.

 

Ruby

[Druke I]

Both http://www.cruisenewsdaily.com and http://www.maritimematters.com are reporting that Mona Lisa has been pulled off the sandbar off Latvia, and has not spilled any oil etc.

 

Good - she is (was) a lovely ship.

[Saga Ruby]

Are you home? You know my question - hats, hats, hats?

 

I hope you enjoyed your Ryndam cruise. Do tell.

 

Ruby

[seabourndt]

after 2 cruises BACK TO BACK! trying out saga which i've never tried. always thought it quite expewnsive so will see what i think with a short one in june.

dave

[Saga Ruby]

after 2 cruises BACK TO BACK! trying out saga which i've never tried. always thought it quite expewnsive so will see what i think with a short one in june. dave

 

Congrats on joining the Saga Sisters club. Be sure to come back and tell us the positives and negatives you encountered. I'm excited that you are going on Saga Ruby and hope your cruise is a fine one.

 

Ruby

[franu]

Thanks for the "good luck" on my tune-up. Unfortunately the mechanic was only qualified to do 25% of the job. I will be interviewing more carefully next time.

 

I need the water now but I will have to be satisfied with the Toronto Islands ferry. Will not be able to get travel insurance for 3 month minimum. Let me hear about everyone's cruises.

Thanks

Fran

[Kapricorn]

Are you home? You know my question - hats, hats, hats?

 

I hope you enjoyed your Ryndam cruise. Do tell.

 

Howdy! I disembarked from Ryndam yesterday morning, but it hasn't been until just now that I got the opportunity to venture to the Cruise Critic site.

 

I really enjoyed my experience on the cruise - outstanding friendly service by the staff (I tipped four of them a bit extra), congenial fellow passengers, and the food wasn't bad either (just a notch under that of Celebrity's). I'll mention a little more about the cruise later.

 

Hats, Ruby? Huh? Oh, that! Well, take a look at the attached photograph. :) I took that photograph from my table overlooking the lower section of the restaurant.

 

The Master Chef's Dinner was announced (or should I say "warned") two or three days before the event, so that should be the same on Prinsendam, and then you can make arrangements to dine in the specialty restaurant. However, everyone at my table didn't put on our chef's hats, and we weren't pressured to do so. You will notice that a woman at the round table didn't put on her chef's hat.

 

Donald.

[dougnewmanatsea]

Ruby - PRINSENDAM and VOYAGER OF THE SEAS will make quite a contrast! Though they were built in the same shipyard and PRINSENDAM's designer, Njal Eide, was involved in designing the VOYAGER-class ships. (He previously designed most of the Royal Caribbean fleet, but took a lesser role in VOYAGER.)

 

VOYAGER OF THE SEAS and her sisters - there are eight of them now, the last three being considerably larger and thus considered a separate "class" by RCI - are amazing ships. They are not the kind of ships I like, but they are still amazing. They're even rather nice-looking externally, with more curves than most of these hulking modern things. But they do not feel like ships on board. They are not supposed to. And I like ships. Basically, they are magnificent ships for other people. In fact I've recommended them to quite a few people over the years.

 

I remember being in Cozumel on VOYAGER OF THE SEAS with a number of ships, one of which was BLACK PRINCE. Now for those of you that do not know BLACK PRINCE, she is a tiny ship, 11,000 GT or so, built in 1966 to carry ferry passengers and cars between England and Norway in the summer and passengers and cruise passengers refrigerated cargo between England and Holland and Spain in the winter... A very interesting little ship, emphasis on little! Now that was a contrast.

 

The contrasts between big and small ships can be interesting. Last year I was in Bonaire on QM2 and SILVER CLOUD was in. Rather a contrast. And long ago I was in Curacao on SEAWARD (which would practically be a small ship now) and one of the Sea Goddess twins was berthed next to us, and boy did she look tiny! (Those are the SeaDream twins now and they are so small their owner calls them "yachts", not cruise ships. Even the Seabourn ships are called "yachts", which is rather amusing considering the new SEABOURN ODYSSEY being built is slightly larger than the Saga sisters! She looks like a gorgeous ship but come on, 30,000 GT is not a yacht!)

 

And your comment about being blinded by the towering whiteness of the ship reminds me of my very first huge-ship encounter. That was on my very first cruise on Celebrity's HORIZON, a month or so before my fifth birthday. Now of course I did not know anything about ships and to a five-year-old just about any cruise ship seems pretty big (and HORIZON was actually a big ship for those days), but in some port or another - maybe it was Antigua - alongside came this giant thing called MONARCH OF THE SEAS. At the time she and her sister (MAJESTY OF THE SEAS) were the biggest cruise ships in the world except for NORWAY (which was not really a cruise ship). Even the five-year-old me could grasp that HORIZON was a puny little thing compared to this monster! The effect was rather like a solar eclipse, for one moment we on HORIZON's upper decks were standing in the sun, and the next we were quite literally in the shadow of this blindingly white giant. I recall my parents saying that they could not imagine ever sailing in something so ridiculously large. Famous last words... ;)

[Druke I]

Big, huge, etc!

 

I remember sailing on Oriana (1st) back in '64. She was considered huge, at approx. 40,000GRT. If memory serves correctly, when launched, she was the 6th largest passenger ship afloat.

 

Now, a ship of 40,000GRT is almost considered a "boutique" ship.

[Saga Ruby]

Ya gotta read this one posted in News on these boards:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=2576

 

Those refugees will be so sad to leave! But they achieved their objective of asylum albeit in the UK. Now there will be a fleet of Algerian small boats in "distress."

 

Ruby

[seabourndt]

iam certainly looking forward to my 1st ever saga cruise an d will post to my impressions as i was on CORONIA and have the same cabin in her it will be interesting.

dave

[Saga Ruby]

I need the water now but I will have to be satisfied with the Toronto Islands ferry. Will not be able to get travel insurance for 3 month minimum. Let me hear about everyone's cruises.

Thanks. Fran

 

Fran - You and Donald will laugh when I say I am green with envy for those of you lucky enough to live close to ferries. I love riding on ferries. And I assume Conte and Doug are quite familiar with ferries in their area up East.

 

There is a tiny 6-car ferry in the Kemah area of Texas that chugs back and forth across an industrial marine bayou. Whenever I visit my cousin in South Texas, she knows that we have to ride that municipal ferry and the Port Bolivar ferry out of Galveston.

 

When I stayed in Sydney, I would choose an area around the point from downtown just so I could ride the Darling Harbour ferry. Ferries - big fan!

 

Donald - I really like your idea of eating out on Hat Night on HAL. I didn't realize that pax are warned ahead of time. By the bye, are you usually choosing traditional seating or flexible?

 

Ruby

[Druke I]

Regarding ferry boats - there used to be a wonderful system of ferries in the San Francisco Bay Area, mainly operated by a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad, to supplement their system of commuter trains.

 

Contrary to popular believe, most trains that had San Francisco as their end-point, actually only went to Oakland, and then passengers went across by ferry. There is a rail line that does access The City, up the penisula, but it was not handy to the East Bay or points North and East.

 

As with many things, the end of WW2 and the rising "automobile age" put an end to most San Francisco Bay ferry service.

 

The last few years, some ferries have returned to the bay area, to relieve auto traffic, but they are certainly not as opulent as the old ferries, nor are the schedules as frequent.

[Druke I]

When I was a lad, without my parents finding out - I used to ride my bike down to the Southern Pacific Berkeley Station at 3rd and University, hop on a commuter train to the Oakland Mole, ride the ferry across to the Ferry Building in The City, jump on a California Street streetcar, and ride out to Playland at the Beach (an amusement park, long gone, on the Great Highway, abutting the Pacific Ocean).

 

I had wanderlust at an early age.

[Saga Ruby]

Hello. So you have two cruises on QE2 - one in May and one in October? Are you planning to liberate souvenirs before your departure from the ship?

 

One of our friends on this thread is "franu" who is Fran. She was on the farewell crossing of Marco Polo recently. Maybe she can tell you what memorabilia she brought home to Toronto and is now enjoying. I wonder if Fran has built that Marco Polo memorabilia room yet?!!

 

Ruby

[Host Sharon]

I'll see what will go through the metal detectors!! I do have to confess to liberating a souvenir or two on my recent pre-maiden cruise on Ventura, but as a long-time collector of liner memorabilia, I just had to have something!

 

Thanks for sending me the link to this thread Saga Ruby by the way.

[Host Sharon]

Ah, now there was a ship! My first cruise on my own was on Caronia - we had the BEST ever service.

[Kapricorn]

Donald - I really like your idea of eating out on Hat Night on HAL. I didn't realize that pax are warned ahead of time. By the bye, are you usually choosing traditional seating or flexible?

 

Checking the daily programs which I brought home with me, the Hat Night was announced two days prior to the event. As well, on the next night this invitation (see attachment) was distributed to the passengers.

 

I opt for traditional seating, as I prefer to dine with the same people and be waited on by the same servers who know my dining preferences. The last time that I tried flexible dining was on NCL's Norwegian Star two years ago. What about you, Ruby?

 

Donald.

[Saga Ruby]

Checking the daily programs which I brought home with me, the Hat Night was announced two days prior to the event. As well, on the next night this invitation (see attachment) was distributed to the passengers.

 

I opt for traditional seating, as I prefer to dine with the same people and be waited on by the same servers who know my dining preferences. The last time that I tried flexible dining was on NCL's Norwegian Star two years ago. What about you, Ruby? Donald.

 

What day is "after tomorrow?" Is that like "the sheep ees leeving?"

 

If I had my druthers, I prefer traditional dining for the same reasons as you. However, I wanted to sail on Oceania which is open dining only. It worked out fine and I think I'll do the same on Prinsendam because in traditional dining the hours are skewed out of my range. But it was hard meeting 7 other people every night on Nautica and trying to remember names.

 

The trend I like on cruise ships is the no-smoking policies. The trend I'm not so keen on is the AYW dining on HAL. You’re the frequent cruiser - what are you hearing?

 

Ruby

[Kapricorn]

Ruby - I agree about the phrase "after tomorrow" ... it can be confusing! There's nothing wrong with being much more explicit - i.e. "Mazatlan, Tuesday night, May 6."

 

Holland-America has traditional dinners at 5:45pm and 8pm on the upper level of the dining room, and flexible dining on the lower level. The 5:45pm slot is ridiculously early, which would have forced me to shower at 4:15pm and dress for my pre-dinner martini while everyone else is wearing shorts and flip-flops. Therefore, 8pm it is for me.

 

On the last day on Ryndam, passengers were provided with the usual cruise questionnaires. This time, it included three questions about smoking: (1) do you smoke? (2) would you continue to sail on HAL if smoking is banned from cabins and verandahs? (3) would you continue to sail on HAL if smoking is banned everywhere aboard?

 

The most interesting thing about question (3) is it did not specify that certain areas of the ship would be allowed for smokers.

 

I have absolutely no doubt that HAL will soon implement Celebrity's restrictive smoking policies. Would it bother me? No, as I am not a smoker. There have been several instances when I could not enjoy my cabin balcony due to smoke wafting from adjacent balconies. On Ryndam, I had breakfast delivered to my cabin, and I wanted to enjoy it in the sunlight on my balcony, but couldn't do so because smoke came over from the adjacent one. I don't want smoke over my cereal and bagels.

 

Donald.

[Saga Ruby]

Ah, now there was a ship! My first cruise on my own was on Caronia - we had the BEST ever service.

 

Have you done that Ventura Welcome Aboard cruise yet? I have heard positives and negatives about the ship - colour me curious.

 

Is the Winter Wonderland cruise what you and I were calling the Christmas markets cruise?

 

Ruby

[Kapricorn]

Kapricorn,

Another world cruise round trip from Sydney on Dawn Princess, 104 nights departing on 5th July, 2009.

 

That is interesting! Cruise lines are starting to recognize Australia as the start point for cruises. It will be a long while, though, before I can do a 104-night cruise, especially with the solo supplement and with two pet cats still at home.

 

Donald.

[Host Sharon]

Have you done that Ventura Welcome Aboard cruise yet? I have heard positives and negatives about the ship - colour me curious.

 

Is the Winter Wonderland cruise what you and I were calling the Christmas markets cruise?

 

Ruby

Yes , it was last month Ruby. I'm not a fan of big ships, but was willing to try it out for 3 days. For me - never again! I am sure lots of people, and especially families, will love her, but a plastic fake promenade deck?? I will be very glad to get back to QE2 and Artemis.

 

Yes - the Winter Wonderland is the same as Christmas Markets. For those that want to see some photos (I know you've seen them Ruby) there are some at

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sharonp40/WinterWonderlandCruiseOnArtemis

 

again, another cruise I am looking forward to doing twice.

[Saga Ruby]

Yes , it was last month Ruby. I'm not a fan of big ships, but was willing to try it out for 3 days. For me - never again! I am sure lots of people, and especially families, will love her, but a plastic fake promenade deck?? I will be very glad to get back to QE2 and Artemis.

 

My sole experience on a behemoth was Celebrity's Constellation in 2003 and it cemented my decision that I am a small-ship kinda gal. The megaships are, by definition, convention and banquet scenarios and I have never been interested in that kind of service. I avoid franchise hotels overseas - I seek unique local experiences, not tourist areas, and make a point of staying in neighborhoods in Paris, Rome, and Istanbul. The hurly burly of a tourist site in a major metropolitan area is not for me, whether Dallas or a foreign locale.

 

I have never traveled on a Cunard Queen but I do have a paper bookmark from QE2 so I guess that will have to do. I don't want to roller-skate back and forth to my room on the QM2 and I am uneasy about the class distinctions of an assigned dining space.

 

Tell us more about Ventura. What does that mean - a fake plastic promenade area? I'm keen to hear.

 

Ruby