Live from the Zaandam - Circle Hawaii.....

[Krazy Kruizers]

So glad you are having a wonderful time in Hawaii.

[Susie51]

Excellent report. Your vivid descriptions help me relive the cruise I took with my sister. Thanks for taking the extra time to write your detailed reports.

[FLBEACHGIRL]

If You Get A Chance Over The Next 4 Days At Sea, Please Sat Hi To My Parents. My Mom Is A Red Head And My Dad Has Gray/white Hair, They Are Allan And Cecelia And They Speak With An English Accent. Also My Brother Is In The Navy, So Ya'll Have Something Is Common. Also My Hubby Was In The Navy For 16 Years, Seagoing Navy. Anyways, Say Hi And Let Me Know, I Told Them Someone Was Sending Us Updates Everyday. Thanks Linda:) :d

[jjb415]

Time for bed and tomorrow will be Lahaina and we have no plans other then to walk around so I hope I can sleep in some.

 

I hope you got to sleep in and then enjoy Lahaina! Thanks for the reports you are writing, they are very enjoyable. :)

[CrystalLady]

Mahalo nui loa for your continuing fascinating reports. You're evoking MANY MANY fond memories - my last such cruise was on Volendam (18 nights) last year.

 

I really look forward to each update of your travelogue.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Hmm -- someone must be having a really great day!!

[DFD1]

Nobby, These are super reports and great fun to read. You've brought back some wonderful memories and now I'm fired up about going out to Hawaii again! So many wonderful places, so little time! Thanks so much, DFD

[nobbync]

Day 10 – Lahaina

 

Thanks for all the comments on this thread. It really is no trouble doing this report and I am having fun doing it. I am just happy everyone is enjoying it and thanks again for all the comments. I was going to try and answer all the questions each day but that is getting too much so I will answer all your questions when I return to San Diego.

 

Today wasn’t a very good day for me as I got a bad migraine. At least I know my migraines are not being caused by stress but we are back to the drawings boards with my doctor when I get home. I thought I’d make it through this cruise without migraines but it looks like that was not the case. And I have been relaxed since we left and I have been eating relatively healthy as I know some foods triggers my migraines as well. When I say relatively healthy lets just say I am not eating even half the food I did on other cruises. On sea days I don’t even eat breakfast and for lunch I eat only one entrée with veggies but I do break down with the desserts but I have only been eating one dessert per meal, most of the time…

 

With the migraine Cindy and my mom stayed with me in the morning. About 9:30 I felt like I could make it in so we headed to get a tender ticket. This went fast as we waited maybe only 10 minutes. What they do is when you are READY to go they give you a ticket and you just sit in the theater. They will radio in when a boat is ready and they only send the people that fit in that one down to the gangway. It made for a very smooth operation with very little lines. We had good swells there but there was a lot of workers there to help out the people that needed it. After making in to Lahaina I still wasn’t feeling up to walking so I told them to go do what they wanted to do and I’d sit under the Banyon Tree. They did all the shopping and brought everything to me while sitting there. I pulled out my good telephoto lens and just took pictures of the birds. It was nice to get fresh air and to sit on the land so even though I didn’t feel the best I was doing okay. They had an art show under the Banyon Tree and I couldn’t believe it but I got lectured by one of the artists. She came over and told me “You better not take any pictures of my art, I sell this for my living and I don’t need people like you taking my artwork”. I wanted to tell her I wouldn’t want any of her work anyway because I think there was much better from other artists. Instead I was nice and explained to her I am taking pictures of the birds and could careless about the art here. She went on and on and if I was feeling better I’d have probably told her off. Instead I just told her she has nothing to worry about. Then she went on about how some guy was set up with a tripod and took all kinds of pictures of her work. I started to just ignore her after awhile. After she got back to her table she sat in front of her artwork and kept watching me… I thought being an artist in Lahaina was supposed to be relaxing and inspiring….

 

After doing all the shopping my mom and I headed back to the ship. Cindy went to find a nice beach and enjoy the rest of the day. When we got to the ship my mom took a nap and I headed up to the thermal suite. Thought maybe the heat and relaxing in those chairs would help me and it did. The view was looking over Maui with Molakai and Lanai all in view. It was simply wonderful and I was by myself and fell asleep for about 45 minutes on those chairs. By the way, the temperatures in Lahaina were in the low 80’s with a nice cool breeze and no rain. It was simply beautiful and I am sorry I couldn’t see more as I have never been here but it turned out to be a decent day even if we were not able to do what was planned.

 

By the time dinner came around I was feeling okay but I wanted to enjoy the company of our new friends at dinner. We missed the last 2 nights dinner in the main dining room because of getting back to ship too later or we were too tired. As we were getting ready for dinner I looked out the window just as a bunch of dolphins were checking out the ship. A mother and baby along with a bunch of BIG adults just swam right next to the ship. I yelled to the room next door to tell my mom and she looked out the window as they were 10 feet from the ship in front of us. Cindy was in the shower. The sun was starting to set then and the clouds of Lanai made for some spectacular views so my mom and I went to the Lower Promenade to take pictures. While up there we saw the dolphins again and they were just swimming next to the ship and they’d dive under and come up to the other side. After watching for a little while we went down and told Cindy and she went up and they were still there.

 

Dinner today I decided to stick with the salad and salmon since I still wasn’t feeling the best. Dinner was blast though as we all talked about what we did in Honolulu and Lahaina since most of us missed dinner those nights.

 

After dinner I took my mom to the show which was HIT THE DECK and it was one of the cast shows. It was basically like most of the cast shows but I felt they had a few very good dance numbers. After the show it was time for bed for all of us. Whew! Those days in port were busy but now it’s time to enjoy 5 relaxing days at sea…

 

Nobby

[nobbync]

Here is a link to a Slide Show that Ed Kos put together and sent us of the photos he took. A few days after I get back I'll post my photos and I will put a link to those photos when they are ready...

 

http://www.photomax.com/web/mem_album_photo_slide_show.php?TrackId=1631857&RandomId=690353722

 

Nobby

[nobbync]

Day 11 – at Sea

 

After 5 days in port and my migraine yesterday I was very tired. I don’t know when I fell asleep but it was early and I didn’t wake up this morning till 8:30. Well technically it was still 7:30 because the clocks went forward an hour last night. Guess the next 2 nights we will go back an hour each to make up the 3 hours. Good thing we have no plans other then to sleep.

 

Poor Cindy though has been getting up with my mom each morning at 6 am so she has been tired but she’s been able to get to the thermal suite or take naps anyplace she can find. Today started a new lecture series on Photography. It is just my sort of thing. Last week I went to a digital photography class put on by one of the ship’s photographers and I thought it was very poor. Today the class was perfect for beginners and I think most people learned something. The photographer doing the class is David Smith and looking at his work he is very talented. He and his wife will be doing many classes over the next few days. I look forward to those.

 

Today is also my mom’s birthday. I think I mentioned about the mix up of flowers when we boarded. I ordered flowers for her room for the day we left and then also for today on her birthday. They delivered both of the flowers the first day. After talking to our room steward Hiru he told me exactly who to talk to. Before I was even able to talk to him Hiru talked to him and we got a call apologizing saying they’d send more flowers for her birthday. This morning when my mom and Cindy went to breakfast Hiru cleaned their room and put the flowers inside along with a card from the Captain and a Happy Birthday sign on their door. My mom was very touched and enjoyed her birthday at sea.

 

We all went to the lido for lunch and again the food was very good. I don’t have a large sample size but I have been on both Oosterdam and now Zaandam and both ships the lido food is by FAR better then the Regal Princess and Vision of the Seas. Maybe the HAL ships don’t have as many choices but what they do have it’s very good for a “buffet” type restaurant. The service up here is also by far the best in a lido deck that I’ve eaten at. Bravo to the Zaandam and her crew. The service overall has been superb. Today I had the spinach lasagna, green beans and a crab salad with real crab again. For dessert they had the left over strudel from last nights dinner so I had to have that again.

 

For the afternoon Cindy and my mom took a nap and I headed to the thermal suite…to take a nap also… Those warm seats are so relaxing. I feel so refreshed after leaving.

 

What’s funny is I had plans to catch up on movies while aboard but so far I have hardly seen any. Yesterday I really wanted to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie but missed all showings of it. It was on TV today but it was never on at a good time for me to watch. Oh well… I’ll have to get the DVD.

 

For dinner it is our second formal night and dinner was fabulous as usual. We found out we actually have 2 waiters for our table instead of 1 waiter and an assistant and that might be why we are having superb service. The two are friends and the main waiter lost his assistant where he had to leave so this other waiter is filling in and it’s been great. Just as usual we had a great dinner with great companions. We decided our table is going to steal a life boat on the last night and sail into SD on our own… For dinner I had the shrimp salad that was served in a pineapple skin. The shrimp were the really small ones but it was very tasty. Also had the daily salad and the orange roughy. The orange roughy was outstanding. For dessert I had this almond cream cake that was also fantastic but very rich. Also the staff brought over a cake for my mom and we all sang happy birthday. After dinner we went to the piano lounge to have a glass of wine and listen to the piano player Bob Berhalter. He can’t hit those high notes but he gets the crowd going so it all works out.

 

He just finished a set so it was back to the room to finish this report and off to bed. Tomorrow morning I have my second Aromastone massage. I loved it so much the first time I have to do it again.

 

Have a great day everyone and thanks again for reading. Clocks do not turn back tonight so I guess it’s tomorrow.

 

Nobby

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for keeping up the reports.

 

Hope the rest of your cruise is migraine free.

[RuthC]

Sometimes you get lucky and are on the return the weekend clocks are reset to standard time. There's one hour you don't have to make up losing an hour's sleep.

Thanks for the continuing reports. I'm enjoying your enjoying.

[Susie51]

I hope you keep posting. Your activities are of great interest.

[CrystalLady]

Thank YOU for your continuing posts. They are a pleasure to read!

 

Happy Birthday to your Mom. Hope the rest of the cruise is migraine-free for you.

[sail7seas]

Wonderful reports that I am really enjoying. Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

 

Continue to enjoy. :)

 

[nobbync]

Day 12 – at Sea

 

Today was a mixed feeling day. On one side I am very happy to be on this ship and to be able to enjoy some relaxing days but on the other side my heart is with my fellow San Diegan’s. I just hope and pray all will be okay. My wife sent me email saying some of our friends have been evacuated and from what news I have been able to get it sounds like the next 24 hours might get uglier. Many people on the ship are using their cell phones trying to get information. One of our tablemates found out their daughter was one of the ones being evacuated. On CNN today we say interviews with Larry Himal. Those from San Diego know him as a reporter here for many years and he had to report his house burning down. Anyway, I hope the news starts getting better tomorrow and those of you on this board that are in the So Cal area I do send my thoughts and prayers to you all.

 

This morning I did wake up just in time for my second Aromastone Massage of this cruise. I had one on the way to Hawaii and I loved it so much I did it again. Again the massage was really good and I didn’t want to leave. Tess did the massage again and she was fantastic. The feeling of the hot rocks being used for the massage is a wonderful feeling and if you ever thought about trying it I’d go for it. I joked saying I’d like to take her home with me as my wife would love it as well and she said she’d love to do it if HAL allowed them to… I may have to go talk to the Captain.

 

After the massage I really didn’t feel like doing anything except sleep but we went to lunch in the lido again. Today was the Mariner’s brunch but I couldn’t go since I had the massage scheduled and it wasn’t done in time. This would have been my first one but I hope to have many more Dam Ship trips and many more Mariner’s brunches or parties. Because of that the Lido was empty so we had a nice lunch. After lunch Cindy and I went for a walk and then went up to the Thermal Suite. That was so relaxing and it was a good afternoon after the morning massage.

 

At 3pm I went to the class where Anna Smith showed how to put photos on cloth and other things like this. Anna is the wife of David Smith who is on board teaching the digital photography classes.

 

Dinner tonight was simply superb! Almost all nights the food was good but tonight I even wanted to lick my plate…but I was a good boy and did not… It started with the seared ahi tuna. I had never seen it done this way but the slices were very thin and it was delicious. Then the green asparagus cream soup was yummy. I had the salad which was a beat salad and for the first time I had the blue cheese dressing and I sure wish I had tried it before. For the entrée I had the Chateaubriand and it was the best I have ever tasted. For dessert I only had the cookie dough ice cream but later is the chocolate buffet on the lido deck pool.

 

After dinner we went to the show which was called ON THE EDGE and it was two comedy jugglers named Howie and Bert and they were hilarious and very entertaining. Since the cruise started we have only seen a few of the shows because the theater fills up really fast. If you go on this cruise in the future you need to go early. Even tonight we got there about 20 minutes early and we barely got a seat. I don’t know if the later show is less crowded but the early show has been packed almost every night.

 

The chocolate buffet was very nice around the pool but we just went up to take pictures. We went up at 10 pm and they were already allowing people to photograph it. You could eat between 10:30 pm and midnight. There is no way I could eat any more food tonight so I took pictures and then ran. If I see everyone eating all this I’d want some as well so I decided to come down and check more news on the SD fires and finish this report.

 

Have a great day everyone.

 

Nobby

[Krazy Kruizers]

So glad you had another wonderful sea day.

 

Hope all is well at home for your wife.

 

Prayers are being said.

[sweet sheep]

Nobby,

I feel really sad for all of you on the ship heading back to your homes in SD and i hope and pray that y ou will find everything in good shape,

I can feel your pain because i was on the Statendam on the way to Hawaii in 2005 when hurricane Wilma made a direct hit on Ft. Lauderdale where i iive. We were half the way out and could not use cell phones for awhile and CNN painted a very bad picture for us. They were right because it did terrible damage here. Thankfully my own home had minimal problems but some of my traveling c ompanions had much damage. On one hand you are very thankful not to have to go through the actual storm or fire, but not knowing and being so far away is painful i ndeed.

I have f riends who live in the SD area and of course i cannot get in touch with them as they have been evacuated.

I pray that when you get back home that things will have improved greatly,

Thank you again for your reports as i will be on the Zaandam in April going on your same journey.

By the way, you have been mostly positive about everything-are there any negatives yet other than the crowded theatre?

[nobbync]

Hi Shirley,

 

Thanks for the comments... I will write more later but you asked if there was anything else that was negative... YES..... THE WI-FI INTERNET ABSOLUTELY SUCKS! More on that when I get home but other then that I have been very happy with this cruise.

 

Nobby

[RustaRoo]

I have just been sitting back reading all of your thoughtful and thorough reports and want to thank you for bringing back so many fine memories of my trip with the 'Spamdammers' a year ago. You have done an amazing job and it is sincerely appreciated - thank you!:)

[Susie51]

Thank you for sharing your concerns about the SD fire and the people in your life that are affected by it. I will be praying for you.

 

Your tranquil day at sea sounds delightful. Thank you for taking time to write to us.

[KAYEF]

nobby

be glad it was artists under the banyan tree...........a couple of years ago we had to sit there for four hours due to a tender mess (we were on Princess that time) and almost all occupants of the tree area had brown bags with booze in them............it was very uncomfortable..........they "owned" the area

as for your artist

too bad you couldn't have passed your migraine on to her

but I know you're too nice to do that

enjoy those remaining sea days...........my favorite days are AT SEA;)

[razman]

What an amazing dairy on your wonderful cruise. I can't wait to hear more. Your writings are just like me being there. I truly enjoy reading them. I am on the Circle Hawaii 4/08 cruise and I am gathering a wealth of valuable information here.

 

Thank you so very much.

[luvcruisn']

Nobby,

Thanks so much for your posts. It brought back memories of the times I stayed near Waikiki Beach and visited Lahaina when my brother was living there.

[nobbync]

Day 13 – at Sea

 

Today was another nice day. I’m not sure if this is still interesting for everyone since I’m really not doing that much except to relax. Today was spent relaxing but also every chance I can get CNN is on watching the fire coverage. Tonight on Larry King he said it is now a million people evacuated? He also said it was the largest evacuation in US history. I really am speechless.

 

I slept in again today. The weather is starting to cool down some as today was very cloudy and high temps were about 67. The seas have been no bigger then 7 foot swells and today the water is flat as can be. We do have some heavy winds though so the ship is moving but it’s not bad.

 

I skipped breakfast and so did my mom and Cindy. I was surprised when I woke up I checked there room and Cindy was still sleeping and my mom just woke up. That was good they got to sleep in some. We ordered room service for some rolls and fruit for them. I’m sure Cindy was really happy she got to sleep in one day. The next hour or so we watched the coverage on CNN. At 10:30 I went to another photography class with David Smith again. Today he discussed tips and techniques. One of our tablemates goes to all the photography classes and we had a good talk before and after. George and is wife Helen are from New York and George is one of those guys that are soft spoken but he can really tell a story. I love talking to him as he has stories about everything. Sometimes I have no idea if he’s serious or not because after half of his long stories there is a joke after. He’s a very funny guy.

 

After the photography lecture we headed to lunch on the Lido. As usual the food was good and the shrimp and scallop stir fry was outstanding but a little spicy. I like spicy foods but spicy foods no longer like me so I try to limit it but this was good. After lunch I dropped off my mom at the room so she can take her nap while I headed up to the Thermal Suite. That is becoming my second favorite place in the ship behind only the dining room at dinner. The Thermal suite has some very relaxing music playing and some faucets with drips. The Jacuzzi also sloshes around and it sounds like surf. Then there’s this private balcony where you can sun bathe and it is so nice. The Thermal Suite heated chairs though are fantastic and just laying there sleeping or watching the ocean go by is as relaxing as can be.

 

Late in the afternoon my mom and I went waking around the ship and did some shopping. We later had a seat in the ocean bar and just talked for an hour before heading back to the room and relax before getting ready for dinner. I am scared that when I get home I won’t be able to do anything other then relax.

 

For dinner tonight it was again a smart casual night. I don’t think I have been saying much about the dress but it’s been smart casual every night except for 2 formal nights so far and tomorrow night is our 3rd and final. Tonight’s soup was really good. It was Grandma’s Chicken Soup and I’ll say Grandma sure cooks great soup! Tonight’s salad was a Greek Salad and then I also had the salmon. After the spicy lunch I had to eat good tonight and I did. I really wanted the prime rib or scallops but thought it was best to stay away. So instead Cindy had the prime rib and she said it was excellent and my mom had the scallops and she said it was excellent as well. If the scallops weren’t fried I would have got them but that’s okay as the salmon is always good.

 

After dinner we saw our room steward Hiru and we had a good long talk with him. He has been working for HAL for 11 years and he has a wife and kid back home in Indonesia. He really likes my mom and he speaks fondly of his mom. He even went as far as to say I am lucky to be able to spend some time like this with my mom. He told us he really wishes he could take his mom on a cruise like this and he had tears in his eyes when he said it. I really felt for him. 10 ½ months away from home is a long time. Even with the longing for home he has the right attitude of being positive and doing a great job. He is always smiles and he always stops to talk to us.

 

The rest of the evening Cindy, mom and I propped open the doors between our rooms and just talked. They went to bed now so I thought I’d finish this report for today. Tonight is the Indonesian Crew show but our room steward and waiters won’t be there so we decided to go to bed. Tonight the clocks go ahead for our third and final hour so I don’t really want to sleep till 10 so I’ll get to sleep early.

 

Have a great day everyone…

 

Nobby