Back from Zaandam 2-20-09 Hawaii Cruise

[Spinner2]

JBHCW, please come over to the Roll Call thread for this cruise! We'd love to meet you and we're starting to plan the Meet and Greet. It would be great to have you join us.

[LoyHAL]

Hi all,

Just home from this cruise. Hi to the CCers met at the Meet'n'Greet! Thanks again, Harold, for organizing it.

 

Tried to keep a log this time... and I made it until those last sea days. Too relaxing, I suppose! :rolleyes:

 

We were delighted to sail once again on our beloved Zaandam. She never seems to change -- always the same atmosphere and great crew! We were a little late boarding, due to previous code Red conditions, as the 'sterilization process' was taking a while. But, it was only about an hour later than usual that we boarded.

 

Great SailAway party in the Crow's Nest and it was a beautiful day. Wonderful cabin stewards [Harry and Kadek] and dining room servers [buddi and Dede, wine steward Mike]. All took wonderful care of us, of course. As did 'Nette in the Neptune Lounge.

 

A new string quartet in the Explorer Lounge. After a few rough starts, they performed very nicely. I wish we could have spent a little more time listening.

 

The seas the first night were 'very bouncy' -- a condition we all soon learned to deal with. My anti-seasick system is: two bonine at night, one ginger capsule in the a.m. Although we rolled and pitched at times -- I never missed a meal or felt that I should have. [My scale says differently! :D]

 

Took part in some, but not nearly all DAM dollar competitions. There was so much going on and we had a few scheduling difficulties -- ours, not HALs.

 

Went to a few Culinary Demonstrations. The head chef [i'm sure that's not the correct title], named Daniel, is a most personable man, and he was very entertaining at these [free] sessions. We saw him all over the ship. Busy guy!

 

No one going to Hawaii should miss the gentleman, Koinoa, who did a wonderful presentation nearly every day. What a storyteller!

 

On this cruise, we decided to do the wine tastings. There were two -- an introductory tasting and one in the Pinnacle Grill.

 

Also, a new thing -- The Sommelier Wine Dinner, held in the Pinnacle. The Pinnacle chef and the Cellar Master created a fabulous menu to go with the great wines that were served. Well worth the money. One would pay a good deal more for such dinners here on land.

 

 

As a result of the above activities, we became acquainted with Cellar Master Larry, and he would stop at our table to chat every evening. BTW, I have to add that we were not buying wine -- we had purchased a wine card online.

 

We had seen some of the entertainers before -- Tony Pace and Dave Levesque, but they were wonderful to enjoy once again. A new face to us was Annie Frances. What a lovely voice! And, coming home we had Barnaby and Paul Pappas. Great piano bar man as well... last name, Kelly.

 

Went to some of the production shows. Until they can do something about the sound levels in these shows, we tend to either leave, sit way in back or just not go. Just too loud for us....

 

Michael Headla was a very good Cruise Director. He was everywhere! Had a good crew working with him, as well.

 

Hilo had some light rain. We went on the tour to Volcano National Park. Had a terrific bus driver/guide [James] and we really enjoyed this tour. Stopped in terminal for two of the beautiful fragrant $8 leis. [HAL didn't provide these this trip. Is this some new cost-cutting thing?? Anyone know?]

 

After the show, we sailed past the lava flow. [Good timing, Captain Smit!] The volcano was in good form this evening. Always impressive.

 

On Honolulu, we didn't do a tour, but made an attempt to walk to Waikiki. After 45 minutes, we turned back and walked along the ocean-front park. Weather gorgeous -- only one light shower. NEXT time, we'll take the shuttle to Waikiki and walk back! :)

 

Missed Kaui and our tour to the Fern Grotto. Decided this was a good enough reason to return one day. :cool: There was a huge ocean swell and high winds. That would have been very tricky to try to get into that dock. Glad we were in good hands.

 

Maui was gorgeous! We had a rental car and took a picnic lunch to the Ioe Needle. Lovely!! Highly recommend this one! There is a nice park and walking path. It was about an hour's drive to get there.

 

Returned car and met some friends from home who have been renting a condo for a month. Sat on their terrace and watched whale after whale! What a show!

 

On the way home, the choppy seas really kicked in. This rather curtailed our daily morning walks on deck. Too windy! Plus it was easy to stay in, have a lovely breakfast and just watch the waves. :)

 

One day, when we were having dinner late, we did have High Tea served in our room. Oh my! What a great thing to do!! We felt very special.

 

And, on one of the days going to the Islands, we managed to have the club sandwiches from Room Service out on the verandah. Yum!

 

I have no further notes on the return cruise, other than the rockiness. We were just lazy and ate a lot. Heard of no sickness, thank goodness.

 

Missing Ensenada was no great loss to us. Understand the wind and seas slowed us down too much to get there in time. We would have stayed on the ship anyhow, and the 'farewell champagne' was a nice touch!

 

As always, it's tough to come home to reality! I think cruising is a bit surreal anyhow. It's like a wonderful Never-land we get to visit from time to time.

 

Cheers all! Here's to the next one.

LoyHAL

[jbhcw]

Great info here!!! HLVcruiser2 and AZjohn, thanks so much for the info, really hoping we see some whales.

 

Spinner, would love to join your roll call, I checked it out and looks like you'll have a great time, but we're sailing 04-06-2010 - next year. Hope some of you will do a review when you get back. You'll be cruising in less than a month Woo Hoo!!

 

LoyHal, lots of good info, thanks:)

[seabourndt]

sorry to hear you could not dock in kuaia(cannot spell it!) thec same happened when i went there many years ago had to go to maui 1st then kauia but uit was rough. napali cost must have been good i did it in a helicopter! going on nthe ZAANDAM may 7th 1 day cruise to SEATTLE in same cabin as VOLENDAM in december

dave

[GTVCRUISER]

What a great storyteller , I looked foward to hearing him on sea days.

[Iris5383]

LoyHAL - thanks for the review. Sounds like a good time!

[kryos]

I can definately see how it could be difficult to get into the Kauai port to dock in either bad weather or with a side thruster not working properly. That is a tricky place to enter for sure. That being said, I would have been disappointed, Kauai was my favorite of all. We missed Ensenada due to being late due to rough seas early on the way back. I didn't care about that one though. But Kauai, would have made me sad. Still.....you can't be mad when it is weather causing rough seas. No way to reign in the wind. Part of cruising.

Wonder if they got an overnight in Honolulu since they were going to be missing Kauai? Usually the HAL itineraries are either one day in port if the ship is going to all five islands, or an overnight in Honolulu if the ship is not making a stop in Kauai.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[HVLcruiser2]

Wonder if they got an overnight in Honolulu since they were going to be missing Kauai? Usually the HAL itineraries are either one day in port if the ship is going to all five islands, or an overnight in Honolulu if the ship is not making a stop in Kauai.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

 

Sorry to say... no overnight in Honolulu for us. I believe that the seas were too rough and it was necessary for us to go slowly to Maui. We were worried about missing Maui too because we were tendering instead of docking. Happily we got into Maui, altough it was very difficult for some of our senior cruisers to board/exit the tender. Too be honest... 11 sea days and some of them rocky was too much for me. I'm sticking with 7 day cruises from now on.;)

[Bookfinder]

LoyHAL,

 

Thanks for the review -- you did a great job of summing up a wonderful cruise. I wanted to thank you again for the loan of the charger. I didn't see you again but was able to buy a universal one at Radio Shack in Hilo. I can now charge just about every phone and camera on the market. DH was not too thrilled with the price but he will change his mind when he sees the pictures:-)

 

We loved the entire cruise but was disappointed about Kauai but would prefer to be safe. I'm still swaying (Mal de Debarquement Syndrome) and hope it stops soon. I did have to request Sea-Calm from the front desk which really did help. I learned that green apples and crackers also made things better. Out of 7 cruises this is the first one where the motion bothered me. DH said that it was because it was a larger body of water and as the captain had said "there is motion in the ocean".

 

We used the thermal spa during the trip and loved it. DH has back trouble and he would spend about 3 hours up there each day when we were at sea.

 

Thanks again for your kindness and the nice review.

 

Bookfinder and DH

[HVLcruiser2]

I'm still swaying (Mal de Debarquement Syndrome) and hope it stops soon.

 

Hello Bookfinder ! It was good to meet you on board. DH and I are BOTH still swaying. Each day it gets a little better.. but I've never swayed this long after a cruise. ;)

 

I'm trying to get my pictures together... I have little videos from my cheap ole' digital camera that I'm also trying to post for those cruisers leaving on the Zaandam soon. I know I searched for everything I could get my hands on about the ship before my cruise... and the people here always had a little something to keep my excitment going. So, I want to re-pay (or pay it forward) the favor. :D Stay tune.

[jbhcw]

We've been on 20 some cruises but mostly in the Caribbean and just two on the west coast. One a five nighter to Cabo and Ensendada and then the Oosterdam last October. Have also sailed out of Norfolk, Charleston, Jacksonville, Port Canaveral, FLL and Miami. I have never been really seasick and have never taken any meds for not feeling well.

 

My question is - is the Pacific a lot different than the Atlantic?? Are we going to notice more movement or a different kind of movement than the Atlantic??

 

I have also been on cruises when it took me a day or two to get my land legs back, it is a funny feeling to have the earth moving beneath your feet:)

 

Thanks for any input on this:)

[HVLcruiser2]

My question is - is the Pacific a lot different than the Atlantic?? Are we going to notice more movement or a different kind of movement than the Atlantic??

:)

 

 

IMHO.... yes... the Pacific was more rocking than any Caribbean cruise (and CA to mexico cruise)I've been on. It maybe the rocking effected me (and DH) more on this trip because it was longer. (only took 7 day cruises before). Or because it was more days at sea - less port days. By the 4th day, we were beggin for land. We've never gotten sea sick before, and techincally didn't on this trip. In the past, we actually enjoyed the fun of walking on rough days.. but I'm over that "fun" now.:D:p

[Bookfinder]

I have to agree with HVLCruiser2 about the Pacific. I've only done the Caribbean and the Mexican Riveria plus our cruises in the past have been only 7 days but this one did get to me. It would not keep me from doing it again but I would probably double up on the Dramamine. I've always taken one tablet each morning of the less drowsy formula and not had any problems. I probably would have done better to have taken two at night when going to bed on this cruise. I now know so I'm ready for the next time.

 

Bookfinder