Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Live from Eurodam Transatlantic 11-27 August

RetiredMustang

By RetiredMustang,
in Holland America Line

Recommended Posts

RetiredMustang

RetiredMustang

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The Tattoo

 

We went ashore and boarded buses for the transit to Edinburgh Castle for the Tattoo at about 6 p.m. HAL had arranged for enough tickets for us to fill nine buses, but still could have sold more as there were many people on standby, and others would have been as well if HAL had not closed off even the standby list. I was happy to see that one of our M&G people, Lisa and her son Ben, who had been on the standby list, were able to get tickets and attend the show.

 

The buses parked at the bottom of the Castle hill, and we walked up city streets lined with pubs and restaurants to the queue to enter the show. It was perhaps a half mile walk, but a steep one over cobblestones and stone-flag sidewalks. We were near the front part of the queue, relatively speaking, as there were only a couple of hundred people in front of us. We soon were released and entered the grounds.

 

The set-up was bleachers along three sides of a rectangular field/stage area, with the Castle at the far end. Our seats were all the way up on the north side bleachers, and all the other HAL seats were in the same area. Seating was the hard plastic molded fold-down seats, and we were glad our tour guide had recommended spending a pound apiece to rent foam cushions for them. The seats were also quite intimate, especially for us North American body types, which is to say in most cases like mine not svelte. But, even the thin ones got to know their neighbors perhaps more than they had intended. DW said she thought that if the bleachers collapsed, we all would remain in the air, wedged hip-to-hip.

 

The show itself was fabulous, with massed pipes and drums from several British and Commonwealth military and police outfits. DW preferred the Royal Air Force, but I think it was the striking light blue tartans they were wearing instead of any superior talent. There were also marching bands from Tonga and Switzerland, a drum/cymbals and dancers group from China, and a precision drum group from Switzerland that stole the show.

 

There were also a couple of Robert Burns songs sung by professional singers who had beautiful voices, joined sometimes, as for "Auld Lang Syne" by us audience members, who frankly did not.

 

The finale was stupendous. They played some hymns and paid tribute to the last WW1 veteran, who died this year at age 114. I defy anyone to remain unmoved when massed pipers play "Amazing Grace". Anyone who did was undone, though, by the spotlighted lone piper, playing a haunting tune from the ramparts of the Castle.

 

It took some time to clear the stands and return to the bus. The tour guide had said there would be about 9,000 people in attendance, and we had thought that was not many, since we routinely go to baseball games with up to 40,000 in attendance (OK, recently we've been to Washington Nationals games, so we're only talking about 10,000 there), but I admit that ball stadiums were planned and built more for crowd entry/exit than the royal castle was.

 

A realtively short ride brought us back to the tender landing at South Queensferry. The ship sent several tenders to fetch us, but it was not possible to load more than one at a time as it was low tide and the pier sloped into the water, leaving only a short area which a tender could come along side to embark passengers. There was quite a line. We had gone ashore on a larger boat that HAL had rented, similar in idea to what they do at Half Moon Cay, that had held four bus loads going ashore, but it was not in service at midnight when we came back.

 

In any case, we were in about the third or fourth tender, and got back to the ship in a reasonable enough amount of time. Others further back in the line waited much longer than us, and of course some ahead of us may have thought the wait was too long. I don't see what HAL could have done to make it faster -- perhaps have a few more tenders standing by instead of sending them from the ship when the buses started arriving, but there really was no place for them to wait for us aside from bobbing in the harbor. Perhaps someone from the Shore Excursions staff should have been there at least to explain to everyone what the wait was and why. People tend to accept a wait better if they know why they are waiting.

 

We fell quickly into bed, as we had arranged for a morning excursion to the Falkirk Wheel and Antonine Wall. I'm going to stop here so DW and I can go get some breakfast before our tour.

 

More later,

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RetiredMustang

RetiredMustang

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Aug. 14, Friday

 

Answers to your questions:

 

1. Dance music. I'm not really the guy to ask, and not sure what you mean by dance; to us, that's Big Band and swing, for ballroom dancing, but maybe you mean disco. We usually see a dance band in the Ocean Bar in later afternoon/early evening on other cruises, but this cruise it's been a piano player. According to today's daily program, though, The Neptunes play dance music in the Ocean Bar tonight from 7 p.m.to midnight. The Queen's Lounge has 70's Disco Inferno with Vivienne & The HALCats from 9 p.m. to close. And, the Northern Lights Disco has Name That Tune at 9 p.m., with Club Hits at 11, which is when 20's and 30's meet, which I presume is age, not birth years.

 

2. Windows in the cabanas -- thanks, Ruth, for answering this one. I did not know.

 

3. Lemonade at lunch. Sorry, we missed lunch on board today, and I don't remember noticing before. I'll try to get an answer for you.

 

These bring up a point. I spoke with sapper1 today, who is on this cruise, and she said she had seen this thread and thought about posting her two cents' worth and may do so later, but is watching her online minutes. I can only report on what I see, and my interests may not mirror yours, so if you don't see something, ask me and I will try to find out, but I am by no means an expert on much of anything. And, if there are any other CC'ers on board Eurodam now who see this, please feel free to chime in with your experiences. I can only go to one place a time, and you may have gone somewhere else really cool as well. So, please join in if you have something to add.

 

Correction: Lisa's son's name is Sam, not Ben. Sorry!

 

Falkirk Wheel

 

Speaking of somewhere cool, our tour this morning was to the Falkirk Wheel and the Antonine Wall. It was lightly raining while we drove to the site, and most of the time we were on the boat, and then started to really drizzle steadily. We had lucked out yesterday, especially last night with the Tattoo when the weather was as good as we could expect, but Scotland returned to normal today.

 

Falkirk is not very far from Queensferry. The Wheel is a new engineering marvel that connects two old canals which have been restored. They used to be joined by a series of locks, but these were built over when the canals fell into disuse. When Scotland decided to renovate the canals, mostly for recreational boating, they had to figure out a way to join the two canals, which are about 100 feet different in elevation.

 

The solution was ingenious, technically superb, efficient and lots of other adjectives, but really the best way to say it is -- it is way cool! There is not a guy in the world who has ever been an 8-year-old with a set of Tinker Toys or Lincoln Logs who wouldn't love this thing. What it is is two circles each holding a "basket" which rotates so that the one on top comes down and the one at the bottom goes up, kind of along the idea of an elevator or funicular train, each "basket" carrying boats, which can then sail on their merry ways when the gates are opened up again.

 

I'll try to attach some of the photos I took. I'm not the best at digital photography ... which reminds me, sorry about the sideways photo of the Lido -- I've figured out how to rotate them now.

 

We entered a boat, were raised to the top, then went down the canal and through a tunnel, and turned around and repeated the process to return to the visitors center. Massively cool!

 

Then, our guide offered a walk up, down, up and down hills to the old Roman Antonine Wall, which is further north of the more-famous Hadrian's Wall, and the remains of a Roman fort called Rough Castle today. It was steadily raining by then, so I told DW that what with my arthritis in my knees, the mild displasia in my hips and the pain in my sacro-iliac from sitting at the Tattoo last night probably meant I should stay back at the visitors center while she went ahead. She said it sounded like a load of Latin that translated to "wimp", and she had seen the wine and pastries at the cafe as well as I had.

 

So, she went on the walk with a handy poncho, and I passed the time somehow, helped with a little wine. Apparently, I wasn't the only Latin-speaker on the tour bus, though, because I saw a lot of other people wearing HAL stickers in the cafe as well. DW reports that the 15 or so hardy types who took the walk enjoyed it very much and learned a lot. Good for her and them.

 

More later,

Dave

1735317917_FalkirkWheel1.jpg.8acac69aeafb2298ef018919ec50ea33.jpg

1983055307_FalkirkWheel2.jpg.c03f7b63d904ed590ea390874046a885.jpg

1244958817_FalkirkWheel3.jpg.fa29ffd42b2c5e947a14fd32b7ec0a55.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CasaSmith

CasaSmith

Posted
Posted

Dave,

 

The Wheel looks so interesting. Whoever designed it probably did play with those toys as a kid.

 

Please tell Sapper1, that Christine (CasaSmith) says hello. We are cruising in September on the Eurodam together. I was wondering how her cruise was going.

 

Glad you where able to enjoy your wine in the nice dry visitor center. My husband would have done the same thing.

 

Continue the great reports.

 

Thanks again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
onthegogirl

onthegogirl

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the wonderful information. I had to leave in Copenhagen but my cousins are sailing with you. Although they may not be on the same tours, I can get a feel of their experiences by reading all about yours. Wish I could have seen the wheel. That sounds facinating.

 

Knowing how fast the minutes fly, I really appreciate your taking the time to post this diary.

 

Carole

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RetiredMustang

RetiredMustang

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Aug. 15, Saturday

 

An answer to a question -- I just checked the Lido lunch lines, and saw no evidence of lemonade being on offer anywhere. It was crowded and I may have missed it, but I didn't see any at the drinks stations. Maybe they have it at the bars.

 

Birthday cake. Thursday the 13th was my birthday (56). I only bring it up to tell you about the changed birthday cake. We had not told HAL events staff or the booking agents that it was my birthday, but of course HAL has it in their data bases as I had to use it to sign up for the internet, so I should not have been surprised, but I was a little. We were at the Tattoo excursion on the 13th, and so were not in the dining room for dinner. Last night, however, we finished our main course and were waiting for the server to bring the dessert menu, when he and a few others showed up with a cake and sang the Indonesian song I always thought was "Happy Birthday". It may have been "You Rascal You" or "Roll Me Over" for all I know.

 

At any rate, the cakes we had had before on HAL when we or someone else had an event were layered flour cake with cream frosting. To each his own, of course, but we had found them pretty bland and unremarkable. Last night's cake, however, had a half-inch base of thick dense chocolate cake, not quite as dense as a brownie but more so than a regular cake. Topping it was a chocolate mousse with piped whipped cream and a chocolate drizzle on top. That was much more to our liking. The moral of the story is twofold -- if you cruise over your birthday, don't be surprised if you get a cake and a song. And, the cake is pretty good.

 

 

Highlands countryside and Dornoch

 

We pulled in about 7 a.m. or so, and left about 2 p.m. The ride up the Cromarty Firth to Invergordon coming in was quite pretty, with fog banks rolling up the low hills of fields of barley and wheat and little copses of woods and small villages and lone farm houses, etc. There were also some oil platforms in the firth, and some industrial areas along the way as well, so it wasn't all picture postcards, but a real land with real people living there. We are sailing out of the Cromarty Firth as I write, joining the Inverness Firth, the two becoming the Firth of Moray, on our way to the sea and en route to Iceland. It is a glorious sunny day now -- the clouds have broken up and it is quite pleasant out on deck, although a bit breezy.

 

There were a good many tours in the range of 4 hours long on offer today, because of the short time in port, all leaving at about the same time, including the one we picked. We chose it because of two attractions -- 1) it promised some views of the countryside; and 2) there was no hint of Nessie anywhere in the description. Really, we are not the curmudgeons that may have made us sound like, but we didn't want to do the really touristy tours, but rather wanted to see a bit of real Scotland.

 

We drove through beautiful countryside, and saw several deer in the fields as we went, and much heather which is just coming into bloom (photo). We stopped at a viewpoint overlooking hills and glens and a loch and were able to get out of the bus and take photos. I hopefully have attached one I took of the view over the loch.

 

We then went to a waterfall, the Falls of Shin, a short but wildly-running river. There was a short path and steps to two viewing platforms and, since it wasn't raining, my infirmities of yesterday miraculously got better, so DW and I walked to both platforms. A photo of the falls should be attached as well. We also had time left to be able to take another path, through woods to an overlook of a lower stretch of the Shin River.

 

The tour bus then took us to the village of Dornoch, which has a small high street, and a picturesque and small cathederal ... and, as I stumbled across after a few minutes of diligent search, a small picturesque pub where I got a not small glass of McEwan's ale. A short drive returned us to the ship just after 1 p.m. Apparently, all the tours that left at about the same time also came back at about the same time, and there was a long line waiting to walk back aboard and be screened at security. They moved as quickly as they could, and it was not really that long a wait.

 

DW is at a couple of history and nature talks while I blog, and then we will relax a bit before dinner. Last night we enjoyed the show of the Scottish magician/comedian. By the way, the fold-down seats in the show lounge are every bit as comfortable as they are attractive -- more comfortable than I remember the benches being on Noordam and Westerdam. I don't know if we'll take in tonight's show, which is a Ukrainian piano player, whose act's description reminds us of Victor Borge -- a lot of comedy injected into the recital.

 

Tomorrow is an at-sea day, so I should have some time to explore the ship some more and give you my biased opinions about what I see. I can't believe we've already been on board four full days!

 

More later,

Dave

1069481996_Heatherinbloom.jpg.762b8bdf32da73adb3ed17c94bf9418e.jpg

1512887_ScottishHighlandsscenery.jpg.1e29b48e0079b011e8a5b6841c31d49c.jpg

1089933829_FallsofShin.jpg.fc9f7e6e94051263fc86e4425b56ce3c.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lazey1

lazey1

Posted
Posted

We had that same wonderful cake on the Eurodam last August for our 50th wedding anniversary. A large enough cake that we shared with the entire table of 8 and still had 2 pieces left over for lunch the next day. Jane & Gary:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RetiredMustang

RetiredMustang

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Mustang: are you using the internet on board to post all this, is that not extremely costly or for some reason do you have it free?

 

Actually, I only spend a few minutes on line for any one post. I learned a trick a while ago from other Cruise Critic people, like RevNeal, who said to write your messages on a word processing program, and then log on only for a short while and copy and paste your comments. That way, I don't spend a lot of time/money in writing, only in posting.

 

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RetiredMustang

RetiredMustang

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Aug. 16, Sunday

 

We ran into some weather last night and this morning, with rain and some rolling and pitching. The captain slowed down after daybreak so the movement wasn't quite as much, but there is still some going on. The rain stopped mid-morning and the wind slackened, so the captain has opened the weather decks, and he says it should steadily improve, and in fact we should have a nice day tomorrow in iceland. We sure hope so, as we have an all-day excursion and hope to see many of the sights.

 

This morning, I spent some time going about the ship, and hopefully can post a few photos, and DW and I enjoyed a cappuccino in the Neptune Lounge. We were able to resist the pasttries, though.

 

The food has been pretty good. There have been fresh berries for breakfast each morning (a treat for me), among all the other things on the Lido buffet, and the lunches we've made have been tasty as well. I'm partial to salads and such things for lunch, and they have a very good salad bar. Today, the Lido Asian section had nasi goreng and bami goreng.

We've had dinners in the main restuarant. They've served such things as prime rib, Alaska king crab legs, lobster thrmidor, seafood pasta, beef short ribs, lasagna, etc., and many delicious hot or cold soups. Desserts have been good as well, including a chocolate avalanche cake last night that was almost decadent. We miss dinner tomorrow as we get back late from our excursion in Iceland, and DW is hoping we don't miss her favorite HAL dish, osso bucco with risotto. We have seen the Canaletto menu and might go there when we get back tomorrow. Tamarind also has an interesting pan-Asian menu, and I understand we can get Indonesian rijstaffel there for lunch or dinner.

 

HAL has had a new executive chef for a few years now, and has upscaled the menu a bunch, and we do enjoy many of the new dishes. But, we sometimes miss some of the old fare like Dutch night treats of pea soup, ham with macaroni and cheese and Dutch braised beef. We are far from starving, though, with all the choices available.

 

There are several things going on today, including a coffee talk with the first officer, which DW attended, and a veterans meeting that I went to. There was also a Filipino cooking demonstration, and this afternoon there is a history/culture talk about Rejkyavik and other events. Tonight is our second formal night. I may do a bit more wandering about the ship as well before changing into my tux.

 

More later,

Dave

1827724997_SilkDen1.jpg.8cd51c52f8ab01150a58b5ccc7f7efdc.jpg

1055481247_SilkDen2.jpg.e62c2e837c9c7516b0f4167c36662707.jpg

Tamarind.jpg.acc1f91d2c252724d27bd68d2d98d723.jpg

1408190735_Neptuneloungerefreshments.jpg.81253d50016f7ad0de42b085759ff748.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jtl513

jtl513

Posted
Posted
Tamarind also has an interesting pan-Asian menu, and I understand we can get Indonesian rijstaffel there for lunch or dinner.
Hi Dave -

If it's available at lunch, that's something new. When we had it, it was $20 pp for dinner ($5 over the regular) and the lunch menu was only the free Dim Sum for everyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RetiredMustang

RetiredMustang

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Hi Dave -

If it's available at lunch, that's something new. When we had it, it was $20 pp for dinner ($5 over the regular) and the lunch menu was only the free Dim Sum for everyone.

 

John,

 

It wouldn't by far be the first time I was wrong or misinformed. I'll try to nail it down if it is indeed available at lunch.

 

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail Beyond the Ordinary with Oceania Cruises
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: The Widest View in the Whole Wide World
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...