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Dutch Vikings Return from Voyage to New World
Many of the Dutch Vikings have returned, while others are still in route,
from their latest ocean pilgrimage... this time to the ABC islands of the Dutch Antilles and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas. Viking Queen Susette and her fellow Viking knights and ladies have declared their latest voyage to the New World a success. They sailed aboard the Dutch Ship the HAL Westerdam to the beautiful waters of the Caribbean Sea, in the New World. Dutch Antilles islands visited were Aruba and Curacao. The Vikings were joined in their pilgrimage by several new Vikings, including Toby and Barb from the opposite side of the world (from an island in some unknown sea that locals call Pacific Ocean) and Princess Ermalee from the new world land called MaryLand... Many spoils were obtained along the route, including dam shirts, dam caps and other sundries. Feasts include malt beer, warm meat off the bone, and even apple strudel made by sailors from far off Austria. A wonderful time was had by all. --Tom |
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Dutch Vikings Return from Voyage to New World
Tom, welcome home to you and all of the Vikings. Sounds like you had a
great cruise and I hope you and others will write a review. sue Tom K wrote: Many of the Dutch Vikings have returned, while others are still in route, from their latest ocean pilgrimage... this time to the ABC islands of the Dutch Antilles and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas. Viking Queen Susette and her fellow Viking knights and ladies have declared their latest voyage to the New World a success. They sailed aboard the Dutch Ship the HAL Westerdam to the beautiful waters of the Caribbean Sea, in the New World. Dutch Antilles islands visited were Aruba and Curacao. The Vikings were joined in their pilgrimage by several new Vikings, including Toby and Barb from the opposite side of the world (from an island in some unknown sea that locals call Pacific Ocean) and Princess Ermalee from the new world land called MaryLand... Many spoils were obtained along the route, including dam shirts, dam caps and other sundries. Feasts include malt beer, warm meat off the bone, and even apple strudel made by sailors from far off Austria. A wonderful time was had by all. --Tom |
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Dutch Vikings Return from Voyage to New World
In article , Sue Mullen
wrote: Tom, welcome home to you and all of the Vikings. Sounds like you had a great cruise and I hope you and others will write a review. It was a great cruise. And like many group cruises the cruise line and ship were secondary. This was my first cruise on Holland-America and there were some things I liked and some things about the ship and line I did not like. The biggest pros and they are important ones were the food and the service. The food was better than my recent experiences on any of the other mass market cruises lines. The service was also better. What I did not like was the ships public areas, both the decor and design. Dark and terrible color combinations. The show lounge had lots of obstructions and weird seating. The pool areas were awful with too many tables and not enough lounge chairs. The hot tubs were tiny and too few. The main pool can be covered which seems odd for the Caribbean but I am sure that is a plus for Alaska. The cabin was very good. I upgraded to a Verandah and that was a good decision as there were never any empty chairs on the pool deck because of the chair hogs. Activities are not a Holland-America strong point. I did hear good things though about the Culinary Arts center but I am not into that. The daily program sheet was not in a user friendly format making it difficult to keep up with times and places of what activities they had. They moved the library but all the signs and maps had the old location. the library itself was well stocked with recent books. Best library I have seen on a ship other than the QM2. The entertainment, except for the magician was pretty good. The production shows were better than ones I have seen recently on Celebrity, RC and Princess. The other entertainers other than the magician were very good, loved the Elton john and Eagles shoe by Joel Mason. The female comedian was also good. I am not going to blame Holland-America for the composition of the passengers on this sailing but unfortunately we had that rude crowd onboard that moved to Florida from the New York area. I have encountered them on the other cruise lines sailing out of Fort Lauderdale during this time frame so it is not a HAL issue. I have put Holland-America on my list of the mass market cruise lines I would book on but it would not be my first choice. If there is a category of premium mass market lines then HAL is in it along with Celebrity. In general right now I prefer Celebrity followed by Royal Caribbean when I judge the complete cruise experience for myself. -- Charles |
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Dutch Vikings Return from Voyage to New World
"Charles" wrote in message d... In article , Sue Mullen wrote: This was my first cruise on Holland-America and there were some things I liked and some things about the ship and line I did not like. The biggest pros and they are important ones were the food and the service. The food was better than my recent experiences on any of the other mass market cruises lines. The service was also better. I agree about the service, as good as any cruise we've been on, including the QM2. And the bar waiters were attentive, but not intrusive. I agree with your food comment for the breakfast buffet and lunch buffet, and the first 3 nights in the dining room. The food was as good, or better than any food on any cruise. And the fish dishes the first 3 nights at dinner were superb. Nice mild white fish, spiced very nicely. Still a bit juicy and not overdone. No fishy smell what so ever. Very nicely done. But after that, as I said in another post, I thought there was a significant decline in the dining room food. The fish the 4th evening, the Red Snapper was just plain terrible. Dry, fishy smelling (not good) and way overdone. Then there were 2 nights when salmon was the only fish available (both on the main menu and the "always available" menu). That was the end of the mild white fish. The surf and turf were nice. Large piece of lobster, but the fillet was smaller than a deck of cards. The last evening the tenderloin was very tough and grizzly. My first bite was just about impossible to chew. Since the salad that night had virtually no dressing it was impossible to eat. With the ox tail soup not very filling, I went up to the buffet right after dinner to get something to eat, and found it closed except for pizza... so I had a slice of pizza for dinner. A bad salad, tough tenderloin, and a slice of pizza because I was still hungry don't put HAL in Cunard's or Celebrity's league. The first 3 nights... YES... but the last few nights, sorry. NO. At least for me. What I did not like was the ships public areas, both the decor and design. Dark and terrible color combinations. There are many beautiful places on the ship, and then they throw in something hideously ugly to spoil everything else around it. Like the 5 naked statues up on the large wall by the crows nest lounge. Or the ugly elevator doors (what were they thinking?). And in addition to the dark, and terrible color combinations you mentioned, many areas were dimly lit, making them feel even darker. The ship wasn't exactly in good condition though. Balcony chairs were in terrible condition. There were many areas not really that clean (Charles said it before I said it, but he's right). Lots of worn, rusty areas on the outside of the ship. I don't think the ship is that well cared for. Definitely not in the league of either Constellation or QM2 as far as TCL. As far as the artwork that is often discussed, there are about 5 nice Stephen Card ship paintings, and 2 nice old Dutch Pieces, but that's about it. The 4 impressionist paintings on Norwegian Dawn are high end museum quality. Westerdam's arwork isn't in that league The 2 old Dutch pices might be museum quality, but nothing else was IMO. I thought the artwork on QM2 was 10 times better. But the 4 paintings on Dawn are at the top of the list. Those are serious arrwork pieces. The show lounge had lots of obstructions and weird seating. The seating was very weird. Some seats had 6 feet of leg room, while others had about 16 inches of leg room. The pool areas were awful with too many tables and not enough lounge chairs. The hot tubs were tiny and too few. The main pool can be covered which seems odd for the Caribbean but I am sure that is a plus for Alaska. I thought the pool area was gorgeous, but with like 20 reclining chairs on each side of the pool, it was virtually unuseable by more than a few dozen people. VERY poor design IMO. The cabin was very good. I upgraded to a Verandah and that was a good decision as there were never any empty chairs on the pool deck because of the chair hogs. Activities are not a Holland-America strong point. I did hear good things though about the Culinary Arts center but I am not into that. I enjoyed the show on making Apple Strudel. The daily program sheet was not in a user friendly format making it difficult to keep up with times and places of what activities they had. Since you are the "official" keeper of the daily schedule (everybody asks Charles what's next on the schedule), I'll default to your opinion. They moved the library but all the signs and maps had the old location. the library itself was well stocked with recent books. Best library I have seen on a ship other than the QM2. The entertainment, except for the magician was pretty good. The production shows were better than ones I have seen recently on Celebrity, RC and Princess. The other entertainers other than the magician were very good, loved the Elton john and Eagles shoe by Joel Mason. The female comedian was also good. I though the Eagles show by Joel was very good as well. I really enjoyed it. He's not a great singer.... in fact he's not even a good singer, but he's a really good pianist, but a much better guitarist. He was able to play lead guitar while singing (most singers just play rhythem guitar except for a few real masters like David Gilmore of Pink Floyd) which is very impressive. I am not going to blame Holland-America for the composition of the passengers on this sailing but unfortunately we had that rude crowd onboard that moved to Florida from the New York area. I have encountered them on the other cruise lines sailing out of Fort Lauderdale during this time frame so it is not a HAL issue. I have put Holland-America on my list of the mass market cruise lines I would book on but it would not be my first choice. If there is a category of premium mass market lines then HAL is in it along with Celebrity. Also Cunard. If we can find good pricing, I think I'd like to try a smaller, older HAL ship (if we can find some that Farcus hasn't screwed up the interiors inside) to some place like Bermuda. In general right now I prefer Celebrity followed by Royal Caribbean when I judge the complete cruise experience for myself. I'll put Cunard and Celebrity at the top of my list. --Tom -- Charles |
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Dutch Vikings Return from Voyage to New World
In article , Tom K
wrote: The surf and turf were nice. Large piece of lobster, but the fillet was smaller than a deck of cards. The surf and turf was mainly about the lobster which was great. They offered two when I ordered which I took them up on. I am sure you could have ordered an extra filet. Also the Escargot was great. The last evening the tenderloin was very tough and grizzly. My first bite was just about impossible to chew. Since the salad that night had virtually no dressing it was impossible to eat. With the ox tail soup not very filling, I went up to the buffet right after dinner to get something to eat, and found it closed except for pizza... so I had a slice of pizza for dinner. A bad salad, tough tenderloin, and a slice of pizza because I was still hungry don't put HAL in Cunard's or Celebrity's league. The first 3 nights... YES... but the last few nights, sorry. NO. At least for me. I ordered completely different from the menu than you that evening, Lobster Bisque, Shrimp, and had a filling and great dinner. But I think I would have been fine with the Beef. It looked good. Everyone else I asked who ordered the beef tenderloin thought it was good. There were other choices on the menu. You were upset that they only had Salmon as a fish choice which is a fish you don't like but they also had Shrimp, and they had lamb chops and a couple of other choices. They actually were offering more choices every evening than the other lines do currently. You like fish but only white fishes it seems and they seemed to lean towards salmon which you don't like. One night they had Tuna Steak but you said it was not really fish, that tuna belonged in a can. I did not order it but it looked good. Also Cunard. I'll put Cunard and Celebrity at the top of my list. I consider Cunard to be in a different category than Celebrity and HAL. It is on a different list. Celebrity and HAL are mass market lines. Cunard, Azamara and the like, are niche cruise lines. You pay more and you should get better food and service. I was not expecting the great quality food and service on HAL. The waiter did not seem to have too many tables. Also the Express coffees at dinner at no extra charge. Wine stewards who actually appear at the right time. Ice teas that tastes like ice tea and the coffee was not bad. For the total experience currently I will pick Celebrity even though the food and service is a little less. And an important reason is that I like the Celebrity ships better and I like their loyalty program. Their Captains Club revamp is doing it's job of making me prefer to book with them. Also Celebrity has no smoking in staterooms, balconies and the casino. Cunard is below HAL on my list because I don't want to dress up every night on a cruise. It's too much. Two dress up nights is more than enough. Zero would be the best. HAL is a little too laid back for me but I can see why many love it. They have something great going with their crew staffing. -- Charles |
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Dutch Vikings Return from Voyage to New World
On Dec 14, 1:02*pm, "Tom K" wrote:
"Charles" wrote in message The pool areas were awful with too many tables and not enough lounge chairs. The hot tubs were tiny and too few. The main pool can be covered which seems odd for the Caribbean but I am sure that is a plus for Alaska. I thought the pool area was gorgeous, but with like 20 reclining chairs on each side of the pool, it was virtually unuseable by more than a few dozen people. *VERY poor design IMO. On HAL it's all about the aft lido and pool, something most other lines do not offer. It's a much bigger deck area than on the Princess ships. Warren |
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Dutch Vikings Return from Voyage to New World
In article
, Warren wrote: On HAL it's all about the aft lido and pool, something most other lines do not offer. It's a much bigger deck area than on the Princess ships. The pool and hot tubs on the aft deck were small. The deck area is large to the rear of them but the lounge chairs are all out in the sun. Not under any shaded cover. The covered area has tables and chairs. Many like that but many like to be in a lounge under some shade cover. -- Charles |
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Dutch Vikings Return from Voyage to New World
On Dec 13, 8:34*pm, "Tom K" wrote:
Many of the Dutch Vikings have returned, while others are still in route, from their latest ocean pilgrimage... this time to the ABC islands of the Dutch Antilles and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas. *Viking Queen Susette and her fellow Viking knights and ladies have declared their latest voyage to the New World a success. *They sailed aboard the Dutch Ship the HAL Westerdam to the beautiful waters of the Caribbean Sea, in the New World. Dutch Antilles islands visited were Aruba and Curacao. *The Vikings were joined in their pilgrimage by several new Vikings, including Toby and Barb from the opposite side of the world (from an island in some unknown sea that locals call Pacific Ocean) and Princess Ermalee from the new world land called MaryLand... *Many spoils were obtained along the route, including dam shirts, dam caps and other sundries. *Feasts include malt beer, warm meat off the bone, and even apple strudel made by sailors from far off We leave on the Jan. 3 sailing of the Westerdam, same itin you guys did. We've done this ship/itinerary three times and have loved it each time. Sorry to hear the ship is looking old. We've always been so impressed with the service. The only cruiseline we've ever been on where a crew member remembered us from the year before. The staff have a way of remembering your name within 10 minutes of boarding the ship. I think HAL is unique that it does an itinerary to the southern Caribbean from Ft. Lauderdale on a 7 day itinerary. That was what attracted us to the Westerdam in the first place. We still love that itinerary and hope to enjoy Westerdam just as much as we have in the past. Jo-Ann |
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Dutch Vikings Return from Voyage to New World
In article
, TaTa wrote: Sorry to hear the ship is looking old. I don't think it looks old. I think it could use some more painting and varnishing than it is getting. The full lounge chairs on Jean and Ed's large aft balcony needed varnish badly. On my balcony no wear problem as the chairs and furniture were plastic :-) The plastic chair on mine had some pitch to it, a comfortable cushion and a plastic ottoman to put my feet up on. It was fine. By the way I preferred my balcony even though it was smaller than Jean's because it had shade cover overhead and it was much more private. One would have to lean over and crane ones neck to see from another balcony. You can see easily see onto the aft balcony from above. Also personal preference but I did not care for the engine wake and the wake noise on the aft at deck 4 level. My deck 7 side balcony was much more serene. One thing I noticed was there was less cleaning going on than compared to the cruise I took on Constellation about a month ago or Crown Princess this past summer. I think HAL is unique that it does an itinerary to the southern Caribbean from Ft. Lauderdale on a 7 day itinerary. That was what attracted us to the Westerdam in the first place. We still love that itinerary and hope to enjoy Westerdam just as much as we have in the past. It is a good itinerary. Half Moon Cay is one of the better private islands. Curacao has an interesting city center and nice beaches. Aruba is okay. And there are the right amount of sea days. -- Charles |
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Dutch Vikings Return from Voyage to New World
"Charles" wrote in message d... I don't think it looks old. I don't think it looks old either... just not getting the TLC that ships like Connie and QM2 are getting. We're likely more critical than 99% of the people out there, but as an engineer, that's the kind of stuff I notice. I think it could use some more painting and varnishing than it is getting. The full lounge chairs on Jean and Ed's large aft balcony needed varnish badly. On my balcony no wear problem as the chairs and furniture were plastic :-) My furniture on the balcony was worn out ratan. They probably replaced the ratan on yours some time ago. The wooden furniture on Jean's balcony was much higher end stuff, though the varnish was very worn. By the way... this was the only cruise I've ever been on where the captain YELLED at all of us during life boat drill. He told everyone to BE QUIET very loudly and sternly. Everyone said that he sounded MEAN. He did joke about it later at a get together. I really liked the cruise director... he was kinda low key. And didn't come across like he thought he was hot stuff. He said he came from NCL shoreside, where he was responsible for the design of the activities/entertainment areas on the new Norwegian Epic. He said on that ship they're going to focus more on a lot of intimate areas more aligned with what is going on today, and not as oriented to the old style big production shows from the 1940's which ships seem to cling to. --Tom |
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