Westerdam - Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale 11/12 - 11/29

Jason Venner, the cruise director on the inaugural Trans-Atlantic crossing
of HAL's newest Vista Class ship said to assess the entire package and give
little mind to the occasional glitch. I'd really like to do that, but there
were far too many occasional glitches.

Like always having juice and coffee delivered anywhere from ten to thirty
five minutes early. Or like yesterday. We had our own arrangements to fly
home and therefore were among the last people to clear the ship. So we
asked for cabin delivery between 8 and 8:30 only to receive a knock on the
door at 6:40AM. By yesterday it had already become a joke between us as
to what time to request service so it would come when we were, first, awake,
and second, wearing pajamas.

Another "glitch" was cabin and dining room service. Our cabin steward
obviously had too many cabins to serve and thus ours was rarely made up
until after lunch, although he did a superb job, as did our waiter, Sang.
It has always been our experience that dining room waiters usually had from
12 - 14 people to serve, but Sang had 18. That meant that his assistant
spent most of his time running food from the kitchen, and little time for
the nuances like keeping a water glass filled.

Also, while TV is probably not important to many cruisers, and with the
knowledge that there are "dead spots" as one crosses the Atlantic which
interrupt service, there was no reason for us to lose ESPN on November 16th
and not get it back until we were in St. Maartin on the 26th. The same was
true for CNN which vanished for over a week.

Another minor annoyance was the crew's need to rearrange the chairs by the
Lido pool at 11PM and 5AM. They were directly above our carefully chosen
mid-ship location.

Moving right along, our TA sent us caviar and champagne as a "bon voyage"
gift and we found them both in the cabin when we boarded. I only mention
this as a reminder, but caviar is served with chopped eggs, parsley, and raw
ONION, and by 8PM, when we went to dinner, the cabin reeked in spite of the
fact that we wrapped the onion in the wrapping it came in and placed it in
the refrigerator.

There was our "special dinner" request. On the first night the table
captain stopped by and asked when we would like to have it, and when we
mentioned the possibility of the next night he advised us that there weren't
any onboard at the time but that they would try to get them over the next
days in our posts of call. After that we noticed that he avoided us.
Finally Danni found Michael, the 2nd Executive Chef at the Lido and asked
him, and he said that
the meat had been there all of the time, but that the kitchen didn't know
who they were for and our table captain never volunteered the information.
Danni told Michael how she makes them, except that somewhere in the
translation they forgot to blanch them and the first batch was inedible.
Give the kitchen an "E" for effort, they did get them right the second time.

And finally, the BIG glitch. We were told back in July that Westerdam was
offering dinner at The Pinnacle Grill on the first night at half price so we
booked and paid for dinner for two at 7:30. When we reached our cabin we
found a note from the restaurant manager asking us to contact him. When we
did we were told that because a bunch of passengers who had stayed aboard
from the previous lag had booked they were oversold and could not
accommodate us. His only offer of compensation for the inconvenience was
that we could use the $20 we paid four months earlier as a partial payment
for dinner any other night. That didn't seem right then and doesn't seem
right now, but because we wanted to dine at Pinnacle we gave in, but I am
still angry about it.

"Glitches" are minor annoyances, and they DO add up, but given that what I
have mentioned took place over a 17 day cruise, and I'll get to what we
liked about the cruise after I do my laundry since I cannot find the number
around here for room service.
--
DG in Cherry Hill, NJ

Other than that Mrs Lincoln, did you enjoy the play?
"Dick Goldhaber" wrote in message
...
Jason Venner, the cruise director on the inaugural Trans-Atlantic crossing
of HAL's newest Vista Class ship said to assess the entire package and
give
little mind to the occasional glitch. I'd really like to do that, but
there
were far too many occasional glitches.

Like always having juice and coffee delivered anywhere from ten to thirty
five minutes early. Or like yesterday. We had our own arrangements to
fly
home and therefore were among the last people to clear the ship. So we
asked for cabin delivery between 8 and 8:30 only to receive a knock on the
door at 6:40AM. By yesterday it had already become a joke between us as
to what time to request service so it would come when we were, first,
awake,
and second, wearing pajamas.

Another "glitch" was cabin and dining room service. Our cabin steward
obviously had too many cabins to serve and thus ours was rarely made up
until after lunch, although he did a superb job, as did our waiter, Sang.
It has always been our experience that dining room waiters usually had
from
12 - 14 people to serve, but Sang had 18. That meant that his assistant
spent most of his time running food from the kitchen, and little time for
the nuances like keeping a water glass filled.

Also, while TV is probably not important to many cruisers, and with the
knowledge that there are "dead spots" as one crosses the Atlantic which
interrupt service, there was no reason for us to lose ESPN on November
16th
and not get it back until we were in St. Maartin on the 26th. The same
was
true for CNN which vanished for over a week.

Another minor annoyance was the crew's need to rearrange the chairs by the
Lido pool at 11PM and 5AM. They were directly above our carefully chosen
mid-ship location.

Moving right along, our TA sent us caviar and champagne as a "bon voyage"
gift and we found them both in the cabin when we boarded. I only mention
this as a reminder, but caviar is served with chopped eggs, parsley, and
raw
ONION, and by 8PM, when we went to dinner, the cabin reeked in spite of
the
fact that we wrapped the onion in the wrapping it came in and placed it in
the refrigerator.

There was our "special dinner" request. On the first night the table
captain stopped by and asked when we would like to have it, and when we
mentioned the possibility of the next night he advised us that there
weren't
any onboard at the time but that they would try to get them over the next
days in our posts of call. After that we noticed that he avoided us.
Finally Danni found Michael, the 2nd Executive Chef at the Lido and asked
him, and he said that
the meat had been there all of the time, but that the kitchen didn't know
who they were for and our table captain never volunteered the information.
Danni told Michael how she makes them, except that somewhere in the
translation they forgot to blanch them and the first batch was inedible.
Give the kitchen an "E" for effort, they did get them right the second
time.

And finally, the BIG glitch. We were told back in July that Westerdam was
offering dinner at The Pinnacle Grill on the first night at half price so
we
booked and paid for dinner for two at 7:30. When we reached our cabin we
found a note from the restaurant manager asking us to contact him. When
we
did we were told that because a bunch of passengers who had stayed aboard
from the previous lag had booked they were oversold and could not
accommodate us. His only offer of compensation for the inconvenience was
that we could use the $20 we paid four months earlier as a partial payment
for dinner any other night. That didn't seem right then and doesn't seem
right now, but because we wanted to dine at Pinnacle we gave in, but I am
still angry about it.

"Glitches" are minor annoyances, and they DO add up, but given that what I
have mentioned took place over a 17 day cruise, and I'll get to what we
liked about the cruise after I do my laundry since I cannot find the
number
around here for room service.
--
DG in Cherry Hill, NJ

Other than that Mrs Lincoln, did you enjoy the play?
"Dick Goldhaber" wrote in message
...
Jason Venner, the cruise director on the inaugural Trans-Atlantic crossing
of HAL's newest Vista Class ship said to assess the entire package and
give
little mind to the occasional glitch. I'd really like to do that, but
there
were far too many occasional glitches.

Like always having juice and coffee delivered anywhere from ten to thirty
five minutes early. Or like yesterday. We had our own arrangements to
fly
home and therefore were among the last people to clear the ship. So we
asked for cabin delivery between 8 and 8:30 only to receive a knock on the
door at 6:40AM. By yesterday it had already become a joke between us as
to what time to request service so it would come when we were, first,
awake,
and second, wearing pajamas.

Another "glitch" was cabin and dining room service. Our cabin steward
obviously had too many cabins to serve and thus ours was rarely made up
until after lunch, although he did a superb job, as did our waiter, Sang.
It has always been our experience that dining room waiters usually had
from
12 - 14 people to serve, but Sang had 18. That meant that his assistant
spent most of his time running food from the kitchen, and little time for
the nuances like keeping a water glass filled.

Also, while TV is probably not important to many cruisers, and with the
knowledge that there are "dead spots" as one crosses the Atlantic which
interrupt service, there was no reason for us to lose ESPN on November
16th
and not get it back until we were in St. Maartin on the 26th. The same
was
true for CNN which vanished for over a week.

Another minor annoyance was the crew's need to rearrange the chairs by the
Lido pool at 11PM and 5AM. They were directly above our carefully chosen
mid-ship location.

Moving right along, our TA sent us caviar and champagne as a "bon voyage"
gift and we found them both in the cabin when we boarded. I only mention
this as a reminder, but caviar is served with chopped eggs, parsley, and
raw
ONION, and by 8PM, when we went to dinner, the cabin reeked in spite of
the
fact that we wrapped the onion in the wrapping it came in and placed it in
the refrigerator.

There was our "special dinner" request. On the first night the table
captain stopped by and asked when we would like to have it, and when we
mentioned the possibility of the next night he advised us that there
weren't
any onboard at the time but that they would try to get them over the next
days in our posts of call. After that we noticed that he avoided us.
Finally Danni found Michael, the 2nd Executive Chef at the Lido and asked
him, and he said that
the meat had been there all of the time, but that the kitchen didn't know
who they were for and our table captain never volunteered the information.
Danni told Michael how she makes them, except that somewhere in the
translation they forgot to blanch them and the first batch was inedible.
Give the kitchen an "E" for effort, they did get them right the second
time.

And finally, the BIG glitch. We were told back in July that Westerdam was
offering dinner at The Pinnacle Grill on the first night at half price so
we
booked and paid for dinner for two at 7:30. When we reached our cabin we
found a note from the restaurant manager asking us to contact him. When
we
did we were told that because a bunch of passengers who had stayed aboard
from the previous lag had booked they were oversold and could not
accommodate us. His only offer of compensation for the inconvenience was
that we could use the $20 we paid four months earlier as a partial payment
for dinner any other night. That didn't seem right then and doesn't seem
right now, but because we wanted to dine at Pinnacle we gave in, but I am
still angry about it.

"Glitches" are minor annoyances, and they DO add up, but given that what I
have mentioned took place over a 17 day cruise, and I'll get to what we
liked about the cruise after I do my laundry since I cannot find the
number
around here for room service.
--
DG in Cherry Hill, NJ

Other than that Mrs Lincoln, did you enjoy the play?
"Dick Goldhaber" wrote in message
...
Jason Venner, the cruise director on the inaugural Trans-Atlantic crossing
of HAL's newest Vista Class ship said to assess the entire package and
give
little mind to the occasional glitch. I'd really like to do that, but
there
were far too many occasional glitches.

Like always having juice and coffee delivered anywhere from ten to thirty
five minutes early. Or like yesterday. We had our own arrangements to
fly
home and therefore were among the last people to clear the ship. So we
asked for cabin delivery between 8 and 8:30 only to receive a knock on the
door at 6:40AM. By yesterday it had already become a joke between us as
to what time to request service so it would come when we were, first,
awake,
and second, wearing pajamas.

Another "glitch" was cabin and dining room service. Our cabin steward
obviously had too many cabins to serve and thus ours was rarely made up
until after lunch, although he did a superb job, as did our waiter, Sang.
It has always been our experience that dining room waiters usually had
from
12 - 14 people to serve, but Sang had 18. That meant that his assistant
spent most of his time running food from the kitchen, and little time for
the nuances like keeping a water glass filled.

Also, while TV is probably not important to many cruisers, and with the
knowledge that there are "dead spots" as one crosses the Atlantic which
interrupt service, there was no reason for us to lose ESPN on November
16th
and not get it back until we were in St. Maartin on the 26th. The same
was
true for CNN which vanished for over a week.

Another minor annoyance was the crew's need to rearrange the chairs by the
Lido pool at 11PM and 5AM. They were directly above our carefully chosen
mid-ship location.

Moving right along, our TA sent us caviar and champagne as a "bon voyage"
gift and we found them both in the cabin when we boarded. I only mention
this as a reminder, but caviar is served with chopped eggs, parsley, and
raw
ONION, and by 8PM, when we went to dinner, the cabin reeked in spite of
the
fact that we wrapped the onion in the wrapping it came in and placed it in
the refrigerator.

There was our "special dinner" request. On the first night the table
captain stopped by and asked when we would like to have it, and when we
mentioned the possibility of the next night he advised us that there
weren't
any onboard at the time but that they would try to get them over the next
days in our posts of call. After that we noticed that he avoided us.
Finally Danni found Michael, the 2nd Executive Chef at the Lido and asked
him, and he said that
the meat had been there all of the time, but that the kitchen didn't know
who they were for and our table captain never volunteered the information.
Danni told Michael how she makes them, except that somewhere in the
translation they forgot to blanch them and the first batch was inedible.
Give the kitchen an "E" for effort, they did get them right the second
time.

And finally, the BIG glitch. We were told back in July that Westerdam was
offering dinner at The Pinnacle Grill on the first night at half price so
we
booked and paid for dinner for two at 7:30. When we reached our cabin we
found a note from the restaurant manager asking us to contact him. When
we
did we were told that because a bunch of passengers who had stayed aboard
from the previous lag had booked they were oversold and could not
accommodate us. His only offer of compensation for the inconvenience was
that we could use the $20 we paid four months earlier as a partial payment
for dinner any other night. That didn't seem right then and doesn't seem
right now, but because we wanted to dine at Pinnacle we gave in, but I am
still angry about it.

"Glitches" are minor annoyances, and they DO add up, but given that what I
have mentioned took place over a 17 day cruise, and I'll get to what we
liked about the cruise after I do my laundry since I cannot find the
number
around here for room service.
--
DG in Cherry Hill, NJ

Dick the Dick..........I missed you and danny


"Dick Goldhaber" wrote in message
...
Jason Venner, the cruise director on the inaugural Trans-Atlantic crossing
of HAL's newest Vista Class ship said to assess the entire package and
give
little mind to the occasional glitch. I'd really like to do that, but
there
were far too many occasional glitches.

Like always having juice and coffee delivered anywhere from ten to thirty
five minutes early. Or like yesterday. We had our own arrangements to
fly
home and therefore were among the last people to clear the ship. So we
asked for cabin delivery between 8 and 8:30 only to receive a knock on the
door at 6:40AM. By yesterday it had already become a joke between us as
to what time to request service so it would come when we were, first,
awake,
and second, wearing pajamas.

Another "glitch" was cabin and dining room service. Our cabin steward
obviously had too many cabins to serve and thus ours was rarely made up
until after lunch, although he did a superb job, as did our waiter, Sang.
It has always been our experience that dining room waiters usually had
from
12 - 14 people to serve, but Sang had 18. That meant that his assistant
spent most of his time running food from the kitchen, and little time for
the nuances like keeping a water glass filled.

Also, while TV is probably not important to many cruisers, and with the
knowledge that there are "dead spots" as one crosses the Atlantic which
interrupt service, there was no reason for us to lose ESPN on November
16th
and not get it back until we were in St. Maartin on the 26th. The same
was
true for CNN which vanished for over a week.

Another minor annoyance was the crew's need to rearrange the chairs by the
Lido pool at 11PM and 5AM. They were directly above our carefully chosen
mid-ship location.

Moving right along, our TA sent us caviar and champagne as a "bon voyage"
gift and we found them both in the cabin when we boarded. I only mention
this as a reminder, but caviar is served with chopped eggs, parsley, and
raw
ONION, and by 8PM, when we went to dinner, the cabin reeked in spite of
the
fact that we wrapped the onion in the wrapping it came in and placed it in
the refrigerator.

There was our "special dinner" request. On the first night the table
captain stopped by and asked when we would like to have it, and when we
mentioned the possibility of the next night he advised us that there
weren't
any onboard at the time but that they would try to get them over the next
days in our posts of call. After that we noticed that he avoided us.
Finally Danni found Michael, the 2nd Executive Chef at the Lido and asked
him, and he said that
the meat had been there all of the time, but that the kitchen didn't know
who they were for and our table captain never volunteered the information.
Danni told Michael how she makes them, except that somewhere in the
translation they forgot to blanch them and the first batch was inedible.
Give the kitchen an "E" for effort, they did get them right the second
time.

And finally, the BIG glitch. We were told back in July that Westerdam was
offering dinner at The Pinnacle Grill on the first night at half price so
we
booked and paid for dinner for two at 7:30. When we reached our cabin we
found a note from the restaurant manager asking us to contact him. When
we
did we were told that because a bunch of passengers who had stayed aboard
from the previous lag had booked they were oversold and could not
accommodate us. His only offer of compensation for the inconvenience was
that we could use the $20 we paid four months earlier as a partial payment
for dinner any other night. That didn't seem right then and doesn't seem
right now, but because we wanted to dine at Pinnacle we gave in, but I am
still angry about it.

"Glitches" are minor annoyances, and they DO add up, but given that what I
have mentioned took place over a 17 day cruise, and I'll get to what we
liked about the cruise after I do my laundry since I cannot find the
number
around here for room service.
--
DG in Cherry Hill, NJ

Dick the Dick..........I missed you and danny


"Dick Goldhaber" wrote in message
...
Jason Venner, the cruise director on the inaugural Trans-Atlantic crossing
of HAL's newest Vista Class ship said to assess the entire package and
give
little mind to the occasional glitch. I'd really like to do that, but
there
were far too many occasional glitches.

Like always having juice and coffee delivered anywhere from ten to thirty
five minutes early. Or like yesterday. We had our own arrangements to
fly
home and therefore were among the last people to clear the ship. So we
asked for cabin delivery between 8 and 8:30 only to receive a knock on the
door at 6:40AM. By yesterday it had already become a joke between us as
to what time to request service so it would come when we were, first,
awake,
and second, wearing pajamas.

Another "glitch" was cabin and dining room service. Our cabin steward
obviously had too many cabins to serve and thus ours was rarely made up
until after lunch, although he did a superb job, as did our waiter, Sang.
It has always been our experience that dining room waiters usually had
from
12 - 14 people to serve, but Sang had 18. That meant that his assistant
spent most of his time running food from the kitchen, and little time for
the nuances like keeping a water glass filled.

Also, while TV is probably not important to many cruisers, and with the
knowledge that there are "dead spots" as one crosses the Atlantic which
interrupt service, there was no reason for us to lose ESPN on November
16th
and not get it back until we were in St. Maartin on the 26th. The same
was
true for CNN which vanished for over a week.

Another minor annoyance was the crew's need to rearrange the chairs by the
Lido pool at 11PM and 5AM. They were directly above our carefully chosen
mid-ship location.

Moving right along, our TA sent us caviar and champagne as a "bon voyage"
gift and we found them both in the cabin when we boarded. I only mention
this as a reminder, but caviar is served with chopped eggs, parsley, and
raw
ONION, and by 8PM, when we went to dinner, the cabin reeked in spite of
the
fact that we wrapped the onion in the wrapping it came in and placed it in
the refrigerator.

There was our "special dinner" request. On the first night the table
captain stopped by and asked when we would like to have it, and when we
mentioned the possibility of the next night he advised us that there
weren't
any onboard at the time but that they would try to get them over the next
days in our posts of call. After that we noticed that he avoided us.
Finally Danni found Michael, the 2nd Executive Chef at the Lido and asked
him, and he said that
the meat had been there all of the time, but that the kitchen didn't know
who they were for and our table captain never volunteered the information.
Danni told Michael how she makes them, except that somewhere in the
translation they forgot to blanch them and the first batch was inedible.
Give the kitchen an "E" for effort, they did get them right the second
time.

And finally, the BIG glitch. We were told back in July that Westerdam was
offering dinner at The Pinnacle Grill on the first night at half price so
we
booked and paid for dinner for two at 7:30. When we reached our cabin we
found a note from the restaurant manager asking us to contact him. When
we
did we were told that because a bunch of passengers who had stayed aboard
from the previous lag had booked they were oversold and could not
accommodate us. His only offer of compensation for the inconvenience was
that we could use the $20 we paid four months earlier as a partial payment
for dinner any other night. That didn't seem right then and doesn't seem
right now, but because we wanted to dine at Pinnacle we gave in, but I am
still angry about it.

"Glitches" are minor annoyances, and they DO add up, but given that what I
have mentioned took place over a 17 day cruise, and I'll get to what we
liked about the cruise after I do my laundry since I cannot find the
number
around here for room service.
--
DG in Cherry Hill, NJ

"Dick Goldhaber" wrote in message
...
Jason Venner, the cruise director on the inaugural Trans-Atlantic crossing
of HAL's newest Vista Class ship said to assess the entire package and
give
little mind to the occasional glitch. I'd really like to do that, but
there
were far too many occasional glitches........and on and on and on....

I see Golddick hasn't changed a bit.....he can't be happy unless he's
bitching about something

"Dick Goldhaber" wrote in message
...
Jason Venner, the cruise director on the inaugural Trans-Atlantic crossing
of HAL's newest Vista Class ship said to assess the entire package and
give
little mind to the occasional glitch. I'd really like to do that, but
there
were far too many occasional glitches........and on and on and on....

I see Golddick hasn't changed a bit.....he can't be happy unless he's
bitching about something

"Dick Goldhaber" wrote in message
...
Jason Venner, the cruise director on the inaugural Trans-Atlantic crossing
of HAL's newest Vista Class ship said to assess the entire package and
give
little mind to the occasional glitch. I'd really like to do that, but
there
were far too many occasional glitches........and on and on and on....

I see Golddick hasn't changed a bit.....he can't be happy unless he's
bitching about something

Dick Goldhaber wrote:
Jason Venner, the cruise director on the inaugural Trans-Atlantic crossing
of HAL's newest Vista Class ship said to assess the entire package and give
little mind to the occasional glitch. I'd really like to do that, but there
were far too many occasional glitches.

Like always having juice and coffee delivered anywhere from ten to thirty
five minutes early. Or like yesterday. We had our own arrangements to fly
home and therefore were among the last people to clear the ship. So we
asked for cabin delivery between 8 and 8:30 only to receive a knock on the
door at 6:40AM. By yesterday it had already become a joke between us as
to what time to request service so it would come when we were, first, awake,
and second, wearing pajamas.

Another "glitch" was cabin and dining room service. Our cabin steward
obviously had too many cabins to serve and thus ours was rarely made up
until after lunch, although he did a superb job, as did our waiter, Sang.
It has always been our experience that dining room waiters usually had from
12 - 14 people to serve, but Sang had 18. That meant that his assistant
spent most of his time running food from the kitchen, and little time for
the nuances like keeping a water glass filled.

Also, while TV is probably not important to many cruisers, and with the
knowledge that there are "dead spots" as one crosses the Atlantic which
interrupt service, there was no reason for us to lose ESPN on November 16th
and not get it back until we were in St. Maartin on the 26th. The same was
true for CNN which vanished for over a week.

Another minor annoyance was the crew's need to rearrange the chairs by the
Lido pool at 11PM and 5AM. They were directly above our carefully chosen
mid-ship location.

Moving right along, our TA sent us caviar and champagne as a "bon voyage"
gift and we found them both in the cabin when we boarded. I only mention
this as a reminder, but caviar is served with chopped eggs, parsley, and raw
ONION, and by 8PM, when we went to dinner, the cabin reeked in spite of the
fact that we wrapped the onion in the wrapping it came in and placed it in
the refrigerator.

There was our "special dinner" request. On the first night the table
captain stopped by and asked when we would like to have it, and when we
mentioned the possibility of the next night he advised us that there weren't
any onboard at the time but that they would try to get them over the next
days in our posts of call. After that we noticed that he avoided us.
Finally Danni found Michael, the 2nd Executive Chef at the Lido and asked
him, and he said that
the meat had been there all of the time, but that the kitchen didn't know
who they were for and our table captain never volunteered the information.
Danni told Michael how she makes them, except that somewhere in the
translation they forgot to blanch them and the first batch was inedible.
Give the kitchen an "E" for effort, they did get them right the second time.

And finally, the BIG glitch. We were told back in July that Westerdam was
offering dinner at The Pinnacle Grill on the first night at half price so we
booked and paid for dinner for two at 7:30. When we reached our cabin we
found a note from the restaurant manager asking us to contact him. When we
did we were told that because a bunch of passengers who had stayed aboard
from the previous lag had booked they were oversold and could not
accommodate us. His only offer of compensation for the inconvenience was
that we could use the $20 we paid four months earlier as a partial payment
for dinner any other night. That didn't seem right then and doesn't seem
right now, but because we wanted to dine at Pinnacle we gave in, but I am
still angry about it.

"Glitches" are minor annoyances, and they DO add up, but given that what I
have mentioned took place over a 17 day cruise, and I'll get to what we
liked about the cruise after I do my laundry since I cannot find the number
around here for room service.
--
DG in Cherry Hill, NJ







Doesn't sound too bad but what Band was playing and how were they?