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HAL Zuiderdam -- The Unfinished Travelogue
Zuiderdam – Eastern Caribbean - December 12 – 19, 2004
I flew down from DC National to Fort Lauderdale on Spirit Air. Decided to upgrade to Spirit Plus for just $330 total. A pretty good deal, although it turned out to be just real estate and not better service, food, etc. Before boarding I asked the Spirit desk people if they served a meal, and they said no, so I picked up a few snacks and onboard they served a big soft pretzel, which was actually quite good. www.spiritair.com Friday -- Schubert Resort, Fort Lauderdale Nice people -- staff and guests. Funky retro design to the place and rooms. The pool area was nice, with a huge hot tub. Lots of nice tropical greenery around. Since this is an older property which was fixed up (looked like an old Motel type thing with exterior walkways to get to each room like an old Holiday Inn, hence, no smoke alarms so all smoking needed to be done outside. They provided chairs and little tables outside every room for this. The pool area was clothing optional if you wanted, and after going out to dinner at a local Italian place, I hung out until late in the night around the pool. There really is no bar, etc., or any other services after 9 pm at the hotel, and some were smart enough to buy wine and plastic glasses so we made our own fun basically. Went to a local liquor store in the morning and bought some Sofia champagne in the little cans, etc. Perfect for smuggling on a ship: http://www.niebaum-coppola.com/stati...-de-blancs.htm They had a decent continental breakfast (and good coffee!) at the hotel, which I took out to the pool area. This is definitely a place I’d like to return to for a long weekend. http://www.schubertresort.com/ Saturday – Boarding the Zuiderdam Check in was very fast. I got there right about noon. Cab driver from hotel took a nice “back route” through various Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods, winding along a canal. Nice! I found the suite line, no thanks to on shore staff…. Presumably working there every week they would know such things, and instinctively I thought “there must be a line just for the suites” right? Anyhow, much easier. Didn’t like the looks of the other line! Had a bottle of champagne and a coupon for Pinnacle Grill waiting in the suite from my TA. The suite is quite large! Larger than a sky suite on the Century class ships, but a bit smaller than the Royal Suites. Huge huge amount of storage. 3 big closet doors in the main cabin, and then back by the bathroom another double door closet in the anteroom to the bathroom. Talked to Mike and Gary and Bob and Mel on the phone and arranged for 5 pm sailaway champagne party on my balcony. Met some other folks here and there on the ship. Lido deck buffet ok...had decent but somewhat sparse salad bar. Not tons of choices but ok. NY Times (a real one!) delivered to cabin. Got my Neptune lounge key…suite amenity. The lido buffet has -- Italian, Deli, "Bistro", salad bar....what they need is "walker" and "non-walker". Live potted plant in my room! I like that. DVD and CD players. No input jacks to plug in iPod it looks like. Balcony furniture not in great shape...tables in terrible shape. The plastic wicker is starting to unravel a bit. During sailaway party….we conspired to steal furniture from elsewhere on the ship! Ship is very purple in places! I do love the carpet (same design almost everywhere, but in different colors), which I think of as zebra stripes meet Rorshach test? Some good use of metallic/mirrored surfaces, not so good in other places. The bizarre seafoam blue polka dot walls. Some decks broken up into 2 parallel and non-intersecting corridors....disco on one side, sports bar on the other. Chairs around pool areas seem inadequate. Demographic on board seems pretty darn old….these pre-holiday December sailings on any line are a bargain, but I’ve sailed this same week on other lines and not this old before. Oh well. Later, piano bar guy Kory cute! Won $75 in casino on roulette on 1st 2 rolls....cashed out. Plastic jewel thingees wood “veneer” walls in various places. What’s up with that. Odd torchieres that don't fit atrium area. Atrium very compact. Pinnacle grill looks nice but seemed fairly empty most times. The atrium is kind of a dead zone. I do like the grouping of the disco, sports bar, casino, piano bar all in one place. All nightlife together in one place. Hot tubs close at 10...boo. Champagne with the guys was nice. Rearranged balcony furniture. Tables not in good shape. Odd signs of wear here and there around ship...for such a new ship. Movies in the Queens Lounge, seems like they do trot out the HAL popcorn (none for me…low carb!) Decent movies on the TV channels. Got shoes polished by cabin guy...whose name I missed and it doesn't seem to be on any materials in the cabin. Changing the dining tables to be with guys easy enough. Decent table for 6 near window, although I hate the rectangular tables. Invite to Captains suite reception. Didn't go. Went to gym instead. Cybex machines...free weight dumbells only up to 37.5 pounds. Personal trainer guy cute! Thermal suite area looks decent, but costs more. Thallasotherapy pool in not very private location. Its columns have a bit of a trompe l'oeil paint design that reminds me of the interior of Saint Chapelle in Paris. Waiter Bazanolo, Maitre'd Ferry, Jude wine steward. Dinner choices -- had the prosciutto ham, no soup, very nice spinach salad, tough black pepper encrusted sirloin steak, Bob and I spilt the "low carb" chicken cordon bleu. Presentation was on bed of greens. Plating in general was much nicer than I remember 5 years ago. Other choices: salmon tartare appetizer, mussels in wine/garlic broth. Both pronounced good. Basil tomato soup looked good. Mahi mahi Gary said was good, and pork loin looked alright. Had some of Mike's pheasant which was quite good. Ordered a bottle of wine, some Rhone-ish red. For dessert ordered cappucino (think it’s instant from a machine, like in the Neptune?) and had some of the chocolate sponge cake which was good, the panna cotta with banana and pineapple, and the viennese apple strudle with vanilla ice cream on side. All pretty good. Ok, I didn’t eat all of these….just a few bites of each. Pillows and down comforter fluffly. Took a bath after gym to warm up…cabin was freezing. Took me a day or two before I got the setting right. Shower stall in marble nice as well, although a bit small. Could stand to be bigger (aka, for 2!) Vanity area in closet very dark! Not all that clean....somebody’s leftover makeup on the marble counter top! Wet washcloth comes out brownish. Ick…have carefully do they clean these cabins? I always laugh….my cabins are invariably cleaner after I leave than when I arrive! Half Moon Cay Not able to anchor in Half Moon Cay. ? Tender service will be unsafe, per el capitan. 8:15 am...cancel call to HMC. Forecast is not good. Strong winds. No Full Moon Cay for me boo hoo! Room service breakfast...what no special suite menu! Rest of room service menu looks pretty decent. Wonder if shops will be open now that stop cancelled. Need to get my cigarettes! Truly windy out there….furniture blowing to Oz no doubt! Found a nice spot to sit and read my book…up on the top deck above the spa…where they have the teak chairs. I shady spot (not that there’s sun right now….) and the ship structure is blocking the wind. I finished the new David Sedaris book on the plane (not one of his best, but ok funny), and started in on “Wicked”, the book which became the basis of the musical currently on Broadway. It’s about the pre-Wizard of Oz life of Elpheba, the Wicked Witch of the West. I am really enjoying it! She was just a misunderstood, strong willed girl who happened to be green! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...384700-6032613 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...nce&s=music&n= In any case, up on this deck they have the best teak lounge chairs there. The lounge chairs around the pool are the plastic wicker things, and in the aft pool are those nasty plastic with the stretched plastic canvas stuff…they don’t have arms. Don’t like ‘em! But the area I found was in a nook and shaded. Perfect for reading. They also have this big wooden, almost barrel chairs I guess, but square and not rounded. The pads on them are comfy and you can sink right down into them. I guess we could call them crate chairs? They are white washed a bit, very attractive. They are under some canvas awnings for shade…which I’m into. Some foot traffic through this area but not much, just enough to make me look up from my book every now and then. Sat in the pool area at a table earlier and had the misfortune to sit under one of the speakers for the piped in music….too loud! There’s only so many times I need to hear the Beach Boys singing “Kokomo”! Ok, only heard it once, but you get my point hopefully. Another comment – for a ship this size (comparable I would think to the M-class Celebrity ships and the Radiance class RCI ships), there is a serious lack of deck and lounge chair space. The retractable dome cover for the main pool is a nice thing (although do you really need it for the Caribbean?) but it makes the deck above the pool unusable for lounge chairs…and I usually like the arrangement where folks up on that deck are “part of” the pool area, and often looking down on the activities, etc. This design leaves just the area on the same deck as the pool itself for a bar, grill area, tables to eat at, some lounge chairs, and of course the pool and hot tubs….really an inadequate amount of space for the # of people on board. That being said, there is the aft pool area, that is jam packed with those cheaper lounge chairs, but people seem to be squeezed in like sardines there. I guess a deck up aft there is some space for lounge chairs there too. Anyhow, midday I noticed a lot of people looking around in vain for a place to sit. The aft pool area seems to be a bit more adult oriented. Oh…fun fact, 97 children on board. A HAL record no doubt! Wrote a letter to Pete the cruise director requesting a “Friends of Dorothy” party to be set up for the gay and lesbian passengers to meet and greet, blah blah blah. Pete called and left me a message around 5 pm saying it was now company policy out of Seattle, per 6-7 weeks ago (gosh, right after the presidential election?) that they would not publicize such meetings for gay people in the daily program. He said he would be happy to set up a room but we would have to publicize it by word of mouth. Oh…duh…how might one do that? If we wanted to invite people we already know we certainly could go ahead and do that now! The point was to bring people together who might have common interests, like bridge players, or veterans, both of whom had scheduled events today. So I went down to the internet café ($.75 a minute!) and composed a message which I posted on Cruise Critic, Cruisemates and RTC complaining about this policy. Unless it changes, I definitely will not sail Holland America again! I have never had a problem arranging such a get together on Celebrity, RCCL, Princess (although that took some urging...) One odd note – the daily program hasn’t yet given us the names of the ship’s top crew and entertainment staff! So I didn’t even know the CD’s last name and had to address it as just “Pete”. Plus, I guess HAL doesn’t have Social Hostesses any more? I think a Social Hostess would “get” this issue much better than some Aussie frat boy comedian type! Ok, enough stereotypes…I should know better right? Anyhow, not going to let all that ruin my cruise by any stretch. Had a little lunch at the Wok station on the Lido Deck. Had some decent sushi, and some stir fried beef with black beans and garlic which was actually good. Used chopsticks! No rice, except for inside the sushi of course! It was a nice light lunch which I enjoyed! A bit later I was thinking about ice cream…and decided to have the pineapple sorbet in a waffle cone! (I really just wanted the waffle cone lol!) It was maybe a bit much, and an hour or two later I had a nasty stomach ache that lasted until dinner almost. Maybe the sushi, or the unfortunate combination of sushi and pineapple sorbet? Not planning on trying the pineapple thing again! In the afternoon I hit the gym (which is pretty inadequate, but did lat pull downs, rows, and some curls). They had a spinning class going on which looked pretty good…but I don’t do cardio lol! Maybe I should walk around the promenade deck a few times today just to burn a few extra calories for good measure! After that I went back to the cabin to take a nap out on the balcony. Very nice. It was while I was napping the CD left me the voice mail previously mentioned. After my foray to the internet café to post my message about what happened, I decided to see if the hot tubs had cleared out…since it was nearing 6 and the retirees and families who populate first seating would likely to have gone off to dinner. Yes, success. Ran into Bob from my dining room table so he joined me in a vacant hot tub in the main pool area. It was actually rather peaceful. Feeling a bit rebellious after being (1) charged up about the whole gay thing and (2) not having the chance to go to Half Moon Cay today we hit the hot tub and I took off my bathing suit under the water! Ok…there were bubbles in full bubble mode so it’s not like anyone could see anything, but it was a mildly satisfying bit of subversiveness on my part! Plus, it just feels better! Love those jets! Someone’s got to pull HAL kicking and screaming into the 20th century (giving up hope on the 21st century for now…) Tonight was again a casual night, so I went back to the room and got cleaned up and changed. I really over packed! I think I brought 8-9 nice casual shirts to wear, for only 4 casual nights! Hey, you never know what you might want to wear! One comment about the staggered seating – HAL now has 2 early seatings, and 2 late. The upper deck of the dining room goes first at 6 (?) and the lower at 6:30. The upper deck late seating is at 8, and lower deck is at 8:30, which is my preference. So far all the gay people I’ve met have been at the 8:30 seating. One thing I always like about a cruise is people watching, but I haven’t really had the chance to get out of the cabin early and go sit somewhere to watch people walk by to dinner, although there don’t seem to be any nice lounges right outside the dining room – like you have on the M-class Celebrity ships where you can hang out in the Rendezvous Lounge or the Platinum Club…which both span the width of the ship. This ship is much more chopped up than that, and the staggered seating would mean there is less of a crowd going by at any one time. Oh well, maybe tonight for formal night I’ll get my act together earlier and see what’s going on. Did I make any comments about the atrium? It really is a dead zone. I hate the design. Too narrow and enclosed. The Pinnacle Grill space is a dead zone, the Windstar café area is a dead zone (and non-smoking, so the staff sure ain’t going to hang out there and give it some life), so rather than being a great place to people watch (ideally, the middle of the 3 levels if it had a good lounge you could see people walking by on all three levels), so I think this space is a total failure. I think shops are nearby too….so the atrium is almost purely just a revenue center! How I miss the Cova Café! One of my favorite hangouts. Anyhow, I’m really sounding negative here….which I don’t mean too, I really am having a nice relaxing time, sort of. One thing I will salute – the dining room food. My stomach was still feeling funny by the time I went to dinner, so I was going to take it easy on the wine and caffeine tonight. I love our wine steward Jude. Such a nice guy, although kind of slow. Saw him up in the pool area today selling drinks. Always had a friendly word to say hi. So I thought of a new trick to keep him from refilling my glass….once he poured me one glass, I put the cork back in the bottle! Success! They really do try to drain your bottle asap…so you’ll buy more undoubtedly. Speaking of heavy drinking….about 3 tables away from us is this blond woman from South Carolina who is a total loud drunk…I can’t imagine what her table mates think of her but we can hear her all dinner long. The night before, during the female comic’s routine, she interrupted it from a row in the front, and the comic handled it well, but she kept shouting out! Totally obnoxious! She thought she was being funny. She was noted in the juggler’s act tonight as well….kind of building a reputation and not a good one! Thank god we are not closer to her table! The food I would say in the dining room is much better than 4-5 years ago when I sailed on the Rotterdam. Much more attractive presentation, and I would say the bread and salads are kicking Celebrity’s butt right now (although no bread sticks or flat breads which I love). The butter is not that good Normandy stuff though. Appetizers have been fairly strong, soups not strong (had this very grainy Apple Vichyssoise tonight…tasty but not a good “mouth feel”….the night before Bob had what we now call the “Blueberry Seed Soup”…you get the picture.) Desserts have been largely enjoyable but not “fancy” I suppose. Anyhow, tonight I had the tomato and mozzarella for an appetizer, which is always good in my book. Some others had the Oysters Rockefeller which they said was good. I had the notorious apple soup, the salad again was an attractive mix of greens, goat cheese, toasted pecans, etc. Really the salads are far better than what Celebrity has been serving up the last few years. Rather than having the asst waiter serve salad dressing we have been picking that out while placing our order and it has been coming in an attractive little ceramic ramekin cup on the side. That works. Actually, not feeling overwhelmed by “service”….people seem a little bit spread thin, although our water Bazanolo has met our every need, and Yudi the asst has reliably gotten me cappuccino for dessert every night. For the entrée I had the Prime Rib rare, and they brought horseradish sauce on the side (again in the ramekin cup), and this beef was much better than the sirloin the night before. The potato was one of those “just out of the frozen food section” things which horrified me on the Mercury last summer….half a baked potato which had been partially scooped out and refilled with potato and some (maybe?) herb and cheese mixture. It definitely looks like something made off the ship which they just reheat. Not that I eat potatoes (low carb man!) but does anyone serve a “real” baked potato anymore…wrapped in foil with sour cream and butter blah blah blah? I also sampled the Ginger Grilled Chicken with peaches…which was ok. A bit dry and over cooked. Oh…one thing I like…they have been delivering the menus to me in my cabin every day so I can see what’s coming up for dinner! I like that, and probably as a “public service” I will type them all up and put them on my web site if I get the energy. Another menu note…they have some dishes designated as “low carb” and another warning if it is “spicy”, which means it has some actual flavor. For dessert, Yudi of course brought me the cappuccino, which isn’t half bad, and I ordered 3 desserts – the Chocolate Avalanche cake, the Cheese Cake sampler plate, and the Strawberry and Rhubarb Crisp. Thumbs up to the chocolate cake and the rhubarb crisp – both were good. The cheese cake sampler was pretty bland and gummy. Couldn’t tell the difference in flavor between the 3 samples! On the menu tonight they also noted the Explorer’s lounge would feature “Tonight’s Flambe”, Bananas Foster, and the flaming Spanish coffee. Somehow we missed this although I’m sure we walked right by it! Another off hand comment – I really like the Rosenthal china they use in the dining room (and for room service!) which has a dark blue and gold design on the rim, with the HAL logo on the bigger plates. Very attractive I would say! Might need to collect a full set lol…. We went to the show tonight….a juggler/comedian. Very cute young guy and it was a fun show. Afterwards, went to the casino and played a bit of roulette with some folks I had met earlier in the day. Again…success! I play $20 every night (my allowance!) and was down to my last 3 chips….so I put all 3 on the zeroes…and it hit! Gosh, my luck! So I forget what I got out of that, so I kept my chips on for the next spin (didn’t hit…) and then cashed out with my $48. So I made $28! Add that to my $55 in winnings from the night before and I’m doing ok! I cashed out very early last night too. Probably a good idea to quit while I’m ahead! The piano bar space seems to be popular….there was a bit of a country western theme tonight (and in fact….the CD at the end of the show during his pep talk asked “how many people like country music” and very few people clapped…it was almost a “thud”. Hmmm….I’m sure there are more gay people aboard than people who seemed to like country music….but maybe that’s just my “blue state” self talking here…is HAL big with the Nascar crowd?) At around 11 they had some line dancing thing in the disco which was only somewhat sparsely attended. I do like the proximity of the casino/disco/piano bar/sports bar. Sensible design, and the only place on the ship after 11 pm that has any life at all. Almost everywhere else is totally deserted and they are in fact vacuuming the carpets at that hour! Shocking almost! My next contemplated act of subversion – quite possibly hitting the disco tomorrow night (although…it is formal night, may need to wait until the next casual night) and taking my shirt off to dance! May need to enlist some of the male dancers to make a statement lol….we’ll see. Although I see none of the “upstairs” staff at all at night. After talking to the 2 guys who run the art auction stuff they said they watch TV at night….hmmmm, possibly emblematic of HAL’s overall problem here at night. Went to bed at midnight (and really had been up to 2 am and later the last 3 nights, including Ft. Lauderdale…so probably good to turn in early for a change…) At Sea Woke up to a pleasant morning….the clocks got rolled forward last night so lost an hour. Didn’t put my room service card out so just ordered a pot of coffee by phone this morning. Sat out on the balcony (god how I love having this space) and worked on my cruise review! No daily program was delivered last night or this morning ?…so I’ll have to get one downstairs, but got the Times fax and all the menus for today, which I can’t quite figure out. Got the lunch menu, the formal night dinner menu on a big grand piece of parchment-esque paper, and two dessert menus on the regular dining room menu paper. Are those for tonight or not? They don’t seem to be the same thing as what’s on the parchment paper. So I’m confused! Undoubtedly my cabin steward is confused as well lol. Anyhow, the coffee is pretty decent and I probably will just grab a banana from my fruit bowl. Oh…in addition to the champagne in my suite I got the fruit bowl, the bathrobes look thick (although I never wear one….I like my Polo jammie bottoms much better) and a nice flower arrangement which is sitting on the coffee table. This morning I need to write a follow up note to Pete the CD and go get a daily program. Trying to resist going to the internet café to see if there’s been any responses to my messages….I’m loathe at this point to give HAL even another dime of my money. Sun is starting to creep onto my balcony now…so maybe I’ll go shave and get dressed. Trying to avoid the sun more or less this time around, the whole cancer thing, and it’s just not that important to get tan anymore. Bought some very nice “sunless” crème that has SPF-15 in it. I think I’m going this route this time. Just don’t like to get so hot and sweaty in the sun (which is somewhat boring to me as well….) I’m going to go sunless and read my book and listen to my music in some shady place instead. Wish there were better people watching spaces though. No shade around the aft pool which probably would be calmer than the main pool and the kiddies and loud piped in music and no where to sit, blah blah lol. Went up to the nice place up top with the crate chairs and read there for a while, then decided to go inside to the Crow’s Nest. They have these great blue leather chairs that spin and recline….I sunk way back into one of those and slept for a good 45 minutes…I mean…I was reading my book of course…. I woke up to the sounds of Prince…they were teaching a dance class there. So that was ok, but I got up and walked around a bit and pursued food because I only had coffee and a banana thus far. I went to the Lido and snatched a big plate and made a salad, then went to the grill to throw a hamburger and a bratwurst on top. Salads with meat, my usual diet. The grill guy was a bit surly. I suppose most passengers are not nice and pushy and demanding all day, which of course, I was not. Please and thank you go a long way. After lunch I grabbed a small cone of the cappuccino soft serve ice cream which was ok. A little icey actually. Still feeling “energetic”, I wandered downstairs to see what was happening on the lower decks and discovered the long curvy couches of the Ocean Bar, smoking side. This space really is a vomitorium of colors which don’t quite go together. Anyhow, the couches are comfortable though and I probably slept for another ½ hour. I could see folks out the window on the promenade doing the same in the teak lounge chairs. Bringing people together in somnolent splendor, that is what HAL is all about lol. Starting to get to be late afternoon, so I was thinking about the gym. Shoulder day – might actually be able to get a decent workout since the dumbbells I use for that are generally under 37.5 pounds and I could use the Cybex machine for military presses. Since I was downstairs, I went over to the Windstar Café and had a grande Mocha, which was pretty darn good. I had forgotten what good coffee tasted like lol! Although really the room service coffee and the “cappuccino” in the dining room haven’t been bad at all. No one hangs out in the Windstar Café, which is odd. And it’s so bright! The lighting on this ship is really quite bright day and night. Almost annoying. The combination of the Windstar Café and the Pinnacle Grill “at the Odyssey” on deck 3 really creates a “dead zone” in the middle of the ship. Most hours of the day the Pinnacle is not open (although they were open for lunch yesterday for $10…might have to think about that for the next sea day) and I almost never see anyone at the Windstar Café…my theory (1) who wants to pay for coffee? Apparently not too many people (although…I’ll note the Cova Café on Celebrity seems to do business…) and (2) it’s non-smoking. Ok, throw stones at me, but if they allowed smoking there I’d bet you dollars to donuts the staff would make the Windstar Café a hangout…and thus populate it from time to time, give it life, which would in turn attract others. I actually like meeting staff and it’s little places and times like that when you can do so. Anyhow, between these things on deck 3 and the various shore excursion and front desk offices on deck 2….the atrium area really is a massive failure in terms of people watching, etc. Only the Ocean bar on Deck 4 has any life in it at all ever. Anyhow, up to the gym. The South African guy personal trainer was teaching a step class at the same time, but I had my iPod on to get my own tunes. Managed to get in a very good workout. One thing I like to do on shoulder day is take off my shoes and do handstand shoulder presses against the mirrored wall. I found this a bit more challenging to do on a moving ship! Today’s hit CD – the “Wicked” cast album. One song on there which is becoming this week’s theme song “Dancing Through Life”. I haven’t done any actual dancing (you don’t wanna see that!) Anyhow, the gym was quite crowded (about 4:30 pm…) people starting to worry about all those desserts!! The spa people at the front desk seem nice. The men’s locker room is tiny! Nicely appointed though it seems. Between sitting upstairs either above the spa or in the Crow’s nest and going to the gym…they must think I’m in their neighborhood all the time! Thought about food after the gym….but napping took over! I slept out on the balcony a bit and woke up to a gorgeous sunset…so I took some pictures. Very nice. I experimented with the camera and used the camera to take some pictures of myself. My mom will sure wonder “who took ‘em”! Ah, the magic of technology. I am very much enjoying this balcony, but I need to have another party I think! I decided I had plenty of time to hit the hot tub before having to come back and get ready for formal night. I walked around and ended up at the aft hot tubs. It was maybe 6 pm or so….everything you’ve heard about HAL rolling up the sidewalks early is true…and this was the afternoon! All of the deck chairs were stacked up already. Is this HAL or the clientele? I felt like I was almost imposing on the guys working on the deck…and felt vaguely uncomfortable there. Me in the hot tub, 7-8 asian guys in industrial jumpsuits working on deck. Not exactly glamorous and relaxing huh? Could HAL exercise a bit of restraint on this and not pack it in until 7 or something? The same was the case in the main pool area – I actually thought maybe they were setting up for a deck party tonight (which they were not). I guess on formal night of course the pool area will clear out earlier, but on a ship this size you’d think there’d be some passengers who want to linger? Guess not! What is everyone doing, watching movies in their cabin? I recall on many X cruises the hot tubs being usually popular during this time period, for that last drink and socializing before dinner, etc. Wish the hot tubs were open later at night…they do drain them and put the nets over…so no go. They put the nets over the pool too. Oh well. Since there is so little night life on the ship it would be nice to hot tub instead perhaps. Champagne under the stars…what could be better? The main pool area has the ugliest color combination of teal blue and gold leaf. Blech! And then there is the polar bear sculpture….didn’t they know this ship would be in the Caribbean year round? Odd! There are some very funky torchiere lamps in the pool area that I will have to photograph – a modern interpretation, perhaps, of plane trees in a village square in the south of France. Very funky, but um, somewhat out of place on this ship which doesn’t exactly exude a sophisticated design sensibility. Lots of this on this ship…the seemingly random placement of things in a jarring way. Carnivalesque?? Ended up on the balcony and made myself a drink with the Ricard and a big glass of ice water. Refreshing! ? One odd thing to note about the daily program – I haven’t yet seen the names of the crew and staff printed! How am I supposed to know who these folks are? In addition to the little note I wrote earlier, I do like writing notes to various folks – like the food and bev manager if something has been particularly good in the dining room, always help the staff to get a good commendation from a guest. Another random thought – even though booked in this big ass suite…feeling less than pampered somehow. It’s nice real estate that’s for sure…although…why not a marble countertop in the bathroom, or marble on the floor? Marble on the walls only…and no phone! Hmm….the Sky Suites on the Century class ships, although a bit smaller, are actually more richly appointed…and the suite/concierge class breakfast cards are much much better. Oh well, I’ll have to take advantage of the free laundry maybe. I’ll take my perks wherever I can get them. The Neptune lounge thing is nice enough, and maybe I should think of things for them to do for me, but I’d rather have stuff brought right to me, rather than dragging my butt up to deck 7 to be “swanky”. Hmmm….I want a butler waah! Did I book the wrong ship? I guess I could have had a sky suite on the Century for the same price probably. Oh well, I wanted to try something new and different….I can recite the X menu by heart by now…and the HAL food has been a pleasant surprise by and large. Dinner tonight was nice, but missing some of the nice X formal night touches I like…like the “intermezzo” sorbet thingee. The HAL service staff in the dining room has the goofy uniforms. Makes me think of the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz. Whatever happened to a nice formal wear outfit? Oh, one thing to mention while I’m thinking about it…we’ve been running a good 4-5 announcements per day. Usually the Captain comes on at noon, but they have hawked bingo and other activities. Not piped into the room, but very clear in the hallways and out on the balcony. Did I whine ? about the balcony furniture yet? Not in great shape! The tables had some of “teak” design painted in brown on them…but they are metal. Well they are very badly worn and should be replaced. The big table is downright gross. The plastic wicker furniture and coming apart at the seams as well… Back to dinner…I had the pate (kinda boring), the baked hazelnut brie (it looked deep fried…french cuisine as interpreted by Fuddruckers??), the French onion soup, the house salad (still good…all salads have been good this week) and the filet mignon rare and the rack of lamb which was overcooked. The rack was only ok—miss those Provencal herbs from X. For dessert Yudi brought me my cappuccino while I went out to the Explorers’ Lounge for a smoke. Had a nice conversation with two women there…one Dutch and one a NY-er. Bob ordered the Crème Brulee, the chocolate soufflé and the “no sugar added” Tiramisu for me. They were all good…the most successful dessert order yet. Tonight’s flambee in the Explorer’s Lounge was Crepes Suzette, but missed that…I think we darted to the theater after dinner. They’ve been having specialty martinis on offer at the Explorer’s as well…tonight the Espresso Martini. Sounded good, but trying hard not to be a total drunk here! I’m a drinking lightweight. Oh…the dress code. People seemed largely to honor it…mostly suits and ties, a healthy compliment of tuxes. Not too many clunkers. The clunkers would come out later tonight in the casino, etc. And of course the “young folks” (aka, anyone under 50) often would change into something casual for the disco. The show was “Under the Boardwalk”. A nice revolving set, ala Les Miz, which was a boardwalk and “underneath the boardwalk”. The usual sort of rock and roll songs. No real strong singers in this bunch yet. I think the main singers largely sang, but heavy use of click tracks and prerecorded backing vocals. No actual orchestra in sight, much like the first night’s show. The dancers…they are doing well enough but they are a chunky bunch to some extent! At 42 I have a better body than these guys! What ever happened to the whole lithe dancer’s body thing? These folks need to go lighter on the lido deck buffet! There was this one girl just squeezed into some belly baring outfits that she just shouldn’t be wearing. Anyhow, other than all that (I’m sounding like such a body fascist aren’t I?) the show was enjoyable enough as these things go. I like schlock! The cheesier the better, spread it on thick. I chuckle and smile my way all the way through it. After all that…we hit the casino and peeked in on Kory the piano bar guy. Kory packs ‘em in! HAL give him a raise. About the only performer on the ship worth a damn, although the party band is pretty good too. Kory single handedly makes nightlife happen on this otherwise dullsville ship. I hit the roulette table, and had my $40 formal night “allowance”. I was down to my last 3 chips, and threw it all on the zeroes (so easy to pick out in green on the wheel…) and it hit! So that was very nice. I started playing even money outside bets and got up over $100….and hit a few more times to go over $200. So I put $100 chip on red. The croupier asked if that’s what I really meant to do….uh, yep, it’s your money buddy not mine! It hit black! You know, black was my first thought, my gut instinct, should have gone with that…I played red! Oh well, it’s the only way to win big money. So I cashed out with my $111 for the night. I have won every night so far! In the short time I was playing, the guy next to me put down $300 total…and wasn’t doing well. Where is his wife? ? Anyhow, I’m not crazy like that. Ok…it’s 11:15, and the carpets are rolling up….active vacuuming in lounges throughout the ship. This is the new youthful HAL afterall…we only stay up until 11 instead of the traditional 10 pm! We decided to hit the sock hop thing going on in the Crow’s Nest. It was sort of packed! The party band was there and doing well. Aha, we have found HAL’s demographic. Although largely not baby boomers dancing to the 50’s, etc. I would say older. We sat around for a while then broke for the night. I walked around to the Lido to grab a couple of (good!) cookies and then poked around the casino, disco, and piano bar again. Disco sort of playing rap-ish music. Not very populated. Where do the fun staff hang out? Off to bed. St. Thomas A little rainy this morning, ordered coffee. Taking my time here….think I will emerge at the “crack of noon” today. Today’s program – some sort of big barbecue on deck from 6 to 8. Good, I was hoping they’d have a nice deck party (although….so early!) Everything tonight seems geared to the early seating or Barbecue people. Does this mean tonight’s dinner in the dining room sucks? Could this be Dutch night? ? Oh…the deck party goes after the Barbecue from 8:45 to 11:30 pm….hmmmm, we’ll see about that! Maybe I can hot tub it? Funs things tonight….the ABBA hour with Kory….at 9:30 while we’re in late seating dinner! 80’s team trivia….at 9:45! Ok…the 80’s retro night at the disco starts at 10:15. We can do that. No real show tonight….the Filipino crew show is at 11. Seen it once….that was plenty. Have to remember I did bring some DVD movies with me. Could be a Moulin Rouge night! Who does the scheduling on this ship? “Life’s more painless, when you’re brainless.” Dancing through life, like that song. We’ll take that approach today. My only plan in St. Thomas, shopping. Need to run by Cartier to say hi to Miss Marven Lynch, my pal. Was thinking about buying my Dad a digital camera for Christmas. He would like one, but will take a year to make up his mind if left to his own devices. We are docked over at Crown Bay…wonder if they do this every week? Which is, aka, in the middle of nowhere. No Havensight shopping binge. I wonder if French Town is right near by here? I have heard there are good restaurants there. Maybe worth a look after my downtown foray. Parked next to us is this big mother of a yacht! The biggest yacht I have ever seen. It could be a little cruise ship in another life. Lovely teak furniture in the back. Hmmm, will have to look on the back of it to see what it’s called. Looking in the mirror….this sunless tanning crème thing is a bit spotty! I need to be a little more careful! Glad I didn’t put it on my face! A tad orangey, but not bad. With a little natural color it will be groovy. I’m darker than Michael Jackson without a tan anyhow and I pick up color easily, just not too into sweating it out in the sun this time. Thinking more and more about skin cancer as I get older though! Did a good job around my bathing suit though…nice lines! And the suit is black so it won’t change color with this crème. Noticed I was turning the wash cloth yellow last night…eeegads! Hmmm, better look at my clothes from yesterday! Better come out in the wash! A year in the gym has paid off….noticing a fair amount of morbid obesity amongst the younger folks on this ship. Not me! “Forty isn’t fatal”. Indeed. Dancing through life. Getting off the ship at the “crack of noon”. Have never docked in Crown Bay before. Seems like in the middle of nowhere, but having been in St. Thomas many times, no problemo. Got one of the open air cab things after running into Bob downstairs who was also getting off the ship, and we went downtown. Had a mission of stopping by Cartier to say hello, try on a few watches, and then look for a digital camera for dad. Went to Cartier and saw the girls, but didn’t buy anything. Was thinking about the new “love” bracelet, but they didn’t have one in a man’s size yet. I still lust after getting the Pasha chronograph watch. That is a beauty. So I headed down the street and popped in the Royal Caribbean store to look at digital cameras. Not a huge number, and the place was packed, so I kept going. Went over to Little Switzerland on the main drag to look around. Several familiar faces from past visits. Was helped by a nice lady, Jan, while I looked at the Baume and Mercier watches….there is this one that I have looked at several times over the years, “Hampton”, which has a very clean art deco-ish face design. http://images.ashford.com/ash/p10688b.jpg Sold! Ok…I’m so easy. I figured it would be nice to have another metal band watch so I could wear something other than the Roadster to the gym. Kept walking around a bit, but then grabbed a cab (almost to myself!) and headed back to Crown Bay. Lazy afternoon…a bit of the gym, some hot tubbing. They were, at least purposefully for a change, clearing out the main pool area late in the afternoon to prepare for the deck party and barbecue to be held tonight, so I hit the aft hot tubs instead. Might have grabbed a raspberry soft serve on the way… ? Weird scheduling tonight – which was subject to a lot of comments at our table tonight…everything seemed geared to this barbecue thing (which was 6 – 8 pm) and some things some of us wanted to do were scheduled in such a way late seating of folks could not do them. 8 pm, the movie “Troy”. The ABBA hour at the piano bar with Kory…9:30 pm. 80’s Theme Trivia in the Disco with Jay the DJ…9:45 pm. What idiot put this program together? At least the last 2 things – demographically – and most especially so on this ship, SHOUT late seating people….aka, the younger folks on board. Younger, of course, being a euphemism for 30-50. So, we didn’t get to do any of those things since we all went to late seating instead of the barbecue. DUMB! Some nights they would repeat the piano bar program (that Kory works so hard!) and have one for early seating, and the same program for late. But not tonight! DUH! Oh well. I have really been getting into my book “Wicked”, and am finally plowing through it at a good pace. Spent some time tonight as well on the balcony which is just wonderful, and poured myself a Ricard with a tall ice water. The remants of the little cold I was fighting earlier in the week seem to be gone. Dinner was actually good again tonight. Jude the sommelier is the sweetest! Keep seeing him up in the pool area and I happened to have a can of Diet Coke in my hand (intending to go back up a deck, and I didn’t want to lug around a glass) and I happened to run into Bob, so I sat down at a table for a while. Jude comes over with a tall glass of ice for my soda! He’s one of the few examples on board of service that anticipates your needs that I have encountered. Usually, especially in the pool area, the bar people are simply pests who ask you if you want a drink approximately every 5 minutes. That has really gotten annoying! Although, I love Tina a bar waitress up in the pool area – what a sweetheart! Anyhow, as it turns out, I didn’t want a glass, but it was so nice of Jude to think of that. Drink hawking though….the worst I have ever seen on any ship. Totally obnoxious at times! Back to dinner. Had the Chicken Satay and the country pate. The Satay was great, the pate nothing special. Had the three berry minestrone for soup…which was good, but again had seeds in it (strange with all the old people on board they don’t strain these things better!) Had the house salad (again, the salads are good – very attractive presentation, nice greens, etc…) and the breads varied. I’d have to honestly say the breads and salads are better than X, with this one provisio….the dressings on X can be a bit more interesting and X has those nice bread sticks and flat breads at times. HAL’s dressing seem to be somewhat pedestrian, and probably out of a bottle, not made on ship. Have noted the whole “comfort food” entrée phenomena on every night’s menu. Tonight’s is pot roast. Haven’t had one yet. I guess folks on Cruise Critic and elsewhere have gotten whipped up about this. There are generally 7 entrees per night…so what’s the big deal? For the entrée I ordered the Duck a l’Orange, which I love to get since I would never make it at home. It was pretty good, although the skin was gummy rather than a nice baked to a crisp. Our table also ordered one serving of the Nasi Goreng Rijsttafel to share. It was decent. For dessert, Yudi is a very reliable cappuccino man….always there waiting for me when I return from my smoke. Have met some nice folks during my smoke break in the room off the Explorer’s Lounge that is smoking. Smoker’s from around the world unite lol! In an ideal world…would be nice to have my dessert and cappuccino in that nicely paneled room. Actually, the Explorer’s Lounge is one of very few attractively designed rooms on this entire ship. I ordered the Strawberry Short Cake (pretty good!), the Rustic Pear Galette (very good!) and the Chocolate Profiteroles, which were “no sugar added”. Profiteroles are just about my favorite dessert on earth. A little cream puff, some cream inside of course, and then dripping with melted dark chocolate sauce on the outside. Actually, one needn’t make this with too much sugar to make it good, and it was pretty tasty! Since I’ve already ranted and raved about tonight’s program….what did we do? Oh, we did not go to the Phillipino crew show at 11….although the bar staff at the Piano bar was closest to the theater and you could tell they were all excited. I do think it’s a nice idea they do this. I went to go play roulette….and lost my $20 allowance in no time! Boo hoo! Oh well, it’s entertainment. Decided to hang out with Bob and hit the piano bar to watch Kory play. That kid is damn talented, and handsome to boot. He should definitely be doing bigger and better things than playing on a cruise ship. Very flexible in his playing, and he has a great singing voice which can be serious, pop, rock, or just outright a good mimic of various singers and styles. So we hung out there for quite a while. Other than the disco, which is often on life support, the piano bar is the only place that is still alive after 12:30 pm. I think I left about 1:30. Tomorrow’s daily program…delivered with an advertising sheet for various ship specials….one chilling phrase – “Cruise Lottery Tickets”….what’s next, generic cigarettes and 40 ounce malt liquor bottles littering the hallways? Tortola Very pleasant morning out on the balcony with my coffee, and my book. I was getting in a very “why bother getting off the ship” mood today. Totally transfixed by the book and enjoying it immensely. Glinda’s studying sorcery, and Elpheba is coming out of her (green) shell. I got all lathered up with my sunless tanning lotion and pulled the wicker chair and ottoman over to the side balcony (which on it’s own is one of the largest balconies I’ve ever had) and curled up with the book and sunglasses. My cabin steward Mastur seems to want to get his job done, so I went out in the hall and let him know it was no problem cleaning my room now while I was in the balcony, and in a flash he was apparently done. Didn’t even hear him come and go. Would be nice to have a butler though. Not feeling all that pampered here, although I like the poinsetta plant they brought by. In the height of supreme laziness, I started getting hungry around 12:30, having had only coffee and a banana thus far, so I ordered lunch off the dining room lunch menu. The salad was very nice, had the roasted peach soup which was good, and the Canadian burger, but skipped the bun and fries. Ordered the no sugar added Napolean as well which was pretty good. Took a nap at one point…even docked this ship seems to have a rattle/shake to it, at least here in the back of the ship. Almost distracting while napping. A bit of a rumble up and down…hmmm.. More bizarre scheduling again tonight. The “Zuiderdam Superstar” competition was at 9:30 pm…might have been smart to schedule that at 7:30 or 7:45 so both seatings could see it? Then 70’s music trivia in the disco at 9:45….DUH! Anyhow, I finally motivated and left my cabin probably around 3 pm. Didn’t feel an ounce of guilt about not getting off the ship. Tortola looked nice (from afar!) and some friends I met on board said they went to the Baths in Virgin Gorda but it was a long tiring day. I don’t do tiring! Anyhow, I spent some time up top in those crate chairs with the great pads, and then hit the Windstar Café (I am their only patron apparently) and got a delicious mocha, checked my e-mail a bit, and then hit the gym pretty late, around 5 pm. Oh, one note about all things coffee….the “Java Corner” down by the internet café..which I think is where one gets free coffee drinks. It appears it is never actually open, ever. I have yet to see it open. Hmmm…. In the Windstar café they make Belgian waffles all day…which smell nice, but I have yet to see someone buy one! So either the staff is getting fat off them, or they are throwing them out every hour…what a disaster. The gym is a struggle as always, given the somewhat sparse nature of the equipment, so I have to get creative. It is chest and triceps day, so I can use the Cybex machines to do bench presses and flyes. Do some dumbbell work, but really the top limit of 37.5 pounds is too low for me. Decided to put two steps together and get some dumbbells and do some elevated push ups as well. Oh well, can’t expect a great workout but managing to keep the cruise food calorie damage to a minimum I hope. My daily routine was running later than normal here, but I still wanted to hit the hot tubs. Aft seemed a bit desolate, so went to the main pool, hopped in, and it was maybe a bit too hot and muggy in there. They had closed up the roof since we were at sea again. So I decided to sit down in the pool overflow area (the “beach) which is tiled…the pool is definitely over filled, and little waves would crash all around as the ship swayed back and forth. It was actually nice. I could do some stretching as I sat in several inches of water. The water was cold after the hot tub though and took some getting used to! Then down to the cabin to get ready for “informal” night. Dress code pretty much followed I would say…although, I did my own creative informal….a nice pair of black Kenneth Cole slacks, a lightweight heather gray Polo sweater, etc. Ok, so not jacket and tie, but it looked dressier than a casual night, and was very comfortable. For dinner I had the Carpaccio of Beef Tenderloin (sliced way too thin…disintegrated on my fork while trying to pick it up), so I placed an order for the Thai Spring Roll, which was delicious. Had the Gazpacho of yellow and red cherry tomatoes which was chunky and good, and the house salad. For entrée I had the NY Strip rare, which was definitely rare but a little tough. The beef has been a bit hit or miss, but prepared to order…I like my beef with a lot of “moo” still in it! I also ordered the venison as well, which I only took several bites of. I was very hungry early in the dinner and ate several rolls that were covered with nuts and things like that….yummy. For dessert….the Warm Chocolate Truffle, which was to die for. Probably the best dessert this week. So good….could have had two, if I wasn’t already also having the Pecan Pavlova, which was a bit of crème on top of a baked meringue base. That was also quite good, and then also the no sugar added Forest Berry Tart, which was only so so. Everyone at the table agreed the Chocolate Truffle thing was a big hit. The flambé in the Explorer’s Lounge tonight was Peach Melba….but we didn’t stop. Hmmmm….do need to stop one of these days. Went to the show. Some magician/illusionist type thing. Not too good! Went to the roulette table…very depressing. $20 gone in no time. Friend Mark was raking it in tonight for a while and had a very healthy stack o’chips! Decided to hit the piano bar with Bob and hang out. Kory was still doing the Elvis hour. The piano bar is a weird little room. Kory could draw a crowd in a bigger venue. Lots of poles in the way. Bright bright lighting. Watching Kory is half the fun…what a sense of humor. Definitely the best entertainer on the ship, no contest. Ended up staying there until almost 2 am! At Sea We seemed to be moving pretty quick today…need to turn on the tv. Furniture has blown around out on the balcony. I suppose we have quite a distance to make in one day here going from Tortola to Nassau? Can’t imagine it’s too pleasant out there on the top decks today…aft pool area might be ok if the superstructure of the ship is blocking some of the wind. Wonder if they have the roof closed on the main pool area. I would think an open roof there today would “catch” a lot of wind. Hmmm… Not that I’ve motivated to get out of the cabin yet! Ordered my coffee, had the banana, and thinking of getting cleaned up. There is a brunch with the Captain at 12:30 pm in the Crow’s Nest, so would have to put on long pants for that. This morning was the disembarkation talk with champagne, but haven’t been to one of those since my first cruise. Also the Mariner Society reception at 11:45 am in the Vista Lounge. I don’t think I get a medallion of any color yet, so probably will skip that. Of course, probably won’t book this line again so what’s the point! Still smarting over the Friends of Dorothy party issue. Oh…on that score, checked the internet yesterday and someone on Cruise Critic had thoughtfully e-mailed Holland America in Seattle after I had posted my original note. They got a response with HAL’s policy on publicizing passenger group activities in daily program. In short, they no longer will be publicizing FOD parties or any other passenger generated event….although one wonders how many or what type of requests they receive…and of course, they are still putting such things as the Friends of Bill W, veterans, service club, singles and solos, and bridge player notices in the program…..so why are they allowed? Sounds pretty fishy to me. Oh well, as Marcy Simms says on the TV commercials…”an educated consumer is our best customer” and I will damn well take my $$ elsewhere! Wondering if I should bring this issue up at the brunch with the Captain? Maybe if Mike and Gary are going to the brunch I could go with them and bring it up? And this is where my travelogue ends. I just simply lost interest in continuing lol! All and all, I did get 7 days of relaxation and some pretty good meals -- in fact, I think HAL's food was much better than 5 years ago. I genuinely think this is a fairly jarringly ugly ship. Lots of unnecessary ornamentation, some colors one wonders why they were put together etc. Service a bit hit or miss at times, could be not enough staff, especially in dining room. Suite amenities a mixed bag really. Nightlife, forget about it. Oh well. Glad I tried HAL again, but not likely to repeat it unless it’s a unique itinerary that I really want to experience. I wouldn’t sail this line for the ship itself. Copyright 2005, Jeff Coudriet |
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It happens lol! But I managed to write down some of my memories and
thoughts and that will have to do! Took VERY few pictures of this ship. Didn't want to crack my lens lol! Jeff Karen Segboer wrote: Jeff Coudriet wrote: And this is where my travelogue ends. I just simply lost interest in continuing lol! That's happened a few times in my own personal travel journal, Jeff ;-) Nice write-up, though. I enjoyed the read. Karen http://www.cupcaked.com ® (...and leave off the "potatoes" to e-mail) |
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Nope! Design wise...I would say it's a mess! Very few areas I would
describe as attractive, although, hey tastes may differ. Jeff Karen Segboer wrote: Jeff Coudriet wrote: It happens lol! But I managed to write down some of my memories and thoughts and that will have to do! Took VERY few pictures of this ship. Didn't want to crack my lens lol! Wow, 'didn't think much of the ship, eh? ;-) Karen http://www.cupcaked.com ® (...and leave off the "potatoes" to e-mail) |
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I'm glad that it was not just me, the whole time we were on the Ziderdam,
we kept saying that the Maasdam was so much nicer. IMHO, HAL really dropped the ball with this ship. Seems that they could not decide if the ship was going to be HAL or Carnival. "Karen Segboer" wrote in message ... I'm not surprised. I've heard pretty much the same thing from discerning ship-goers. Jeff Coudriet wrote: Nope! Design wise...I would say it's a mess! Very few areas I would describe as attractive, although, hey tastes may differ. Jeff Karen Segboer wrote: Jeff Coudriet wrote: It happens lol! But I managed to write down some of my memories and thoughts and that will have to do! Took VERY few pictures of this ship. Didn't want to crack my lens lol! Wow, 'didn't think much of the ship, eh? ;-) Karen http://www.cupcaked.com ® (...and leave off the "potatoes" to e-mail) |
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I returned Sunday from a cruise on the Westerdam. In discussions with the
Hotel Manager, he said that the Zuiderdam interiors are going to be redone, because of opinions (complaints) voiced by HAL repeaters. Whether what he said is fact is open to speculation G -- Regards, Kuki Features Editor http://www.cruisemates.com "George Howarth" wrote in message news:7udQd.21949$ya6.9187@trndny01... I'm glad that it was not just me, the whole time we were on the Ziderdam, we kept saying that the Maasdam was so much nicer. IMHO, HAL really dropped the ball with this ship. Seems that they could not decide if the ship was going to be HAL or Carnival. "Karen Segboer" wrote in message ... I'm not surprised. I've heard pretty much the same thing from discerning ship-goers. Jeff Coudriet wrote: Nope! Design wise...I would say it's a mess! Very few areas I would describe as attractive, although, hey tastes may differ. Jeff Karen Segboer wrote: Jeff Coudriet wrote: It happens lol! But I managed to write down some of my memories and thoughts and that will have to do! Took VERY few pictures of this ship. Didn't want to crack my lens lol! Wow, 'didn't think much of the ship, eh? ;-) Karen http://www.cupcaked.com ® (...and leave off the "potatoes" to e-mail) |
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Interesting! I did think it was just plain ugly, although some
attractive areas (Explorer's Lounge) and I liked the sports bar decor actually, although hardly anyone in there mostly. Jeff kuki wrote: I returned Sunday from a cruise on the Westerdam. In discussions with the Hotel Manager, he said that the Zuiderdam interiors are going to be redone, because of opinions (complaints) voiced by HAL repeaters. Whether what he said is fact is open to speculation G |
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Interesting! I did think it was just plain ugly, although some
attractive areas (Explorer's Lounge) and I liked the sports bar decor actually, although hardly anyone in there mostly. Jeff kuki wrote: I returned Sunday from a cruise on the Westerdam. In discussions with the Hotel Manager, he said that the Zuiderdam interiors are going to be redone, because of opinions (complaints) voiced by HAL repeaters. Whether what he said is fact is open to speculation G |
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