Veendam/Tampa in Jan

George is working with us for a 2-week mid January Veendam cruise out of
Tampa. Our plan is to do a few days of the Mickey in Orlando, then
drive over to Tampa for the cruise, dropping the car off there. It's
been a LONG time since we've been on a HAL ship, so if anyone's done the
Veendam lately, I'd appreciate any comments about the ship, service,
ports or Tampa's port. We were there only once, for one of George's
group cruises and my recollection of Tampa's facilities is favorable.

Nonny
--
---Nonnymus---
You don’t stand any taller by
trying to make others appear shorter.

We just returned from Veendam 18 day North Isles Adventure - Copenhagen
to New York. This is our sixth HAL cruise - last 4 were on Rotterdam. So
obviously we like HAL. This was our 40th Anniversary and we choose to spend
it with HAL. As usual everything seemed well planned and executed. Layout
was very much like Rotterdam except the ship is shorter. As usual for our
past crusies on HAL there were many retired, expereinced travelers. The
entertainment was good - My wife and I have gotten into Ballroom Dancing,
and the band in the Ocean Bar was really good with a lot more variety than
on past crusies. My only negative was they had piano music in the Crow's
Nest (with the big dance floor) before dinner on many nights. However, they
did have a DJ after dinner. They held the Black and white Ball in the
theater - this allowed both the stage and dance floor for dancing - both
were packed, really good turn-out.

Service by both the dining room waiters and wine steward were
excellant, as was that of the bar staff in the lounges. The officers in the
dining room were also very attentive making sure all was going well.

As typical of HAL, the Room stewards were always there when needed - but
never obvious or in the way - the room would be serviced while we were
away - and the ice bucket was always filled - there were significant days at
sea and we set up a bar in our room - bottles availble from room service.

The Rotterdam has undergone significant modernization over the four
crusies we took. Veendam seems to have the same upgrades, like the modified
Crow's Nest larger dance floor and chair/table configuration. Can't be sure
if these weren't original on Veendam.

Dress code for dinner is re-defined. Formal nights is jacket for men,
tux suggested - others are smart casual - men required to wear shirts with
collar. A lot of tuxes on formal nights, many men also wore sports jackets
on the other nights. But then again we were in the North Atlantic, and we
consider the dress up an essential part of the cruise.

We booked our tours prior to the crusie - some are limited. Northern
Isles Adventures is obviously more about seeing Viking villages and other
history than swimming on a tropical beach - but we also took a tour at each
site when we did Southern Carib on Rotterdam out of Ft Lauderdale.

HAL also allows you to fill out some of the boarding paperwork on-line
before the cruise - do this it really saves time.

New tipping policy is each traveler is charged a fixed amount each day.
Extra tipping is allowed - and in specific instances we did - further proof
we we very happy for the 18 days on Veendam.

One further note for those booking HAL in general - we booked the air to
Copenhagen , stay in Copenhagen and transfer to the ship via HAL. It
appeared SAS lost the bulk of our luggage on Landing. The HAL rep at the
airport got the search paperwork going almost imediately - and managed to
realize SAS may have sent our luggage to the wrong conveyor - within a half
hour we had all our stuff and were on the way to our hotel. By the way it
pays to mark your luggage with a standout ribbon tie on the handles.

Hope this helps, email me if you have specific questions,


Val Kraut

We did the cruise on the Veendam out of Tampa last Spring. We liked it
better than the Zaandam. The size of the ship is manageable. The staff and
service better. Our room steward, as did all the staff, went that extra
mile and followed through on requests. Embarking and disembarking is much
calmer and easier in Tampa than the ports in south Florida. The food and
beverage service was great. We liked the new bit about adding the tips onto
our bill. We actually tipped above that for the excellent service. The
only downside was our choice of sailing time - Easter week. Too many kids
compared to none (except for the entertainment director's) we experience
when we sailed the 2nd week in December. The invaded the "Adult" pool in
the aft, despite complaints from the adults to the pool manager. However,
they kept most of the small ones sequestered in the HAL club the entire
cruise so we were surprised as to how many small ones were on the ship at
the end of the cruise. So the crew did an excellent job in keeping them out
of site. And most that ate in the main dining room were well behaved. We
would sail the Veendam again but would go the second week of December
timeframe instead.

"Nonnymus" wrote in message
...
George is working with us for a 2-week mid January Veendam cruise out of
Tampa. Our plan is to do a few days of the Mickey in Orlando, then drive
over to Tampa for the cruise, dropping the car off there. It's been a
LONG time since we've been on a HAL ship, so if anyone's done the Veendam
lately, I'd appreciate any comments about the ship, service, ports or
Tampa's port. We were there only once, for one of George's group cruises
and my recollection of Tampa's facilities is favorable.

Nonny
--
---Nonnymus---
You don’t stand any taller by
trying to make others appear shorter.

Mid January is a Martin Luther King's birthday holiday and there will
probably be lots of youngsters, if that's meaningful.

Ermalee

nospam wrote:
We did the cruise on the Veendam out of Tampa last Spring. We liked it
better than the Zaandam. The size of the ship is manageable. The staff and
service better. Our room steward, as did all the staff, went that extra
mile and followed through on requests. Embarking and disembarking is much
calmer and easier in Tampa than the ports in south Florida. The food and
beverage service was great. We liked the new bit about adding the tips onto
our bill. We actually tipped above that for the excellent service. The
only downside was our choice of sailing time - Easter week. Too many kids
compared to none (except for the entertainment director's) we experience
when we sailed the 2nd week in December. The invaded the "Adult" pool in
the aft, despite complaints from the adults to the pool manager. However,
they kept most of the small ones sequestered in the HAL club the entire
cruise so we were surprised as to how many small ones were on the ship at
the end of the cruise. So the crew did an excellent job in keeping them out
of site. And most that ate in the main dining room were well behaved. We
would sail the Veendam again but would go the second week of December
timeframe instead.

"Nonnymus" wrote in message
...

George is working with us for a 2-week mid January Veendam cruise out of
Tampa. Our plan is to do a few days of the Mickey in Orlando, then drive
over to Tampa for the cruise, dropping the car off there. It's been a
LONG time since we've been on a HAL ship, so if anyone's done the Veendam
lately, I'd appreciate any comments about the ship, service, ports or
Tampa's port. We were there only once, for one of George's group cruises
and my recollection of Tampa's facilities is favorable.

Nonny
--
---Nonnymus---
You don’t stand any taller by
trying to make others appear shorter.

nospam wrote:
We did the cruise on the Veendam out of Tampa last Spring. We liked it
better than the Zaandam. The size of the ship is manageable. The staff and
service better. Our room steward, as did all the staff, went that extra
mile and followed through on requests. Embarking and disembarking is much
calmer and easier in Tampa than the ports in south Florida. The food and
beverage service was great. We liked the new bit about adding the tips onto
our bill. We actually tipped above that for the excellent service. The
only downside was our choice of sailing time - Easter week. Too many kids
compared to none (except for the entertainment director's) we experience
when we sailed the 2nd week in December. The invaded the "Adult" pool in
the aft, despite complaints from the adults to the pool manager. However,
they kept most of the small ones sequestered in the HAL club the entire
cruise so we were surprised as to how many small ones were on the ship at
the end of the cruise. So the crew did an excellent job in keeping them out
of site. And most that ate in the main dining room were well behaved. We
would sail the Veendam again but would go the second week of December
timeframe instead.

We're obviously adults and sometimes still cruise with even our adult
offspring and grandkids. However, there's a fine line between a cruise
line severely limiting access of youngsters to parts of the ship and
providing compelling attractions for the youngsters that would keep them
from the adults. The latter is definitely desirable for all, but the
former would irritate me quit a bit.

Our first cruise was back when our own children were teens. We never
thought a thing about it when we rented TWO adjoining cabins, paying
adult fares for the two of us and the two kids. I cannot remember a
time then or to the present when our children misbehaved or even caused
a raised eyebrow. Then, the only restriction on their enjoyment of the
ship was that they could not drink in the bars. (As I've told some of
you before, my son easily circumvented this). They shared the adjoining
cabin and the cost of that cabin was the same as it would be for any
other two people.

I guess that this is just another moot argument, like the one on
smoking, but when a cruise line charges the same for an infant as it
does for a retiree, then the infant should be given the same rights and
privileges as the adults, within the law of the community and common
sense. If children pools and areas are available, provide amenities for
the accompanying adults and are "fun," then I have no problem with an
adults-only pool, hot tub or spa. However, if a cruise line is going to
charge for kids as if they were adults, then they should provide a
comparable suite of attractions for the kids.

For instance, should I encounter a situation where one of the grand kids
was excluded from the dining room, show or restricted to only some parts
of the ship, I would take exception. However, I have no problems with
excluding kids from adult pools (if kiddie pools are provided and the
accompanying adult is taken care of), hot tubs and bars. Let me say,
though, that if one of the grand kids became rowdy, cried or became
disruptive, then i'd expect the parent to immediately remove her to a
different area.

Nonny
--
---Nonnymus---
You don’t stand any taller by
trying to make others appear shorter.

I didn't use the pools on Veendam - cold climate wasn't conducive to
swimming. However I have used the adult pool on the after deck on Rotterdam.
It quite deep - not gradual, and at 6' 4" I couldn't simply stand on the
bottom. I think the adult designation is for safety and not for denying the
kids. There is no lifeguard. Adult sections are not unusual - in our town
pools there are adults that like to swim laps and so a section is reserved
for that.

Val
Kraut


The invaded the "Adult" pool in
the aft, despite complaints from the adults to the pool manager.
We're obviously adults and sometimes still cruise with even our adult
offspring and grandkids. However, there's a fine line between a cruise
line severely limiting access of youngsters to parts of the ship and
providing compelling attractions for the youngsters that would keep them
from the adults. The latter is definitely desirable for all, but the
former would irritate me quit a bit.

"Val Kraut" wrote:

I didn't use the pools on Veendam - cold climate wasn't conducive to
swimming. However I have used the adult pool on the after deck on Rotterdam.
It quite deep - not gradual, and at 6' 4" I couldn't simply stand on the
bottom. I think the adult designation is for safety and not for denying the
kids. There is no lifeguard. Adult sections are not unusual - in our town
pools there are adults that like to swim laps and so a section is reserved
for that.

It's quite common for pools ashore to have restricted hours for
pre-adults. We were in a hotel in Killarney in June and my grandson
(age 14) couldn't swim laps after dinner because the pool was adult
only at that time. (They also made everyone wear a bathing cap
regardless of the length of one's hair, and forbad photographs)

We used to have (at a local pool) about 5-10 minutes an hour where all
the kids had to get out and sit down, and the pool was just for adults
at that point. For fun, I would sometimes swim laps with my children
sitting on my back, but I don't think I did it during adult swim.

Of course the adults didn't usually swim during swim team practice
either, so that could be considered no-adult time.


The invaded the "Adult" pool in
the aft, despite complaints from the adults to the pool manager.
We're obviously adults and sometimes still cruise with even our adult
offspring and grandkids. However, there's a fine line between a cruise
line severely limiting access of youngsters to parts of the ship and
providing compelling attractions for the youngsters that would keep them
from the adults. The latter is definitely desirable for all, but the
former would irritate me quit a bit.

On 9/16/2007 7:56 PM Val Kraut consulted a Magic 8 Ball and declared:
I didn't use the pools on Veendam - cold climate wasn't conducive to
swimming. However I have used the adult pool on the after deck on Rotterdam.
It quite deep - not gradual, and at 6' 4" I couldn't simply stand on the
bottom. I think the adult designation is for safety and not for denying the
kids. There is no lifeguard. Adult sections are not unusual - in our town
pools there are adults that like to swim laps and so a section is reserved
for that.

Val
Kraut


The invaded the "Adult" pool in

the aft, despite complaints from the adults to the pool manager.

We're obviously adults and sometimes still cruise with even our adult
offspring and grandkids. However, there's a fine line between a cruise
line severely limiting access of youngsters to parts of the ship and
providing compelling attractions for the youngsters that would keep them
from the adults. The latter is definitely desirable for all, but the
former would irritate me quit a bit.




I did a Western Caribbean on Veendam out of Tampa. Embarkation and
disembarkation were on Sundays. Downtown Tampa on a Sunday is like a
bomb hit. The town is virtually deserted. There was no traffic to
speak of, so a taxi from our hotel made excellent time to the port. This
was even though we had stayed in the "Airport" region of town. BTW if
you have any time to spend, Ybor City is the cities entertainment
center. It is a 15 min. trolley ride from the cruise port.

The last time I disembarked, for the price of admission, I dropped my
bags off at "Florida's Aquarium". The aquarium has quite an exhibit and
is worth seeing before heading out. Also, you can catch a cab or an
airport shuttle right in front of the aquarium when it's time to go.

--
________
To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:50:37 -0700, Nonnymus wrote:

George is working with us for a 2-week mid January Veendam cruise out of
Tampa. Our plan is to do a few days of the Mickey in Orlando, then
drive over to Tampa for the cruise, dropping the car off there. It's
been a LONG time since we've been on a HAL ship, so if anyone's done the
Veendam lately, I'd appreciate any comments about the ship, service,
ports or Tampa's port. We were there only once, for one of George's
group cruises and my recollection of Tampa's facilities is favorable.


We have taken several trips on the Veendam, and enjoyed them very
much. Tampa is easy to reach from Disney, the port is well marked,
embarkation is easy. We enjoy the ship more than most of the ports.
Frank