MS Koningsdam February 19-March 1 AND MS Zaandam March 21 to April 22

Roy,

Enjoy. I will be on the Zaandam from March 7 to 21 and will do my best to keep it spiffy for you!!

Roy,

 

Enjoy. I will be on the Zaandam from March 7 to 21 and will do my best to keep it spiffy for you!!

Thank you. Have a WONDERFUL cruise.

ROy

Day KDAM-1, Saturday, February 18, 2017, Ft. Lauderdale FL

The Koningsdam is at Half Moon Cay. The Zaandam is at sea from Puerto Montt to Montevideo. The Crystal Serenity is in Ushuaia. The Crystal Symphony is at sea from Cairns to Darwin. In a departure from it’s usual schedule, the Carnival Inspiration is in Ensenada.

Despite not setting an alarm I was up just after 5, and after morning meds was across the street at the 17th street where I watched the Eurodam, Island Princess, and Celebrity Summit come in. I lingered on the bridge until sunrise.

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I returned to the bridge for the day’s first sailaway; the ferry Jaime1 headed to Freeport. It is a lot bigger than I had thought with a large car deck although it does not appear to be carrying any cars. Once the ferry was gone I stopped at Publix for my final purchases and got breakfast at Panera.

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I went into central Ft. Lauderdale for lunch finding the bus system a bit slow and unpredictable. There were 7 ships in Ft. Lauderdale. I watched the Regal Princess, Harmony of the Seas, and Island Princess leave from the 17th street. I had planned to stay for more but the ships running well behind their scheduled times, The Celebrity Summit got away while I was returning to the hotel and I watched the Eurodam, Carnival Conquest, and Freedom of the Seas leave on the Ft. Lauderdale webcam. Some of their horns could be heard in my room and I caught a glimpse of the Eurodam’s bow beneath the window from my balcony. When the ships were all gone I walked to Panera for dinner (about ½ mile each way).

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I did most of my final packing for the transfer to the Koningsdam in the evening. My Publix purchases have required a third bag but the original 2 are now somewhat lighter. My heaviest bag will likely now be my carryon with the computer equipment and soda. I expect to leave early for church but when retiring I should be pretty close to ready.

I had planned on finishing this post before going to bed but dozed off. When I woke at 5 I checked the webcam and the Koningsdam was just approaching the port.

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Today’s parting shot: There is a story about putting a frog in hot water and it will jump right out but if you put it in warm water and turn up the heat it will sit there and boil. We now know that's a myth but it may be more true for people.

I was booked on the full Crystal world cruise but when the Northwest Passage came out I decided I couldn't do both the full world cruise and the Northwest Passage and cut back to a single segment. Since then I have added a segment here and a segment there and am now up to 93 days away from home. At that, I could just about have done the full world cruise. Sometimes I feel like the proverbial frog.

Roy

I just love your parting shot Roy :)

Enjoy the sail a way today and the King.

Hope you have a WONDERFUL cruise!

Day KDAM0, Sunday, February 19, 2017

Thanks, Jacqui

The Zaandam is in Montevideo. The Crystal Serenity is in Ushuaia, and the Crystal Symphony in Darwin. In a departure from it’s new schedule, the Carnival Inspiration is at sea from Ensenada to Los Angeles.

I had set the alarm for 5AM. A youth in my local congregation when I first moved to Columbia is now pastor of a church about 10 miles South of Ft. Lauderdale. I have visited him a couple of times on prior cruises to South Florida but today the transportation just didn’t work out. The closest church to me was First Methodist in central Ft. Lauderdale. A bus line ran past the hotel and the church but not early on Sunday mornings. I left the bags I would be checking on the ship with the bell staff and left the hotel ay 7.

It was just over a mile walk to Route 1 where the main North/South bus line was running that early. This line runs every 20 minutes; I had left early and there were actually 2 buses after the one I caught that could have gotten me there on time. The church was still deserted and I walked 3 blocks to verify the place for the return bus. When I returned to the church a member was opening up the parking lot. He told me there would be no 8:30 service that day.

The first bus that passes the hotel was at 8:15. I was in plenty of time for that bus. I had seen signs on 17th street about a marathon. It was not actually on 17th but on A1A. As we were approaching the hotel the driver stopped and told everyone we were stopping at the last street before the bridge. That actually worked for me as we turned into the street and I was on the hotel’s side of 17th Street.

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RevNeal is a dedicated HAL cruiser with a long history as a Protestant HAL Chaplain, although he has recently been promoted to a larger church and is far less active than he used to be on Cruise Critic. In lieu of an actual church service I played one of his sermons.

I checked out of the hotel at 10 and was on a 10:30 shuttle to the pier. We arrived about 10:50 and checkin was a breeze. As a recent 4-star Mariner with priority checkin I wasn’t expecting a problem but did survey the situation and there were no lines even for the regular checkin. I was seated in a priority waiting area. There may have been a delay in zeroing out the ship as they just called for in-transit passengers about 11:15, and I boarded about 11:50.

For years HAL has had a Mariners Embarkation lunch in the dining room. That’s no longer officially true but is perhaps de-facto true since it isn’t publicized and only the Lido lunch is mentioned in print or in announcements, so newcomers probably miss it. I enjoyed a lovely fruit cup and Veal Parmigiana. There’s a bit of a tradition of “food porn”. I don’t really do that as my tastes are pretty simple, but since my last HAL cruise I’ve started posting a little collage of my dishes. After lunch I found my dinner table, a 10-top right next to the back window.

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My room is one of the Koningsdam’s 12 solo cabins, all far forward oceanview cabins on deck 1. It is comfortable but storage is a bit tight, with only 6 hangers and limited shelving in the bath.

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A reception in the Crows Nest has replaced the luncheon as the "official" Mariner perk. The Crows Nest is beautiful and the reception was quite well attended.

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I ended up with 4 bags. The carryon (27 pounds) was in the room immediately after boarding (HAL has great turnaround service with rooms available immediately on boarding and right through until final disembarkation). The smaller checked (19#) bag showed up about 2 and the one (50#) sent through Luggage Forward about 3. The final (25#) checked bag did not appear until after we left the dock.

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Unlike other HAL ships Koningsdam musters are in public rooms. My station was the World Stage on deck 2. Cards are scanned on entering and the process was pretty painless. Sailaway was a bit of an embarrassment. I had told people on Cruise Critic (both Roll Call and webcam addicts) I would be standing above the Koningsdam sign on the top deck with a towel banner and waving (in a bright red shirt). Well, the banner was in the bag that did not arrive until after sailaway. I waited in my room for it, watching from my window as the Celebrity Silhouette, Caribbean Princess, Regal Princess, and New Amsterdam all left the port. When I saw that we were moving, I went up to the sign, but did not see anybody from Cruise Critic. I think some of the sailaway addicts spotted me in the red shirt, but will have to check their photos later.

There were 8 of us at table 57 for dinner, 2 sisters, one couple, and I think the other 3 ladies are all friends. It looks like a very good group. I went for the chilled soup, baked chicken, and Key Lime pie.

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It looks like there are 3 shows on the World Stage each night, 7:15, 8:30, and 10. I arrived just a couple of minutes into the 7:15 show with Cruise Director Carson still on his opening remarks followed by Comedienne Erin Jackson. After the show I continued unpacking, arranged photos, and made entirely too little progress on this post before retiring at 11.

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As today’s parting shot, today broke a kind of personal record. My first Crystal Cruise was aboard a very new Crystal Symphony on April 23, 1996. It was 356 days old at the time and “attained” one year of service the day I disembarked. For over 20 years it has been the youngest ship I have ever sailed. Until now. The Koningsdam went in service April 8, 2016 and I boarded her just 317 days into her first year of service. I expect now the Koningsdam will be my “newest ever” ship for some time.

Roy

It looks like the solo cabins are fairly large with lots of walking-around space. Great choice and a nice photo. Would love to see more pix of the ship.

Day KDAM1, Monday. February 21, 2017, Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

Thanks, Oahucruiser

The Zaandam is in Buenos Aires where I will board the Crystal Serenity March 3 and the Zaandam March 21. The Crystal Serenity is at Cape Horn. The Crystal Symphony is at sea from Darwin to Bali, and on Mondays the Carnival Inspiration is in Los Angeles.

I’ll start with a carryover item. Cruise Critic member Gator65 “caught” me at sailaway despite me not having my promised sign.

Up at 5, I started the day with5 laps around the Promenade deck. I think each day my first “lap” will be a bit modified. Starting from my room, I go up to the Lido for coffee, walk all the way to the back of the ship (which appears to be as far back as the end of the Promenade deck), then go down to the Promenade deck at the aft stairway and continue around the bow to the forward stairs. I think that is the distance of a full lap.

On this cruise I will pass the 200-day mark on Holland America but have never been before been to Half Moon Cay. The only private islands I have visited are RCI’s Coco Cay and Labadee. Half Moon Cay is kind of a Sanibel to their Coney Island; no zip lines or huge waterslides but a lovely sand beach. It’s also my first time at such a place with 2 ships. I think the Nieuw Amsterdam was a little ahead of us, but as the larger ship we got to use the island based tenders.

I’ve been persistently behind in my writing on this cruise, and I finished up my postings and left the ship about 10. The Daily Navigator listed an inter-ship volleyball game at 10:30. It turned out one ship did not have enough entrants so they just formed teams on the spot. The island also has a small chapel; it looks like it is possible to plan bring-your-own-clergy weddings.

It’s about a half mile walk from the landing spot to the end of the road at horse stables. There are little signs denoting the features and history along the way. At the end of the road I started walking back along the beach. With 2 ships in port loungers seemed to be at a premium; I was almost back to the shipwreck bar before finding a vacant one. I’m really not a beach person, but took a quick dab in the ocean. I found it cold and only went up to about my knees before returning and reading for a while. I quit reading about 11:30 and headed back to the dining pavilion where lunch was just starting.

There’s one large pavilion with quite a nice spread. I assume island staff does a fair amount of the work but there were also a number of crew helping out. There was a nice variety of food; I went for corn on the cob, BBQ chicken, and finished with a fruit salad. My used dishes were collected by a Nieuw Amsterdam waiter. I returned to the ship after lunch. I was surprised at the number of people on the tender back to the ship so early. I don’t think they all could have finished lunch already and I thought the option on the island was at least as nice as in the lido.

We left Half Moon Cay at 3; Nieuw Amsterdam stayed until 4. After a relaxing evening on the ship I went to the Promenade Deck for sailaway. While the Nieuw Amsterdam was anchored, Captain de Vries mentioned that we used out thrusters and azipods as we had over 750 feet of water below our keel. We sounded 3 blasts on the horn as we left; I heard a distinct echo bouncing off the Nieuw Amsterdam before they returned with 3 blasts. We were on our way.

Location guide Ryan gave his talk on our upcoming ports at 4PM. He is a short timer, just arriving on Koningsdam a few days ago and moving to another ship when we get to Aruba.

We were short one of our regulars at table 57. Her friends had not heard from her but think she was taking a long nap. I went for the salad, strip loin, and peach crisp. Dinner menus are posted all day on a display board outside the dining room and those are the menus I am posting to the blog. I hope to have the first 3 menus and first 3 Daily Navigators posted by the end of the day.

The featured show was “One World” by the Koningsdam Singers and dancers. The World Stage is a bit of a departure as there doesn’t seem to be much of a back stage and little scenery, replaced by a semi-circular video screen depicting what would normally be in a theater set. We lost an hour overnight moving to Atlantic time which we will maintain through Aruba.

I’ll take my parting shot from the Koningsdam Library. It and the Promenade Deck (I’ll comment after :On Deck for a Cause”) seem to get the bulk of the ship’s criticism on Cruise Critic. While the Library in HAL’s biggest ship is a far cry from the one in their smallest ship I feel like the “no library” claims are a bit over the top. While there is not a much in the way of traditional books I was pleased with the reference tools, especially a big world atlas and a lot of touring guide books. Those are actually the things I tend to use most in a library and I’ve been on a number of ships which lack these amenities.

Somehow, the photo links got dropped from my draft, so sorry, they're now all jumbled together:

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Roy

Day KDAM2, Tuesday, February 21, 2017, Grand Turk

The Zaandam is in Buenos Aires. The Crystal Serenity is crossing the Drake Passage towards Antarctica. The Crystal Symphony is at sea from Darwin to Bali. On Tuesdays the Carnival Inspiration is at Catalina Island.

While Grand Turk is a Carnival Corp. project I’ve been here a few times, all with Crystal. Grand Turk Island is the Capitol of Turks and Caicos although the majority of the population lives on the largest of the Caicos Island (25,000 out of 35,000 total with 5,000 on Grand Turk).

This morning had it’s share of frustrations. I rose at 5 and soon was ready to head up to the Lido for coffee when I couldn’t find my room key. I wasted about 15 minutes searching every corner of my room and was about to give up when I looked in the mirror and saw a black stripe across my neck. The lanyard with my key had turned backwards and my key was hanging down my back. Once that was resolved I went up for coffee and walked 5 laps on the Promenade deck (with one more later on arrival for a total of 2 miles. There was quite a bit of cloud cover and I never saw the sun come up.

The other frustration was with the ship. I had ordered some tours but no tickets came. A check with the tour desk indicated that the purchase hadn’t gone through. I did the online checkin probably close to a year ago with a credit card that was good for several months after the cruise. A while ago though they replaced the card to include a chip, which changed the expiration date. I suspected that might be the problem as the card bounced last night in the shops, but neither the front desk nor shore excursions ever did anything to notify me that there was a problem.

Captain de Vries came on the PA earlier than usual to let us know of a problem with one of the engines that would delay our arrival and departure from 11 to 6 back to noon to 7. With a full morning at sea I headed down to the dining room to see what was offered. I had the Texas Bread French Toast. It was good but I probably should have asked for a small serving.

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We approached Grand Turk perhaps a bit earlier than predicted and had lines out at 11:45. My tour departure was delayed from 1PM until 2:30. I had planned on lunch at DiveIn but got distracted in the Lido by chicken noodle soup and a lovely carved dinner. Very nice lunch. Not as nice was the disembarkation setup. They used the forward A-deck gangway, and the lines for disembarkation ran past my door at times and at others nearly blocked my access to or from my room for nearly an hour. I hope things will be better in Amber Cove when they use 2 gangways.

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My tour was “Grand Turk By Trolley Train”. The “train” was actually a jeep-type vehicle modified to look like a locomotive pulling 2 trailers each holding about 15 people.

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We started off at a break neck speed of about 15 mph making our first stop at the airport entrance where there is a replica of John Glenn’s Freedom 7 capsule. Glenn’s first stop after he splashed down was on Grand Turk where he was debriefed at one of our former military bases here.

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The main town is Cockburn Town, about 3 miles from the port. The main street hugs the shore and is lined with 19th century homes and monuments to Christopher Columbus. Grand Turk is one of several islands that claims to be the first landing spot of Columbus in 1492. A key reason for Grand Turks is it is the only one of the Turks and Caicos with a deep harbor; the other islands all have close reefs and shallow shorelines. We passed the old prison and made a short stop where there were refreshments available. The guide pointed out the country’s coat of arms with a variety of wildlife symbols. We also learned that in the days of the prison the inmates were allowed to return home to help their families during storms but always returned. There’s really no place to flee in Grand Turk.

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After our break we went close to a salt pond. The low lying island has many little ponds that have been adapted so the water level can be controlled. Ocean water was pumped into the ponds and then allowed to evaporate leaving pure salt behind which could be dug up and sold. It was one of the primary sources of income up to about 1970. The filling and drying process took about 6 months.

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Until abolition much of the work was done by slaves but perhaps more was done by mules which now roam free. We saw several in the course of the tour.

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When we returned I walked down the beach a bit. I found my room which is on the lowest deck, right below the “d” of Holland. There was a long line getting back on the ship.

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Once onboard, I got coffee in the lido and stopped briefly at the cruise sales desk. I have been waiting for 2018 Alaska cruise tours and they are now available. I had lost track of time and was almost late for dinner.

One of our members was still missing at table 57. Her friends say she is quite under the weather. This evening I went heavily for blueberries, both soup as a starter and a crisp for desert, as well as the pork chop entree. We were just backing away from the dock as we left the table.

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The featured entertainment on the World Stage was cabaret style singer Robbie Howard. I missed most of the show instead opting for the Lincoln Center Stage were the group (5 strings and piano) played a Dvorak concerto. I did catch the last few songs of Howard’s act.

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The room stewards were running late and when they got to my room I went up to the lido for decaf. One of the standard venues for Holland America ships lacking on the Koningsdam is the Wajang Theater. Instead, movies are shown on the screen at the lido pool. The movie seemed quite popular with lots of people comfy in loungers.

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I’ll keep my parting shot short. Get well, Nancy. We miss you.

Roy

Really enjoying your reviews. If I may ask a favor, we will be on this itinerary in March. I'll be watching for whenyour gala nights are and comments but would you be able to find out if there will be a Cellar Master or Master Chef dinner on your cruise? I think the Pinnacle Grill maitre d would be able to let you know. Hope I'll be able to preplan our nights in the specialty restaurants. Thanks so much.

Enjoying your review. Very informative!

I am enjoying your review and pictures.

We did the tour you did in Gran Turk many years ago.

I would not be happy trying to watch a movie from a lounge chair. In fact, I can't even use a lounge chair any more.

Great reports Roy.

Really glad I subscribed to your blog as I was still able to read along when CC wasn't working well ;)

Day KDAM3, Wednesday, February 22, Amber Cove, Dominican Republic

Thank you all. Since I'm barely keeping up with timely posting my apologies for not answering personally.

The Zaandam is in Buenos Aires. The Crystal Serenity is cruising Antarctic waters. The Crystal Symphony is in Bali. On Wednesdays the Carnival Inspiration is in Ensenada.

Amber Cove is another port built especially cruise ships, this one opened within the last few months. It has a certain theme park feel to it with zip line, water slides, pools, and of course lots of shopping. It is about 5 miles from the nearest town, Puerto Plata with a population of about 75,000.

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I started the day with 5 laps on the Promenade Deck. When the sun rose a little after 7 it was cloudy with a hint of the rising sun poking through the clouds looking better on the camera than through the eye. The hot part of breakfast was pancakes I decided to take out to the central pool where the entry from the midship pool into the lido café has both a Gelato bar and Dive in on the far starboard side.

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My morning tour was called “Panoramic Puerto Plata”. It is about a 1/5 mile (1/3 km) walk to the terminal. A fleet of bicycle pedicabs was pedicabs was taking passengers to the terminal for ships. I left the ship about 8:50 and briefly looked around the site before my 9:15 tour meeting. There were about 15 of us on a minibus for the ride into Puerto Plata (about 25 minutes) where we stopped at the main town square and went inside the cathedral and walked around the square a bit. February is the Dominican Republic’s independence month. While the main celebrations are on Sundays the whole month is Carnival and there were a number of characters in costumes dancing and parading around the square.

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We made what was supposed to be a short photo stop at a monument along the shore although the guide was a very poor manager and it turned out to be much longer as people lingered with the street vendors. Puerto Plata is a fairly substantial merchant port and we passed a number of marine terminals on the way to our final stop.

The Fortaleza San Felipe was built in the 16th century and sits on a modest hill on a peninsula jutting into the harbor. Again the guide proved to be a poor manager telling us we had a 10 minute stop. I looked around for 10 minutes and when I returned to the bus the guide said “take your time”. I lingered for another couple of minutes but 1 couple was at least another 10 or 15 minutes. They had been told the same thing as me, but many of the people who returned to the bus on time were quite upset. We were back at the port about 11:40.

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I had booked a 12:30 Pinnacle Grill lunch and had time to explore the port a bit more before returning to the ship. I think it serves as an embarkation port for Fathom, Carnival’s subsidiary built around Cuba. There were a number of Fathom offices and displays. The port has a bit of a theme park feel with zip line, water slides, villas on the water, and a bar on a short hill with great views.

Koningsdam’s Pinnacle Grill has very nice views, on a par with the Prinsendam and much nicer than the R and S class ships (I don’t know about the Vista/Signature ships but if the Pinnacle is the same place as the Veranda on QE/QV, that’s very nice as well). On all my previous HAL cruises, the Pinnacle has had a different menu between lunch and dinner. This may be true of the Koningsdam, but I haven’t yet found a dinner menu for the Pinnacle. There’s a table on deck 2 with menus, but the only one they had was the one I saw for lunch (and a typical lunch menu). I skipped a starter, had the Pinnacle Burger and the berries for desert and got a nice arrangement of petit fours with coffee.

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Most of the afternoon was occupied with writing and organizing photos, as well as a visit with the cruise sales consultant.

There were just 3 of us at table 57 as 2 of the parties went off to specialty restaurants for the evening. Service with just 3 was about 30 minutes quicker than with 7 or 8 of us. This time Captain de Vries sailaway message was broadcast in the dining room with forecast for calm seas. There was no mention of the status of our engine glitch; not sure if that’s good news or bad news. With the Pinnacle lunch I tried to stay light at dinner with the roast turkey and sugar free ice cream.

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The featured entertainment was ventriloquist Patrick Murray with his friend Matilda. He was very good.

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As a parting shot, we just had President’s day. When I was younger there were 2 single days for individual President’s birthdays, and February 22 was George Washington’s birthday. Happy Birthday, George. Over 2 centuries later, you done good.

Roy

Love that parting shot!

Do those Alaska maps give us a clue as to the discussion you were having at the cruise sales consultant's desk?

Day KDAM4, Thursday, February 23, 2017, At sea, MS Koningsdam

Love that parting shot!

 

Do those Alaska maps give us a clue as to the discussion you were having at the cruise sales consultant's desk?

I leave on tour soon and will elaborate later but your assumption is correct.

The Zaandam is in Montevideo. The Crystal Serenity is cruising Antarctica. The Crystal Symphony is in Bali. On Thursdays, the Carnival Inspiration is at sea from Ensenada to Los Angeles.

On my first sea day on the Koningsdam I was up at 5 and started the day with 14 laps around the Promenade Deck as well as an additional one at breakfast time for a total walk of 5 miles. When I started my walk we were rounding the East end of the Dominican Republic, about 10 miles off shore and 60 miles from Puerto Rico. The sun came up about 2/3 of the way through my walk.

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Location Guide Ryan had his talk on the ABC Islands (Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire) at 10. Aruba will be interesting, much will be closed as there will be a big celebration, but I imagine there will also be some festivities to watch. There was a Cruise , Critic Meet and Greet in the Crows Nest at 11, quite well attended. Coffee and snacks were supplied.

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There was nothing unusual in the Captain’s midday update. We are making our expected progress and expect smooth seas to Bonaire. Lunch was a combination of Chicken Noodle Soup and pizza; the New York Deli is nice, but they only serve whole slices; I got my pizza and 5 slices went into the trash immediately.

There was an afternoon cast chat and back stage tour. With the LED screens replacing the props the back stage area was quite small. The current cast has been onboard 7 months and leaves at the end of this cruise.

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My final afternoon activity was the cruise sales presentation. Nothing unexpected but a lot of nice options.

For the first Gala night we had what has now become the usual 7 with Nancy starting to eat but still not out and about. I would say about 90% of the people were well dressed for the occasion,, perhaps 20% of the men (and the boys were equally well dressed) in tuxes and another 70% or so in sport coats or suits. I went for the Rack of Lamb. The sun was just setting as I left the dining room.

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The featured entertainment was a variety show with Robbie Howard and Patrick Murphy with Matilda. I was running empty on a parting shot and saw there is a runoff Presidential Election in Equador. May the situation be settled before the Zaandam’s arrival.

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Roy

Thanks Roy for taking us along your cruise, love the comments and the photos.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Now I know why I didn't see you for sail away. I enjoy following along your daily adventures & looking forward to the rest of your cruise.

Allan

Thanks, Allan and Skoggs.

MayB this is a combination of a long time desire and something specific that’s been in the works for about, 15 months. Way back in November, 2015 Crystal announced a Panama Canal Voyage that went viral on Cruise Critic. It’s San Francisco to New York on August 10, 2018 and as of now we are up to about 80 people on the Crystal Future Bookings thread.

The other piece is I have long dreamed of what I call “Grand Alaska”, and that is what I just booked. I will board the Volendam in Vancouver on July 18 for a 3 day cruise to Skagway and continue overland on HAL cruise tour Y4C arriving in Anchorage on July 28. On July 29 I board the Westerdam in Seward and continue back to Vancouver. This gives me a few hotel days along with Amtrak’s Coast Starlight to San Francisco and the Crystal Symphony.

I think starting the trip off with the Canadian across Canada makes this just about ideal.

Roy

Roy,

I love it! but of course I love everything you do, from the first time I joined you on Amtrak from BWI, I believe. I think there was something that was going to impact traffic in downtown Baltimore?

But the absolute best part for me is that I am also booked on that August of '18 SFO to NYC!!! See you at the Meet & Mingle. :champagne-toast:

Roy, always great fun. We loved the Canadian (we went from Toronto to Vancouver in March - very wintry up there that time of year - except in Vancouver where the grass was green and the flowers blooming. :-). I really like your overland approach to connecting with your ships. We are still using flights (our overland connections from Colorado are very limited, while domestic flights are generally pretty easy).

Day KDAM5, Friday, February 24, 2017, Kralendijk, Bonaire

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Thanks Kahtrav and especially MayB

The Zaandam is at sea from Montevideo to Port Stanley. The Crystal Serenity is at Elephant Island. The Crystal Symphony is in Bali. On Fridays the Carnival Inspiration is in Los Angeles.

As with all port days so far, the morning started with 5 laps around the promenade deck. I finished well before sunrise and was a little late to see the sun actually pass the horizon, but the initial stages were pretty well covered in clouds.

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This was my very first visit to Bonaire. We docked right in the heart of town, although the town didn’t seem to be much.

I had a morning tour to Washington Slagbaai National Park. There were about 2 dozen of us who boarded a heavy duty truck with seats on the back and a corrugated steel roof for the drive to the North end of the island., about 8 miles from Kralendijk. It appeared to be a mom and pop operation with the man driving and his wife as guide.

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We stopped at the visitor center/entrance gate where in addition to rest rooms there was a small museum, a large whale skeleton, and examples of ovens for lime, aloe, and charcoal.

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The area is a coastal desert and is designated as a wildlife refuge with the main plant life being cactus. We stopped the truck but did not get off at a large salt pond where a number of flamingos were looking for food in the water.

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A bit further we stopped at a beach where bird watchers saw some birds but it was primarily a sandy beach. It was a nesting ground for sea turtles, but they nest at night.

We stopped at a blow hole where water rushing into a small cave and bouncing back can be exciting. It was not very active today but produced a few noticeable blows.

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Our final stop was a small beach where some people put their toes in the water; I just dipped a couple of fingers in. By this beach there was a hilltop natural bridge that formed a nice window.

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Just up the road from there was a light house. According to the guide, the light is now powered by a solar panel and does not shine at night. Consider me a bit mystified.

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We made a final comfort stop at the entrance station and were back at the ship about 12:30. I walked around Kralendijk a bit and found it kind of a quaint town but did not see a lot of interest. When I went up to the lido for lunch there was a good view of an old fort with 3 cannon pointed at us. According to the guide they have never been fired in anger but are used sometimes for ceremonial purposes.

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I spent the afternoon relaxing on the ship. At dinner we were joined by a couple from an adjacent table who had run late (sightseeing?) and had their spots given over to someone from anytime dining. I went for the spaghetti, cherry soup, and rhubarb crisp.

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The featured entertainment was a show called “Musicology”. It was the Koningsdam dancers (sans singers) working to a recorded sound track with sections devoted to various musical vehicles (mostly individual instruments but there were also segments like “big band” or vocals). One of the dancers was dressed as a conductor for several of the segments and the dancers interpreted the type of music in the segment. The photo will give an idea of what happens in this case with the drum section using the capabilities of the surround led screen. It was a most unusual but enjoyable show.

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As a parting shot, with my Canadian heritage I sometimes pick up the Canadian news summary that is often published on cruise ships. One article today caught my fancy. A homeowner in Fredericton (New Brunswick) was shoveling his driveway when the snow plow came by and put a sizeable snowbank back in the driveway. The man chased the plow and it sounds like he threw the shovel and may have hit the plow. You seldom hear of shovel rage but anything can happen. Having grown up in upstate New York I can sympathize with how the man felt but it’s VERY un-Canadian.

Roy

Loving your report and pictures.

We know all about the snow plows "filling" in driveways after we have cleaned it out.

Thanks, Roy, for taking us along. It is always such a pleasure to follow your adventures.

Great pics and reports Roy.

Love your parting shot. While it is not typical of Canadians, we can develop snow rage, especially when the snow plow keeps filling in the same driveway over and over when you just got it cleaned out ;)

Enjoying your review!