Btimmer

They successfully did it with a charge 4 times in 2 months on our Westerdam Australian/New Zealand cruise.

It cost $39/pp plus 18%. It was a large collection of seafood served in a big pot each. We rather enjoyed it more than a Sel de Mer dinner. It was on Oct 29 in my blog found at https://timmer2022du.blogspot.com

Jill, the small ships will always have a soft spot for us because of the great itineraries we shared with you. We have booked the Grand South America on the Zaandam.

Thanks for following along. We're not headed home just yet. We're flying to Tasmania tomorrow for a several day visit with friends before flying to Melbourne to spend time with our exchange daughter.

We enjoyed a nice last dinner for this voyage in the Pinnacle Grill.

Christmas decorations onboard are starting to happen.

You're welcome. We're blessed to have met and travelled and done shore excursions with you. We'll look forward to doing it again! I'm wearing the same bright orange shirt today. We're having a LIDO lunch with another couple and a final Pinnacle Grill dinner.

We spent Saturday and Sunday with very close friends in Melbourne. Back on the ship, tonight was the Orange Party and my Royal Dutch Soccer Club shirt was a hit given that Netherlands beat USA to advance to the next round facing Argentina. Tomorrow is our final day at sea on our way to Sydney and the end of our cruise. I was speaking with the Captain at the Orange. Party tonight and thanked him for a wonderful cruise. He's looking forward to being home in Holland watching Netherlands play Argentina. He said that the total Covid cases are 49 passengers and 2 crew. Here are some pictures from the Orange Party. It was a pretty nice party in the BBKing lounge. Chris, our cruise & travel director serving Dutch snacks. Some of the crew: Charlie, entertainment director; Albert, executive housekeeper; unknown, and Jessica Schumann, hotel general manager. There were more earlier, but I forgot to take a picture. Bartenders

It has been a pretty uneventful sea day until just before dinner when the the Captain announced there was a bearing failure on a component on the #4 engine and that it would be out of service for an indeterminate time. Therefore our stop in Melbourne will be cut short by an hour, and it will not affect our arrival time there or in Sydney. He reported 6 new Covid cases with a total of 30 passengers in isolation and no crew in isolation. Earlier today there were reportedly dolphin and whale sightings, but we didn't see any.

Some things are worth waiting for. We waited for 6 years for the opportunity to return to Kangaroo Island after we missed it in 2016 due to weather conditions when we circumnavigated Australia on the Maasdam. Today we ended up sharing a car with another couple and it was a delightful time and we were able to cover a great deal of ground and see a couple of Australia's unique animals. Our covid count is up by 7 passengers today with 30 passengers and 3 crew members being held in isolation. My daily blog has much more information. Here are a few pictures from today.

Today in Adelaide, we took a wonderful excursion with Taste the Barossa. Our tour was Adelaide highlights with Hahndorf and McLaren Vale wine tastings (2). We were gone from 9am to 7pm and the tour was organized by Beatrice here on Cruise Critic. Angela and I highly recommend this tour. We appreciated the overview of Adelaide after walking a portion of it yesterday; the view from Mt. Lofty was spectacular; the German town of Hahndorf was very nice; and we fell in love with the Australian wines at the tastings at the Shingleback and Chapel Hill wineries. And none of these wines were all that expensive. Most were under $20AU per 750ml bottle. And much of the production of this region is exported to the USA. Here are a few pictures from today.

We were greeted by a German band.

We're just approaching the dock in Adelaide with our clearance to be about 2 pm. We'll be here overnight.

While we have family and grandkids to come home to, it's not a strong pull just yet. If it weren't for prescriptions, I could easily go 60 days more. We like living in under 200 sq. ft. Some people ask how we are enjoying our cruise vacation. My response is that this is our life; it's not a vacation. It's pretty normal for us. We'll have 10 days in Australia after the cruise with friends that are as close as family.

At the Ask the Captain session we learned why Phillip Island was dropped from the itinerary. After the port was selected, an investigation team visited the dock and determined it would not work for HAL's tendering operations. It would have required an angled plank from the dock to the tender and strong currents plus a 2 mile tender ride. Once again the Captain spoke for an hour and then entertained more questions for 30-45 minutes down in front of the stage. Then to lighten things up a bit, here are some flowers from an arrangement by the Pinnacle grill.

As of noon the Covid numbers are up with 20 passengers and 3 crew in isolation. The seas have subsided but there is still a lot of motion to the ocean. We're clipping along at 19 knots which is 2 knots faster than required to make Adelaide tomorrow around 2pm.

Overnight the seas were quite rough and they are continuing this morning as we make our way to Adelaide. An elderly gentleman took a hard fall near me but appeared to be okay and immediately attended to by HAL staff.

Here's a picture of the Westerdam passing by Kingston, Tasmania today, Sunday. 11/27/22. The picture was taken by our friend whom we ate lunch with today. She was very excited to see the ship depart.

Today, Sunday, 11/27/22, we are about to depart Hobart for Adelaide and the Captain in his departure announcement has projected some strong swells overnight. There are 4 new Covid cases with 12 passengers and 2 crew in isolation. We spent our time here visiting with very good friends and didn't do any touristy stuff.

No. It's an isolated location. But we are now arriving at Hobart a few hours later and there are definitely there.

Here are a few flower pictures from today in Port Arthur along with the columns at Cape Raul.

We had a good stop at Port Arthur. The projected winds did not materialize so tendering was smooth. No new Covid cases today. 10 total in isolation (8 passengers and 2 crew). Enjoy a few pictures. Our walking track The black ball signifies we are anchored. Tassie meat pie creek bridge Sonething separated us!

It was a beautiful sunset crossing the.ocean off of the coast of Tasmania. Tonight in the Captain's toast, he began to set the future expectations about our crossing from Hobart to Adelaide when he said it would not be like today and would be a bit rougher. He also introduced his new staff captain, Mark Andrew Trembling from England. At the end of this voyage, Captain Wouter will leave on vacation, and Mark will be promoted to Captain and the Westerdam will be his first ship. Congratulations to him. At Caneletto tonight for dinner we were seated with a couple from New Zealand who are also motorcyclists. We thoroughly enjoyed that conversation and look forward to more during the rest of the voyage. Enjoy a few photos from today. 4th from the left is Mark Trembling the new staff captain and soon to be Master of the Westerdam Sunset with Tasmania in the background

We're slowly cruising across the sea to Tasmania at 11.4 knots on flat seas. What a contrast to a few days ago. The Covid count is up 3 to 10 total. 2 crew and 8 passengers. We had a good Meet & Greet today. Chris the cruise & travel director made an appearance and answered a few questions.

Just a heads up for anyone planning to book an Australian cruise on the Westerdam. On the present cruise we have 1200 Aussies and only one coffee bar in the Crow's Nest. The line is long as is the MDR late dinner line. Hint: eat early and eat in the Lido. Currently we're only doing 11 knots on our way to Tasmania. It's a sea day today.