Ready2go11

After a lazy afternoon on Tuesday, we stopped by the Pinnacle bar for a drink before dinner since the dining room is not great for delivering bar drinks that you actually ordered. The stop was serendipitous since we ran into the Step One Dance team that had the night off and were also enjoying a drink. They were so nice to chat with and shared they were a little nervous about their shows on Wednesday night given that the ship was rolling. In rehearsals earlier in the day, it was rocky. However, they noted that the Captain told them it would calm down tomorrow. Of note, I found a new favorite drink- a lemon drop martini made with pear Grey Goose. The pear totally changes the drink in a good way. After a dining room dinner that was not overly remarkable, we headed to the late show, featuring comedian John Wing. Although some in the audience were laughing here and there, after 15 minutes of “you know how old I am? I am so old that…” jokes, we left. We headed up to the Lido to walk around and back by the Sea View pool we enjoyed a great display of stars. It has been cloudy other nights, but today was a beautiful show, especially after we left the lights of the public deck and looked at the stars from our balcony.

Crows Nest has been open until 10pm for bar/coffee service. I have not seen any evening activities up there, For reference, Lido Bar is open until 10PM, Sea View Bar (back of ship where smoking section is), Ocean Bar and Billboard bars are open until midnight and the Gallery Bar (near the casino) is open until 1am. Pinnacle Bar on Deck 2 which serves the Pinnacle Restaurant but is open to guests is only open until 9:30pm.

the berry part of the Pinnacle dessert was a hit the accompanying sauce, not so much.

Despite no time change last night, it seemed even harder to get up this morning. We ate only a light breakfast since it was almost 9am and we had Pinnacle lunch coming up at 12:15pm. We missed the morning chat with Carlijn, but did hear her talk at 10am regarding myths of the Mediterranean. It was an interesting talk held at the main stage, and well attended, featuring a Greek Woman marathoner and an MIT student and later professor who aimed to build a human powered plane. After this we attended our first event at the Art Studio doing modern brush lettering, a form of calligraphy. Sheets were provided to practice each letter of the alphabet. The instructor shared some background and the instructor walked around the room checking in on participants. The art events like calligraphy and water coloring are held twice per day (same class each day) and the room is small as it only holds about 20-25 people, just off the main part of the Crows Nest. Next was lunch at the Pinnacle. We had the same wait team, pulled from the dining room staff until April 11th we learned as the usual Pinnacle staff were training for the first ever Morimoto pop up on the Oosterdam. That dinner will be held the evening of the stop at Ponta Delgado on April 12. We have reservations for that dinner at 7pm and we are looking forward to it but also a tad nervous since it will be new to all onboard except for three chefs onboard to train the Oosterdam team. Lunch included starters of carpaccio and crab cakes, both as good as we remembered from prior lunches and we both enjoyed the filet with blue cheese sauce as a main. Dessert was interesting. I ordered the coconut lime trifle with pistachio and my sister had the berries with sabayon. The trifle had chocolate hazelnut mousse with a middle layer that had too much gelatin and was not coconut. The top layer was more chocolate with gelatin. No lime and no pistachio. At least I saved calories by not eating much of it. The berries were presented in napolean style with thin wafers between which was good, but the sabayon consisted of runny egg yolks, nothing like the creamy whipped lemon colored sauce it is supposed to be. We think they forgot to whip the egg yolks. I am sharing a photo so you can see the cooking fail. The drinks and service were outstanding as they were at our first Pinnacle lunch on Sunday.

A stop at the Lido bar yesterday revealed a bartender, Rex, making milkshakes and handing them out. They were outstanding! We plan to go back another day and make it adult with some Kahlua. Dinner on Monday evening was uneventful although service has continued to be uneven. Again, the servers are working very hard but always seem overwhelmed. I had the lasagna for dinner. If you really like Italian food I would not recommend it. The sauce had very muted flavor and it contains a lot of ground beef. Like so much that I had at least a 1/3 pound left on my plate after I ate the multi layered noodles. Not like Mama would make. This is an every day menu item and could use improvement to be a menu staple. Overall, desserts on the ship are good but not great. However, overall non-dessert food quality if above average and beautifully plated. Food and Beverage Director Jonathan is seen walking around the Lido and dining room often, which is a credit to him. I also forgot to mention that after the first dressy night on Sunday, the Yum Yum Lady was out front of the dining room serving candied ginger, mints and figs. I know I am glad they brought back this tradition, at least a few times each cruise. After dinner entertainment started with 20 minutes of the Chordial Chamber Trio. They played famous classics and although I am not a die hard classical music fan, it very much enjoyed the part of the show I saw. We left that show early in the Main Stage to head over to the Rolling Stone, where Michelle Montouri was playing a “bonus” show. The venue was standing room only and they brought in folding chairs which quickly filled up as more and more people arrived. Her first show was so enjoyable, she has a following on ship with her amazing vocal range and ability to make anyone laugh. She sang the Beatles, Amy Winehouse, Robby Williams, LeeAnn Rhimes and LaBamba among others. We are looking forward to her next show as we know she is staying on until Barcelona. Weather and Ship Movement The first two days of the cruise had some movement but it was generally calm. On Monday and so far Tuesday we have been rocking more. Not horrible but you can feel the ship moving side to side, to the extent it can feel like you are walking uphill. Other than some spotty rain on Monday afternoon and early evening, the weather has been partly sunny to sunny with temps at sea in the upper 60s to low 70s during the day. There has been some breeze but not what I would call windy on the ship. It is very pleasant to be outside.

brunch fruit plate. Looked even more beautiful in person. Smashed avocado toast at brunch Brunch burrata almost always empty deck chairs on deck 10- highly recommend! strangest food item on board- hot dogs with onions and blueberries at the Lido pamplemousse martini at brunch and on Billboard menu. Very good!

4.9 daily program 4.9 daily program page 1 4.8 dinner menu page 1 4.9 lunch menu

I have not mentioned our room stewards Rony and Wayan but they are stealthy. We occasionally see them in the hall and they always ask of we need anything, but they are great about taking care of everything when we are out and about. Coffee chat on Monday was Food & Beverage Manager Jonathan. He reported: · He is responsible for approximately 300 people. · 7 day cruises are easy because they have so much data on guest behavior it facilitates planning for food and beverage, · It is much more difficult for longer and specialty cruises like this one, as guest behaviors vary so much on longer cruises and supplies are not as easy to obtain. · Post pandemic when it was harder to source supplies, they started transitioning more to local products. The issue with that is that the same product, say honey mustard, tastes different in Southern America than it does in North America. · Cultural differences among nationalities also makes it challenging. Americans like to eat earlier and be served faster. Europeans · Loaded more than a $1 million in food on Friday. · $600,000 in beverages · $600,000 in supplies- table ware, napkins etc. · The stock up was because they had not been in America for months (the ship was in South America) and they needed to stock up for summer in Europe while they could get certain products. · A few days later they are still unpacking and stocking bars and restaurants. Apparently the creamer for coffee is still buried since a few guests at the chat complained there has not been any. · Head office plans all menus, but ships can adjust when needed. During the talk Karlijn shared she got on board the ship at 4:30pm on the day of sailing. So the delays in leaving because they were loading helped her. She was supposed to fly in the day before but bad weather caused cancellations and delays. After the chat while waiting for brunch, we did some laps around the deck. Although I miss many things about the Pinnacle class ships, I appreciate the wider decks and we make good use of them almost everyday when on board. We really enjoyed brunch. Since we did not get up until 8am after losing another hour last night, we did not eat breakfast and joined the brunch line at 9:50am just before the 10am start time. The line got very long and was still present (although shorter) when we left the dining room. Brunch was held until 12:30 so plenty of time and line may have been much less later after those like us who couldn’t wait had already finished. We enjoyed the burrata and fruit plate. The fruit plate was so attractively presented. Mains were forest mushroom crepes and smashed avocado toast. I was very impressed with how perfect the poached egg was given they were serving hundreds of diners in a short period of time. My sister had dessert Poffertjes. They were not at all like the ones we have enjoyed at the Grad Dutch Café in other ships. They had too much baking soda and were basically pancake batter served with syrup and melted butter. We much refer the lighter Dutch Café version that are served with butter syrup and powdered sugar, The best part may have been the drinks cart that went around the dining room with fresh made featured drinks served tableside. On offer were Bloody Marys, Mimosas and Pamplemousse (grapefruit) Martini. The martini was very good made with gin and we will order that again as we have seen it on other menus, We tried to attend the talk at 11am on the islands of the Atlantic but the main stage was pretty full, very surprising given how many people seemed to be at brunch. On the way to deck 3 for some laps around the deck, we passed the third and final Mariners reception in the Rolling Stone lounge. Again, a good crowd but not crowded and several officers were mingling with the crowd. We have only seen the Captain once at dinner last night when he made his way around the dining room since late fixed dining could not attend his Captain’s welcome but we are happy to see so many officers out and about and friendly when they see you. I purchased a bundle of 3 hair wash and blow outs for $129 at the spa. I hurt my arm and blow drying my hair has been difficult. This was a rare find in that the spa price is less than I would pay at home. The stylist did a nice job and included a very relaxing scalp and shoulder massage and I have two more appointments scheduled. It is nice to be pampered!

cooking demonstration in Rolling Stone Lounge Stowaway who came out last night. I read is some prior post how grasshoppers boarded in South American and the Amazon. Since our ship just came from the south perhaps this one has survivied so far. Does anyone one know the function of this just inside our cabin door? We are thinking it is a motion detector???

4.8 dinner menu 4.8 dinner menu aft view from bench brunch menu brunch drinks menu Columbus talk was well attended Indonesian tea- top tier changes according to the theme of the day top tier of Indonesian tea wine tasting set up

There is some breeze, but it has not been too windy at all. We have enjoyed our walks around deck 3 even more because the breeze is cooling but not cold.

the rest of Sunday Next was a talk on Columbus and how little we actually know about his life and travels. The presenter (the wife of another presenter on board) acknowledged his murky employment for pirates and others with poor intentions. While noting that her information was what is believed today, she shared details about his family, maps at the time, where he likely visited, how unpopular he was and other miscellaneous info. A tad dry but very informative. We went to the dining room for lunch. Liked that it was a different menu than the recent experiences we’ve had with the set menu that did not change day-to-day. However, they were only using a set number of tables and at 12:30 there was a line and you had to wait until a table was available. By checking my cheat sheet, I saw the Lido special lunch event was paella. Turned out to be a very good thing. They offered seafood paella and a chicken and sausage version. It was well seasoned and very good. After lunch we attended our included Mariner wine tasting- wines of Europe. There was a half glass of sparking wine and then two whites and two reds with a small plate of cheese, chutney, and fruit to accompany. Although I did not personally care for the selections, host sommelier Felipe was very informative and we met some very nice people we were seated with. Pre-nap we stopped in to afternoon tea, featured as Indonesian. Each day they have tea, there is a special theme. Looking ahead they include French, Dutch, Queen Elizabeth and cupcake teas. I have been making some more contributions to the casino. I view it as entertainment and my lowly status of receiving some discounts on cruises (have not reached free cabins yet) has more than paid for any losses since I started playing 2 years ago. I have researched cruises by not logging in, and then comparing the price after logging in and the difference has been sizeable. Tonight was out first dressy dinner. My sister has been enjoying the fish and had the mahi mahi and despite my waiter’s discouragement, I had the cauliflower steak. He repeatedly said, you know it is not steak. I just wanted something lighter and it was very tasty. Dinner was slower again because there were more diners in the dining room because of the dressy menu. They were bringing any time dining guests upstairs to fixed dining area as the downstairs was full. A service challenge is that there is a language barrier. Many of the servers are harried and hear part of what you want, but do not write anything down and you sometimes get something different than you ordered. We usually point to a menu or have them repeat the item. This is especially helpful when ordering wine since you say for instance I want a Dream Rose and they reply okay a rose and it is not the brand you ordered. It has happened when ordering red and white wine as well. Again, seems to happen because servers are responsible for too many tables. They are very hard working! After dinner we attended the first Step One Dance performance “Move.” The dancers are very talented, but some of the numbers have odd choreography. The show was very lightly attended. They schedule the second show for 9pm and the late fixed dining is almost never complete by then. Another music option added today was Third Avenue West. They played in the Ocean Bar and another venue and play what I would call lounge music. Enjoyable to listen to, especially if you are having a drink and chatting. The Chordial Chamber Trio did a matinee yesterday. We did not attend but heard from other guests that they were very good. What may have been the most enjoyable of all day, as we were going to bed around 11pm, our room was flooded with the smell of fresh baked bread. Not sure hoe it got to us through the vents, but it was a great smell to fall asleep to.

4/8 quick update. Today is eclipse day. The Captain noted yesterday that we would only be able to see about 28% (I think is what I recall) since we are east of the full eclipse path. The viewing where we are on ship will be around 5:30pm.

4.6 daily 4.6 daily 4.8 daily 4.8 daily Pinnacle crab cake menu dressy dinner menu dining room lunch menu

Sunday 4/7 - We lost our first hour overnight and with that change I did not wake up until 8am! I never sleep even until 7am adjusting for time change. My sister had even gotten up, dressed and out to church service and I heard nothing. I love sleeping to the rocking of the ship. The Lido at 8:20am was again quiet, although it started to get a bit busier as we were leaving a little before 9am. We spent the day sailing south of Bermuda with high temps in the upper 60s. Cooler than yesterday but very pleasant. We saw some whitecaps early in the day, but as we got closer to the Sargasso Sea things calmed. At the Coffee Talk with entertainer Michelle (from the show last night), she continued to be funny as she discussed her career start and making fun of her divorce and life events. She speaks several languages and noted this is not so much work for her, because this is “her” and not a persona for stage. Michelle noted she has been on board ships since January 2024 and is getting off in May before another 45 month stint later this year. The schedule is grueling since she has to fly from ship to ship, and work with a different band on each ship. She shared she keeps her voice in shape by not smoking, rarely drinking alcohol, and getting lots of sleep and quiet time. Next, we attended the cooking demonstration in the Rolling Stone lounge. It looked like the Americas Test Kitchen cooking station (and may have been) behind a curtain with two screens showing what the chef was doing. Executive Chef Oliver was making the Pinnacle crab cakes. The chef noted there are 140 people working in the kitchen from cooks and bakers to dishwashers. When Karlijn asked how he managed that large staff and thousands of meals a day and still have time to do the cooking demonstrations, he joked “because you didn’t give me a choice.” At first it sounded like he was serious but in chatting it was clear he had quite the sense of humor. Although you do not get to taste the end result, the smells as he was cooking made you want to book a Pinnacle lunch. A good advertisement and I am sure crab cake orders will rise. They did hand out a card with the recipe. During this session, C&TD Karlijn narrated and noted she worked as a waitress in the Pinnacle Grill years ago. That reminded me to mention she just got on the ship in Florida, as did many of the other crew.

@VMax1700 thanks, that makes sense. I knew there had to be a discrepancy. I was glad to read Spain is all in one time zone so after losing 6 hours at least we stay there when we start day after day ports.

The only brunch I know of is tomorrow from 10am to 12:30 in the dining room. This will be our first opportunity to try it. Past cruises have been too short or it was not offered on the longer ones.

@mawvkysc and @oakridger the time changes are overnight. I would prefer to lose an hour in the afternoon for guests and crew but it is what it is. We lose our second hour tonight with 5 total before we reach Spain. I thought it was a 6 hour difference to East Coast US but this would indicate only 5 this cheat sheet shows the days it occurs

@0106 I followed your South American trip report closely and loved your commentary and penguin and iceberg photos! The roll call event was held in the Crows Nest on the first full sea day and about 60 had signed up. Unfortunately, we got busy doing other things and missed it entirely! Anyone else who attended want to share any details???

I am not sure I would consider it run down. Some decor is outdated for sure and it is not as "ship shape" as the Rotterdam but I would consider it to be in pretty good condition and as noted, clean. I am also happy that after some first and second day jitters, service is improving and there are some outstanding crew members we have sent feedback through Navigator about.

if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences. Enjoyed greatly!

Cheat Sheet of the voyage. We took a photo of this that the spa booking agent had available. Love the at a glance and will provide feedback they should offer this to guests, photo of Friday loading. So much stuff! Mariner's reception- good crowd but not crowded dinner menu page 1 for Sat 4/6 \ dinner menu page 2, Sat 4/6 The 9pm show was not crowded at all! Not sure what the 7:30pm show attendance was.

chocolate napoleon Pinnacle brownie mango terrine parmesan chicken pinnacle burger carpaccio

Despite the full ship, it has not felt crowded at any event and even breakfast at the Lido this morning at 8:30am it was easy to find a table. This crowd is heavily weighted towards Floridians and I would guess the average age to be around 70. It is a jovial crowd and so far not averse to taking full advantage of their HIA drink package. We attended the Mariner Reception at 11am in the Billboard lounge. The drinks (sparking wine, mimosa, red and white wine and Bloody Marys) were flowing and they served some small canapes of shrimp, cheese and jars of nuts. The officers welcomed everyone in to the event, and then mingled throughout the room. It was one of the nicest we have attended in many years. The invite stated it was for 3*, 4* and 5* guests but was not overly crowded. We later found out they planned for three receptions, a good choice to keep guests comfortable and not too crowded. We have the HIA Bonus which comes with premium wifi. It has been slow at times, likely owing to the fact that we are currently s tiny dot in the vast Atlantic. I was able to get through my work firewall and connect to the VPN, which I have not been able to do using the surf wifi plan for years. There is an option to upgrade to stream for around $16.50 per day. Interestingly, there is an option to upgrade to the premium package I already have for $140 for the 2 weeks. We attended the first coffee talk with C&TD Karlijn featuring Entertainment Director Megan. It was VERY informative. I will share info in bullet points below so it doesn’t all run together in one paragraph. · Megan noted she has a young child (16 month old Alfie) and her mother travels with her and cares for Alfie when she is working. She gave great credit to HAL for allowing this; allowing her to keep a job she loves while still being a Mom. · There are 6-8 children on board. Spring break is about over and there are rarely children on board longer cruises We have seen a few teens or pre-teens around. · The entertainment staff numbers around 60 people on board including headline performers, musicians, dancers, hosts, etc. · Megan emphasized more than once that one of her jobs is to look out for the welfare of her team, since they spend months at sea on contract far away from their families. I appreciated that she made a point of this, reminding everyone of the effort and sacrifice the crew make for our benefit. · Megan noted that she does not have input into the entertainers hired, HAL does that and then she plans with what she is scheduled for. · In response to a question, Megan noted that there are classical music performances planned. The musicians are called Chordial Chamber Trio and will have 2 matinee and 2 night show performances, all in the world stage. Many were happy to hear that as they have missed Lincoln Center Stage performers. · The guest count is 1944 and we knew it was almost sold out on this first leg to Barcelona. · A guest asked if they modify the daily program based on guest requests or responses to popular activities like card games groups gather to play. Karlijn responded that a lot of thought goes into planning the schedule to include staffing, locations and guest interest, so basically no was the response in a nice way. She also noted that HAL has guidelines for acceptable activities and anything they plan must fall within those guidelines. · They both noted that they and the entertainment staff work up to 11 hours a day with breaks. Sea days are obviously more work than port days since more activities are planned. In what downtime they have, they are working on the schedule for the next voyage. · Megan noted there were many guests new to Holland and cruising on this cruise. That aligns with the Roll Call comments and questions and in talking to other guests on board. · Megan ended by saying that no one in the world can seem to get along these days, but on the ship with so many personalities and nationalities, the crew is a family and works together to create a great experience for the guests and they take pride in that. We went to the Pinnacle for lunch. This was a bonus because they told us the Pinnacle was only open for lunch on April 9th and 11th, but we saw it was open on the 7th in the app and booked that way. I have a favorite meal I look forward to each time- carpaccio, Pinnacle burger and a shared chocolate brownie dessert. This was good but not great. We did have great service from Ardian, who remembered us form the day before. He brought my extra aioli with the carpaccio, and scalloped potatoes in place of the fries. The burger was ordered medium rare and was done (no pink) and it was missing the bacon jam. The brownie is usually dense and comes with coffee ice cream. Instead it was cakelike and had vanilla ice cream. These are minor details, but since I have certain expectations based on the menu description and prior experiences, these little things made it just “good.” My sister had the Jidori chicken with substituted sides. The chicken was inedible salty so she enjoyed her substituted sides (we often will substitute sides we like that we know they have since they come with other menu items. When the manager stopped by to ask how things were, and noticed she had not eaten it, he offered her another choice and was very gracious. Things will inevitably not go as planned, but how it is handled is everything, and the manager addressed it very well. Perhaps because they did not highlight that Pinnacle was open for lunch and you could only stumble upon it in the app, we were 2 of only about 10 guests there. The service was As we were leaving the Pinnacle, we had a chance to correct several specially dining errors. I prebooked our HIA dinners, but HAL also added the included dinners as second time, one set for that evening. Since we had already booked, we had to cancel those. They also changed the date of one of our bookings and we were able to get that back and added another new mystery booking at the Pinnacle for dinner. All was sorted quickly, but I encourage everyone to check your itinerary after getting on to verify your dining reservations are what you expect. Of important note, the Makers Mark bourbon smash I ordered was perfect. Since the restart in 2022, we have found mixed drinks to be very uneven in preparation, usually trending towards poor. They just have not seemed to train the bar staff that well. Based on 2 or 3 mixed drinks so far, the Oosterdam gets high marks in this area. I hope it continues. We sent our first bag of laundry out at breakfast and it was back just before we left for dinner. And of course there was a nice note in the basket from the laundry team. A very nice HAL touch. We love free laundry! Also found it interesting that the daily program had a special section about pool etiquette. It highlighted that chairs could not be held for more than 30 minutes. There was also a chat comment on Navigator about it distributed to all guests. We are not pool users so not sure how well it was enforced. We went to donner at our 7:45pm fixed time and am very happy to report that the service was much improved over last night when things were chaotic. Drinks were quickly delivered and we noted we wanted to be done by 8:45 so we could attend the 9pm show. We were done by 8:30pm! The food was very good, served hot and fresh. We both started with the salad, and then I ad the parmesan chicken and my sister had the salmon. We were pleased with receiving more vegetables on our plate than we have seen in the past recent cruises, but the portions were much larger in general than we have seen. Dessert was a mango mousse terrine and chocolate coconut napoleon. The mango won as the napoleon was dry?!? We have heard that late dining is not very popular, but that is not the case on this voyage. The third floor of the dining room is busy at that time. We went to the show last night at 9pm featuring British singer (and comedian) Michelle Montuori. I have heard from other live reviews that there is a trend towards multi-talented performers and Michelle had a great voice and was pretty funny. She made many jokes about her ex-husband and current husband. She will be the guest at Coffee Talk tomorrow morning and that should be fun. I commented to my sister she would be fun to have a few G&Ts with. She sang 7-8 songs ranging from Dean Martin, La Vie en Rose (without musical accompaniment) to Adele, Meghan Trainor and Bruno Mars. She had great range and noted she does change some jokes and a song or two base don her read of the audience. She will have another show later in the cruise.