twangster

Suite Concierge - Bing Bai Crown Lounge Concierge - Andrea Martinez C. Loyalty Ambassador - Isabeth Avila I was happy to see Bing back on a ship. She was the Suite Concierge on Ovation back in 2019/2020 before the shutdown. Sailing to New Zealand with her when the world lost its mind early in 2020. I wasn't sure what had happened to her and I'm glad she is back.

There is a gap at the bottom of the glass. I have a telescoping pole held in place with elastic velcro straps in two places for security. The red hat is keeping the rain off my battery pack powering the camera for these long timelapse. On other ships I've secured the pole to the handrail when there is a gap to pass the velcro strap through. In this case the handrail has no gaps so I went low. You don't have to have the camera out too far for the 360 effect to work it's magic.

They opened an hour late! (or I forgot to change time last night) 🤣 Service was fine this morning and I don't recall an issue back in 2022. Sorry you had issues.

Day Two - Dover, England The fog from last night became the fog of the morning. It's a busy section of water and I could hear several other ships following fog protocol blowing their whistles, some faint, some loud. marinetraffic.com: The white cliffs of... the mist. Confirmed. The captain found England.

We hadn't landed yet and my Amsterdam souvenir shopping was complete.

Night one was spent donating a kidney to the casino. At least it felt that way. Luck was not on my side. We encountered heavy fog and the ship employed the fog protocols blowing the ship's whistle every few minutes. After a few hours of this you grow accustomed to it, until you hear another's ship's whistle answering back, and it sounded close. It was a night when the bridge crew earned their salaries. Time change tonight, one hour back.

Here is a timelapse from a 360 camera on my balcony.

Eventually the water level equalizes and the forward gate is opened. Looking back as we move forward towards the sea. Finally we have reached the sea.

Finally we reach the lock. Looking aft the lock gate behind us begins to close. While subtle there is a small difference in water level.

Sort of like sailing from New Orleans this cruise starts off as a river cruise. Our location and time. Residential in places, and industrial in places. Who said cars can't float?

Our sail away was delayed two hours given the time we were assigned to go through the lock to reach the sea. With waves of rain moving through the area we had a soggy sail away at 6pm.

Day 1 and 2 cruise compass: JW May 15 day 1 2 cruisecompass.pdf

To illustrate how convenient the passenger terminal is from the Centraal station... You can it's pretty close.

Looks like new carpet in the guest hallways. The Windjammer team was happy to greet us. Views from the Windjammer aft outdoor seating area for lunch.

A quick Voom test from my cabin: Pretty great speeds and low latency. Voom rates on board:

Since the ship had just come from drydock with no passengers to debark our cabins were ready. Cabin tour, 4D balcony on deck 7 forward, port side. On deck 7 some of the balconies are extended and have an open upward view to the sky. While there is little privacy when standing at the railing I enjoy these extended balconies. I'm not one to use my balcony without attire. Given the potential of the Northern Lights and views as we sail into the fjords of Norway on the next cruise I was glad to be able to secure these forward deck 7 cabins for both cruises. I do have to move cabins for the next cruise heading aft a few cabins but after 15 nights a change will do me good. I've stayed in these forward deck 7 cabins before and i really like the open views to the sky yet a covered balcony like every other balcony when it's desired. Plus these are some of the only balcony cabins with a view straight down to the water.

Despite not needing a VISA or travel authorization for entry into the UK just yet, we are required to go through passport control when we arrive in Dover on day two. Shortly after 11am we began boarding starting with suites and pinnacle. Fresh from dry dock this is the first revenue cruise. With a fresh paint job Jewel was looking very clean. We were welcomed with a glass of sparkling wine and wooden tulips for the ladies.

Shortly before 10am I checked out of my hotel and started the journey to the ship. Hauling my luggage was a bit of pain but with a tram stop a few hundred meters from my hotel it was easy and cheap. My timing was perfect and the trip to the passenger terminal was super fast. I arrived at the terminal around 10:10am. Luggage drop on the 1st floor, up the escalator to security and the waiting area. I was through security and waiting by 10:15am. There were already at least one hundred guests ahead of me with a dedicated seating area for suites and pinnacle. So while I as early I was by no means the first.

Day One I woke early to discover the Royal app was blank. Meanwhile a text message came through. Looks like I made the threshold for access to the Concierge Club. A few hours later the app and website fixed themselves and my cruises returned. Phew.

The next day I slept in a bit as I adjusted my clock to local time. To get around I bought a 24 hour ticket from GVB to ride the trams timing it so I could use the trams the next day for my transportation to the terminal to board the ship. The 24 hour pass was 9€. As part of my exploration I did a dry run to the Passenger Terminal so I'd know the shortest route with luggage the following day. The NCL Prima was at the terminal so I didn't venture upstairs. The trams are very convenient and an easy way to get around.

After a nap in my hotel it was time to venture out. What trip to Amsterdam would be complete without a visit to the red light district?

From the Centraal station I chose to walk the 1.6 km to my hotel which given the nature of the brick lined sidewalks was probably not the best choice but I had another hour to kill before check in time. At least I could do some sightseeing along the way. So many canals! It's a very pretty city.

Flying from the U.S. for this cruise I made a connection in Atlanta (so that means a Delta ticket) with the overseas flight on KLM metal. I chose this evening flight so I'd arrive close to the check in time for my hotel in Amsterdam the next day. I arrived in Amsterdam on the 13th of May two days before the cruise boards. With the recent Northern Lights fiesta I was hoping to see a sign of them from the plane. I did a test shot with my phone to see if my luck was good. It was not. Time for some sleep. A little later I woke with some mild turbulence and discovered a sunrise in the making. Time for more sleep. Arrival into AMS airport was easy with a quick immigration stop and with my luggage secured it was off into Amsterdam. I chose the train as my method of transportation into the city. For 4,90€ it's hard to beat. The train was easy to board with a near level entrance making luggage handling a breeze. Unfortunately it was announced this train is no longer in service and we were directed across the platform to an older train that required hoisting my luggage up a few steps.

I'm starting this LIVE thread a little late here on day two but I figure it's better late than not at all. This is a B2B for me starting with 15 nights for cruise #1 and then 12 nights for cruise #2. Screenshots from cruisemapper.com Cruise #1: Cruise #2: Even though it's day two as I write this, let's rewind just a bit.

So from what I've gathered so far is no venue changes. New mattresses that are just as firm as the old so if you like the mattresses on Royal, fear not, they are unchanged. New paint job. Spiffy in white. New Cisco access points for WiFi. Voom speed pretty great compared to mega ships in the fleet. No hand wash stations entering WJ, still the hand sanitizer machines. New carpet in at least my guest hallway. Cabins don't appear to be touched very much as near as I recall. Schooner Bar looks the same. One bartender mentioned they went through all equipment such as coolers and sinks and did a full inspection/rejuvenation. They were happy to greet us as we entered. All in all, no complaints.