Yaya&Papu

We had to be disembarked in a foreign country. The front desk, nursing staff, and doctors (both the ship and crew physicians) were superb. Nurses made arrangements with hospital and ships agent. We were able to call home from the ship and let our family know what was happening. Front desk changed money for us and sent someone to help us pack. Ambulance and ship agent met us on the dock. We had daily phone calls from HAL and insurance for the time we were in the hospital until we were discharged to a hotel. There were a few things that we needed and when we told the person at HAL, they were able to let the ship's agent know and obtain those items. The insurance made arrangements for our flight home.

A very frightening experience made a lot better by the people of HAL both on the ship and at Family Services of headquarters. Everyone was so kind and helpful.:)

Thanks for all of the good wishes. We are off tomorrow to spend a few days in Rome before embarking for the cruise.

Forgot to mention that this will make the 4th Vista ship for us. Oosterdam in the maiden season, Westerdam to Norway and then again to Alaska, and the Noordam was a TA about 4 years ago.:)

Bon Voyage to all.

Congratulations to Ruth!

YiaYiaAnn:)

Bon Voyage to all, but especially to Kakalina.

Hi Jacqui,

Please add us to the BonVoyage.

We will be on the Oct 21, 2015 sailing of the Zuiderdam from Civitavecchia to Ft. Lauderdale - the Spanish Passage. Hubby will make 4 star on this cruise.:)

Bon Voyage to all, but especially to Harlan and Anneke! What a bittersweet cruise. Have sailed on the Statedam for 3 cruises that were all great.

From what I remember it was at half hour intervals.

Early early was at 5:45

Late early was at 6:15

Early late was 7:45

Late late was 8:15

Hope this makes sense as this is what hubby and I always called the times. We always chose the 6:15.

Don't remember when anytime dining started, but it was after the fall of 2006 because I know we had fixed seating/group on the Rotterdam cruise that year.

Dear Sail,

I would also like to send my condolences on the death of your beloved husband. Although we have never met in person, I have enjoyed "meeting" you on this board. You have shared a wealth of information with all of us.

We have been away for a few days, but I had noticed that you have not been posting as much, so I assumed that you were on one of your cruises and having a happy time. So sorry to learn of your sad news.:(

Yaya

I did this cruise about 4 or 5 years ago on the Statendam with my best friend. My hubby could not go because of the time involved - it was 28 days from Ft.Lauderdale to San Diego. As 2 women travelling alone, we did only ship excursions and every one was superb, but expensive. I agree that Saliverry in Peru was quite an experience. We went in early spring and it was very hot even then. Also liked Guyaquil, Ecuador. Lima city is quite a distance from the port and the traffic is horrendous. Do you want any more explicit info about any port or excursion?

We took our one and only Oceania cruise in early fall 2009 on the Insignia. It was a very port intensive cruise from Istanbul to Athens. We had the lowest level of an outside cabin that one could book. We were very impressed with the large picture window and layout of the cabin. However, we were NOT impressed with the tiny bathroom - esp. the shower. I often joked that one could soap down the walls of the shower and spin around in it and would not need to use a washcloth at all.

We normally book an outside or verandah on HAL and are 4 stars, so we have several comparisons of the 2 lines, although it was more than 4 years ago. We agree with much of what Ruth has stated. But we thought the service in the MDR was better than in the Terrace Grill and we like the breakfast in HAL's Lido much much better. At that time, we thought that Oceania's food was just a little bit better. We found other staff to be competent, but not as friendly or outgoing as HAL. But O did a really great job, when it came to celebrating my birthday.

On such a busy itinerary, we did not miss the promenade deck very much. We heartily agree with Ruth about the lack of entertainment at night, but we were so tired, that after nightly trivia, we were happy to go back to the cabin and put on our "Jammies" and relax with a rerun of the excellent enrichment lectures.

Another positive for O - one one of the few sea days, we had "craft" time with one of the asst.cruise directors/singers. She had several small needlepoint projects (eyeglass case for me) from which to choose and she taught us all how to get started - very relaxing and low key. This was something similar to what HAL used to do, but there was more variety in the kits that were available. Don't know if O still does that.

We used FF miles and our own transfers to and from the ship.

Would we cruise O again? If the itinerary, price, and newer ship were in the mix, then yes. But we continue to sail HAL, even though we also notice a big decline in food service and quality. Sure do miss the flaming desserts!

Our oldest son is married to a lovely gal who is of pure Greek descent. They gave us our first grandchild. The Greek terms for grandmother and grandfather are YiaYia and Papou. I shortened it to be Yaya&Papu - how it is phonetically pronounced.

Thank you very much for taking us along on your cruise. We thoroughly enjoyed your photos of the scenery, as well as the menus and food. We have done a cruise to Norway and 2 TAs on the southern route. So your cruise was similar in some ways, yet different in a lot of ways. You have now tempted us to put this cruise on our bucket list.:)

Our first experience on a cruise ship was August of 1993 or 94. We went on the Southern Carribbean voyage on RCCL's Monarch of the Seas roundtrip from Puerto Rico. It was fabulous!! The next time that we had a chance to ocean cruise was on HAL on the Noordam in the Mediterranean in Sept of 2002. We enjoy HAL, but there seems to be other trips (not necessarily cruises) that we want to do also. We will be taking a Christmas markets river cruise this December.:)

Our first experience on a cruise ship was August of 1993 or 94. We went on the Southern Carribbean voyage on RCCL's Monarch of the Seas roundtrip from Puerto Rico. It was fabulous!! The next time that we had a chance to ocean cruise was on HAL on the Noordam in the Mediterranean in Sept of 2002. We enjoy HAL, but there seems to be other trips (not necessarily cruises) that we want to do also. We will be taking a Christmas markets river cruise this December.:)