Cruising-along

Good morning all!

Happy Birthday Sandi and twin! @StLouisCruisers

Happy Birthday @Norseh2o!

Happy Anniversary @Overhead Fred!

Happy Anniversary @erewhon!

I hope you all have a wonderful day of celebration.

Yesterday we refilled the fridge and pantry, and I've already started a list of the things I didn't realize we need.  At least we have food again.  Also went through all the mail (thank goodness my neighbor threw out all the ads etc. etc.).  Calls will be made today to restart the garbage pickup and a few other things.  

And best of all, we saw the kids and grandkids last night.  DD made dinner for us and afterwards we all went out for ice cream in Seattle.  Oh my it was SO good to get those hugs, and to see how happy the grandsons were to have us back again. 🙂  

We were in Darwin on the GANZ just recently on Feb. 10.  It was HOT HOT HOT and humid.  We decided to take the HOHO, one of the few offered on that itinerary. And it had A/C.  🙂   Here are a few photos from that day.

The Government House

Fanny Bay

Christchurch Anglican Cathedral

I don't know if this is common there, but this cracked me up...

Good morning!

We are home after a fabulous cruise -- couldn't have been better.  I'm missing everyone already, and am so happy to have met Susan,  Lorraine,  Caron and so many others!  We truly became a big family after 3 months.

Our pantry and fridge are completely bare, so grocery shopping is first up today and then a visit to see the kids and grandkids.  Can't wait to see them.  🙂  

It will be nice to catch up on everything happening on the Daily too.  I know I missed a lot and I apologize for that. 

We got home last night early evening after a short flight from San Diego to SeaTac.  It's kind of strange but good to be home.  I miss everyone already though!

First thing on the agenda is to get groceries.  Our pantry and fridge have never been so bare!  Then to visit the kids and grandkids!!

We are sitting on the bus for our transfer to the airport. 
This has been our best cruise yet (and that’s saying a lot)! 

Thank you Vanessa @JazzyV, Lenda @Quartzsite Cruiser, Charlene @cunnorl and Sandi @StLouisCruisers for the welcome home. We should be home by early evening. 🙂

After already doing all the good ideas that have been mentioned, including renting a car, we did the ghost tour on our last visit and enjoyed it! There’s a bit of walking so good weather would be a plus if you decide on it. 

Happy Easter and greetings from the lovely Volendam!

We had Easter brunch with Caron @Cruisercl and Lorraine @cruising sister this morning. Sure going to miss them!

I did it in 2019 with no problem. 
To be sure I would ask onboard, hopefully they haven’t changed the rules. 

Greetings from the Volendam!

Today we took a great tour out of Papeete to waterfalls, gorgeous gardens, an underwater cave and more. Good day!

Two more ports in French Polynesia and then we will begin our trek to San Diego. 
 

Rich I agree about the show last night. I thought his first show was much better, he probably did more singing than comedy. Unfortunately it seemed like the first half of the show last night fell flat. 
I’m looking forward to the local cultural show tonight. 
 

Today we had a short tour this morning and then walked to the market where I got flowers for the cabin. 
 

On 3/23/2024 at 9:38 PM, oakridger said:

Rich, did you get off the ship in Moorea?  If so, what did you do?  I'll be there next year so am curious to find out interesting things to do.

 

~Nancy

Hi Nancy, I don’t know what Rich did in Moorea, but some did the glass bottom boat, some snorkeling. We took tours around the island both days and saw a Polynesian show. 
 

We cruise both HAL and Celebrity, HAL being our preferred line because of their itineraries and we get free laundry. 😁

I was very surprised at your remarks about the service on Celebrity because it has been excellent in our experience (most recent 9 months ago on Solstice. Celebrity’s entertainment overall beats HAL without question. I find the food to be on a par. 

We enjoyed last night’s show too. Overall we’ve enjoyed all of them, with only a few that we didn’t care for. I guess that’s to be expected on a 94-day cruise. 
 

Also will add to Lorraine’s opinion about the talks — very good! And Daniel our Cruise Director makes everything fun. 

4 hours ago, Scrapnana said:

It's been over a year since I've been on a HAL ship and we have a couple of questions.

 

Is there any bar soap in the cabin bathroom?  (I seem to remember dispensers.). If not, has anyone gotten some on request?

 

Has sending messages on the Navigator app to others onboard improved any?

 

Thanks!

On the Volendam now, we have bar soap and dispensers. I do bring my own bath soap too. 

I’ve turned mine off because I was getting mystery notifications all day. I figured out they were just to let me know about my set dining time. But I don’t need to be reminded about that every day beginning in the early morning     🙄

I do check for messages though. 

Greetings from the Volendam!

Last night’s theme night was Hollywood night and a take-off on Oscars night. But it was the crew who got awards. Great idea!

Housekeeping getting an award. 

We didn’t care for the show last night either. We rarely leave early from a show (maybe only twice ever) and this was one of those times. 
 

10 hours ago, CGinMTL said:

Do you have pics of the rough seas.

A few years Back, I was on azamera doing a transatlantic crossing.

Had we kept course, we would have been going though hurricane Ian

Captain took us as far south as he could

But since the cruise was ending in montreal, he did have to head back north to the mouth of the st Lawrence.

It was quite a ride

He kept saying , you know, captains get a bonus if they save fuel

" My bonus is long gone".

But what matters most is comfort and safety 

Not Rich, but here’s a video DH took. 
 

We have now had to get broken glass cleaned up twice in our cabin. A friend, her chair and dishes all went flying in the Lido earlier. Thankfully she’s ok. 

2 hours ago, richwmn said:

When he spoke yesterday he said 5 - 8 foot swells, his announcement this morning mentioned having had 18 foot swells.

BTW, you should have heard the water hitting the bow this morning around 2am, very loud bangs.

 

Ok, I didn’t hear his announcement yesterday, just this morning 15-24-foot. 
What a ride!

Rich are you sure you meant to say 5-foot swells? 😀

The broken glass in our cabin says otherwise. 😀😉

Rich we loved Chris Powley’s show last night, excellent! As you well know I’m very critical of any Neil Diamond impersonations, but his was the best I’ve ever heard anywhere. His other “legend” impersonations were excellent  too. 
We also thought he was much funnier than our comedian this week. 😉

Service on the Volendam is great. 
I wonder if the Oosterdam had a recent turn-over of crew and staff. 

1 hour ago, Alberta Quilter said:

richwmn is on a Grand Voyage.  I believe the Legendary cruises are step up from the regular cruises, and the Grand Voyages are another step up from Legendary.  But that's a guess on my part.

You are correct. 
We are on the 94-day Grand Australia and New Zealand with Rich @richwmn now. 
Our Cruise Director recently told us that the “Legendary Voyages” will have *some* of the same perks etc. 

Good morning from the Volendam!

We are at sea today, destination Melbourne tomorrow. Yesterday we had a wonderful day in Adelaide, a group of us from CC went to Cleland Wildlife Park. 
 

A couple weeks ago we received emails saying they had to cancel our reservations to hold a koala because of some renovations to that area 😪. Many of us were able instead to pet one and have photos taken at no charge so that was a good substitute. 
 

It has been hard to keep up with the Daily, but know I’m sending prayers and cheers for all. 

So much fun!

Hungry Mama

Emu

Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby 

Adelaide seen from Mt. Lofty

Yes we were at Komodo Island recently. We ended up taking the ship tour. It’s a tender port and extremely hot and humid. Our 1.5 hour tour turned into 2.5 because several in our group had problems doing the walk in those conditions. One poor woman had to be carried back on a stretcher. 
 

That said, we’re so glad we did it! Bring lots of water (they will supply more too). The battery-operated fans we had were life savers for us. 
 

The ship will get your visas for $60 p/p or you can get your own. We did it the easy way and let the ship do it after hearing about problems folks had on our roll call. 
 

Tendering isn’t the easiest in this port. Some people on our tender decided not to try.