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alsas

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    Glaciers & Volcanoes with Bill & Mary Ann - 25 days on the Eurodam

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    Report # 1 GettingReady to Fly to Seattle September 21,2018 Friday Warm and sunny 92 degrees

     

     

     

    Well, here we go again, for a much anticipated 7 day Alaskanjourney, followed by an 18 day trip to Hawaii and back to Vancouver. Gosh, it seems like we just got back into ournormal routine from the world cruise. With so many projects planned and unplanned, we have been most busy allsummer. Although one fire was fairlyclose to us, we did live with the horrible smoke for weeks from the rest of thefires in California. Knock on wood, allseems back to our usual pleasant almost-fall weather.

     

     

     

    So we plan to fly to Seattle very early tomorrow morning,join the Eurodam, and be off for seven days in Alaska. Ports will include Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan,Victoria, and scenic cruising in Glacier Bay. This, the glacier portion of the cruise.

     

     

     

    Then we continue back to Vancouver, Victoria, with 5 days atsea heading towards Hawaii, and the volcano portion of the trip. Even though we will not be sailing near Konaand the lava fields, we think we will be close enough to claim the volcanopart. The ports in Hawaii will includeHilo, Lahaina, Honolulu, and Lihue, Kauai. Then we will sail 5 days back to Vancouver where we fly home on October17th.

     

     

     

    This will be our second cruise on the Eurodam, whichoccurred last year around this same time. We lucked out to have great weather last year, so we keep our fingerscrossed for the same.

     

     

     

    We will miss the start of the fall colors here, but restassured, the leaves will be waiting for us to clean up!

     

     

     

    To be continued…..

     

     

     

    Bill & Mary Ann

     

     

     

    Have a great trip,we are doing the Asia Pacific this year,very excited. We will see you onboard the World. Sandra and Allan

     

     

    Sent from my iPad using Forums

    John and Diane sail the Mediterranean

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    Sunday, December 17, 2017

     

    San Luis Obispo, CA

     

     

     

    A little more than a week at home, and it's time to reflect on the cruise. Overall, we had a wonderful time. We learned that we actually DO enjoy having a Lanai cabin, contrary to what we had originally expected. The floor to ceiling windows let in a wonderful view and a great deal of light, and they are impermeable during the daytime. At night, however, you'd better have your curtains drawn. Our favorite, though, is still a veranda cabin.

     

     

     

    We always enjoy traveling with friends, so it was great to spend time with Woody and Susie as well as Bill and Jane. We also made some new friends, and as I mentioned at one point, I spent time with my old teaching colleague Judy and her husband Charlie. John and Diana were on our Trivia team, and I'd join that team with them anytime.

     

     

     

    Once, after our first world cruise, we took a 14-day repositioning cruise from Rome to Ft. Lauderdale and discovered that, after such a long cruise, 14 days was just too short. I felt like we boarded the ship, spun around, and it was time to get off. At 28 days, however, this one was a good length. We were able to settle in, seriously unpack, and spend a lot of leisure time. The number of ports was good and bad. Good because they were interesting places and many of them were great to revisit. Good also because we didn't need to use so much ship internet (we made do with 200 minutes) because we could always find a coffee shop for cappuccino and free wife (you've heard THAT before!). Bad, however, because I do love my days at sea and several times we'd have five or six port days in a row and I was exhausted from them. I was so looking forward to the seven days of our transatlantic crossing, but I found out that with rotten weather it wasn't nearly so much fun. Oh well, so much for my whining.

     

     

     

    Unlike most cruise returns, this time we decided to stay the night in Ft. Lauderdale and fly home early the next day. That was NOT a good idea because of the storms which began Friday night. Our flight was at 8:00 on Saturday morning, which required an alarm set at about 5:00 so we'd be ready for the 6:00 AM shuttle. Once we arrived at the airport and were through security, we found that the United Club AND Starbucks were right around the corner, so we were set. Breakfast was at the United Club (we had some passes from our credit card), and it was a comfortable place to wait.

     

     

     

    Boarding was supposed to be at 7:30, but because of problems with the cabin being too hot, it was delayed. So we waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. Then we finally boarded, the plane pushed away, and we found ourselves at the end of a queue of at least a dozen planes. The snowstorms in the South had caused all kinds of delays, so we finally found ourselves airborne - but it was an hour and forty-five minutes late. Yikes! What did that do to our 90-minute connection in San Francisco? The pilot was able to "put the pedal to the metal" and pick up time, so it looked like we'd have a 15-minute connection before our little plane to San Luis Obispo shut its doors. Do you remember the old O.J. Simpson Hertz commercials with him running through the airport? If you do, that's what we looked like. There we were, holding onto our carryons, literally running through the airport, giving John's knee a good workout. We made it! After we boarded our commuter plane we had ten minutes to begin breathing normally before we took off and headed home, arriving right on time at 2:18 PM.

     

     

     

    What a ride we'd had, literally as well as figuratively. In the end we were thankful, because we found out that Woody and Susie had NOT been able to fly to Atlanta because of the snow, so they spent the night in Ft. Lauderdale and then ended up renting a car to drive home. It was an adventure to remember.

     

     

     

    Do we have another cruise planned? No, not yet. What looks good in the near future is two back to back Caribbean cruises, one including Cuba and one calling at places we've never been. In the long run, we're really interested in the 2019 WC, but there's so much to do around the house and possibly helping our kids move from Davis to Auburn that we're still not even sure about that.

     

     

     

    Thank you all for following our wanderings and my comments along the way. Your responses have been kind and when we're at sea again (hopefully soon), you'll find us here - same time, same station. We wish all of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a wonderful New Year.

     

     

     

    Loved reading about your cruise. Wishing you both a Wonderful Christmas and a Healthy Happy 2018

     

     

    Sent from my iPad using Forums

    Alaska/Hawaii on the Eurodam with Bill & Mary Ann 9-23-17 to 10-17-17

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    Report # 11 Day atSea October 11, 2017 Tuesday Partly cloudy & 59 degrees

     

     

     

    Getting the extra hour of sleep last night was nice. As always, it is better to be traveling west,as opposed to the east. That will happenwhen we head back from Hawaii to Vancouver, losing a couple of hours as we endthe cruise.

     

     

     

    Kind of thought the weather would have warmed up by now, butit remains overcast with a chill in the breeze. The seas have calmed down, which is a good thing. There are some wishful thinkers among theguests. We spotted one lady in herswimwear relaxing on one of the teak lounges on deck three. Have we mentioned that the number of theselounges are limited on the promenade deck? Perhaps when the weather heats up, they will add more.

     

     

     

    Breakfast in the dining room was a mess this morning. Even coming down at 9am did not find the lineshorter to get inside. Waiting 20minutes, we got to know the couple in front of us. No kidding. Then when we did get a table in the back, we had to wait quite a whileto have our order taken. Not in any particularhurry, we did not complain, like the folks within hearing distance did. This is the first time we noticed a majordifference comparing this ship to the smaller Amsterdam. Never have we had delays like this. But of course, the number of passengers hereis about double, so to accommodate 2000 people for breakfast, isdifficult. Obviously. Now we know why we have seen so many roomservice carts going up and down the hallways. Asking the most friendly Head Sommelier, he told us that the ship isalmost fully booked for this cruise.

     

     

     

    By the time we got out of the dining room, it was10:30am. Time for a walk outside. Maybe because it has not warmed up yet, therewas only a handful of walkers. Therewere two lectures this morning, one again by Ginny Stibolt on rainforests, andthe other delivered by Lawrence Taylor on the subject of Hawaii’s largestindividually owned ranch. Wonder ifthese are repeated on our room TV during the remainder of the day? Will search for them.

     

     

     

    Checking our shipboard account, we still needed to rectify amistake. It seems that the shipboardcredit from or travel agency had been re-adjusted to less than what was printedin our invoice. That is a first. Good thing we had brought a copy with us,because they did need to also make a copy of it for their research. This was also a good opportunity to take thelaptop to the desk outside the front desk and send and receive emails. No doubt, it worked much faster here.

     

     

     

    When we got back to our room, we found that two bottles ofalcohol had been left for us…..gifts from the President’s Club perks. No way can we consume all of that in twoweeks. Although it was a nice gesture,we asked them if we could swap the bottles for flowers and sodas instead. They were most happy to do it later this afternoon.

     

     

     

    Can you believe they have run out of bars of soap for thestaterooms? Our stewardess, Ayu, saidthat the box of them has not been located yet, but another bar will be comingas soon as they do find them. Bet theyare next to the cases of lost Delft tiles we did not receive on the Alaskacruise.

     

     

     

    There was an invitation for the America’s Test Kitchenhands-On Workshop on 4 different days. Wehad the option of signing up ahead of everyone else by 5pm today. This would confirm a place in theworkshop. However, we don’t think thiswould be of interest to either of us at this time, so we did not call.

     

     

     

    Captain Scott does his daily talk at 12:15pm on seadays. Like Captain Mercer, he enjoysgiving nautical idioms after his detailed log of the cruise.

     

     

     

    It was too early for lunch in the dining room at noon forus, even though one of the entrees was meatballs and spaghetti. Once again, we got caught up with moreepisodes of Game of Thrones, and decided on room service soup, salad, andsandwiches around 3pm.

     

     

     

    Did a little shopping, using some more shipboard credit. A tanzanite bracelet was the best bet , andperhaps we will check out the cameras offered in the photo shop. More than likely over-priced, it does notmatter, since the credit is “use or lose” money.

     

     

     

    Dinner for us was in the dining room. The best item, and most popular according toour waiters, was the turkey entrée. Complete with apple stuffing, carrots, turnips, gravy and cranberrysauce, it was a fitting Thanksgiving meal. Not to mention, quite filling. The lighter ending for dessert was the orange sorbet, but the whiskey chocolatecake was good too.

     

     

     

    Finishing by 9pm, we dropped off the six raffles tickets inthe box at the shop. A special rafflewill be held the day before we get off, and you could have a chance of winninga $300 basket of goodies. What a ploy toget folks inside the store to entice them to spend more money, credit ornot.

     

     

     

    Since we were already down this end of the ship, we decidedto see how busy the casino was. And busyit was, because there was a lounge with piano entertainment , as well as a bar. That was fully packed. We believe this was Billboard Onboard. Passing by BB King’s All-Stars, we listenedto a couple singing with large band inthe backround. Singing tunes we knowwell, it was more rock and roll, instead of blues. Several couples were up and dancing on theobvious dance floor. There was some roomto sit inside, but fairly dark to see your way in there. The last venue was happening at LincolnCenter Stage with the second performance of movie classics. At least four or five string instruments wereplaying movie classics. From the soundof it, the tune we were hearing was from the movie Psycho. Once again, this room was full. The chairs in this long and narrow lounge arefacing forward in rows, just like in a movie theater. What a huge difference with guest participationon the Eurodam compared to a world cruise. By 10pm, the majority of the world cruisers would be in bed. Perhaps HAL has done some changes that areworking better for the crowds. At leastjudging from what we were seeing tonight.

     

     

     

    And last but not least, the show in the Mainstage was sortof a mystery. Performed by a fellownamed Brett Cave, the description was a blend of Elton John and BillyJoel. High energy and Brett’s Englishfingers. Was he a piano man? It was too long of a wait (30 minutes) for usto find out, so we left.

     

     

     

    Tomorrow should find us ½ way to the Hawaiian Islands, and God-willing,warm, tropical breezes.

     

     

     

     

     

    Bill & Mary Ann

     

     

     

    Love your blog we are onboard Noordam the crossing to Hilo amazing safe travels see you onboard Amsterdam

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Forums

    Around the World on Amtrak, KLM, and HAL

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    I am definitely not expecting wifi on the Empire Builder. We have a late night service stop in Minneapolis and I think the station has wifi. I post to the blog by email. I will try to send off a blog post from Minneapolis but likely will not have time to get into Cruise Critic, but in the morning there may well be a post at

     

     

    https://solocabinchallenge.wordpress.com/

     

     

    Roy

     

     

     

    Love your blog thank you

     

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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