Fred321

Good to see you guys traveling again. Always enjoy following along. We just got back from Europe and are heading for a 3 week trip in the Carib. on the Koningsdam at the end of this month. Not sure whether we'll like the big ship after all the tine we've spent on the Amsterdam but we'll see. Stay well and hope to share breakfasts with you again soon.

Rich and Peg

Thanks again guys. Great to hear about Agung. He really deserved the promotion and he must look dashing in the new uniform. We are heading for a back to back in Oct. on the Koningsdam. Think the Amsterdam is more our type of ship but figured we'd go see it before we made up our mind. Will be following your upcoming trips and hope to see you again on the World in 2019.

Rich and Peg

Good to see you back blogging on the Amsterdam. Will enjoy following along and vicariously joining you for breakfast every morning until we see you again in 2019 for the world. Who knows maybe we will bump into you even sooner?

Rich and Peg

It was fun reading your blog when we got home. It seemed to make our world cruise last just a little bit longer. Fun going around the world with you again. Safe trip home and hope we run into each other soon.

Rich and Peg

Made my day today with your picture of the ceiling repair on the stern of deck 3. It was looking so bad in May on our cruise to San Diego that I actually pointed it out in my online survey. Know it is purely cosmetic but it would bum me out every day during my morning walk. I enjoy the Amsterdam so much that I was starting to feel embarassed for my favorite ship. Thanks for making me smile today. See you in January.

Rich

Good to hear that you are back aboard. Hope you have a safe and happy trip and we'll see you when we get aboard in January for the world cruise. Haven't forgotten that I owe you two pizzas.

By the way are you planning on being aboard in Fort Lauderdale or are you joining the world cruise in San Diego?

Rich and Peg

I think so, but can't be sure. I would confirm with Seattle beforehand.

Best of me recollection they will charge you full price when you purchase it online and then refund the difference on your statement once aboard.

Always enjoy your posts but was really interested in how the panama canal trip would feel different from the world cruise. From our limited experience it wasn't as different as we thought it might be, but that may have been a function of seeing so many familiar faces, both passenger and crew.

I agree that they need to do something quickly with the plumbing and water issues. We love the Amsterdam. It feels like home when you board and the crew and service are always exceptional. However, it is hard to sustain that feeling when you are dodging buckets in the hallway, the toilet stops working and the ceiling on the back of the lower promenade deck needs urgent attention. As you know we had folks traveling with us for the first time on a cruise and they were very happy with their experience but these maintenance problems made me feel embarassed. Maybe I identify too much with the ship.

Also agree that they need to upgrade the tv package. Not too interested in extra channels but less selling and more replays of guest lectures and port info would be very much appreciated.

All that being said, we are already looking forward to getting back onboard for another world cruise and paying off my pizza debts. Stay well and hope to see you soon.

Rich and Peg

Glad to hear you got home safely. It was nice seeing you again and we look forward to meeting again in January even though I now owe you two pizzas. We just got home ourselves after 3 days in San Diego. For a place that is supposed to have perfect weather we never saw the sun. Good to be home but it was fun being on the Amsterdam again and seeing familiar faces. See you soon.

Rich and Peg

Agree that Renaissance is a nice hotel as is the Residence Inn and the Grand Hyatt. Would also look at Westin Harbour Island. It has a good location near the river in town. Hyatt and Renaissance are outside of town but Renaissance does have the mall right there. Westin is great for walking around in town and is very close to the terminal for the next day.

Probably can't go wrong with any of these.

We've been on 2013 and 2015 world cruise and have signed up for 2017. Ruth is correct that even on long, steamy days folks heading for the Main Dining Room will shower and change into good casual clothing. Nothing fancy in our experience but at least a nice pair of slacks and collared shirt for men. Many women may skip the dress but wear a nice pair of slacks and a fancier top. (Sorry no idea about proper names for women's clothing). Of course on those days you may see more folks up in the Lido with much more casual look or they just get room service.

On formal nights some seem more formal than others. Themed nights will bring out more tux for the men. Standard formal nights see more blazers with shirt and tie and maybe a good pair of slacks or khakis. Even on the special nights you will see men in suits, not tux, and sometimes just a blazer. In our experience it seems that as the trip goes on the level of dress slips somewhat, especially on the men. Think they get tired of trying to impress folks they have been with for 3 or 4 months. Women seem to continue to dress up longer than the men.

For your husband tux and a blazer or jacket should be enough for the entire cruise. Of course this is one person's experience and will be 2 years old by the time it makes any difference. We didn't have anytime dining on our world cruises which I think they now have so don't know if that will make a difference. Think it will be a lot less formal than you have seen on Cunard but still not sloppy by any means. At least we hope.

Main deck avoids any noise from work on the deck underneath dolphin deck. Rooms directly over center doors where loading is done will have chain like noises periodically when things are being taken aboard. On the port side that would be room 1894. Anything a little further forward on Dolphin, especially port side should be OK. Starboard side on Dolphin near the middle I believe is over the crew mess so could be some noise there. Don't know for sure.

Main deck will probably be quieter although you may hear some heavy footed walker and you probably will hear them washing down the promenade deck early in the morning. Neither is very loud or lasts very long. We've had both types of rooms on world cruises. We've asked for something on Dolphin for next year forward of 1890 on the port side but aft of the forwrad elevator. Think anything aft of the middle elevators on either side on Dolphin may give you more noise and vibration. One other thing on Dolphin, starboard side, you have a hallway that is sometimes used for the gangway. Don't have that hallway on the port side so we try to stay on that side.

Main deck is probably the safer choice since no guesswork about what is under you and the noise from above is probably more predictable and easier to get used to.

Hope this helps.

Looking forward to following your trip. A little sad we didn't return for another world cruise this year but we'll be there next year and have other trips planned in the meantime. Will travel along with you vicariously and will join you in late April for the trip to San Diego. Till then have a safe and pleasant trip.

Rich and Peg

Bill and Mary Ann,

Have a good trip. We decided not to do the world this year. Too much like last year , however we already have reserved our room for 2017. We will be boarding in Ft. Lauderdale at the end of April heading to San Diego so we look forward to seeing you again. Will enjoy following your blog as usual. First pizza is on us when we meet.

Rich and Peg

We've been on 2013 and 2015 world cruise, entire routes, but have never been to San Diego and am looking forward to stopping there on the 2017. Go figure.

Bill and Mary Ann ,thanks for all the time you spend on these postings. It was great seeing you again on this year's World Cruise and then following your comments on the second cruise home. Hope we have the chance to travel with you again. We can always use a reliable pizza scout.

Rich and Peg

We just did this cruise up and back from Boston this September. Had done the same thing 2 years ago on Maasdam. Trip was great. Ship is very comfortable and in good shape. Crew was fantastic. One of the best we have ever had, as was the food in the mdr.

I'd suggest doing the round trip. Always something you see on the first stop that you don't have time to do in one day. Also suggest you look into renting a car for your stops in Charlottetown and Sidney at the very least. We also had one in Halifax two years ago that let us do Lunnenburg and Peggy's Cove on our own schedule and for a lot less than the excursions.

My wife and I took the 2013 world cruise. We had previously taken the 66 day Prinsendam grand South America trip in 2011. We were both recently retired and still very active and had never taken any cruise longer than 7 days before the South America trip. After 4 weeks on the SA trip I was ready to get off. However, as the trip continued we seemed to fall into a routine that became very comfortable and we were sorry to see the trip end.

I had always wanted to circumnavigate the globe so we signed up for the 2013 WC. We enjoyed it so much that we are planning on doing it again in 2015. If it works out the way it did for us, at some point the ship becomes your "home" and a very pleasant and well trained group of professionals moves you and your home to some very interesting places you have probably always wanted to see. In our opinion, the itinerary is not really as important as simply enjoying the fact that you are sailing around the world! You'll find out that the majority of passengers on board have done more than one WC and they run the gamut from very interesting to very annoying just like anyplace else. Make friends with the interesting ones and ignore the rest.

As for medical issues you certainly want to make sure that you have the necessary insurance etc. I can tell you that on the 2013 WC my wife fell in the showroom on the second day of the trip when the ship lurched and she broke her ankle. The staff was very responsive, medical staff was great. They had her examined in our first port of call, fitted her in a walking boot and she continued on the trip. Could not have asked for a better or more attentive bunch of folks than the ships' crew from cabin stewards right up thru the medical staff. By the time we made it to Australia she was back walking and enjoying the remaining two and a half months of traveling.

If it is something that you have always thought of doing I would urge that you not wait until "someday". Do it as soon as you can when you are able to enjoy it. Best of luck.

We were in 234 on the 2011 grand voyage around South America. This is one of the inside cabins in the new section. It is the closest inside room to the stern in this row of rooms. These inside rooms are huge!. Well over 200 sq. feet.

Veranda rooms in this section are not as large and, as noted here already, they look like newer rooms but lack some of the amenities of the older P'dam rooms.Folks in those rooms also complained of water slopping out of the pool and pouring down on them unexpectedly on their veranda. Don't know whether this has been taken care of.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of vibration in this section, especially if the ship is maneuvering, changing speeds,or is in shallow water. We had one day where stuff on the desk actually vibrated off onto the floor. Doesn't happen all the time but if you have a lot of early port arrivals you will not need to set your alarm clock. The shaking bed will wake you up.

We are booked again on the Prinsendam next year but passed on this section and went for a traditional large ocean view room.

We are booked on the Prinsendam next year for 28 days on a back to back starting in Amsterdam (now Ijmuiden). Plan on staying a few days in Amsterdam before we board and these suggestions have been very helpful. Anyone have experience getting to Ijmuiden from Amsterdam? Thanks

First cruise was a one weeker to Bermuda from NYC on the Amerikanis in 1975 (I think). Took 3 more one weekers to Bermuda and then nothing until 2011 when we did the South America Grand Voyage in the Prinsendam. That's the one that got us hooked. Since then we've done 3 more including this years' Grand World voyage on the Amsterdam. What a great experience!

My wife and I just returned from a 20 day cruise in the med. on the Noordam. We booked this ocean view stateroom on the main deck (lowest deck) starboard side just in front of the aft elevators. Don't have photos but it was a pretty standard ocean view room. Certainly adequate for the trip and in good condition.

Unfortunately, it happens that this room is directly over what is called a marshalling area. This results in extremely loud industrial noise (chain hoist etc.) which started around 0700 each morning and goes on most of the day. We made our concerns known to the front desk and tho they initially acted like this was a surprise to them they did, in the end, move us to another room without charge.

Our friends who were only a few doors down the hall from us didn't seem to hear anything like we did so this may be an extremely isolated problem. We were happy with how HAL finally resolved the problem but thought this might be of interest here.