CruiserBruce

The sunset last night near Loreto and the sunrise from the gym today near La Paz were awesome. The mountainous desert landscape and the very clear air make for such pretty sights. I have, in my 67 years, been to various parts of the Gulf of California a few times, sprinkled all over the area. This is still one of the prettiest desert areas I have seen. The port is industrial, and out in the middle of nowhere. HAL is providing shuttles to downtown and the beach. Dinner last night at Canaletto was excellent. We both had the tiger shrimp app...couldn't get enough of the seasoning on the shrimp. DW had the Italian sausage and pasta, very good. I had the spaghetti and lobster tails, with the superb garlic/butter/oil sauce. Even got extra sauce. One of my top meals on HAL. The Nutella tart is also a big favorite. DW had not had it before...now she knows why I have it every time. DW is not a huge pasta fan. At lunch in the Lido yesterday, they were offering a carbonera, which is her favorite, as well as one of mine, but I like many pastas. So she actually ended up eating pasta twice yesterday. Somehow she will survive. The entertainment was a saxophone player last night. Not appealing. So we watched a Mission Impossible we had not seen. With some shopping yesterday, we have consumed our large amount of non-refundable OBC. A major relief. No Eclipse tee shirts or other memorabilia. Already looking at the very extensive selection on Amazon. I work out almost every morning, unless an excursion or an Eclipse gets in the way. At this point in every cruise we see the "I have eaten way too much the past XX days, better start working out" surge. You can set your clock by it. The primary gym employee is finishing his contract in a couple days. He was euphoric today. I asked "8 months, eh?" His response was "9 months 19 days". I said, " you have seen much of the world" knowing Zaandam travels a lot of unique and non-repetitive routes. I said " you have been through the Panama Canal a couple of times". He replied " 4 times".

Google search is your friend. Try "Los Angeles January weather".

@Haljo1935, when was this luncheon you experienced?

What hasn't changed in the last 5 or 10 years? Your favorite restaurant? Favorite store? Vacation spot? TV shows? What hasn't changed, including you? For that last question, look very closely in the mirror. @RICHARD@SEA, why are you yelling (typing all in caps) your opinions? It doesn't make them more factual. Typing all in caps violates Cruise Critic rules.

Pilots? The Captain had explained ( see post #60) a very detailed plan to put us, clear sky permitting, in the middle of the path of totality for the maximum time possible, considering ship speed, seas ( and resulting rougher ride affecting all the picture taking) and related issues. It was projected we would get 4:27 of totality, in reality, we got 4:20 of totality. I think the only way to get more, would have to been to go much faster than the ship is capable of. I don't know how much Koningsdam got. As I understand it, they were a little bit off the midline of the path. It might have cost them 20 or 30 seconds of totality...maybe.

The covered gratuities include the main dining room staff gratuities.

Observations and bon mots......Loreto version. Anchored at Loreto. Waiting for the tender rush to die down before going ashore. But it is a bit rough out there, and DW doesn't do rough and small boats well. Went to the 5 Star Mariners event. Drinks were flowing pretty freely. About a dozen people got medals, and there are two separate sets of President's Club couples on board...one of whom have over 2000 days on board. Amazing. With this reception, I get the feeling HAL is trying to award the medallions actually earned on the current cruise. Several recipients had, for example, "307 actual days on board, at the end of this cruise". The words "actual days" was heavily accentuated in each award. So, keeping current on medallions, but star awards will remain determined after completion of the cruise. Seems fair. No Mariners lunch, it would appear. I know they essentially haven't returned since Covid, and we haven't attended one in a very long time. Got to tell the "don't fly in the day of cruise" story. I didn't hear the entire story, so don't know much more than what I will report, but, still noteworthy. Met a couple yesterday at the Eclipse who had flown to San Diego from Sacramento the morning we sailed. A 90 minute flight. Easy, right? (Our flight from SFO is even easier...we flew in 2 days early.) It was raining pretty good between 9am and noon. At some point, the airport had to switch their runway direction, and this couple's flight got caught up in the pause to switch. They orbited for about 30 minutes, then their flight was diverted to LAX. When they arrived at LAX, the airline had arranged bus transportation to SAN, a close to 2 hour drive. BUT....their luggage stayed on the plane. The plane eventually flew empty (of pax, but with luggage) to SAN, to do whatever flight out of SAN it was scheduled for. Another reason our sailing was delayed...or at least just coincided well with the fueling issue. But their bags made it to the ship before we sailed.

Agree, looking on the West Coast Departures board would be beneficial. Be aware, there are no hotels close to the port. The closest hotels are in the northern downtown. As to transfers, given your needs, perhaps HAL transfer and hotel might be your best option, even though they are more expensive. Or check with some of the recommended vendors on the West Coast Departures board tossed if theycan provide child seats.

Have AT&T unlimited data/talk/text plan. In Mexico right now. Was a little slow moving data in Puerto Vallarta, but eventually got going just fine, and has been fine in Ixtapa, Manzanillo, PV. About to turn it on in Loreto. LaPaz and Cabo in the next couple of days. Have used it in Cabo, PV and Mazatlan with no problems in the past. However, we don't try to watch TV on it. 4G is moderately widespread, but there is not blanket coverage. As long as you are in port, or anchored in a tender port, the ship's cell is off, and no impact.

Only if you go through the cancelation and rebooking process once you board.

Check your invoice. Those items don't appear in your account on the website.

Catching up on some past info, as something yesterday distracted me from my reporting responsibilities... Sunday was shrimp day in the MDR. We both had the coconut shrimp app, which was pretty good. DW had the short rib...tender, good sized serving. I had the Aztec shrimp. Excellent, medium sized serving. They had a pan of the Aztec shrimp in the Lido, you could have as many as you wanted. One of the few times I have wished I had dinner in the Lido. I might have eaten a few hundred! Really tasty! The dancers were doing a Latin dance performance. We chose to watch Oppenheimer. Very complicated movie. Not sure we agree on all the awards it has won, but interesting. Last night was prime rib dinner. Seafood Spring Roll app was very good. Portion size cutbacks are a hot topic (I will mention later), but there is absolutely NO cutback in the prime rib dinner size. Good sized slab, cooked nicely, fairly tender, great taste. Baked potato and vegetables with au jus. The only complaint was the horse radish was pretty mild. We are eating in Canaletto tonight. The entertainment last night was Taylor Bryce, an impressionist. Fantastic. Enthusiastic standing ovation. Very high energy, action packed performance. Will see him again in a couple days, eagerly. There has been a rumor that when it came to routers for the new Starlink system, somehow Zaandam got shortchanged. I don't think that is the case...it appears the signal is not penetrating cabin walls well. We have a router immediately outside our cabin door...our signal inside varies considerably. Virtually every place else on board we get good signal and speed. I am writing this at the Lido pool, and as I do most days. Have talked to a couple people about it. Sounds like they will address it at the next dry dock. The original plan for today at Loreto, a tender port, was a 2pm to 8pm visit. As we skipped Mazatlan, the Captain announced a noon arrival, but in anticipation of strong winds tonight, a 6pm departure. Last I looked outside, it's a bit choppy. I would say our visit is threatened. Lastly, we had lunch at the Dive In yesterday, for 2nd time on this cruise. The burgers and fries are still great, but the size of an order of fries has been cut considerably. Our meal order is now 2 burgers, and 3 fries to satisfy our French fry addiction. 5 Star Mariners reception at 11am, Crows Nest.

They are required dry dock schedules based on age of ship, and mandatory replacement of some equipment. Some cruise lines, like Holland America, just routinely do them about every 30 months. Drydocks are usually very rigidly scheduled...parts and supplies are ordered, built or otherwise assembled on hand prior to the actual date, as every day out of service is money lost. So, unless some emergent issue developed, it's unlikely you would be surprised by a drydock.

Observations and bon mots, Eclipse edition.... Overall, everything went exceptionally well today. The crew hustled their butts off helping people move around, and getting chairs and other things positioned, serving drinks, etc.. Unfortunately, everyone wanted to be on the aft pool deck...if a few more went to the 9th deck, it would have been good. The bow was open, and probably not a bad space...don't know how it was used. The 6th deck forward was also open, but I suspect it would not have been as good a spot for the entire process, but not sure. The midship Lido Pool area was underused, IMO. Saw many crew being allowed a few minutes here and there to see the events. We happened to be on a main path, and several of the crew we regularly interact with stood with us at various times. I hope they got as much out of the experience, even if somewhat limited. Then there was the massive chair return effort, took a while... One clunker...overnight was a time change...but not all the clocks were switched remotely. So I ended up getting up an hour early...causing DW to get up early...it all worked out OK, we had great seats, but our cabin clock, and several others around the ship are still incorrect, and not, as you might expect, by one hour. Ours is off by 45 minutes! No sign of any sort of HAL Eclipse tee shirt, or similar. Sort of disappointing. They did have two Eclipse drinks, and the free Eclipse glasses were HAL logo...but we have OBC to burn!!! A truly memorable day. Of course the Eclipse will always be a super special memory. It is hard to describe, but it is such a unique thing, particularly the totality, the Ring of Fire, and the Diamond Ring. Tom Vassos added incredible value to the experience...I am sure we would have missed so much had we not attended his lectures. The science of it all, and Mother Nature, is beyond comprehension. An amazing, amazing day.

There were some high thin clouds, but not enough to impact the view. All the ships started 20 or 30 miles west of their planned locations for best viewing. After the rearranging, on Zaandam, our conditions were excellent. 4:20 of totality, only 7 seconds less than predicted.

A quick points while the internet is working better. As promised by the Captain, we needed to be flexible. We arrived at the desired spot around 5am, but there was nothing but clouds ahead. So we reversed course and sailed on the reverse bearing ( to the southwest) for about 3 hours. That caused Mazatlan to be canceled. We saw the two Princess ships and Koningsdam doing the same on AIS. Then just after 9, the Captain came on the speaker, explained what we had done, and said we would be reversing again, back to the designated course for the maximum Eclipse exposure. We soon began turning, and saw the other ships, which were visible, barely, on the port side, do the same thing. The change in location meant all steps in the process started 3 to 5 minutes earlier, otherwise, just amazing. Totality was truly impressive, but I have to say the Diamond Ring was even more impressive. More later.

Yes, believe it or not, there was lots of room on open decks. Not enough chairs, tho. That was probably the toughest part...chairs were being brought from the Lido pool, and from the Lido dining room. Still not enough chairs. But space was definitely not a problem.

Agree. Corona and flare visible to the naked eyes, and in great detail with binoculars. Also, Jupiter and Venus clearly visible adjacent to the moon/sun.

The Eclipse was fan-freaking-tastic....everything you could wish for. The Captain and Mother Nature were perfect. Tons to report on, but battery is low, and internet is straining. More later!

Define "too noisy ". People have commented here both ways....they heard noise, or others who didn't.

Carpet in the seating area. Not in the food service area. That would not be a smart idea.

Horn signals are when ships commence movements, or to warn other traffic. The horns in the channel at Port Everglades has become a tradition for sailaway, but is not required by anyone.

@Haljo1935, my post was about KDam's departure from San Diego on March 30. @cruisn71 post was about April 5th KDam sailing.

Yes, he said he would.

Has been an "S" going back decades...the SA, SB, etc, became a marketing tool with the Vista class ships.