sailingdutchy
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Posts posted by sailingdutchy
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3 hours ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:
He did the 150th crossing on the Rotterdam Oct 15 to Oct 30 with the big party in N.Y.C.
Thank you very much for that information @Gail & Marty sailing away . One of the main reasons of me raising this question was to see if anybody had seen or met the captain and also if by chance somebody from the company is reading the CC posts to shake them up a little bit .
In our eyes Captain Albert is a very large asset to the company who should not just disappear , the excuse of not being able to get a visa due to Covid restrictions is getting very old and unbelievable .
Hopefully the Captain will also be on the 150 Anniversary of the Company in April , which I was going to ask him about on his blog .
Thanks all for your reactions !
Tony
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We have often followed Captain Albert's Blog specially around the time with the newbuilts of the Koningsdam and the Nieuw Statendam he is a very fine story teller and kept us up to date . We have also met him a few times on the Premier Voyages of these two ships and even had a wonderful dinner one night with him in the Tamarind with our friends .
Captain Albert is for us THE historian of the Holland America Line who also had fantastic presentations with lots and lots of slides and great stories on the World Stage to a full house with people sitting on the stairs and standing in the back. To Holland America he also was very valuable and went around the fleet training the crew in safety for passengers and crew.
He has written and co written a number of books
Since the Covid break he was at home in England while updating special events and also the schedules of the Captains of the Companies fleet .
For the last couple of weeks I have not been able to find his Blog which was separate but still part of the HAL blog.
I sure hope this is not another cost cutting measure , that would be a great loss to Holland America and to us the passengers who are interested in the companies history ,and if so that would be a great loss to the HAL in my opinion !
Ourselves we were hoping he would be on the Rotterdam celebrating with us the 150th Anniversary in April.
Tony
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5 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:
@Copper10-8 Our youngest grandchild when her mom wasn't looking for a while ,she found the Nutella .............. doesn't she look innocent ?
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7 hours ago, kochleffel said:
Several posts have mentioned Daniel's Madeira Taxis. If you've had a tour with them, could you say which tour it was? The list of those currently offered, other than custom tours, is at https://danielmadeirataxis.com/tours-excursions/.
We have done 5 different ones all over the Island , really liked the very West end and also along the North coast , quite a difference in nature to the North West end
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Thank you all for the very nice pictures of Funchal , we have explored the Island with the same wonderful guide and friend Daniel Freitas in a small group of 7 or 8 about 5 times and have been from the Eastern tip near Machico all the way to the North Western town of Porto Moniz .The nature of the Island with all of its exotic flora is just amazing very green and I believe the only place in Europe that grows lots of bananas . The four times we have been there we went to different areas so I have lots of pictures but will try to keep it to a "minimum " on this post .Some of our favorite places to visit were , the Mercado in Funchal , Porto Moniz , Santana , Sao Vicente , Machico and Camara de Lobos ( and on the way back to the ship don't forget to have a few sips of the special Madeira drink Poncha and visit the Henriques & Henriques Madeira winery )Tony 😀
Our friend and best guide on Madeira , Daniel Freitas !
On the glass walkway high above the cliff
They say these babies taste delicious , I have to get over those teeth first before I try them
The special drink in Madeira , Poncha ......
At the end of our tours we have done the Madeira wine tastings with Daniel at Henriques & Henriques !
And we bought some plus a bottle for Daniel's wife Eusebia
Hope I did not praise Daniel too much otherwise he will be too busy when we get there next time .............
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On 12/11/2022 at 8:45 PM, dockman said:
EVIAN....spelled backwards is ? and they make billions.
That's a good one ........people buy that stuff and they dont even know where the water came from . We drink the tap water on board with the ice that is provided in the cabin and we are still alive !
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Thank you also to Rich and Roy and all other contributors , I might not post often but I like to read the Daily when possible .
Lots and lots of pictures already from @StLouisCruisers and @Quartzsite Cruiser, thank you mine are almost the same except for ...........drumroll.............
Now you all are have probably been waiting " with bated breath " where the pictures are of the belly dancer in Istanbul that StLouisCruisers was trying to find , well after some searching I found her in my thousands of cruise pictures and luckily she slowed down a bit for me , here she is :
This was on the Koningsdam in 2016 when we made a 2 day stop . I was actually told that she was one of the passengers ........... never found her for the rest of the cruise ........All the rest of my pictures are almost the same as posted except for the players in them .Happy Monday everybody !Tony 😁😁
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Bon Voyage to all , enjoy your cruise !
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24 minutes ago, superoma said:
Well Croatia lives to play another game! What a great game fir Croatia
@superomaGreat game from Croatia .......what fine character from that team to win after the set back ! We were hoping for this also .
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22 hours ago, Djb4CC said:
I am Canadian and have not had any issue with buying the gift card and getting the 10% bonus cards in this promotion. I don’t see anything marketed on the website, but the third party website never asked for any details of my residency.
@Djb4CC Thanks for your reply much appreciated. I took the plunge today , received the virtual Gift card for amount requested plus the 10% bonus card . I than printed those off would you suggest to call and apply those right away to my January 2023 cruise for on board charges? Noticed that Bonus Card expires 12/31/2023 .
Before the 13th I would like to buy some more for our April cruise once my next card cycle starts .
Currency conversion was very reasonable it was better than todays Royal Bank rates on my card.
Tony
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Thank you all for the Daily News and the beautiful pictures , hope to get there in Labrador one day but DW only likes to go to places with Palm Trees ................. none to be seen there !
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Where can I see if there also is an extra 10% for us Canadians who would like to purchase a giftcard for upcoming cruises . I have been on the HAL website quite a bit but have not seen it advertised yet .
Can anybody tell me about this ?
Tony
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Thank you for the beautiful pictures Sandi lots and lots of them @StLouisCruisersthat saved me a lot of work because we also did the beautiful Lysefjord tour so I will just add " my 2 cents “ worth as proof we were there , lol !Haven’t been posting a lot lately but I am still lurking whenever nothing else to do
Will skip my pictures of lots of rocks and more goats .....Have a great day everybody . Take Care and Stay Safe !Working hard on our Hawaii cruise in January of ’23 and the HAL Anniversary cruise in April . We finally have decent wifi here at home , instead of through aging cables we now have wireless wifi and the tower is right beside our propertyBack to the real game of FootballTony-
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10 hours ago, WannaSea said:
Yesterday on the Eurodam my travel mate and I walked in to Pinnacle Grill for lunch on Panama Canal day after transit into Gatun Lake and before coming back out, as had been recommended by someone on CC. We were the ONLY customers for lunch!!! Treated like royalty, fun talking with Japar and rest of staff in relaxed mode.
How wonderful you met Japar @WannaSea we have been with him on a number of cruises on different ships , starting on the Prinsendam in the Pinnacle , a wonderful person and great server in the Pinnacle Restaurant one of the Best .
If you are going to another lunch please say hi to him from Tony and Martha !
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Now I have a little time to post our Reykjavic pictures and look at the other ones already posted .
We were in Reykjavik , Iceland for a couple of days with the Eurodam in 2012 on the Voyage of the Vikings cruise .Thank you all for posting a lot of very nice pictures which brought back some great memories . We had this extra day in Reykjavic because we had to skip our stop in the Shetland Islands due to a huge storm we had to go around that and because the days we were there were cold and rainy I went out by myself , did a lot of walking and exploring through Reykjavik went to the beautiful museum and had a real nice day , on the second day I joined a small group tour that I had booked before we left to do the Golden Circle Tour like I see many of you did .I will see if I can post some pictures without duplicating too many .
Statue of Leif Erikson the Norwegian explorer who discovered Iceland on the square in front of the Hallsgrimskirkja Church
View from the tower of the church
The place where the famous chess match took place between Spassky and Fischer ( World Championship during the Cold War )
In this Store / Restaurant there was a trench covered by glass to show the crack between the 2 Tectonic Plates that went right through this place .
A few of my waterfall and nature pictures , I know this is a repeat ....
Time to get back on board we are leaving soon for Greenland !
I would love to see a lot more of Iceland and its beautiful untouched nature ………have to convince DW first ,😀. she loves places with palm trees and there are none on Iceland to be found …….Tony 😀-
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Just finished watching the game and even though the US did their best with a good young team The Netherlands had good control of the game except for maybe a couple of instances .
The is still a long road ahead but we watched our Dutchies with joy !
Hup Holland Hup laat de Leeuw niet in zijn hempie staan ........! A famous Dutch soccer song
roughly translated : Go Holland Go Don't let the Lion stand in his undershirt !
It got a little hairy towards the end .......but
Let's see who is next ....
Tony
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26 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:
Very nice and yes, correct on assuming Bishop of Myra! Yeah, the carrot is for his horse since, unlike Santa, Sinterklaas doesn't have a sleigh with flying reindeer! If I remember correctly, I would also place a bowl of water, again for the horse, next to the carrot at our fireplace when I was a young lad. When I got older, I always wondered how that horse was able to get on the roof/other roofs without making any noise - hooves in silent mode, I guess.
And, oh yes, I had an awful lot of respect for the "Zwarte Pieten" / "Black Petes," Sinterklaas' helpers like most Dutch kids have, because if you had been a bad boy, you had a pretty good chance of being put in a large bag and taken back to Spain (Sinterklaas lives there, instead of at the North Pole - He's obviously not stupid! 😉)
How nice and innocent were we than @Copper10-8and @Sir PMP ???? the good Saint or his Black Petes would come through the chimney .......while mom or dad had just warmed up the living room with a very hot and glowing coal stove .
In Den Haag ( The Hague ) besides the large carrot for the horse we placed a glass of milk and some cookies for the Saint . Than maybe in the morning , if we had been good , we found in our shoe that we set out before we went to bed near the stove a Dinky Toy , a little bag with marbles , a Vlooienspel ( is that the same as what English people call tiddlywinks ? ) or a spinning top which made us very happy ................
Reminds me I have to listen again to Toon Hermans on YouTube and listen to "Snieklaas " I do that each year right about now .
Nowadays kids ask for an iPhone , a guitar or a TV for their room or more ..........
It has become all too commercialized and on the wrong day where we should celebrate the real meaning of Christmas !
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Happy Thanksgiving to all South of the border !
Have a wonderfull day you all with family and friends , easy on the pie and all the cookies !
Happy Anniversary Ann and Pat !
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Ann and Pat @Vict0riann we wish you a wonderful day tomorrow with these wonderful words from "Hallmark " I could not say it any better ......"On your Diamond Anniversary, we send you all out love on this very special day,Sixty years of giving happiness, love and loyalty to each other must not go unmarked.We wish you many more years of love and good health together "Martha and Tony , sailingdutchy
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Hear Ye , Hear Ye ……Tomorrow, Thursday 24 November in the Year of the Lord 2022 ,In Victoria , British Columbia , CanadaAnn and Patrick , our very good friends will be celebratingTheir 60th Wedding Anniversary !Go and spread the word ………All Hail the King !Oyez, oyez, oyez !See you on the next Holland America cruiseAntonius F
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What some people call "Tipping Culture " specially in North America I think stems from the difference in minimum wage laws and "Tipped Wage " minimum laws specially In the US and Canada compared to most other countries in the world and yes we all have different standars of living and in many countries not everybody reaches a decent standard of living .
Where the individual States and Provinces set their own minimum wages for most workers and often a different minimum for servers . Federal min wage is around $ 7.25 /hr where a few States like California are paying $ 15.00 /hr
In Canada it is also by Province from $13.70 /Cd to $ 15.70 /Cd while for servers I believe it is $ 11.40 or even less for part time workers
Australia Min wage $ 21.38 /Ad and you can maybe tell us what the min is for servers in Australia .....
Ireland Min Wage 10.50 Euro from what I could find , would that be for everybody Colin also servers ?
We , Martha and I do not mind paying the service charges on board ship specially after reading what @chengkp75 explained to us on post # 51, please read that again ,with all the hours that the crew works to give us the best vacations possible . In all our cruising I can not think of many crew members who do not deserve this .
( I am not talking about all the officers here )
Thank you chengkp !
Tony
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1 hour ago, Torquer said:
We were about to book a cruise for February 2023, and now the Black Friday sale sweetened the pot. However, I cannot find on the HAL website when final payment is due. In our last cruise post-covid it was closer to the cruise than pre-covid times. Can someone post what it is at this time, or better a link to the HAL website where this information is posted.
@Torquer Final Payment is due about 90 days before embarking the ship . During Covid it was down to 60 days but now it is back to what it used to be .
I was also looking for a couple of cruises for the fall of 2023 and also at one for Jan 2022 , a last minute kind of booking . I was disappointed with the so called 40 % savings . I found some cruises had gone up in price compared to the anniversary sale and others were the same , the only savings being the Paid Gratuities .
In years past the BF Special was a lot more attractive , but I guess with what the Cruise Lines have gone through this was to be expected . BUT we will keep cruising ! It is our best kind of vacation !
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We have not seen it at all on our last 4 cruises , think it went the way of the Dodo bird , unless it returns when the Covid completely disappears so the Captain does not have to hug and kiss , or it is another cost savings matter decreed coming from Seattle !
I always enjoyed going to this ceremony to see all the happy faces and it is the least the company could do for the well earned rewards.
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From our cruise on the VolendamKushiro is the city on the northern Japanese Island of Hokkaido and was the first Japanese Port we visited on our Trans Pacific cruise in 2017.The Island is specially famous for the beautiful cranes which are near the Western side of the IslandWe just went into town for a walk to stretch our sea legs ( after 8 Sea Days ) and to see the famous fish market there where we had a few nibbles and a delicious bowl of Japanese soup .We could use a very nice warm bowl of soup here tonight " baby its cold outside “ and snowy !Without too much commentary today , you’ll forget names etc anyways by tomorrow , just a few nice pictures
Loved this little car check the wheels and the paw prints on the hood
Utility box cover
Near the Port Entrance , some photo opportunities for us cruisers ........wonderful to be a geisha for a day for the ladies !
Or to get some special Japanese treats
Have a great day everybody , working on a couple of cruises , got to get away for a few weeks this winter !Tony
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The Fleet Report and Daily for Thursday December 22nd, 2022
in Holland America Line
Posted