Back from the Oosterdam 1/28-2/4 Mex Riviera

[localady]

I am home safe and sound from another wonderful trip on my favorite ship, the Oosterdam. We had picture perfect weather the entire time and saw many, many whales along the coast near Cabo as well as in the Bay of Banderos.

 

My Sister and I loved the fact that we were in Puerto Vallarta for 2 days, there was so much to do and see there. The first day we snorkeled at Marietas Islands (a Marine Preserve) then had dinner in old Town PV after watching the sunset on the Malecon. At no time did I have any fear at all about being in Mexico, the residents of PV are wonderful ambassadors for their beautiful City and we enjoyed them a great deal.

 

Despite my initial concern about a large Gospel group that was on board, we were never inconvenienced by them at all. I was told that there were over 600 in the group, but my concern turned out to be totally unfounded. The folks we talked to from the group were very nice and we enjoyed our interaction greatly.

 

Service was top notch in every way this trip. We were thrilled to cruise with James Deering again, as he is so pleasant and personable. He is also very accessible to cruisers, and so darned helpful. It sure made us feel very special to have him ask if we were enjoying ourselves and know that he genuinely meant it. :D

 

We also had a great time with the wine seminars hosted by Cellar Master Bernard. He is a wealth of information and his presentations were really, really a lot of fun. Did you know you could open a bottle of champagne with just a (non-Riedel) wine glass??? Corks were flying in the Pinnacle that afternoon! :eek:

 

It appears this will be our last cruise on a Vista level ship to the Mexican Riviera for the next couple of years.:( :( I do pray that HAL re-evaluates and brings the O or another Vista ship to do this run in the future. We will miss it greatly.

 

[localady]

One more quick note about Muster. This has changed substantially since out cruise 3 months ago. Roll call WAS taken and those missing Muster were told that they would escorted OFF the ship before we sailed.

 

Apparently, this is the new protocol, and I applaud the line for taking this tough stance....Bravo!

[kazu]

Welcome home - no more decisions about where to eat;)

 

Sounds like you had a fantastic time which is great :):)

 

thanks so much for your review:)

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Welcome Home (again;) )

Actually that was what I wanted to ask you was about the Life Boat Drill definitely no surprise.

 

Wish I could have been there with you :o

[RuthC]

Welcome home, Sher. Thanks for the quick report.

[erewhon]

Thank you for your review.

Really good to read your comments about the Passenger Safety Drill.

[Seago2]

Thank you and welcome home. I was on a gospel cruise once (Elation out of Galveston) and it was an absolute blast. Singing, dancing, dressing to the nines- they were a really nice and fun group of people to sail with.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to report on your Oosterdam and Mexico cruise. We totally agree with everything you said as we were on board the Oosterdam about a month ago doing Mexico, having a wonderful time like you. Also like you we are sad about the fact that we are loseing the Oosterdam. We will miss her and we also hope that Seattle will see it our way and bring her back to the west coast.

[IRL_Joanie]

Welcome home Sher!!

 

Joanie

[woody73]

Welcome home.

 

Woody

[localady]

Thanks for all the 'welcome homes'! ;)

Just need to share one picture I took at sunset on the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta last week.

One of the lovely bi-products of 2 days in one port. ;) :D

[cruisinjudy]

Great sunset photo!

[KirkNC]

Welcome home, glad you had a good trip.

[Ine]

Welcome home Sher. Like I wrote on FB sorry I missed you in PVR.

We will indeed miss seeing Oosterdam in port next winter.

[localady]

Welcome home Sher. Like I wrote on FB sorry I missed you in PVR.

We will indeed miss seeing Oosterdam in port next winter.

 

And we will sorely miss not being able to cruise on the Oosterdam to PV next year, it has become such a wonderful tradition. The lack of West Coast cruising is making me think we may just start taking land-based vacations again.

 

I HATE the flight to Ft. Lauderdale, it is a horrible airport with far too many people in it on busy Port days and too far (and too expensive!) to go for a "quickie" 7 day cruise from our home in California. I guess the cruise lines don't care about our vacation dollars.

[portofrome]

Welcome home and thanks for your report.

[nutensteve]

Always nice to see a positive post about the Oosterdam. We are new to cruising but we so enjoyed our cruise to Alaska on the Oosterdam that we signed up for another. Thanks for posting.

[Two@Sea]

Welcome home. Glad you had a great time! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and for letting us know about the Gospel Group. I would have loved that!