Live frm Zuiderdam - Panama Canal partial transit

[unfdoug]

 

Embarkation Day

 

When I got to Fort Lauderdale this morning I went and did laundry at a local coin laundry facility as it’s much cheaper than paying $2 per article of clothing on a cruise ship. I wound up paying $2.75 and had all my laundry washed and dried (the facility was a couple minutes from the port of 17th Street).

 

Someone told me today that I’m a slave to free wifi and that’s pretty much true. Port Everglades website said that all terminals at the port are now equipped with free wifi (woo-hoo).

 

The curbside process was very efficient. We pulled up around noon, they put a tag on my bag with my room number on it and I was on my way. They told me that I would get my bag in my room by four (it arrived much earlier). Again, I forgot my boarding paperwork, but it was fine. They checked my name on the manifest, went through security, and I went to the check-in counter. The agent was VERY helpful to me. I did ask her about cash deposits and debit card holds. She said with a debit card, it’s typical for Holland America to hold $60 per day, this was a 10-day cruise so $600. If you want to do cash deposit, it’s recommended that you give $600 into which you’ll be refunded via check if you don’t spend it all on the last night of the cruise. I hung in the terminal for about two hours getting caught up on emails and editing files before I made my way on the ship and to my room.

 

The room is on deck 7 (Rotterdam deck), port side, between midship and aft. I have a balcony stateroom, a nice sitting area, an actual tub, and three big closets to hang clothes. There is also a dressing curtain that I didn’t notice when I sailed ms Eurodam back in 2010. Each room has it’s own dvd player, flat screen TV, and super comfy beds. I think I’ve never been on a cruise ship or a hotel with a bed this comfortable.

 

The lifeboat drill was at 4pm and I have never heard a cruise line so strict on the policy. The cruise director came on the mic and said “if you don’t drill, you don’t sail.” He said that not once, not twice, but three times. I think he got the point across. The lifeboat drill took exactly 19-minutes and the captain released us with the blast of the ships horn. We were the third ship to pull out of port. Princess Cruises’ Pacific Princess was out first, followed by Holland America’s ms Maasdam, then us (ms Zuiderdam) and Seabourn was last. All Carnival Corp. ships.

 

The sail away band was great and they had an amazing sail away BBQ with all the fixings: steak, chicken, ribs, grilled salmon, grilled corn, and kabobs. There’s a Port Everglades webcam in one of the last buildings when you are pulling out of port, they didn’t zoom in close enough to check us out though. I stood on the aft end of the ship, port side during the sail out and watched the pilot boat take the river pilot off the ship.

We have open seating and went to dinner, cutting it close, around 8:45pm. More on the dining on this ship in the days to come.

 

Tomorrow is Half Moon Cay, Holland America’s private island that’s located about 100-miles southeast of Nassau, Bahamas. This will be my third time to the island in the past couple of years and has to be one of the better private cruise line owned beaches I’ve been too. I think HMC has actually won awards consistently from Porthole Cruise Magazine on the best private destination.

[unfdoug]

Half Moon Cay.

 

 

Day 2: Half Moon Cay

 

We arrived in Half-MoonCay,Bahamas around 7:45am and dropped anchor where we were joined by another HAL ship ms Westerdam. The tender process was pretty straight laced. We had to go to the Queen’s Lounge, get a tender ticket and then wait for our tender number to be called. The process from getting our ticket to getting on-shore was about 30-45-minutes. When we arrived on HMC it was an awesome sight with white sandy beaches and plenty of room even with two ships in port. The island is 2,400 acres with only 45 acres developed.

 

I didn’t do an excursion this time but there’s a lot to do there from renting jet skis, swimming with the sting rays to renting a cabana beachside. I went straight for a walk and passed a horse riding excursion where people were in the water with the horses. Not being a huge person of just baking in the sun, I pulled a chair under a tree and listened to my iPod. Lunch was served around 11:30 in the main BBQ pavilion area. It seemed a little cramped with two ships in port but the servers also put the food on your tray there, so that made things a little slower. When I was on HMC on Carnival Fascination last year, I didn’t remember that.

 

I stayed on HMC for about three hours and went back to the ship, or so I thought I was going to. When I grabbed my wallet out of my friend’s bag, I forgot to make sure my ship card was in there – it wasn’t. I had to walk all the way back and get my card before heading BACK to the ship tender boats again. The ride back was a breezy 15-minutes and then we were back on the ship. They don’t do a security check point with the X-rays when you get back on the ship from HMC because they search your bags on the pier and there’s really nothing that you could bring on the ship.

Back on the ship I went to the Explorations Café where they have lots of library books, computers, and a sitting area called the Crow’s Nest. The café is powered byt the NY Times. Everywhere you go you see NYT screen savers on the computers and print outs of the daily news. All good stuff. I found a John Grisham book that I haven’t read yet so settled in a reclining chair until sail away. This was the first time I’ve ever really walked into a ships library. The ship staffs a librarian and has an extensive selection of books. I was impressed.

 

I still think internet on a ship is the biggest racket. $100 for 250 minutes. It’s crazy how the prices change from ship to ship. When I was on MSC a couple months ago, the price was 13-cents a minute. Last week on Costa Atlantica it was $24 for three hours. In comparison you could buy 12 hours on Costa for the same prices as four hours on this ship. I’m thinking we should all buy some stock in MTN (company who runs the internet on the ship).

 

 

Dinner was in the main dining room and I went with the Caribbean jerk chicken, French onion soup, and a fruit plate for dessert. If I keep eating desserts my ass is going to be as big as a house. Since we have anytime dining we dine on deck two and the past couple nights we’ve eaten alone. We did make reservations for Canaletto (Italian venue), Pinnacle Grill (lunch $10 and dinner $25), and Le Cirque (held once this cruise). More on that to come..

 

After dinner we checked out the show of multiplatinum artist Journey South. The brother duo opened with a trio from their longtime music idol Billy Joel and continued to delight crowd with classic favorites from Elton John, Van Morrisson and Michael Bublee. Yet, the highlight is when they performed acoustic and played songs form their albums including one they originally wrote. Their life was a dream come true from their humble beginnings in New Castle,England and they shared their story of how they received a chance after years of struggle through the Simon Cowell hit show “The X Factor.” A very inspiring story added emotion and excitement to the music.

 

Tomorrow is a day at sea as we head toArubaand I plan to hit the gym pretty hard. If the food consumption keeps up there will be no weight loss on this cruise.

[unfdoug]

View from the gym aboard ms Zuiderdam.

 

 

Day 3: At Sea

 

My first thought when I woke up this morning is that the gym was going to be packed. I was wrong. I got there around 8am and there was plenty of machines available. Our time went ahead one hour last night so we’re now in the Atlantic time zone.

 

Craig went to the excursion talk at 10am to learn about some of the excursions and then listened to a few minutes of the port lecturer. The over-the-top shopping lectures crack me up. We know they are hustling for commission and they do a hell of a job selling the shops.

At 11:30 we had a champagne lunch with the officers and Cruise Director. We had a table of eight and spanning all over from Canada, New York, Washington DC, and Raleigh, NC. The Cruise Director gave a brief talk and then we got to eat a great lunch with beef, fish, or salad, all delish! After lunch we made our reservations for Canaletto, the surcharge-free dining option on the ship. It’s actually a part of the Lido buffet area that’s transformed at night and made available to guests who want to enjoy a great Italian meal.

 

This afternoon I experienced my first Park West Gallery art auction. I won’t lie, I saw free champagne and I thought “what the hell, I’ll go.” I wound up walking through the gallery, talking to the PW employees and asking them about different pieces of work. Afterwards I stayed and watched the auction. If you’ve never been to an art auction or even if you hate art, I suggest you sit in at least one on your next cruise. People drop some major money on these art pieces. To be honest, I had no clue that cruises had so much disposable income. Many people spent well into the $1,000’s on a piece of work today. It’s kind of exciting to even watch the process.

 

Tonight was formal night in the Main Dining Room but we wound up eating in Canaletto instead. They had a lot to choose from in Canaletto: anti-pasta, soups, veal, pasta, lasagna, and a ton of Italian desserts like tiramisu, gelato, and cakes. They also serve cotton candy on a dish just before dessert. Kind of random but good!

 

The captain did the gala ceremony at 9:45p. There was complementary champagne and the captain introduced the key staff members and the two employees of the month. I thought that was a nice touch.

It was 50′s-60′s night in the disco but there wasn’t a lot of people in there.

 

We arrive in Aruba tomorrow at 1pm.

[unfdoug]

 

DAY 4: Aruba

 

What was going to be an early start to the morning turned into a day of lounging around and waiting to get into Aruba. For some reason, I thought we were scheduled to arrive there in the morning but I was off by a few hours, not to mention we are still in the Atlantic time zone.

 

We started the morning off by hitting the main dining room for breakfast where I did my standard protein breakfast before I hit the gym (eggs, bacon, and sliced tomatoes). The gym was packed but I was able to squeeze in a 30-minute work out lifting. So, for the folks that say Holland America is nothing but old people, they are so wrong. There were more folks in the gym working out than I’ve ever seen on any past cruises.

Around noon we boarded the pilot and he took us into the harbor of Oranjestad, Aruba. We were joined by one Spanish cruise liner that used to be owned by Celebrity Cruises, Celebrity Horizon. Just pulling into Aruba takes your breath away. The Southern Caribbean offers guests amazing views as you approach the coast. It was such a cool sight and I’m pretty sure I took at least 100 photos.

 

We docked, cleared customs, and before you know it, we were making our way off the ship. People were gathering at the stairwells way before we docked – of course that made for a nice bottle neck when we were trying to get off the ship. When you get into Aruba, the cruise terminal has quite a few tourist shops, snack bar, and places to buy wifi. You can buy a 24-hour wifi card for $10 or a 90-minute card for $6. I stuck with the $10 card. One thing I learned is once you activate the card on your phone or laptop, you can’t use the same code on another computer, you have to buy another.

 

Our excursion today was going to an all-inclusive island called De Palm and it rocked. They take you to a landing pad where you hop on a shuttle, go over to a private island, and hang out for a few hours before taking you back to the ship. There was some locals there along with guests from the other ship in port. The De Palm Island excursion ran $89 on the ship, but no sure if you can by it cheaper on land. When you think of the shuttle transfers to the pier, the all-you-can-eat and drink, it’s really not a bad deal.

 

Back on the ship, there was an under-the-stars type BBQ happening in the aft. This BBQ was a lot like the first day where they served steak, salmon, chicken, and grilled vegetables. They put on a nice spread, so nice that I went back twice for more steak.

 

Aruba was celebrating Carnaval so there wasn’t much nightlife when we got off the ship. The casino was open along with a couple of restaurants. We walked through the casino and went to a place for drinks called The Fisherman’s Wharf (off the main drag by a block). Drinks were cheaper on the ship than they were there. You throw down eight-dollars for a Crown and Coke there. All aboard was at 11pm so we left the overpriced drink place around 10:30 and headed back to the ship. It was about a five-minute walk.

 

They had a killer Lido “late night snack” area set up. When I say late night snack, it’s full blown food from pasta, pizza, chicken and a plethora of desserts. Being the healthy one (sarcasm), I got a whole bowl of pasta before I called it a night. Carb central.

 

The 11pm entertainment show was called ‘Filipino Crew Show.’ It was a performance where members of the Filipino staff provided song and dance from their native country. There was this cool number they did with a couple of long poles that keep the birds out of the rice fields. The audience was extremely supportive and gave a large round of applause at the end of the 40-minute show.

 

Tomorrow is Curacao.

[mszula]

We disembarked from the Zuidy a week ago today. Your post makes me want to be back on board. It was a great cruise, a happy ship, and a wonderful crew. Have fun!

[startwin]

Thanks for posting, I'm looking forward to the next one.:)

[unfdoug]

Willemstad, Curacao.

 

 

Day 5: Curacao

 

This morning I woke up around 6:30 as we were docking in Willemstad, Curacao. My first impression of the port was lots of colors and very Dutch like (rightfully so). I was the first one off the ship and headed over to this little sidewalk cafe called Iguana Cafe that I read about. So when you get off the ship, it’s on one side of the port and you have to get to the other side of the port where all the action is. To get there you have to go over this swing bridge, which is very cool. It’s in operation bridge and actually opened about 20-times for the 10 hours we were in port today.

 

Iguana Cafe is a sidewalk cafe right on the water and serves Dutch breakfast. I went with an egg, ham, and Swiss on a roll. They had free wifi there so I camped out for about two hours total. For some reason I couldn’t get my computer to connect to the wifi so I just used my phone but for most of the stuff I do when I travel, that’s all I really need. After breakfast I walked around the town and it was very cool. This has to be one of the most accessible towns to walk and very quaint. I picked up some postcards from a local vendor (four for a dollar) and went to the post office to mail them. Turns out when you mail a post card from Curacao it’s $1 each. They don’t use USD as their local currency, they use the Guilder. The conversation rate is $1 USD is $1.75 guilder. However, in the town there was a lot of English spoken, but Dutch and French were spoken in some parts. This town has deep slave roots and a lot of the slaves that weren’t sold off, their families still reside there.

 

The floating fish market there was really cool too. A bunch of fisherman come into port, tie up next to each other, and sell their daily catches to the locals. There was so many fish there and the locals were lining up to buy them. It was a cool sight to see and something I’ve never experienced before. As I was walking around the Crown Princess pulled into port and let off a flood of people. I went to the internet cafe for two hours since I didn’t have an excursion booked. The cafe was right above a KFC and charged $3 an hour to use their wifi or desktop stations. They let me plug into their hard wire and I was glad because I had to upload a couple of videos before heading back to the ship.

 

I didn’t wind up doing an excursion here but they offered: a dolphin encounter, caves and city tours, Jewish heritage tour, a beach day and some other sightseeing adventures.

 

On the walk back to the ship I saw a bunch of Princess Cruises passengers, but no Holland America passengers so I’m like …. hmmmm. Made a V-line for the ship and turns out I just made the all-aboard time. For some reason I thought it was going to be 5p but in reality it was 4:30. I’m glad I went to the ship because I was about to stop and get a local beer.

Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail in Pinnacle Grill.

 

 

Back on the ship we had a dinner reservation at the Pinnacle Grill (surcharge venue). The Pinnacle Grill came highly recommended and we booked it early. If you don’t book early you will not get a spot in there. The selections, the atmosphere, and cuts of meat were all very good. I went with the Jumbo shrimp cocktail, lobster bisque, and surf and turf (jumbo prawns and a filet). The cuts of meat and the shrimp were huge! I swear one of the shrimps was bigger than the cut of meat. The dessert was three flavor crème brulee. I forgot to mention they had a pretty reasonably priced wine list and we ordered a bottle of Riesling. I just can’t get into the red wines.

 

Tomorrow is a day at sea and stacking some interviews up with the Hotel Manager, Captain, Cruise Director, Wine Steward, and other staff members.

[unfdoug]

 

Port side controls on the navigational bridge of ms Zuiderdam.

 

Day 6: At Sea

 

This morning started out at 9am with interviewing some key staff members aboard the ship like Hotel Manager, Captain, Cellar Master and others. All the interviews went really well and it’s always cool to hear the background on the crew members. We always just walk by them and not think twice about what everyone does on board and back home. After listening to the interviews it was very clear that crew members on Holland America are very loyal to the brand.

 

After we taped the show the Captain took us on the bridge of the ship and let the officers show us around. I’ve probably been on a couple dozens of ship navigational bridges (my dad was a harbor pilot) but every time I go on a bridge it just wows me. The bridge of the ship was your standard operation with three control panels and a great view. A lot of the officers I was talking to came out of the merchant marine academy. I asked him a lot of questions of how the stabilizers worked and he pretty much schooled me, I had no clue how they operated.

 

There were two Panama Canal talks today with Travel Guide Susan, the first talk covered the history of the canal with a slide show presentation and the other talk was an FYI type- talk telling you about the process, where to best view the locks, and how the excursions will work when we get in Lake Gatun tomorrow.

 

On this cruise they are doing one night at Le Cirque (specialty restraint $39 or $59 with wine pairing held in the Pinnacle Grill) so I went to go check what it’s all about. Le Cirque is a restaurant in NYC that was the first privately owned restaurant located in the city’s Mayflower Hotel. The menu looked very tempting with Lobster salad, butternut squash and huckleberry soup, rack of lamb, and crème Brule. I already knew what I was going to eat before we sat down.

 

Holland America has learning-tracks on their ships that are broke down in four sections: Our World, Food and Entertaining, Technology, and Well-being. Today I checked out the Technology section and couldn’t believe the classes they offered and they were free. The class I sat in today was making movies with Microsoft Movie Maker. I’ll have to say, I make a lot of videos and I learned things from her about movie maker that I didn’t know, plus she was cute so easy on the eyes. Other classes today were introduction to the cloud, Windows 7, Sharing Photos, and a one-on-one session with the Techspert Mollie. That’s what they call the computer expert.

Looking forward outside of the navigational bridge of ms Zuiderdam.

 

 

The gym was pretty packed today as it has been any other sea day of the cruise. I ran five miles and it almost killed me but I made it — I had to, I’ve been eating too much!

 

Tonight was formal night and we checked out Canaletto, the specialty venue that’s in a portioned off section of the Lido deck dining. The restaurant serves American Italian fare. There isn’t a cost to dine here but reservations are requested in advance. When I booked they only had one spot left. The anti-pasta, veal, lasagna, and deserts were all great.

Craig went to the casino after dinner to try his luck at the blackjack table and easily doubled his money but they switched dealers and he lost his winning streak, so he walked.

 

The disco had 50′s and 60′s night but I wasn’t really feeling it so I rented a movie from Ship Flicks. Basically Holland America has a library of 1,000 movies and you can rent them at any time of the day. All you have to do is dial the front desk and give them the movie number and in 10-minutes it will be brought to your room. I felt lazy doing that so I would always go to deck one, give them the movie number, and sign for it there. They have some pretty recent movies too from 2010 and earlier.

 

Tomorrow is the Panama Canal. So excited! Our excursion is going to take us to ground zero of Panama Canal and then kayaking in Lake Gatun.

[Himself]

Curacao is one of my favorite ports. It is so Dutch and so clean and so nice. I would go back there in a heartbeat. Keep the reports coming and enjoy the Canal. It is worth seeing.

 

Where is the launderette in Ft. Lauderdale where you did your laundry?

[unfdoug]

Entering the first lock of the Panama Canal.

 

 

Day 7: Panama Canal

 

This morning was another early morning because we the Panama Canal pilots boarded the ship at 5:30a as we were entering the breakwater of the canal. Since the day started so early we ordered room service. There was a sign on the door before we went to bed last night saying that if we plan on ordering room service we may want to order it at least 15-30 minutes earlier because of high volume (I take it we weren’t the only ones who had that idea). The breakfast actually came right on-time.

 

The opened up Deck four on the bow of the ship so everyone could stand there and watch us going through the locks. Notice I said everyone. The whole ship was there and I wasn’t about to stand in the middle of all that. I remembered last night when I was in the gym there was a catwalk on the outside and a door on the side of the gym, so I eased up that way. Low and behold when I got up there only 20 people were standing there, if that. I was in heaven. I set my little tripod up in the center of the ship and started recording as the ship went through the locks. We had to go through three locks and the process of going through each lock took 25-minutes each. The canal has two lanes that raise the ships 85’ above sea level. It was neat to watch us go into the set of locks, get raised up, and enter the other set of locks. We made our way through all three locks by 9am and the ship dropped anchor in Lake Gatun for the excursion people to disembark.

 

If you didn’t have an excursion you had to stay on the ship and go back out of the locks and dock at Colon, Panama. We opted for the tour of operations of the locks and kayaking in Lake Gatun. We were able to get off of the ship around 9:30 and take the tender boat to an old yacht club that acted as a landing pad for the tenders. From the landing pad we boarded a motor coach and went up to Lake Gatun, where we were able to basically stand on top of the locks and look down. From down the way we got to see the Coral Princess come through the locks, it was cool to see the ships come through from being on land instead of being on the ship. Two for the price of one Id say! When going through the locks vessels use their own propulsion and are assisted by locomotives called mules.

 

Entrance to operations of Panama Canal locks.

 

 

Kayaking was cool, in fact 32 of us in total were kayaking. If you’re going to kayak Lake Gutan, you will get wet. There’s no doubt about it. In fact, just to be safe, before we left I went and got a baggie from our cabin steward to put my camera in and thank god I did. With the wind blowing on the lake and waves coming over the front of the kayak, it would have been disastrous. The kayak excursion lasted for an hour and then we went back to the resort to change before being bused back to Colon, Panama (just outside the Panama Canal on the Caribbean side).

 

Colon was okay. There really wasn’t much there, it actually reminded me a lot of Freeport, Bahamas. There was a lot of shopping, some places to eat with free wifi, and a lady holding a monkey where for two dollars you could take a picture with it. That’s about all. We beat the ship back to the pier. We arrived at the pier about 2:30 and the ship didn’t get there until 4:30, so the people who didn’t do an excursion only had two hours before all-aboard.

 

We did the main dining room for dinner and sat with a couple from England. After dinner I went and checked out the Crow’s Nest where a live acoustic guitar player was rocking out. He sang a lot of classic country songs (right up my alley), along with some oldies. He was excellent on the guitar.

 

Before bed I went up for a late night snack AKA to “carb up” before the big white water rafting adventure tomorrow. Lots of pasta! We have to meet in the Vista Theater at 8:20 in the morning to board our bus to go white water rafting. This is my first time so I can’t wait!

 

Panama Canal experience on ms Zuiderdam rocked!!

[unfdoug]

 

ms Zuiderdam docked in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

 

 

Day 8: Costa Rica + Night at Le Cirque

 

It will be no surprise when I tell you that my morning started really early again. We were scheduled to dock in Costa Rica at 6:30a but the actual was about 7. There was a couple of things I had to upload before we did our white-water rafting excursion so I went looking for an internet café on land. Puerto Limon, Costa Rica reminds me of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The town was a far cry from all the other ports we have visited so far and you can tell there’s not a lot of money in the town. The local currency is the Costa Rican colon, the conversion is 1 USD is 512 Costa Rican Colons. The official language is Spanish.

 

*Tip: Bring plenty of $1’s and $5’s on your cruise, getting change can be a real pain or they give you back local currency. If you’re using a $20 somewhere, forget about it.

 

I had an hour to burn so I went to look for an internet café. I found one right across the street from the pier but when I talked to the people in the shop, they basically shooed me out and told me to come back at 8am. Okay, if I owned a business and there were customers that came in an hour early, I’d definitely let them in. Maybe life is just that good down there that they can turn away customers though. Love the fact that when I get off the ship, I always have my laptop bag so the locals never bother me, they think I’m crew.

 

We met again in the Vista Theater at 8:20 to start our white-water rafting journey. From there, we got our numbers, picked up our towels at the gangway, and made our way to the pier and walked to our busses. It took about an hour to get to the rafting destination because of slow traffic. I think it’s about 45-miles or so each way. Once we got there we did a safety briefing, got our gear, and paired off into eight people in five different boats. We were on our way. We went over some class one, two, and three rapids and then about two hours later we were back on land. The starting point looked the same exact as the ending point so I asked the guide if we did a big circle, turns out he didn’t think that was too funny.

Doug geared up and ready to white water raft.

 

 

Heading back to the port took about another hour and then we had exactly one hour and ten minutes to figure out what we were going to do before getting back on the ship. I went to the internet café to upload some pictures from my phone. The café said Internet in big letters and was $5 an hour to use their wifi.

 

The ship was actually an hour late leaving today because an excursion was late getting back. That’s another reason it’s a great idea to book your excursions through the ship – they won’t leave you if it runs over. This one lady on the lido deck came up to me and all fired up because she said it was 4:30 and we haven’t left yet, well her clock was still in eastern time when we were in fact in central time. She told me sorry and she felt really stupid.

 

The sail away was pretty basic. We found the liquor package on the ship and ordered that to enjoy sail away. It was a bottle of Jim Beam and three cokes, it ran $34 but with the service fee it was more like $39. We learned about this from the folks on our white water rafting excursion.

Dinner tonight was in Le Cirque, a menu replicating Le Cirque in New York City and held in the Pinnacle Grill. I started off with Lobster Le Cique, Huckleberry and Squash soup, and crab cakes for my entrée. There‘s an up charge for this venue of $39 and $59 for the wine pairings. I had no clue what Le Cirque was, actually I thought it was a acrobatics show so it was just like regular food to me but good regular good. You can see the ‘Night at Le Cirque’ menu here.

 

The comedian tonight was funny. His name was Lee Bayless and he did two shows: 8p & 10p. It was a clean show but he made it humorous. I can appreciate when a comedian doesn’t have to drop an F bomb just to make people laugh.

 

The internet café had some type of happy hour going on where when you log in between 7-9pm were you were able to get half price minutes. Since minutes are at .75 per minute, half price wasn’t that bad. I always hold off for the last day of the cruise, that’s when the internet deals start flying off the shelves.

 

Tomorrow starts are days at sea. We have two of them back to back before getting back into Fort Lauderdale.

[isujim]

Following with interest.........keep it up. We are on this cruise in the fall. Thanks for posting.

[unfdoug]

 

Day 9: At Sea + Pinnacle Grill Lunch

 

I woke up this morning thinking I had to get to some interviews and was completely wrong. Turns out my other interviews are tomorrow and not today. Talk about jumping the gun. Since we had the morning free we went to explore the ship and tried to make reservations in the Pinnacle Grill for lunch, we got shot down and were put on a wait list. Remember earlier when I said to book early for the Pinnacle Grill? I should’ve listened to my own advice.

 

Turns out we were able to get in for lunch after all, they had a last minute cancelation. Lunch in the Pinnacle Grill is a 10 (and also $10) and totally worth it! The menu had a wide selection of entrees on it like: Pacific Beef Salad, Halibut sandwich, Crab and lobster cakes, Apple smoked bacon burger, Steak with blue cheese, and a Pasta dish. I did the Crab and lobster cakes, the portions weren’t huge but it suit me well for lunch. For an appetizer they had an awesome Lobster Crème Brule (pictured).

 

The Queens lounge had the Pinnacle Grill chef teaching the secrets of curry. I’ve really enjoyed the cooking classes this sailing. The kitchen is pretty cool. It’s a one-million dollar floating kitchen at sea with all the bells and whistles. My favorite part is after the chef prepares the dish, there’s enough for everyone to try at least a sample. See video below.

The aft pool was hopping today with games, pool side trivia, name that tune, steel drums, and lots of people lying out. The weather was pretty nice today so a lot of folks were taking advantage of the last couple days of sun.

 

For dinner tonight we ate in the main dining room. Great service and sat with a nice couple from New Orleans. Steak and lobster was on the menu for me. I asked the server to put one on standby and he did. It was so good. The chef told me they went through 800-lbs of lobster tonight. Now that’s a lot of lobster!

 

So they have this lounge on the ship called Explorer’s Lounge where a four piece string band plays. This was one of the venues I haven’t been in yet so I sat and listened to The Adagio Strings play. They were good and the crowd was good but not really my thing. So here I am typing this at midnight about to crash and getting ready for my interviews tomorrow morning.

[unfdoug]

 

A room with a view in the Main Dining Room.

 

 

Day 10: Last Day At Sea + Chef Dinner

 

Our last day before the cruise ends. Sigh. So this morning really did started out with interviews and I wasn’t mistaken this time. First interview was the executive chef where we got to go into the galley and check out all the kitchen operations. So, I didn’t know that the food was made to order. I kind of figured during breakfast the kitchen area looked like a lido buffet, boy was I wrong. Every egg, piece of bacon, toast, and omelet was made to-order.

 

After the interviews wrapped up we did our lunch in the main dining room. The view was awesome this time as we were sat in the very back against the big windows that overlooked the aft end of the ship (photo right). As we were eating a Carnival ship passed us off our port side by a couple of miles. It’s kind of hard to miss the big whale tail.

 

There was a disembarkation talk in the Vista Theater hosted by the Cruise Director Dave Shea, telling us what to do in the morning when we get to Miami. We have the brown luggage tag. Even though I am going to do self-assist disembarkation, I’m going to get off with the general crowd because I’m spending the night in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow and I’m sure I won’t be able to check in super early. The talk was very informative and gave a good play-by-play. They actually had a music video to the song 500 miles by The Proclaimers. It was pretty catchy and very clever the way it was put together encompassing all the staff from the laundry room to the captain. Very clever and it showed how they care for their staff.

Craig went to the Indonesian Tea Ceremony this afternoon. It was basically just hat and held in the main dining room. I went down there to check it out and came across the menu for tonight’s dinner. It was the Master Chef’s Dinner (pictured below). The menu had lobster bisque and lamb on it – that’s all I needed. I was ready. So this cruise we had anytime dining but with tonight’s dinner there was only two seating’s.

 

The 84th Annual Academy awards were on tonight and the cruise staff put on a big event in The Queen’s Lounge. They had a red carpet going in the lounge, all kinds of hot foods, and drink specials for the event. It was packed out!

Master Chef dinner menu aboard ms Zuiderdam.

 

 

 

The Master Chef’s Dinner was awesome. The staff came out doing a cute song and dance a couple of times. The first two courses on the menu were pre-planned and then we got to pick what we wanted next. They sat us in the back of the dining room against the big windows again.

 

They had a “Rock it Til We Dock it” party tonight but I’m thinking because everyone had flights and early departures they just went to bed early and no one wanted to rock it. I don’t blame them, I didn’t either. I got back the room about 11:30, started packing and now here we are. We are suppose to take on the river pilot tomorrow morning at 6am at the mouth of the Fort Lauderdale inlet. This means that for the first time in 10-days I’ll finally have my AT&T 3G service back. Hello world!

[unfdoug]

 

ms Zuiderdam in Port Everglades.

 

 

Disembarkation Day + Voyage Stats

 

Getting off the ship is always so bitter sweet for me. I love it because I have connection to the outside world and I hate it because it’s back to land. Since we have the brown luggage labels, our number wasn’t called until 9:15, which gave us plenty of time to go to the Lido deck and grab one last meal. On the last morning the Zuiderdam served breakfast in the main dining room and Lido deck until 8:30am.

 

We went up to Lido deck and were cutting it pretty close but managed to grab some last minute food. Some cruise lines have a limited menu on the last morning but this cruise line had every buffet section open in the Lido area and still served their standard menu on the last morning in the MDR.

Getting of the ship was very easy and quick. There was a little line but it moved steady. Once we scanned our card one more time and got out of the terminal we were able to go through customs and get out of the terminal. From walking off the ship to curbside was no longer than 15-minutes. The terminal has free wifi so if you are looking for something online with your laptop or want to connect with your laptop.

 

All in all this was an excellent cruise. Being able to visit Half Moon Cay, Aruba, Curacao, Panama Canal, Costa Rica, and tour the ship in and out was a great experience. I suggest if you’ve never visited the Panama Canal, you really should consider taking a partial or full voyage through it. The partial voyage actually lets you do an excursion in Panama. Food, service, destinations, excursions, activities, and entertainment were all a 10 on this sailing!

 

Total Mileage this Voyage

• Fort Lauderdale to Half Moon Cay 196 nautical miles
  
• Half Moon Cay to Oranjestad, Aruba 841 nautical miles
  
• Oranjestad, Aruba to Willemstad, Curacao 69 nautical miles
  
• Willemstad, Curacao to Colon, Panama 686 nautical miles
  
• Colon, Panama to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica 187 nautical miles
  
• Puerto Limon, Costa Rica to Fort Lauderdale 1,194 nautical miles
  

Total 3,246 nautical miles

1 nautical mile is 1.15 statute miles or 1.85 kilometers

[hpf]

unfdoug: Thanks for your review of your cruise, I'll be watching for the rest of it.

It seem's like you had a good time.

 

Helen

[cmdchiefthom]

Great narrative along with some great pictures. I've done this itinerary on the Zui two years ago, and am leaving in three weeks aboard the Zui to enjoy it again. I'm glad your taking the time to keep us posted.;)

[unfdoug]

Panama Transit info

 

 

We recently returned from a 10-night Panama Canal partial transit aboard Holland America Line’s ms Zuiderdam. Below I have highlighted briefly the history of the canal, the process, and our timeline when we crossed the break water and entered the Gatun Locks in the Panama Canal. You can see a comprehensive photo gallery of the Panama Canal here.

 

History:

The Panama Canal was initially built in 1880 by the French but failed miserably because of financial issues and disease. Panama negotiated with the US in 1903 to build a canal linking the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean together, thus starts the Panama Canal construction on the Isthmus of Panama. The Panama Canal was finished August 15, 1914 where the US would remain in control until 1999. At noon on December 31, 1999, Panama took over full operation of the canal where it remains still.

 

The Process:

Entering the first lock in the Panama Canal.

 

 

The Panama Canal serves as a shortcut, saving vessels some 7,000+ miles and having them avoid going around Cape Horn, South America. From the Pacific to Atlantic side is only 50-miles using the waterway.

 

The canal acts as elevators and raises the ships 85’ above sea level crossing the continental divide and then lowering the ships on the other side. It works the same in each direction with each set of locks having two shipping lanes.

 

Each lock takes approximately 25-minutes.

 

 

Timeline aboard ms Zuiderdam

 

Pilot boat approaching ms Zuiderdam with Panama Canal pilots.

 

 

5:45am – Pilot boat reaches ms Zuiderdam and drops off the Panama Canal river pilots.

6:30am – Row boats come up to the ship and grab the lines and attach to the locomotives used to center the ship through the locks.

6:45am – ms Zuiderdam approaches the Gatun Locks of the Panama canal and an arrow indicates we are using the starboard lock channel.

7:00am – ms Zuiderdam enters the first lock in the canal, following a container ship and gets lifted up.

7:30am – The second lock gate is open, under our own power the ship slowly enters the locks being guided by locomotives on each side.

8:00am – ms Zuiderdam eases her way into the third set of locks. This is our last lock before we enter Lake Gatun. At this point we will have made our 85’ rise above sea level.

8:30am – The final gate opens, the locomotives disconnect from us and we are under our power until we anchor in Lake Gatun and disembark

9:00am – ms Zuiderdam drops anchor in crowded Lake Gatun and disembarks guests on a tender boat to head to their shore excursions.

The one-millionth ship to transit the Panama Canal occurred September 4, 2010, the bulk carrier Fortune Plum.

 

Timeline of video taken between 7:25 – 7:40am (can't figure out how to embed video).

 

[unfdoug]

Curacao is one of my favorite ports. It is so Dutch and so clean and so nice. I would go back there in a heartbeat. Keep the reports coming and enjoy the Canal. It is worth seeing.

 

Where is the launderette in Ft. Lauderdale where you did your laundry?

 

It was on 17th, right across from the Embassy Suites hotel. It runs next to a Winn Dixie and an international crew place. Says Laundry on the sign by the road. Was so happy to find it. Thanks for reading.

[cruiseapril]

Impressed with your detailed review. Thanks.

 

Your port and excursion comments are very helpful.

[Toad]

Amazing review! We leave Friday and now I am truly ready to go! Did you enjoy the White Water Rafting or did you think it was a bit lame?

[Typhoon1]

Thanks for posting. Very interesting narrative.

[unfdoug]

Amazing review! We leave Friday and now I am truly ready to go! Did you enjoy the White Water Rafting or did you think it was a bit lame?

 

I thought the white water rafting excursion was pretty cool. There was class I, II, and III rapids. One person got thrown out of the boat and one went way up on a rock. It was a blast. I laughed non-stop for the two hours going down there river. After the excursion you take a 20 minute ride back to change and can buy $2 local beers and light lunch. Thought it was def worth it.

 

The ride out and back was kind of long but other than that super exciting.

[Toad]

I thought the white water rafting excursion was pretty cool. There was class I, II, and III rapids. One person got thrown out of the boat and one went way up on a rock. It was a blast. I laughed non-stop for the two hours going down there river. After the excursion you take a 20 minute ride back to change and can buy $2 local beers and light lunch. Thought it was def worth it.

 

The ride out and back was kind of long but other than that super exciting.

 

Thanks unfdoug, I think we will do it! Can you leave your dry clothes on the bus etc?

[Himself]

I did your very cruise in October of 2009 and am thinking of doing it again in October of 2013. I enjoyed your scouting report very much and thanks for the tip on the Laundry.

 

I have been known to stay at the Hyatt at Pier 66, the Hilton Marina, and the Renaissance and I think that landerette would be a good healty walk from any of those places. This might be worth a try.