Westerdam questions

[Texmike]

The food on RCCL very bland and tasteless and not very hot when it came out.

 

The Windjammer food was not very well tasting at all and luke warm.

 

The food at specialty restautsnts like Portifinos and Chops was pretty good

[MorgannaLeFey]

Another question popped into my head. The policy on the HAL site says: While smoking is not permitted in staterooms, guests are allowed to smoke on stateroom verandahs.

 

It seems like all it would take is one smoker to really make the verandah unusable for us. We are both -very- sensitive to smoke and it really can travel fairly far. Though I suppose if we had a verandah on the lowest verandah level, then we won't have to worry about smoke drifting upwards from a veranda below us. And nothing is likely to come forward, so we'd mostly just have to worry about smoke coming aft from verandah's forward of us...

 

I'm mostly rambling aloud right now. I'm wondering if any of you are sensitive to smoke or have thoughts about this issue.

[MorgannaLeFey]

And another thing... we never drink alcohol, but my husband drinks diet soda pretty much constantly. I tend to drink just water, but I know I probably can't drink from the taps on board, so I'll have to do bottled. How much do beverages cost? Just trying to work out a budget framework. :)

[mudscraper]

And another thing... we never drink alcohol, but my husband drinks diet soda pretty much constantly. I tend to drink just water, but I know I probably can't drink from the taps on board, so I'll have to do bottled. How much do beverages cost? Just trying to work out a budget framework. :)

The water onboard is great. No need to buy the H2O.

[MorgannaLeFey]

The water onboard is great. No need to buy the H2O.

 

Heh, thanks. I did a little more research on that and as someone pointed out in some site/thread I read somewhere "they are cooking your food with that water, of course it's fine". :) I suspect if I'd really thought about it for a moment, I'd have figured that out. :)

 

We're thinking about bringing our soda stream so I can have water and he can have soda. :)

[Viesczy]

Just want to say here that we're are trying to reclaim the word "fat" from the baggage it has for lots of folks. It's not a negative thing, it's just true that we're fat. We have excess adipose flesh, that's all it means. :) We're also intelligent, well-read, witty, generous, and caring... we work hard and we don't smell (all things the opposites of which lots of folks consider to be part of the word fat ;D )

 

My husband's hip measurement is 70 inches around, mine is 55. You couldn't call us anything but fat. :) When I say "big" most people just don't picture it right and think we're just being modest or something or imagine that we're big by TV or Hollywood standards. That's one reason I use "fat" instead. :)

 

I am grateful for your kind words, and please be assured that I'm not using it in a denigrating way at all. I wouldn't even bring it up (because I don't really care all that much that I'm this big) except that there are issues where it might matter in regards to the travel experience. :)

 

Okay, I'll letcha slide there as for a second it read/felt like you were beating yourself up and suffering from/coming down with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). Sure it isn't something like ebola or marburg, but BDD is a lonely torture for those with it.

 

You're going to have a great time!

 

Derek

[Krazy Kruizers]

Another question popped into my head. The policy on the HAL site says: While smoking is not permitted in staterooms, guests are allowed to smoke on stateroom verandahs.

 

It seems like all it would take is one smoker to really make the verandah unusable for us. We are both -very- sensitive to smoke and it really can travel fairly far. Though I suppose if we had a verandah on the lowest verandah level, then we won't have to worry about smoke drifting upwards from a veranda below us. And nothing is likely to come forward, so we'd mostly just have to worry about smoke coming aft from verandah's forward of us...

 

I'm mostly rambling aloud right now. I'm wondering if any of you are sensitive to smoke or have thoughts about this issue.

 

I am very sensitive smoke. Now we don't like the aft balconies -- that is just us -- so we book port side cabins.

A couple of times we were not able to use our verandah as we had smokers next to us -- one time the person was forward of us and the other time they were aft of us -- we still got the smoke.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We went to the Museum on Grand Turk. It is located in an old house -- very little to see.

 

[Sandi3667]

We sailed her sister ship the Oosterdam last year, and loved it. Neither one of us are small people, and we hd no issues with the bathrooms. The cabin doors are narrow, but it didn't pose a problem.

 

Regarding the fresh air. Our budgets limited us to an obstructed ocean view cabin. I too like fresh air, but we found that the HVAC system runs constantly, and the vent is just above the beds. No problems with air circulation in our cabin.

 

You can purchase soda cards, but I believe they've done away with most of the discounts for them. Lots of threads on soda/beverage cards. One nice thing about HAL, you can bring unlimited soda on board. When we checked in, I taped a luggage tag to a 12-pack of Diet Pepsi, and it was delivered to our cabin with the luggage.

 

I'm seriously considering either Westerdam or Noordam for a Caribbean cruise next year. Loved the Oosterdam, and I'd love to check out her sisters.

[sail7seas]

And another thing... we never drink alcohol, but my husband drinks diet soda pretty much constantly. I tend to drink just water, but I know I probably can't drink from the taps on board, so I'll have to do bottled. How much do beverages cost? Just trying to work out a budget framework. :)

 

 

The tap water on board is very good. It is more pure and tastes better than many of the bottles people carry around all the time.

 

HAL permits guests to bring aboard all the bottles of water and soda they wish. HAL sells Coke products but if you DH has a favorite soda, he will be permitted to bring whatever he wants with him. And, if you wish, bring whatever water you like.

 

[MorgannaLeFey]

Just wanted to say that you're all being very kind and helpful to this newbie. :) I really appreciate you fielding my questions with grace and good intel. :)

[MorgannaLeFey]

OK, so I've run into ANOTHER thing. I didn't notice that there was a Western Caribbean cruise that goes to Cozumel. That REALLY interests us a lot. But the thing is, the last date they show is this coming March! Does that mean that the Westerdam isn't going to be going there any more after March, and that other ships will be doing those routes?

 

Phew, this is SO complicated! :) I think the Mexican ports are more likely to REALLY interest my husband. ;)

[maxout]

OK, so I've run into ANOTHER thing. I didn't notice that there was a Western Caribbean cruise that goes to Cozumel. That REALLY interests us a lot. But the thing is, the last date they show is this coming March! Does that mean that the Westerdam isn't going to be going there any more after March, and that other ships will be doing those routes?

 

Phew, this is SO complicated! :) I think the Mexican ports are more likely to REALLY interest my husband. ;)

 

Westerdam will be repositioning late March to do the 35-Day Circle Hawaii, Tahiti and Marquesas and then on to do her Alaska Cruises into September. HAL has no ships doing the Caribbean from May 'till October.

[MorgannaLeFey]

Westerdam will be repositioning late March to do the 35-Day Circle Hawaii, Tahiti and Marquesas and then on to do her Alaska Cruises into September. HAL has no ships doing the Caribbean from May 'till October.

 

Fair enough. I was just noting it because on the website they're showing NEXT October's routes, too. But there's no routes that include Cozumel for the Westerdam at all in 2013. soo complicated :) I'm sure other ships in HAL are good, too, right? I should read the other reviews! sooo much to figure out!

[sail7seas]

OK, so I've run into ANOTHER thing. I didn't notice that there was a Western Caribbean cruise that goes to Cozumel. That REALLY interests us a lot. But the thing is, the last date they show is this coming March! Does that mean that the Westerdam isn't going to be going there any more after March, and that other ships will be doing those routes?

 

Phew, this is SO complicated! :) I think the Mexican ports are more likely to REALLY interest my husband. ;)

 

 

No HAL ships sail the Caribbean from about mid April until (approx) mid October. They reposition all the ships to Alaska, Canada/New England and Europe for a full six months of the year.

 

They get higher per diems for the same ships doing those different itineraries. There is also the mention that is hurricane season but I think that a secondary reason..... we sailed the Caribbean summers on HAL ships for years and loved it.

 

Hurricane season extends until the end of November but those ships that do the Caribbean have returned by then.

 

 

 

[lovethesun1960]

Another question popped into my head. The policy on the HAL site says: While smoking is not permitted in staterooms, guests are allowed to smoke on stateroom verandahs.

 

It seems like all it would take is one smoker to really make the verandah unusable for us. We are both -very- sensitive to smoke and it really can travel fairly far. Though I suppose if we had a verandah on the lowest verandah level, then we won't have to worry about smoke drifting upwards from a veranda below us. And nothing is likely to come forward, so we'd mostly just have to worry about smoke coming aft from verandah's forward of us...

 

I'm mostly rambling aloud right now. I'm wondering if any of you are sensitive to smoke or have thoughts about this issue.

 

Here are my rambling thoughts on your vacation.

I did a wonderful cruise in the 2nd week of December, when it was cold in my state and beautiful in the Caribbean, all sunny all the time. That is also a great week to go, right before the prices go up for high season.

 

If you are sensitive to smoke, just don't get a verandah on RCCL, because you might get a smoker next door and then your verandah is ruined for you. No way to tell in advance.

 

The 4 ports you mentioned are all lovely and I think you would find something to do in all of them that would interest you.

 

RCCLs food was just kind of bland. They did not seem to use enough butter, cream, salt, etc in their sauces, gravies, etc. The pizzas were on premade crusts that were not as bad as people say, but really not worth eating the extra calories.

 

Based on my past experiences, I am planning a cruise the 3rd week of December with my parents on either the Westerdam out of FLL or the Summit out of San Juan-you might look at that ship because they have no smoking on balconies, reasonable prices, plus 5 super ports in a week.

[MorgannaLeFey]

You should probably double check on that. Because when I looked at the smoking policy last week, there's no smoking allowed inside any of the staterooms, but people are allowed to smoke on their verandahs and specific locations on board ship.