On Zaandam Oct 9-23rd

[canadianbear]

Hi everyone!

Just on my I-phone data but thought I'd let you know we are arriving in Vancouver about an hour early. We all had to be out of our rooms by 09:30 which is annoying but...I understand why. The captain is sure honking his horn-cant tell if something is in his way or what!

 

This has not been a cruise that is all roses and I will share more later when I'm home but we still have had a lot of fun and we really just needed a nice break which we got-no hassles of airplanes. The Captain also gave everyone FREE cocktails (anything you wanted) on our sail away from San Diego from 3:30-6pm in ANY bar-lots of gooned people after that!!!

 

Approaching Lions Gate now so going to go. Always happy to be home.

[IRL_Joanie]

Hi everyone!

Just on my I-phone data but thought I'd let you know we are arriving in Vancouver about an hour early. We all had to be out of our rooms by 09:30 which is annoying but...I understand why. The captain is sure honking his horn-cant tell if something is in his way or what!

 

This has not been a cruise that is all roses and I will share more later when I'm home but we still have had a lot of fun and we really just needed a nice break which we got-no hassles of airplanes. The Captain also gave everyone FREE cocktails (anything you wanted) on our sail away from San Diego from 3:30-6pm in ANY bar-lots of gooned people after that!!!

 

Approaching Lions Gate now so going to go. Always happy to be home.

 

Welcome back to Homedam and Canada!! Hopefully you will be able to tell us why the Captain is/was blasting the horn....Curious Joanie here:)

 

Hugs

 

Joanie

[sapper1]

Hi everyone!

Just on my I-phone data but thought I'd let you know we are arriving in Vancouver about an hour early. We all had to be out of our rooms by 09:30 which is annoying but...I understand why. The captain is sure honking his horn-cant tell if something is in his way or what!

 

This has not been a cruise that is all roses and I will share more later when I'm home but we still have had a lot of fun and we really just needed a nice break which we got-no hassles of airplanes. The Captain also gave everyone FREE cocktails (anything you wanted) on our sail away from San Diego from 3:30-6pm in ANY bar-lots of gooned people after that!!!

 

Approaching Lions Gate now so going to go. Always happy to be home.

Welcome home Marion and glad you were able to get away for some R and R. Heaven knows, you needed it.

[solocanadian]

Welcome home - Too bad the weather wasn't better. Good for Capt. Andre announcing free drinks - that was a long window of opportunity to bet a nice buzz. Looking forward to more when you have the chance. Was bar tender Nestor still onboard?:)

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Welcome Home Marion :) Despite a few hiccups I am sure you had a great time. I know at least for me a crappy day at Sea still trumps a good day at work :D

[rafinmd]

Welcome home. You may find your thread interesting reading. We'll welcome your thoughts after you've had a bit of time to decompress. Sorry about the early arrival.

 

Roy

[ellbelle]

Welcome home! Sorry you missed San Francisco! The Star Princess arrived in the City the same day (picking up parents) and the temporary lighted street announcement things were saying you were coming in too.

 

Watching the Giants game from home that night there was a aerial shot and there was no Zaandam? I wondered what happened....The City was crazy busy that day anyway and it was cold too!!! Hope you can come back and see the City another time...

[startwin]

Hi everyone!

Just on my I-phone data but thought I'd let you know we are arriving in Vancouver about an hour early. We all had to be out of our rooms by 09:30 which is annoying but...I understand why. The captain is sure honking his horn-cant tell if something is in his way or what!

 

This has not been a cruise that is all roses and I will share more later when I'm home but we still have had a lot of fun and we really just needed a nice break which we got-no hassles of airplanes. The Captain also gave everyone FREE cocktails (anything you wanted) on our sail away from San Diego from 3:30-6pm in ANY bar-lots of gooned people after that!!!

 

Approaching Lions Gate now so going to go. Always happy to be home.

 

Welcome back to the chilly rainy weather!! Hope to see you soon, email me once you've unpacked and sorted your week out. Hope Mom is OK.:)

[canadianbear]

 

 

[startwin]

 

 

 

Nice! Is that the aft elevators?

[canadianbear]

I am going to continue with where I left off on October 20th-San Diego (from my notes)

 

We left San Diego about 20 minutes early and the Bon Voyage party started and ALL the drinks were free from 3:30-6pm from anywhere on the ship-any bar. It was quite amazing to see so many people around with numerous drinks in their hands! And yes, our group did partake in that!

 

The show tonight was Dale Gonyea-a pianist, humorist & songwriter. I was just too tired for the late show tonight but my husband and friend said the show was pretty good. Dale called it the "renovation cruise" and had a lot of jokes at HAL's expense. Sorry I missed it.

 

Oct 21-sea day today since we will miss San Fransisco.

 

Every day in the Explorer they list where on the ship they will be working on the carpeting-today it's forward stairwells & elevator landings on deck 1,2 & 3.

 

The 6 of us went to the Pinnacle for lunch today as none of us have ever tried it before for lunch. It was a nice relaxing atmosphere and the food was very good. I made the mistake of trying their hamburger and it was HUGE. Thankfully, my generous husband helped me finish it!

 

It was also Royal Dutch high tea at 3:00 so I went to that by myself. Since I didn't eat all my lunch I tried some of the offerings at the tea and sat with a lovely couple.

 

Last formal night tonight and we had surf & turf. The filet mignon just melted in my mouth and was delicious. It's one of my favorite nights on the cruise. (can you tell we like our food!)

 

The Zaandam singers were the entertainment tonight with timeless classics "Unforgettable". We were informed tonight that the singers and dancers had joined the ship when we did in Vancouver. They are very enjoyable to listen to and watch. During this late show it became very bumpy-obvious we were heading north. :(

 

Monday, October 22-last night on the ship

 

Today the carpet work is being done on deck 6 forward stairwell; aft stairwell & elevator landings on deck 1 & 2. They are also still doing the detail work in various areas (like the circle area deck 5 etc).

 

Disembark instructions told us that everyone would have to be out of their room by 09:30 and we can all just find places to sit (except stairwells). This was another surprise to everyone having to find somewhere to go for 3 hours before we docked in Vancouver.

 

Entertainment tonight was Chris Pendleton, a comedian. She was very entertaining and we are glad we went early to the early show tonight as by 7:30 it was pretty much full. They announce several times prior to the show that there is no reserving/saving seats. Then it was back to the room to do the dreaded packing.

 

Tuesday, October 23

We were told we would be arriving in Vancouver about an hour early. They did have the Lido open for breakfast and lunch for all passengers. They also reminded everyone we all had to be out of our cabins by 09:30.

 

We ended up getting off the ship about 12:15 and it was seamless. I love arriving back to our home port-it's beautiful, rain or shine.

 

 

I have now read the posts (from the thread I started and the one seriouscruisers did). We all are affected differently and one cabin can have problems but a cabin 3 doors down might be just fine. I feel sorry for all that were impacted so seriously that it spoiled their cruise. Anyone that had allergies could have had serious problems from the fumes.

 

Yes, there were problems also with the hydraulics, late leaving and arriving in ports, missed port, etc. We had one of our booked excursions cancelled but luckily there was another one available that suited us.

 

On another HAL excursion we did have an issue with an unsafe "hard" landing on the beach which could have been very dangerous situation and we did inform the excursion office about it.

 

Our friends on deck 1 did have some plumbing issues where the toilet would not flush. We did not hear about any sewage smells but I do remember (and I can't remember which deck but it was a lower one) where we were walking somewhere and we did smell it-I think it was deck 3 but honestly can't remember.

 

I can't respond about the hotel manager as we never had to deal with him.

 

The Captain today was honking so much because of a sailboat in it's path-I finally saw it as the ship turned a bit.

[IRL_Joanie]

I was glad to read that you enjoyed the cruise that you needed so much:) I realize there were problems, but am happy to see that you did not let it ruin things for you:)

 

Those durned sail boats...getting in the way of a DAM'd big ship!!:D

 

Joanie

[solocanadian]

Thanks for posting pictures of the new Purdy Carpet [only someone from B.C. will appreciate the spelling of pretty]. Having talked to Capt. Andre, I gathered he has little patience for fishing & sail boats. Even Capt. Alber'ts blog mentions how scary some of the fishing boats behave.:)

[rafinmd]

First, I'm sorry you were too tired to see Dale Gonyea. I saw him on the 2011 Crystal World Cruise and his number on the tender port of Rarotonga was absolutely hilarious. He is a credit to whatever ship he is sailing.

 

In recent times I've seen quite a bit of carpet replacement on both the Crystal Symphony (last 2 cruises) and on the Prinsendam in 2011. In both cases the process was a non-issue and I can't remember seeing it mentioned in the Explorer/Reflections. I wonder if they were using a different adhesive on the Zaandam, and if so, why.

 

BTW, after sailing the Zaandam in February I really felt the carpet could use replacement. The pictures of the new carpet are awesome.

 

Roy

[canadianbear]

[c-legs]

In recent times I've seen quite a bit of carpet replacement on both the Crystal Symphony (last 2 cruises) and on the Prinsendam in 2011. In both cases the process was a non-issue and I can't remember seeing it mentioned in the Explorer/Reflections. I wonder if they were using a different adhesive on the Zaandam, and if so, why.

 

BTW, after sailing the Zaandam in February I really felt the carpet could use replacement. The pictures of the new carpet are awesome.

 

Roy

Hi,

Carpet replacement is current and normal on cruise ships....but the '' normal'' process is to do the replacement during the night, i-e: carpet in front of elevator bank, deck #xxx , aft , and use ''normal'' bonding material.....Quite different than wholesale high volume carpet replacement in public areas during entire days ,rendering those areas unuseable by the guests ,and using what appeared to be obnoxious bonding stuff....as this is reported to have happened on Zaandam,

My opinion

Cheers

[startwin]

[/quote

 

Oh my goodness, that looks like a construction site.

[redhotfill]

 

How bad was the smell when your left the ship?

[mr green]

How bad was the smell when your left the ship?

 

Speaking for ourselves, we were both in bad shape on the last day, and could not smell a D---ed thing.

The failed visit to the Medical Center on the last FULL day, [see post 100 Zaandam nitemares], may have prevented this problem.

 

john