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Wonderful Westerdam!

PeaceLoveCruise

By PeaceLoveCruise,
in Holland America Line

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PeaceLoveCruise

PeaceLoveCruise

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After reading quite a few reviews of our Westerdam 11-25-12 sailing, I felt it might be nice to write one of my own. Full Disclosure: We are BIG skiers from Colorado, we are not kids, we are not geriatric and we do not cruise a million times a year. By no means do we consider ourselves experts (or even REMOTELY knowledgable) about cruising. We learned an awful lot from Cruise Critic for this cruise and we are VERY grateful for that!

 

With that, here is our take on the Westerdam 11-25-2012 Eastern Caribbean Sailing:

 

The Ship: Lovely. In great condition overall. Some wear and tear on loungers and cushions but nothing traumatic. The Westerdam does not disappoint! It really is a lovely ship and the crew and the food are amazing!

 

Embarkation: Piece of cake! Easy, fast and no problems... Even at 11:00 am! We went right to our cabin the minute we were on the ship... Which took all of 20 minutes!

 

***Thank you to Cruise Critic for the heads up about taking our own water, soda and wine onboard. We managed to save about $250.00 on our cruise in this area alone!!:p

 

Our Cabin: Lovely! We went from a VF cabin to an SY and it was truly a treat! Lot's of room and a veranda that we LIVED on for a week! Double sinks and showers/tub. More closet space and hangers than we could ever fill!! We had a very fun sail away get together with New friends Kazu and CruiseWhere and they brought wonderful wine and goodies from the Neptune Lounge!! We donned our Colorado flag (Kazu brought her Canada flag) and we waved like crazy people to you Sail Away addicts! Great fun! Thanks for hosting a couple more cocktail hours in your suites, Kazu and CruiseWhere! We LOVED chatting with you!!!

 

Our Room Stewards: What can I say about Ari and Dharma? Absolutely wonderful!! We had a bucket of ice every morning and evening. We had towel animals galore and they even taught us how to do a couple. They delivered the invitations for the meet and greet that were sitting out on the desk without even being asked or expected to!! (I needed the exercise and was planning on delivering them myself). They were absolutely outstanding!! Loved these guys!

 

Our Dining Room Experience: Unfortunately, we only ate in the dining room on the first night. It was fantastic!!!!! The food, the wait staff, the wine steward... Outstanding ! We had late seatting and a table for 2 and we were really catered to. I felt no rush and the wait staff seemed to really be in a great rhythm. The food was excellent!! I had the eggplant parmesian. Fabulous! They brought a birthday cake for my husband. Lovely!

 

Lido: Great fun to go later in the evening and have hot fresh food and the place to ourselves. One thing we found was that if the food was not there, we could ask and they would do their best to accommodate! Food was very good.

 

Room Service: Okay, these guys are the best!! On a side note, I was extremely sick after our first port on Tuesday in Grand Turk. I had the Conch Fritters at a highly recommended restaurant on Grand Turk, thus the beginning of a beautiful romance with room service, the infirmary staff, our phenomenal stewards and movies in our room.... More on that later!

 

Pinnacle Grill: Phenomenal ! My husband loved his wonderful meal the night we ate there. I had to leave before we ever started the meal and they packed up everything for us and delivered it to our room. I was too sick to eat, but it smelled wonderful! Kudos to HAL who refunded our meal from this night due to my being sick. :)

 

Our M & G: So much fun! I loved meeting so many on our cruise and people who had been posting on here for months! We did a silly gift exchange (I thought it would be fun), and it was! The gifts from people's hometowns became wonderful conversation starters! Such fun!! I hope I get to keep in touch with many of you over the years. Oh yes!! One more thing.... We had 4 Officers attend our M&G! Fun and interesting!!

 

Entertainment: I have never understood why people rip on the HalCats. They were great! A really talented group of musicians. The steel drum player at embarkation set the mood perfectly for the Caribbean! The 4 singers and the dancers were really great and very entertaining every time they performed! Excellent! (The Bob Mackie costumes were amazing!) I missed the juggler and my husband loved the comedian. You have read a lot about Recycled Percussion and I must say that I think it is a good thing to offer such an interesting experience! These guys were so nice! (And a % of their earnings goes to charity)! You can watch them on YouTube! Great fun! Also, we really enjoyed trivia and loved the people we played on a team with!! Thanks for the fun!!! So nice to meet you all! :)

 

Ports:

Grand Turk: Wonderful! Explore this wonderful little island if you can and talk to the locals. Very fun. Unfortunately, I got food poisoning and was very sick the next day, but a great island.

San Juan: I missed it! My husband loved El Morro.

St. Martin: Beautiful and amazing! A great place to go back to some day. We took Bernard's tour and just loved it! I could do without ever seeing one of THOSE naked people at Orient agin, but I did get to check " nude beach" off my bucket list!!

Half Moon Cay: If you have never done it, get a cabana! Get a butler! Spoil yourselves! To us, this was very much worth it!! We were celebrating so much and will probably not get back there any time soon. The Pinnacle spoiled us with a 5 course meal and EVERYTHING (including all drinks) were included!! We were the first ones off the ship and the last to return! A perfect day in paradise with the best food of the entire cruise!!!! It more than made up for a couple of lost days.... And a perfect way to celebrate our Anniversary (the actual day we were at HMC!!!) Thanks for trekking out to see us at # 15, Laura, Molly & Clyde!! We loved sharing our corner of paradise with you!! :D

 

 

Disembarkation: Smooth, fast and painless.

 

One Final thought... I think one of the MOST under appreciated parts of the ship is the infirmary and it's staff! A HUGE kudos to Peg who went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure I was able to feel better and enjoy the rest of the cruise. Yes, I was quarantined for 24 hours "just in case" but that was no big deal. Our stewards waited on us hand and foot and made sure I was okay and comfortable. Outstanding! They even continued to deliver sea sick pills, etc... on the rough sea days (even though I was not sea sick... Just food poisoning from an off ship restaurant.)

 

Last thing... Smoking. We have to agree that there is WAY too much smoke in the casino, piano bar area to enjoy them as we would have liked. Very unfortunate. It is the ONLY thing that we found wrong. Note to cigar smokers on this cruise.... You are just plain rude. Karma is a .... Well, you know the saying. :D Enough said!

 

We had a phenomenal 7 days in Paradise and loved our cruise!! Thank you to everyone who helped to make it so wonderful!

 

Thanks for all the help you gave us, Cruise Critic!! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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PathfinderEss

PathfinderEss

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Thanks for taking the time to write up a review on your cruise. Sorry you got sick, never fun but apparently it did not last long. Glad you enjoyed the Westerdam as it is one of our favorite ships. We've been involved with Hal's infirmity too and they are great if you need them.

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vicocala

vicocala

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Thank you very much for your review. It was a lot of fun seeing you all out on the balcony with your flags.

 

I am sorry you took ill during the cruise and lost valuable time but it is great that HAL took care of you. It is a testament to your personality that you could post a nice review despite your problems.

 

I look forward to next week and the opportunity to visit the Westerdam and reciprocate with a review of my own.

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sail7seas

sail7seas

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Lovely review. Thanks for posting it.

So sorry you were ill but happy with the help of the Infirmary, you were able to salvage most of your cruise to enjoy.

 

I fully agree that Pinnacle on Westerdam is wonderful!!!

 

I also agree about outstanding cabin stewards, dining stewards and great Neptune Lounge. :)

 

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coka

coka

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Hi Peacelovecruise,

Thank you for taking time to write your review. I enjoy reading as much possible on Westerdam since I will be on her late February. Your experience has me even more excited to go now! We have been wearing winter boots, coats, hats, and mittens for a few months now where I live and it was a joy to read about the beaches and your trip. Sorry you got sick yet glad you and the ship made the best of the circumstance. Happy belated anniversary!

 

coka

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geoherb "Live from...." Rare

geoherb

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Thanks for posting your review. We're on the other Westerdam itinerary this coming Sunday. Although as warm as it's been here lately, there won't be much difference for us. I was cycling in shorts and a T-shirt yesterday.

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CruiseWhere

CruiseWhere

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Thank you & kudos my friend for posting such and indepth review!!!! I appreciated reading it almost as much as meeting you & Steve! Looking forward to seeing some more pics!! Welcome back to reality...Talk to you soon!! xxoo

P.S. Just feel horrible about suggesting to you the restaurant in Grand Turk:(

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Bearnaise

Bearnaise

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It's definitely nice to read a positive review of the ship you're leaving on in less than a week, thank you!

 

About your food poisoning incident, however, did the infirmary positively confirm it was food poisoning (i.e. analyze a stool sample) or is it just a guess that it was the conch fritters? Just asking because there are plenty of non-food-borne illnesses like noro and rotaviruses that one can pick up on the ship, in port, or even in a taxi. Most food poisonings are as a result of food contaminated by another ill person and the foods most likely to be contaminated are raw foods conducive to bacterial growth, hence the tartar sauce served with the conch fritters would be a more likely suspect than the fried conch itself. One can get true food poisoning from conch infected with vibrio - that would resemble the sickness one can get from eating raw gulf oysters, but cooking should get rid of any.

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PeaceLoveCruise

PeaceLoveCruise

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Thank you & kudos my friend for posting such and indepth review!!!! I appreciated reading it almost as much as meeting you & Steve! Looking forward to seeing some more pics!! Welcome back to reality...Talk to you soon!! xxoo

P.S. Just feel horrible about suggesting to you the restaurant in Grand Turk:(

 

No worries at ALL!! I read a lot of reviews and recommendations about that place and I think it was just a fluke. :eek:

 

I miss talking to you and Frank, too. Back to reality today and I've forgotten how to do anything in my real life! Oh well!! We had a great 2 weeks and are DEFINITELY going back to Key West!!! The best 6 days ever!!!

 

(ps... I took a couple of photos of the airport in the air for Frank! :)

 

Xoxoxo back to you!!!

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Bearnaise

Bearnaise

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Think raw food. I have never been that violently ill so fast in my life! I had a bite of bad lobster once and I was quite familiar with what it was like. This was 100% worse!! Also, it was over in 24ish hours. Unfortunately, it was obvious to everyone what actually happened. :(

Sounds like a norovirus if it resolved that quickly, which you could have picked up anywhere. Unless other people also got sick from the restaurant?

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vicocala

vicocala

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Sounds like a norovirus if it resolved that quickly, which you could have picked up anywhere. Unless other people also got sick from the restaurant?

 

 

I had food poisoning once, it was caused by red tide at Cape Cod. Probably the sickest I have ever felt. The worst part is I'm not really a fan of much seafood.

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