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Hawaii and Tahiti.....Welcome to Paradise with Bill & Mary Ann on the Statendam

WCB

By WCB,
in Holland America Line

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WCB "Live from...." Rare

WCB

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Report # 1 October 3, 2013 Thursday

 

Well, here we go again, getting ready for another adventure to paradise for a 32 day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise. Our destination was supposed to begin yesterday, sailing out of beautiful and sunny San Francisco. That never happened, due to a massive storm that plagued the Northwest area of the country recently. The Statendam, as well as several other ships, were stuck either in Seattle or Vancouver, unable to leave the safety of the harbors. San Francisco, probably having the least amount of embarking passengers, was cancelled, and the ship has headed for the next port in San Diego, which happens to be tomorrow. What a surprise it was to get a call from our excellent travel agent telling us this news. Following up by reading Cruise Critic reports helped us fill in the rest of the news from passengers already faced with aborting the cruise, or sailing onward to San Diego. What a nightmare!

Now we will be flying (compliments of HAL) early tomorrow morning from San Francisco to San Diego, an hour and a half flight. Beats driving there. HAL has promised to cover ALL airline fees for our luggage, including overweight charges, as long as we save the receipts, of course. For some unknown reason, this promise would not be put in writing by HAL. So for that reason, we will now have to bring a fourth bag, which will be the only one weighing over 50#. This sure does not give us a warm and fuzzy feeling, but we will give them a chance to make good on the promise.

 

Two days of missed sailing will be compensated, and we will receive some shipboard credit. A transfer will be provided from the airport to the ship, which we hope is a taxi, because it is only about a three mile drive. We do hope to board early, giving us some time to enjoy San Diego's port area. The weather down south is looking good for tomorrow.

 

Here is the itinerary. There will be five restful days at sea.....yes, it may be cool, but we are being very positive about calm seas at this point. The ship will dock for two days in Honolulu, then go to Maui, Hilo, and finally Kona. Christmas Island, which is half way between Hawaii and French Polynesia, was to be our next port. However, months ago, Fanning Island was substituted, a hop and a skip away from Christmas Island we think. Then we head for Bora Bora, Raiatea, overnight in Papeete, Moorea, Rangiroa, and finally Nuka Hiva. After that heavy dose of paradise, we will have six days at sea before we arrive back to San Diego on November 3rd.

 

So, we are packed and ready to go, with our fingers crossed for a smooth day of traveling tomorrow.

 

Stay tuned....................

 

Bill & Mary Ann

 

Report # 1 October 3, 2013 Thursday Hawaii and Tahiti...Welcome to Paradise with Bill & Mary Ann on the Statendam

 

Well, here we go again, getting ready for another adventure to paradise for a 32 day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise. Our destination was supposed to begin yesterday, sailing out of beautiful and sunny San Francisco. That never happened, due to a massive storm that plagued the Northwest area of the country recently. The Statendam, as well as several other ships, were stuck either in Seattle or Vancouver, unable to leave the safety of the harbors. San Francisco, probably having the least amount of embarking passengers, was cancelled, and the ship has headed for the next port in San Diego, which happens to be tomorrow. What a surprise it was to get a call from our excellent travel agent telling us this news. Following up by reading Cruise Critic reports helped us fill in the rest of the news from passengers already faced with aborting the cruise, or sailing onward to San Diego. What a nightmare!

Now we will be flying (compliments of HAL) early tomorrow morning from San Francisco to San Diego, an hour and a half flight. Beats driving there. HAL has promised to cover ALL airline fees for our luggage, including overweight charges, as long as we save the receipts, of course. For some unknown reason, this promise would not be put in writing by HAL. So for that reason, we will now have to bring a fourth bag, which will be the only one weighing over 50#. This sure does not give us a warm and fuzzy feeling, but we will give them a chance to make good on the promise.

 

Two days of missed sailing will be compensated, and we will receive some shipboard credit. A transfer will be provided from the airport to the ship, which we hope is a taxi, because it is only about a three mile drive. We do hope to board early, giving us some time to enjoy San Diego's port area. The weather down south is looking good for tomorrow.

 

Here is the itinerary. There will be five restful days at sea.....yes, it may be cool, but we are being very positive about calm seas at this point. The ship will dock for two days in Honolulu, then go to Maui, Hilo, and finally Kona. Christmas Island, which is half way between Hawaii and French Polynesia, was to be our next port. However, months ago, Fanning Island was substituted, a hop and a skip away from Christmas Island we think. Then we head for Bora Bora, Raiatea, overnight in Papeete, Moorea, Rangiroa, and finally Nuka Hiva. After that heavy dose of paradise, we will have six days at sea before we arrive back to San Diego on November 3rd.

 

So, we are packed and ready to go, with our fingers crossed for a smooth day of traveling tomorrow.

 

Stay tuned....................

 

Bill & Mary Ann

 

Report # 1 October 3, 2013 Thursday Hawaii and Tahiti...Welcome to Paradise with Bill & Mary Ann on the Statendam

 

Well, here we go again, getting ready for another adventure to paradise for a 32 day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise. Our destination was supposed to begin yesterday, sailing out of beautiful and sunny San Francisco. That never happened, due to a massive storm that plagued the Northwest area of the country recently. The Statendam, as well as several other ships, were stuck either in Seattle or Vancouver, unable to leave the safety of the harbors. San Francisco, probably having the least amount of embarking passengers, was cancelled, and the ship has headed for the next port in San Diego, which happens to be tomorrow. What a surprise it was to get a call from our excellent travel agent telling us this news. Following up by reading Cruise Critic reports helped us fill in the rest of the news from passengers already faced with aborting the cruise, or sailing onward to San Diego. What a nightmare!

Now we will be flying (compliments of HAL) early tomorrow morning from San Francisco to San Diego, an hour and a half flight. Beats driving there. HAL has promised to cover ALL airline fees for our luggage, including overweight charges, as long as we save the receipts, of course. For some unknown reason, this promise would not be put in writing by HAL. So for that reason, we will now have to bring a fourth bag, which will be the only one weighing over 50#. This sure does not give us a warm and fuzzy feeling, but we will give them a chance to make good on the promise.

 

Two days of missed sailing will be compensated, and we will receive some shipboard credit. A transfer will be provided from the airport to the ship, which we hope is a taxi, because it is only about a three mile drive. We do hope to board early, giving us some time to enjoy San Diego's port area. The weather down south is looking good for tomorrow.

 

Here is the itinerary. There will be five restful days at sea.....yes, it may be cool, but we are being very positive about calm seas at this point. The ship will dock for two days in Honolulu, then go to Maui, Hilo, and finally Kona. Christmas Island, which is half way between Hawaii and French Polynesia, was to be our next port. However, months ago, Fanning Island was substituted, a hop and a skip away from Christmas Island we think. Then we head for Bora Bora, Raiatea, overnight in Papeete, Moorea, Rangiroa, and finally Nuka Hiva. After that heavy dose of paradise, we will have six days at sea before we arrive back to San Diego on November 3rd.

 

So, we are packed and ready to go, with our fingers crossed for a smooth day of traveling tomorrow.

 

Stay tuned....................

 

Bill & Mary Ann

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hallpau

hallpau

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We'll be doing that same cruise on the Statendam over the Holidays....so I'll be reading all your posting (although I always read them). We're not doing the World in 2014, so we'll also experience that one through your postings.

 

Your friends,

Pauline and Mike

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hpf

hpf

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Wow, another live report from you. This is great, it will help keep me in cruise mode till we cruise in late Nov. Thank you for taking the time. I always enjoy your posts so much.

Bon voyage and safe seas.

Helen

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Riversedge

Riversedge

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I think you will love Fanning Island. It was one of our most favorite stops. Be sure to get off early and take some small bills for shopping. They weave fabulous baskets and make knives from bones and sharks teeth. The island people are so glad to see you come and it contributes greatly to their livelihood. Enjoy!

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WCB "Live from...." Rare

WCB

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Report # 2 October 4, 2013 Friday Hawaii & Tahiti...Welcome to Paradise with Bill & Mary Ann on the Statendam

 

Our first day found us traveling to a new beginning port and finally embarkation on the Statendam. Despite our wishful thinking, it was not going to be a pretty day. At the risk of sounding "negative", we can only report the facts as they occurred. And in hind sight, things could have been worse, such as missing the ship or losing our luggage.

 

All went smoothly from the time we woke up at 3am, to our ride to the SFO airport, compliments of our youngest son, with a dropoff time around 6am. This last minute flight had been arranged by the cruise line, and as we explained yesterday, we needed to bring four pieces of luggage instead of three. Keeping three of those pieces under the 50# weight limit, only one would weigh in at 70#. We paid the fees and will submit this bill once we board the ship as instructed by the folks at the HAL office.

 

The nice thing about flying from SF to San Diego is the fact that once you get comfortable on the plane, you are landing with the flight only being around 1 hour and 10 minutes. The weather was just as nice in San Diego as it was in SF. HAL reps were there to meet us at the baggage pickup point. They directed us to gather our stuff, and wait for the next bus, which came much sooner than expected. We are not exactly sure how many people were boarding today, but since this ship began their trip in Vancouver, we assume the majority were already onboard. That should have made embarkation procedures much easier, right?

 

Assuming the embarkation staff were prepared to deal with us "misplaced persons" or those of us that were due to get on the ship in San Francisco, was too big of an assumption. A total of three agents, along with their supervisor, could not find us in their computer, therefore, they were unable to log us in. For some unknown reason, this had to be done on the ship itself. In the meantime, we were told to wait in the area usually designated for the 4 and 5 star Mariners and the suite people. That worked, because we could bond while complaining about this strange situation. Comparing notes with each other, we found that some folks drove to San Diego, while others were flown in the day before and overnighted. It seems everyone got a different amount of compensation with their last minute travel arrangements.

 

While we were waiting twiddling our thumbs, another younger HAL rep strolled over to all of us and informed us we would have to leave these seats, because we were sitting in a designated handicap area, although no sign was posted. Add insult to injury. One lady, already wearing a foot cast said she qualified, and was not going to move. Another nice elderly man with a walker also refused. That's when another experienced rep came over and saved the day by telling the younger rep to back off and leave us be. This was not the way to begin a wonderful vacation, and she was only making the situation worse.

 

Eventually, we were summoned to the check-in desk to find that we had to give all the info we had already provided for our boarding passes. Somehow it was lost. It was a feat to be able to locate our little address book with emergency phone numbers. Those things always get buried in the bottom of the purses. We were given room keys, but the dining info was incorrect, since we never requested open seating. Oh well, we can change that once onboard.

 

Getting onboard was another thing however. Our new room keys did not work. Oh no, what else can go wrong, we were afraid to ask? Now we had to go to the front desk to have new keys made and our photos taken once again. At least, the dining room assignment was correct on the new keys, and we were pleased to find that the keys worked to get into our rooms, which were ready for us thank goodness.

 

The two hour fiasco with embarkation procedures had done us in, so we decided to leave the ship and take a walk to find a good place for lunch. By the way, there was no special Mariner lunch offered in the dining room. Before signing out at the kiosk, the nice security officer reminded us to have an ID with us as well. We did have our drivers licenses, but they had expired. He said that would not work, so we went back to our room to retrieve the current ones. Sure didn't want to risk not being allowed back on the ship, because at this point, we expected anything could happen.

 

It's wonderful what a good walk and an equally great lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe can do. Of course, at this point we had not discovered while unpacking later that one of us forgot all their dress slacks for casual dinner. You can guess which one of us forgot that, because for the next five or six days, someone will be wearing black stretch pants with a glitzy kitty decal on the leg. Honolulu should be the perfect place to do some shopping...........

 

Speaking of shopping, we purchased some room snacks at CVS at the Horton Plaza after lunch. If we had more time, this is a very nice mall to explore while stopping for a day in San Diego. We also noticed that a free shuttle from the pier was offered to go to Seaport Village, another good touristy spot to stroll. Like we said, if there was more time, that's what we would have done, but half a day was going to be OK. Truthfully, having been up since 3am was starting to wear on us, and we did have to be back onboard by 4pm. After all, our favorite muster time was at 4:15pm....not to be missed. At least that went smoothly, except for the passengers in two cabins that failed to attend, which held up the drill even longer than usual. More bonding occurred as the folks grumbled.

 

During the course of the afternoon to early evening, we met several staff members, including our room steward. The list of requested room amenities we had submitted two months ago to ship services had not been done at all. That included a refrigerator and a pedestal fan. Those arrived soon after we reported them missing. Our room steward, Asep, took care of the rest. The housekeeping manager knocked on our door next to inquire if we were set, and to apologize for any inconvenience. Right before dinnertime, another officer asked the same questions and said to inform him if we needed anything else. We have to say they really helped to save the day. We certainly hope that the staff followed up with everybody that had problems boarding today, regardless of their Mariner status.

 

Dinnertime came quickly at 8pm. Joining table 65 on the second level of the dining room, we found our new tablemates to be a fun group. The food and service was fine, although there was no prime rib entree usually offered on the first evening of a sailing. Come to think of it, this cruise is already into the fifth day of its sailing, so that's why it was missing. An added pleasant surprise was finding Pras, our head waiter from this years world cruise, on this ship. Earlier in the day, we had run into Bart, the former culinary and hotel manager on the Amsterdam, and Gil, one of our favorite bartenders.

 

After the experience of today's events, we were glad the day was over, and we could put the stress behind us. Hopefully it will be smooth sailing from here on forward.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

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