More or less live from the Noordam, 10/31/13 Journey to the New World

[innlady1]

Thanks for your report! Hope you got the info I sent regarding the T & A! Continue to enjoy....

[sapper1]

Punki-- your comment about the towel animals providing you with a spare towel to use jiggled a memory of just such a discussion from years ago.

 

The general consensus at the time was not to use them as they may have been used in other cabins for towel animals. That is to say, the animal towels are not necessarily made from freshly laundered towels but may have been around for a while in various shapes in different cabins, or have been in use in your cabin for other passengers.

 

I know that on one of our cruises, the steward kept a stash of stale smelling towels in one of the underbed drawers for the purpose of his towel creations.

 

A word to the wise-------:eek:

[PunkiC]

Day Ten, Crossing

Thank you innlady1 for the information. I will definitely check out the meeting on Thursday.

sapper, I am not too concerned about the towels as I use the extra towel to roll my hand laundry and I am not all that fussy.

I slept in late this morning while DH ran around exhausting himself. Did I tell you he got caught by the jogging police yesterday?

While I enjoyed my sleep-in, it did mess up my schedule for the day. By the time I showered, dressed and finished my hand laundry, breakfast was over so I was stuck with eating a small sandwich before going down to the beginner’s bridge class. We dealt, bid and played one hand of duplicate bridge and then dissected the process. Even the one hand pressed us well passed our hour, running us well into lunch.

This bridge playing leaves little time for little else besides playing and eating. My initial plan had been to kibbutz the duplicate games again today, following the deck, but I ran into friends who wanted to play for fun, so I joined them instead. There was one gal in our group who has played quite a bit so she was able to give us a great deal of insight.

Unfortunately, the bridge instructor is not particularly good. His mind wanders and his mouth follows, resulting in his getting way off track and discussing many elements which are way too advanced for beginners and confusing everyone. It is also frustrating that his presentations always go way over the allotted time and more than half the people usually get up and walk out after the hour is up. My desire to learn is enough to keep me paying attention, but it would be much easier with a better teacher.

DH went to the line dance class up in the Crows Nest which was pretty bouncy with 40 knot winds. When I finished bridge, I found him sleeping in our cabin. That’s what happens to people that get up at O’Dark Thirty and run around the ship.

Since the morning Mass conflicts with stretch and exercise classes we decided to go to the vigil, where I read and DH was a Eucharistic minister.

I had been hoping for a quick nap between Mass and dinner, but instead we watched a movie and then dressed for formal night dinner which was followed by a Black and White Ball.

For those of you unfamiliar with this HAL tradition, all of the officers appear in dress uniforms and the guests invite them to dance. This continues for five dances and I selected five different officers, none of whom could really dance. Well, to be honest, none of them could dance at all. One of them at least had some natural rhythm so after I counted steps for him for a about 30 seconds, he was able to manage OK. DH said his experience with the female officer was the same as mine, except, he did win a watch, wallet and pen for selecting the officer he chose.

After the dances with the officers were over the floor (which was very small and sticky) became way overcrowded. You know, one of those situation where every other step resulted in bumping butts with someone else, even though everyone was dancing very close in and really trying to stay out of everyone else’s way. I prefer to have at least a little room to maneuver.

I did forget to check with the front desk on the embarkation time in FLL, but will try to do that in the morning.

Have I mentioned that for some mysterious reason we have balloons on our door? Everyone in our area loves them because they make is easy to find their cabins—we too. Since they were starting to deflate, I grabbed a couple more balloons from the Black and White Ball to tie to our mailbox to guide us to our cabin for the rest of the cruise.

[c-legs]

Day Nine, Crossing

 

10:30 is about my limit. Am I getting old? ;)

 

Nope....just smarter...:D and a bit ''less young''.:rolleyes:

Cheers and thanks very much for inviting us along your T.A. through your blog.

[PunkiC]

Day Eleven, More Crossing

We are pretty much right smack in the middle of the Atlantic with no land for hundreds of miles in any direction. It is easy to see how people believed that the world was flat and that if you sailed far enough you would fall off the edge. The seas are more quiet today but still balmy and the sun is threatening to break through. I hope so as I have bunch of laundry out on the deck.

One thing we miss on HAL is that they don’t have the passenger’s names and status on their doors. On Princess they have color coded name tags with the passengers names on all the doors—black for elite, silver for platinum, gold for gold and blue for first timers. I think they also have a new category (medallion) but I don’t know what color it is, maybe burgundy.

When we first boarded we noticed that our next door neighbor was smoking on the deck. Smoking on the deck is not permitted on Princess. We were very disappointed and were worried that we would not be able to enjoy our balcony, but that was the last time we noticed her smoking. I don’t think her husband likes her smoking on the deck any more than we do. I haven’t noticed anyone else smoking on the ship, but then we never go to the casino so they may smoke there.

DH says that the stretch classes are overly full and that you have to be there at least 15 minutes early to get a matt. While I really prefer to work out in our room, I am very impressed that so many older people are taking good care of themselves. Speaking of older people, I am thrilled that there are so many of them on board. They are the only ones who remember Ava Gardner. People frequently tell me that I look like Ava Gardner, but the younger people don’t know who she was.

The beginner’s bridge class was again very well attended and it made more sense today—he tended to stay more on track. DH attended the cooking class but was not overly impressed. They were supposed to show how to cook a rack of veal roast, but ended up doing a veal cutlet.

We again had lunch in the Lido and then I went down to watch the duplicate bridge. Just before they began, my friends came in and asked me to join them to play, so I did that for a couple of hours. I had pretty good luck with the cards today.

Tonight we had early anytime dinner, again with the priest and were joined by a lively bunch. There was one gentleman at the table whose goal appeared to be to convince us that bread would kill us, assisted by the medical community. Fortunately, the rest of us talked so much that he couldn’t get too many words in edgewise. ;)

By this time, you are probably wishing that this blog was written by somebody who stayed up later and did a lot more stuff, but, despite the hour we are gaining every night, I still feel like I need a lot more sleep than I do on land.

I did go down to the purser’s desk to inquire if embarkation on the 15th would be delayed because of a ship inspection, but they told me they still have no idea how customs plans to handle disembarkation, let alone any ship inspections. If I learn more, I will let you know.

The end of another beautiful day at sea.

[Fragile-Beauty]

Punki,

 

Thank you so much for asking the pursers desk about our embarkation on the 15th. Innlady1 says that embarkation was delayed on her last TA voyage.

 

Usually I get to the port by noon, but I think I will kick it back an hour or so as I feel as though there will be more inspections and things to be done because the Noordam is back in the US and the beginning of a new itinerary.

 

Thanks again for keeping us posted-- it sounds like a great trip. I have upgraded to a balcony and I too hope I can use it and not get too much smoke in my face from other balconies.

 

Enjoy your last few days

 

Karen

[innlady1]

Punki,

 

Thank you so much for asking the pursers desk about our embarkation on the 15th. Innlady1 says that embarkation was delayed on her last TA voyage.

 

Usually I get to the port by noon, but I think I will kick it back an hour or so as I feel as though there will be more inspections and things to be done because the Noordam is back in the US and the beginning of a new itinerary.

 

Thanks again for keeping us posted-- it sounds like a great trip. I have upgraded to a balcony and I too hope I can use it and not get too much smoke in my face from other balconies.

 

Enjoy your last few days

 

Karen

 

Karen...I suspect that every ship re-entering the USA from abroad goes through a full inspection. We were off the NA two weeks ago today...and I know they had the US Public Health inspection.

Thanks, Punki, for all the news! Something so relaxing about the Crossing that it made us want to sleep, too! Loved the extra hour every other night, too! :D

[kazu]

Day Eleven, More Crossing

We are pretty much right smack in the middle of the Atlantic with no land for hundreds of miles in any direction. It is easy to see how people believed that the world was flat and that if you sailed far enough you would fall off the edge. The seas are more quiet today but still balmy and the sun is threatening to break through. I hope so as I have bunch of laundry out on the deck.

By this time, you are probably wishing that this blog was written by somebody who stayed up later and did a lot more stuff, but, despite the hour we are gaining every night, I still feel like I need a lot more sleep than I do on land.

The end of another beautiful day at sea.

 

I am not wishing this blog was written by someone else;) It's been very enjoyable to read. Looking forward to more if you have time and $:)

[mamaofami]

Personally, I would not like to have my name on the cabin door. It might invite some visitors I wouldn't want.

 

How is it that you manage to embark on Princess with so much OBC?

[RuthC]

Personally, I would not like to have my name on the cabin door. It might invite some visitors I wouldn't want.

I totally agree. To have the ship post my whereabouts without my consent is a violation of my privacy. A violation I know could be serious.

[PunkiC]

Day Twelve, More Crossing

Only three more days after today. How sad is that?

I can understand that some folks might not like their name on their door and, if that is the case, they simply removed the name slip. Very few folks do so, however.

Yesterday, we finally found the “Good Morning Noordam Show” I guess we are a little slow. It is OK but I really enjoy the Princess “Morning Show” more. On Princess they always have a contest which I always enter and often win. They also produce their shows on location, sometimes from the food storage area, sometimes back stage, or any other remote place on the ship.

After workouts and breakfast, there was a minute of silence to honor the veterans. 11.11.11. At 11:05, I went to bridge lessons and DH went up to the Veterans celebration with our friend, although, in fact, I am the one who was a regular United States Marine. DH was a 6-year reservist, but we both get full Veteran OBC on Princess and Cunard. Yeah for that! DH said that the remembrance service was very nice with our friend Fr. John leading with an opening prayer, followed by a chant led by the Rabbi. They thereafter acknowledge all of the different branches but I don’t know if there were any other Woman Marines.

In addition to receiving Veterans’ benefits, we also take full advantage of Stockholder OBC which gave us $250 for this cruise. I hope you all own 100 shares of Carnival stock. It will get you credit on every sailing under the Carnival ownership—Cunard, HAL, Princess, Seaborn, Carnival, P&O. It has been a fabulous investment for us which has paid for itself several times over. We cruise a lot. J

Today was the first time we had lunch in the MDR. It was good but it took a long time. We met there at 12:15 and were still eating at 2:00 p.m. Maybe we talk too much. Maybe the service was just slow, but the food was good.

At 2:00 p.m. it was time for our bridge game in the Pinnacle bar so we left the guys in the dining room and went off to play bridge. Today another gentleman joined us and our friend served as coach. She is actually a pretty good player so it is great for the rest of us that he is willing to teach us. If DH continues to refuse to learn, I may not have much opportunity to play when we get back home, but we will see how it works out.

While we were playing bridge, the guys went to an Atlantis Found party on the bow on deck 4, which is usually closed off. They had snacks, music and a no-host bar but no one from our group drank anything. Even though the seas were pretty quiet today, the guys said it was pretty breezy up on the bow.

After bridge, one of my bridge mates and I went up to the Lido for a walk and we almost immediately ran into DH who had just decided to come up to look for me. We took a leisurely stroll around the entire Lido Deck, stopping to talk to new shipboard friends all along the way. DH is so social.

We took a short rest before we dressed for dinner and then went down to the Ocean Bar and enjoyed some dancing before dinner at 8:00 p.m. The bands are really quite good and DH and I both really love dancing. It is a pity that HAL has gone with this ridiculous “Dancing with the Stars” program instead of having normal dance lessons, which are really a great way to introduce newbies to ballroom dance. The “Dancing with the Stars” classes consist of nothing but a lot of arm flailing and truly silly routines that no one will ever have an opportunity to do in real life. Who came up with this nonsense?

I was somewhat surprised that HAL no longer has any dance hosts on board their ships and also surprised, and disappointed, that they don’t change the elevator carpets every day. How do they expect us to know what day it is? ;)

After dinner, I was once again delighted to take my sleepy self to bed, despite the fact that I had slept a full eleven hours the previous night. Am I still suffering from jet-lag? At home I rarely sleep more than 8. Maybe even retired people need a vacation from retirement now and then.

[PunkiC]

Day Thirteen, More Crossing

We are edging closer and closer to the end. L My least favorite part of cruises is that they always end, usually right about the time I get into a really good ship routine.

DH has picked up a cold and a blister so I am playing nurse, wrapping his toe in a blister bandage and dispensing salt for gargling and Dayquil. I also have cough drops. It is very important to come fully supplied as things like Dayquil cost a veritable fortune on the ship.

Today they announced the winners of the recipe contest and prepared their dishes in the Culinary Arts Center. Both winners were from the Seattle area. We eat well in the Northwest. One winner was a sausage soup based on an Olive Garden recipe and the other was a chocolate mousse. The soup was served at lunch and the chocolate mousse will be served at dinner tonight. All of my fabulous recipes are way too complicated to be prepared in a cooking show so I didn’t submit anything. I am, however, sending our fantastic stuffed artichoke recipe to the On Location Guide, KK, who also does cooking demonstrations and she says she is going to make I for Christmas, which is one of our favorite times to cook them as well. They take a lot of work but they are oh so worth it.

Of course, I went to a bridge lesson and then had lunch with DH and some new shipboard friends, after which I went to play more bridge and DH went to a presentation on the Art and Science of Navigation.

It is overcast today and I think that means it is perfect napping weather. I sure sleep a lot on the ship. Last night after I fell asleep after dinner there was a huge storm with lots of thunder and lightening, but I missed it all. I also missed the Beatles show and post dinner dancing with my DH, who found other women to dance with in the Ocean Bar.

I hear that they also had a wonderful chocolate exhibition up on the Lido, but I missed that too.

After our lazy afternoon nap, which included watching “The Four Horsemen” in bed, we got dressed and went looking for a place to dance before dinner. We had no luck with dance music, but we did meet some nice people to talk to while we waited for the dining room to open so we could join our friends.

We have anytime dining and our friends have set dining so we had to do some finagling to make arrangements for all six of us to have dinner with the Priest. Basically, we found an empty table for eight in the MDR at the 8:00 seating and asked to be seated there. That worked perfectly. We may even do it again.

There as still no dance music after dinner so we went home and went to bed.

We received a letter today from Stein Kruse telling us that HAL had joined with the Philippine Red Cross to establish a relief fund for the victims of the typhoon. HAL employs more than 2,500 Filipino crew members. Anyone who is not currently sailing who would like to contribute can do so by contacting HAL.

[kazu]

more great reports :D Your cruise is coming to an end all too quickly and with it this fun thread. Hope your DH is feeling better soon!

[bumperoo]

Thanks for sharing so many wonderful tips and stories with us. I've enjoyed vicariously sailing along with you.

[innlady1]

Hope DH's cold is better...yes, the Dayquil costs a small fortune on board...I fell victim to that as well on our cruise! $16.99 or $17.99! Can't remember.

Thank you for your wonderful reports.

[EatonDoolittle]

Thanks for all your updates.

 

Florida is cold and windy, thanks to a cold front, so you may have a bumpy last night.

 

We board on Friday to start the Caribbean season on the Noordam, please let us know if you sense any other than the normal post - crossing delays (ex - heaven forbid- a noro outbreak, etc).

[Skipper's Mom]

Noordam is scheduled to arrive back in FLL on the 15th at 5:00 A.M EST. Who will be there to watch the sail-in? :D

[PunkiC]

Day Fourteen, More Crossing

It is a truly glorious day today with lots of lovely sunshine and temperatures in the high 70s.

Poor DH’s cold was worse this morning so he stayed in bed until 8:30 resting, rather than running around the deck. We haven't experienced any Noro outbreaks, but lots of folks have colds. By the grace of God, I seem to be able to be skating around it--knock on wood.

Today the Captain was running the cooking demonstration, making Boeuf Bourguignon. I didn’t stay too long because I felt I should go to the bridge lesson and I was very sorry I didn’t just stay and listen to the funny Captain.

The bridge teacher just gets worse and worse. He knows the subject, but he certainly can’t teach beginners. We had a one hour class during which we were supposed to bid and play one hand. He blabbed, and blabbed and blabbed to the point where we ran over 25 minutes and didn’t start playing the hand until about 10 minutes after the class was supposed to be over. I sure hope we get a chance to evaluate him.

Serendipitously, we ran into a guy with whom we used to work and haven’t seen for about 20 years. He actually painted the names on our building when we first moved in back in 1994. So, we ended up having lunch with him and that was very interesting. We know so many people in common and he was a very pleasant guy and a very good conversationalist.

Of course, after lunch, I played bridge again and feel like I am actually starting to get it. I think that if we ever meet couples where the men play bridge, that DH would be willing to learn. If he doesn’t, I don’t know if I will ever play very much. My neighbor plays bridge and she might drag me along with her group, or we might take classes somewhere along the way.

Our next cruise is a Princess cruise from San Pedro to Hawaii and back and I don’t know if they teach bridge lessons on that cruise. They will have hula and ukulele lessons in which I know were are going to participate so a lot of it may depend on the timing. They will also have Zumba classes on Princess and I know that DH will pick Zumba over bridge any day.

Tonight is another formal night and we decided to have early anytime dinner and dance later. We sat at a sharing table for eight and I had lobster, which was great, and DH ate my steak, his steak and his lobster. In all fairness he did offer me his lobster, but one tail was enough for me. They had Sacher Torte for dessert so I ordered one but could only eat one bite. I am not a big dessert person and this torte was nowhere close to that we have had in Austria. DH finished it for me.

After dinner we danced and chatted with couple from Mexico, so I had a chance to practice my Spanish, and they had a chance to practice their English. I wish we had met them earlier in the cruise as I believe it was helpful to all of us. I am having a much easier time dancing as my ankle and hip repair themselves but I was competing tonight with a great deal of ship action, which has continued to increase as the night wears on. The folks in the bow must be having quite a wild ride as even in our midship cabin we are feeling it more now than we have at any time during the cruise.

[Hope to Cruise]

What is the name of the bridge director? We have had only one cruise with a bad one, all the others have been terrific.

 

You will have bridge on the Princess Hawaii cruise.

[retdon]

Thanks for the great report especially about the dancing and good bands. We are on the 11/25 sailing and enjoy dancing before dinner. Last year there was very little opportunity to dance as the times were short and not around our late dinning time.

 

Hope to do a TA someday, I just love to cruise, ports are OK but the ship is my favorite part of the trip. Thanks again for the informative review, Linda

[lastlook]

Noordam is safely back in port. I was not up early enough to watch her slip quietly back in to Port Everglades.....darn.

[Skipper's Mom]

Noordam is safely back in port. I was not up early enough to watch her slip quietly back in to Port Everglades.....darn.

 

Watched her sail in early this AM. Welcome back Noordam!

[comfortcove]

Thanks for all of your posts. It sounds like a great time, and welcome home! Someday when we retire I want to do some TA and longer repositioning cruises. Enjoy your new bridge skills!

[PunkiC]

Well I wrote a nice long post for our packing day and then overwrote it. :mad: So, I will just give you the highlights.

 

By the end of the cruise, I was running out of stuff. We were got 24 days and I underestimated on several items--hairspray, powder, and Dayquil, plus it accidentally trashed my eyebrow brush and had to fake it the last couple of days.

 

Disembarkation was very slow and the lines were much longer than I felt they should have been for such a small ship, and we were in the handicapped line which was quite short, but very slow. Finally the TSA supervisor came by and apologized, explaining that they were having computer issues.

 

Hope to Cruise, the bridge director was named Dr. Chuck and while he knew a lot, he was just not a good teacher. He may have received some feedback to that effect, because his last lesson was much better organized than the previous lessons had been.

 

We are now kicking back at the Sheraton after spending the day running around Fort Lauderdale in our rental car shopping and eating. Amazingly it was DH who decided we should have Mexican food in FLL. It appears he was missing it on the ship.

 

Now I am going to go take a nap and dream of the ocean.

[kazu]

Great reports! Thanks so much for having done this. We've enjoyed travelling along with you.

 

Safe travels home:)