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Here we go! 31-Day R/T Cruise to Incan Empire

Spinner2

By Spinner2,
in Holland America Line

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Spinner2

Spinner2

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I hope I'll have the internet connection to make occasional posts about our cruise that starts today! We're in a San Diego hotel, where this morning we lay in bed and watched on my iPad marine traffic.com and a San Diego web cam as the beautiful Statendam slowly sailed into port through a very foggy atmosphere. We'll head over to the ship in a couple of hours; thought I'd get this started while I have a good internet connection.

 

This is the Statendam's San Diego to San Diego Incan Empires cruise; 31 days, with ports in Mexico, Panama, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. Some of these are ports we've visited; others will be new to us. Our Roll Call for this cruise is active and large (over 50 people) so I'm anticipating a fun Meet/Greet. Actually, there will be 2; another again after Lima, Peru, because some folks will come aboard in Lima, doing the Lima to San Diego portion. Several of our group are already aboard; they've also been out to the South Pacific on their very long cruise and you've probably read WCB's fascinating and fact-filled blog about this just-prior Statendam journey. I won't manage as thorough a blog as they've done since when we get back I'll do another segment of Wilde Adventures, but I'll write when I can.

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RuthC

RuthC

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I'm looking forward to reading along with whatever you are able to share. This is an itinerary we don't hear about on this board, so your report should be fascinating.

Thanks for your efforts.

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Spinner2

Spinner2

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Day 2, November 4, 2013

 

The muster drill went well yesterday afternoon; no one was excessively late it seemed, and the attendance check was fast. The commanders (certified!) of the lifeboat stations are such people as the Pinacle Grill manager, the events manger, and such and they moved things right along. We weren’t out there long.

 

We are lucky to have a Neptune Suite this cruise, so we enjoyed some goodies there instead of lunch; the coast guard, the CDC and everyone else official I guess were on board the ship for inspections, right through the drill, so the crew was understandably busy with that and the MDR wasn’t open for the usual Mariner lunch, sending everyone to the Lido. It was nice to bypass that. We recognize some of the crew and they seem to remember us, so that’s been a pleasant time of greetings and remembrances.

 

A couple of changes that I think we are going to enjoy: as best as I can tell, at least for tonight, the first formal night, there will be 3 performances of the evening show. There are the usual ones, about 6:30 and 8 pm, but another at 10 pm. Perhaps that is just for this evening, but we’ll see; we like to eat late and go to the show after.

 

We were last on this ship 11 months ago and since then the ship has been to dry dock. We noticed considerable improvement in the visual capabilities of the stage area; there were more multimedia capabilities and today at the historic lecture and port descriptions talk I noticed that the quality of the graphics was considerably improved. Multimedia graphics are something I do, and in the past I’ve cringed at the layout choices, usually with very poor color balance, that were being used; what I saw last night and today were so, so much better visually and information-enhancing.

 

The seas are calm, our cabin is very comfortable; across from the Neptune Lounge and not at all noisy or excessively vibrating as some passengers have noted recently in nearby cabins. Whatever was wrong seems to have been fixed; I haven’t heard anyone else mention those concerns either. The Stateroom Inspector has been around several times already, checking up on things; he’s often seen in the halls, conferring with his staff.

 

And so we sail on; tomorrow is the first port; a tender port, at Cabo San Lucas. Our CC’s first meet/greet is the next day and I (the volunteer in charge of the arrangements) have been given plenty of help with it, both by the staff and the other roll call members. Life is good, aboard the Statendam.

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Spinner2

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Just a quick note, before we head down to breakfast: a couple more changes that we’re happy about: rather than a sheet of information about the upcoming port we’ve been given a very nice little booklet that has similar information about each port of this journey, each location front and back of the same sheet. I guess you could tear it out and take it along but the booklet’s too nice to do that! The port agent information is there, the local map, a few local attractions, etc. And, from the program for today, it appears that once again we’ll have a 10 pm show option. It may not continue, but while we have it, we’re happy about that.

 

Dinner (formal) for both of us was the lamb option last night, very tasty, and the chocolate soufflé was a lovely ending.

 

Cabo today. We’ve been here many times and would not usually stir up much interest, but it’s been a long time since we’ve sailed out to the end of the point for some new photos, so we’re going to do that.

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fb0075

fb0075

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Hi Marney

 

Joining you in Lima--Bill and Maryann were complaining about the beef--wondering your opinion---

Also Bill mentioned that there wasnt Prime Rib the first night---if that be the case we might do specialty restaurant

 

Thanks frank

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cruz chic

cruz chic

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Just a quick note, before we head down to breakfast: a couple more changes that we’re happy about: rather than a sheet of information about the upcoming port we’ve been given a very nice little booklet that has similar information about each port of this journey, each location front and back of the same sheet. I guess you could tear it out and take it along but the booklet’s too nice to do that! The port agent information is there, the local map, a few local attractions, etc. And, from the program for today, it appears that once again we’ll have a 10 pm show option. It may not continue, but while we have it, we’re happy about that.

 

Dinner (formal) for both of us was the lamb option last night, very tasty, and the chocolate soufflé was a lovely ending.

 

Cabo today. We’ve been here many times and would not usually stir up much interest, but it’s been a long time since we’ve sailed out to the end of the point for some new photos, so we’re going to do that.

That booklet has been on my cruises for the last couple years. I like it but have heard people complain.

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ScriptOhio

ScriptOhio

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I've done a similar itinerary on the Statendam. Looking forward to your take on it.. Have a great cruise.

 

I did this one on the Rotterdam in 2011,

 

2det.jpg

 

I thought it was a great itinerary with 2 Panama Canal transits, Central America, South America, and R/T Ft. Lauderdale. For what ever reason, HAL doesn't do it anymore.

 

Yes, have a great cruise. Looking forward to your reviews.

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Spinner2

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Cabo was quite nice; the weather was warm but not really hot and we did something we’ve not done in a long time—took a ship tour out to Land’s End to watch the sea lions, seals, and tides interact in the sunshine. Then a bus took us up to the Mona Lisa Restaurant, up above the beach floor for a scenic view back down to the water. It was a pleasant, and fairly inexpensive way to spend the afternoon in a place we usually don’t enjoy very much because of the pressure to buy tours and knick-knacks. I understand the need of those who live in an area to make a living, but when there are so many with a similar need, it’s a bit much.

 

This is a tender port and the waves cooperated today; I thought the process went fast and trouble-free as there was minimal ship motion in the transfers between tender and shore and tender/ship.

 

For dinner last night we arranged course by course out on our verandah and so very pleasant it was! The weather was perfect, and as we were still based at Cabo, out in the bay, we had the lovely breezes. We lucked out on the view as well; for most of the time that we were outside eating our view was of the arches rock formation; we could hear the seals and sea lions as we all enjoyed a beautiful sunset together. I had the mahi-mahi entree; George had the beef entree and both were delicious; everything came at just the right temperature, and split into two deliveries; the appetizers first, then the entrees; for dessert we got cappuccinos from the Neptune Lounge, which to our surprise, has been open until 8:30 pm each night. Last night’s show was magician/comic Craig Diamond who we’ve enjoyed before and did again this time.

 

Today was our Cruise Critic Meet/Greet; they’d reserved fully half the Crow’s Nest for us as we expected (and got) 50 attendees. Some even brought new friends they’ve met along the way, and a dozen officers and heads of staff joined us for awhile. I think the many tours that have been arranged among the group privately all got their plans organized. It was a big group but everyone was so helpful and I hope that most people had a good time and got their questions answered. I’d organized this one and it’s been a bit of a challenge as some people, only a few, but some, will leave us in Lima, others will join, and I was trying to only put reminder notices at cabin mailboxes of the people who are here now, not those who will come aboard at Lima. And, we have some who have been aboard for so long (the previous cruise, at least one couple longer than that!) who were already aboard when we got our times and dates organized.

 

Sea day again tomorrow! We’ve had interesting talks to acquaint us with indigenous cultures of the areas we’ll be visiting, and Lance, who speaks about the logistics of each port; what there is to do there on your own, the transportation available, etc. has been very helpful.

 

I think tonight we’ll see some rain; there’s certainly thunder and lightning in the air tonight.

 

Life is good aboard the Statendam tonight!

 

PS I haven't had time to read your comments; will do ASAP; so far we've loved the beef and did have prime rib the first night; I saw those two questions flash across as I hastily scrolled down . . . you know how it is with this bandwidth!

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cruz chic

cruz chic

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I did this one on the Rotterdam in 2011,

 

2det.jpg

 

I thought it was a great itinerary with 2 Panama Canal transits, Central America, South America, and R/T Ft. Lauderdale. For what ever reason, HAL doesn't do it anymore.

 

Yes, have a great cruise. Looking forward to your reviews.

 

That sounds like a great itinerary. Mine want thru the canal twice too. It was pouring for the second transit. I like your itinerary better.

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dontworry

dontworry

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We are staying in Stateroom 156 for the Sea of Cortez cruise Dec 4. If yo get the chance can you check a few times to see that our cabin is being cared for? :-) Looking forward to your reports on your adventures and how the good old Statendam is doing these days.

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