On board Veendam 9/20 to 10/4/2014

[KruzPrincess]

Thanks to the many people who answered all my questions about the Veendam. Ship is lovely and I'm sure I'm going to have a wonderful cruise. The mariner lunch was lovely and I met some really nice people. Staff has been incredibly nice so far. Thank you so much. If I get the chance, I'll stop back with updates.

[Mr. Boston]

Have a great cruise. We really enjoyed our time on the Veendam, I hope you do as well.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for reporting in and glad it is going well so far. By all means come back and tell us all about the rest of your cruise.:)

[POA1]

Have a wonderful trip!

Edited September 20, 2014 by POA1

[Carnevale]

Thanks to the many people who answered all my questions about the Veendam. Ship is lovely and I'm sure I'm going to have a wonderful cruise. The mariner lunch was lovely and I met some really nice people. Staff has been incredibly nice so far. Thank you so much. If I get the chance, I'll stop back with updates.

 

Hi KruzPrincess! Great to hear you are off to a good start.

 

We are on the Veendam starting Oct 10 so will look forward to anything you can share during your sailing or whem you are home.

 

In particular, we love to ballroom dance so any impressions you have of the quality of the music or amount of dancing in the Ocean Bar or Crows Nest will be great to hear about.

 

Have a great time!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Wishing you a great cruise.

Hope you can give some reports as you cruise.

[Keith1010]

Bon Voyage.

 

Keith

[KruzPrincess]

I'm in Bar Harbor. Just had lobster roll and clam chowder here in town. They kept telling us that it would be really cold in Canada, so I came in to buy an extra sweatshirt ..... Hoodie. Tons of touristy shopping. I didn't do a tour, but will look into that for next week. Lovely day. I will do a full report when I get home. Will try to check out dance stuff, tho I'm not a dancer.

[Lizzie68]

Good to hear from you. Have a fabulous cruise.:)

[KruzPrincess]

Hello from Halifax. The weather was really rough last night and at first we didn't think we were going to get into Halifax at all. Finally, we got in at about noon. The day was pretty nice although very windy. At 7 PM, I noticed that we hadn't sailed. The captain announced that due to more rough weather tonight that we were going to stay in Halifax overnight. They could not make arrangements for us to be allowed off the ship for the evening. We are going to miss her stop tomorrow at Sydney. We will have a Sea day. Of course, the casino and shops remain closed. The ship is dead tonight. Not much going on.

 

I tried to check out the ballroom dancing, which is supposed to be every evening, but there was no band and nothing happening at the room when I checked it out tonight. The solo guitar player is quite talented. I only watch him for a short time, but he seems good.

 

So, that's about it.

[Carnevale]

So sorry to hear about the rough seas, missed port and lack of a fun evening! But, I guess it is much better to stay put when the captain thinks it best. Hope things improve.

 

And many thx for keeping a lookout for dancing. For us, a bad day at sea is one with no time on the dance floor (have to deal with all that eating). :-)

[Linda&Vern]

Hello from Halifax. The weather was really rough last night and at first we didn't think we were going to get into Halifax at all. Finally, we got in at about noon. The day was pretty nice although very windy. At 7 PM, I noticed that we hadn't sailed. The captain announced that due to more rough weather tonight that we were going to stay in Halifax overnight. They could not make arrangements for us to be allowed off the ship for the evening. We are going to miss her stop tomorrow at Sydney. We will have a Sea day. Of course, the casino and shops remain closed. The ship is dead tonight. Not much going on.

 

I tried to check out the ballroom dancing, which is supposed to be every evening, but there was no band and nothing happening at the room when I checked it out tonight. The solo guitar player is quite talented. I only watch him for a short time, but he seems good.

 

So, that's about it.

 

Thanks for reporting in. I'm on the Veendam next month, so eagerly reading everything about its current condition, etc. Did you ever find any music tonight (not sure what time you wrote your post) or was the entire evening quiet?

Edited September 23, 2014 by Linda&Vern

[KruzPrincess]

Now in Charlottetown PEI. It's a beautiful brisk day. For those of you booked on a future cruise...bring warm clothes. I ended up buying a couple sweatshirts. Lots

Of end of season sales, tho. My cabin has been freezing and I finally called for a fix. They came to test within a half hour and my thermostat is

Broken. He put in and order for a fix. A few are complaining about toilet issues, but thankfully not me. Seems to be that water keeps running and cAuses overflow. I make sure that isn't happening before I leave. No sewage, just water. Good service. Friendly crew. Most passengers were ok with staying in port and skipping Sydney. No on slept the night before and I'm sure they were worried about falls and injuries. Better to be safe. Will try to check the dance situation again. On the slow night, they had a folkloric show with Scottish fiddle and song. Many were at that show. Tomorrow we are at sea and then Quebec. Not sure if they'll have free wifi there. It may be a few days before I post. Lots of these ports have free wifi. Nice.

[KruzPrincess]

Guess my smartphone added those paragraphs. I did the run on paragraphs! LOL.

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for the updates.

Wishing you sunny skies and warm temperatures for the rest of your cruise.

[erewhon]

Thanks for the updates during your Veendam cruise.

[PathfinderEss]

Hope your thermostat gets fixed. Thanks for all the updates.

Edited September 25, 2014 by PathfinderEss

[hpf]

Have you seen Captain Albert aboard ? He is doing a cruise training on the Veendam this week. He was on the Massdam the past cpl. of weeks.

 

Enjoy your cruise and perhaps you will be able to get into port at Sydney on your return trip.

 

Helen

[KruzPrincess]

Greetings from Quebec City.

 

The nice thing about this cruise is that almost all the ports have free wifi. Everyone, crew and passengers, come out to use it.

 

It was rainy this morning. 55 degrees, but the sun is coming out now. Looks to be lovely.

 

Went to a culinary demo yesterday and learned to make New England clam chowder and poutine. They are having a poutine bar in place of the taco bar today.

 

Last night, I went to dinner for formal night and had surf and turf. It was good. I'm a casual cruiser and don't go to the mdr much, but I dressed up last night and met some nice folks there. Then, I got a DVD from the desk and watched it in my cabin. Nice having that option.

 

I checked out ballroom dancing again. I must always while they're on break! I hung around, tho. Neptune plays in the Ocean Bar every night from 6:30 to 11:30. They sounded ok to me, but I'm not a dance person. They have a 10+ page song list and it's all different categories of dance styles. You can fill out requests for what you want. He had about 4 requests lined up. Hope that helps. Nice little dance area. The couple I dined with we're anxious to hear the violin and piano duo. I like Kevin, the singer and guitarist

 

I didn't win the lottery for the free cruise. :(

 

This is for my friend who is reading this. Beds are comfy!!

 

That's it for today.

[Carnevale]

A very BIG thank you for checking on the dancing and music for me - much appreciated!

 

Sounds like a great cruise ... So glad you are enjoying it!

[KruzPrincess]

Turnaround day in Quebec City. I decided to do a tour to avoid all the hubbub of new passengers. It was 5 hours including brunch at Frontenac Hotel, St. Anne's Shrine, sugar shack and the falls. The fall colors are amazing. They said no color last week and now it just exploded. Very nice day. Almost too hot!! It's supposed to be beautiful tomorrow, too.

 

There have been some good movies in the theater and on tv. I'll try to list them when I get home.

 

Lots of ships in port. There's been 3 in most ports. Here we had 2 yesterday and 2 today. Tour guide says there will be 6 next week, but I don't know how many days that covers. I think there's only the two berths here

 

That's all for today.

[KruzPrincess]

The second half of my b2b was cancelled and I'm home. I'll be happy to try to answer questions if you have any.

[carolcp]

I was on the same cruise. The staff as usual were their normal wonderful selves. Things on the ship aren't brand new but neither are they tattered, just nice and cozy. The bow was painted while we were in port and she is gleaming. One thing I noticed was the lack of flowers. On other HAL ships, you would see HUGE displays of flowers. The vase in front of the Rotterdam dining room was in an 18 inch vase and the flowers just sort of sat there just barely above the top of the vase. I was glad to not have the fruit basket filled in my room and have it go to waste.

 

I like sitting in the Explorers lounge in the evening listening to the violin. Unfortuantaly it is next to the Pinnacle dining room and one night a very loud disagreement between some members of the large wine tasting group broke out and spilled over into the lounge.

 

I personally had some dining issues due to a food allergy. I am allergic to mayonnaise and some of the food listed on the menus did not state mayonnaise or aioli (which the chef seemed to be very fond of using often). I had to send food back when there was slaw under the pate and blue cheese (can't have because of penicillin allergies) under the caviar. Then the Dive Inn hamburger bar, ALL the burgers are made with their "special" sauce and when I tried to request a burger with no sauce he pointed to the sign and said to order only one of those. Sorry, no, not going to do it.

 

Never seemed to have enough free time on the ship even with the surprise sea day due to missing Sydney because of the rough seas. HAL did a great job of creating a whole new schedule for the sea day. Lots to do with no down time unless you wanted it.

 

I did have a fountain in my room. The toilet ran over twice, just wouldn't stop filling with water. Learned to push the button in only a little bit and not all the way in.

 

Wish my room was cooler, even turned all the way down didn't get too cold. Maybe it had to do with the guest in Lanai who kept propping open his sliding door to get the sea breeze. Ah yes the breezes were wonderful, sometimes a little strong that they had to block off some of the outside access. It was fun though on the night we did have some seas. I like the rocking and rolling seas. Went up to the Crows nest to get a good view and enjoyed it.

 

We love going to tea. Sunday tea was held in the Explorers lounge at 3. At 3 o'clock every seat was filled and no room. "Here is a plate of scones, go get your tea in the Lido". Tea on two other days was in the Crows nest. Filled to capacity again. We did not get milk or sugar since we were sitting on the benches along the window. Nor did we get silver ware to eat with. We did arrive 30 minutes early the next time to sit in a chair.

 

 

Now for the canceled part. Those that that HAL flights got theirs changed automatically. I do wonder what they did for those who flew internationally. We had started in Boston and we were lucky to have gotten a rental car because they stopped renting cars one way to the states. HAL had transfers going to the airport every two hours and a couple of buses going to Montreal. HAL said they will reimburse us for the rental car and for other people, the fees for changing their flights. We found out Sunday night that the cruise was canceled. That was after two nights in Quebec for us since we were doing a back to back. They were giving us until Tuesday to get off the ship. They canceled the captains welcome on board party, the Mariners lunch. Food was served in the Lido and Rotterdam dining room. Felt sorry for the bar staff. After having a very busy day from the canceled port day, no one was in the mood to order drinks Monday even though all the public lounges were busy, just a very low key busy. HAL turned on the internet for free for us but it was useless. After 30 minutes I never got anything to work. Walked to the terminal for the free Wi-Fi there.

 

All in all it was an adventure, wish we could have continued, but rather not have a break down even in the river or along the coast. HAL treated us well, thank goodness we got to do the cruise one way, just not the return.

 

As of 3 pm the "parts" needed for repair to the propeller had not arrived. The staff are thinking they there will be a dry dock because they will need to lift the ship to get the parts in. Sounds horrible for the staff on board because she said they will not have air conditioning down on deck 3 while in dry dock conditions. But when we left Quebec the weather turned from Saturdays/Sunday mid 70's sunny to Monday 49 degrees with a hard blowing ice cold rain. Glad it was not like that when we rented bikes and road out the falls.

[sunnydaze]

Thanks for the great report Carolcp. Sorry your cruise didn't go as planned, :cool:but like you said, it could have been worse, and at least everyone is safe.

[jammen]

Thanks to the many people who answered all my questions about the Veendam. Ship is lovely and I'm sure I'm going to have a wonderful cruise. The mariner lunch was lovely and I met some really nice people. Staff has been incredibly nice so far. Thank you so much. If I get the chance, I'll stop back with updates.

 

Thanks for the good up-date. We also like the Veendam.