CSI: NA Reloaded (Nieuw Amsterdam 11/30 to 12/14/14)

[POA1]

Here is the On Location for Grand Cayman Day, 12/3/2014. They're pulling the tenders out, so I will soon lose my excellent internet connection.

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFjPt7Iw_ihPD76fvdmpKIsLVBuHhYq_M_U/

 

Must.... hurry....

Edited December 3, 2014 by POA1

[POA1]

A little more on the Meet & Greet (Could I get any more out of sequence?)

 

We had a pretty decent crowd. I can't really judge because this was my first one, but most people stayed almost the whole hour. The Nieuw Amsterdam's new Cruise Director, Jeremy dropped in, which was nice. He's very personable and all seems to be running well.

 

=====

 

They've been adding more and more Christmas decorations the past few days, so it's even more festive than it was earlier. We should be able to get some good pix on turnaround day.

 

=====

 

Our snorkel trip was excellent. It's a little choppy this time of year. There's really nothing that can be done about that. My bottom snorkel valve seems to have given up the ghost. What I now have is a bottom-filling straw attached to my mask. Luckily, there's a Dive Shop across from Kermit's Key Lime Shop in Key West.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks POA everything worked perfect. Must have been that Barcardi and coke zero.

[superoma]

Thank you. Evernote is now public.

 

Have you had a chance to learn the steel drums yet?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[POA1]

Thank you. Evernote is now public.

 

Have you had a chance to learn the steel drums yet?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Sadly, no. My dreams about steel pan virtuosity are as yet unfulfilled. To make matters worse, tonight's main show lounge entertainers are "Island Magic," an entire steel drum act.

[POA1]

We had a very nice day in Grand Cayman. The tendering process was smooth and efficient. And, in contrast to two weeks ago when we were in Cayman, the ride was smooth as well. I'm very glad we booked the tour we did. Our boat had about 26 people on it. We saw smaller vessels with twice the number of people. Snorkeling was a mixed bag. It's just a little rough this early in the season.

 

Upon returning to Georgetown, we made a mandatory stop at the Tortuga Rum store so I could pick up some original rum cakes for my brother and his family. We bought four of the large rum cakes, but realistically only three of them will be making the trip to his house. One's bound to be lost to "shrinkage" in transit. My brother, who vacations in the Caymans often swears that the rum cakes are better when they're made here. (Tortuga has some bakeries in the states.) Who am I to argue? I know that NYC has better bagels than other places, and San Francisco has the best sour dough bread, so it goes to follow that there's a best place for rum cakes as well.

 

If you're just going to walk around Georgetown, DB recommends Rackhams on the waterfront. They've got a patio right on the water, and if you have your snorkel gear, you can walk right into the water for some pretty decent fish-viewing. Then have a rum punch. It comes highly recommended, and my people know a thing or two about cocktails.

 

When we got to Georgetown, there were three ships in the anchorage: us, the Celebrity Equinox, and the Brilliance of the Seas (definitely now. :) ) When we got back to catch the return tender, the Disney Magic and Carnival's Dream had joined us. Downtown was pretty packed. We tendered out of Dodge and returned to the ship.

[cruz chic]

Please, cruzchic, don't burst my bubble. Then, I'd rather eat a burger than a tuna melt anywhere. Dive-In is a venue where I can grab a burger and enjoy the parade. Does that make sense?

 

I hope you're recovering from your ear infection and adapting to life back at work.

 

God Bless.

 

Yup, makes total sense. I'm probably one of the few peeps that prefers fish and chicken to beef. I bet you'll enjoy the dive in very much.

 

The ear is taking forever to get better. Work has been just nuts. My suitcase remains on the floor right were it landed late Monday. I hope to get some energy this weekend to clear it out. Thx for asking.

[cruz chic]

Sadly, no. My dreams about steel pan virtuosity are as yet unfulfilled. To make matters worse, tonight's main show lounge entertainers are "Island Magic," an entire steel drum act.

 

Seems to me they had lessons in week 2. You might want to see if you can sign up early:D;):p.

[POA1]

Yesterday, we made another trip to the front desk, as Huskerchick managed to demagnetize her beverage card once again. Fortunately, we discovered the culprit. One of her Jimmy Choo purses has a magnetic clasp, and that caused the magnetic strip to become degaussed*. I still think it's part of an elaborate plot to make sure I exhaust my card first. Seeing that I am down to $1.88, and she's still got north of $230, her plan is definitely working. Even after she got her card fixed, she conveniently "forgot it in the room" when we went for a pre-cocktail party drink. (Yep. You read that right.) This left yours truly to buy the round of drinks in the Silk Den. DW had sake. Her father had a Sapporo beer, and I had that traditional Japanese favorite, Maker's Mark on the rocks.

 

We were invited to a cocktail party hosted by Captain Bas van Dreumel, and hotel director Marco van Belleghem. The party was held in the Crow's Nest and was well attended by passengers, officers, and managers. We had a chance to speak with the new cruise director, Jeremy. Jeremy was recently promoted. He was the assistant CD/show host when we were on the Noordam earlier in the year. (Boy oh boy, I hope DSIL AlexandNessa is reading this.)

 

We ran into some friends we met on the Noordam, or actually just the male half of the friends, as the wife was feeling a bit under the weather. Our friends our getting their 300 day medallion on the next sea day, so we plan to turn out and show our support.

 

Solo guitarist, Don Waugh was playing at the party. He's very good and we've seen a number of his sets. (I just didn't tell you. I'm so busy over-using parentheses that I forgot.)

 

They had some very nice hors d'oeuvres at the party, but we passed because we were heading to Le Cirque at the Pinnacle Grill at 8:00. DW had her usual Ketel One & soda, two limes. In honor of the captain and fine crew of the Nieuw Amsterdam, I decided to switch things up and had a glass of ice, topped with Maker's Mark. DFIL had a glass of ice water. Either he's planning on driving, or he completely missed the concept of the cocktail party.

 

*This is a real word.

 

Dinner at Le Cirque was excellent, and I managed to capture a photo of the elusive amuse bouche before we chowed down. (There are other photos as well and they'll be uploaded when we're in port and I have a cell phone data connection. It's simply too time-consuming and expensive to upload them from the ship. I have to save my pennies because no one else is chipping in for rounds of drinks, not even DW. ;) This is kind of ironic, because what's mine is hers and what's hers is hers.)

 

For our starters, DW had the chilled lobster Le Cirque salad. I had Le Trio. I'd like to give a shout out to whomever was scooping the caviar onto Le Trio in the Pinnacle kitchen. Awesome job! The pate de foie gras was excellent, too. DFIL had the Caesar Salad. Remember the deconstructed Caesar that had everyone's panties in a bunch a few months back? The Le Cirque version is even more deconstructed. It looked excellent. DFIL pronounced it very good once we explained how to put it back together. I don't think he was fully on board with the poached egg part, but he ate the whole salad.

 

For our soup course, DW and I had the Butternut Squash Soup. DFIL had the chilled melon and yogurt soup. This was his first chilled soup ever. He liked it quite a lot, so we're interested to see if he has chilled soups with dinner in the MDR. (Ground breaking, adventurous stuff.)

 

For our mains, DW had the lamb. I had the Chateaubriand. DFIL had the black cod. All the dishes were great. (If our progressions look familiar from the last cruise, it's because they are. We pretty much repeated our choices.)

 

I did switch things up with dessert this time. I had the creme brulee before, but this time I had the chocolate souffle, as did my father in law. DW had the Napoleon because she really liked it last time. For the record, it's an excellent souffle. (In a semi-related note, if you are a chocolate souffle lover and you find yourself packing a sport coat and/or dress in Disney World, go to Victoria & Albert's in the Grand Floridian hotel. Order the Kona Chocolate Souffle. You're welcome. Huskerchick has had it well over 50 times. She won't order anything else. I always order the dessert that would have been her second choice. I'm not sure if that's the secret to a happy marriage or not, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.)

 

Our wine for the evening was a bottle of the 2009 Re di Renieri, a red blend from Tuscany. It's Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cab Franc, and Petit Verdot.Wine Spectator scored it a 90, but we'd have bumped it up a few points. If you're going to Total Wine before a cruise out of Port Everglades, please do not buy all of this wine. It's mine. :)

 

DFIL camped out at the packed and toasty warm piano bar. We joined him for one of pianist Jeremy's sets and then headed to the casino. Huskerchick turned $10 into $20 on a one dollar slot machine. The casino was pretty busy. This cruise has a number of Club 21 players on it as well.

 

DW and I caught the last B.B. King show of the evening and then went over to Nothern Lights. The B.B. King band is off on Cozumel night, so we're going to have to find something else to do with our sad, sorry selves. (Mariachi band!)

 

We ended the night by stopping in the casino a second time. Huskerchick parlayed her $20 back into ten bucks, so she's even. I wonder if our frenzied 90 seconds of play will qualify us for one of those $499 Neptune Suites that the Club 21 people got?

Edited December 4, 2014 by POA1

[Krazy Kruizers]

Wonderful report.

[POA1]

Wonderful report.

 

Thank you, very much!

 

A few months ago, I asked the question: What makes a good "Live From..."? in a thread on CruiseCritic:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2043440

 

Some people said that they preferred that people not clutter up the Live From threads by saying, "Thank you."

 

However - and for the record - we "live from" authors live for the thanks. So, feel free to say thank you. We really appreciate knowing that people read this stuff.

[RuthC]

We read this stuff. We lap it up like you lap up caviar and I lap up chocolate.

[POA1]

 

On this Day in History - December 4th - The first pro football playoff game is played in 1920. Buffalo defeats Canton 7-3 at the Polo Grounds. Speaking of football... It's good to be a Miami Dolphins fan. A lot of people have to worry about going on a cruise this time of year and missing their team's run for the Super Bowl. Not us. The Dolphins are usually mathematically eliminated from playoff contention by the 3rd week of preseason play. (I wrote this before the Dolphins beat the Jets on Monday night. So, while things look brighter for Miami, I don't think we're talking Super Bowl this year.)

 

Here's the On Location for Cozumel, 12/4/2014:

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFjAIc8zgNNLX6zBpBCkkNvUBxit-Wk3vvE/

 

Tonight's dress code is "Tropical Casual." Again, I have no idea what the heck that even means. Grass skirts & coconut bras? Hawaiian shirt mandatory? Seriously, I think they're just making stuff up. I wonder if the same person who makes up my cheese plate is behind this?

Edited December 4, 2014 by POA1

[cruiseatick]

Thanks for your review we will be getting on the ship on the 14 the the sad day you will be getting off , I do. Believe that those 499 suites were by the luck of the draw as my wife and I got one and we gamble very little .

[POA1]

Today in Cozumel we hired a car and driver and are planning to go on an island tour. We're going to the San Gervaiso ruins, an ancient Mayan fertility ritual temple. Mayan women who wanted to conceive would make the pilgrimage from the mainland. San Gervaiso isn't as impressive as some of the larger ruins, but it's close by. We're also going to visit the wild side of the island and a chocolate factory. The wild side of the island is relatively undeveloped. It's got a pretty coastline and some funky beach bars.

 

DW said that if the ancient Mayans had gone to the chocolate factory instead of the fertility temple, they'd probably still be around. It definitely would have cut down on the ritual human sacrifice. After all, if you pop a chocolate truffle in your mouth, you're far less likely to want to run someone through with a pike.

 

We're planning on lunch at Casa Mission in town. It's not somewhere you can walk, so the car will come in handy.

[AlexandNessa]

##snip##

 

We were invited to a cocktail party hosted by Captain Bas van Dreumel, and hotel director Marco van Belleghem. The party was held in the Crow's Nest and was well attended by passengers, officers, and managers. We had a chance to speak with the new cruise director, Jeremy. Jeremy was recently promoted. He was the assistant CD/show host when we were on the Noordam earlier in the year. (Boy oh boy, I hope DSIL AlexandNessa is reading this.)

 

We ran into some friends we met on the Noordam, or actually just the male half of the friends, as the wife was feeling a bit under the weather. Our friends our getting their 300 day medallion on the next sea day, so we plan to turn out and show our support.

 

They had some very nice hors d'oeuvres at the party, but we passed because we were heading to Le Cirque at the Pinnacle Grill at 8:00. DW had her usual Ketel One & soda, two limes. In honor of the captain and fine crew of the Nieuw Amsterdam, I decided to switch things up and had a glass of ice, topped with Maker's Mark. DFIL had a glass of ice water. Either he's planning on driving, or he completely missed the concept of the cocktail party.

 

##snip##

 

1. Jeremy, as in DJ Jeremy Spins the Hit (remotely, on a timer), from 11:02 to 11:06pm? That guy? THAT guy got promoted? Really. No. You're kidding. That was a dry joke for me, right? Right?!

 

2. Please pass on congratulations to Uncle Chic and Kathy.

 

3. I'm sure I misread that ... our DFIL turned down a free drink? Never mind, I take that back. I'm pretty sure I know your response to that. :D

[thetexasaggiecruiser]

Today in Cozumel we hired a car and driver and are planning to go on an island tour. We're going to the San Gervaiso ruins, an ancient Mayan fertility ritual temple. Mayan women who wanted to conceive would make the pilgrimage from the mainland. San Gervaiso isn't as impressive as some of the larger ruins, but it's close by. We're also going to visit the wild side of the island and a chocolate factory. The wild side of the island is relatively undeveloped. It's got a pretty coastline and some funky beach bars.

 

We thought San Gervaiso was worth seeing - it's definitely not as large a site as others, but just enough to say "hey, we saw ruins and didn't drive for 5 hours to do so".

 

Enjoy the "wild side" - best part of Cozumel, we think!

 

Loving your update, thank you so much for taking the time, effort and Internet $$ to share with us.

[cruz chic]

I hope you enjoyed your day!

[Iggysue]

Thanks for your review we will be getting on the ship on the 14 the the sad day you will be getting off , I do. Believe that those 499 suites were by the luck of the draw as my wife and I got one and we gamble very little .

 

 

And I love to make my offerings to the Casino Gods on a regular basis, and i have never been offered one of those $499 suites. Nuggets!:rolleyes:

[Iggysue]

Thanks for the AWESOME write-ups! Thank you for keeping us all so entertained! I, too, get on December 14 as you are leaving the ship. Sad we'll miss you by hours - could you maybe stow away in one of the life boats until after the ship departs???

[POA1]

I thought I'd post this Special RuthC Rush Edition of our daily briefing. We took a little tour at Kaokoa, a small, family-owned chocolate factory. We got to grind the beans and make our own rudimentary chocolate. What we made was beverage chocolate, for hot cocoa or old school Mayan chocolate beverage.

 

The company's chocolate is really quite good. We picked up a small supply. We got dark, milk, dark with chili, white. white with coconut, dark with hazelnut, dark with espresso, and cactus. Yes, cactus. We're concerned that cactus is going to be awesome because we only bought one bar of it. We got backups of all the others. Some, like the dark and the espresso, have backups of backups. (Like the Boy Scouts, we are prepared!)

 

The tour group was us. Just the three of us. There are six enormous ships in port, so a tour of 3 people is pretty sweet. Speaking of sweet, Huskerchick picked up some chocolate liquid soap, and some pure cocoa butter moisturizer and lip balm.

 

The tour is $10 per person, and you get to keep the beverage chocolate disk that you make. You also get to sample all their chocolates. Sadly, when there are only three people in your group, you can't jump back in line and get multiple samples. They'd catch on. ;) All in all, it's one of the most relaxing things you can do in such a busy port.

Edited December 4, 2014 by POA1

[cruz chic]

Sounds like a great tour.

[POA1]

1. Jeremy, as in DJ Jeremy Spins the Hit (remotely, on a timer), from 11:02 to 11:06pm? That guy? THAT guy got promoted? Really. No. You're kidding. That was a dry joke for me, right? Right?!

 

It's the very same Jeremy. I think you'd like him more as a cruise director. The show host on this cruise is Arias. He's had a reasonably full dance floor on the nights we've been in.

[RuthC]

I thought I'd post this Special RuthC Rush Edition of our daily briefing. We took a little tour at Kaokoa, a small, family-owned chocolate factory.

Oh, yum.

I was just about to get up to fix supper, and you have totally turned my pretty little head. Now I'm thinking a warm mug of hot chocolate will do the trick. :D

Thanks for thinking of me.

[POA1]

Oh, yum.

I was just about to get up to fix supper, and you have totally turned my pretty little head. Now I'm thinking a warm mug of hot chocolate will do the trick. :D

Thanks for thinking of me.

About 15 minutes into the tour, DW looked at me and said, "Ruth would be all over this." :)