Come Sail a Way with us LIVE as the Westerdam meets the Sail a Way Gang

[kazu]

Our guide was excellent and everyone was glued to her.

 

 

After being buried in snow, it was so nice to see all of the beautiful flowers and lush foliage

 

 

Sadly our time was up all too soon and we had to bid farewell to Cartagena

 

 

Since it was an early port, we had chosen this night for Le Cirque. Fabulous service as I wrote earlier and the dinner was delicious. Clifford did a fine job of taking care of us.

 

 

Tomorrow was going to be a big day as it was the Panama Canal.

 

to be continued..

[summer slope]

If I wasn't super excited to take this cruise before, I am literally drooling over it now. Your pictures (and your dh's) are incredible.

[Ky Colonel]

...Since it was an early port, we had chosen this night for Le Cirque. Fabulous service as I wrote earlier and the dinner was delicious...

 

Jacqui,

 

Your comment above implies that an "Evening at Le Cirque" was offered more than once on your cruise. Was it and, if so, is this common practice on HAL cruises longer than 11 days?

 

Happy that you and the "Gang" had such a great cruise.

 

Smooth sailing,

 

Rod

[kazu]

Jacqui,

 

Your comment above implies that an "Evening at Le Cirque" was offered more than once on your cruise. Was it and, if so, is this common practice on HAL cruises longer than 11 days?

 

Happy that you and the "Gang" had such a great cruise.

 

Smooth sailing,

 

Rod

 

 

yes Rod, there was more than one Le Cirque. there were at least two Le Cirque evenings.

 

The cruises do have to be longer for them to offer it.

 

I think 30 and 31 day Prinsendam cruises had 3 if memory serves. I think it was 2 on this one. I'm not sure at what # of days that the ship decides to put on more than one Le Cirque, sorry. I think it would have to be longer than 11 days though.

 

The "gang" had a fabulous time, thank you.

[kazu]

Those are some excellent pics Kazu; awesome job! Captain Rens is one of the good ones! ;)

 

Thank you kindly Copper. These are my husband's which is why the quality has improved ;). Our Captain was fabulous. Anyone who sails with him is truly fortunate.

 

Oops, I neglected to say that not all of the photos in this thread were posted by me. Some of our roll call members posted some great pics during the cruise as well.

 

The pic of the captain's table was taken by the HAL photographer and purchased.

[Ky Colonel]

yes Rod, there was more than one Le Cirque. there were at least two Le Cirque evenings.

 

The cruises do have to be longer for them to offer it.

 

I think 30 and 31 day Prinsendam cruises had 3 if memory serves. I think it was 2 on this one. I'm not sure at what # of days that the ship decides to put on more than one Le Cirque, sorry. I think it would have to be longer than 11 days though.

 

The "gang" had a fabulous time, thank you.

 

Thanks, Jacqui, for your prompt reply. Also thanks for sharing your pictures and commentary on the cruise.

 

Rod

[Mumsysailor]

Thanks for posting all your pics Jacqui, they're so much better than any I have. Happy memories.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[kazu]

Thanks for posting all your pics Jacqui, they're so much better than any I have. Happy memories.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I doubt they are better - but I will continue and I will send you some if you like. Once I am more up to snuff so to speak (stupid cold - and no I didn't get it on the ship)

[Mumsysailor]

Has the snow gone at home?

 

 

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[kazu]

Has the snow gone at home?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

It has now - YAY!!! We had a small pile left when we got home but it is now gone. At long last.

[Scrapnana]

Jacqui,

 

Enjoying looking at your pictures. Who is the red-headed officer at the Captain's Table? I took this picture of her dancing at the Captain's Black and White Gala but never heard who she was.

[kazu]

Jacqui,

 

Enjoying looking at your pictures. Who is the red-headed officer at the Captain's Table? I took this picture of her dancing at the Captain's Black and White Gala but never heard who she was.

 

Noel. She is an officer. She is a lovely lady and I suspect she balances the Captain's table a lot as she is very good at mingling and making everyone feel at ease. Sorry, I don't remember her last name and you can't read her signature on our menu. Both she and the captain signed our menus :)

[Scrapnana]

Noel. She is an officer. She is a lovely lady and I suspect she balances the Captain's table a lot as she is very good at mingling and making everyone feel at ease. Sorry, I don't remember her last name and you can't read her signature on our menu. Both she and the captain signed our menus :)

 

Thanks, Jacqui! I think quite a few of us were amazed by the Captain's dancing skills.

[Lizzie68]

My DH had the pleasure of sitting next to Noelle, and I think she stole his heart, LOL! She's very lovely both in looks and in personality. She is the Director of Marketing, onboard.

[Copper10-8]

Noel. She is an officer. She is a lovely lady and I suspect she balances the Captain's table a lot as she is very good at mingling and making everyone feel at ease. Sorry, I don't remember her last name and you can't read her signature on our menu. Both she and the captain signed our menus :)

 

I had the pleasure of working with Noel on AMDM late last year. She is what's known as the Manager Onboard Marketing which is a position only found on the four Vistas and two Signature class ships. She is in charge of what's known as the concessionaires onboard, meaning the Casino, Shoppies, Photographers, Steiners, PSA and Art people. Very nice young lady with a great personality and really good at what she does

[Copper10-8]

I had the pleasure of working with Noel on AMDM late last year. She is what's known as the Manager Onboard Marketing which is a position only found on the four Vistas and two Signature class ships. She is in charge of what's known as the concessionaires onboard, meaning the Casino, Shoppies, Photographers, Steiners, PSA and Art people. Very nice young lady with a great personality and really good at what she does

 

Commonly referred on board by the crew as 'MOM' ;)

[kazu]

I had the pleasure of working with Noel on AMDM late last year. She is what's known as the Manager Onboard Marketing which is a position only found on the four Vistas and two Signature class ships. She is in charge of what's known as the concessionaires onboard, meaning the Casino, Shoppies, Photographers, Steiners, PSA and Art people. Very nice young lady with a great personality and really good at what she does

 

Commonly referred on board by the crew as 'MOM' ;)

 

Thanks Copper :)

 

She was wonderful to talk to. Nice to know about her responsibilities. Might explain why the photographers were good, not pushy but helpful at the same time.

 

It was a totally different experience on this ship from a photo point of view than we were used to (in the good way).

 

And, I confess, because they were so helpful and not pushy, DH bought a package. After all, we had the sail a way gang on board :)

 

more pics tomorrow, I promise. The cold is winning tonight sadly.

 

and welcome back Copper :)

Edited May 10, 2015 by kazu

[kazu]

and our next day was the Panama Canal.

 

We had done a partial before but it doesn't compare to the full transit!

 

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

More of the Panama Canal - and yes they did serve the Panama Buns :)

 

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

As we were leaving the Panama Canal we heard cheers for the Sail a Way Gang. Yes, we really did. Not sure if someone is a CC fan or if they heard Mumsy :)

 

 

 

 

 

and it was nearly time for dinner by the time we got through

 

[freestyling]

Loving your review and pics. Thanks

[kazu]

Our first sea day and we had a lot of fun :). We had our Meet and Greet which I talked about enough already and then we had a wine tasting.

 

Many thanks to Lizzie58 and Mumsysailor who organized it and had lovely prizes for the wine tasting. It was held in our cabin and now you can see the real question answered - how many people can you fit in a Neptune Suite?

 

Our wine tasting:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2015 by kazu

[kazu]

more of the wine tasting......and since this was a sea day, it was our formal night.

 

1of4's children arrived all cleaned up for their formal night as they had early seating. Aren't they gorgeous?

 

1of4's DD & DS and others:

 

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2015 by kazu

[kazu]

The next day we arrived in Costa Rica. So lush, so beautiful (especially after all the snow we have had here at home) it was pretty hard to resist a pic or two.

 

 

 

 

part of the group was going zip lining and the rest were doing the butterfly garden, etc. Here is one of our intrepid zip liners all ready to go:

 

 

the butterfly garden was really neat with lots of reptiles (frogs, snakes, whatever) along with the butterflies.

 

Costa Rica has many breeds of frogs. This is the smallest.

 

[kazu]

Here is Costa Rica's frog that it is so famous for and is a symbol of this beautiful country:

 

 

You need to hold this frog VERY carefully. It is poisonous! We all stood back respectfully

 

 

Here is a better picture of the butterfly that is called the owl butterfly. When it mates, it looks like a viper's head because of the markings so they are left alone.

 

 

and our Cleopatra roll call member who was brave enough to put a baby boa on her head and hold it!

 

 

 

soon it was time to return to the ship and set sail.