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Dave’s Live From Oosterdam 21-day Southern Caribbean, Jan. 29 – Feb. 19, 2016

RetiredMustang

By RetiredMustang,
in Holland America Line

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rajkr74

rajkr74

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Dave,

Thanks again for providing information on this same cruise that we will be taking on the 19th. Great pictures and your scanner worked well on the Daily programs, nice. Joyce cut and pasted your typed menus and will compare those to our cruise to see how many are duplicated. It will interesting to see. We defiantly see more use of hot spicy foods that we are not real fond of.

 

Are you still planning on coming out west to be closer to your sons now that you are retired?

 

Sorry that we will pass and miss you and Cathy on the dock Friday.

Have a safe trip home.

 

Rick & Joyce

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lorisch

lorisch

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Dave, thanks for your extensive blog. I was on the first leg of your cruise and enjoyed many of the same things as you. My cousin and I were also on the Aqua Space excursion, but must have been on the later time departure. The snorkeling was fun there: swam with several sea turtles. Very fun. I left my cruise daily newsletters behind on the ship so was happy to see you had scanned yours. Thanks for that.

 

Lori:)

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RetiredMustang

RetiredMustang

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Dave,

Thanks again for providing information on this same cruise that we will be taking on the 19th. Great pictures and your scanner worked well on the Daily programs, nice. Joyce cut and pasted your typed menus and will compare those to our cruise to see how many are duplicated. It will interesting to see. We defiantly see more use of hot spicy foods that we are not real fond of.

 

Are you still planning on coming out west to be closer to your sons now that you are retired?

 

Sorry that we will pass and miss you and Cathy on the dock Friday.

Have a safe trip home.

 

Rick & Joyce

 

 

Yes. we plan to move to the Puget Sound area in late spring/summer.

 

We hope you have a wonderful cruise and enjoy nice weather like we did (mostly). Sorry our cruises didn't coincide.

 

Dave

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Seafoam Green

Seafoam Green

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Yes. we plan to move to the Puget Sound area in late spring/summer.

 

Dave

That sounds nice. Hope all goes smoothly with that.

 

Again, thanks so much for sharing your cruise with us. DH and I are boarding 3 weeks from today for the 10 day itinerary, and I'm so pleased to have more of an idea of how it will go, thanks to this thread. I know I will be reading it over to take note of things that will be important to us.

 

Safe travels home and enjoy your new vocation...

 

:D

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Lizzie68

Lizzie68

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Yes. we plan to move to the Puget Sound area in late spring/summer.

 

We hope you have a wonderful cruise and enjoy nice weather like we did (mostly). Sorry our cruises didn't coincide.

 

Dave

 

We'll be almost neighbours - just a little border between us.:D You are moving to a beautiful part of the country.

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RetiredMustang

RetiredMustang

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We'll be almost neighbours - just a little border between us.:D You are moving to a beautiful part of the country.

 

What a lovely part of the country to move to.

 

 

Thanks to you, and to others who have wished us well. Yes, indeed, the Puget Sound area of Washington State is a very beautiful place to live (at least in the summer :D). But, we are actually going home ... if "home" is something an old retired Sailor and his wife who have lived around the world can claim to have. We are both native Washingtonians -- DW was born in the Puget Sound region, and I was born in south central Washington, in what is now known as the Washington wine country. And, our two sons live near the Puget Sound, one in Seattle and one in Kitsap County, a ferry ride away.

 

We have lived for years in the unreal Washington (D.C.), and it will be nice to live in the real Washington again.

 

Thanks again to all,

Dave

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RetiredMustang

RetiredMustang

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Friday, February 19, Debarkation Day (Cont.)

 

 

I said I would check back in and tell you how debarkation went. It went very well. We had opted for expedited status, since our car was parked in the mid-port garage, and we met the requirements.

 

The ship routed us through the Queen's Lounge to the starboard passageway. We took our bags to the mid-ship elevator shortly after 7, and went to the second deck. The ship had roped off the direct access to the gangway, and had signs directing us through the Queen's Lounge. We stood in line for about 10 minutes or so, and about 7:15 to &;20, we got clearance and were able to go ashore.

 

We went directly to the immigration line, and we about 10 people back. There was only one agent working, and it looked like it would be quite a bottleneck as more and more people joined the line and few were cleared. But, after a few minutes, several other immigration agents reported, and it became quick work to clear.

 

We walked to the garage, loaded our bags in the car, paid the ransom and were on our way. We were on the Florida Turnpike before 8 a.m. We encountered some heavy but not unprecedented Friday morning traffic for several miles, but eventually cleared the metropolis and were well on our way.

 

We are spending the night at our usual spot, along the freeway near Savannah, GA, and hope to make it to northern Virginia tomorrow.

 

That pretty much concludes my tale of 21 days before the Oosterdam mast. I will be happy to answer any more questions you have, but plan to end my biased commentary here.

 

Thanks everyone for coming along for the cruise! See you on the boards, or perhaps even on board a Dam ship some day.

 

Dave

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Old As Dirt Mom

Old As Dirt Mom

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Thanks to you, and to others who have wished us well. Yes, indeed, the Puget Sound area of Washington State is a very beautiful place to live (at least in the summer :D). But, we are actually going home ... if "home" is something an old retired Sailor and his wife who have lived around the world can claim to have. We are both native Washingtonians -- DW was born in the Puget Sound region, and I was born in south central Washington, in what is now known as the Washington wine country. And, our two sons live near the Puget Sound, one in Seattle and one in Kitsap County, a ferry ride away.

 

We have lived for years in the unreal Washington (D.C.), and it will be nice to live in the real Washington again.

 

Thanks again to all,

Dave

 

Thanks for taking us along on a lovely cruise, and Welcome Home:)

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RetiredMustang

RetiredMustang

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Welcome home Dave.

I just have one quick question . I noticed in the On Location from yesterday it mentioned a crew farewell show. Are we back to singing " Love In Any Language" ? Thanks Kathy

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

 

 

We saw that and wondered if that were the case, but we missed the event. So, sorry, I can't really say what it is.

 

Dave

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RMLincoln

RMLincoln

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Thanks to your efforts to include us, we all had a fabulous cruise with you!

 

Best wishes on your future endeavors, new retirement and prospective move to the NW. We have many family members there and love visiting that area, even have parked our trailer there a couple of time to embark on Alaska cruises. Love it. Hopefully your positive attitude will bring you to many more happy adventures. m--

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