Live from the Westerdam Oct 18 - 29, 2016

[Alberta Quilter]

Hi everyone! Another lovely day on the cruise. We are just docking in Mazatlan. It is currently 26C/79F but the humidity is 86%!:eek: I'm trying to stay positive; my skin is quite moist and loving the humidity. I'll try to remember that when I come back after doing what we need to do this morning wilted but sweaty (oh, excuse me, I mean glowing).

 

We had success last night in the PG! We had our crab legs. It was a different presentation than when there was a surcharge. Back then I took a picture (when I could post pics); it was like little half logs of legs stacked up on a dish. Last night's presentation was more like the old MDR presentation when they served crab legs. It came in a bowl with broth and boiled potatoes. I got all half logs of legs (they were kind of dumped in the bowl higgledy piggly; DM got at least three knuckles with her half logs of legs. It was good but not as good as I remember the ones with the surcharge.

 

We were seated in the back where there was a large family (actually one our our roll call members) having a celebratory dinner (will try to find out what it was; my guess is it was a 50th Anniversary but they must have gotten married when they were 12!). The family members also ordered the crab legs so will find out their opinions when I see them later tonight, if not earlier.

 

We went to the show last night and stayed for the whole thing! A first for us on this cruise. The comedian was Kermet Apio. We found him to be quite funny: 9:30 is the new midnight!

 

After the show, I went up to the puzzle table where i found that the puzzle had been completed. I started a new one (these ones have been only 500 pieces so don't take long at all). After I got it sorted out, two other ladies joined me and stayed for a while. It really was quite easy; about seven distinct landmarks with small iconic places in between. I finished the puzzle before 11 pm. That's the latest I've been up this whole cruise (but I've been sleeping in well past my usual 5 am wake up time).

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Hola!! from Stone Island Mazatlan Mexico. We did the ship's tour to come over to Stone Island. It plan to just relax and enjoy the sound of the waves.

[Alberta Quilter]

Success! We got to the dentist and he glued in the crown!!

 

When we disembarked the ship this morning, there were some tourist reps right on the pier. We spoke to one and asked her if she could recommend a dentist. Well, she has a cousin who is a dentist. She called him and made an appointment for 11 am. He spoke very good English. We got there early (had to search for the place a wee bit) and he took her in after a short wait. They were all done by 11 am.

 

We then walked to the market so that I could buy vanilla for some people back home. It got a little hot for us so we came back to the ship. There is a market right at the port so we poked around there a wee bit; I bought a silver (I hope) chain and then we boarded the ship. We're just waiting a bit for lunch until DM can eat so thought I would post this little bit so you all know that we got that crown glued back on.

[canadianbear]

Success! We got to the dentist and he glued in the crown!!

 

When we disembarked the ship this morning, there were some tourist reps right on the pier. We spoke to one and asked her if she could recommend a dentist. Well, she has a cousin who is a dentist. She called him and made an appointment for 11 am. He spoke very good English. We got there early (had to search for the place a wee bit) and he took her in after a short wait. They were all done by 11 am.

on.

 

So happy to read this-what a relief for you & your mom. We stayed on board the ship-relaxing by the pool & swimming. Finally met Frank too.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Success! We got to the dentist and he glued in the crown!!...............

 

............

 

You don't know how relieved I am to read that!! I have learned so much from your saga, and now I know what to do if I'm ever faced with the same situation!! (Bring dental cement along on cruises!!:D) I'm very glad for your mom:) Thanks for keeping us updated!

[SilvertoGold]

So glad you found a dentist. This is one of my big fears on a cruise and it is good to hear of your success!

[lstrong]

Where does the ships tour drop you, or rather which palapa??

[frankc98376]

Was stopped by one of the officers and she said that if we were going to have an informal get together Mark P would like to stop by to discuss the upcoming refurb in drydock!

 

We decided to cancel our Oosterdam May cruise and rebook Europe and Trans Atlantic on Westerdam next October. Stopped by the NL and asked about an appointment with the FCC in the NL to book. Was told that she wasn't accepting appointments and they would send her a message to call us to discuss.

 

I called our PCC in Seattle and left her the info to book tomorrow morning. Lucky I have T-Mobile and Mexico calling is free. Did discover that I had to call the main HAL number and ask for her extension-toll free didn't work. Definitely not impressed with the NL crew this time.

[pnkandpurple]

Hi, can you tell me who the piano bar player is? and is he good?

Thanks, Connie.

[Alberta Quilter]

Hi, can you tell me who the piano bar player is? and is he good?

Thanks, Connie.

 

Piano man is David. No idea how good he is but I think Chelly said he was okay. She would know more; hopefully, she'll report back, if not now I'm sure she will once she gets back to internet.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Good Evening from the Westerdam. Ok not sure anyone has reported yet but I know that for the last several weeks there had been discussion about the new Room Service Breakfast menus and being limited and having charges but saw earlier in this thread everyone reporting Westerdam had the usual breakfast menus. Well midstream in the middle of a cruise we walk into our cabin this evening to find the new menus. [emoji50]

 

Today was a full day with going to Stone Island, then dinner tonight in the Main Dining Room then saw Jesse Kazemek that does a Beatles Tribute, he was pretty good. Afterwards Tom and I headed up to the Crows Nest for a drink. The biggest thing that has changed for us and I did not notice this on the Koningsdam in April was the drastically reduce bar menus. Actually it is now quite limited. I often like to have a Port Wine to sip on in the evening, I remember Hal having several to choose from now there are only three. Also the wine list is drastically reduced.

 

Tomorrow several of us are meeting to go into town to have lunch at LaPalapa and Nathan who use to come into CC by the name of Sakedad now lives in Puerto Vallarta for a good portion of the year he and his husband will be meeting us for lunch.

Wednesday evening we are going to Le Cirque, we have 6:30 reservations unfortunately we will miss the VIP party they are having between 7:30 to 8:00 they are actually having it outside on the Observation Deck Starboard side on deck 10. The Oosterdam use to have it there years ago.

 

Special note to Canadianbear if you read this.... I got your message it was too late to call you tonight, I will call you Thursday morning. [emoji3]

 

 

 

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[canadianbear]

Thanks Lisa-glad you got my message.

 

We had another enjoyable evening dinner at the Pinnacle. Gabor sat us again in the section that had Hidde & Sjoed (not sure of spelling) as the servers at our request. These two are a lot of fun & we were so impressed last time requested them again on Friday when we go. I tried the grand marnier volcano dessert tonight after supper (was hesitant because a few years back tried it but found it too strong with the liquor flavour). Tonight it was delicious-I was so full from supper I had to leave a few bites of it.

 

Frank-we decided not to do that cruise we discussed but instead booked a 21 day Caribbean one next fall.

 

Getting ready now for our excursion-thanks Marcia for the info!

[kazu]

Good Evening from the Westerdam. Ok not sure anyone has reported yet but I know that for the last several weeks there had been discussion about the new Room Service Breakfast menus and being limited and having charges but saw earlier in this thread everyone reporting Westerdam had the usual breakfast menus. Well midstream in the middle of a cruise we walk into our cabin this evening to find the new menus. [emoji50]

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks Lisa. That is the same experience that Dave (RetiredMustang) reported in his live thread. They started with the regular breakfast menu and then part way into the cruise it changed to the one you are now getting. Strange that they seem to be doing it mid cruise.

[kazu]

Success! We got to the dentist and he glued in the crown!!

 

When we disembarked the ship this morning, there were some tourist reps right on the pier. We spoke to one and asked her if she could recommend a dentist. Well, she has a cousin who is a dentist. She called him and made an appointment for 11 am. He spoke very good English. We got there early (had to search for the place a wee bit) and he took her in after a short wait. They were all done by 11 am.

 

We then walked to the market so that I could buy vanilla for some people back home. It got a little hot for us so we came back to the ship. There is a market right at the port so we poked around there a wee bit; I bought a silver (I hope) chain and then we boarded the ship. We're just waiting a bit for lunch until DM can eat so thought I would post this little bit so you all know that we got that crown glued back on.

 

Excellent news!!! :) :). Now you can relax and enjoy the rest of the vacation.

[Alberta Quilter]

We still have the old room service menu. I just picked it up off the counter to make sure that's what we received last night. That's odd that Lisa got the new menu and we're still getting the old menu. I think she's only one deck higher than we are.

[frankc98376]

We have the same blue breakfast card. We've never used them as we normally use PG

[Ine]

Good Evening from the Westerdam. Ok not sure anyone has reported yet but I know that for the last several weeks there had been discussion about the new Room Service Breakfast menus and being limited and having charges but saw earlier in this thread everyone reporting Westerdam had the usual breakfast menus. Well midstream in the middle of a cruise we walk into our cabin this evening to find the new menus. [emoji50]

 

Today was a full day with going to Stone Island, then dinner tonight in the Main Dining Room then saw Jesse Kazemek that does a Beatles Tribute, he was pretty good. Afterwards Tom and I headed up to the Crows Nest for a drink. The biggest thing that has changed for us and I did not notice this on the Koningsdam in April was the drastically reduce bar menus. Actually it is now quite limited. I often like to have a Port Wine to sip on in the evening, I remember Hal having several to choose from now there are only three. Also the wine list is drastically reduced.

 

Tomorrow several of us are meeting to go into town to have lunch at LaPalapa and Nathan who use to come into CC by the name of Sakedad now lives in Puerto Vallarta for a good portion of the year he and his husband will be meeting us for lunch.

Wednesday evening we are going to Le Cirque, we have 6:30 reservations unfortunately we will miss the VIP party they are having between 7:30 to 8:00 they are actually having it outside on the Observation Deck Starboard side on deck 10. The Oosterdam use to have it there years ago.

 

Special note to Canadianbear if you read this.... I got your message it was too late to call you tonight, I will call you Thursday morning. [emoji3]

 

 

 

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Enjoy Puerto Vallarta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LAFFNVEGAS]

We still have the old room service menu. I just picked it up off the counter to make sure that's what we received last night. That's odd that Lisa got the new menu and we're still getting the old menu. I think she's only one deck higher than we are.

 

 

 

AQ, now that is weird you would think it would all be rolled out to all cabins.

 

Something I did forget to mention last night. Tom and I have done

this 7 day Mexican cruise more times than we can count and this is the first time for the 7 day we changed times twice. We lost another hour last night[emoji50] that means we have to gain back two hours in two days. It use to be that we would be an hour behind using ship time in Puerto Vallarta. I was told many years ago by a former Hotel Director that worked well because people would actually get back to the ship early rather than late. Now this will be 4 time changes in 7 days which is kind of crazy. The only time we had done this prior was the 10 day Mexico cruises.

 

 

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[haleygirl]

Very fun night on the Westerdam. One thing I have not mentioned is how impressed I am on this Internet Package [emoji1303] what I cannot understand is why this is not Fleetwide? To have the middle package and $99.99 for the week unlimited is great for me, would I like it cheaper , of course but this is the going rate on other ships. I was quite surprised that I was able to somewhat stream Live on Facebook.

Yes the Westerdam is bringing back new faith for me about Hal [emoji6]

Tonight's dinner in the main dining room was quite good [emoji1303]

 

 

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Hi Lisa,

 

Love all the photos you have been posting. I can't wait to sail on the Westerdam in June. Not sure if you are in the same office as Gisele, but I want to say how great she has been to work with when my cruise on the Oosterdam was repositioned. Thanks to Gisele and the others that I've had to work with at the LV office, I was able to get a great replacement cruise.

 

Helen

[Alberta Quilter]

AQ, now that is weird you would think it would all be rolled out to all cabins.

 

Something I did forget to mention last night. Tom and I have done

this 7 day Mexican cruise more times than we can count and this is the first time for the 7 day we changed times twice. We lost another hour last night[emoji50] that means we have to gain back two hours in two days. It use to be that we would be an hour behind using ship time in Puerto Vallarta. I was told many years ago by a former Hotel Director that worked well because people would actually get back to the ship early rather than late. Now this will be 4 time changes in 7 days which is kind of crazy. The only time we had done this prior was the 10 day Mexico cruises.

 

 

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Good to know that all these time changes are unusual. We were very late this morning, sleeping until after 8 am (new time).

 

It is again very hot for us! When I checked the temp this morning it was 27C and the humidity was 79%. We decided to get rid of the last of our Mexican pesos (most of the pesos were previously spent on taxi rides to unsuccessful trips to the dentist). What did we do, you ask? We did what everyone does, we went to Walmart!! Honestly, we don't go to Walmart at home, why would we go to Walmart in Mexico?! We thought we would be able to find something to spend the last of the pesos. And we did. I have three small coins left so we did well. We were gone just over an hour. We first went to the mall across the street from the port. The mall was open but the shops were closed. Walmart is right next door to the mall so we walked over there. We went through it a couple of times before I got the idea to buy tshirts for DM's great grandchildren (my brother's grandchildren). We also got some vanilla to get rid of the remaining pesos. We then walked back to the ship.

 

This morning was the first time we experienced issues with toilet flushing. It worked when I first got up but later didn't flush at all. I hoped it was a delayed flush. We went up for breakfast (missed the MDR breakfast hours, we were so late!). When we came down around 9:30, they were working on the issue. When we came back from the journey to Walmart, all was right with the world again.

[canadianbear]

We had a fabulous HAL excursion to Las Caletas hideaway. What a beautiful spot. Lots of activities to choose from or you could just relax on a hammock if you wanted.

 

We did snorkeling again and it was much better than when we did it in Cabo. The all inclusive drinks and the buffet lunch was great. The guys on the boat put on a little dance skit on the return trip & also offer lots of inclusive drinks.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Success! We got to the dentist and he glued in the crown!!

 

When we disembarked the ship this morning, there were some tourist reps right on the pier. We spoke to one and asked her if she could recommend a dentist. Well, she has a cousin who is a dentist. She called him and made an appointment for 11 am. He spoke very good English. We got there early (had to search for the place a wee bit) and he took her in after a short wait. They were all done by 11 am.

 

We then walked to the market so that I could buy vanilla for some people back home. It got a little hot for us so we came back to the ship. There is a market right at the port so we poked around there a wee bit; I bought a silver (I hope) chain and then we boarded the ship. We're just waiting a bit for lunch until DM can eat so thought I would post this little bit so you all know that we got that crown glued back on.

 

 

Catching up.

Glad your mother finally got her crown glued back on.

[Alberta Quilter]

We had a lovely, quiet afternoon onboard. After lunch in the Lido, I went to work on the puzzle and DM went down the the room. When I came down later, she was taking a happy nap. Team trivia was at 4 pm today; we lost. Found out today that there are no team limits (at least, not on this ship). Some trivia teams have ten or twelve members. And here we've been limiting our team to six! The team that won had two members.

 

After dinner, we went to the VIP party which, as LaffnVegas previously reported was out on the Observation Deck. It was really nice having it out there. There was lots of space. Many officers were there (funny how some people keep hogging them - not that we care; it's simply an observation). We had a nice chat with the Purser. The Captain was pointed out to me; I just wanted to see what he looked like so if I come across him somewhere I don't make an idiot of myself by asking him what he does around here! All I know about the epaulets is he had a whole bunch of stripes and a swirl! But there were two guys with the same epaulettes. I'm told the second in command is also a Captain and gets to wear them. He's the guy that was monopolized by one couple for an extensive period of time.

 

Anyway, the party was short and sweet. It was scheduled for half an hour, right between early and late dining times. There were appies and the drinks were flowing. DM had three Mexican Sunsets (which she obviously enjoyed); I had two more glasses of wine. Not that we were hungry at all just having come from dinner but I was disappointed that there were no bitterballen served. I feel it's my duty to have one for those like CruzChic who love them so much, you know, take one for the team, so to speak. They had sausage rolls, deep fried brie cheese, and deep fried shrimp. There were also platters of other appies (like a slice of brie on a circle of bread with a half a grape on top). At 8 pm, the bartenders packed up the liquor and carted it off. Party was over. Frankly, after all those drinks, we were feeling no pain and were glad to call it quits.

 

I went to the puzzle table; we're at the nasty bit now - you know the hard part that gets left to the end. Since we were too late for the early show, we decided to try to attend the late show. I met DM there. The show tonight was Matilda and Patrick. Patrick is the ventriloquist; Matilda is the dummy from Jamaica. It was quite entertaining. We stayed for the whole thing, falling into bed by 11 pm. We gain an hour tonight to start making up for the two hours lost on the way down.

[Alberta Quilter]

I wonder what has happened to my fellow reporters!! Must be sleeping in today.

 

Just played Win A Cruise bingo and lost. Honestly, I was one of the first standers and still didn't win! Two ladies called Bingo at the same time and they had to have a playoff. It didn't take too long and one of the two won the cruise.

 

Rode the elevator with HD Mark Pells and asked him about the new room service menu. As previously reported by Crew News a few weeks ago, it will be implemented fleet wide. We are still getting the old menu but I did see the new menu on Deck 7 last night hanging from some suite doors. Maybe they're just using up the old ones first.

 

HD also mentioned that someone won big in the Casino this morning - to the tune of $40K! Lucky them. That should be enough for another cruise or two!

 

Today is the Mariner Brunch. We haven't decided if we'll go yet. Perhaps we'll check out the menu and let that decide for us. We were not invited to the presentation ceremony. I heard from a 5 star that it will be in the Explorers Lounge so that would indicate a small affair. I'm guessing only those receiving medallions and 5 star mariners (and higher) are the only ones invited. That's okay; we're not offended.

[Cruising-along]

Thank you for the update re the room service menus. I won't be sailing until January, I hope people will report their experiences on the Koningsdam in the meantime. Sure hope write-ins will be honored.

 

I will add my relief that your DM got her crown glued back. [emoji3]

 

 

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