Live from Nieuw Statendam Premier Voyage, December 2018

[bleacher04]

17 hours ago, Vict0riann said:

This evening we went to Rudi’s Sel de Mer - I’ll post the menu, a little changed from the past, and a bit of food porn.  Rudi was in and out all evening, Martha got a photo with him.

 

 

Great photo of Martha with Rudi -- tell her she's lookin' good! 

 

Paul

[hexdragon]

While you are taking photos, can you take one of your cabin bathroom? There has been many discussions on the placement of the toilet and the shower... 

[Vict0riann]

We had a wonderful day in Cartagena today - brilliant sun and the temperature must have been around 70!  Our multilingual guide was a geologist and historian and took the six of us us to Fuensanta and Murcia, and taught us so much.  Of course half of it will leave my little brain immediately, but hopefully some of it will stick.  Sergio also took us to a 90-year old bar and we had a lunch of wine and tapas, and then to another place in the main square for coffee or hot chocolate.  We got back about 2:30 to find divers going off the dock beside the ship - evidently something fell off one of the lifeboats and they are trying to retrieve it.  Maybe we will hear more  later.

 

We are going to go to Canaletto tonight.  I am studying the menu. 

 

 

 

 

[Vict0riann]

1 hour ago, hexdragon said:

While you are taking photos, can you take one of your cabin bathroom? There has been many discussions on the placement of the toilet and the shower... 

 

I think the angle of the toilet is better on the NS than it was on Koningsdam.  My knees do not bump into the shower glass.  Or possibly they narrowed the shower. 

 

 

[scluvsrain]

I had a great day in Cartegena too. Having been here twice before, and in the last 3 months, I took my time getting off the ship this morning. Last night my glasses broke, so today’s mission in town was to find an optician who could hopefully repair them. I was in luck. I found a place pretty quickly and they were able to be repaired. 

 

Happily able to to see again, I wandered around town for awhile and visited a couple of places I hadn’t seen before. One place was the Palacio Consistorial. It’s where the mayor of Cartegena (a woman, and I believe the first woman mayor) and the city government meets. It’s a gorgeous building, first built in 1907. Made of marble, cast iron and wood. Here’s a few pictures. 

[Vict0riann]

5 hours ago, POA1 said:

Dang it! That's the kind of high quality customer advocacy advice I should have saved for my upcoming "Live From." I'm never going to make my viewership numbers now. ) 

 

Im sure you will get the viewership !  If I have to keep clicking on your thread to get the numbers up. 

[scluvsrain]

On my way back to the ship I passed by some cool sculptures. One was quite moving - memorial to the victims of terrorism. 

 

 

[scluvsrain]

Snort came along with me for the day. 

[Alberta Quilter]

Sherita, Snort's day has been quite different from our time there in September!  Wasn't Snort being ravaged by a Viking?!

 

Thanks you all of you contributing to this thread.  I'm really enjoying it.  Particularly since I'll be onboard in February.

[puppycanducruise]

I hope Snort enjoyed his day.

I enjoyed reading about it, thanks.

[scluvsrain]

Once back on board, after a Lido lunch, I went back up to the Crows Nest to get some better pictures of the bar. I also took some more of the library sitting and EXC areas. 

 

The interactive computer screens are pretty cool. There’s one where you can answer travel questions and each day there’s a new question. Today’s was where is the place you saw that left you speechless? To answer it you drag the screen icon to the place in the world. For me, it was Antarctica. 

 

In the EXC area also, are interactive touch screens that show all of the ports we are visiting. Then you can drill down by port, and areas of interest within each port. There’s a map showing where the areas of interest are located, by number, and when you click on them you get a picture and a short description of it. I really like it 

 

In the library/reading area, there are lots of seats and a nice couch where you can sit and read. There are two puzzle tables for jigsaw enthusiasts. 

 

The bar, as I mentioned before, is dual purpose. Half coffee bar, half alcohol bar. Pretty nice. 

[scluvsrain]

16 minutes ago, Alberta Quilter said:

Sherita, Snort's day has been quite different from our time there in September!  Wasn't Snort being ravaged by a Viking?!

 

Thanks you all of you contributing to this thread.  I'm really enjoying it.  Particularly since I'll be onboard in February.

Yes!  Snort asked me this morning if we might find his Viking again today. For those of you never saw it, here’s his Viking. 

[puppycanducruise]

Very interesting.

The chairs looks nice and comfy.

Like the interactive map.

Thanks for the pictures.

[scluvsrain]

Oh. And I ran into Orlando Ashford this afternoon so I talked with him for a few minutes. I told him I really like that they moved Lincoln Center and that I can see that with a lot of the changes that are happening, it looks like our voices have been heard in many areas. He appreciated that. I asked him to clarify his comments about the $2 million loss of library books. Those are HAL-wide, not Carnival-wide. He said even if they put back a librarian the books still get stolen. Then, ladies and gentlemen, I asked him what on earth is up with HAL’s new website. He grimaced but said they’re working on it and hope to see steady improvements over the next six months. Since he had some melting ice cream in his hand, I didn’t keep him any longer. 

[kazu]

36 minutes ago, scluvsrain said:

Once back on board, after a Lido lunch, I went back up to the Crows Nest to get some better pictures of the bar. I also took some more of the library sitting and EXC areas. 

 

The interactive computer screens are pretty cool. There’s one where you can answer travel questions and each day there’s a new question. Today’s was where is the place you saw that left you speechless? To answer it you drag the screen icon to the place in the world. For me, it was Antarctica. 

 

In the EXC area also, are interactive touch screens that show all of the ports we are visiting. Then you can drill down by port, and areas of interest within each port. There’s a map showing where the areas of interest are located, by number, and when you click on them you get a picture and a short description of it. I really like it 

 

In the library/reading area, there are lots of seats and a nice couch where you can sit and read. There are two puzzle tables for jigsaw enthusiasts. 

 

The bar, as I mentioned before, is dual purpose. Half coffee bar, half alcohol bar. Pretty nice. 

 

Fabulous pics, Sherita.  Thanks so much 😄 

22 minutes ago, scluvsrain said:

Oh. And I ran into Orlando Ashford this afternoon so I talked with him for a few minutes. I told him I really like that they moved Lincoln Center and that I can see that with a lot of the changes that are happening, it looks like our voices have been heard in many areas. He appreciated that. I asked him to clarify his comments about the $2 million loss of library books. Those are HAL-wide, not Carnival-wide. He said even if they put back a librarian the books still get stolen. Then, ladies and gentlemen, I asked him what on earth is up with HAL’s new website. He grimaced but said they’re working on it and hope to see steady improvements over the next six months. Since he had some melting ice cream in his hand, I didn’t keep him any longer. 

 

Thanks for sharing your discussion with Orlando.

 

I'm still stymied how HAL can't maintiain libraries because of theft when other lines can?  And how books are stolen if there is a librarian there?

 

Books used to be recorded just like you do at the public library when they had a librarian.  

 

Of course, I have not fathomed yet why anyone would want to steal a book.  

 

 

[kazu]

1 hour ago, Vict0riann said:

We had a wonderful day in Cartagena today - brilliant sun and the temperature must have been around 70!  Our multilingual guide was a geologist and historian and took the six of us us to Fuensanta and Murcia, and taught us so much.  Of course half of it will leave my little brain immediately, but hopefully some of it will stick.  Sergio also took us to a 90-year old bar and we had a lunch of wine and tapas, and then to another place in the main square for coffee or hot chocolate.  We got back about 2:30 to find divers going off the dock beside the ship - evidently something fell off one of the lifeboats and they are trying to retrieve it.  Maybe we will hear more  later.

 

We are going to go to Canaletto tonight.  I am studying the menu. 

 

 

 

 

 

Decision making time indeed, Ann 😉 

 

Glad you got to Murcia - such a pretty spot and the Cathedral is gorgeous 😄 

[tjcox9]

Regarding the disappearing books from the libraries........one of the times we were in Christchurch NZ, probably the Volendam, we were walking through the lovely botanic gardens and spied a HAL library book lying all by itself on a park bench. Not seeing anyone near by who might return to claim it, we picked it up and returned it to the ship. 

[Vict0riann]

We will be delayed a little in leaving.  Captain Sybe de Boer came on the speaker around the time we were to leave and said that during the drill today, they were opening a life raft, and the shells that contain the raft went overboard and sank.  They don’t like to leave anything in the water, so divers were called, and are searching for the pieces .  As soon as they are found, we will leave.

 

our laundry was returned while we were at Happy Hour.  36 hours.  And the charge (which was $126 for unlimited for the 14 day cruise) was refunded.  We’ll see what happens at Canaletto tonight.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the great pictures 

[bleacher04]

5 hours ago, Vict0riann said:

We had a wonderful day in Cartagena today - brilliant sun and the temperature must have been around 70!  Our multilingual guide was a geologist and historian and took the six of us us to Fuensanta and Murcia, and taught us so much.  Of course half of it will leave my little brain immediately, but hopefully some of it will stick.  Sergio also took us to a 90-year old bar and we had a lunch of wine and tapas, and then to another place in the main square for coffee or hot chocolate.  We got back about 2:30 to find divers going off the dock beside the ship - evidently something fell off one of the lifeboats and they are trying to retrieve it.  Maybe we will hear more  later.

 

 

Ann, I will have to pester you for information about your guide Sergio, as we will be in Cartagena in April 

[bleacher04]

5 hours ago, Vict0riann said:

We are going to go to Canaletto tonight.  I am studying the menu. 

 

 

 

What will Tony do with no Zuppe de Pesce??  We will be waiting to hear if the Brodetto is an acceptable substitute...

 

[kazu]

3 hours ago, Vict0riann said:

We will be delayed a little in leaving.  Captain Sybe de Boer came on the speaker around the time we were to leave and said that during the drill today, they were opening a life raft, and the shells that contain the raft went overboard and sank.  They don’t like to leave anything in the water, so divers were called, and are searching for the pieces .  As soon as they are found, we will leave.

 

our laundry was returned while we were at Happy Hour.  36 hours.  And the charge (which was $126 for unlimited for the 14 day cruise) was refunded.  We’ll see what happens at Canaletto tonight.

 

I'm glad to hear that you at least got your laundry refunded.  That's a start in the right direction 😉

 

36 hours?  that's longer than usual even for embarkation luggage.  Wondering if they had a lot of laundry from people who stayed pre-cruise OR if the VIP's luggage was getting top priority 😉. Betting they weren't waiting 36 hours 😉 

[fatcat04]

8 hours ago, hexdragon said:

And as far as the libraries, how many people here are either bringing books already, or an iPad/Android tablet/Nook with books loaded on them? I am... 

Kindle. Love the backlit screen, adjustable print size and brightness,  it weighs next to nothing, and doubles as my travel tablet. I do not travel with print books anymore and while I do still read print books occasionally, they just keep making that print smaller and smaller. 

[bennybear]

6 hours ago, kazu said:

 

Fabulous pics, Sherita.  Thanks so much 😄 

 

Thanks for sharing your discussion with Orlando.

 

I'm still stymied how HAL can't maintiain libraries because of theft when other lines can?  And how books are stolen if there is a librarian there?

 

Books used to be recorded just like you do at the public library when they had a librarian.  

 

Of course, I have not fathomed yet why anyone would want to steal a book.  

 

 

 

I am with you!  Cunard has fabulous staffed libraries and manage to remain solvent.   

And this isn’t an either or,  love my kindle and iPad but still prefer the joy of discovering a new author and holding a real book.  Libraries are evolving,  our city just opened a stunning one that is architecturally significant and up to date.  No reason HAL couldn’t be cutting edge here.  

[kazu]

53 minutes ago, bennybear said:

 

I am with you!  Cunard has fabulous staffed libraries and manage to remain solvent.   

And this isn’t an either or,  love my kindle and iPad but still prefer the joy of discovering a new author and holding a real book.  Libraries are evolving,  our city just opened a stunning one that is architecturally significant and up to date.  No reason HAL couldn’t be cutting edge here.  

 

 

I agree.  Oceania has unstaffed libraries.  Books piled everywhere but they do get put away (I just put mine back).  It's not as good as the Prinsendam's IMO but it has some decent offerings and they haven't ceased doing it either.
 

I guess I have to buy a kindle 😞. I do have books on my Ipad, but I can only handle reading on it so long.  (A LIVE thread is a different story 😉 )

 

I always take a couple of real books when I am travelling and enjoy knowing I can find something intriguing that I haven't tried on board.  

 

No biggie on a port intensive cruise but on Transatlantics and longer cruises it is - at least for me 😉