Eurodam Feb 3, 2019 San Diego/Hawaii Live Thread

[SanDiegian]

On a previous cruise, the cause of irregular knocking noise was wooded hangers in my empty closet. If your noise is because of below your cabin the inner door exiting onto Deck 3 Sun Deck, HAL  could put up a rope barrier to make guests use the other side (apologizes to that guest above).

[ellieanne]

28 minutes ago, SanDiegian said:

On a previous cruise, the cause of irregular knocking noise was wooded hangers in my empty closet. If your noise is because of below your cabin the inner door exiting onto Deck 3 Sun Deck, HAL  could put up a rope barrier to make guests use the other side (apologizes to that guest above).

 

Or they could fix the door or take it off the hinges. I've been on a couple of HAL cruises when the interior doors to the Promenade Deck were either off the hinges or held open to avoid the banging.

 

And the barriers are at the exterior doors, not the interior ones. I've been on cruises where the winds were so strong the barriers were across the exterior doors to prevent passengers from going outside.

 

As a passenger who likes to have access to the Promenade Deck, I would be unhappy if it were blocked off when there are options not to.

[faerievert]

Our laundry we sent out this morning around 8:30 and came back same day. Nice 😊

[faerievert]

I definitely don’t want them to stop using a door on our account. I now know better than to get this room (I otherwise LOVE the location). But if it continues we may need to harass the desk into letting us move. The large wooden doors have slow stops. It’s the interior glass/metal doors for sure because they don’t (we went and played with the doors after the morning history talk). 

[faerievert]

3 hours ago, faerievert said:

Note the MDR daily doesn't include the other half of the menu that's the same every day. 

Turns out they don’t serve the daily standards on gala night. Good to know. Also, the Scallops dish was basically escargot with scallop as substitute protein. The ship’s expected escargot shipment failed to arrive! The husband loved it. Lamb was quite good. I enjoyed the mushroom risotto, but it was so heavy I couldn’t finish after shrimp cocktail and carrot soup if I still wanted my chocolate soufflé. Very glad I stopped early. Soufflé was quite heavy, too, assuming you pour on the provided sauce. But pairs excellently with an after eight cordial. 

[faerievert]

I’m sad to say very few partake in the photographers, and many seem annoyed at their briefer than ever presence in the MDR. We still adore them and take full advantage of our unlimited photo package. If last cruise is any indication, in a few days the photo quality should improve drastically as we get better at modeling. But no need to buy to get your photo done. You’re welcome to shoot all you like and decide later. Access to all your pics via navigator is a big improvement. I like to see them to learn, without the need to print them ALL like they used to. Photo dude says it’s VERY slow because most on board are frequent cruisers who don’t care about photos. It’s fun for us getting pro pics every 2-3 years. Not so much every few months or weeks!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great reports.

 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am a light sleeper and would definitely be asking for another cabin.

 

Hope you get that door banging issue settled soon.

[Caribbean Chris]

Thanks for the menus, upincluding Dive In. I think it was on our last HAL cruise (Veendam) when the Dive In staff said there wasn’t a grilled chicken sandwich available (even though I was sure it was supposed to be on the menu).

[Caribbean Chris]

On 2/3/2019 at 2:34 PM, Cailey53 said:

Following as well as we just booked the March 2020/ 18 day sailing last week. Have a wonderful trip!

 

We’re probably sailing same date, March 18 (I posted April above but that’s actually when our 40th  anniversary falls, which we’ll be celebrating). There’s a small Roll Call underway now for the cruise.

[puppycanducruise]

This is great.

Keep it coming.

Thanks.

[Cailey53]

6 minutes ago, Caribbean Chris said:

 

We’re probably sailing same date, March 18 (I posted April above but that’s actually when our 40th  anniversary falls, which we’ll be celebrating). There’s a small Roll Call underway now for the cruise.

Thanks for the heads up Caribbean Chris. I'll get signed up for the Roll Call. Congratulations on your upcoming celebration--we just got off a 17 day Nieuw Statendam voyage where we celebrated our 44th. We had been on the old Statendam in 1975 for our honeymoon so the sailing was extra special for us.

 We're so looking forward to this Hawaii trip to see the islands without having to fly over!

[SanDiegian]

Faerievert: It is great having met you via your Eurodam musings. You seem to have a knack of making this voyage your lifetime epic cruise

[faerievert]

Shocked that anyone would want to follow my musings in real time, but I found others' live threads invaluable resources and thought I should pay it forward. I'll never remember to mention all the little things if I just make notes and write up a summary at the end. We take at least two "epic" trips per year (only occasionally are they cruises). I still get painfully enthusiastic about every destination. I used to blog my travel, but without an audience it wasn't very fun. I can't share like this on FB. It's both a poorly-suited medium for travelogue and would feel too boastful knowing most of my audience would be friends that I know are barely scraping by paycheck to paycheck. It's nice to have an audience who enjoys hearing about the minutia like I do. 

[faerievert]

Tonight's MDR menu. Note that again the "usuals" are missing. I will report back whether they are indeed unavailable a second night in a row. I'll try to remember to ask for a copy of the MDR vegetarian menu and to start taking pictures of the wines listings. I have such good intentions, but then I hit happy hour and share a bottle of wine at dinner and forget all about my plans. 

 

Someone commented on my posting usually in the afternoon. That's both a convenience and a performance thing. I do feel like the connection is a lot better in the afternoon than in the morning. At 8, 9, 10 this morning there was distinctly a longer delay in pages loading. Evening it's varying. Sometimes working great, sometimes slow again. But I also tend to have a lull in my itinerary this time of day on sea days and it's a good time to work -- late enough my team will have sent me their requests for the day, but still early enough to talk to them in real time via chat if I need to ask for clarifications before I respond or take care of things. I check my messages in the morning to see if there's anything urgent, then do my morning activities, then come back to the room to take care of all my responding communications, then hit CC, then check some tasks off the work to-do list, change into my evening clothes, then hit happy hour.  I check my work messages one more time before dinner. I'll usually have gotten some replies by then that need to be forwarded to someone for the next step. It's a good sea day groove. 

menu-dinner-mdr-20190206.docx

[faerievert]

I'll need to check with the husband, but I don't hear the banging anymore! I'll have to go peak at the door to see if they locked it, blocked it, or actually fixed it by installing something that would stop it slamming, or at least prevent the problematic metal on metal CLANG. 

[faerievert]

Up by 8 today, and went directly to the thermal spa. It's weird for me being in there in the daytime when I've nearly always gone at twilight or night. Hit the warming trays (ceramic loungers) for a bit only to discover I'd forgotten my book upstairs. One other woman was already ther and another couple came in before I left. Didn't want to go through the fuss of returning the key and robe and going back up for it. Zoned out watching the sea for a bit then went to the bubbler (hyrdropool). A different couple were already in, but using the center ring so I used laid on the bubble bars. Again, no book meant I wouldn't want to stay there real long. Did two rounds of the bubble shutoff timer, then moved to a steam room. By that time more folks had joined us in the pool. It starts to feel crowded to me at 5 people. I must prefer nights when I can have it all to myself, but it really was a lovely way to start the morning. The far steam room (or is that the dry sauna?) was out of service, but the other two were open and unoccupied. Tried the bigger one to have room to do some exercises and stretches. Worked nicely, but I sure didn't last long. Then back to the spa locker room for a proper shower (not just my usual rinse off and return to room). Remembered to bring a full set of clean clothes, my face wash and my special conditioner. It was late enough that the serious morning workout crowd was already done, but the late morning spa crowds hadn't started yet. One of the three showers was also marked out of service so I definitely wouldn't take up the shower so long if the changing room were busy. Back down to the room to drop off the wet bathing suit and then back up to the lido for breakfast. Congee with a poached egg was fantastic. Definitely doing that again. But will have to ask for less of the rice porridge next time. I only need about a third of what they served. Forcing myself to not finish food I don't want is still difficult, but getting easier with practice. 

[faerievert]

Tried the shore shopping presentation, but it started with a schpiel from the onboard diamond rep and I didn't last long enough for them to get to the part I was interested in. If they ever did. Guess I'll go get the port maps at one of the other "drop by" times. Highly recommend getting these maps even if you don't shop. Assuming they haven't changed too much, they were always super useful if you have any interest in seeing any of the port on foot. 

 

Today's cultural talk was a serious one. History of Hawaii becoming a state, basically from Captain Cook through to becoming #50. Including several very moving stories relating to pearl harbor. A lot of heavy stuff, but he's so good it's totally worth it and he impressively manages to both present the blunt, painful facts and keep the US from sounding like colonizing monsters. The main stage is more packed each day. Word is definitely getting around that he's worth coming to see. I would happily listen to him for at least three times as long every day.

[BEAV]

Thanks again for your willingness to post during your vacation. 

 

What is the name of the gentleman doing the Hawaii history presentations? 

[faerievert]

My asian hot dishes were pretty disappointing at lunch, but I still love the cold asian options. Today there were waiters offering whole pineapples as pina colada drinks. I don't actually like pina coladas very much, despite loving pineapple and generally liking coconut milk, but the husband adores them so we got one to share. Once again, I was disappointed. It's just not my drink. I liked that it was extra pineapple-y but had to let him have most of it. I'll try to resist trying again until I find one made with fresh coconut milk. 

 

Hung by the lido pool after for a bit. They finally opened the pool roof. It's finally getting pleasant out. I don't feel like it's much warmer, but the wind is warmer and that makes a big difference.

 

Tried the flower arranging class. Was feeling rather sleepy and couldn't get into it. It was just the one florist talking (still shocked a ship this size just has the one florist responsible for 800+ flower arrangements on board). I left as he began the demo and walked around the newly-opened shops to wake up. HAL has booted the old shops vendor and replaced them. So the shops were closed until this morning's ribbon cutting ceremony. They just got the new stock and staff in SD. SO MANY THINGS FOR THEM TO UNBOX AND ARRANGE! Seeing them all working behind the curtains of the closed shops has been pretty amusing. There are still no prices on the clothing/costume jewelry/liquor/perfume/sundries side of the of the shops. I thought the new HAL clothing looked high-quality, but didn't ask about any prices. I did cave and buy a pair of earrings that I spotted early on and couldn't stop thinking about as I explored the rest of the room. Asked the price, got one lower than I expected, declined in the interested way that makes jewelry people talk to another associate and come back with a better price, then left the shops to google whether it was a reasonable deal (my phone happened to buzz at me with a message from a friend with excellent timing, so I told him that was my boss and I would be back after I took care of this work thing). Turns out the pricing was reasonable, and I happen to have picked one of the cheapest items on that side of the room at under $200, and I really do absolutely adore this pair of Larimar earrings, so I went ahead and got them. I've been entered into their grand opening raffle. Maybe I'll win something. He promised that if I won the gift cert he could credit it against this existing purchase if I didn't want to make another. I would probably buy something else. I admit I am a bit of a sucker for some of their lower-end fine jewelry. Bonus: It came with a really nice travel jewelry zipper case. The kind you can put a bunch of jewelry in separated into several pockets. So much better than yet another jewelry clamshell box that I'll toss once I'm home (I had the option of the box if that's something you do use/like). 

[faerievert]

Just now, BEAV said:

What is the name of the gentleman doing the Hawaii history presentations? 

 

It's not listed in the guide, which I find very annoying. I'm terrible at remembering names. First name is something Hawaiian, last name de la cruz (I only remember because he told a story about his family background--he's half hawaiian on both his mother and father's sides, but his dad is part spanish, hence the unusual name).

 

He does a lot of HAL's pacific cruises, and the occasional Alaska itinerary. My husband is 6 feet tall and wide as a doorway like a football player. This man towers over him and makes him look tiny in every proportion. So you definitely can't miss him as he's wandering the ship. I'm hoping I'll see him near the cellar master to figure out who's taller. Our cellar master is 6' 6" -- my bet is that the cultural guide is taller. Long dark hair, always wearing a Hawaiian shirt, older guy, but not in comparison to the average age of passengers on this ship. He mentioned today not having been born yet when Pearl Harbor was hit -- by show of hands, a quarter to a third of today's audience were born before December 7, 1941. Also mentioned being 19 in the late 70's, which makes him a smidge younger than my parents, and definitely below the median age onboard.

[faerievert]

Goodbye CC for now... time for happy hour! Probably going to the main stage show tonight, too. It's the Humanity dance one.

[BEAV]

Thanks. That’s a good enough description (along with de la Cruz) I can put into google to see if I can come up with any background on him. When we take cruises on Crystal, the names of the enrichment speakers are on the website in advance, along with their background. I love researching them in advance. We are on the next sailing, so hope he’ll still be aboard. 

Edited February 7, 2019 by BEAV

[galipemi]

Sounds like Kainoa.  He's been doing the Hawaiian cruises for a few years now.

Thank you for keeping us updated along the way faerievert!  I'll be sailing on April 13 so definitely following along for planning purposes.

[NWWanderer]

2 hours ago, galipemi said:

Sounds like Kainoa.  He's been doing the Hawaiian cruises for a few years now.

Thank you for keeping us updated along the way faerievert!  I'll be sailing on April 13 so definitely following along for planning purposes.

 

I'm on this cruise also, and it is Kainoa (his name was listed *somewhere*, can't remember where). I've enjoyed 2 of his lectures so far, he's fantastic. 

 

Fun to experience the cruise from a different perspective, thanks for doing this faerievert!