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[rafinmd]

Jacqui, can you verify that Andrea's saving one of her bottles of wine from the Grand South America came off without a hitch?

 

BTW, the issue with the Pinnacle Class isn't that the ship is too wide with the boats, they simply don't allow anything hanging over the side.

 

Roy

[kazu]

3 hours ago, rafinmd said:

Jacqui, can you verify that Andrea's saving one of her bottles of wine from the Grand South America came off without a hitch?

 

I’m not sure about the question Roy - but I am sure Andrea will get it.

 

She’s with us tomorrow on tour and at dinner so hopefully I will remember to ask her.

 

(I can get discombobulated when it’s my tour.

 

3 hours ago, rafinmd said:

 

BTW, the issue with the Pinnacle Class isn't that the ship is too wide with the boats, they simply don't allow anything hanging over the side.

 

Roy

 

I guess I worded it wrong 😉   I usually do.  Thanks 😉

 

[TiogaCruiser]

9 hours ago, kazu said:

 

It’s where they placed the life boats Arie.  Because of them, the width is too large as Bart explained it.

 

The only way the Pinnacle Class can go through the Panama is to drop all the lifeboats and have them trail behind and they would be charged extra for the additional length.

 

As Bart said, someone really screwed up.

 

I was amazed when he told me they couldn’t go through.

Brought to fruition by whoever dreamed up the  Veendam’s butt job?

[Vict0riann]

Libay has other duties besides wine steward - I meant to show her this picture I took of her at Devil’s Island.

 

 

 

[kazu]

Early tour today - very early

 

Will take my IPad for pics as it does a better job sometimes but in the meantime here is last night’s dinner menu.

 

For those interested, there was not an amuse bouche served tonight at the Gala dinner:

 

[kazu]

Here is today’s When and Where:

 

 

 

[ski ww]

Thanks for the pictures of the inside of Napoleons' home. When we were there we did the walk about, saw his home but didn't get a chance to go inside.

Allan 

[gwilli]

The rain has stopped in Civitavecchia, and hopefully the seas will calm down this evening. Found a local (Italian) wine at a great price to bring aboard for our wine tasting. This is such a nice port town for those that are spending the day here. Lots of little shops and places to eat. Can’t wait until tomorrow!  

Smooth Sailing! 

[DoggyDaddy]

KAZU, will you be on the Princedam until she leaves Holland America? We will join her for the May 20 sailing.

 

DD

[DoggyDaddy]

KAZU, will you be on the Princedam until she leaves Holland America? We will join her for the May 20 sailing.

 

DD

[AndreaB]

Hello Roy,

 

Hope you are enjoying your current adventures. Yes, my bottle was awaiting my return without a hitch (didn’t even need to ask for it), along with my piece of luggage. As always, the crew of the Prinsendam are wonderful. Thanks for asking. 

 

Andrea

[rafinmd]

Thanks.  I am but also already missing the Prinsendam.

 

Also, I know there's been talk on this thread about getting a replacement for the Prinsendam from Seabourn.  Personally, I'm not sure I'm interested.  A ship designed for Prinsendam's longer itineraries without a decent promenade deck would be a hard sell for me.

 

Roy

Edited April 23, 2019 by rafinmd

[Storylady]

On 4/22/2019 at 6:36 AM, kazu said:

Speaking of the agile Prinsendam who just docked at what is a tender port for most ships and docked yesterday at what was a tender port on the itinerary.....

 

when we were at Gala night dining with our Hotel Director, he commented that the days of small ships for HAL are not necessarily done.

 

HAL’s bragging of itineraries diminishes substantially as the Prinsendam does a lot of ports that the others can’t.  With it gone they have lost 50 ports according to him - I winked at him and said I think it is more like 100 - 300 and he agreed!!!!!!

 

He said that while no guarantees, they are looking at either a new build or buying and refurbishing a small ship to replace her in the next couple of years.

 

No guarantees of course, but they are taking a hard look at it.  (A Seabourn ship was mentioned in passing but not certain).

 

Did you know that the Pinnacle Class ships can’t even do the Panama?  Because of where the life boats were placed.  That’s why they are going around South America.

 

No other ship can do the Kiel Canal in the HAL fleet nor the rivers we are doing on this cruise, I believe.  

 

I can’t promise anyone anything but it certainly sounded hopeful.

I heard the same from Bart last year. I think they are feeling the competition from Viking. At that time, they were investigating getting one of Viking’s builds since they booked so far out. Not sure Viking will sell for a price that HAL wants to pay. Although the Seaborne ship would be nice, it doesn’t have the Promenade Deck and they don’t do as well as the Prinsendam in stormy seas according to Captain Albert who is sailing on one now. Will be interesting to see what developers. 

[kazu]

18 hours ago, gwilli said:

The rain has stopped in Civitavecchia, and hopefully the seas will calm down this evening. Found a local (Italian) wine at a great price to bring aboard for our wine tasting. This is such a nice port town for those that are spending the day here. Lots of little shops and places to eat. Can’t wait until tomorrow!  

Smooth Sailing! 

 

Seas were smooth last night on the way in to Civi 🙂. And it looks like it will be a beautiful day 🙂 

 

We plan to enjoy the port today and not to anything rushy.

Looking forward 5o seeing you SOON and to our wine tasting get together, too 🙂 

[kazu]

17 hours ago, DoggyDaddy said:

KAZU, will you be on the Princedam until she leaves Holland America? We will join her for the May 20 sailing.

 

DD

 

No, I won’t.

 

I WISH I would be but we get off in Dover on May 6th.  Can’t leave the dogs for that long 😉 

[kazu]

Good morning from Civitavecchia 🙂 

 

We had a VERY busy day yesterday.  Started at 8 AM and finished around midnight last night so I didn’t have much of a chance to post.  (Tour to Positano, Sorrento & Herculaneum, Pinnacle Grill, chatting, casino, etc.).

 

I should be able to catch up a fair bit today I hope.

 

It’s our turnaround day and we are just going to enjoy Civi and probably find some free wifi 😉 that works quickly.

 

 

[kazu]

Here is last night’s dinner menu for the MDR (we did the PG so can’t comment on the food last night).

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

And here is the Voyage Log for the first segment:

 

 

Wish it would say how many people were on board, but it does not.

 

Nothing nicer than turnaround day - as HELENPSL says - 
“Lots of luggage and none of it is mine”. 😉 

[kazu]

On 4/23/2019 at 5:27 AM, Vict0riann said:

Libay has other duties besides wine steward - I meant to show her this picture I took of her at Devil’s Island.

 

 

 

 

I will show it to her Ann.  I’ll take my IPad to the PG so I can.

[drowelf]

Jacqui, 

 

Wonderful so far, we are waiting for our taxi to bring us to the ship in about an hour. So glad to see that at least the Prinsendam is still giving out the Voyage Logs. 

 

See you soon. 

[StartrainDD]

26 minutes ago, drowelf said:

Jacqui, 

 

Wonderful so far, we are waiting for our taxi to bring us to the ship in about an hour. So glad to see that at least the Prinsendam is still giving out the Voyage Logs. 

 

See you soon. 

Same here. Taxi supposed to pick us up 10:30 to head on over. We enjoyed the market in Civitavecchia this morning. All the locals out and about. The town is much more lively in the morning than afternoon!

 

See you soon!

[kazu]

We arrived in Naples and disembarkation was at 2 pm.  What a zoo Naples was.

 

We had 3 gigantic cruise ships in (including the one that was so close to us) and it was Easter Monday.

 

No matter what direction we retook, no matter what little side street we tried to detour onto, there were mobs everywhere.

 

Finally DH and I found a side street that wasn’t too busy and took refuge in a little spot.

 

Then we saw the clouds move in and felt the first rain drops.

 

We decided to head back to the ship and escaped the worst of the rain.

 

It poured in buckets and we watched (from our balcony) people running back with their heads covered with books, jackets, etc.

 

 

[kazu]

And for those of you wondering what happened to Captain Dag who was scheduled to be on this sailing, he has moved to another compnay.  here is the link.

 

http://www.seatrade-*****/news/news-headlines/hapag-lloyd-cruises-appoints-dag-dvergastein-to-helm-europa.html

 

Our loss, their gain.  Thanks Andrea for sharing. 🙂 

 

The link has stars from CC blocking info but appears to work.

 

In case it doesn't, here are screen shots of the article:

 

 

 

[kazu]

We are in Civi exploring and stopped to have a cup of vino and some calamari and a nice spot.

 

DH is a huge soccer fan and I recorded the soccer games for him on our app for TV that I have.  Sadly the top package on the ship hasn't worked.

 

GRRRR brought 2 Ipads for nothing 😞 

 

I went to complain and asked for a refund of the difference between the 2 packages or fix the DAM internet.  Explained and showed them there was nothing to download - I just needed to press play.

 

So, I got a call that they would refund 1/2 of my internet cost and then deactivate me and I would have to buy a new Surf package.  Excuse me?  How stupid do I look?  I can do math and I would have spent more than I did originally for the top package.  SHEESH!

 

Kazu got very firm and very assertive and told them that that was NOT an acceptable solution.  I was not paying more for something I never got in the first place.  Told them to escalate it and I would talk to the HD if they couldn't make this right.

 

Suggested they just do a manual credit and nope, they can't do that.

 

Call back in 10 minutes 😄 Total package refunded.  My internet deactivated and I just had to buy the surf again.  🙂. Happy camper one more time 😉 

 

I do NOT recommend you buy the top package to stream unless you make sure that if it does not work that you can go down right away.  I tried it at 6 AM, 10PM, 11 PM - not just peak times.  Got it once for 5 minutes and it died.

 

So now, in Civi, I promised DH he could watch soccer.  (Works fine in ports so it's not the app).  Wouldn't you know it?  The headphones don't seem to work on my older Ipad so I had to give him my new one where all my pics are.  <sigh>. 

 

But he really wanted to see the end of this game so I am obliging and hopefully I can air drop some to my old Ipad at some stage and share yesterday's amazing adventure with you all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

Our next day in Naples was a full one.

 

I had a tour with JoeBananaLimo to go to Positano, Sorrento and Herculaneum.

 

Couldn’t believe what a great car we had.  I’ve done the Amalfi coast before and we have certainly felt the turns.  Not in this one.  Even the back was comfortable but we did play musical chairs.

 

Our first stop was Positano - such a beautiful spot.

 

 

There are gorgeous flowers here everywhere:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lemon trees everywhere!

Lemons are fully used and they also have HUGE ones that are actually sweet.

 

 

 

 

Of course, we were all going to do a bit of shopping and browsing.
 

Senior Gal’s husband had an excellent memory and led us to the shoe store where Barbara raved about the shoes.  OMG - such soft leather and so beautiful.

 

Unfortunately they were too wide for kazu but happy to report other roll call members were very successful buying 2 pairs of shoes mostly and one bought 5 😉