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iflyrc5 Almost Live from the Nieuw Statendam - Feb 2 - Mar 16 (we hope)

iflyrc5

By iflyrc5,
in Holland America Line

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iflyrc5

iflyrc5

Posted
Posted

I have never tried to do an Almost Live report before but over the last several months in reading all the Almost Live reports I have learned so much about cruising on HAL in this new age that I will try my hand at giving my view of what is going on and will try to answer your questions to give those with upcoming cruises an opportunity to ask questions.  As background we have about 35 cruises on HAL with over 700 days on board since 1995 so are loyal HAL guests.  We were on the Volendam doing the Grand South America cruise from Jan -Mar 20, 2020 when cruising was coming to an end.  We were one of the last ships to come back to Ft Lauderdale that let passengers off.  The night before we passed 14 ships off the coast with lights on but only crew aboard.

 

Our 2022 adventure started 12:05 AM on Monday doing our proctored Covid test online.  Since we were flying out Monday midmorning and the test is required 2 days before boarding we had to wait until Monday to do the testing.  The connection and process was quick and smooth (I guess there were very few people trying to test that early in the morning) taking about 25 minutes for each of us (did it on a laptop) and by 1:15AM we were doing the happy dance and off to bed for a couple hours sleep before heading to the airport.  

 

Flight to Ft Lauderdale on Southwest was smooth and went from 10 degrees to 70 degrees in 2 hours and 6 minutes.  We did a little last minute shopping today and will be heading for Port Everglades to board around noon with all our documentation in hand.  The winter of 2021 was the first time in 15 years that we had not been on a DAM ship somewhere warm so we are really looking forward to getting back to the wonderful HAL crew and life aboard a DAM ship.  

 

We have been to all of the ports on these 11 Day eastern and 10 south cruises so we are not too concerned if we can't get off and probably won't in several ports.  We are going to do our best to stay healthy so that we can come through with a negative test before each of our turn around days in FLL.

 

That is all for now - will be back when I can get wifi setup on the ship.

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prescottbob

prescottbob

Posted
Posted

BTW, it looks like you exited Indy just in time to avoid the ‘weather’.

 

BTW2, masking rules for some of the Caribbean ‘clothing optional’ beaches will be changing soon according to internet gossip 😂.

 

Seriously, stay safe.

Bob

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