Live(ish) from Westerdam Xmas/NY cruise from Auckland 20Dec22

[arxcards]

13 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We spotted a couple of tiny waterfalls before reaching Stirling Falls so there must have been rain fairly recently. Both Stirling Falls and Bowen Falls were running quite strongly too. At the head of the sound the ship turned through 540 degrees to give everyone a good view and position the ship ready to leave again. We also did another 360 in front of Stirling Falls on the way out. We enjoyed basking in the late afternoon sun as we exited Milford, seeing distant mountains I'd never really noticed before.

Maybe rain, but can also be glacial melt.

[arxcards]

10 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Thinking of birthdays on board ship, my birthday wasn't acknowledged on my recent cruise.  This is the second time on a cruise.  I'm wondering whether you are meant to tell someone it is your birthday.  The Carnival on line girl picked up that it would be my birthday on the cruise, without being told!  However, I was surrounded by birthday celebrations on both cruises.  

You usually need to advise them you want to celebrate your birthday. I am happy to nominate Barb's birthday on whatever app or online form. For myself, I make sure I miss out.

[Yolande]

Hi, we will be cruising on the Westerdam for the third time.  We usually buy a package of bottles of wine and we take an Apero at the Happy hour.  Are they still doing Happy hour?  If not we will consider  buying the Have it all package as we can buy it half price. (6 weeks with 14 days at sea) 

[lyndarra]

Agree. The wine packages and happy hour in the crows nest suits me.

[sewgood]

3 hours ago, Yolande said:

Are they still doing Happy hour?

On my cruise on the Westerdam they had it twice a day at 4-5pm all bars and 11pm to late.

At the Ocean bar they would start taking orders for it at around 3:45 in the afternoon.

[SilvertoGold]

3 minutes ago, sewgood said:

On my cruise on the Westerdam they had it twice a day at 4-5pm all bars and 11pm to late.

At the Ocean bar they would start taking orders for it at around 3:45 in the afternoon.

Be aware that HAL ship do things inconsistently.  Some Happy Hours are in one or two bars only.  Some are 2 for 1, others are buy one get second 50% off. It is all over the board and it rarely says on the daily program how it works. I am glad to hear about how the Westerdam does it, but that could change.

[sewgood]

1 hour ago, SilvertoGold said:

Be aware that HAL ship do things inconsistently. 

Thanks for information as this was our first cruise on HAL and I will now know to check on our next cruise what the deal is.

[Yolande]

Thank you everyone and Happy New Year

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

5 hours ago, Yolande said:

Hi, we will be cruising on the Westerdam for the third time.  We usually buy a package of bottles of wine and we take an Apero at the Happy hour.  Are they still doing Happy hour?  If not we will consider  buying the Have it all package as we can buy it half price. (6 weeks with 14 days at sea) 

I've seen Happy Hours mentioned in the daily programme. Usually at 4pm and today they are in all the bars. 

 

The Have It All package would be excellent value at half price. We've got it and it's good for everything but wine but only because they've run out of some of the wines I like that are within the price range. The internet is a bit slow at times too.

[boeckli]

Julie @OzKiwiJJ, I have a special request. If possible, could you find out what benefits (i.e. OBC) there are when booking a specific cruise while on board as opposed to booking with an FCD with its built-in OBC (which is $50.00 pp for cruises of 11-21 days).

Only if not too tricky - Thanks in advance 🙂

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by boeckli

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, boeckli said:

Julie @OzKiwiJJ, I have a special request. If possible, could you find out what benefits (i.e. OBC) there are when booking a specific cruise while on board as opposed to booking with an FCD with its built-in OBC (which is $50.00 pp for cruises of 11-21 days).

Only if not too tricky - Thanks in advance 🙂

 

Remind me on Saturday - we're doing a Bruny Island excursion tomorrow.

 

It may be the same as Princess ie no extra OBC for booking onboard rather than just using an FCD, only whatever OBC is on offer with whatever the current promo is. 

[boeckli]

9 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Remind me on Saturday - we're doing a Bruny Island excursion tomorrow.

 

It may be the same as Princess ie no extra OBC for booking onboard rather than just using an FCD, only whatever OBC is on offer with whatever the current promo is. 

 

Thanks - will do 👍

Enjoy your excursion. Did you book through the ship?

Edited December 29, 2022 by boeckli

[OzKiwiJJ]

30 minutes ago, boeckli said:

 

Thanks - will do 👍

Enjoy your excursion. Did you book through the ship?

Yes, we had some leftover excursion credit so that helped.

[boeckli]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, we had some leftover excursion credit so that helped.

 

Looking forward to your report about it 🙂

[SilvertoGold]

9 hours ago, boeckli said:

Julie @OzKiwiJJ, I have a special request. If possible, could you find out what benefits (i.e. OBC) there are when booking a specific cruise while on board as opposed to booking with an FCD with its built-in OBC (which is $50.00 pp for cruises of 11-21 days).

Only if not too tricky - Thanks in advance 🙂

 

Sometimes you do get extra OBC or extras for booking onboard.  Julie will find out for sure about any promos.

Edited December 29, 2022 by SilvertoGold

[SilvertoGold]

Just now, SilvertoGold said:

Sometimes you do get extra OBC or extras for booking onboard.  Julie will find out for sure.

 

[Pushka]

Your ship taken by a poster on Aus Frequent Flyer just now. He gave permission. 
Silver Fern just arrived from the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by Pushka

[Aussieflyer]

That was quick Pushka! Someone from work is on Westerdam with extended family - will be interested to hear how it went. 

You didn't point out the Ponant ship in the photo as well - the size difference is easy to see.

 

I find it very interesting that the captain is relaying the the cases of COVID on board.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Aussieflyer

[sewgood]

22 hours ago, boeckli said:

could you find out what benefits (i.e. OBC) there are when booking a specific cruise while on board as opposed to booking with an FCD with its built-in OBC

 

13 hours ago, SilvertoGold said:

Sometimes you do get extra OBC or extras for booking onboard.

 

On the Westerdam the future cruise consultant said in her presentation in the theatre that she would give you extra OBC  for booking onboard in addition to what you got from a FCD. So I agree with SilvertoGold.

[boeckli]

9 minutes ago, sewgood said:

 

 

On the Westerdam the future cruise consultant said in her presentation in the theatre that she would give you extra OBC  for booking onboard in addition to what you got from a FCD. So I agree with SilvertoGold.

 

Thank you 🙂

[OzKiwiJJ]

22 hours ago, sewgood said:

 

 

On the Westerdam the future cruise consultant said in her presentation in the theatre that she would give you extra OBC  for booking onboard in addition to what you got from a FCD. So I agree with SilvertoGold.

Yes, you get extra OBC if you book onboard. Here's the details:

 

And these are the T&Cs:

[sewgood]

9 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, you get extra OBC if you book onboard.

Thanks Julie,

I also asked the future cruise consultant if you can add share holders benefit on top of this and the answer was yes.

I thought it would be but it's always worth checking.

[boeckli]

22 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, you get extra OBC if you book onboard.

 

Many thanks Julie 👍

 

Hope you enjoyed Bruny Island,  weather looked favourable 🙂

[OzKiwiJJ]

We had a lovely, but very long, day at Bruny Island yesterday.

 

Since Hobart was our first Australian port we had to go through passport control

 It was very efficient though. Tour groups met in the theatre while the rest of the passengers had had to get group cards the day before to spread out the process. There was some confusion in the theatre while the tour groups were assembling as the general groups announcement was broadcast there by mistake and those with matching tour group numbers started heading out. However that got sorted out quickly. Once the tour groups started leaving they were given priority and it was all very quick.

 

We had a pleasant trip down to Kettering to catch the ferry. Of course yesterday was one of the worst possible days to go over to Bruny Island, hundreds of people were heading over for the weekend. The ferry queue was huge. Unfortunately tour buses had to get in line like everyone else. It took about 45 minutes to get onto a ferry but once we got close to the head of the queue we were able to get off the bus for a quick comfort stop, and even had time to grab a takeaway coffee.

 

Once on Bruny we headed south to the Neck through beautiful countryside. Our wonderful bus driver, Sam, imparted lots of interesting info about the area and places we passed. At the Neck we stopped for a while. Most people went up to the lookout, which seemed quite crowded. We decided to do the boardwalk to the beach instead and had fun spotting penguin burrows along the way. The beach was beautiful, as were the views from there. 

 

Then we went on to Adventure Bay. South Bruny has a wetter climate than North Bruny and there were some beautiful forests along the way. Petticott Wilderness Journeys operate lots of tours in the Hobart area and they have a great restaurant at the Southern end of Adventure Bay which was our lunch stop.

 

First we were given a taste of the local oysters. They were huge and delicious. Most oysters are farmed in intertidal zones so spend half the time underwater feeding and the other half out of the water and closed up tight. The Bruny oyster farm, Get Shucked, grows their oysters completely underwater so they get very fat. However they have a shorter shelf life. That didn't matter this time as they were freshly harvested that morning. 

 

Following the oysters we had beautiful fish, chips and salad. The fish was crumbed blue eye trevella, again superfresh, and the salad was also really fresh and tasty, and only lightly dressed. We also got a complimentary drink, in our case a glass of very nice Tasmanian riesling.

 

The restaurant was over-run with people wanting lunch. Luckily our tables were reserved but service was a bit slow. The ever-energetic Sam was serving meals, not just to us but to other tables as well. 

 

We had a choice of things to do after lunch - a headland walk escorted by Sam or a ramble along the beach. We opted for the beach which had gorgeous turquoise water although I suspect it was quite chilly. It was lovely just relaxing there for a while. The tour company operates boat trips from the nearby wharf so we watched them racing out to sea and back. Unfortunately there wasn't time to do one. 

 

Back on the bus we got given a sample of fudge from the local chocolate company that we had passed earlier. We headed back to the ferry with a couple of stops along the way - at the oyster farm for those who wanted more oysters, and at the House of Whisky where we we tasted one of their very special whiskies, and their "magic" gin. As soon as I saw the gin I started laughing! It was infused with the Butterfly Pea flower which gives it a beautiful bluey-purple colour, which turns pinky-purple when tonic is added. Of course after drinking many Butterfly cocktails on Princess, which uses a tea made from the same flower, I was very familiar with this reaction. It made a lovely gin so we bought a bottle.

 

Our journey there wasn't without some unusual happenings though: we nearly squished a small Mazda who stopped very suddenly to let an echidna cross the road. Luckily Sam was travelling at a safe distance so stopped in time. Then a bit further along the road we had to wait until a huge flock of sheep crossed the road. They were coming from a side road so were strung out in a very, very long line. We couldn't believe how many there were, the line seemed endless.

 

We only had a short wait for the ferry this time, just enough time for those who wanted locally grown cherries to duck over to the conveniently placed cherry shop.

 

We got back to the ship about 75 minutes late but there was no rush as we weren't leaving Hobart until 11pm. We still had plenty of time for relaxed showers before dinner.

 

Sam, our driver, commentator, tour guide and jack of all trades, was absolutely wonderful. He had a great sense of humour as well as excellent local knowledge. It was a privilege to spend the day touring with him.

 

My only complaint was the bus seats. They aren't designed for plus sized women - the seat belt placement meant I had to sit in a slightly uncomfortable position so it didn't either choke me or squash my boobs. My back was not happy last night but a good night's sleep has made it a bit happier.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Bruny Island Photos.

 

Looking north from the Neck beach.

 

Looking south from the Neck beach.

 

No moonlight strolls on this beach, unless you're a penguin of course.

 

Penguin burrow.

 

Black swans on the Channel side of the Neck.

 

View across the Channel from the Neck.

 

 A lucky shot of the Neck as we went up the hill south of it.

 

One of the tracks down to the beach from the restaurant at Adventure Bay. This one led straight off the restaurant deck.

 

The southern headland at Adventure Bay.