'Twas Two Weeks Before Christmas - Live from the Nieuw Statendam, Dec. 10 - 17, 2023

[oakridger]

@POA1 and @Huskerchick thank you for your informative and entertaining posts!  Just what I needed to get through these last couple of weeks of long dark evenings here in the Northern hemisphere!  Solstice is next Thursday and the days start getting longer.  Hooray!  

 

Thank You!!

 

~Nancy

[Cruisercl]

Thanks so much for the great review as I tagged along.

Welcome home!! 🙂

[wdw1972]

9 hours ago, POA1 said:

Us as well. I only mentioned it because we were seated next to a table of people who thought their Mariner discounts applied to items that have a surcharge.

At one time that was how it worked, but not for at least a couple/few years now. Same with Nami Sushi - used to get my mariner discount there, but no longer.

 

Sue/WDW1972

[kazu]

Thanks for taking us all along with you Brian, Michelle & PJ. 🙂   Such an enjoyable read (as always) - your time and effort to share with us is SO appreciated.  

 

Welcome home.

[POA1]

10 hours ago, BaxCruiser said:

We tried Rudolph’s this week on the Rotterdam…too sweet, IMO. I think you didn’t miss anything. 

Thanks. It seemed to be the least festive option. We were looking forward to the coffee Christmas drinks, but we not have been a good boy and girl, because Santa never brought the ingredients to make them.

 

[BaxCruiser]

1 hour ago, POA1 said:

Thanks. It seemed to be the least festive option. We were looking forward to the coffee Christmas drinks, but we not have been a good boy and girl, because Santa never brought the ingredients to make them.

 

That is a shame, because the spiked eggnog was a winner!

[POA1]

48 minutes ago, BaxCruiser said:

That is a shame, because the spiked eggnog was a winner!

It's the one I was looking forward to most. I really like homemade eggnog. Store-bought eggnog will do in a pinch.

 

When we first moved to Florida, I found this concoction called "Southern Style Custard" next to the nog at Publix, our local grocery store. The internet told me that it was a traditional Southern egg nog alternative.

 

Being a fan of all holiday drinks with the consistency of snot, I had to try it.  It's not as thick as commercial egg nog. It's got a consistency closer to homemade egg nog. It can be improved by the addition of rum, or better yet, bourbon. (Really though, what can't?)

[POA1]

Somehow, I failed to take a photo of the library entrance door. So, pretend that you see the sign below and then you turn around and are looking at the library's double doors.

 

 

Below the normal library door handles, you'll find a latch handle. The library door will appear locked when you pull it. It's probably not. Just turn the latch handle and then you can open the library door. It works a lot like some of the balcony doors that used a two handle, interlocking system.

[RuthC]

It's been a lovely, albeit too short, ride with you both for this trip. Thank you for bringing us all along.  Not being a fan of the Caribbean, it was fun that you focused on ship-board life, food, and amenities. Oh, and let's not forget the potent potables! 

Looking forward very much to your next 'research paper'! 

[Lazonia]

Love the National Institute of Cheer and your avatars; if you can't be on a ship, sailing vicariously with fun people is a worthy substitute.   Thank you! 

[POA1]

8 hours ago, RuthC said:

It's been a lovely, albeit too short, ride with you both for this trip. Thank you for bringing us all along.  Not being a fan of the Caribbean, it was fun that you focused on ship-board life, food, and amenities. Oh, and let's not forget the potent potables! 

Looking forward very much to your next 'research paper'! 

Thanks, Ruth! We've been to many of the Caribbean ports many times before, so there was not a whole lot new to do. Sailing on the Pinnacle Class ships was new to us though. We figured it would be interesting to explore what was "new to us."

 

On day 3, when the disembarkation packet showed up, Michelle said, "Now I remember why we don't take 7 day cruises." Our next sailing is only 9 days, but I guess we'll just have to work our way back up to longer cruises.

 

We had a genuinely enjoyable voyage. Service was top notch and the food was delicious. All in all we had a great time. Five years was too long to be away from cruising. Thank goodness we only have a little over three months until we sail again.

Edited December 19, 2023 by POA1

[julia]

First of all, just let me say that I love all three of you!  We are kindred spirits, who could cruise together seamlessly, like we've known each other forever.  Fine spirits? ✅️  Fine wines? ✅️  Wine pairings? ✅️  Fine cuisine? ✅️  Deck Seven? ✅️  Poohbert Deck??!  I lost it! 😅 That was srsly your best line (out of dozens, said this Deck Seven girl!) 😅🍷🎶✅️

Thanks for sharing your trip, and Merry Christmas to @POA1, Michelle, and Poohby Joe! 💕

[POA1]

6 hours ago, Lazonia said:

Love the National Institute of Cheer and your avatars; if you can't be on a ship, sailing vicariously with fun people is a worthy substitute.   Thank you! 

Thank you. We set out to have fun on vacation and in almost every case, we do. We've also realized that some of the funniest stories stem from things not going exactly according to plan.

 

We'll be back at this nonsense in a few months on the Rotterdam.

[POA1]

Another one of the art installations from the forward elevator area.

 

 

As I mentioned earlier, there is a an art guide for the ship. Special thanks to the associate researchers who pointed that out. Guest services was not able to email the guide to me, but the nice employee at the front desk was able to print it out.

 

 

I'll take a new, still in the package, USB memory stick with me on the Rotterdam. I'd rather have it as a PDF instead of paper. Besides helping to save the forests, it'll save the work of rescanning the paper version and turning it back into a PDF.

[POA1]

I really do think that the art guide is a very nice enhancement to the cruise experience. I used to download the old guided art tour files and listen to them. They were in Apple AIFF format because they were designed for the little iPod players you could borrow. Not owning an Apple player, I'd have to convert them to MP3 so I could use them. (Eventually HAL made them available in MP3.)

 

The new tours would really lend themselves to web based presentation, particularly for tablet users. There could be a link in the Navigator app which renders most of its content in HTML anyway...

 

Baby steps, I suppose.

 

That, and the paper version needs no batteries, Wi-Fi signal, or tech support. I guess I can't really fault the paper version considering that we use the paper daily program to plan our (busy! exciting! action-packed!) days

[POA1]

Thinking about my last comment. Maybe I spoke too soon. Some bright young thing would get the brilliant idea of slapping QR codes all over the place and you'd have to scan the code to read about the piece.

 

Or use an RFID proximity sensor or Bluetooth transmitter to pull up the web page - thus creating a whole new set of tech support headaches.

 

Gotta put the breaks on what you wish for, Brian old boy.

[POA1]

@Caribbean Chris just reminded me about the super-valuable Club Orange Tote Bag (of Magnificence) in another thread.  You would think that after going on about it for months and months, I might have spent some time opining about its greatness.  I did not.

 

In fact, other than a single photo of Poohby Joe and the tote bag, I didn't really address it at all.  It could be that I was awestruck by its beauty and functionality.  Completely at a loss for words.

 

Nope. The real reason was that I was using it as place to store all the paperwork I was saving for future scanning. It also gives me something to write about during our March/April 2024 cruise.  I fear that I might run out of things to share. 😉

[POA1]

By request:  The Art Guide from the Nieuw Statendam, scanned to a PDF and ready to view or print.  The link is to the file on Dropbox.  You may get a prompt from Dropbox to download their app. You do not have to. You can simply open the link in your web browser and download the file from there.

 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ro7mqfxmidjlzn36d2sbf/Nieuw-Statendam-Art-Tour-2023-12.pdf?rlkey=2ypbisphmhpxhns6twizmk5vd&dl=0

[POA1]

Speaking of the wonderful Club Orange tote bag... Here are the "Poohbies."

 

From left to right: Poohby Joe, Round Poohby & Big Poohby.

 

Poohby Joe is sporting his Christmas shirt and all three of them are looking sharp with their new Club Orange tote bag.

[Lazonia]

10 hours ago, POA1 said:

Thank you. We set out to have fun on vacation and in almost every case, we do. We've also realized that some of the funniest stories stem from things not going exactly according to plan.

 

We'll be back at this nonsense in a few months on the Rotterdam.

You're going to love the Rotterdam.   We were on NS in the fall of 2022, and did the Panama Canal sailing over Thanksgiving on the Rotterdam.     Both ships are terrific and the Rolling Stone Rock Room was our favorite.  

[Haljo1935]

5 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Speaking of the wonderful Club Orange tote bag... Here are the "Poohbies."

 

From left to right: Poohby Joe, Round Poohby & Big Poohby.

 

Poohby Joe is sporting his Christmas shirt and all three of them are looking sharp with their new Club Orange tote bag.

Poohbies be spiffy 👀

Edited December 19, 2023 by Haljo1935
Typo

[POA1]

17 hours ago, Lazonia said:

Love the National Institute of Cheer and your avatars; if you can't be on a ship, sailing vicariously with fun people is a worthy substitute.   Thank you! 

You're very welcome!  Tune in again in 101 days for the next scientific expedition.

[Haljo1935]

24 minutes ago, POA1 said:

By request:  The Art Guide from the Nieuw Statendam, scanned to a PDF and ready to view or print.  The link is to the file on Dropbox.  You may get a prompt from Dropbox to download their app. You do not have to. You can simply open the link in your web browser and download the file from there.

 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ro7mqfxmidjlzn36d2sbf/Nieuw-Statendam-Art-Tour-2023-12.pdf?rlkey=2ypbisphmhpxhns6twizmk5vd&dl=0

Sincere thanks for doing this; I'm excited to ask for one this week when I get on K'dam. 👏

[POA1]

12 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

Sincere thanks for doing this; I'm excited to ask for one this week when I get on K'dam. 👏

Happy to help. I'm glad someone mentioned this during our trip. I'd have never known about it otherwise.

 

I'm hoping to get an advance copy of the guide for the Rotterdam. I'm envisioning a combination art tour and pub crawl. Our working title is "A Toast to the Arts."

 

It won't be a traditional pub crawl because we're a little old for that, but maybe we can spread it out over a few days.

[BaxCruiser]

On 12/18/2023 at 11:55 AM, POA1 said:

It's the one I was looking forward to most. I really like homemade eggnog. Store-bought eggnog will do in a pinch.

 

When we first moved to Florida, I found this concoction called "Southern Style Custard" next to the nog at Publix, our local grocery store. The internet told me that it was a traditional Southern egg nog alternative.

 

Being a fan of all holiday drinks with the consistency of snot, I had to try it.  It's not as thick as commercial egg nog. It's got a consistency closer to homemade egg nog. It can be improved by the addition of rum, or better yet, bourbon. (Really though, what can't?)

I think Bailey’s, Kahlua, and espresso along with your homemade egg nog and it’d be just like you’re on board!