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

[POA1]

We started with the poke and the panko crusted asparagus. Both were excellent.

 

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by POA1

[Haljo1935]

 

1 hour ago, POA1 said:

Ze plan is to go to the Tamarind bar around 5 PM for drinks and scooby snacks. We'll head to CO after 8 PM so as to avoid the first day rush.

 

I'm hoping we get on the move before the rain comes The Retreat Area is pretty empty right now, but I heard it was sold out this week.

I really enjoyed The Emperor's Nectar from the Tamarind. Was also able to get it in MDR & CO when I asked.

Edited December 10, 2023 by Haljo1935
Typo

[POA1]

We followed that with the tempura lobster roll and the soft shell crab roll. Now we can have dinner late.

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by POA1

[POA1]

Taking one for the team - Minty Elf courtesy of @Huskerchick

[POA1]

The Minty Elf is very refreshing. We think it's better than the old Candy Cane Martini of yore.

 

[BetsyS.]

Bon Voyage!🥂😊 Have a great time! Thanks for all your reports and pictures.

[Seasick Sailor]

1 hour ago, POA1 said:

The Minty Elf is very refreshing. We think it's better than the old Candy Cane Martini of yore.

 

 

On Rotterdam now for 51 days. Our awesome bartender makes me the Elf without peppermint and don't know what he adds but it's a nice in between bloody Mary and prelunch cocktail. Yes, I have the HIA pkg...

[POA1]

9 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

 

On Rotterdam now for 51 days. Our awesome bartender makes me the Elf without peppermint and don't know what he adds but it's a nice in between bloody Mary and prelunch cocktail. Yes, I have the HIA pkg...

I respect the concept of the cocktail intermezzo. Especially before lunch. 😁

[Seasick Sailor]

7 minutes ago, POA1 said:

I respect the concept of the cocktail intermezzo. Especially before lunch. 😁

 

Lunch leads me towards a natural lemon drop or 2. Luscious. 

 

[SUESEABE]

Late to the party but follow. Have a great cruise!

[POA1]

The Club Orange dining room was fairly deserted at 8:15 pm. We were seated promptly and service was quick, efficient and friendly thoughout.

 

Our primary server was Tri and he did a great job.

 

Michelle had the Caribbean shrimp cocktail and I had the corn chowder to start. Both were good, but not great. (No complaints.)

 

The mains were phenomenal. Michelle had the Peruvian Chicken. I had the snapper. The snapper was delicious. However, the winner, winner was the chicken dinner. Brian X (no relation) was shocked as he never expected to see the chicken win.

 

I'll try to provide a better write up in the morning. It's been a long day and I'm running on fumes. (Bourbon, most likely.)

 

Some dinner pix:

 

Appetizers:

 

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by POA1

[POA1]

Main course

 

Peruvian Chicken

Snapper

Edited December 11, 2023 by POA1

[Haljo1935]

5 hours ago, POA1 said:

Taking one for the team - Minty Elf courtesy of @Huskerchick

Oh no - no chocolate rim 😪 I hope she enjoyed it, though.

[POA1]

A closing note on Day 1:  I read a lot about less than stellar first day dining experiences. We are almost always late, fixed dining people. As such, we don't typically run into the day one back ups. Any clogs or choke points are usually gone by the time the 8:00 pm fixed seating begins.

 

We figured it would be best to "counter-program" our dining to avoid snafus. We had protein shakes for breakfast (at home), a light lunch on the ship, and then padded our schedule with scoobies in the Tamarind bar.

 

Dinner was in the Club Orange dining room, but it was late. By the time we ate, the backlog had cleared. Pacing was tight and there were no gaps in service.

[POA1]

Just now, Haljo1935 said:

Oh no - no chocolate rim 😪 I hope she enjoyed it, though.

I did not see a chocolate rim on the description. Was it cocoa? Crushed chocolate candy? Cookie bits?

 

I seriously hope that Christmas isn't ruined.

[POA1]

Because someone is bound to ask, and because it's definitely a science thing, here is the internet speed test from the Google machine

Ookla is giving wildly higher numbers. Speeds have been fine on Starlink

 

 

I haven't set up my laptop. I'll do that in an hour or so once the AM coffee comes from room service. Then, I can deploy PoohbyNet so all our computing machinery can connect. (It's a TPLink router.)

Edited December 11, 2023 by POA1

[POA1]

Meanwhile, back at dessert... Michelle had the brownie cheesecake. I had the Brazo de Mercedes. The cheesecake is pretty self explanatory. Brazo de Mercedes is merengue and vanilla custard, rolled up. It was good and as a student of all things puddin', it was a nice change.

 

After dinner drinks were cappuccino for DW and Remy Martin VSOP for me. (Flexing my Elite Beverage Package at $15.) We spend the day in search of a generous pour, and wouldn't you know it? It shows up in a snifter!

 

 

 

Brownie cheesecake & cappuccino

 

Remy Martin VSOP

 

Brazo de Mercedes

 

We only had a taste of each dessert because we're trying to pace ourselves. On the other hand, we powered through the beverages.

Edited December 11, 2023 by POA1

[FLCruiser97]

7 hours ago, POA1 said:

Main course

 

Peruvian Chicken

Snapper

The chicken looks good but I am curious, what makes it Peruvian? What are the spices on it?

[POA1]

Just now, FLCruiser97 said:

The chicken looks good but I am curious, what makes it Peruvian? What are the spices on it?

Good question. It wasn't heavily spiced and I only had small bite. The chicken gets marinated in lime juice with oil, garlic, cumin and oregano. This is done by the Marinator Society. It's finished so that it's got crispy skin.

[FLCruiser97]

49 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Good question. It wasn't heavily spiced and I only had small bite. The chicken gets marinated in lime juice with oil, garlic, cumin and oregano. This is done by the Marinator Society. It's finished so that it's got crispy skin.

OK. Good to know especially about the Marinator Society. I will definitely give it a try if it's on my HAL trip.

[cruisemom42]

15 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

 

I really enjoyed The Emperor's Nectar from the Tamarind. Was also able to get it in MDR & CO when I asked.

 

I can also highly recommend the cucumber mojito -- very refreshing.

 

[SUESEABE]

@cruisemom42 I am also a huge fan of the cucumber mojito.

[POA1]

 

We sampled the clean, bright entertainments last night and out panel of judges came down squarely in favor of the BB King All Stars.  The Rolling Stone Rock Room band was good as were the two piano players in Billboard, but the BB King Band was tight and they really, really worked the room. 

 

I took a full set of room photos to share with HALFacts.  The room is quite comfortable and functional.  I've read quite a bit about the Vista Suites being a glorified verandah stateroom.  I don't think that's quite fair. They're a longer, glorified balcony room.😉  We have a category V verandah booked for our March/April Rotterdam cruise and that will give us a better basis for comparison.  We have one of the pointy V's that sits right where the ship gets wider.  Size-wise, it'll probably be pretty close to this Category A Vista Suite - only pointier, with a wider balcony and only single Mariner credit days.

 

We had breakfast in the Club Orange Dining Room this morning and it was good. We were seated a few tables from @LAFFNVEGAS, but I didn't want to interrupt her meal and I figured I'll be meeting her soon in the Crow's Nest for the Meet & Greet.

 

@Huskerchick is up in cabanaland already and I had a little work to do, so I am still "at home." We have lunch at the Pinnacle Grill at noon-and-a-half, followed by the wine tasting in the MDR.  We haven't been to a HAL wine tasting since 2013, so I am looking forward to some serious entertainment.  I ran out of time before we left home, but I wanted to print up some Wine Tasting Bing Cards.  Here are some of the squares:

• Only drinks real Champagne
• Calls it Red Zinfandel
• Anything but Chardonnay
• Decanter or other aeration device
• I detect notes
• Over swirler
• I don't drink wine but it's free
• Wine snob
• Not a wine snob, but...
• Been to a winery
• When we went to Napa
• In Europe ...
• Only red...
• Only white.. .
• Just slams wine ahead of tasting.
• Malolactic
• Terrior

 

[POA1]

 

My lovely bride has opted out of the Meet & Greet so she can spend time in the Retreat Area. (Ironically, it's only steps from the Crow's Nest.  I told her that I was just going to say that, "She hates people."  She didn't think that was as funny as I did.)

 

In fairness though, she's helping the bear work on the 2023 edition of Poohby Joe's Guide to Cabana Living.

 

I'll probably report in after the Meet & Greet or lunch or the wine tasting.  Because there's nothing better than seeing what other people ate for lunch!

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by POA1

[Haljo1935]

9 hours ago, POA1 said:

I did not see a chocolate rim on the description. Was it cocoa? Crushed chocolate candy? Cookie bits?

 

I seriously hope that Christmas isn't ruined.

Correct, no chocolate rim mentioned in the description and the one made at Lido Bar (deemed undrinkable by cabinmate) did not have one.

 

But the one she rec'd from the pros in the Ocean Bar had one.

She quite enjoyed that one and the chocolate rim really made the drink. The next one she got from Ocean Bar, the chocolate was swirled inside the glass vs being on the rim.

It was the liquid squeeze chocolate like they use in a chocolate espresso martini.