San Diego to Montreal in 134 Days

[erewhon]

12 hours ago, richwmn said:

Just to get it out of the way, and take full credit – I did take a spill on the Lido Deck leaving the Taco Bar a few minutes ago. I am fine. Medical came quickly and gave it more attention than I would have myself. I have a small skinned area on my leg that will heal nicely, most likely before the Grand starts. Nothing else hurt but my pride.

 

 

Easily done, do you think you tripped on something?

Hope that the graze will be healed before the Grand Voyage begins.

 

[cruising sister]

Rich I hope your knee feels ok this morning. The next day is always a little worse. 

[richwmn]

4 hours ago, erewhon said:

 

Easily done, do you think you tripped on something?

Hope that the graze will be healed before the Grand Voyage begins.

 

Tripped over the back of a lounge chair. Everything is just fine now.

[StLouisCruisers]

Rich @richwmn glad the fall resulted in nothing serious.  You have so much ahead of you to enjoy and no one wants a fall to disrupt that!  Stay safe and well!

[richwmn]

December 28^th, 2023 – Mazatlán, Mexico

According to the ships weather it is currently 70°F/21°C, with a high of 76°F forecast.

Our position at breakfast was –

 

 

Today’s activities –

 

 

 

 

After my spill yesterday I was going to play trivia at 4pm. Despite not being connected to either a shore tower or ship’s internet, my phone rang with a facebook call. I was connected to the ship’s wifi, but not the internet. I left trivia and went back to the cabin to call them back. I then spent the rest of the evening in, resting and healing. I feel very good this morning.

 

We are still three hours from Mazatlán so no morning port pictures.

 

 

[richwmn]

December 28^th, 2023 – Mazatlán, Mexico

 

The ship has been cleared, but before I head off, here is tonight’s menu for the Main Dining Room

 

 

 

 

[ottahand7]

Rich I am enjoying following along.   You will have some good meals with Chef Javier.   He was head chef on the GSA and the food was exceptional.  Some of the roast meats in the Lido were wonderful.  

[richwmn]

December 28^th, 2023 – Mazatlán, Mexico

 

And we are off to our next destination. We do have a time change again tonight, back to West Coast time. The weather here has been great and the air fresh. I didn’t go into town today, and enjoyed a relaxing day aboard.

 

A couple of images from the ship –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[richwmn]

December 28^th, 2023 – Mazatlán, Mexico

 

 

At the end of a very good day on Volendam. The weather has again been fabulous. Mild and sunny, with little cloud cover. I had spaghetti for dinner which was good, followed by cherry pie and ice cream – all from the Lido. Four pm trivia went well, but not great. A little relaxation followed by the 7pm trivia which was all about money. My team was me along with a couple and their son. This has been my team for several of the trivia sessions. We did pretty good, scoring 14 out of 17 but not winning.

 

 

At 9:00pm I went to the show. The performer was a Ukranian billed as an instrumentalist. He started out with two very good songs by Billy Joel, then touched on Classical, and the Beatles. Over the course of the show he played Piano, Accordion, Trumpet, and a small island instrument. It was a very good show and well received by a good sized audience. I believe he said he will be continuing on to the first part of the Grand Australia.

 

 

[bcummin]

I am glad to see that you received the chocolate-covered strawberries to enjoy.  🙂  

Barbara

[richwmn]

December 29^th, 2023 -- Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

 

HAL’s weather lists the current temperature as 63°F/17°C. My phone tells me that the high today is expected to be 80°F, another beautiful day in Mexico. Our position at breakfast was already at Puerto Vallarta.

 

 

Today’s stop was one of the frequent stops on the old TV show ‘The Love Boat’. I almost expect to see Gopher, Doc, and Julie somewhere around town. They were usually the ones who got to visit. We arrived and were fully berthed at 7am, but as the Cruise Director said at the show last night, he did not make the announcement until a little after 8am.

 

Those of us continuing on the the Grand Australia cruise have a meeting with the Captain and Staff this afternoon at 4:15 for cocktails and I suppose instructions for turn around day, which is coming up soon.

 

Last night I was surprised to see another port map in my mailbox, so here it is –

 

 

 

 

Along with today’s activities –

 

 

 

I hope everyone has a great day!

 

 

[Fred321]

Could you ask them how many passengers they expect to have for the Grand? Thanks.

[Travelexpert35]

I really enjoyed following along on your adventure last January. Your Australia and New Zealand route this year looks fabulous. You’re covering a lot of ground. Would love to do this one someday. Enjoy!!

[richwmn]

December 29^th, 2023 -- Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

 

Tonight’s Menus – Main Dining Room and Lido

 

 

 

[richwmn]

December 30, 2023 – Zihuatanejo, Mexico

 

To start off, here is our position when I ate breakfast this morning at 7:00am –

 

 

I haven’t posted since yesterday morning, so a bit of catching up is in order. I ended up staying on the ship yesterday. Just the way things happened. I did take a few pictures from the ship of the port area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 4:15 the Captain had a reception for those of us continuing on to the Grand Australia. Shortly after I arrived I started talking to a nice gentleman who ended up being the Captain who will be taking over on Jan 3^rd. He is a very nice gentleman and we had a good conversation. I also had a chance to speak to the current Captain, Ryan Whitaker, and the Hotel Director, Leonie Henry. I also had a chance to talk to several Cruise Critics members. The bar staff kept the wine and drinks flowing for the length of the meeting, about 45 minutes.

 

I left there and went to the Dive In and grabbed a quick burger, always good. I then went to the Mix and did trivia. My team did well, 15 of the 17 possible points but four or five teams did better. It was, as always, an enjoyable time.

 

I stayed in the rest of the evening and slept late this morning. Our port time today is noon to 5:30pm. It is another tender port, but I don’t know how long the tender ride will be.

 

One thing to note here is that we have not had TV reception in any port. The channels listed are NFL Games, NCAA Football, BBC News, MSNBC, FOX News, Prime One, Prime Favorites, Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, Bow Camera, and Aft Camera. The NFL link lists one game today and five tomorrow, while the NCAA link doesn’t list any. I am hopeful that at least part of the Orange Bowl today.

 

 

 

And finally, the menus for this evening

 

 

 

 

[richwmn]

FWIW -- I just checked with the bartender in MIX and it appears that we will not be seeing any of the College Bowl Games on board. At least not the ones played today.

[ATC]

63 to 3 GA

[DAllenTCY]

The latest info I've received.....Volendam embarkation on January 3, 2024 = 1,072.

 

Of those, 521 guest are either President's Club, 4&5* Mariner, Neptune Suite, or Club Orange.

 

Continuing on from the previous cruise = 45

 

The local weather forecast is 50% chance of rain.

 

David

 

 

 

[durangoscots]

Chance of rain is less than it was this morning.... hope it  holds off....or better yet goes away.

[richwmn]

December 30, 2023 – Zihuatanejo, Mexico

 

Well, it is evening on Volendam. I have had a very nice day aboard. I didn’t feel like tendering today and maybe that was a good idea. Several people mentioned that the process was a bit rough.

 

General trivia at 4pm was pretty good. A three person team came in second with one less point than the winning team. They still aren’t giving out much in the way of prizes, so it is all for fun and second place is fine.

 

The 7pm trivia was beverages and we (team of 4 – different) were again one point behind the winner. That seems to have happened quite a few times this cruise. The questions were pretty good and Rose, who unfortunately is leaving in San Diego, is a good trivia host.

 

I did the 9pm show in the World Stage because Cantare was again featured. They did a very good selection of love songs. The group harmonizes well, and provide a high energy show. I just checked and they are scheduled for a show on January 5^th, which appears to be different than the two shows from this cruise. I will be glad to see them again.

 

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. There will be two parties, the big one on the Lido Deck in the Pool Area, and a smaller one around the Ocean Bar. They are scheduled to last from 10pm to 12:45am. Should be a good time.

 

[erewhon]

@richwmn  Rich,  have you discovered the name of the gentleman who will become the Captain on January 3rd?

[richwmn]

December 31, 2023 – Manzanillo, Mexico – New Years Eve!

 

Good morning from Volendam. I was surprised to see the Lido open at 6am for breakfast since arrival time is 8am, I would have thought 7am or maybe 6:30am. So breakfast is out of the way, along with the menus being available. We should be close to the dock for our day in Manzanillo.

 

Here are today’s activities –

 

 

 

And the various food offerings –

 

 

 

I was unable to load the other images. I'll try again later.

 

[richwmn]

Food Offering -- Complete

 

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

21 hours ago, richwmn said:

One thing to note here is that we have not had TV reception in any port.

 

That seems strange since your internet seems to be working well?  Is the lack of reception just in port or also at sea?

[richwmn]

23 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

That seems strange since your internet seems to be working well?  Is the lack of reception just in port or also at sea?

The official line is that geographic conditions make reception of the tv channels poor. Funny thing is that the tv reception seems to magically appear about the same time as the casino and shops open. IMHO it is a licensing or government thing, not a reception problem.