Live from the Koningsdam 1-30-24 RT Hawaii

[misguy]

We are at the Hilton Homewood Suites, and this a great choice, we woke up and in the breakfast room we could see the Koningsdam in Port.  We will walk/roll, my wife is using a Whill Model F from Scootaround.  We normally travel with a Whill Ci2, but since there are tender ports, we are using a lighter folding power chair. 

 

The receptionist at the hotel this morning said it was a 10 minute walk, we will see.  Since this cruise has so many sea days I hope to keep this post mostly daily in real time.  Our port days may be  a little more difficult since those days will be full of activities.

[Haljo1935]

Have a great time - looking forward to your thoughts on K'dam and the ports.

[Mtn2Sea]

Bon Voyage!  Hope you have a great cruise.

[cat shepard]

Bon Voyage. Enjoy!

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Sail Away out of San Diego is one of the best there is! Enjoy your cruise.

[jeh10641]

I will be watching your reports as I am on this cruise in 2025 (01/28).

Jim

[Niagarawine]

Bon voyage!

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Have a wonderful voyage!

[BermudaBound2014]

Aloha- thanks for the live. I’ll be boarding when you return. Will wave 🙂

Edited January 30 by BermudaBound2014

[dmcfad2]

Looking forward to your posts. We board the day you get off. 😁

Edited January 30 by dmcfad2

[cruisin'teach]

Looking forward to your posts. Have a friend sailing with you. We will be on Konigsdam for the eclipse in April so it will be fun to get your reports of what to see and do!

[misguy]

So we are at sea now, the ship sailed late, not sure why, but it was right at sunset that we moved away from the dock.  We wanted to see the presentations - Origins, which is the Holland America Story, and it was very entertaining.  

 

The walk over from the hotel was easy, 1 block downhill to the waterfront and about three blocks of so to the cruise terminal.  Cheryl stopped and shot some video and took pictures as we went along.  We passed the San Diego Maritime Museum, which looked interesting and at least partly accessible.  

 

Check-in and boarding were a mixed bag.  For those like us who were not 4 or 5 star Mariners were directed into a line that wasn't moving, you had to wait to drop your bags. The waiting area was on the street side of the terminal, in the bright sun and hot pretty quickly.  That lasted about 45 minutes and then the line started moving, I dropped the bags and Cheryl went inside the terminal to wait for me in the shade.

 

Once you are inside then you have a couple of those long Disneyland queues that snaked back and forth, The line moved quickly and soon we were boarding the ship.  We were on-board a little after 12, And the rooms were ready, so we went and dropped our back packs then on to the dining room for lunch.  

 

The meal was good, and we shared a table with some nice people, so that made things good.  In the afternoon, I was working in the room, I did sign up for the high speed package of internet, and the bandwidth was less than 1 meg down and less up.  I switched to my Google Fi connection and had plenty of bandwidth.  

 

We talked about what we wanted to do about specialty dining, and there will be several that we will enjoy.  Cheryl is not a seafood fan, so I will do the seafood boil by myself late this week.  I am not sure what else we will do.  

 

After the Origins presentation, we stopped and listened to Dueling Pianos for a few minutes and then came back to the room.  Cheryl is putting up the clothes, and setting things aside for the laundry.  My bandwidth on the Starlink is good now 15.2 meg down and 25.6 meg up,  

 

One way to save some money is to get on internet device, use your phone as wifi hotspot, and then everyone in the cabin can piggy back off that one connection.

[Bruinboy20]

Thanks for taking us along. I will be boarding with @BermudaBound2014 , well not together exactly, when you return. Hopefully, depending on my boarding time we can exchange high fives as we embark and you disembark. Look for the guy whose wife keeps saying, "Calm Down" to him as he is so excited to be boarding the ship at long last. It will be our first cruise since covid. DW and I are staying across the street at the Wyndham Bayside so should be pretty easy for us to board. Since we are not 4 or 5s and since we are not in a suite or Club Orange, it looks like the fun Disneylike Queue for us. 

 

I look forward to your future posts. Have a great cruise.

[BermudaBound2014]

@misguywhat time did you arrive at the pier? I’m a low priority gal and thinking of just waiting until after 1 to arrive. 

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Isn't that first snaking line for security which everyone has to go through? And if there is more than one ship in port, everyone goes through the same security line and then you split off for ship checkin.

[misguy]

20 minutes ago, SJSULIBRARIAN said:

Isn't that first snaking line for security which everyone has to go through? And if there is more than one ship in port, everyone goes through the same security line and then you split off for ship checkin.

The line is for security, but it was only for those boarding Hal.    The biggest issue was having to wait out side in the line, with no protection from the sun.  We got there very early, and if we had waited till later it might have been less of an issue.  

 

We like to get on as soon as possible.

[rollie]

Did you walk from your hotel to the dock with all your luggage?  Looking forward to more of your posts.  Thanks

 

Rollie

[cruise47]

What are the total number of days for this cruise ?

Will a suite guest travler be directive to a difference line for boarding?

Yes, I'm new to the Holland America Line. We have only sailed with Royal Caribbean,  Disney and Celebrity Cruise Lines. 

Edited January 31 by cruise47
Missed spell words.

[anniegb]

47 minutes ago, misguy said:

The line is for security, but it was only for those boarding Hal.    The biggest issue was having to wait out side in the line, with no protection from the sun.  We got there very early, and if we had waited till later it might have been less of an issue.  

 

We like to get on as soon as possible.

You may not know the answer but is it suspected that many arrived ahead of their booking slot?

TIA 

[misguy]

Last night we had a 7:45 seating for dinner and we agreed to share a table and were seated with 2 very nice couples and had a very enjoyable meal.  There are pictures of the food and menu below.  I tried the Mahi Mahi Diabolo and the Habanero shrimp, and while the flavor was nice, the food was bland.

 

Cheryl had the Salmon with Dill and Capers, and the corn chowder.  She thought the Salmon was very good, and the chowder was good.

 

I ordered the desert and Cheryl tasted it.  It was very good, but thankfully not oversweet.  Then after dinner we stopped and watched dueling pianos for a while, and then Cheryl went to put together a puzzle, and I thought I was going to work, but I was wrong the bed kept calling my name, and finally I answered.

[misguy]

9 minutes ago, rollie said:

Did you walk from your hotel to the dock with all your luggage?  Looking forward to more of your posts.  Thanks

 

Rollie

We did, we had two big roller bags, and 2 backpacks.  I hung the heaviest back pack on the back of Chery's power chair, and wore the other one.  It was very easy to roll the bags, and carry the small backpack.  If I cruised from this port again, I would do the same again.

[ClippyJoe]

This is one of our favorite cruises. We were at the Wyndhamboth times. Its so easy to just walk across the street plus you can spot when the line starts to diminish and go then.  

[SonuvaBeach]

Following!

 

[misguy]

It is just after dawn on day 2, our first full sea day. The seas are not bad, but it is a grey cloudy morning, no sunrise to speak off.  Looking at the navigation information, it is going to be windy on deck.  We have a 12 knot head wind, and the ship is making 19 knots, so that make about 31 knot wind across the deck.  We are on deck 1 with an ocean view accessible balcony, and we can feel the ship moving, but it is not bad, the Captain told yesterday to expect significant seas by this evening.  

 

If it gets rough tonight, we will be glad to have a deck one cabin and it is right by the mid-ship elevator, so the best possible location to cope with rocking and rolling.

 

The Starlink connection is not so good now.  I am getting about 100 K down and 380 K up, I purchased the highest bandwidth connection they offer.  I hope it improves, or I am going to be very disappointed.

[misguy]

1 hour ago, cruise47 said:

What are the total number of days for this cruise ?

Will a suite guest travler be directive to a difference line for boarding?

Yes, I'm new to the Holland America Line. We have only sailed with Royal Caribbean,  Disney and Celebrity Cruise Lines. 

They were checking for 4 star, 5 star and Club Orange guests and they went first.