'Twas the Cruise Over Easter - 9 Day Southern Caribbean - March 29 - April 7, 2024

[POA1]

1 hour ago, BetsyS. said:

I think the reason that the Mariner's lunch is not in the Daily program is because it's not for everyone - it's for 3* or 4* and up. It's nice that they put the invitations in the mailbox.

 

I checked with Michelle. We did not receive an invitation to a Mariner's Lunch,  I don't know if there was none, or if they held one and shunned us.

[0106]

1 minute ago, POA1 said:

We did not receive an invitation to a Mariner's Lunch

Perhaps Marines lunch is only on longer cruises.  I was on a B2B on the NS 3/3-3/17/24 and there were no Mariner lunches. Since I did not receive an invitation prior to the sea days, I asked; no lunch was scheduled.

 

BTW, 3/10-17 was over run with kids with no activities to keep them busy.  There were also many more college age passengers who really enjoyed the “bar crawls”. However, next year, most MD spring breaks are from 4/11-22 so you may luck out on your “spring break” cruise.🤞

[BetsyS.]

I agree that the Mariner's luncheons may only be on cruises longer than 2 weeks.

[POA1]

The Art Tour:

 

These are pretty big files.  The Department of Scanning Things scanned them as PNG files so they wouldn't get too pixelated when uploading them.  They also created a PDF if you want to see the guide before you cruise.  These are big files.  If you don't want to deal with large files, feel free to skip the next few posts.  I will put 5 images in each post and attach the PDF to the third post in the series.  I ran these through a PNG compression program, but they're 300 DPI and pretty large.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[POA1]

Post 2 of 3 of the Art Tour:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[POA1]

Post 3 of 3 of the Art Tour - PDF at the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rotterdam-Art-Tour-2024-04.pdf

[POA1]

34 minutes ago, 0106 said:

Perhaps Marines lunch is only on longer cruises.  I was on a B2B on the NS 3/3-3/17/24 and there were no Mariner lunches. Since I did not receive an invitation prior to the sea days, I asked; no lunch was scheduled.

 

You may be right.  I am not ruling out being shunned though.   I wonder what the definition of "longer cruises" is?  We're doing a 12 late next year, but our vacation schedules will preclude anything in the 14+ day range for a few years.

[Haljo1935]

Thank you soooo much for both the png & pdf of the art guide. The Rotterdam certainly did it right - the deck key is next level; I've not seen that on other ships.

[POA1]

Embarkation Daily Program - March 29, 2024

 

JPEGs of the pages and a PDF of the whole scan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2024-03-29-Daily-Rotterdam.pdf

[POA1]

FWIW -- If I'm ever going to go on a really long cruise, I'm going to have to streamline my workflow.  I am slicing the paper into scan-able size, then scanning it. Those files are converted to PNG or JPEG and compressed.  Then, the uncompressed files are used to create the PDF, which is optimized at the end. 

 

I would probably drop over if I attempted a @richwmn sized project, 😁

[Navybikermom]

31 minutes ago, POA1 said:

FWIW -- If I'm ever going to go on a really long cruise, I'm going to have to streamline my workflow.  I am slicing the paper into scan-able size, then scanning it. Those files are converted to PNG or JPEG and compressed.  Then, the uncompressed files are used to create the PDF, which is optimized at the end. 

 

I would probably drop over if I attempted a @richwmn sized project, 😁

We appreciate the effort you have put into this thread. I am so excited for my first Rotterdam cruise next month! And after seeing some of your pictures, I realize I saw you on another cruise. Can’t recall which one - a Zaandam or Nieuw Amsterdam wine tasting, maybe 🤔?

[POA1]

3 hours ago, Navybikermom said:

Can’t recall which one - a Zaandam or Nieuw Amsterdam wine tasting, maybe

 

The Zaandam and the Koningsdam are the only ships in the fleet we've not been on.  We were on a many of the retired ships as well.

[POA1]

I took a photo of these while we were on the ship, but the scan is easier to read.

 

Cabana Amenities:

 

ON ARRIVAL
One Bottle of Still & Sparkling Water
Fresh Fruit Plate

Choice of Specialty Coffee
Fresh Juice
Selection of Danish & Pastries

 MID-MORNING SNACK
 Virgin Piña Colada Smoothie
 Guacamole & Chips
 Chocolate Chip Cookies

 LUNCH
 Poke Bowl*
 Choice of Tuna, Salmon, and Tofu

 OR

 Sushi  Platter*
 Spicy Tuna  Roll, Salmon Nigiri,
 Nami  Signature, Maki Roll,
 California  Roll

 

 Please ask your   waiter  for  the
 Dive-In & NYD   Menu

 

 AFTERNOON SNACK
 Watermelon & Pineapple Skewers
 Homemade Gelato or Milkshake

 BEVERAGE
 A Glass of Complimentary Sparkling Wine

 

 

[POA1]

A few observations on the cabana amenities:

 

We kind of approached the amenities with the mindset of "scheduled amenities." If you have experienced the pool amenities at a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton, you know that they follow a certain schedule in terms of delivering things. If you are by the pool when they're passing frozen bananas, for instance, you'll get them.

 

When I first saw the amenities list, my mind went directly to the the schedule model. That's not really what was going on in the Retreat. The issue was with my assumptions, not the product, per se. We received anything we asked for. It's just that it took a few days to figure that out.

 

Our guys usually offered us breakfast or coffee if we arrived in the morning. DW had a cappuccino on occasion. I usually had water. (They kept bringing water, despite the "one bottle" written on the sheet.) We had breakfast in the Club Orange dining room most mornings, and room service once. We may try to investigate the Retreat breakfast options next cruise, if only for the sake of science.

 

Our cabana stewards were fine. Unfortunately for them, and probably every cabana steward going forward, we had amazing cabana guys on the Zuiderdam during our Christmas cruise in 2018. They will be hard to equal, let alone top. That doesn't mean we'll stop looking.

 

One of other things people asked about was whether they refilled your sparkling wine. They did. A lot.

 

Now that we've had a week of our cruise post mortem*, we know we need to do a better job managing our Retreat experience. We have high expectations for March.

 

*-Refers to the post-project review, not anything dead.

 

 

[POA1]

Lunch was offered every day. The two major changes were the addition of the sushi/poke options and the deletion of the Lido lunch menu. The Dive-In and New York Pizza and Deli remain.

 

Removing the Lido makes sense to me. I've seen it go sideways when a guest "would have picked something different" from what was delivered. If you really want something from the buffet, it's a short elevator ride and a brief walk away. (Just my opinion.)

 

Lunch was delivered in a reasonable amount of time. And it was as hot as it would have been if I walked it back myself.

 

That being said, we prefer the cabanas on the Vista & Signature class ships. On them, your cabana has a table and two chairs inside the cabana itself. The Pinnacle ships' cabanas only have the two loungers and two small side tables inside. Lunch, and working in the cabana, are easier on the older ships.

[wdw1972]

I also prefer the Retreat on the Vista & Signature class ships.  There are fewer of them, and they're significantly larger - especially the family cabana. When it's just 2 of us, we pay the extra $$ to book the family cabana on Pinnacle ships mainly to have the dining table & chairs in there. It's odd that a cabana intended for 4 adults has 2 loungers and a small table with 2 chairs on this class ship! On our last Rotterdam cruise there were 3 of us (we never have 4 people on a Pinnacle) and were able to rearrange the entire cabana to fit 3 loungers without losing the table with 2 chairs. One of us sat on a lounger by the table while the other 2 used the chairs - and when not eating the chairs were pulled to the side to allow space to move! By contrast, on the Vista/Signature the family cabana is probably twice the size - big table with 4 chairs, 3-4 loungers plus a couple (or more) sitting chairs. Two of us will be sharing a family cabana on Zuiderdam in November - possibly 3 if my husband decides to come along. 

 

Sue/WDW1972

[cruzingnut]

8 hours ago, POA1 said:

 

I checked with Michelle. We did not receive an invitation to a Mariner's Lunch,  I don't know if there was none, or if they held one and shunned us.

 

There was no Mariner Lunch on this cruise,  nor the 12 day cruise prior.  Seems they are not doing that any longer on the "shorter" cruises.  I'm not sure about the longer ones (Legendary, Grands, WC).  I don't remember if we had one on the WC last year.

 

Linda R,

[POA1]

4 hours ago, cruzingnut said:

 

There was no Mariner Lunch on this cruise,  nor the 12 day cruise prior.  Seems they are not doing that any longer on the "shorter" cruises.  I'm not sure about the longer ones (Legendary, Grands, WC).  I don't remember if we had one on the WC last year.

 

Linda R,

Thank you. It's not normally something I'd pay a lot of attention to, and we tended to have a PG lunch schedule conflict. It's good to know that we weren't rejected.

[Overhead Fred]

We had a Mariners lunch the other day on the Nieuw Statendam transatlantic. 

 

See the following link for pictures. It was a huge crowd but the food was quite good.

 

 

[POA1]

Laundry -

 

From the "Almost Pointless Because The Ships Are Heading to Europe and the Prices Are Different There" file...

 

 

Text version:

 

         LAUNDRY PACKAGE OPTIONS

LAUNDRY BY THE BAG $ 25
All the laundry you can fit in our blue Holland America Line laundry bag.
*Eco-friendly dry cleaning is not included.
*Please allow 48 hours for your laundry to be returned.

 

UNLIMITED LAUNDRY AND PRESSING
12 - Day Cruise — Unlimited Laundry* - $ 102
9 - Day Cruise — Unlimited Laundry* - $ 76.5

 

UNLIMITED PRESSING SERVICE
12 - Day Cruise — Unlimited Pressing* - $ 48
9 - Day Cruise — Unlimited Pressing* - $ 36

 

For all of the above offers, please allow 48 hours for your laundry to be
returned.

 

We hope you enjoy our laundry service onboard. In order to process everyone's
laundry in a timely manner before disembarking, we kindly ask you to send your
final laundry to us no later than 48 hours before your disembarkation date.

 

Should you wish to purchase the below items please advise your Stateroom Steward*:

 

Blue Cloth Laundry Bag for $15
Laundry Return  Garment Bag for $6

Holland America Line
SAVOR THE JOURNEY

 

*- This should really read: "If you are a thief and decide to steal these items, please make sure that you want to pay this much. 😉

 

 

[JennysUncle]

Errata - in the PDF of the Rotterdam Art Brochure the last page is duplicated and the next-to-last is missing.

[POA1]

6 minutes ago, JennysUncle said:

Errata - in the PDF of the Rotterdam Art Brochure the last page is duplicated and the next-to-last is missing.

 

Oh, heck.  Let me see what I have left in scan images. These were two-sided pages with 4 content pages per side. They had to be rotated and cropped, so I'm kind of mad at myself for the error.

 

Thanks for pointing it out.  I'll fix it, 

[POA1]

Day 2 Daily - Saturday, March 30, 2024

 

JPEGs and a PDF -- which are hopefully in order. 😀

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2024-03-30-Daily-Rotterdam.pdf

[POA1]

The Rotterdam Art Tour - with the formerly secret next-to-last Observation Deck page.

 

If you have the old version, with the missing page, please keep it. It could be really valuable on the secondary collector's market. (I'm not saying that it will rival the "Inverted Jenny" postage in value, but you never know.)

 

 

 

Rotterdam-Art-Tour-2024-04-fixed.pdf

[POA1]

Daily Program - Easter Sunday - March 31, 2024

 

Again, JPEGs and a PDF.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2024-03-31-Daily-Rotterdam.pdf