Live from Nieuw Stat sailing from A to A!

[Mike B Landlubber]

On a sea day, here are some more ship photos

 

Weary walkers can rest their weary bones…

 

The world’s largest platter of lobster-mac!

 

hot dog from Dive Inn

 

Looking across at guest services

Edited September 25 by Mike B Landlubber

[gizmodog]

Love these ship photos, cannot wait to get on. Do you know if there are video poker machines in the casino?

what type of cabin do you have?

[Mike B Landlubber]

16 minutes ago, gizmodog said:

Love these ship photos, cannot wait to get on. Do you know if there are video poker machines in the casino?

what type of cabin do you have?

I think there is a casino somewhere on the ship, but not certain. I am pretty sure in Craps, 7 and 11 are somehow important. That exhausts my gambling knowledge, sorry! 🙂 

I am doing a b2b, and had to change cabins in Rome. Before Rome, I had a stern balcony cabin, which is my preference. From Rome to Athens my stern cabin wasn’t available and I am in a regular balcony or technically I guess a veranda. Both are very standard cabins of the type. Once on an MSC ship, I had to change cabins like this, and the process seemed to be managed by the Three Stooges. Thankfully on HAL it was managed well. The worst thing I can say about it was that the guys who helped move my stuff to the new cabin were about 10 minutes late (which is no big deal on a complicated day like changing out passengers).

[RClark6369@aol.com]

Lovin the ship pics Mike !!!!  Keep them coming ...!!    OMG those fries at Dive In.    I cannot wait to "dive in" in a burger and those awesome fries.     I limit myself to 2 burgers a cruise.   There are 2 sea days on my 14 day itinerary, and they are staggered during the cruise, so I figure those will be my burger and fry days.   LOL

Did you have the peanut butter silk pie on embarkation day ?

 

Cheers !

Rex

[Mike B Landlubber]

47 minutes ago, RClark6369@aol.com said:

Lovin the ship pics Mike !!!!  Keep them coming ...!!    OMG those fries at Dive In.    I cannot wait to "dive in" in a burger and those awesome fries.     I limit myself to 2 burgers a cruise.   There are 2 sea days on my 14 day itinerary, and they are staggered during the cruise, so I figure those will be my burger and fry days.   LOL

Did you have the peanut butter silk pie on embarkation day ?

You’re right, Dive Inn fries are excellent! I don’t think I’ve ever had the peanut butter silk pie. Don’t remember what I got instead. The best burger on the ship in my opinion is the Pinnacle burger. It’s available in the pinnacle and you can get it at lunch. It is fairly cheap to eat lunch at the Pinnacle on sea days. 
 

You probably remember that I gave general food advice in Post 32 in this thread. I would change one thing about that post now if I could. I praised the grilled cheese sandwich, based on the ones I got through room service on sistership Rotterdam. Since that post, I ordered a grilled cheese and the grilled cheese on Nieuw Amsterdam is pathetic wimpy, lukewarm couple of strips (literally, not even whole slices!) of bread that were shown a photo of some cheese. Don’t order it! 

Edited September 25 by Mike B Landlubber

[Mike B Landlubber]

15 hours ago, gizmodog said:

Love these ship photos, cannot wait to get on. Do you know if there are video poker machines in the casino?

We are in Port in Istanbul today and overnight. I had a short shore excursion in the morning and some time in between before going ashore tonight, so I found the casino and took a few pictures. It is closed because we’re in port. I overlooked them while I was taking pictures, but in one of my photos on the left edge, you can see part of the machine that says something about “King“. It looks to this rube like it has a poker hand on the screen. If you’re familiar with the machines, you might recognize it. But on my first look, I didn’t think there were any poker machines. So even if the King machines play poker, there are not a lot. There are some machines by the cashier booth that are turned off, I’m not sure what they do.

Edited September 26 by Mike B Landlubber

[cannongate]

Good Morning or in your case good afternoon.

 

I didn't know that you had changed rooms for this leg.  As it turns out I will be in the cabin that you occupied on the first leg of your trip.  

 

I am following along everyday as the countdown to my first Holland America cruise is getting ever so closer.  The anticipation is helping me get through these last few days of work.  Is there any chance that you could post a picture of your aft cabin balcony while I wait for your wonderful pictures of Istanbul.  

 

Thank you again for posting you have no idea how much I appreciate it.  

[Mike B Landlubber]

28 minutes ago, cannongate said:

 As it turns out I will be in the cabin that you occupied on the first leg of your trip.  

 

Is there any chance that you could post a picture of your aft cabin balcony while I wait for your wonderful pictures of Istanbul.  

 

 

LOL. I must have put something with my cabin number here without realizing it! To be clear, I formerly was in 6235. Unfortunately, I did not take an overall picture of my cabin or my balcony. I scanned through my pictures, and the closest thing I found was this picture, which I took sitting in one of the chairs on the balcony. I know it isn’t much help.

 

I can tell you I was surprised how small the balcony was. Sometimes in Stern cabins I get cabins that are long enough to put a lounging deck chair where I can lay out with my legs stretched in front of me. That was not the case this time. It was actually a little tight for two upright chairs and a small table to hold coffee or drinks in between them. Occasionally, I had to shift the small chair around to make room to move around for a vantage point. It was adequate, but my conventional veranda state room that I’m in now actually has a roomier balcony!

[Mike B Landlubber]

I’ve previously spent several days in Istanbul during a land tour, plus I have an evening excursion coming up tonight and yet another excursion in the city tomorrow morning, plus an excursion every day for almost a week coming up. So this morning, I did not worry so much about seeing everything as I worried about pushing myself too hard. I chose a panoramic excursion even though I usually scorn those. This excursion definitely deserves the rating of easy. It is almost entirely bus based. Lasting only two hours, but we do get off in the hippodrome area for about half an hour on the ground. Other than that, we just looked out the bus windows. Sometimes the bus would stop in an area and give us a steady view without dismounting. But we had trouble viewing things on the opposite side of the bus and for wannabe photographers like me glare off the windows was a problem. BUT the tour provided what was promised, and for someone with mobility problems it would probably be a great thing.

 

Street food!

 

From my ship balcony we can at least see some of the mosques

 

Clever art on the stairway, but I’m not sure I get it

 

I’m sure all the great comedians stay here

 

It wasn’t all quaint narrow oriental streets

 

I don’t think I’d buy street food from over a storm sewer….

 

Anything to push the merchandise…

 

The base under one of the famous Egyptian Obelisks

 

 

Erected in 10th Century and still Looking good at 1000!

 

Narrow streets!

 

Our ship

 

 Fortunately, the Biryani Palace had Kentucky Fried Chicken to lend a touch of class! 🙂

Edited September 26 by Mike B Landlubber

[fusion927]

19 hours ago, gizmodog said:

Love these ship photos, cannot wait to get on. Do you know if there are video poker machines in the casino?

 

In May they had 3 or 4 of the multi play VP machines that have a selection of games

on it.  Not the best pay tables (obviously), and they were located in the smoking section of the casino...

 

[gizmodog]

Thank you, kind of sad as video poker is all I play

[Mike B Landlubber]

This morning from Istanbul I took a cruise on the Bosporus, between Europe and Asia. I did not know it, but it was also Navy Day in Turkey. So as a bonus for our cruise, we saw a parade of about 13 Turkish navy ships.

[Sea42]

12 minutes ago, Mike B Landlubber said:

This morning from Istanbul I took a cruise on the Bosporus, between Europe and Asia.

Was this offered thru HAL or can it be booked on our own?

[Mike B Landlubber]

38 minutes ago, Sea42 said:

Was this offered thru HAL or can it be booked on our own?

I booked it through HAL. I’m sure there are lots of other providers. It is a common Istanbul activity. I took a similar cruise when I was here on a land trip in 2012. Here is the info on the option I booked. Alas, the Turkish navy may not be so cooperative next time!

Edited September 27 by Mike B Landlubber

[Mike B Landlubber]

A few more shipboard pics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 27 by Mike B Landlubber

[Lido deck main]

16 hours ago, Sea42 said:

Was this offered thru HAL or can it be booked on our own?

Sorry to bud in here, yes you can do this on your own as well.  The boat and ticket place is just over the Galata Bridge. 

[Mike B Landlubber]

Today I took a general tour of Izmir, formerly known as Smyrna. There were just two stops, one at the ancient agora where are the present constructions are from about 200 A.D., but the marketplace existed for centuries before that. After seeing things around town, including the availability of the finest American cuisine, we went to their archaeological museum where I picked up some great life advice from the ancient Greeks.

[QuattroRomeo]

Wow, it seems almost sacrilegious- Burger King, Popeyes, Subway, surrounded by all the antiquities nearby! Interesting photos. Did you have a chance to sample some real local food?

[Mike B Landlubber]

2 hours ago, QuattroRomeo said:

Wow, it seems almost sacrilegious- Burger King, Popeyes, Subway, surrounded by all the antiquities nearby! Interesting photos. Did you have a chance to sample some real local food?

I got out for one local meal at a restaurant called Nisantasi Baskose in Istanbul. It was on a HAL excursion or I would have been too big a coward to head far out to Istanbul in the evening to an unknown restaurant on my own. It is in a high class and westernized part of town—Across the narrow street was a Park Hyatt and a Gucci store. It was a big and wonderful meal. I am acccustomed to thinking of shish kabob on metal spikes, but we had a huge selection of meats and accompaniments that we could shovel into a pastry that I would have called a pirogi, though that isn’t quite right. It was followed up with heavily seasoned meats including lamb and chicken, and a great dessert. I didn’t document everything, but here are some pics…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Sunday at 07:15 AM by Mike B Landlubber

[QuattroRomeo]

That looks like a terrific meal! It is so interesting and satisfying to try local foods.

[Mike B Landlubber]

I thought I would describe arrangements for our upcoming call in Egypt. We will call at Port Said and at Alexandria on successive nights. I have signed up for a HAL excursion where I will leave the ship at Port Said and spend the night at a hotel in Cairo before rejoining the ship in Alexandria. I checked before the trip and had seen stuff online saying Egypt needed a visa from American visitors, but had called HAL and been told that could be taken care of on board. We received a note from HAL a few days ago, telling us that passports would be collected from people on each floor a few days before the arrival in Egypt and they would be reviewed and stamped with a visa equivalent by an Egyptian official on the ship and returned to us before we arrive in Egypt. I just completed handing in my passport. They have a collection station on each deck, but that’s a lot of people, and it was a bit of a wait! We received a paper receipt for the passport. I have another message that indicates we will have a meeting for people going on the overnight Excursion to answer questions and brief us on details. Finally I just received another message from HAL that apparently is sent to all passengers. It has no surprises. It assures us that they are carefully assessing risks in visiting Egypt. It urges us to leave the ship only in conducted groups, and gives advice that is mostly common sense on things such as not deliberately going to protest sites, and not taking pictures of demonstrations.

[RClark6369@aol.com]

Hi Mike, what kind of weather have you been experiencing since entering the Mediterranean ?  Also, has the ship seemed crowed around the music venues at night or does a port intensive itinerary seem to keep the crowds down due to people being exhausted after a day in port ?

 

Cheers !

 

Rex

[Mtn2Sea]

8 hours ago, Mike B Landlubber said:

 

I thought I would describe arrangements for our upcoming call in Egypt. We will call at Port Said and at Alexandria on successive nights. I have signed up for a HAL excursion where I will leave the ship at Port Said and spend the night at a hotel in Cairo before rejoining the ship in Alexandria. I checked before the trip and had seen stuff online saying Egypt needed a visa from American visitors, but had called HAL and been told that could be taken care of on board. We received a note from HAL a few days ago, telling us that passports would be collected from people on each floor a few days before the arrival in Egypt and they would be reviewed and stamped with a visa equivalent by an Egyptian official on the ship and returned to us before we arrive in Egypt. I just completed handing in my passport. They have a collection station on each deck, but that’s a lot of people, and it was a bit of a wait! We received a paper receipt for the passport. I have another message that indicates we will have a meeting for people going on the overnight Excursion to answer questions and brief us on details. Finally I just received another message from HAL that apparently is sent to all passengers. It has no surprises. It assures us that they are carefully assessing risks in visiting Egypt. It urges us to leave the ship only in conducted groups, and gives advice that is mostly common sense on things such as not deliberately going to protest sites, and not taking pictures of demonstrations.

A few years ago we took HAL’s overnight excursion to Cairo.  It was truly a first class and memorable experience.  Hope you enjoy the trip as much as we did!

[Mike B Landlubber]

7 hours ago, RClark6369@aol.com said:

Hi Mike, what kind of weather have you been experiencing since entering the Mediterranean ?  Also, has the ship seemed crowed around the music venues at night or does a port intensive itinerary seem to keep the crowds down due to people being exhausted after a day in port ?

Weather has been good in the Med, it has been sunny and warm. Several days it has been unusually warm, in one port we were told that it was five degrees Celsius (about nine Fahrenheit) warmer than usual. We had some cloudy days at the start of the cruise on the Atlantic side of Spain and Portugal, but none since.
 

I'm the wrong guy to ask about entertainment info, I eat at the late fixed dining then retire to my cabin and read or watch or sort and edit photos or (sometimes) post stuff here! A couple of times I’ve had a specialty restaurant reservation at 8 PM and I have noticed that some of the bars seemed pretty busy on my way there and back. I’m afraid that’s the best I can do! 🙂

[Mike B Landlubber]

I am staying in Cairo on an overnight excursion. today we went to the pyramids and the Egyptian museum. We had a little trouble getting started as the ship arrived a little late and then Egyptian authorities delayed our disembarkation and that hampered the trip. Still amazing to see the pyramids again. This being an Islamic country our hotel has an arrow in the ceiling pointed towards Mecca so the faithful know which way to pray.