LIVE From The Eurodam 2WK Holiday Cruise ...Brought To You By LAFFNVEGAS

[twinkletoes4445]

I really enjoyed reading your daily posts. Have a safe trip home. :)

[aliaschief]

Thank you for taking us on your MS Eurodam cruise. It makes our five month wait until our next cruise a bit more bearable.:rolleyes:

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Thank You Everyone :)

Well, we are off the ship and at the Hampton Inn here in FLL at the North Airport location. Getting off the ship in Port Everglades is certainly not as easy as in San Diego but it also was not horrible. It seems to be a bit more chaotic. We were in the last group to disembark which was between 9:30 and 9:45. We so wish we could have been one of the 77 that were doing a Back to Back but we did need to leave so they could get a zero count to allow those that were doing that reboard.

The hotel picked us up at the pier very quickly and we are now waiting for our room to be ready. But what I can tell so far I am very impressed with this hotel. Very homey feeling and great coffee. Plus extremely fast internet, much faster than the connection we had at the Embassey Suites on the 12th of December. Plus several laptops here in the lobby so Tom is also on the internet reading CC at the same time that I am.

We all know that sad feeling of having to leave the ship. Well, today was by far the very worst it has ever been for us. It was a combination of having been there two weeks, getting to know the crew that much better and the fact that both weeks were equally great but the true reality that hit me when I woke up this morning for the first time in a very very long time we currently DO NOT have a HAL cruise booked :( That was the one thing that has always been a consolation when leaving the ship is that I could say that in 8 to 16 weeks we would be returning to a DAM ship. I cannot tell you how many times my eyes welled up with tears this morning. We do have a May cruise on the Sapphire Princess booked and we are very much hoping that what ever happens for me in regards to employment that we can take that cruise but until I firm up the employment issue we really cannot book any other cruises. This is why I am so thankful that we were able to take these two weeks and that they were absolutely the most amazing two weeks on HAL. In all honestly just when I think HAL cannot give us a better cruise because our last Oosterdam cruise in October was pretty amazing but these past two weeks surpassed that. One of the biggest reasons was the crew and being so surprised that we had previously sailed with so many of them in the past. It was funny because Tom and I discussed over dinner that in looking back over all our cruises if we could take all the crew member that have been special to us and place them on one ship to have a Dream Team of Crew members well these two week were it. We could only think of maybe 3 other crew members that were not there and one is no longer with the company. It was as if HAL knew who all our favorites were and placed them all here together. Most were from the Noordam but many were also from the Oosterdam as well as this past summer on the Amsterdam.

 

Of course the best of the best is Ronald Patdu, we have been with him on 5 different cruises and to have him once again as our Wine Steward was so very special. Of course there are others like Angie, Rudy, Paulyn and Romeo that we have also cruised with several times that also made this special.

Many many Thanks to everyone at Holland America for making Christmas 2008 so very special to us.:)

[mamaofami]

Lisa, so sorry that you've actually disembarked the Eurodam. ALl of us reading these boards can feel your pain. Safe home tomorrow.

[RevNeal]

Dear Lisa and Tom,

 

Welcome back on Terra Firma ... I know, it's the last thing you wanted to do, but eventually even a longer cruise comes to an end. 14 days aboard ship is wonderful, and to do so at Christmas time made it even more special!

 

My prayer for you both is a safe flight home, a glorious New Year celebration, and good, gainful employment for Lisa that enables 10+ day cruises and many b2bs in the future!!!!!!!

[localady]

Safe travels home Lisa and Tom! :D :D :D

I can't wait to see your pictures and hear more about the cruise. :D

[sp2]

Are there many kids on board for this Christmas cruise?

[LAFFNVEGAS]

We are home and unpacked.... well there are still a few items laying on the bed but the suit cases are put away and the dirty clothes are in the hamper waiting for me to start laundry. After 16 nights away the animals are thrilled we are back especially my cat who will not qit screaming at me but his tail is straight up in the air almost wagging so I know he is happy.

I want to add about our last night in FLL, we stayed at the Hampton Inn and I was extremely impressed. They picked us up from the pier at about 10:15 and we did not have to wait long before they had our room ready for us. The girls at thier front desk are extremely helpful and told us places that were close by for lunch then for dinner we asked them about something that in casual and they suggested Rendovouz which was a place close by that was right on the water that had live music outside and really great inexpensive food. I had a PoBoy Sandwich which had a huge pile of shrimp, so much so that you had to eat 3/4 the shrimp to even eat the sandwich and the price on that was only $9.95. The wine was also good and inexpensive. The best part was the free shuttle service the Hampton Inn provides, they took us to this restaurant then picked us up very quickly. They also to us at 5 AM this morning to the airport and even would have provided a brekafast to go for us. Plus the WiFi service is totally free. The room and the hotel was beautiful. To me the Hampton Inn was drastically nicer than the Embassy Suite for half the price.

Our flight home was easy and uneventful and the 5 hour flight actually passed by quickly, far quicker than I figured it would. It was to be a 5 hour and 27 minute flight but we got in 25 minutes early.

 

We are going to out for lunch shortly but I needed to sort thru the mail and get on line and pay some bills that must have arrived shortly after we left because they are due Tuesday. Some how I think I better get Nevada Power paid right away ;)

 

Hopefully this evening I can start to work on uploading some 400 plus photos and sorting out the bad ones.

[jbhcw]

Welcome home Lisa, you sound so organized!!! I was just asking dh today if he would like to do a back to back, he said yes:) All because I have enjoyed reading your thread soooo much and really wonder how it would be to not have to get off the ship:)

 

Cannot wait to see your pictures, also enjoyed your comments re FLL. We will be down there on 01-31-09, we're staying at the Hyatt Place, so sorry the ES was not up to par.

[sassyredhat]

Lisa thanks for all the time and effort you put in to letting all of us cruise with you. I am especially grateful, because I probably won't get to cruise on Eurodam.

 

Someday I would like to cruise with you and your CC buddies. I imagine it would be a riot. :D

 

Pat

[TMJplus1]

Lisa - Thank you so much for your incredible reports from the Eurodam! I'm so sad that you don't have another HAL booked in the near future, as I truly enjoy your reviews and feel I know some of the staff personally just by hearing you talk about them. Personally I think HAL should just send you a free cruise certificate as "commission" for all of those who have surely booked a B2B based on your experience! I know I am currently working on my hubby to at least consider doing one in October, but he is a tough nut to crack.

 

Welcome home and I hope a great cruise-friendly job is right around the corner for you! Have you considered just becoming a Hotel Manager for HAL or something? You'd be great at it! :D

[TMJplus1]

What made them macabre? Were they bloody? :D That's funny!

 

I thought the exact same thing. A brief internet search turned up a description of macabre potatoes being potatoes wrapped in foil and then grilled. Not sure what is "macabre" about that but I do know if they are still offered on E'dam in October I'm going to order some simply to satisfy my curiosity.

[Candy]

Whew! I finally made it through 9 fun, informative and even nostalgic pages of posts, and I'm sooooooo jealous you had two weeks at Christmas with some of my favorite officers/crew. I know you had an outstanding time (Mark Pells throws a great party), and will be aching to return to some *dam ship soon.

 

How long did it take you to shovel the walk?

 

Candy

[ugminer]

Welcome home you two. I imagine your snow is gone although ours up north is not. 25,495 views divided over 14 days averages 1822 per day:eek: thanks for taking us along. Me thinks a long holiday cruise could be on the horizon.

Still have 47 days to book Yummer 2. I said I would not totally give up till we pull away from the dock! I know it's a long shot but after all, we both live in Nevada;)

I'm really glad you finally got to do a longer cruise. You deserve it after all these years of 7 days at a time

Looking forward to pictures

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

[J Alex's Mom]

We had another Web Cam Wave from the Eurodam. I am embarrassed to say that I was so thrilled to have Mark Pells the Hotel Manager there that my camera hung around my neck the whole time and stupid me did not even think to take a picture. Mark brought with his Julie who I did not catch her title but he said she assists him and does all the work. She brought us out a HUGE HAL flag that we were able to wave for the web cam. I am just hoping that you could see us.

 

Hi Lisa,

 

I did manage to capture a couple of shots of the flag:

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Hi Lisa' date='

 

I did manage to capture a couple of shots of the flag:[/quote']

That is Great, thanks so much:) It was so good to meet you and glad you could be there at the wave.

I could not believe that here I had the camera with me and was just too excited to even take a picture:o

I have got my photos uploaded I just need to sort thru them and put them in one of my online photo albums either Photo bucket or Web Shots. That is the time consuming part because then I try to also title each picture. But hopefully by tomorrow I will have it done.

[midgecruiser]

Welcome back Lisa and Tom. Thank you for taking the time to share your Eurodam cruise with all of us. I am still trying to figure out when we can make this cruise happen. I have not yet sailed on all the dam ships but have a few under my belt and many more on my "to do" list. Eurodam is up at the top for me because I would like to check out the "new" that HAL has to offer. Anyway, you have just made this want even more dire:D. As always, I have enjoyed cruising along and thank you for allowing us to enjoy this wonderful Holiday cruise with you. Looking forward to your pics. Happy New Year to both of you.

 

Hugs, Wendy:)

[mamaofami]

Lisa, just wondering how the cabanas on the Lido deck and those in the retreat area held up on the cruise? Were they affected by the weather?

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Lisa, just wondering how the cabanas on the Lido deck and those in the retreat area held up on the cruise? Were they affected by the weather?

Well the Lido Deck Cabanas were find but I have to admit we hardly ever go near the Lido Pool. We are just not people to hang out by the pools at all. I have my own pool at home and since the pools are not private or quiet we just tend to avoid them, but we did go near the Retreat Cabanas a few times and the times we did there were hardly anyone there. I think because when we did it was sea days and it is really windy up there. This photo is from our first sea day taken from the Silk Den. We were having close to gale force winds and as you can see in the photo there were workers working to put one of the cabanas back together. They were getting quite blown apart.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

I am now getting caught up on projects here at home including answering some email and getting housework done so I am now going to start working on uploading an album of my wonderful two weeks. With any luck and no interruptions I might get it down today ;)

[mamaofami]

Thanks, Lisa. We don't hang out at the Lido pool either, but I wondered how those cabanas would hold up in windy weather.

[gms333]

We had one of the "corner" retreat cabanas for the entire Christmas cruise which consisted of 4 chaise lounge chairs a table and 2 chairs...it was fantastic we were 7 and had room to spare...never had to worry about looking for a lounge chair. It included fresh fruit, champagne and chocolate strawberries. There was also a sitting area in the sun that had more chairs, tables and lounges

 

I will say that it looked like they had been beaten up a bit from the wind...the canvas sides and ceiling were held onto the poles with cable ties and many of the ties were broken so that on the really windy days which were most of the days on this cruise the canvas certainly was noisy and flapping...but with the view we had from there..it was a minor inconvenience...when we walked down to the Lido pool and the cabanas there I found that area to be unbelievably hot..there was absolutely no air circulation in those cabanas and was even worse when the pool was covered. There did not appear to be any ventilation in those cabanas the back of them was glass or a glass/plexiglass wall and then canvas dividers so when the sun beat down on them it only got hotter - there were blinds there but they appeared to do very little.

 

If you are looking for cabanas...go for the retreat - there are 2 "large" cabanas the rest were 2 lounge chairs and a small table...

 

Also took a cabana on HMC - again turned out to be good move because with the Noordam also at the island at the same time lounge chairs were at a premium - we watched people dragging chairs across the entire beach...

[alsas]

Your pictures are great. thank you for the report on the cabanas. What do they charge for this?. Sastra