Dutch Vikings Return from Voyage to New World
in [Cruise Ship]
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From: Warren on 14 Dec 2009 15:15 On Dec 14, 1:02 pm, "Tom K" <tkani...(a)optonline.net> wrote: > "Charles" <f...(a)his.com.remove.invalid> wrote in message > > > The pool areas were awful with too > > many tables and not enough lounge chairs. The hot tubs were tiny and > > too few. The main pool can be covered which seems odd for the Caribbean > > but I am sure that is a plus for Alaska. > > I thought the pool area was gorgeous, but with like 20 reclining chairs on > each side of the pool, it was virtually unuseable by more than a few dozen > people. VERY poor design IMO. On HAL it's all about the aft lido and pool, something most other lines do not offer. It's a much bigger deck area than on the Princess ships. Warren
From: Charles on 14 Dec 2009 15:28 In article <751d04ba-8d11-473f-88b1-290140568dfc(a)n13g2000vbe.googlegroups.com>, Warren <oceanvoyager_nyc(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > On HAL it's all about the aft lido and pool, something most other > lines do not offer. It's a much bigger deck area than on the Princess > ships. The pool and hot tubs on the aft deck were small. The deck area is large to the rear of them but the lounge chairs are all out in the sun. Not under any shaded cover. The covered area has tables and chairs. Many like that but many like to be in a lounge under some shade cover. -- Charles
From: TaTa on 14 Dec 2009 18:37 On Dec 13, 8:34 pm, "Tom K" <tkani...(a)optonline.net> wrote: > Many of the Dutch Vikings have returned, while others are still in route, > from their latest ocean pilgrimage... this time to the ABC islands of the > Dutch Antilles and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas. Viking Queen Susette and > her fellow Viking knights and ladies have declared their latest voyage to > the New World a success. They sailed aboard the Dutch Ship the HAL > Westerdam to the beautiful waters of the Caribbean Sea, in the New World. > Dutch Antilles islands visited were Aruba and Curacao. The Vikings were > joined in their pilgrimage by several new Vikings, including Toby and Barb > from the opposite side of the world (from an island in some unknown sea that > locals call Pacific Ocean) and Princess Ermalee from the new world land > called MaryLand... Many spoils were obtained along the route, including dam > shirts, dam caps and other sundries. Feasts include malt beer, warm meat > off the bone, and even apple strudel made by sailors from far off We leave on the Jan. 3 sailing of the Westerdam, same itin you guys did. We've done this ship/itinerary three times and have loved it each time. Sorry to hear the ship is looking old. We've always been so impressed with the service. The only cruiseline we've ever been on where a crew member remembered us from the year before. The staff have a way of remembering your name within 10 minutes of boarding the ship. I think HAL is unique that it does an itinerary to the southern Caribbean from Ft. Lauderdale on a 7 day itinerary. That was what attracted us to the Westerdam in the first place. We still love that itinerary and hope to enjoy Westerdam just as much as we have in the past. Jo-Ann
From: Charles on 14 Dec 2009 19:18 In article <c85e3c12-07ea-4258-8573-0d4141beba26(a)x15g2000vbr.googlegroups.com>, TaTa <tatacruiser(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Sorry to hear the ship is looking old. I don't think it looks old. I think it could use some more painting and varnishing than it is getting. The full lounge chairs on Jean and Ed's large aft balcony needed varnish badly. On my balcony no wear problem as the chairs and furniture were plastic :-) The plastic chair on mine had some pitch to it, a comfortable cushion and a plastic ottoman to put my feet up on. It was fine. By the way I preferred my balcony even though it was smaller than Jean's because it had shade cover overhead and it was much more private. One would have to lean over and crane ones neck to see from another balcony. You can see easily see onto the aft balcony from above. Also personal preference but I did not care for the engine wake and the wake noise on the aft at deck 4 level. My deck 7 side balcony was much more serene. One thing I noticed was there was less cleaning going on than compared to the cruise I took on Constellation about a month ago or Crown Princess this past summer. > I think HAL is unique that it does an itinerary to the southern > Caribbean from Ft. Lauderdale on a 7 day itinerary. That was what > attracted us to the Westerdam in the first place. We still love that > itinerary and hope to enjoy Westerdam just as much as we have in the > past. It is a good itinerary. Half Moon Cay is one of the better private islands. Curacao has an interesting city center and nice beaches. Aruba is okay. And there are the right amount of sea days. -- Charles
From: Tom K on 14 Dec 2009 20:09
"Charles" <fort(a)his.com.remove.invalid> wrote in message news:141220091918373437%fort(a)his.com.remove.invalid... > > I don't think it looks old. I don't think it looks old either... just not getting the TLC that ships like Connie and QM2 are getting. We're likely more critical than 99% of the people out there, but as an engineer, that's the kind of stuff I notice. > I think it could use some more painting and > varnishing than it is getting. The full lounge chairs on Jean and Ed's > large aft balcony needed varnish badly. On my balcony no wear problem > as the chairs and furniture were plastic :-) My furniture on the balcony was worn out ratan. They probably replaced the ratan on yours some time ago. The wooden furniture on Jean's balcony was much higher end stuff, though the varnish was very worn. By the way... this was the only cruise I've ever been on where the captain YELLED at all of us during life boat drill. He told everyone to BE QUIET very loudly and sternly. Everyone said that he sounded MEAN. He did joke about it later at a get together. I really liked the cruise director... he was kinda low key. And didn't come across like he thought he was hot stuff. He said he came from NCL shoreside, where he was responsible for the design of the activities/entertainment areas on the new Norwegian Epic. He said on that ship they're going to focus more on a lot of intimate areas more aligned with what is going on today, and not as oriented to the old style big production shows from the 1940's which ships seem to cling to. --Tom |