BermudaBound2014

Good morning from the southern hemisphere. Here is the answer to the question you have all been pondering- The toilet swirls the same direction (I think, because truth be told I never really noticed what direction a toilet swirls in the northern hemisphere). The beauty of a cruise this long is that you can make brand new discoveries on day 17 and I made two very important discoveries last night. 1) The chicken wings at the deli during movies are excellent. Super meaty and just the right amount of spicy hot for me. 2) The band in BBKing is on point. Seriously on point. My taste in music lends itself more to the playlist in Rolling Stones, but I fell in love with the amount of energy the BBKing band brought. I’m talking standing ovation energy! Granted, by the end of their last set (11:30pm) the crowd was long gone but there were a few of us folks willing to burn the midnight oil- or more accurately the 11:30 oil.m because by midnight this ship is fast asleep. Few random photos and tonight’s menu: either cruise critic or the ships internet has put me in the penalty box. I can’t upload photos right now. I’ll try again after dance class 🙂

Lots of reports of very poor mdr service on the current 35 night Koningsdam. Of course, there are reports of good service too so it seems hit or miss. The fact remains that lots of other cruise lines can handle “as you wish” dining without issue. Carnival just introduced new technology where you enter your dining time in the app and they tell you how long the wait (in case you want to change to another restaurant, but that wouldn’t work on HaL because they don’t offer alternates to the MDR sit down that are complimentary). Then they notify you in the app when your table is ready to avoid crowding outside restaurant doors. Technology exists to streamline the process.

Today we crossed the equator. King Neptunes Ceremony to change the crew pollywogs into shellbacks. People seemed to really dig it. For those on next years voyage, all chairs were long gone by 9:00 for a 10:30 start. The very best part for me was finally some live music at the pool if only during the ceremony. I realize I’m too young to be HALs target audience since 95% of passengers are over 60 and 50% are well over 80; but don’t they realize that 70 is the new 40?

I should also note that the lunch menu in the dining room has been changing daily (not that I’ve done there ;)) Based on what I’ve read i believe this is new (or perhaps because this is a legendary cruise with a ton of sea days?)

I’ve officially settled into the rhythm brought about by a long stretch of glorious sea days. My days look like this-—tai chi, oatmeal, chat with new friends. dance class, lunch, chat with new friends, naps, ice cream, meet new friends, walking the promenade, happy hour, maybe trivia, maybe show, maybe casino, maybe dancing, maybe another late happy hour. Much of the day is meeting or getting more aquatinted with new friends. Our roll call is the bomb. Yesterday was the first day I played some slots. An hours worth of entertainment. Lost $50. Had a salad for dinner from the lido (it’s a great salad bar) and enjoyed the sunset. A lazy day on the koningdam had me tucked in for a movie quite early. Will hit up the bands tonight. My friend said the band in bbkings is actually very good. I think the entertainment in Rolling Stones and billboards is just “ok”. In fairness, these folks aren’t a band at all. They are contract workers assigned to a ship by a third party. The Rolling Stones band (notice, they don’t even have their own name) has only been together 7 weeks. It takes awhile to gel. However; none of that has stopped me from enjoying a set or two. I didn’t come on HAL for top shelf entertainment and you shouldn’t either. Warning- Side track; yesterday my dance class was cancelled due to the Koningsdam zoo parade. For those unaware, they do this on Carnival ships too. One morning you will wake up and the lido will be entirely filled with towel animals. Then they parade the cabin stewards onto deck for a round of applause. I don’t appreciate this tradition like many. First, in a time of fiscal conservatism (as evidenced by some of the entertainment options), I think it’s a terrible waste of water rewashing thousands of towels. But more importantly; don’t our amazing cabin stewards work hard enough? These guys are ninjas when it comes to keeping my room clean and apparently they were up at 5:00 am making monkeys? Personally, I’d rather see the crew get an extra hour of sleep but that’s just me. Clearly, I’m in the minority as many folks gleefully rushed around to take photos of towels transformed into alligators. To each their own, this is just my personal perspective on the event. We can all agree to disagree like adults that color. I should probably mention that yesterday morning we entered the twilight zone. I’m not going to pretend I understand it, but the chart seems pretty straight forward. I did have a friend get pimped on dinner reservations due to the day change, so if you have any reservations for March 3rd you should probably find out if it’s the first March 3rd or the second March 3rd :). Today is much of the same. Some random photos and of course tonight’s dinner menu for my new friends requesting-

No update on Noro but captain just announced we are skipping Fanning island (as we knew), and he expects an ontime arrival in Raitea. Apparently the helicopter had mechanical issues that prevented another attempt which meant we needed to do a tender evacuation.

I just witnessed the medical evacuation. Two couples. Both men walked on the tender. Both females alert/awake and in wheelchairs. One lady was alert enough to carry on her own medical papers. She had a purple cast on left leg (not sure if related). Tender departed. Got half way to shore and turned around. Loaded 4 more full size suitcases (originally only had four small rolls boards). Again- both patients were alert and in wheelchairs. God speed recovery.

Not much to report today. Did some tai chi. Then did some Dancing. Then napped. Then pool. Then walked. Then napped. Then met friends for drinks. Currently enjoying happy hour in the crows nest. The helicopter rendezvous keeps getting pushed back. Originally for 6:00. Then 7:30. It’s 9:00 and we are still cruising at 20knots toward Kona. D0 want to give a huge shout out to Callaire, a nail tech in the spa. She is very professional and takes her job seriously. I had a shellac nail chip after just one week and she fixed it complementary because she wants customers to be genuinely happy with the job. Highly recommend her if you want a mani/pedi. I appreciate someone who stands behind their work. Tonight is formal night. Quite a few dressed up. Reviews of tonight’s entertainment were very poor. Last night everyone seemed to love it and I thought the Hawaiian Luau entertainment was great the night before. Everything one could want from a luau besides an ocean breeze and fire dancers. They offered escargot in the lido. I totally skipped dinner. I just can’t eat like I used to. I’m making up the calories In liquid form Some deets from today-

I Am currently on the Koningsdam and it feels more crowded than both ships I sailed on last month. One which holds 6,000 passenger’s and the other 4,000 passengers. IMO this ship is poorly designed to move crowds. The venues for evening entertainment in music hall are literally back to back and crowded because there aren’t many choices in things to do. The lido buffet is also poorly designed, and the top decks are full of weird dead ends preventing smooth transitions. Im having a great cruise, but in terms of functionality, the physical design of the Koningsdam makes it one of my least favorite ships.

Thanks @canadianbear- when the captain comes on all I hear is….

I would bet dollars to donuts fanning will be cancelled. Ships rarely make it into Fanning island anyway. I’m just hopeful that the person will be ok and shame on the people who expressed outright disappointment in turning around. That’s some bad karma right there. The universe noticed.

Oh what a day!! Still on adrenaline high. Got up at 3:0am and couldn’t go back to sleep I was so excited for todays Shark Cage Dive. Our group of 6 from the CC roll call met at 5:45 am. I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed this roll call. So many great people and many of us have several private trips planned for French Polynesia. Uber came at 6:00 and we were on the north shore in 40 minutes. Easy peasy. Our time slot was 8 am so we were early. We walked to a little beach, watched some boat action, a sacrificed a member of the group as chum (long story) ;). The shark encounter itself was flipping amazing!! At one point someone in our group counted 18 sharks circling the cage. Most in the 8-12 foot range. My go pro video is off the charts but CC won’t accept video so I grabbed a couple still shots to post. The seas were EXTREMELY choppy. 10 footers easy. At times it felt like the cage was in a total free fall between crest and trough. As such, many people (me included) got seasick- but I’d do it again in a New York minute (hoping for a bit smoother sail). Bonus of the day was two whale sightings, one within 50 yards with a great tail shot. I love the north coast. We were going to take the bus back but ended up ubering to save time (plus a few of us were still queasy). Total Uber cost was way more than it would have been had we just rented a car, but it was reasonable considering the cost was split 6 ways and no muss/no fuss. There was a sail away party leaving Honolulu but the vibe I’m getting is that people are tired and ready for a couple sea days to rest up for the next burst. I can’t remember if I posted the daily or menu for today so if anyone wants them I’ll be happy to grab for you.

@cruisemom42I hope you know I’m just playing. I totally get that the lido is not for everyone and I understand the appeal of being waited on. When hubby and I travel we are about 50/50, but as a solo im 90/10. As far as healthy goes, I just feel yucky if I eat yucky. It’s definitely related to age as when I was younger I could eat anything. captain just came on for an announcement. Several people have reported ill. It’s a gastrointestinal illness. IMO it’s Likely noro. In keeping with my detoxing, I’m going to skip dinner tonight (or maybe eat very light) because I have a big shark cage dive planned for very early tomorrow and I don’t want any interference. I racked up 18,000 steps and 8.2 miles today walking from the ship all the way down Waikiki beach. I did not hike diamond head as I’ve done that and forgot to make reservations. While the Ilikai wasn’t much changed the waterfront is vastly different. Big pools have been built on the seaside of several hotels. I don’t remember a cement path along the beach either but they maybe me. There was a section of the beach quite eroded but that’s common. I’m sure everyone knows that Waikiki beach is almost entirely man made. They will pump more sand in as it erodes. Oh- found my old apartment. it was a dive then and it’s a dive now, but I was shocked it hasn’t been replaced by skyscrapers. It’s literally right behind the Ilikai in a fabulous location. My dive apt on Hobron street still stands-

plenty of drinks at or below $11-? Just not the fancy ones. I’m sure they will take your money to upgrade onboard- but hopefully someone with personal experience will help,

Come to the other side. It’s hot and fresh over here 😉 Here is tonight’s lido invitation and this dish is on the mdr menu (above). I don’t think the menus are much different at all.

The Ilikai hasn’t changed a bit other than the happy hour pricing being just a weeee bit more than I remember.

After graduating High school I got on a plane (all by myself, never had been on a plane before) and moved to Waikiki where I worked on a charter fishing vessel for a few years before starting college. Just about gave my parents a heart attack. My mom always said “I raised her to be independent but not this damn independent.” Apparently I was doing gap years before it socially accepted practice. My goal today is to just explore my old stomping grounds to see how much things have changed in over 30 years. I walked from the ship to the Ilikai near Honolulu yacht harbor. We used to do happy hour here. Very easy 3.5 mile walk with the detour through the Ala Moana beach park. Weather is quite lovely. Not too hot with a stiff breeze. Currently chilling with a cocktail and waiting for a 10 min shower to pass. Figured I might as well post the menus and dailies while I’m thinking about it and have 5G.

Tonight’s dinner- a huge plate of freshly stir fried veggies because I’m detoxing from booze and unhealthy food (until tomorrow haha). You’ll never get anything this fresh or hot in the MDR and it took all of 5 minutes 😉 Of course- I know many of you really enjoy a more formal dining experience where you are waited on. The lido certainly isn’t for everyone, but I do think the food here is fresher, hotter, and healthier than the MDR IF you order right. They have been doing a great job offering a different freshly grilled fish every night and the chop chop salad has everything this girl could ever want for dinner. Look at this plate of hot healthy goodness…

@SonuvaBeach wow Jim- you captured a spy hop and I missed that entirely!!! Bravo again 🙂

Today I elected to do the Hollywood in the movies tour offered by HAL to use up some onboard credit. Side note- most of us paid $179 for this tour. It almost doubled in price to $279 in October. It was likely worth $179 (even though the tour guide was a bit a dufus for my taste), but there is no way this tour is worth $279. Hire a private guide for the day. All the spots on the movie tour are well known and open to the public. The scenery was beautiful and the weather cooperated; even in Princeville and Hanalei; which are almost always a bit misty. There are literally 100s of movies filmed on Kauai. On this tour they would show a movie video clip on the van and then take you the exact location where that clip was filmed. We saw Jurassic Park, fantasy island, Raiders of the lost ark, Gillian’s Island, Blue Hawaii, South Pacific, and Donovan’s Reef to name a few….

As I’ve mentioned, we have an amazing roll call and there were about 60 of us who elected to go on the 11:30 pacific whale watch. Some folks took cabs, some Ubers, some rented cars, a group of about 15 of us walked to the bus, but we all met on the boat for a fantastic whale watch experience. It’s hard to go wrong during whale soup time, but we had quite the show- -4 different sets of mom/calf/escort. - one full out adult breach - multiple calf pickle breaches -3 peduncle throws - a 5 whale competition pod. - 1 mugging (where the whales got so close we had to turn off the engines.) I believe everyone was very happy with the experience and since I had talked it up a great deal I was thrilled the whales cooperated. Unfortunately I only took whale video and cruise critic doesn’t like that format, but here’s a few shots of most of our group at the harbor Other than accidentally flashing the tug boat crew and a near miss with my phone, it was an excellent day on Maui. I’m excited to return after the cruise.

Let’s see if I can catch up yesterday. The morning started with a little excitement. I got up super early to watch sail into Maui. Took a shower, walked out of the bathroom and was promptly greeted by these two fellows in a tug boat. Eye level. 25 feet from my window. I’m sure my cabin was the only one with the blinds wide open and lights on. Whoopsie-

I’m not sure if this Happens every cruise but we keep getting invitations via messenger in the app. These two were for lido dinners and also an invite to an open bridge for viewing.

Kauai port shopping map. There is a free trolly to take you to a strip mall type place that’s a few blocks away. I don’t believe it goes into to town but someone can correct me if I’m wrong.