2inSETexas

She’s completed her 360s, now a sail by:

This is from the Waterfront Museum in Brooklyn -

Here is another webcam, from near Verrazano Narrows. https://www.nyharborwebcam.com Rotterdam is still aways upstream but will pass pretty close later:

One more from this webcam

Cleared of the pier

Several harbor webcams. Here’s one: https://www.portnywebcam.com

We took this same picture when we arrived on the Rotterdam in October. Great pictures of your arrival, too, @Vict0riann. Brings back wonderful memories of our arrival on the west-bound 150th.

We’ve been to Cayman on another cruise line. I think the tender process there is horrendous regardless of the weather or size of the ship.

We love this size. We sailed the Koningsdam first in 2019 in the Caribbea. Only the size of the World Stage was disappointing (as already mentioned above). The availability of more speciality restaurants and the dedicated CO restaurant was a big improvement. We sailed the Rotterdam this past October for their 150th Transatlantic. We never had a problem getting into the World Stage this trip. Four months later we were on the Zaandam and while I appreciate the coziness of this size, I prefer now the spaciousness and extras of the Pinnacle class. It’s just about the right size for a extended day sailing.

They should change, at least between NY and Rotterdam. We had daily specials on the October 2022 Rotterdam 150th sailing.

We recently sailed on the Zaandam. We had Club Orange privileges with our Neptune Suite. In the MDR at dinner there was a separate line to enter the first floor of digging room, the same line as those with reservations. It was always much shorter than that for those without reservations. We were never seated in a dedicated section in the MDR as I had heard from this board - sometimes at the back near the rear windows, sometimes along the side, twice in the center section - but never in a dedicated section. We were given a Club Orange menu that had a special entree not listed on the regular menu. Only on Gala nights did everyone use the same menu. We did get priority seating and the Club Orange Menu, but that was all. We did miss the dedicated Club Orange dining room on the Rotterdam when we sailed on the 150th anniversary sailing last October.

Zaandam in San Diego this morning.

One more screen shot - Zaandam in the Miraflores Locks.

Screen shot of the Zaandam passing through the Pedro Miguel Locks

We are on this TA Rotterdam cruise, boarding in Rotterdam. We knew the masks would be required at the beginning of the cruise because of a letter given to back-to-back passengers from the prior cruise who shared it either here or on social media. But we were never informed in advance by Holland America. When we arrived at the pier, there were no notices at checkin. It was only as we approached the boarding ramp that we were handed FFP2 masks and verbally informed of the mask requirement. Physical signs were placed strategically throughout the ship. But the communication provided in our stateroom made no mention of any mask requirement, only to make us aware of the previous cruises norovirus outbreak, subsequent disinfection, and personal hygiene expectations. Through the first seven days, the only communication on mask requirements was verbal and the signs. HAL at no time provided written communication to passengers boarding in Rotterdam. By Thursday, it is my guess from observation in World Stage that only about 1/3 of the passengers wore the masks in the theater. Today, Friday, the mask requirement was dropped. There were cheers and applause when the captain made the announcement this morning.

Curiosity is peaked.

Yes, this is true. I have flown often to Europe for business and personal trips. I have never been on a flight that didn’t follow what appears to be a curved route either eastbound or westbound. If this route could be viewed from directly above it would appear to be mostly a straight line, with a few variations - it only seems curved because of the our globe. The one time that our flight had a significant departure from this (and this is where it applies to the OP’s question) was a flight from Houston to Paris during a time of heavy storms across Tennessee and the northern parts of the southern states. In this case, our flight headed straight across the Gulf of Mexico as if flying to Florida. Once we were over Jacksonville, FL, it was at this point the flight began the “circle route” toward Europe. We diverted south of the storm system until past then began the more direct route to Paris. We arrived a bit past expected arrival time, but not unreasonably so.

Visual of how low it is now.

Depends on the company and draught of the ships. We are staying at the moment in a town on the Rhine gorge near Loreley. We have seen several cruises still sailing, including two this morning. Viking ships tend to have a deeper draught so are impacted more quickly. Yesterday evening the AmaStella passed by through the gorge. We had a AmaWaterways cruise forced to change itineraries with the low water in October 2018. They took wonderful care of us and the cruise credit they gave us allowed another cruise the following spring. Both cruises, changed and unchanged, low water and normal, were remarkable.

AmaStella just sail past Sankt Goar (1825 on 9/Aug) on her Basel to Amsterdam sailing.

As of today, the Rhine is not close completely. I think it must be based on size of the ship (depth of the hull). We are staying in a village in the Rhine gorge and saw two river cruise ships, one the Geoffrey Chaucer (pretty good length ship), sail through the Loreley this afternoon. Many barges are still making safe passage.

Yes. A few days on the Mosel and few more days on the Rhine. Staying in small towns we saw from previous river ship cruises. Lunch today was at the Panorama Loreley, right across the river from the rock. Thanks 😊

About 1430 German time today (8/8/22), two cruise passenger ships, the Geoffrey Chaucer and the Crucevita, passed by the Loreley heading downstream.

We saw the AmaSiena moored in Koblenz around noon today. Several other ships were there, too.

Love visiting there. It’s such a beautiful village and setting.