richwmn

March 26^th, 2024 – Papeʻete, Tahiti, French Polynesia (day 1)

Good morning from another beautiful day in French Polynesia. It was a very nice sail in this morning. We are berthed and have been given clearance to go ashore. We have two days here, so no hurry to do anything.

Yesterday was a very nice day. The temperature was comfortable aboard the ship. I actually didn’t go ashore, but from the ship the island was very pretty.

I know that I mention trivia every day, but that is something I have participated in since my very first cruise. We had two sessions again and did well with both. We were surprised with a win in a tie breaker for the early session. Usually when we tie, we lose the tie breaker. The late session was ‘Finish the Lyrics’, and most of the songs were familiar. Despite that, we only got 8 right while the winner got 16 points. We were missing four of our regular players due to other activities, and they might have helped.

After trivia I talked to the Shops Director for a few minutes and ended up at the World Stage just after the show started. The show was the second performance by David Copperfield. I was still skeptical and to some degree expected to leave fairly quickly. I was again pleased with the show. As I mentioned before, he is a better singer than comic, even though he was billed as a comedian. I would enjoy the show more if he stuck to singing rather than comedy.

Today’s activities and menus –

Berthed in Papeʻete
 

March 25^th, 2024 – Huahine, French Polynesia

This morning we had another beautiful sail in to a Polynesian port. Huahine is a group of two small islands, and our tenders are taking us to the smaller of the two. It is currently 82°F / 28°C with light rain. The winds are about 12mph and the humidity is at 78%.

Yesterday was day two in Moorea. It was a nice day for me on board the ship, as Moorea is a rather small port and I had visited previously. It is very relaxing to stay aboard the ship while the majority of the Guests are ashore.

The two trivia sessions yesterday were both interesting. I didn’t mention that my group is down to 7 now, so we generally don’t make two teams but one member doesn’t play. The early session we did well, but again lost by one incorrect answer. The evening session was to identify birds from images. Most of the group decided that they wouldn’t do well with the images and went to the information lecture on the port. Paul and I took one for the team and showed up. We ended up getting 13 points. I would like to say that I helped, but really Paul was the one who surprised himself and got a majority of those points.

After the early trivia session ended, I headed to the Seaview pool where the sail away party was just getting underway. As has been the case for several ports, the Ocean Bar Band was set up and played two sets for those who attended. The bar staff was, of course, well represented and everyone had a good time. We had a little bit of rain around 5pm when we actually started moving, but that didn’t last long.

When the late trivia session ended, the Grand Voyage Repertory Company had another show. This show was titled ‘Guitar Rock’. While the group didn’t actually play the songs, they sang and danced to some iconic rock songs for their 45 minute show. They always put on a very good, energetic show and seem to be having fun while doing it. They have two more shows before the Grand Voyage ends in San Diego.

It is a little before 9am, and open tendering has now been announced. The tender ride is less than 500 meters, so it will be a quick ride. Here are today’s activities and menus –

5 hours ago, lakedweller64 said:

good morning Rich We will be joining you in San Diego.Have you noticed any smoke issues from the casino? 

The casino hasn't really been busy and I haven't really noticed any smokers, but then I haven't really looked for them either.

3 hours ago, jimdee3636 said:

@richwmn

It's great that you're keeping the same cabin all the way to Montreal, but given all the free (and mostly favorable) publicity you're giving HAL, they ought to comp you the final segment!

 

Jim 

I got a very nice upgrade for the World Cruise last year

March 24^th, 2024 – Bahia d’ Opunoha (Moorea), French Polynesia (day 2)

Woke up this morning to the same view as yesterday. We are again in Moorea, and it is another beautiful day. Tenders started up this morning at 7am and will be going till about 4pm. The temperature outside is 88°F / 31°C under clear skies. The humidity is at 70%, and the wind at a little over 8mph.

Here are today’s activities and menus –

March 23^rd, 2024 – Bahia d’ Opunoha (Moorea), French Polynesia

Good morning from Moorea, on our first of two days here. The temperature is 84°F / 29°C with only a few clouds. The humidity is 68% and the winds are a little under 4mph. It looks to be a good day here.

I had some good news yesterday. When I booked the final, Fort Lauderdale to Montreal segment of this cruise, it was just before final payment and I could only book it as a guarantee. I was checking yesterday and found that I am remaining in my same cabin all the way to Montreal!

Yesterday was a very nice day in Bora Bora. It was a short tender ride, and the local population had a nice setup for greeting us. The tender dock is also within a short walk from quite a bit of interesting things to do. All the people were very friendly and seemed happy to have us.

We did have two sessions of trivia yesterday. The early session was interesting and we did well, but again just missed winning. The late session was all about Elvis. Dani had a nice mix of questions. Some examples, the name of Elvis’s home and where it is, also his middle name, did he serve in any military. She also had questions about two songs and a movie or two. The only question we missed was which of his movies did he not sing in. One team did manage to get all the questions correct and win outright.

At the same time trivia starts, Daniel is usually on the World Stage taking questions about the next port. Since trivia only lasts about 15 minutes, I generally make it to the stage early enough to catch the last couple of questions. I have really enjoyed the way Daniel handles the questions and his natural sense of humor.

The show last night was the second by Andy Buenger. He is a very talented musician and gives a good amount of humor in his presentation.

This morning we arrived on time in Moorea, and the tenders went out quickly. As this is an overnight port, the tenders will be running until midnight and begin again tomorrow morning at 7am. It looks to be another nice day in the South Pacific.

Today’s activities and menus –

If I might go back to Lifeboat Capacity for a moment. Here is a picture of the capacity label on the tender I rode today from Volendam.

Note that as a lifeboat the capacity is 150. There are 16 lifeboats on Volendam for a capacity of 2400. Volendam's capacity with all triples and quads full is 1718 and crew compliment is 647 so the total is 2375 so the Lifeboat capacity alone will cover the full passenger compliment and crew. As someone mentioned, any lifeboat or lifeboats may not be able to deploy, so the rafts should cover that situation. In addition, I don't believe I have ever seen a HAL ship filled to full upper berth capacity. Very few cabins have 3 or 4 passengers and all HAL ships carry quite a few solo cruisers.

Have a great time! Hope everything goes well for the 3 of y'all!

March 22^nd, 2024 – Vaitape, Bora Bora, French Polynesia

Good morning from our surprise port. When this cruise was first announced, Bora Bora was part of the itinerary. However, it was pulled because the local government wanted to restrict visits to cruise ships smaller than Volendam. Several days ago the Captain announced that due to ongoing negotiations, our stop here was reinstated.

The temperate is 82°F / 28°C under scattered clouds. The humidity is 69%, and the wind is just under 6mph. We are currently in our position for tendering and the tenders have been lowered into the water.

Yesterday was a fine day at sea. As usual, there was plenty going on for those that wanted to. Plenty of people did laps around the promenade deck, others were on the loungers around the pool. Various talks and presentations were available.

We didn’t have an early session of trivia. What we did instead was have our monthly safety drill. It went without any problems, and the ship carried on. The process post covid is very easy and took very little time.

We did have a late session of trivia, with a theme of ‘Dutch’ to complement the ships Orange theme of the day. Shortly before 7pm, the Captain showed up and announced his intention to play again. I don’t know how he ended up doing but the winner was a Dutch couple who got everything right and was awarded a bonus point for humming the National Anthem of the Netherlands when the question concerned it. It was a very entertaining session of trivia.

Shortly after trivia ended the Crows Nest was filled with people for the Orange Party. The Ocean Bar Band was the entertainment and was very good, keeping people on the dance floor for most of the evening. The Captain and his wife showed up, him in a bright orange shirt, her in a very nice orange dress. Several people who failed to bring, and didn’t want to purchase, anything orange showed up with their life vests around their necks. Many people were wearing orange wigs. It was a good time for all. When the Crows Nest Party broke up, I headed in but heard music from the Ocean Bar. I was pleased to find the Dance Band playing there and stayed a few minutes to listen to them. They are also a very good band.

Today’s activities and menus –

Bora Bora from the ship --

4 minutes ago, craig01020 said:

I don't know if I would call HAL's website "hostile", but it could be a lot better. Princess is the worst, and surprisingly, Carnival's in one of the best I've used.

 

Go figure.

HAL and Princess outsourced their websites to the same group in 2016, so both are managed by the same, outside, group.

March 21^st, 2024 – at sea, destination Bora Bora, French Polynesia

In my previous post for today I failed to mention the show last night. In the World Stage last night we had the second show presented by Celtic Grá. They are a four piece group that was backed by three members of the ship’s entertainment staff. The band is a lead singer (Rebecca Harkin), with a piano player, a fiddle (violin) player, and a dancer. For most of the show, the female lead singer is the star of the show. Rebecca is a very good singer, with a good amount of talk between her songs. The piano player and fiddler are also very good. The dancer is an entertaining portion of the show. For a few minutes in the middle of the show, Rebecca leaves the stage and the band did a short piece which was also entertaining. It was a very nice evening in the World Stage.

March 21^st, 2024 – at sea, destination Bora Bora, French Polynesia

Good morning from Volendam. We are currently sailing Northeast at 13 knots toward Bora Bora, our surprise port. The TV weather information shows light rain, although I didn’t notice it when I was at breakfast. The temperature is 82°F / 28°C with a humidity of 76%. The winds are at 13.4mph.

Yesterday we were supposed to call at Cook Island. Due to the sea state we were unable to use the tenders to get to the island so we ended up circling the island then getting an early start toward Bora Bora. The staff did a good job of changing from a shore based day to a sea based day. Additional activities were quickly added and a list was distributed to the cabins.

Due to a comment yesterday, and the fact that one was happening right away, I decided to give the Tech talk another listen. I followed that with the Coffee talk between Daniel and the Staff Captain. I will address the tech talk shortly. The chat between Daniel and the Staff Captain was entertaining. Daniel is a natural comic and doesn’t realize it. The Staff Captain has an interesting background and provided insight into the decision making process that led to skipping Cook Island.

After the Coffee Chat, I went up to the Lido Deck for lunch, then to my cabin and relaxed a bit. I got a little bit involved in things and missed the 4pm trivia session. During the morning announcement the Captain announced a ‘free drink’ hour between 4 and 5 pm in all the bars aboard, so at 4:30 when I realized what time it was I went up to the Ocean Bar, which was overflowing, then on to Mix. My trivia team was still there and let me know they had done fine. I saw @cruising sister and @Cruisercl sitting at the bar and had a discussion with them about my earlier comment about the Tech person.

In an earlier comment I mentioned that I felt the tech presenter was doing a ‘sales pitch’ for certain apps / products. I later amended that to ‘validating a purchase decision’. I keep up with tech, and have for a very long time. I get frustrated when presenters focus on one product to the exclusion of other similar products. This causes one program to thrive while other similar products, which might actually be better, don’t get used.

Today we get to do the safety drill again. This is required every thirty days on extended cruises. We are supposed to watch the TV presentation again, then report to our life boat, and finally the Captain will make an announcement about 2pm about the lifeboat proceedure.

Today’s activities and meals –

here is a link to the Noordam deck plan on the HAL site

https://www.hollandamerica.com/content/dam/hal/inventory-assets/ships/NO/pdf/hal-no-deckplan.pdf

each deck has an explanation of the symbols used for quads, triples, hc, and other classifications.

duplicate

duplicate

2 hours ago, 0106 said:

The NS passenger capacity has been listed as 2666 with a crew of 1036.  There are 20 life boats with a capacity of 150 each, so room for 3000 people. What happens if there is an emergency and the ship needs to be evacuated?

To add to my previous answer, here is a picture of how the life rafts are stowed on Volendam. There are four on each side, with an additional 2 marked for testing only.

In addition, you mention a capacity of 150 for the life boats. I just remembered, I believe there are two capacities listed, 150 for tender operations and a substantially larger capacity for use as a life boat.

2 hours ago, 0106 said:

The NS passenger capacity has been listed as 2666 with a crew of 1036.  There are 20 life boats with a capacity of 150 each, so room for 3000 people. What happens if there is an emergency and the ship needs to be evacuated?

In addition to the life boats there are inflatable rafts that can be deployed. If you walk around the promenade deck you will see what looks like 55 gallon drums. Those contain the rafts.

The maximum capacity of the rafts and lifeboats is what determines the total capacity of the ship.

If you are on a b2b (or more) it will be 7 - 10 business days after you complete the final cruise.

revised activities for today and some pictures of Cook Island

15 hours ago, cruising sister said:

I have never felt like it was a sales pitch.

Maybe 'sales pitch' is not the right phrase. Perhaps 'validating a choice you already made' is better.

Where I find a problem with most tech presentations is that they only concern themselves with the most popular programs/apps/services. For each, there are many alternatives, which are not usually talked about, and if mentioned by an audience member get brushed aside.

I mentioned before that I did attend one Tech presentation. My first problem with it was that the subject was changed without notice. The presenter did not seem to be prepared for the subject he chose.

March 2^th, 2024 – Avatiu, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Well it a little after 8am and the Captain has already announced that the seas are too rough coupled with harbor master instructions so we will not be visiting Cook Island. He is going to circle the island and then head toward Bora Bora. The temperature is currently 81°F / 27°C around the ship with few clouds. The winds are about 3.5mph and the humidity is 94%.

Yesterday was a nice day around the ship. Both trivia sessions went well, the evening was titled ‘Math’. It was math facts rather than actually solving math problems. Some of the questions were:

When is pi day?

What is the segment opposite the right angle called?

What is the smallest perfect number?

We missed the perfect number, but got the rest and missed by one point again.

The show last night was a surprise. I thought I recognized the name and hadn’t been overly impressed with the performer in the past. The name of the program was ‘David Copperfield not the Illusionist But the Unusualist’. He was billed in the advance brochure as a comedian. It ended up to be a very good show. He sang, with a good voice. He told a few jokes, and they were funny enough. He also interacted with the audience and was good with that as well. I had really expected to only stay a few minutes, but the show was good and I stayed until the end. I hope his next show is as good.

Today’s activities and meals –

This morning's Position

Last night's entertainer

Activities

Meals

March 19^th, 2024 – at sea, destination Avatiu, Rarotonga, Cook Islands (part 2)

Today is our second March 19^th, we crossed the International Date Line. We are moving East at 15knots headed toward the Cook Islands. On the outer decks it is currently raining, but lightly. The temperature is 81°F / 27°C with a humidity of 88% and winds at 12mph.

Yesterday we crossed the date line and changed time zones so we went back 23 hours. We are now in the same time zone as Hawai’i and the Aleutian Islands. At least we are on the same day as the US.

Yesterday was a very lazy day at sea. I don’t tend to go to the lectures so I don’t comment on them. I will say that many people I talk to seem to be very happy with them. I did go to one of the Tech Talks and while the information was reasonable, it wasn’t anything that I didn’t already know. In addition, like most Tech type presentations, it seemed to almost be a sales pitch for a small set of products that are no better or worse that other competing products.

The early trivia session as always was general knowledge. We had a good crowd and Dani presented a good set of questions. Before she started she said that since today was also March 19^th, the questions would be the same today. We will see shortly if that is true. The evening trivia session was themed ‘Geography’. I expected it to be mostly maps or map outlines that we were to identify. It wasn’t. Instead we had questions about cities or areas and had to identify them. It was actually very good, and we did well.

After the evening trivia session I proceeded to the World Stage. The act last night was ‘The Power of Music by Andy Bunger’. This gentleman did a very nice show involving several instruments, including Drums, Marimba, Flute, and others. It was a good show with an interesting choice of songs. Mostly it was instrumental, but he did sing one song near the end of the show.

It looks like we are about 18 days from the end of this Grand Australia and New Zealand cruise. We have two interesting overnight stays coming up and six sea days for the final run into San Diego.

Today’s activities and meals –

I am not able to load images right now, maybe later

March 19^th, 2024 – at sea, destination Avatiu, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Good morning from Volendam and the first March 19^th. Tomorrow will also be March 19^th as we cross the International Date Line sometime today. We are currently headed almost due east at 13 knots on our way to Avatiu. Aboard Volendam the temperature is 81°F / 27°C with light rain. The wind is about 7mph and the humidity is listed at 86%.

Yesterday was a nice day in Tonga. I went out fairly early and tried to get a couple of things done without success. The weather was a slow drizzling rain and I got pretty wet while walking so I headed back to the ship. Since this was a repeat port and I had a good tour last year, I wasn’t unhappy.

When I got back aboard the ship I called T-Mobile to try to get my problem solved, but Tonga just wasn’t going to happen. I have requested an appointment with the ship’s IT director but I don’t think it will help.

So, the rest of the day aboard ship was pretty good. The early trivia session was as normal, we didn’t win but were close. The evening session was very different. It was a visual trivia, pictures of ports and we were supposed to identify the port. The twist was that the Captain, his wife, and the Hotel Director were a team. About half the ports we had to identify were from this trip, the rest were fairly well known. Of course, the Captain’s team won, and I believe only missed one question.

The show last night was the ‘Grand Voyage Repertory Company’ doing ‘At The Hop’. The music was good, well performed, and each of the singers got the spotlight. The dances seemed appropriate to the music and each couple was highlighted. It was a very good evening in the World Stage.

I did listen to Kat, the cocktail pianist, and the Ocean Bar Band for a bit last night and both were putting on good shows and had a nice audience.

Today’s activities and menus –

March 18^th, 2024 – Nukuʻalofa, Tongatapu, Tonga

It is now afternoon and I have already been out for a bit. Unfortunately, we finally lost our streak of good days out. I did walk out and just after I left the ship it started a drizzly rain. I stayed out in it for a while, but headed back early. Luckily I had a good visit here last year.

Yesterday was a nice relaxing day at sea. My normal trivia group did fine, didn’t win but came close in both sessions. The late session was questions about New Zealand.

A couple of nice things from yesterday. In the Ocean Bar at 3pm HAL hosted a veterans meeting. If I’m not mistaken, there have been several but this is the first one I stopped by for. It was a large group and several HAL Officers were present.

Last night the World Stage was dark. Instead we had a St. Patrick’s Day Party in the Crows Nest. It began at 8pm and when I went up around 8:15 there was still a receiving line consisting of eight or ten Officers and Staff. There was a good crowd with the Ocean Bar Band performing and lots of people dancing. There was one couple that didn’t seem to realize that others were on the floor and took up a big area. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Today’s activities and menu –

Tonga