richwmn

March 22nd, 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 --

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

March 21st, 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 21st, 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.

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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.

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

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 2th, 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 19th, 2024 – at sea, destination Avatiu, Rarotonga, Cook Islands (part 2) Today is our second March 19th, 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 19th, 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 19th, 2024 – at sea, destination Avatiu, Rarotonga, Cook Islands Good morning from Volendam and the first March 19th. Tomorrow will also be March 19th 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 18th, 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

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Volendam!

If you have the 'Navigator' app installed on a phone or tablet you will see the current menus for the ship you are going to be on next. Shrimp Cocktail is a regular feature on the menus, both in the Main Dining room and lido buffet.

I'll give a quick answer, then a more complete one. Yes, the helpers have advanced lists so that they have the information available. Everything other than the fleet locations are already planned thru the end of the year. The more complete answer. For the most part I am solely responsible for the content of the Daily. The lists come from searches such as best wines, best meals etc. Last October / November I spent quite a bit of time getting these lists together. I did the searches and sent preliminary lists to each of the helpers and asked for comments. Debi requested that I not use meals from some sources because they are more difficult to link to. Sandi and I went back and forth a bit about which ports to use. I think Ann sent me a link to a list of wines. Once everyone was at least moderately happy, I loaded the information into a database, which generates the Daily each day and publishes it to halfacts.com/daily. If I'm not available to post it in a timely manner, than Jacqui or one of several other people do the posting, and are welcome to add / change things if they want. For what it is worth, I found a list of about 1000 quotes so that part is set till some time next year.

March 17th, 2024 – at sea, destination Nukuʻalofa, Tongatapu, Tonga Good morning from another beautiful day aboard Volendam. It is already St. Patricks Day aboard the ship! We are currently heading Northeast at 15 knots on the way to Tonga. On the outside areas of the ship it is 77°F / 25°C with a humidity of 79%. The sky is overcast and the winds are at 25mph. Yesterday was a very nice day at sea. As I think I mentioned in the past, I fall into a routine when I am aboard a ship, particularly on a sea day. I usually wake up at the same time each day, followed by an early breakfast. After breakfast I check Cruise Critic and then do this entry. Yesterday we had something a bit different. I was made aware that there were several people aboard that are also on my next cruise, the Majestic Japan cruise in September / October. I set up a quick M&G which happened at 1pm yesterday. I turned in a list of about 20 to the ship that they sent notices to, but somewhere around 40 people showed up. We had a good time placing faces to names seen on either Cruise Critic or Facebook. We kept it going for the full hour. The late session of trivia was at the normal 7pm, and the theme was ‘Riddles’. We were given a riddle and asked to provide the solution. It was very interesting, and we did very well. Of course, we came up just a bit short. Last night the show on the World Stage was again ‘James Lamont, Physical Comedy’. It was again some juggling and then some information about his past. It was mildly interesting and he didn’t seem totally at ease on the stage. After I left the World Stage I listened to Kat the cocktail pianist for a few minutes. The Dance Band was scheduled to begin a set at 8pm so I went up there to check them out, only to find that they had just started a break. I proceeded back to the World Stage for a few more minutes, then called it a night. Today’s activities and menus

@JazzyV Thanks for posting the timeline. I copied it again but most likely will lose it again.

Isaac Newton once famously said, 'If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.' Y’all have said some very nice things about me today, and I am truly honored. But, to be very honest, the Daily would not exist without the foundation provided by @LAFFNVEGASLisa and I believe @luvstotrvl, who provided the information before me. Like those before me, my original intention was just to post the location of the fleet each day, and that lasted, according to @rafinmd Roy’s post, just short of a year. Then the world was thrown into chaos. The ships were all over the place, trying to find a safe harbor. At the time, I was just trying to provide a little content to keep the report interesting. I believe Roy has a list somewhere that chronicles when each feature was added, I’ve written it down a couple of times but never can find it. In addition, this thread would not be what it is without the daily efforts of what is lovingly called ‘the Food and Beverage Department’. That would be @dfish Debi, @cat shepardAnn, and @summer slope Dixie who manage to come up with descriptions of whatever I happen to come up with for a meal, a wine, and a drink of the day. We also have @StLouisCruisers Sandi who does the pictures and descriptions of the ports each day. Again we have Roy who is currently posting the fleet maps, and also started the Care List, currently maintained by @JazzyV Vanessa. We also have @kazu Jacqui who is a constant backup, and each of the people who have taken over for the various prime posters during the times that we are lucky enough to be on a cruise. It would be impossible to thank individually each Cruise Critic member who has ever posted on one of the Daily threads so please accept my thanks for their contribution to these threads. I also thank those who I have met and have been privileged to be on a cruise with.

March 16th, 2024 – at sea, destination Nukuʻalofa, Tongatapu, Tonga Yesterday we continued on our record of wonderful weather days on this cruise. Just as we got underway yesterday it started to sprinkle a little bit, but not enough to get us off the aft pool deck. The current temperature is 73° / 23°C, with a humidity of 75% under overcast skies. The wind is currently at about 15mph. The ship is proceeding NE at 19 knots. As I mentioned yesterday, I decided to stay on the ship yesterday. I got a lot of little things taken care of. Being away from home for long periods lets some things pile up, and everything worked out. I did make it to both trivia sessions last night and my team did fine. Like most days, we didn’t win but we are always close. The theme for the late session was ‘Famous Artists’ Instruments’ and it was overall difficult. The show in the World Stage last night was ‘Celtic Gra Show’, a celebration of Celtic music and dance featuring Rebecca Harkin from Ireland and her band, consisting of a piano player, a fiddle player, and a dancer. The show was very good, she has a good voice and selection of music. Today’s activities and menus –

March 15th, 2024 – Watangi (Bay of Islands), New Zealand A little late getting started with this today. I had to spend some time cleaning up my laptop this morning. It is currently 64°F / 18°C here under scattered clouds with winds at 11 mph and 94% humidity. Not a bad day for a tender ride. Yesterday we had a changeover in the Hotel General Manager. Leoni left us and our new HGM is Florin Dragomir from Baia Mare, Romania. He has been with HAL for 16 years but has been in the cruise industry for 24 starting as an Assistant Waiter. Sunset Last night So yesterday I pretty much stayed to myself. It was just something I needed. I didn’t attend either trivia but I did attend the show last night. It was ‘The Physical Comedy of James Lamont’ and was pretty good. He started out on a unicycle, then did some juggling and some other physical stunts. He used two staff members, Effron and Coné, in a couple of his stunts, including having Coné on his shoulders then getting on the unicycle and juggling a bit. It was a good act and somewhat funny. Today we are just outside Watangi and it looks to be a nice area. The weather is very nice, and a good day for going ashore or staying on the ship. The tender ride appears to be rather long, so right now I am considering staying on the ship. The ship is doing fine, the staff is attentive as always, and this has been another very good experience. Here are today’s activities and menus.