St Pete Cruiser

Lincoln Center and B B King are our favorites. Not sure about Rolling Stone Lounge, but maybe it will be good. The live music in Ocean Bar will be nice. On a long cruise, you want some variety. Enrichment, besides the standard productions like Spirits of the Caribbean, are needed.

Leanne, thanks for doing the sailaways.

Good news for those of us who want the "exotic" cruises.

Roy, you probably are aware that Jack Anderson is back in control of Crystal. The news article I read states that they hope to have the refurbished ships back in service by summer. I would like to try a cruise with them, especially if they offered fares comparable to Holland America, with a good itinerary.

Late night post: @ger_77 Happy to see you on the Rotterdam sailaway @Quartzsite Cruiser Thanks for the Durban pics. We were there in 2014 on the Rotterdam VI and I remember the harbor pilots being helicoptered to the ship and off. The seas are often too rough to use small boats.

Darn, I missed the Rotterdam and the toots. Eurodam with the usual 3 long. Nearly everyone waving to the camera today.

Always an exciting day in Ft Lauderdale with the World Cruise and the Grand South American leaving the same day. I was there several times for it. Met Gerald Bernhoft and Captain Halle Gunderson from the Prinsendam. Wishing all of our cruisers a great experience.

Good afternoon everyone. The holidays are now over, so today was back on the new bike to enjoy a beautiful day and maybe work off some holiday pounds. The beach today is Pass a Grille, the lower extension of St Pete Beach.

I will guess the Volendam continues in the fleet as long as her revenue is strong enough to be profitable. Holland America's strength has always included some exotic cruises and the smaller Volendam and Zaandam can fill those itineraries.

With the possible exception of the Prinsendam, which is no longer with us, Holland America doesn't compete with Seabourn. As with most upscale things, you generally pay a lot more to get a little more. Seabourn is superior to the Holland America product, but you do pay the premium for it. Some of us find we can cruise longer or more often with Holland and still have a very enjoyable experience. Others prefer quality over quantity. You may be turned off by additional charges, but I feel I have the option to choose as opposed to feeling like I have paid up front for everything even if I don't drink, eat, tour, etc. Seabourn ships, as nice as they are, don't have the extras the newer and larger Holland ships have: the walk around promenade deck, the larger mid ship pool with removeable covered roof, the variety of entertainment venues, and not to be ignored more comfortable ride in heavy seas. If you can justify the premium fare, I would suggest you try Seabourn.

Here we go!

Ft Lauderdale is currently 79F. Here in St Petersburg, just 75. Ger_77: You won't need your heavy coats.

Just checked in.

Another beautiful day here, sunny and 75 degrees. Our roseate spoonbill was having lunch below our 3rd floor balcony as we were having our lunch today. We have a lot of water birds, but "Rosie" is our favorite. Yesterday's group bike ride was great with 12 of us, all over 60, and we did 18 miles with a rewarding lunch to finish. We should be in Lyttelton, New Zealand, exactly 3 months from today, on March 30, 2023. Today's location is Akaroa, NZ, which is quite a bit further from Christchurch. If there isn't a shuttle service to Christchurch, we see that there is a local bus. Another poster said the locals don't like the cruise ship people to use the local bus, however. For my Prinsendam fans, she is still the ship pictured on the shore excursions for the ports on the Holland America site. If I don't post tomorrow, I'll wish you a Happy New Year with good health and ability for good travel as well!

Good afternoon everyone. Split is a very enjoyable port. We were there back in May on the Wind Surf. Holland America stops there fairly often. We are sunny and 72 today, yeah! Visiting Busch Gardens in Tampa today

Princess Love Boat toots sounding good!

Thanks Volendam! You made up for me missing the NS. She may be old, but she has a good horn!

Ok, I'm ready!

You could have told us you were out shoveling the walk or deicing the car instead, but you had to state printing boarding passes! LOL. Good for you!

The Grand South America is basically the same as it has always been, except now with the R class Volendam instead of the Prinsendam which did it for so many years. The World Cruise is a no Asia itinerary this time. The first time ever with a Vista class ship, Zuiderdam, instead of a R class ship, which was the Amsterdam and before that the Rotterdam. The World Cruise has been done since 2020, which ended due to covid in Perth. With all the future credit guests and pent up demand, wondering how full Zuiderdam will be? Zuider capacity is about 600 more than R class Amsterdam.

I haven't adjusted myself to checking in so early for sailaway. Hopefully, I'll still see Volendam. After a cold Christmas weekend, it is back to mid 60's and sunny now and near 80 this weekend.

Merry Christmas Everyone. My best wishes for all of us, either aboard a BHB or elsewhere! I've yet to do a Christmas cruise, preferring our regular holiday activities. I love our Florida Orchestra, church with candlelight service and being with friends. Salmon is on our dinner list for today's get together, but salmon wellington sounds even better! Would that be a Westminster facility? Oh, and what is today's port...Wellington, New Zealand! Coincidence, I think not.

Several new entrees. I would try the eggplant entree, bucatini caponata. Looks like the everyday steak is replaced by lasagna? Are you at an assigned table upstairs? We like the assigned table, later seating, and often get a table for 4 so we can ask friends to dine with us or be by ourselves. The later seating is more relaxed and the servers more accomodating. Often, a dining room manager/Maitre'd checks on us as well.

I've posted several times before regarding Holland America's history in using Tampa. Forty years ago, some of the executive staff at Holland were not happy with cruising out of Miami, and they moved to both Fort Lauderdale and Tampa as their winter home ports. Actually, Fort Lauderdale first and then Tampa. The Veendam III was the first ship assigned to Tampa in 1982. The new in 1983 Nieuw Amsterdam then began service from Tampa. The 1984 Noordam, the other "N" class ship, was later brought in to replace the Nieuw Amsterdam. After Carnival purchased Holland, they built the "S" class ships and Tampa had the Veendam IV and the Ryndam for many years, with the Veendam doing the 7 day itinerary and the Ryndam doing the 14 day for a few years. The ships sailed full almost all of the time, with Holland bussing guests in from several Florida cities. Tampa built a new cruise terminal which Holland used. As Carnival, followed by Royal Caribbean and NCL came to Tampa with bigger ships, Holland was bumped back to the older smaller terminal as its ship had fewer guests. Holland tried the Oosterdam for one season, 2016, by switching away from weekend sailings to mid week, but the ship did not sail full. The last couple years, the Rotterdam VI was out of Tampa, but back at the smaller terminal which I think was deemed not adequate by corporate. A few foggy days those seasons hurt as well. Foggy mornings in the winter occur in Tampa when warm air mixes with cooler Gulf water, but not as bad as Galveston, Texas or Mobile. Captain Albert knew that he needed to be at the Tampa Bay entrance channel by 2am to beet the low marine layer, or fog. Almost as soon as Holland left Tampa, Celebrity moved in with its Constellation, a ship size wise similar to Oosterdam. Carnival, Royal, and NCL also use ships the size of Holland's vista class in Tampa. Yes, the Skyway bridge does limit the vertical height of ships cruising under it. Living close to Tampa, it would be nice for me to cruise from Tampa rather than Ft Lauderdale. Now, with a smaller fleet, and with Celebrity and the other competitors offering a longer than 7 day cruise out of Tampa, which only Holland use to do, it doesn't look good for them to return.

Now there is a happy Captain! I knew Oprah was on the Nieuw Statendam, but was this on the Rotterdam? With Carnival continuing to lose money, $1.6 billion in the 3rd quarter, there will be more cost savings measures. As a fan of Captain Albert and his blogs, I can understand the company not bringing him back just to be a lecturer.