St Pete Cruiser

Thought of you and other British friends today as we are in Portland, UK, on the Rotterdam. We took the Port shuttle into Weymouth. There were plenty of volunteer ambassadors to answer questions and direct us. We also took a local bus to Dorchester. Nice day, despite the gray skies, at our only UK Port this trip.

The sailaway from Amsterdam has been enjoyable and we are now clearing the worlds largest sea lock at Ijmuden. I was excited to see the Ocean Majesty docked close to the lock. It was built in 1966! That is 30 years before the Veendam and 22 years before the Prinsendam. She looks good, too. Not sure if she will be in service next year. Onto Brooge tomorrow.

Thank you. I hope your health issues resolve and you can return to a BHB soon.

Greetings from the Rotterdam Crow's Nest in Amsterdam. It is rather overcast and 18C/65F for our long awaited sailaway. The ship is full and has been according to several guests who have been on the previous cruise. They warned us that there was a big crew changeover today including a new cruise and travel director. We had a rather difficult time getting to the pier this morning as train service from our enjoyable hotel was interrupted forcing us to use a bus and then return to a train to Amsterdam Centraal. We pulled our bags to the pier and were still able to be onboard at noon. There are river cruise boats from Viking, Uniworld and a few others near us. The Port is alive with ferries, cargo ships and pleasure boats. I hope to watch until we reach the North Sea. Dinner is not until 8pm. Port talk at 7 and 9 in World Stage.

We have enjoyed our two days in Amsterdam before boarding Rotterdam tomorrow.

Leaving Tampa Airport now for Washington DC and then onto Amsterdam for our Rotterdam sailing on Saturday. Tampa Airport is a favorite. No lines today. Beautifully pelicans, too!

I'm late to the party again. Love coffee, I'm elderly even if I don't care for that description and frugal fun is all good! October 1 is the unofficial end of summer in Florida, which is a relief for me. More importantly, it is Jimmy Carter's birthday! His 99th no less. A friend brought an old campaign brochure to our current events coffee chat Friday. A great humanitarian! We are excited about flying to Amsterdam Wednesday where we plan to board our Flagship, the Rotterdam, for her 15 day reposition to Ft Lauderdale. Kazu/Jacqui will be posting updates for our CC readers. She has been devoted to our roll call and so helpful to many of less Holland America traveled cruisers who will be aboard. Amsterdam, a Holland America favorite embarkation port, will be much less frequent in the future, so I plan to enjoy our adventure and departure from there Saturday.

I'm really looking forward to Amsterdam and both boarding and departure from there next Saturday. We better enjoy it as it looks like Amsterdam will not be used often in the future. Nieuw Statendam will be there a few times next year, but Rotterdam is to be using its name's sake port.

Kazu/Jacqui, I don't know how you find time to post on the Daily, the Rollcall and even the Bon Voyage! We will be packing Monday with all the last-minute preps on Tuesday as we fly to Amsterdam on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday at the hotel in Amsterdam and then boarding our big, beautiful Rotterdam on Saturday. Weather forecast is for partly sunny and 67F (19.5C) on Saturday, yeah! I've probably missed it; who is caring for Ivan? We often do dog sitting for friends while they travel as it was so important when I had a dog.

I'm late to the party tonight. Bergen, Norway, is a jewel IMHO! The second largest city after Oslo, Bergen is hidden along Norway's west coast. The route into Bergen via cruise ship is beautiful in itself. I have been there first on the Prinsendam in 2010, next on the Ryndam in 2013, followed by the Zuiderdam in 2019 and finally the Nieuw Statendam this year. My favorite visit was in 2013 when we visited both the Edvard Greig home and concert hall and the Fantoft Stave Church. The preferred pier is a close walk to the historic Hanseatic League waterfront shops and the Floibanen incline railway station with beautiful views of Bergen. Cooler than Oslo in the summer and warmer in the winter, Bergen benefits from the Gulf Stream at its far northern 60 degree latitude.

I'm partial to Tampa as it is 40 minutes from my condo in St Petersburg. Regardless, it is an easier and less expensive port for many to use. Our friends just did the 7 day on the old Grandeur of the Seas from Tampa and remarked how easy embark and debate was.

Many of us would like to hear about your experiences on our old Ryndam. I had read that the MDR has been completely refigured as well as some other substantial changes.

Our Sunshine Skyway Bridge has 180 feet clearance over the channel. The Carnival Legend has sailed under it as has the Oosterdam.

We sailed in and out of NYC IN 2006 on the Maasdam's spring reposition cruise and loved it! I remember walking to Times Square from Pier 88. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity and several other lines use Cape Liberty, NJ, which entails a more difficult transfer into the city. Red Hook in Brooklyn is better, but still not like walking off into Manhattan. There is a free way to sail by the Statue of Liberty; the Staten Island ferry!

Happy Saturday everyone. We enjoyed Shucked last night. Not serious theater, but it is very much a fun and laughable performance. New York was very busy last night and we enjoyed our 4 days there. Nice to visit, but I don't want to live there. As we left this morning I could see two cruise ships anchored just inside the Verrazano Bridge. Not tendering it appeared. It is the Seven Seas Mariner and a big Norwegian ship. Looks like SS Mariner hurried into NYC as it was completing a transatlantic ahead of Hurricane Lee arriving a day early.

Good morning everyone. We are enjoying a 4 day stay in NYC, returning to St Petersburg tomorrow. We have tickets for Shucked tonight, $40 each, that we got using Broadway lottery. It is sunny and low 60's here which is great for walking about the city. For the most part, the city looks good and is very busy. My best to Kazu and others in the path of Lee.

Good evening from St Petersburg. Norway is a favorite. Honningsvag is certainly an intetesting port and Nordkapp a tourist destination for Europeans in particular. We liked the little museum with the historic views including how the Germans had come there for many years even before WWII. It was cold (45F) and rainy on our day there in July, but we thought no worse than suffering the heat at home. If you haven't been to Norway, GO!

Wow, I wasn't familiar with this section. Looking on the map, it is south of Venice and north of Englewood. Englewood is about 70 miles south of St Petersburg, where we had minimal wind damage and mostly just low lying flooding.

Please count me as safe, lucky and thankful! I am close to the intracoastal waterway here in St Petersburg. We actually needed the rain, but no winds or flooding. Our community was spared, although others were not as fortunate. Our pond at our condo looking full again.

Enjoy your complimentary dinners at Pinnacle, Tamarind and Canaletto! We lost the special cooking class with aprons benefit after covid.

The longer cruises, 14 day and longer, still find a fair number of us with sport coat or more. Also, those of us who dine at the assigned MDR have higher numbers of dressed up diners.

Thanks. I think we are good.

As we say in the south, "Why Angelcat, Bless Your Heart". Thanks for thinking of us! It looks like the worst will be quite a distance offshore from Pinellas/St Petersburg, but we may get some higher tides causing flooding. Last year, we had booked the Carnival Paradise the week that Ian hit. We were very lucky as we had a nice cruise and even had two bonus days as the port of Tampa closed preventing our return. Poor Ft Myers got hit so severely, they are still rebuilding and recovering.

Lenda, We know you have been on many cruises and you could certainly write a book on your experiences, but with all due respect, I don't think you were on the Rotterdam IV. The Rotterdam IV was built in 1908 and scrapped in 1940!!! Did you mean the Rotterdam VI, the sixth Holland America ship to be named Rotterdam which was built in 1997 and is still sailing? The current Rotterdam is the VII, the Pinnacle class and newest ship in the fleet.

Good afternoon from hot and sunny St Petersburg. With today's destination port in Greenland, Qaqortog, being familiar to those of us who have done the Voyage of the Viking and some similar itineraries, there is something new coming. If you are looking for more Greenland, Holland America has one scheduled for June 29, 2025, that does FIVE(5) ports in Greenland. In addition to Nanortalik, the Nieuw Statendam will be going to Nuuk and 3 others that I don't think we have ever been to. Maybe the Prinsendam did? It is 28 days RT from Rotterdam with insides $4700 and verandahs $6100. Yes, I know, not so good for those of us in North America. Those prices should beat the smaller expidition sailings. Tender required for all the Greenland ports. I'm hoping with the Nieuw Staendam's capacity, I'll be able to get a good fare. Enjoy your day wherever you are.