Mtn2Sea

We visited Scarborough, Tobago, this past February while on the Zaandam where we took a ship excursion which consisted of an overview of the island.  We stopped at two small forts that went back and forth between the British and the French a few hundred years ago.  We ended the tour with a folkloric show that featured a steel drum player and several dancers. 
 

Please let me extend my deepest condolences. While no words are even remotely adequate, I do hope your memories of better days bring you some comfort.

Really enjoying your review!  So sorry to hear about your accident, but glad you’ll still be able to visit Keukenhof Gardens.  We were there on April 18 last year and they were beautiful.

We’ve only been to Sydney once.  Because none of the ship’s excursions appealed to us, we decided to just walk around some of the town. We visited two old houses and two old churches before eating lunch at a waterside restaurant.  For us, the stop in Sydney was low key, but nevertheless enjoyable. 

Thanks for taking the time to write such a wonderful review with great photos!

We docked in Cobh last May while aboard the Zuiderdam and took an excursion to the City of Waterford, where we visited the Waterford Visitor Center, which has a showroom as well as a small production line.  The factory itself closed in 2009 and most Waterford crystal is now produced in other countries.  After our tour seeing how the crystal is produced, we had lunch in a nearby hotel.  On the way back to Cobh, we had a brief photo shoot of the Lismore Castle.
 

A couple of photos showing the beginning stages of the crystal production.

Two photos from the city of Waterford.

Two photos from the bus ride to Waterford.

Lismore Castle

Two photos from Cobh.

I’m late posting today.  We got home last night from our Amazon Explorer to find an industrial dehumidifier and numerous commercial fans in our condo.  A water leak occurred in a unit two floors above us.  They indicated the equipment will be here until Thursday or Friday.

We stopped in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for the day almost exactly five years ago while on the Amsterdam.  We took a long excursion to see the elephants at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage.  Our first stop involved walking down a pedestrian street, which is shared with the elephants, to a river where they bring elephants for their baths.  We ate lunch at a very nice hotel before walking back to the main road where the orphanage is located.  The word for the day was HOT.  The air conditioned bus ride back to the ship was a welcomed relief, provided you didn’t watch all the crazy driving around you.

This statue was outside a stationary store.

The Zaandam had an early sailaway from Roseau, Dominica, today.  We have one more stop before getting back to Florida.

A year ago this month while on the Zuiderdam, we stopped at today’s port, La Possession, which is located on Reunion Island, a French overseas territory.  We took an all day excursion that took us into the interior of the island, which has impressive natural features created by long dormant volcanoes.  In addition to seeing magnificent scenery that included numerous waterfalls and steep mountainous terrain, we spent some time in a couple of small villages, Salazie and Hell Bourg, and had lunch in a small hotel with views of the mountains.  Our last stop was at the Roulof Vanilla Plantation, which is being run by the fourth generation of the family that established the plantation.  Reunion is a beautiful island, except for the traffic.

We stopped at Luderitz, Namibia, a year ago this month while on the Zuiderdam.  After going through immigration, we took a boat that went to Halifax Island, which is a small island that in the 1800’s had 400,000 African penguins, but today only has a few thousand.  Also on the island were, of all things, flamingos.  Although our boat stayed just a little offshore, it was hard to get good pictures since the penguins were pretty small compared to many of the other types of penguins.  For a portion of our trip, dolphins accompanied our boat.  We also saw a few Cape Fur Seals on the trip to Halifax Island.

We had a nice sail away from Tobago this afternoon.

Zaandam’s early departure today from Sint Maarten was delayed slightly due to a tour bus getting caught up in traffic.  Beautiful sail away.

I’m currently on the Zaandam.  So far, shows have been at 7:30 and 9:00.  It’s been awhile, but I have seen a ship schedule a show early for late diners and the second show for early diners.  Such a schedule was not every night - just a rare occurrence.

I think it depends on where the ship is stopping.  We stopped in Falmouth last year and took a rafting expedition.  No problem whatsoever.  The gated port area was built for cruise ships and does not have the in-your-face local vendors.  Not much to do other than typical stores catering to cruisers, but at least you can feel safe walking around the port area.  Even on our excursion we did not encounter the typical Jamaica issues.  Our first visit to Ocho Rios was in 1987 and as others have indicated, it was a memorable experience!  Since then, we’ve tried to avoid itineraries with Jamaica.  The two other times we did stop in Ocho Rios, we stayed on the ship.

Bon Voyage!  Hope you have a great cruise.

We stopped in Punta Arenas, our port of the day, in January 2018 while aboard the Zaandam.  The locals say it’s the southern most city on the continent of South America, which differentiates itself from Ushuaia, Argentina, which is said to be the most southern city in South America, but is technically on Tierra del Fuego, a very large island.  Our excursion for the day took us to an outdoor museum that has several replicas of ships that sailed in this area.  The first was Magellan’s Victoria, which was the only ship out of the original five to complete the circumnavigation.  The second ship was the Beagle, which had Charles Darwin as a passenger on its second voyage.  The third ship was Henry Shackelton’s Ancud, which was used to explore Antarctica.  After climbing around the ships, we then rode about an hour to visit the National Strait of Magellan Park.  We walked around a small museum/interpretation center and then visited Fort Bulnes.  

The Captain announced that we had wind gusts that night which reached 90 knots - I wouldn’t know since I was sound asleep.
 

3 hours ago, aliaschief said:

I went to Photo Shop to inquire what is wrong with posting my photos on CC and was told it was internet. Strange to me that I can post everywhere else, do Face Time watch Prime and Neflix etc. I’m not the best at tech but will pursue. I believe I may have a wrong setting somewhere on new I phone.

I started having problems posting photos after I bought a new camera because the file size was too large (I now have to resize my photos before posting, unless I change my camera to take lower resolution photos).  Have you checked your camera format settings - Settings/camera/format - to see whether you’re taking  High Efficiency (HEIC) or Most  Compatible photos?  If your setting is High Efficiency, try changing to Most Compatible.  That’s the extent of my knowledge.  Good luck!

Thanks for the info!

In the last two years, I was upgraded from an OV to a veranda on two cruises, so it does happen. On my cruise last month, no bump at all.

4 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

My recent experience on prepaid grats is different. On the NS Rome roundtrip Oct 26 - Nov 10 2023, grats never showed on our statement. I asked if it was an error or would we be seeing a daily charge then credit as @Blackduck59 and @aussiedisneyfan reported and was told "neither - not an error and no charge coming since it's prepaid you just never see them."

That’s my experience on the Volendam last month after I prepaid the gratuities prior to the cruise. Never saw anything on my account when I checked it.

5 hours ago, fkfad said:

We have a unique situation.  Our ship sails out of Miami and returns to Ft. Lauderdale (it was originally slated to be RT Ft. Lauderdale).  We are parking at Park by the Ports in Ft. Lauderdale (which was arranged based on the original itinerary).  I have purchased transfers from the Ft. Lauderdale airport to Miami via HAL.  We are not flying into Ft. Lauderdale, but will be taking the Park by the Ports shuttle to the airport to catch the shuttle (transfer).  We are being asked in Check-In to list our flight information and I have continuously answered "we are not flying to the port."  I'm wondering if this confusion is because we purchased transfers?  Regardless, has anyone done what we are doing?  Should I list a flight in "check-in" that has an arrival time near the time I expect us to arrive at the airport?  Any thoughts/ideas are appreciated.

We’re doing the same thing.  I have not seen any instructions regarding meeting times or where we go at FLL to pick up the shuttle.  Any ideas on this?

Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures.  Great news about the Brazilian visa.  Hoping you’ll have fair winds and safe travels in the upcoming months!  

We spent a day in Loreto, Mexico, last month after tendering ashore from the Volendam.  The day’s excursion took us to San Javier, a very small community, where in 1699, the Jesuits founded a mission.  The hour long drive took us through a desert environment and to an elevation of 1400 feet.  The church building is one of the best preserved missions in this area of Mexico.  On the way back to the ship, we visited the much newer mission in Loreto.  The tender ride back to the ship was quite wild due to the rough seas.  The next day’s port was cancelled due to the weather.

 

Mission in San Javier.

Countryside on the way to San Javier. 

The church in Loreto.

The walk back to the ship.

Last week on the Volendam, the captain announced the crew represented 41 countries.  The vast majority, however, still come from Indonesia and the Philippines.

2 hours ago, richwmn said:

Thanks to everyone for keeping this thread alive.

I am in San Diego, where it is 4:30 in the morning, and I am awake. Of course it is 8:30 on the east coast where I was yesterday so I am making progress toward acclimating to the current time zone.

Everything is well here, getting prepared for my short trip to the port where I will board Volendam. There have been a couple of small hiccups, but everything has worked out ok. Yesterday I was sitting at the assigned gate for my flight when I realized that another flight was boarding and it was time for mine. I checked the Delta app and found the gate had changed. Luckily, the new gate was close and I made it as one of the final people boarding. When the cabin door closed, an announcement was made that the flight would be a bit over 4 hours rather than the 5+ hours scheduled. A very nice change. Even though I was early, the hotel had a room ready and I was checked in.

I had a nice evening and I'm ready to face today.

We’re disembarking the Volendam tomorrow morning.  The ship is in fine shape.  If you haven’t sailed since they installed Starlink, you’ll love how fast the internet is now.  Only one or two hiccups when it wasn’t working properly.  Hopefully your embarkation is as smoothly as ours.  Our Uber stopped at the drop off point a couple minutes after our scheduled boarding time (11:20 AM).  A porter immediately took our luggage and directed us to the entrance.  Only a couple of people in front of us before we did the facial recognition thing.  The agent said boarding was running a little behind and we should take a seat until our group was called (group D).  We were in our seats only a couple of minutes when the PA announcement called group B as well as the suite people, five star mariners, etc.  We got up and were on the ship before noon.  Enjoy your cruise!