VMax1700

And today's bread pudding and other delicacies....

This evenings fruit crisp about 1 yard wide!

Tonight was Lincoln Center Presents........ We went to the 9.30 performance. There were 5 musicians - :Piano, Violin, Cello, Guitar and woodwind (flute/clarinet). There are 35 brand new arrangements for HAL in conjunction with Lincoln Center. Tonight's show was named 'Classical Remix' and the pieces performed were: Mozart - Overture Marriage of Figaro, Strauss - Blue Danube Waltz JS Bach - Air from Suite no 3 in D maj. (Air on the g string) Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de St Georges) - Allegro from Symphony no 5 Pastorella Bizet - Carmen Habanera Chopin - Nocturne E flat maj. Beethoven - Symphony no 3 Eroica, 1st Movement Rossini - Barber of Seville Overture. Friday night is the first performance of 'Americana'.

Day 8 Greenock Menus 2nd Dressy Night m10-day10-_lido_lunch_north_europe_2023.pdf m10-day10-_lido_dinner_north_europe_voyage (1).pdf blue_gala_-word-edited.pdf

Day 8 Greenock Daily Program

Here is the current onboard flyer for booking future cruises.

I did overlook an event yesterday morning when I had a bit of a melt down and threw a major strop at one of Lido chefs and a management type in white shirt and lots of gold on her epaulette. It was 9am and the Lido was busy, so they decided to close one side of the Lido and direct everyone to the Starboard side, which remained open. The station which serves the 'English Breakfast' (I only eat back bacon and not that streaky stuff) also prepares the crepes individually and has a nice selection of fruits, was staffed by one person who was working very hard to try to keep up with demand. But the line just got longer. Whereupon I notice the two individuals standing chatting against the barrier. "Guys" says I, "This is crazy and no way to run a service business. I am sure you have reasons for closing one side during the busy hour, but you need to increase the staff levels on the open side to deal with the increased volume of customers". "There is one guy there trying to deal with a long line and other requirement". The response was "Sir, we only have one crepe machine there!" I let rip with a "People are looking for more than just crepes and that guy is under serious pressure. He needs help". Chef then went behind the screen and started serving. Was I wrong? It just seems to me that if you close one side then double the number of people will pass throught the open side. Not increasing the staff level on the open side is asking for long lines.

I have seen fruit pies and fruit crisps but not a true cobbler (no base or sides but only a pastry topping )

In Angelsey the spoken language is Welsh. It was interesting to hear them speaking. Although only 60 miles from Dublin the Welsh that was spoken was unlike Irish Gaelic. Apparantly the town was named as a publicity stunt and its meaning is: St Mary's Church in the Hollow of the White Hazel near a Rapid Whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the Red Cave.

If you believe you are entitled to the early booking OBC then the only way that I have found to check the 'Release Date' of a cruise is to look for the Press Release which announced the Location and Season e.g. Alaska 2024. It won't give an precise release date but a good approximation. https://www.carnivalcorp.com/media-center/news-releases?b0360944_field_nir_news_category[value][]=4081&b0360944_year[value]=_none&op=Filter&b0360944_widget_id=b0360944&form_build_id=form-e7c5RpmgxTdXkr4jzv5GctJf46kj3UmCLVkJ45b30gw&form_id=widget_form_base

Presuming it really is Dublin Port and not Dun Laoghaire, which is a tender port, then I really doubt that pax will be able to board/disembark 24 hours a day. Excerpt from Dublin Port website. Continuous access would require round the clock shuttle bus, which is unlikely. Cruise ships have the facility to dock at berth’s 30, 33 and 37 in Alexandra Basin, passengers will disembark/board in Alexandra Quay East and West. This is a restricted operational working area. Due to health and safety reasons passengers are not permitted to exit this area on foot, a shuttle bus is provided to bring passengers to No. 2 Branch Road where they can exit the port safely on foot or avail of taxi services on site. The nearest Luas Red Line Tram stop is located at the Point village, approximately a 17 min walk (1.4km) from No. 2 Branch Road. https://www.dublinport.ie/tofrom/cruise-liners/

Day 7 Menus Lido Lunch Lido Dinner MDR Dinner m7-day7-_lido_lunch_north_europe_2023.pdf m7-day7-_lido_dinner_north_europe_voyage.pdf m7-day7-_mdr_north_europe_2023.pdf

Day 7 Daily Progam Holyhead.

Day 7 Holyhead Tuesday Pronounced Holly head! This was on the front cover of the Daily Program for today. Holland America tour buses were pulled up at the bottom of the gangway whereas all others were required to take the free shuttle to the cruise terminal to meet their private tours/taxis etc. Holyhead is a very busy ferry port with numerous ferries running to various ports in Ireland. this is the Irish Ferries 'Ulysses' doing a quick 180 before reversing into its dock. Before heading down to our meeting place at the world stage we went to Dutch cafe for a quick latte. We were greeted by a smiling Captain Eric who was enjoying a bowl of Dutch Pea Soup! Today was the second of our 'cheap' tours thanks to HIA. We went to Caernarfon Castle which was the location for the investiture of the now King Charles as Prince of Wales on 1st July 1969. The drive there was pretty uninspiring. A lot of flat agricultural land a few sheep some horses and a lot of cattle. The Anglesey Agricultural Show was being held today and tomorrow near to Holyhead, but we didn't even meet much traffic. (I will just mention here that there were no priority bus tickets for the port shuttle bus, but there was not much of a wait for those that needed them). Some views of the castle On the way back to the ship we stopped at that village with the unpronouceable name of 58 letters. An interesting enough day, but I would not feel the need to rush back!

I have a pdf of the full listing but as it is personalised it has some information that I would rather not post to a public forum. Do you have a generic email address I could send it to?

Day 6 menus m6-day6-_lido_lunch_north_europe_2023.pdf m6-day6-_lido_dinner_north_europe_voyage.pdf m6-day6-_mdr_north_europe_2023.pdf

Day 6 Daily Progam (Douglas IoM, Monday) Although Cantare was listed for tonight, it was actually comedian Chas Burnett, with a different show to his first one. We found it very entertaining though some may have found it a little risque. (we went to the 9.30 show which was definitely aimed at an adult audience)

Another strange thing today was that the last tender was at 5.30pm but we did not sail until 9.45 pm (it is only 70 nautical miles to our next port). In his evening briefing Captain Eric said that they would be recovering the tenders, closing the tender platform and would sail around 8pm. If such a late departure was planned, then why was last tender at 5.30?

Day 6 Douglas IoM. Douglas and the Isle of Man has many memories for me, both happy and sad. As a kid my parents would have brought us to Douglas on the ferry from Belfast and a couple of times by plane on a DC3 or a Handley Page Dart Herald. We stayed in what was called a 'Private Hotel' which was basically a guest house that was licenced to sell alcohol to residents. They would have been over 4 or 5 storeys with 15 to 20 bedrooms, and shared 'facilities' on each landing. Meals supplied would be breakfast and High Tea. We stayed numerous times in a private hotel called 'Chequers' on Broadway and I believe it was located around here: I was always interested in motorcycles and motorcycle racing (it is a national obsession in N. Ireland) and in later years visited numerous times for the Isle of Man TT races, which are held in early June. In fact, 48 years ago Ellen & I had our honeymoon in the Isle of Man for the TT races. In those days she was as much into the bikes as I was. We went a bit upmarket for the honeymoon and stayed at the Douglas Bay Hotel which was where a lot of the factory teams and top riders would stay. In those days true professionalism had not permeated the sporting arena (specially bike racing) and the guys were still crazy and human and prepared to enjoy themselves and have fun. The Douglas Bay hotel burnt to the ground in 1988 and was rebuilt as an office block. Some parts of Douglas still remain, almost as I remember them.....The horse drawn trams, the railway to Laxey Wheel, the mist on Snaefell and we did find a shop selling Manx Kippers and another one selling clotted cream fudge and traditional sea side rock. So all in all it was a day of mixed emotions. The good memories of seeing things almost as they had been and the sadder memories of good friends lost doing what they loved (racing). I should mention that the tendering 'process' was a disaster. They were still calling tickets at 11.45 am which was 3hrs 45 mins after the scheduled starting time. I would have expected free tendering within two hours. According to local sources the Nieuw Statendam was setting a record for the number of cruise ship visitors in a day.

I believe that you will only experience a face to face immigration inspection to enter the UK. In all probability all other immigration (EU/Schengen etc) processes will be handled by Front Desk by presenting your passport details to the authorities in advance of docking.

Not that I have seen before, but currently on Nieuw Statendam and have met some Oz cruisers who joined the ship in Liverpool which would be day 4 of the current cruise. They said it had been arranged with an Australian TA.

Day 5 Menus Lido Lunch MDR Dinner. (slight variation on other Northern Europe Day 5 menus - Short Rib replacing Norwegian Hake) Lido Dinner And the extra dish in Lido Dinner - Corned beef (but no cabbage on offer) m5-day5-_lido_lunch_north_europe_2023.pdfm5-day5-_mdr_north_europe_2023.pdfm5-day5-_lido_dinner_north_europe_voyage.pdf

Day 5 Program (Sunday Dun Laoghaire)

Today was Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leery), a former village that for many years was known as Kingstown (while Cobh in Cork was known as Queenstown) and is now a suburb of Dublin. My previous experience of Dun Laoghaire is twofold. In the mid 1960's I drove a Ford van for a blues/rock band based in Belfast. They were semi professional and most of their income was earned in the Dublin area at the weekends. I had a regular job during the week but friday evening I would be in the van driving the guys from Belfast to Dublin where they would play Friday night. Saturday night and we would be out in Dun Laoghaire playing the tennis club followed by Sunday afternoon and evening gigs in Dublin followed by the drive back to Belfast on Sunday night. In those days Dun Laoghaire was a prosperous area with many well to do families living in the area. My second experience was from the mid 1980's until I retired a few years ago and I my employment was based in Dun Laoghaire! So having experienced it during two downturns/recessions I was not exactly excited about having a port of call in Dun Laoghaire. However, ignoring the slowness of the tenders it was a pleasant day. The sun was out and it warmed everyone. We met a former colleague of mine and her husband for lunch in the Royal Marine Hotel and had a good long catch up. Dun Laoghaire looked good in the sunshine and it really presented well. There was lots of information available for cruisers from numerous volunteer organisations. Unfortunately the morning tender 'process' was fraught with problems. The tide was running strongly which made the tender journeys quite slow. Also because of the tidal conditions the ship was moored about one and a half miles from the pier. Tender tickets were being issued in the BBK room on deck 2 but if you had priority you went straight to deck 1 for the next available tender (yay!). Nieuw Statendam flying the Irish Tricolour..... And Nieuw Statendam at anchor as seen from front door of Royal Marine Hotel.

Wait in line