POA1

It is a lovely day. It's 79°F / 26°C, low humidity, and a few whispy clouds. We're back on ship, up in the cabanas, killing time by doing nothing - until we order lunch in a bit.

We tried the gelato at last. We didn't make it on the Nieuw Statendam in December. Obviously, seven days is far too short, and you need at least 8 for gelato. Michelle had the Espresso Chocolate Chip and Pistachio. I had the Stracciatella and the Amerena Cherry. We ordered the small size, in a cup. It's very good gelato, and quite a deal at $2.95. There is ice cream for no charge if you don't want to pay extra.

It is a perfect day for HMC. If you are 4*, 5*, have Club Orange or are in a Neptune Suite or the PS, you don't have to report for tender tickets. They didn't start open tendering until around 10:50 AM. Because we are both 4* and in Club Orange, they catapult us over to the island. If we were in a Neptune, we could have used the chopper.* * That last paragraph is made up info.

If you happen to be in Half Moon Cay with the two largest ships in the fleet, head down past the pirate ship for more chairs. The ship has a bar and restrooms, which come in handy if you want to take liquid in or let it out.

Swedish Pancakes by madame continued our International Breakfast theme this morning. I had traditional Eggs Benedict which has Canadian Bacon (not from Canada) and an English Muffin (not from England.)

That should say we were there for the music, but I bet the mudiy was fun, too.

Pinnacle Grill Dinner - We started with a Yuzu Margarita for Michelle and a Maker's Mark Old Fashioned (2 cherries, so we wouldn't fight over them.) No drink photos, but by this point in the trip, I assume you can take it on faith that there were cocktails. Escargot for Michelle, paired with a glass of Famille Perrin Côtes du Rhône Reserve Blanc. (French snails, if they could talk, would insist on French wine.) I began with the Lobster Bisque. The wine was Sokol Blosser Evolution Pinot Noir. Michelle then had the Wedge Salad with Gorgonzola Dressing. It buddied up with the Benziger Sauvignon Blanc. I had the Beef Tartare with a different Pinot Noir, the Willamette Valley Vineyards Whole Cluster. We then split the Clothesline Bacon. During our PG lunch the previous day, we heard a guy refer to this as "The Meat Curtain." No wines here. It was catch up time. Michelle had the Filet Mignon with Lobster Ravioli. Both our entrées were paired with Beringer Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Michelle had a baked potato. We shared the Beets with Blue Cheese and the Asparagus with Hollandaise. I had the Strip Steak. In a move that surprises no one, Michelle had the Chocolate Soufflé and a cappuccino. I went with the Baked Alaska and a double espresso. After that, they moved us, by forklift, to the BB King Lounge, where the Chocolate Extravaganza was about to begin. We did not really participate in the chocolate extravaganza, but people around us seemed to enjoy it. It was kind of like the previous day's On Deck for a Cake event, with 10 pieces of chocolate replacing the 3 slices of cake. We were there for the mudiy, which followed shortly after the cocoa-fest.

Good morning, Cruise Critic confidantes! We're almost to Half Moon Cay. The bow cam shows the Nieuw Statendam already there.

Thank you for the clarification! I'm definitely going to behave now. While it's a great upper body workout, I'm not a fan of KP.

@kazu We originally started the caviar thing when we were sailing on ships with dedicated Pinnacle Bars. We'd have them set up in the bar which kept us out of the way of the restaurant patrons. The PG on the Nieuw Statendam embraced the concept the most so far.

We ate lunch up in the Retreat today. We had salad and a sandwich, so no food photos. We did order drinks from the Crow's Nest bar though. Michelle had a Mai Tai. I was intrigued by the Paper Plane. It's 3/4 ounce Angel's Envy Bourbon, 3/4 ounce Aperol, 3/4 ounce Amaro Nonino Quintessential, and 3/4 ounce lemon juice. Michelle had a sip of it before I could take the photo, but talk about a he-man, lumberjack-looking drink! It was pretty good. The Mai Tai was scratch made and good as well.

Flesh attachment? That's rather personal. 😁 No, all I do is resize them. I did lighten the photo of the cabana amenities sheet, but most everything else is straight from the Google Pixel cameras (both mine and my wife's) shooting in HDR. Some low light images get a longer exposure, but that's all done by the software. Nothing is filtered.

In the grand scheme of things, it's not a really strong drink. It's just sneaky. I drink a 90 proof bourbon on the rocks. It's honest. It tastes strong. It has a burn to it. If it suddenly starts going down like water, you know that it's sending a signal. ("Pull up! Abort!") It's those devious, tasty cocktails you gotta watch. The ones that go down all smooth and fruity are the worst. One minute you're sitting in your seat sipping away; next thing you know, you're on stage with the band, wearing a grass skirt and a coconut bra, belting out an off-key version of Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," until security drags you down to brig. No, thank you!

Michelle named him. We were at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival in the early 2000s. Friends of ours were guest chefs at The Party for the Senses, and a bunch of us from Maine flew down to support them. (Also to eat and drink.) I spotted the Winnie the Pooh baby in the big Disney Store in Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs.) While our group was at the Raglan Road Pub, I snuck off and bought the bear. Michelle has been a huge Winnie the Pooh fan since she was a little girl. I smuggled the Winnie the Pooh baby home to Maine, where he became a Christmas gift. That's the origin story. You'll have to get the naming story from @Huskerchick For what it's worth, I refer to the Poohby Joe picture posts as "fan service."

I was not kidding about the bandwidth thing. I take all of my photos and run them through an image shrinking program called - incredibly - Image Shrink. It's a paid app by Olive Labs. I bring everything down to XGA resolution, or 1,024 x 768 pixels. The file sizes wind up at only 10% or less than the original photo's size. This helps tremendously with load time. And, I think it's why 4 out of 5 of our readers say that they would be willing to pay the same amount to read our next installment.

The Bubble of Awesome's springtime variant, the Easter Egg of Awesome, was going to "color-cycle" like our avatars do. When the labs at the graphics department started building the animated GIF file, it got to be too large. But, since the graphics elves created all the panels, here are the base frames in each color. Easter Egg Light Blue: Easter Egg Orange: Easter Egg Pink: Easter Egg Cornflower Blue: Easter Egg Red: I'm sure it would have been magical, but the bandwidth requirements and load time did not meet with the Institute's high standards.

A couple of random things I should have explained better: Early on in the thread, I referred to this being our 30th season. That is because our first HAL cruise was in 1994, and it's 2024 now. We sailed on the old Noordam out of New Orleans, on a 7 day Western Caribbean itinerary. The reason that it's the 10th Anniversary of Poohby Joe's Guide to Cabana Living is that our first Retreat Cabana was on the Nieuw Amsterdam in 2014. A lot of this information was supposed to be revealed in an "About Us" post on day one. There was even a bumper image. I never got around to writing that post, and, at this point, you probably know more about us than is strictly necessary. Or, if we're being honest, comfortable.

We're scheduled to dine in the Pinnacle Grill tonight at 7:00 PM. As is our custom, allow me to present the menu, in image and PDF form. pinnacle_grill_dinner_menu_winter_2024_en_navigator_3_(1).pdf

Other than your assigned cabana, everything else is a common area for anyone who has a cabana. We've never seen the area close to running out of chairs. In my experience, the cabanas are sold out more often than not. If there are any open cabanas, they're rented by guest services. At least that's what it says on the sheet. Booking a cabana is something I do as soon as I have a booking #. If you want to rent for a day, I'd make guest services my first stop.

To clarify - if you want something in the Retreat, just ask. They've been good about getting things you ask for. If you are expecting the rigid pool amenities scheduled like you'd have at the Four Seasons, this won't be it. It's also a fraction of the cost of the Four Seasons, an important consideration. These photos were taken from Deck 14, the Sky Deck, looking down. The photos start at the lowest numbered cabana (1) and continue clockwise to the highest cabana (22.]

It's a misprint. That's the recipe for the Shipshape Manhattan. The recipe on the menu PDF would result in a brown drink, not a pink one. If you order the cosmo, you'll get the pink, vodka beverage.

Poohby Joe, in his Guide to Cabana Living 10th Anniversary Commemorative T-shirt, poses with the morning breakfast pastries amenity. The new amenities sheet. To be frank, this is not delivered with super consistency. Lunch is at the time of your choosing, so just let one of the cabana attendants know when you are ready. They have offered breakfast pretty consistently. We're not sure if they are offering the room service menu, or something more extensive. Something to put on tomorrow's project list.

Tonight's Club Orange dining room menu. It's a formal / gala /dressy night, so everyone has the same menu. Ahoy, Team Fruit Crisp! The first fruit crisp of the voyage shows up in today's menu. It's rhubarb, which both Michelle and I would have ordered. (Just wanted you to know that I haven't gone over to the puddin' side.) co_mdr_gold_day_13.pdf

I am going to put my computer away now and resume using my phone. I hope that @Huskerchick is proud of me. I've never gone this long without using my laptop in decades.

Poohby Joe's Guide to Cabana Living - 10th Anniversary Edition: The new, official HAL cabana sales sheets came out in the middle of March. They are ship-specific, but the information is pretty consistent across the whole fleet. The exceptions are the two Signature Class ships, the Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam, which have Lido Cabanas. The cabana maps vary by ship class. The Nieuw Statendam and the Rotterdam have a hot tub in the Retreat area. The NS's hot tub has an accessible lift, whereas the Rotterdam's does not. Tip of the hat to @Crew News (Roger) who had the pricing spot-on - long before the sheets were updated. There is a PDF for each of the cabana equipped ships in the fleet. They look to have been created last October, but I don't think that PCCs had them until a few weeks ago. HAL-Eurodam-Cabanas-2023-10.pdf HAL-Koningsdam-Cabanas-2023-10.pdf HAL-Nieuw-Amsterdam-Cabanas-2023-10.pdf HAL-Nieuw-Statendam-Cabanas-2023-10.pdf HAL-Oosterdam-Cabanas-2023-10.pdf HAL-Rotterdam-Cabanas-2023-10.pdf HAL-Westerdam-Cabanas-2023-10.pdf HAL-Zuiderdam-Cabanas-2023-10.pdf