GeorgeCharlie

I did a video of the shuttle drive back to the ship. It clearly shows why you can not just walk off the ship.

Panama City's new cruise terminal is 'work-in-progress', as it has been for several years - and from what I could see, it will be lucky if it is finished by the end of this year!

The only area that is mostly completed is the pier. The terminal building, along with access roads and parking areas are still under construction. With the whole area being a construction zone, the only way off the ship was by shuttle. This requirement caused much grief for people who were on independent tours.

Seeing we were staying in port overnight, we arranged for a private tour to pick us up at 8am. The tour guide notified me at 7am that he was waiting at the port pick-up point. Unfortunately, the ship/port authorities had other ideas.

They had lined up all the ship shore excursion buses on the pier, which meant the shuttle buses to get everyone else who wanted to go ashore were unable to get on the pier until all the shore excursion buses were gone.

This meant we did not get to the tour pick up point until late morning. So, our full day tour became a rushed half day tour. Needless to say, there were many unhappy passengers!

After we passed through the locks, we then sailed over to Fuerte Amador, where they are building Panama City's new cruise terminal. 

Along the way we sailed by the Frank Gehry designed biodiversity museum, which focuses on the natural history of Panama.

Posting error.

On 12/29/2022 at 6:43 PM, GeorgeCharlie said:

Food, entertainment, & staffing. I'll expand on our opinions regarding these issues, as I proceed with the review.

During the cruise we had the opportunity to chat with Ali (Food Services Director) about the ongoing staffing and food quality issues. His straightforward answers and explanations did a lot to ease my concerns with HAL and showed they were really trying to get ahead of the situations. 

We did notice an uptick in food quality on the second segment of the cruise.

Just the same, I am in agreement with his position, that it will take at least two more years before most of the issues related to staffing and supply chain quantity/quality reach acceptable levels.

I discussed at length about some of these issues in my Somewhat 'Life' Review, which I did while on board.

If you have any further questions/comments related to what was happening on the ship, I ask that you post to the Somewhat "Live" review, as I would like to keep this review limited to what we experienced off the ship. 

20 hours ago, 00649 said:

Can u PLEASE please get a special greeting to JIM MCPARLAND  From Rick and Lorraine from Saskatchewan. So wish we were on board with you right now but we are doing the South Pacific in February. Enjoy making wonderful cruising memories!!

 

We are no longer on the ship, but maybe you can try contacting @cruisn71, who is presently on the ship.

On 12/30/2022 at 2:21 PM, seeriteR said:

Looking forward to hearing about your cruise in detail. I followed your Almost Live blog as well. We are sailing the opposite of your cruise and depart BA on 10 March 2023. I would like to know how the passage was for Cape Horn, Glacier Alley, Beagle Channel and that whole area as you recall your voyage. Thanks for doing this! It is a great help in our preparation!

Jim

Will be covering these areas later in my review. As a quick overview, we had great weather throughout the entire cruise, with only an odd shower now and then.

I have now started a separate, more detailed review of the cruise, so I'll now stop posting to this review.

Thanks to all of you and hope to see you on my "Just Back" review.😎

A few days after our Panama transit, we received the following certificate.

Coincidently, it was also our first East to West passage through the canal. 

After Aruba, we did a full transit of the Panama Canal. We were followed through the first set of locks (Cristobal) by the Eurodam. After passing through the locks, we did not see the Eurodam again, so it must of must have been doing just a partial transit of the canal.

We have previously done a transit of the canal, so it was a oh-hum passage for us.

But fortunately for the other people on the ship, there were two excellent speakers (Jim McParland and Tom Goltz) onboard who gave talks on Panama, including the history and construction of the canal. They also did running commentary while we were passing through the canal. 

When we were approaching the Balboa Locks, we started noting lots a Panamanian flags flying, along with crowds of people celebrating.  

Apparently, it was the start of their long weekend celebrating Panama's Independence Day, which is on November 28th. each year. It celebrates the independence of Panama from Spain in 1821.

After a couple of sea days, we arrived in Aruba. 

We have previously visited Aruba, so we just went ashore to walk around for a while.

The port is in the downtown area of Oranjestad. There was a shuttle bus to the port entrance gate, which was a bit of a joke, as it was only a about a 5-minute drive. When we returned to the ship we walked it, which was likely quicker. The bus main value is likely with people who have trouble walking.

We also took a ride on their tram, which does a loop through the downtown area and functions in a hop-on/hop-off mode. It is a free service.

Streetcar route.

In the interest of continuity, I'll be reposting some of the information previously posted on my "Live" review and then adding further details, photos, etc.

Food, entertainment, & staffing. I'll expand on our opinions regarding these issues, as I proceed with the review.

Finally made it back home last week from a wonderful South American cruise onboard the Oosterdam.

We left Miami (was originally supposed to be Fort Lauderdale) on November 19th and disembarked in Buenos Aires on December 20th.

We did not depart Miami until quite late. One of the reasons I heard for the delay was that the Oosterdam had to be recertified by the American authorities. This required everybody (including staff) leave the ship while a full inspection was performed. I understand this inspection even included the lowering and testing of all lifeboats.

While onboard I tried to do an ongoing “Live" report, but I did not have much success due to poor internet connections. Therefore, I will now attempt a complete cruise review and hopefully, including many photos.

Overall, we found the cruise interesting, as almost all the ports were new to us and we didn’t experience any of the anticipated ‘early spring’ nasty weather. We made it into all the ports and surprisingly - even the Falkland Islands. I just noticed that the Oosterdam, on it’s return trip around the Horn, was to visit Falkland Islands a few days ago, but was not able to do so, due to bad weather.

Regrettably, we found almost all aspects of the shipboard experiences to be disappointing. Regardless, we travel for the destinations and, as such, we would readily recommend the cruise to other people - as it had a great itinerary. 😎

We just returned from a South American cruise on the Oosterdam, which included a stop in the Falkland Islands to see the penguins.

We thought our suitcases reflected our expectations. 

They were also easy to spot on the luggage carousel.

🤠

On 12/13/2022 at 2:11 AM, GeorgeCharlie said:

 

The new pier and the 'old' tender location are right next to each other, so the trip takes less then 10 minutes, with most of the time taken to drive through the construction site. Will post a video of the drive through the construction site once I get home in a couple of weeks.

17 minutes ago, islandwoman said:

How do I arrange to make one? 

If you normally book directly with HAL, then just ask your PCC to book it for you - which is what we did. Otherwise, any regular TA experienced in booking HAL cruises would be able to book it for you. . Once it's booked, it will show up on your HAL account like any other booking.

You can get on the pre-release notice list by way of a FurureDam deposit.

Have now returned home from a 31-day South American cruise on the Oosterdam and after a rather grueling travel time of over 24 hours, getting from Buenos Aires to Edmonton, along with a temperature change of +30C to -40C.😎🥶

The person picking us up at the airport, said he noted our flight was the only one which arrived on time, with the other flights being delayed/cancelled.

Sometimes you get lucky!!

We are presently experiencing some of the weather conditions other people throughout the lower parts of Canada and northern parts of US are enjoying. At least we are not getting bad blizzard conditions, just record lows for this time of year.

A quick snap of our thermometer which I just took. We are expected to remain sunny and cold today, but start warming up to seasonal temperatures over the next few days.

For people who may not know it, -40 is the crossover point, of where Centigrade and Fahrenheit are the same.
 

Have now returned home after a rather grueling travel time of over 24 hours.

We are presently experiencing some of the weather conditions other people throughout the lower parts of Canada and northern parts of US are enjoying. At least we are not getting bad blizzard conditions, just record lows for this time oy year.

A quick snap of our thermometer which I just took. We are expected to remain cold today, but start warming up to seasonal temperatures over the next few days.

For people who may not know it, -40 is the crossover point of where Centigrade and Fahrenheit are the same.

On 12/19/2022 at 12:43 PM, soccermom4 said:

Do you have a naturalist or someone like that on board to provide commentary of the Panama Canal, glaciers etc.?

Yes, we had an excellent person who provided running commentary on many sights during cruise.

Presently sitting at Buenos Aires airport waiting our delayed Air Canada flight, so I do not have info on his name (Jim) or bio. Will update once I get home - whenever that may be. 

We are presently on the Oosterdam and over the past few weeks, we have visited the countries you listed.

What we found is:

Ecuador uses USD as its official currency, the condition of bills is not a problem.

In Falklands and Chile, the USD is readily accepted, plus you will often get USD back in change. Did not see any concern raised as to the condition of bills.

So far, we have only visited the southern city of Ushuaia in Argentina. Again, we did not see concern with bill condition - unless it was in very ragged condition. But we were told that in Buenos Aires the condition of bills is of real concern. This is due to the much higher criminal activity in the central & northern parts of the country. The criminal activity of concern there is with forged large USD bills. Was previously told that the forged bills come from North Korea and to mask their poor quality of forgery, they make the bill to look like they are used bills.

Apparently, in Ushuaia there is very little criminal activity. Unemployment is very low, and the population is much more highly educated then the other parts of the country. I was unaware that manufacturing is the major employment driver, with a large industrial park led by Grundig's electronic factory.

Our guide pointed out that in Ushuaia homes do not have bars covering the windows, or doors. Plus, their yards were wide open. The houses do not have security fencing/walls around them, as we have seen so far throughout Central America, other parts of South America, along with high crime areas in other parts of the world. He also said people were normally not concerned if their vehicles were locked.

In countries where the USD is the official currency, obtaining crisp new USDs, is of course a problem. Whereas, in countries which do use USDs, it is common to get crisp new USDs when you buy the currency through banks and money exchangers. In fact, the large USD bills I purchased for this trip came sequentially numbered. So, if you happen to know someone who is from one of these foreign countries and is travelling on your cruise, maybe you get them to do what I have done in the past, and that is to get them to obtain some new USDs for you in exchange for your slightly used USDs. 

On 12/12/2022 at 9:29 PM, StartrainDD said:

George, by chance are you doing a Patrick Watts tour in the Falklands?  If so, we would be very interested in your tendering report.  Enjoy Punta Arenas and Ushuaia!

Fortunately, the weather for the Falklands, was considered nice for our visit yesterday. Mixture sun, clouds, and an odd short shower. Although it was windy, it wasn't all that bad.

The tendering process seemed to go okay. They were to start issuing tender tickets at 8am (same time as we were to arrive). I went down about 45 minutes early and when they started handing out tickets just before 8am, I  had no problem getting tickets and we were on the 2nd tender going ashore.

The tender ride took about 25 minutes.

9 minutes ago, Lido deck main said:

Bill, I enquired about helicopter about a year out and was already booked out.  Did all the passengers show up.  Was the helicopter full. Could I do a walk up. 

 Hi Mary,

I'd try contacting them again and see if there has been any changes. They seem to be accommodating and if they can fit you in, I'm sure they'll try. 

The trip out to Volunteer Point takes the most time, whereas, the Rockhopper trip is shorter. In our case, as there was only 2 of us (max 3 passengers), his brother (Bill) came with us and gave Lynne & I the tour, while Tom made two more trips bringing 3 people each time. My understanding is that fitting the two additional tours in was somewhat a trial exercise to see if it would work. The other six people were very appreciate of being able to at least get out and see some penguins. 

We are on the HAL Oosterdam and are fortunate, in that we visited our Peruvian ports just prior to this current unrest. Unfortunately, some of our fellow passengers have trips to Machu Picchu, booked to go after we disembark to Buenos Aires in a few days.