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Live from ms Zuiderdam (12/13-23 - Panama Canal)

IkeEsq

By IkeEsq,
in Holland America Line

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IkeEsq

IkeEsq

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Well, we made it off OK, finished packing this morning and left at 8:00. Got a cab at 8:25 and got to the airport shortly thereafter. I'll post a final "day" this evening.

 

I finally got rid of the worst of my cold a day or two ago. Becca's has been better for almost a week, and no further problems with the pinkeye since she got the antibiotics.

 

When we left Costa Rica the Captain said that the "GI Infection" was confined to 3 cabins. They had done a full cleaning of the ship twice by then, and planned another one. With luck they will do a final sweep while the ship is in harbor and the 12/23-1/2 cruise will not be affected. Overall it was only a very minor inconvenience to us.

 

No real problems with Gaga and Zee, our cabin stewards. They figured out our routine after a couple of days and always had our cabin made up and turned down at the appropriate times.

 

Things to bring:

 

Nightlight - we just left the light on in our bathroom and the door pulled to.

Portable clock - there was no clock in our room (VD4149) although there are int he stuies (at least SC and Penthouse).

Clothes pins - the shower curtain is very dark, I just draped it over the towel rack.

Small bills - for tips

 

I really liked our room. I *think* the port side may be nicer than the starboard side, but it is hard to tell. We only got one sunrise. The plexiglas railing was nice. I like the 4th deck, as it is closer to all of the stuff on 2-3, and just an elevator ride away from 9-10.

 

I don't really like the new program to much. I like things organized by time as I often want to do more than one thing that is occurring at the same time and I had to write out a chart of when things started and ended so that I could figure out which I wanted to do.

 

I forgot to mention that I missed the cabin crawl, as I was in a tournament at the time. However, we had already seen the penthouse and corner aft cabin, so I figured no huge loss.

 

- Ike

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trvlcrzy

trvlcrzy

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Day 7 - Panama Canal:

What is more, on the way out, you can actually touch the walls of the canal. ... Because there are only a couple of feet of clearance on each side, at some point the ship is close enough to the wall for you to touch the wall, which of course we did.

- Ike

 

Glad your cruise has gone well. I can empathize with the cold. I am coming down with one myself...

 

When I read the above about touching the walls of the canal, I couldn't help but think of those amusement park warnings, "For your safety, keep your hands and feet inside the boat at all times." :D

 

I'd love to do a canal cruise some day.

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DrTee

DrTee

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Would you please let me know what company you used for the zipline in Costa Rica and how to reach them? We were really looking forward to that and HAL has cancelled their excursion. We are sailing 1/2 as well.

Thanks!

Laura

 

If you decide to try to get a group together, I would be interested in ziplining.

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IkeEsq

IkeEsq

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Day 11 - Disembarkation:

 

The alarm went off at 6:00 and room service arrived at 6:10 (6:00-6:30). It was still dark out so we decided to have breakfast in bed again. Life is very difficult for us when we have to make these tough decisions. We watched Charlies Angels on the Love Boat while we ate. After we were done, we showered and finished packing. We got our final bill under the door. We managed to stuff everything into our two checked backs, our two backpacks, and the Holland America bag they gave us. We carried our jackets.

 

At 8:00, we headed to the gangway, midship, deck 3. We scanned our cards for the final time at 8:06, passed through customs, and got a taxi at 8:24. It took about 10 minutes to get to the airport. I got onto the free wireless in the airport and checked in Becca's bag. Then we checked in at US Airways (no line) and stopped at Dunkin Donuts and got Becca a donut and some iced coffee.

 

We headed through security (no line) and hung out at the gate for a couple of hours. I sifted through 1750+ spam messages and a few actual pieces of email. I called my sister to see how our son is doing (very well) and how the snow is doing (still there). Perhaps we can manage the first white Christmas in Richmond in a long time. After that I worked on my journal for a little while.

 

Our flight left early, was smooth, and arrived at Washington National early (2:15). We got our bags, none of our booze was broken (Hooray!) and we metro-ed back to Alexandria, picked up the car, and drove home, arriving a little after 3:00. Our neighbors had shoveled a path for us, but I still spent about an hour shoveling heavy, wet snow out of the driveway. We ordered pizza and put up the christmas tree and all was right with the world.

 

Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful comments. Happy Holidays to all!

 

- Ike

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RevNeal

RevNeal

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Although I sailed through the Panama Canal years ago, I'm beginning to think I did not appreciate it fully. You're making me think that maybe I should look into going again.

Thanks for the continued reports.

 

Ruth, the Panama Canal is just amazing. It really is. It's more than just a piece of engineering, it's a work of art and a story in history. It's one of my favorite things to visit ... and I could go back time and time again. I've done one full transit from West to East, which was great. And, I've done an in-and-out on the east side. What I'd like to do next is a full transit from east to west, then and in-and-out on the west side, and I'd like to do one where I get off the ship in the Lake and get a good land tour with a view of lock operations from the shore. In short, I could easily go another 3 times and still not tire of the Canal.

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0verboard

0verboard

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Next we toured the Spa, put in our raffle tickets, and Becca signed up for a few spa treatments.

I also toured the spa, and went with some of the recommendations that I read here and got the Hydrotherapy/Thermal Suite pass. Is it just me or is the Hydrotherapy pool... uh... poorly designed?

 

I mean, if you like to splash people with large jets of water, or you like to be regularly splashed by large jets of water coming from strangers, it is the experience of a lifetime. But other than that you can sit in a highly rated center ring that doesn't seem to do much, or you can lay back on some uncomfortable metal bars that do not conform to human shape very well (or hold you in place). And in rough seas, it becomes an exciting adventure simply to exit the pool with your clothing and your dignity intact!

 

At 4:15 p.m. we headed down to the lifeboat drill. You no longer have to bring your life jacket with you, which I think is a mistake. People should know how to put their life jackets on, because they have put them on before.

Oh no, sir. It is a blessing. Someone else here mentioned something along the lines of, "Good. I'm glad they stopped requiring you to bring the life jackets. They probably were dirty anyways from all of the other passengers." So, I did a science experiment to confirm or to challenge that claim.

 

I took three life jackets from my stateroom and tossed them into the tub and slightly agitated them with the shower head. (BLINK!) (BLINK!) (BLINK!) (Isn't someone going to get onto me about testing the batteries? What if everyone tested or washed their life jackets when they got on board? Good news, though. The batteries were in great shape.) Anyhow, that wasn't the experiment. The actual experiment did not take long to conclude. The bathtub water? Like tea. I hung the vests to dry and then disinfected my hands.

 

You should be positively thrilled that you do not have to touch them, except in the event of an emergency!

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  • 2 weeks later...
MJYFGSL

MJYFGSL

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Wow! Someone live from Zuiderdam on the exact cruise we're taking this same week next year, December 13, 2010. You did not mention your cabin number. Would appreciate any info about that, as we are booked in I category while our son & his friend are in an MM (both inside).

 

So looking forward to more posts. Thanks for taking the time to write. Have a wonderful cruise. We are freezing here in Newport News, VA and are so envious. All day today I kept thinking how much fun you must be having on beautiful HMC.

 

We ,wife and I are doing the Dec.13,2010 cruise too

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sevenseasnomad

sevenseasnomad

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We ,wife and I are doing the Dec.13,2010 cruise too

 

Fantastic!!! We were beginning to think we'd have the lovely Zuiderdam all to ourselves & that would make us miserable. Do hope you will return to see this post. After not being able to cruise last year at all, we were so excited to book the Dec. 2010 cruise in August that I immediately went to the Roll Calls & started a roll for December 13, 2010 Zuiderdam. I check it about once a week, but so far have no one who has posted. So I hope you will go to the roll and post so we can talk more there. At this point the best way to find my roll call (under Zuiderdam, of course) is to click on Search this Forum, then type December 13, 2010 Zuiderdam.

 

Would love to talk with you more there.:):)

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sevenseasnomad

sevenseasnomad

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Hey, I have started a thread for the Dec 13th, 2010 cruise. Come on over and join us. I have started a roll call for us.

 

Would love to join you, but when I checked under Forum Search & typed in December 13, 2010 Zuiderdam, all I get is my lonely little thread. What's the title of your thread? I did see one you'd started for January 2011. Is that it? Hope you come back & visit here, so you can direct me to an active thread on roll call for Dec 13, 2010 sailing. Thanks.

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MJYFGSL

MJYFGSL

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Would love to join you, but when I checked under Forum Search & typed in December 13, 2010 Zuiderdam, all I get is my lonely little thread. What's the title of your thread? I did see one you'd started for January 2011. Is that it? Hope you come back & visit here, so you can direct me to an active thread on roll call for Dec 13, 2010 sailing. Thanks.

 

We were originally booked on the Dec.3 cruise but changed to the 13 this week. I started a Dec. 13 yesterday on the Meet on Board .I will look for yours now

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  • 1 year later...
TNAnalyst

TNAnalyst

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I just signed up on Cruise Critic, and we were also on that HA cruise in 09, and Lakehound described it correctly, later found that more than one tender damaged, or broke down, did not drop more, very hot, very long lines, and Captain did announce the only news that it was OUR fault, complained on the review of the trip on paperwork on board, but not even an appology! It was very poorly handled by the Zuiderdam captain and upper crew, island crew and other ship crew did a good job at trying to correct the situation as well as they could. But, the icing on the cake was the captain's announcement that it was all OUR fault, cause we all chose to come back at the same time! DUH!

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