Oosterdam Review day-by-day 01-09-2010 Mexico

[Cruisers1975]

Day One: Saturday

 

Oosterdam to Mexico –Day by day review

We’re sailing again! Holland American virgins that we are, despite having sold dozens of cruises on this line, it’s time we tried it ourselves. And so we are: 7 days (or nights; I never can tell how they count these things) from San Diego round trip with three stops somewhere in Mexico and four glorious days at sea.

The sailing was such an incredible bargain we knew we couldn’t stay home and eat out for less, and the ports are places we’ve never been, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, so we jumped aboard. We didn’t even ask about any Travel Agent specials, and didn’t let any clients know we were aboard, so for once, a true vacation: no clients, no family, no friends – just seven days of Us, for Us, about Us. Whee!

We spent two days in San Diego at a magnificent resort which shall remain nameless. Nameless, because we had no idea it is owned by a major benefactor of the wrong side of Proposition Whatever in California that resulted in cancelling same-sex marriage in this state. Such a shame: such a beautiful property; just homophobic ownership. I just hope none of Our Community finds out we broke the boycott.

But, to the Cruise!

Check in was perfect. We had the choice of dragging our luggage aboard personally, or leaving it for porters to handle later (we opted for the latter, but appreciated the former, and might suggest it another time). We did carry aboard one very heavy bag, as we discovered that passengers can bring unlimited amounts of wine and champers aboard intially for free consumption in their cabins (or with an $18 corkage charge if you bring it to dinner).

It only took one short argument with a Holland America traffic director to persuade her that we, as Deluxe Veranda Suite occupants, didn’t have to queue with hoi polloi, after which, when we did ultimately find our line, we were processed quicker than we could fill in our medical history card, and were aboard in less time than any other cruise line we’ve sailed.

Our check-in clerk told us that lunch would be available to us Special People in the exclusive Neptune Club, whereupon we were told that lunch was available until 1PM in the Vista Dining Room, whereupon we were told that they were full and we could go to the Lido Deck. As we were leaving, however, the maitre’d interupted and invited us to join a table of six. We ordered the chicken-mango salad from a rather large menu that offered more than was decent to indulge in at this early hour. Very tasty.

After lunch, and while waiting for our Deluxe Veranda Suite’s final housekeeping clearance, we toured the ship.

My gawd it’s a big’on. Fourteen elevators, every one of which has a crowd of waiting passengers, to access 10 decks. Wandering the corridors was a walk down memory lane, or at least would-be memories of Miami-meets-Vegas circa 1972. Carpet patterns seem designed to camoulflauge the ill effects of turbulent seas. Foyer benches have been rescued from a Cecil B DeMille “B” movie set, with gryphons and gargoyles serving as arms. Every nook seems to have a piano cranny. The only live music was a quartet in the underwhelming “atrium” – suitably attired in chinos and tees, so as not to out-dress the passengers coming aboard.

Our tour included the spa and gym, where a gauntlet of massage therapists lingered outside their little rooms like the girls of Amsterdam, and ended in the Gym, where fit youngsters handed us brochures and schedules with courses like “Get Rid of That Belly” highlighted in yellow.

Finally, 1:30PM arrived, and our Deluxe Veranda Suite was available for occupancy. Housekeeping was rushed today, but our stateroom attendant, once summoned, returned with a bottle of squirt-something and began to remove the residual strawberry jam and other unidentified gook from most of the surface areas.

Sadmono is our steward’s name. “Just call me Mono” he asks, tired no doubt from being called “Sad” by previous guests. Mono and the rest of the crew are all a happy lot, leaving us to wonder if there is any happiness left in Indonesia, or is it all aboard the Oosterdam?

The Deluxe Veranda Suite (4180) itself is very nice, a bit smaller than I had anticipated. I am sure I read 558 square feet somewhere, or roughly the size of our first 2-bedroom basement apartment, but this is significantly less than that, although I am delighted for the extra space there is. We have a full king bed, a three-seater sofa, two comfy and well-worn (and well-stained) side chairs, a desk that is half filled with an immovable television, and walls of closets, both in the bedoom area and in the adjacent dressing room. Imagine, a dressing room on a ship! Such luxe!

The bath is extraordinary, with two basins, and a separate shower stall in addition to a bathtub (with shower facility as well). Generous medicine cabinets and shelves make it easy to move in.

Another handsome feature is a bar, with granite surfaces, cupboard space, and a bar fridge stocked with expensive temptations, like bottled water. We dumped most of that, and filled it with our own still and bubbly imports, and to our great surprise also noticed two additional bottles of champagne with gift cards, one from the Captain, and one from our Travel Agent (which of course is Us, but we didn’t know that!). Nice touch, Holland America. You are fast becoming Our New Favourite.

More time to explore our DVS-1480. One of only two on Deck Four (most of the others are on Deck 7), DVS-1480 is located at the extreme end of the ship. “Aft” we are supposed to say. Trés aft, I say. But there are advantages. It’s a corner unit, with a wrap-around veranda that provides an incredible view, as well as a table and four chairs, two other side chairs, and two very inviting chaise longes. And shade, most any time of the day, on one side or the other. Who needs to mingle with the masses when we have this out our own doorway?

But mingle with the masses we must do now, at 4:15, for the mandatory safety exercise. Everyone out! But new(!) – no life preservers any more. Apparently, the strings were getting caught in too many wheelchair spokes, so they’ve changed the policy. Leave them in the closet while we come out.

We are assembled by Lifeboat number – ours is number 16. In the event of a real emergency, this will be our home for the next few hours, or days. I look around to assess my fellow passengers, deciding who would best be my next meal, should that ever be necessary. One particularly offensive one came close to getting a tester bite, just to shut him up.

After the drill, it sets in again. You know: Cruise Ship Hunger. The feeling that you may never eat again if you don’t take full advantage of what’s available right now. We could call our Steward and order appetizers or even “high” tea served in our DVS-1480, but considering the amount of time it took to get ice and Windex, we opted to return to the Neptune Lounge, exclusive resort of the Suite Set, where an arrangement of canapes, sweets, fruit and non-alcoholic bevies await. Being the careful dieter that I am, I took only a moderate plateful of appetizers and a thick piece of pumpernickle bread. The fact that it turned out to be moist, delicious gingerbread is not my fault at all, and I ate it with relish. And not the pickle relish type, either.

The Captain broke into this repast with an anouncement that a careful count of baseball caps assures him that all passengers are now aboard and we can set sail into the sunset, literally, one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve ever seen. And all enjoyed with a glass of champagne, and gingerbread crumbs, from our very own wrap-around Deluxe Veranda.

This is going to be a wonderful adventure.

[johnlcruise]

So far so good..LOL. Keep up the good work. And enjoy your "Most Excellent Adventure".

Looking forward to more.

[SwissMyst]

Since you are broadcasting live, be sure to visit Te Amo Lucy restaurant in the Centro Historico in Mazatlan. Lovely historic restoration of this area, lots of cafes and shops and this wonderfully quirky restaurant with an especially delicious menu. It is on Av Constituion a few blocks off the serene plazeula. We were just there and loved this whole part of town and especially this restaurant. American ex-pat lawyer runs the place, married to an excellent Mexico City chef. Very casual, but the cuisine is very refined. You will enjoy if this is what you want a do it yourself at this port stop.

 

The whole revival of this town started with the Ortega Opera House and a young Mexico City architect who could see the treasure this part of town had to offer, once it got cleaned up. And he and they are doing it. He was at the Opera House gift shop to talk about his vision and share his artistic renderings of the progress. The picture history of the place upstairs tells the story of the Mexican Nightingale diva Ortega who the French deemed too ugly to sing on their stages, but who kept the rest of the world enthralled with her performances. She and most of her entourage died of cholera right next door the day before her trimumphant return performance to Mazatlan. Lots of intriguing history in this small town.

 

If you time things right you can also take the small water taxis to Stone Island for beach and palapa cruising for their famous marinated BBQ fish and aquachile shrimp. Pacifico beer is born here and is delicous to enjoy as you want the sun go down on the Pacific.

[RuthC]

What fun! A "live from" thread, so far delivered in a charming style. I'm going to enjoy reading your reports.

But please, may I ask that you make it easier on these old eyes by adding some white space between paragraphs? It would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Carry on!

[CroneWynd]

OOoooooo!!! Goody goody goody!!!

 

This is the cruise we are taking in March! not in a DVS, however (unless we get a sweet upsell offer!), but your descriptions are FABULOUS!!!!

 

Tell me more, tell me more, tell me more!!!! (yes, that is sung to the tune from Grease)

[JamesEM]

Looking forward to your installments, we will be doing the 10 day version of this cruise in April.

[Cruisers1975]

Day One, Part Two: Dinner and a Show

 

 

 

 

We have dinner reservations this evening in the Pinacle Grill, the “specialty” dining option. “Specialty” means it costs $20 a head extra, but as we haven’t enjoyed the common trough yet, we can’t make comparisons.

 

The dress code, we were advised, was jacket required at all times. Other than the staff, however we were the only patrons in the restaurant actually wearing a jacket. The rest of the diners apparently thought that simply wearing matching socks was dressy enough.

 

Our waitress Rene of Indonesia, introduced us to a cart of raw meat from which we could chose our cuts, and our busboy Deni of Indonesia explained the array of bread and variety of butters that would remain untouched. Our sommelier Dong of Indonesia proffered a wine list, and the meal was on.

 

Although my French Onion Soup was ladled into a half-full bowl, rather than baked in it, and Rog’s “vine ripened tomatoes and blue cheese salad” arrived without the blue cheese, the steaks were perfect and the assortment of vegetables in lieu of potatoes was wonderful, most especially the garlic mushrooms which tasted more like escargot. One compliment to our waitress on these brought another serving immediately.

 

Dong returned to invite us to a special wine tasting tomorrow, neglecting to mention the $15 charge. We said we’d let him know. A few minutes later he returned with a Chef’s Table Tasting Menu invitation, insisting that we would very much enjoy that experience come Thursday, neglecting to mention the $129 charge. We said we’d let him know.

 

By now we’ve struck up a conversation with the couple at the next table, amazingly from the tiny village in England that Rog was born in. Dong had already signed them up for the Chef’s Table event and was now insisting they bring their new friends, Us. We said we’d let them know.

 

We enjoyed our coffee and, declining dessert, we were presented with a tray of extraordinarily delicious truffles. Er, I mean, that is, they looked like they would be delicious if I were to have actually tasted one, or more than one, or, oh what the hell. They were grand! I had to eat Rog’s share, too, or we would risk appearing ungrateful.

 

About this time the dishwasher came around to all the tables asking how our dinner was. His name tag assured us he, too, was from Indonesia. The tall white hat with a hundred pleats was quite impressive, as well.

 

We made a tentative date for after dinner cocktails in the casino bar, as soon as they could check on their youngster back in the cabin, and we could shuck our jackets.

 

Returning to our cabin we were greeted with towel origami at the foot of our bed signalling turn down service, and a door-hanger menu card for breakfast that had been thoughtfully completed already by another guest, in another cabin, on another cruise. I called for a replacement, and we went back to the decks.

 

It was at this point that we realized just how many bar options there are aboard this vessel. Even “the casino bar” was confusing, as there were three in the immediate vincity. The sports bar was a cloud of cigarette smoke (is that still allowed in this world?), the piano bar was nearly deserted save for the pianist and three or four leaners bemoaning their lost hearts somewhere in San Francisco, and around the corner the underdressed quartet was bleating out Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring to an avid audience of one. However, in none of these venues did we find our New Best Friends, so we took a seat in main view of the action and just watched people.

 

Person One was an old drunk stumbling away from the craps table hopelessly looking for the restroom. Persons Two, Three and Four were a new family clad in dumpster chic, complete with seasonal touque and a squalling infant slung on its mother’s back. Person Five was a cocktail waitress I’m sure I knew in my reckless youth, still wearing the frilly little blouse with the exposed midriff and the lycra pants painted across her thighs. Person Six was, no wait, that was the guy still looking for the toilet, more urgently now. And the picture was complete when Person Seven walked by with hockey jersey and baseball cap appropriately pointing backwards.

 

Clearly or NBFs had found better people, so we left in seach of this evenings Grand Spectacle in the Vista Theatre. Here Patty the Cruise Director (oddly, from Chicago) was doing a one-woman standup routine interrupted by introductions of the staff, and acknowlegements of wedding anniversaries Diamond, Silver, Gold and Ancient. We felt decidely out of place here, as we had two or three non-grey hairs left in our heads, so we left.

 

Returning to our cabin 90 minutes later, we were still offered only the breakfast selections of the previous guests, until one more call brought a fresh one under the door.

 

I think, six hours into this cruise, it’s time to make some comparisons. But they will have to wait. The clocks go forward an hour tonight and I’ve already lost an hour’s sleep!

[SwissMyst]

Snicker, we HAL junkies know what comes next. Those wonderful, comfortable HAL beds. If they don't get a 5 star rating from these on the spot (or spot on) reports, I think we should start sniffing out a Cruise Troll from The Other Side. :p

[RANCHOVISTA]

As a retired professional who worked in the Motion Picture and Television industry for 30 years, your writing skills are very impressive. Your wit and sense of humor is very refreshing, especially in our up tight society today.

We will be taking this cruiese (11 days) this coming Sat., the 16th, we're going on, as you're coming off. I'll wave to you. I'll be in my tuxeto, with my baseball cap on backwards, and my partner will be wearing something from her Cher collection.

Will be reading your posts all week, and making notes on the positive and negative thoughts you might have.

Again thanks for the entertainment and keep up the good work.

Enjoy your special time together with your partner, and have a great cruise.

 

Jeff and Maxine

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for taking the time to do a Live Report.

 

Glad you are off to a good start.

 

Looking forward to your reports.

[SwissMyst]

As a retired professional who worked in the Motion Picture and Television industry for 30 years, your writing skills are very impressive. Your wit and sense of humor is very refreshing, especially in our up tight society today......Jeff and Maxine

 

Petty mocking is easy. The final chapter here has yet to be written.

[alohadad]

Just returned off the Oosterdam yesterday 01/09/10. This was the third cruise in four years on the Oosterdam for my family. In short this cruise was the BEST so far. Everything went perfect. I' am writing a review now and also send a letter to HAL. I' am reading there post's to my dismay and there not mentioning that they stayed at a "Marriott" the night before the cruise because of their anti-gay marriage remarks. They most likely stayed for a reduced price.

[scopewest]

We love the Oosterdam so I always enjoy reading reviews (good and bad) of the ship to see if any of the information is useful for our future cruise. Enjoy your cruise.

[RuthC]

Love the report---and the wit. Keep 'em coming.

(and thanks for the white space.)

[debkaysmith]

Can't wait for more... we're aboard in just 9 weeks -yippee.

[Cruisers1975]

Just returned off the Oosterdam yesterday 01/09/10. This was the third cruise in four years on the Oosterdam for my family. In short this cruise was the BEST so far. Everything went perfect. I' am writing a review now and also send a letter to HAL. I' am reading there post's to my dismay and there not mentioning that they stayed at a "Marriott" the night before the cruise because of their anti-gay marriage remarks. They most likely stayed for a reduced price.

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. We had family on that sailing.

 

And please don't presume about hotels...or anything else :)

[igraf]

Hey, we were not the ones who threw in the inflammatory politics, so don't get all touchy about it now. You were the first to presume with the "wrong side" labeling.

 

Really, who wants to debate gay marriage on a cruise board? Let's just call it a bad joke and move on.

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. We had family on that sailing.

 

And please don't presume about hotels...or anything else :)

[RANCHOVISTA]

Cruisers 1975 you're doing a great job with your board.

SwissMyst, Aleohadad,Igraf lighten up. You live in an uptight world.

Some of us enjoy 1975's good writing and humor. Please let the rest of us enjoy it.

Waiting for your future reviews 1975.

 

Thanks again...Jeff

[Cruisers1975]

Cruisers 1975 you're doing a great job with your board.

SwissMyst, Aleohadad,Igraf lighten up. You live in an uptight world.

Some of us enjoy 1975's good writing and humor. Please let the rest of us enjoy it.

Waiting for your future reviews 1975.

 

Thanks again...Jeff

 

Thanks Jeff! Actually, not sure what that guy is on about? I was concerned someone presumed I'd stayed at a Marriott before a cruise, nothing to do with politics! :)

 

Day 2 will be on soon. To anyone who is coming onboard, you'll have a great time I'm sure!

[jmdpsca]

Thanks Jeff! Actually, not sure what that guy is on about? I was concerned someone presumed I'd stayed at a Marriott before a cruise, nothing to do with politics! :)

 

Day 2 will be on soon. To anyone who is coming onboard, you'll have a great time I'm sure!

 

We are also on the Oosterdam, for 11 days Jan 16, let us know what you do in the ports, and what is the "CLIMATE" of the people and weather! We have a friend on your ship, Ron and Carol Netta from Newport, they were on our ship from Athens to Rome on Oceania this last Sept...nice couple!

Are you involved with a Meet and Greet?

Look forward to your next blog!

[alohadad]

Day One, Part Two: Dinner and a Show

 

 

 

 

We have dinner reservations this evening in the Pinacle Grill, the “specialty” dining option. “Specialty” means it costs $20 a head extra, but as we haven’t enjoyed the common trough yet, we can’t make comparisons.

 

The dress code, we were advised, was jacket required at all times. Other than the staff, however we were the only patrons in the restaurant actually wearing a jacket. The rest of the diners apparently thought that simply wearing matching socks was dressy enough.

 

About this time the dishwasher came around to all the tables asking how our dinner was. His name tag assured us he, too, was from Indonesia. The tall white hat with a hundred pleats was quite impressive, as well.

 

Clearly or NBFs had found better people, so we left in seach of this evenings Grand Spectacle in the Vista Theatre. Here Patty the Cruise Director (oddly, from Chicago) was doing a one-woman standup routine interrupted by introductions of the staff, and acknowlegements of wedding anniversaries Diamond, Silver, Gold and Ancient. We felt decidely out of place here, as we had two or three non-grey hairs left in our heads, so we left.

 

I think, six hours into this cruise, it’s time to make some comparisons. But they will have to wait. The clocks go forward an hour tonight and I’ve already lost an hour’s sleep!

 

Is this Humor or just a way to make fun at those of us who our Loyal HAL fan's. I really hope these two aren't travel agent's at all.

[SwissMyst]

Cruisers 1975 you're doing a great job with your board.

SwissMyst, Aleohadad,Igraf lighten up. You live in an uptight world.

Some of us enjoy 1975's good writing and humor. Please let the rest of us enjoy it.

Waiting for your future reviews 1975.

Thanks again...Jeff

 

Fine line between petty, cruel mocking and good sarcasm. You need to lighten up as we all wait for the ....... other shoe to drop.

 

Making fun of people in wheelchairs is not humorous sarcasm. Nor is it "good writing". It is mean-spirited cruelty, unless those in the wheelchairs were doing something that deserved having their pomposity punctured. Get it?

 

But if they were just traveling and enjoying being cruisers, there was no reason to put them up for targeted ridicule. Carry on. Let the David Foster Wallace wannabees play out their next hand. Will it be an affectionate caress, or a slap in the face?

[shootr]

Keep 'em coming OP, 51 days and counting 'til we're on the "O" for our anniversary.

[marysb]

We just got off the Oosterdam yesterday. We had a fantastic time. I am enjoying reliving it through someone else's eyes.

Have fun!

(and I love that you are honest and funny)

[shootr]

We just got off the Oosterdam yesterday. We had a fantastic time. I am enjoying reliving it through someone else's eyes.

Have fun!

(and I love that you are honest and funny)

Not to hijack the thread, but could you briefly share any good/bad experiences - excursions you liked/disliked, etc?