Live from the Oosterdam Mch 5-12 sailing

[kazu]

We are home now ( we live less than 2 hours away from the port) and I see over on the "other" Mazatlan thread that a letter from the Captain has been delivered to those now aboard and the contents were spelled out. So, I'll confirm the information I was told that I kept to myself because it came from a staff member and I don't believe it's my place to "tell the whole internet" what I'm told in confidence, until the source has a chance to announce it. After all, it might never have come to pass and just been another rumor after all.

 

I was told that HAL's corporate has indeed decided to pull Mazatlan for the rest of the season; they are substituting overnighting in Puerto Vallarta instead. The final decision wasn't made until sometime late Friday afternoon. There was one new shore excursion offered from P.V. this time called "something" (sorry; don't remember!) of the night and it left the ship mid-afternoon, offered a meal on the beach, stayed out on the beach as late as it could with a 7:30 pm departure. I would think with an overnight they could run this later and it might be even nicer; people said good things about it.

 

One crew member who also mentioned this while we were still aboard this morning (not my information source) was pleased about the change; he thought the passengers would find many more things to interest them in P.V.

 

Friday afternoon I was invited to one of those "Q&A" focus groups aboard the ship and one woman asked about the "show of force" that many saw out on the pier in Mazatlan on the morning we were there. I didn't see it; either it was while we were at breakfast or after we'd gone out walking (see a posting further up about the safety volunteers who laid out a walking route; we did that) but according to her there were numerous military-types with guns and dogs out along the pier (we saw one only, no dog but she reported quite a few) and the helicopters circling overhead. Her question was, why had't someone on the ship explained this since she believed it to be the source of many frightening rumors on board of serious trouble. The captain's explanation was that when it happened most people had gone ashore and he wanted to explain it when everyone could listen and then things that evening intervened (the earthquake in Japan?) and it slipped his mind. But it seems the town's police/military (I'm not sure what or who) came to the ship to demonstrate how ready the government was to protect the ship and its passengers. The individual wanted the captain to come down to see all this armament but as he had work to do he sent the security force to look instead and then suggested to the "show of force" that they go protect the town; the ship was in good hands already. So their intention of good will probably scared more people than it reassured but apparently they meant well. The town has really tried, but for now, I think the perception, at least, of danger has caused this port to be eliminated for now.

 

Finally, a note of caution to whoever "inherits" our cabin (7068): don't go out on the verandah in your bare feet until it's hosed down. Because this morning, after a thorough hosing and scrubbing by the ship's staff, two very large birds came to drink of the nice clean water still on the verandah. After a couple of drinks both (sorry if you're eating!) regurgitated up nice quantities of half-digested fish which they then sorted out across the verandah with their beaks, divided up what they had between the two of them and swallowed it all down again.

 

Wear your shoes out there!:)

 

Thanks Spinner very much for giving us the scoop. Puerto Vallarta sounds fine to me (of course any place warm right now would sound fine to me :)).

 

very much appreciated all your wonderful posts and all your sharing with us.

 

Safe trip home :)

[Spinner2]

Lorekauf, our deck certainly looked clean all week; and we had just watched it being scrubbed before the birds arrived. Birds will be birds!

[cruz chic]

Lorekauf, our deck certainly looked clean all week; and we had just watched it being scrubbed before the birds arrived. Birds will be birds!

It's true. Mine was just plain dirty. It didn't bother me enough to mention it on my comment card but once you mentioned it, it reminded me of the difference from my last balcony. When I was waiting to disembark I was sitting on my balcony and the guy came to clean all the balconies with a hose so it was probably cleaner after that.

[slimknyzer]

An overnight in PV doesn't sound bad. With increased fuel prices, one less night of cruising probably puts a smile on HAL's face. Hopefully this will also help defer or delay any fuel surcharge implementation.

[tiller02]

We are home now ( we live less than 2 hours away from the port) and I see over on the "other" Mazatlan thread that a letter from the Captain has been delivered to those now aboard and the contents were spelled out. So, I'll confirm the information I was told that I kept to myself because it came from a staff member and I don't believe it's my place to "tell the whole internet" what I'm told in confidence, until the source has a chance to announce it. After all, it might never have come to pass and just been another rumor after all.

 

I was told that HAL's corporate has indeed decided to pull Mazatlan for the rest of the season; they are substituting overnighting in Puerto Vallarta instead. The final decision wasn't made until sometime late Friday afternoon. There was one new shore excursion offered from P.V. this time called "something" (sorry; don't remember!) of the night and it left the ship mid-afternoon, offered a meal on the beach, stayed out on the beach as late as it could with a 7:30 pm departure. I would think with an overnight they could run this later and it might be even nicer; people said good things about it.

 

One crew member who also mentioned this while we were still aboard this morning (not my information source) was pleased about the change; he thought the passengers would find many more things to interest them in P.V.

 

Friday afternoon I was invited to one of those "Q&A" focus groups aboard the ship and one woman asked about the "show of force" that many saw out on the pier in Mazatlan on the morning we were there. I didn't see it; either it was while we were at breakfast or after we'd gone out walking (see a posting further up about the safety volunteers who laid out a walking route; we did that) but according to her there were numerous military-types with guns and dogs out along the pier (we saw one only, no dog but she reported quite a few) and the helicopters circling overhead. Her question was, why had't someone on the ship explained this since she believed it to be the source of many frightening rumors on board of serious trouble. The captain's explanation was that when it happened most people had gone ashore and he wanted to explain it when everyone could listen and then things that evening intervened (the earthquake in Japan?) and it slipped his mind. But it seems the town's police/military (I'm not sure what or who) came to the ship to demonstrate how ready the government was to protect the ship and its passengers. The individual wanted the captain to come down to see all this armament but as he had work to do he sent the security force to look instead and then suggested to the "show of force" that they go protect the town; the ship was in good hands already. So their intention of good will probably scared more people than it reassured but apparently they meant well. The town has really tried, but for now, I think the perception, at least, of danger has caused this port to be eliminated for now.

 

Finally, a note of caution to whoever "inherits" our cabin (7068): don't go out on the verandah in your bare feet until it's hosed down. Because this morning, after a thorough hosing and scrubbing by the ship's staff, two very large birds came to drink of the nice clean water still on the verandah. After a couple of drinks both (sorry if you're eating!) regurgitated up nice quantities of half-digested fish which they then sorted out across the verandah with their beaks, divided up what they had between the two of them and swallowed it all down again.

 

Wear your shoes out there!:)

 

Just wanted to say thanks again for all of your feeds from your cruise. We sail next on the Oosterdam (Mar 19), and as ours is a family reunion cruise of 18 folks from all over the USA, I was interested in how the crew was, condition of ship,etc. We learned about what a "Code Red" is, and finally about Mazatlan.

 

Phil

[Spinner2]

Thanks for all the kind words. When DH gets his photos organized I'll organize a page on our travel blog that will show some of the behind-the-scenes photos he took when he did the behind-the-scenes tour of the Oosterdam.

 

One more tidbit; not from our cruise but the one just before:

 

On March 2 in Mazatlan a baby boy was born to a couple from the Oosterdam who were traveling with family members. The complete story, with a nice photo is HERE; out of respect for the copyright the Mazatlan paper holds on the story I won't copy the story to CC but it's a fast load and you might enjoy reading it. (Perhaps this was reported earlier; if so, please forgive the repeat.)

 

I found the story while searching the local Mazatlan English-language paper to see if there was any news of the discontinued port visits. So far, I don't think it's been reported in this news source.

[erewhon]

Spinner2,

Thank you for the link to this story.

What a surprise for the new parents.

Best wishes to Judah Bud.