Review: Volendam, April 9-19 2005 Eastern Caribbean

[doone]

I was on the March 20th sailing and found things on the Volendam to be absolutely wonderful as well. Was everything perfect, of course not, things happen. But we found our cruise to be as close to perfect as you could get. Glad you enjoyed the Volendam as well. We are all booked on her for next year and I can hardly wait.

[Gunzee]

April 17, 2005

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Our last sea day. After breakfast, we wandered by the photo gallery to view the photos taken last night. I thought the pictures look pretty good, but DW said I wasn't smiling/laughing. It wasn't easy, but DW narrowed down the photos to six and made the purchase. As a bonus, if you bought more than four photos, they gave you a free DVD. Since there is more contents coming in at Half Moon Cay. So, they said the DVD will be done by 9PM the next day.

 

At 10:30AM, we sat in Fran Hals Lounge for the Disembrkation Talk with Doug Dunnell(Cruise Director). They served complimentary champagne, OJ or mimosa for everyone in attendance. Doug did bring a few laughs by going through the top asked questions of all times. As well an interesting question, he was asked once in an elevator, by an elderly woman. "Do you use fresh or salt water in the toilet?" Doug said he was shocked and didn't know the answer. But he did said that he found out it is fresh water, without tasting it from the toilet.

 

Not much to do after lunch, M & J went for their sun tanning at the aft pool. DW decided that I should enter the ping pong tournament. While we practiced together, I saw the final sea worthy shipbuilding contest. The winning ship is made of pop/beer cans. It was held together with saran wrap. Now, I am know what to do next time, if I enter the shipbuilding game.

 

Back to my ping pong tournament. The competitions was tough. The game was played to 10 points, and if you loose you're out of game. One of the players I played was Bob. Bob retired awhile back, but he's still quick and fast. He's the only player who got his own ping pong racket. In the end, I was able to win all my games and became the ping pong champion. Wow, I took the water bottle as my prize. My thanks goes to my DW for cheering for me. :-)

 

In deck 3, we had the culinary creation show. There were vegetable carving, Napkin folding, Dutch cheese fondue, as well as Marzipan creations. DW got a rose made out of paper, looks pretty interesting.

 

With so many things to do, I wasn't able to finished the book, "Angels and Demons". Returned it to the librbary in the afternoon. It's a good book, so I am planning to finish to the book when back at home.

 

That night, we finished our dinner by 10PM. Since it's Dessert Extravaganza night, we were not interested in our walk at deck 3. Instead, we marched up to Lido directly. I was impressed by what I saw. Dessert everywhere, took me awhile to take pictures of the more colourful ones.

 

Things got started at 10:30PM with a long line up. Even the captain and his wife show up. On a sad note, we didn't taste much beyond our first plate. Yes, we were stuffed from our dinner. All I could do at the time was look/admire/lick my lips... Let's hope for a restful night of sleep. Half Moon Cay awaits tomorrow.

[dakrewser]

Back to my ping pong tournament. The competitions was tough. The game was played to 10 points, and if you loose you're out of game. One of the players I played was Bob. Bob retired awhile back, but he's still quick and fast. He's the only player who got his own ping pong racket. In the end, I was able to win all my games and became the ping pong champion.

 

Yeah! Congratulations!!

 

 

(looks like they got the name and date wrong :( )

 

:) -dave

[Gunzee]

April 18, 2005

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Last night the sea was a bit rough. The ship was rocking more than I liked. We were worried that if it keeps up, our stop at Half Moon Cay(HMC) maybe cancelled. Nothing to worry about. When we awake, the sea is calm and the weather unbelievably beautiful. Volendam is already anchored when we got up to Lido for breakfast. The white sandy shores of Half Moon Cay(also known as Little San Salvador), looking so good. Snap, Snap, took a few pictures.

 

We didn't need to get a tender ticket from Deck 4, because we are going on the Stingray Excursion. Excursions, meet in the Ocean Bar, where the group meet and dispatched from there. When we landed on HMC, our group was directed to a truck. After a few minutes of bumpy ride, we got off and given the snorkel gears. The water is cold, but once you dive in, it is fine. The stingray area is just a fenced area of about 18 by 12 meters. The water is not clear, but you can still see the bottom when snorkeling, since it is less than 2 meters deep. I was able to touch a stingray and a turtle.

 

Beach time! The beach is clean. The sand is fine. The water is clear. The sun is shinning. The air breeze warm. Just a perfect day to be here. The first time I do is take off the sandals and take a long walk on the whole beach. The feeling of fine sand underneath the feet on the beach is unbeatable. Awesome place to take pictures, with Volendam in the background. DW spent much of her time trying to find the "perfect" seashell.

 

Lunch at the food pavilion serves the usual hotdog, burger, salads, etc. I went for the ribs(very good) and fruits. So good, I had a second serving of ribs. Back to beach. I must say the water feel chill, until your body get used to it. There is no one playing in the water slide, so I went over and used it just for fun. Spent most of the afternoon in the water. Again, there isn't anyone playing with the toy floats. I swam over and climb up on them. The turtle float is rough, I almost got scratched on my body. Hey, what about the shark float at the far end? No problem, swam over and climb up on its back. DW, look I am the shark slayer!

 

By 3PM, we're sadden to leave. Didn't even spent anytime on the beach chair, yet. It's an amazing and wonderful place. DW and I agree that it's one of the best part of our trip.

 

After shower/clean up, we started to pack. Pretty much the end of the trip. It seems so fast. During dinner, we made sure we take pictures with all of our server/waiter/waiter assistant. The DVD wasn't ready when we tried to pick it up. They think it will be done by tomorrow morning. When we come back to our cabin, there's luggage on the hallway everywhere. I tell you it's a fire hazard. We put our luggage out by 12PM, before we went to sleep.

[BCEagle78]

We relived our own cruise through your review on the Volendam. Thanks for taking all the time to share your experience with us all! :)

[Gunzee]

April 19, 2005

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The ship is very much alive and surging with activities, early this morning. We're awake around 6:30AM. Don't think you can sleep in this morning. There are announcments every now and then. No need for alarm clock. After wash up and pack up last minute item, we make our way to Lido for breakfast.

 

Lido is the only place open for breakfast. This explains why the huge long lines on both sides with people waiting. Probably a good 15 minutes or more wait. I am not a fan of long line ups, so I just walk over to the Continential breakfast station and grab a few items. At 8AM, the Lido closes for breakfast, the line is still there.

 

We're one of the early group to disembark. There was no long up at the Customs. When we are outside. The shuttle bus for going to Miami Airport, has a line up. There are more people than there is room on the bus. They had to call in another shuttle bus. M & J already sitting in shuttle one, so we squeeze in the bus as well.

 

On this trip, everytime we are on I75 highway, there is always an auto accident that slow us down. While waiting for our flight to Toronto, we watched all the latest on CNN. Of course, this special day, we got the minute by minutes coverage, of the Pope election and the first appeance of Pope Benedict XVI. It's pretty amazing how the bells spread the news. The empty St. Peter Square got fill up with people, within half an hour to an hour.

 

Besides the normal long wait in the airports, we got home to Edmonton in one piece, at about 9PM. DW is already talking about our next cruise...

[Gunzee]

Short note on the DVD. It's just a bit over half an hour long. Our families, who did watch it, said they're disappointed with the contents. You are lucky if you get a 1 second appearance on the screen. Nothing much can be done here, as there are over thousand of passenger. Probably not everyone is video worthy? We are not in it, :-(

 

It looks like a rush job. There isn't much on it about the cruise, not the activies, not the ports, not the excrusions. It's not worth the money if you have to buy it. But we got it for free with our photo purchase. So, I can't really complain.