Dave's Live from Eurodam Trans-Atlantic, Aug. 27 - Sept. 12, 2013

[Irish Eyes Are Sailing]

Thanks for pointing that out, Linda! And, Dave posted a photo, too, as that was his entrée. It is yummy...I had it on either the Ryndam.

 

Yes, when I saw that pic I immediately thought of Sail's thread on that topic! For what it is worth, and I am not one who seeks out liver, it did look very good!

[Storylady]

Sun., Sept. 8, 2013, St. John’s (Cont.)

We came back, showered and changed to dry clothes, and had a drink before dinner. During dinner, the weather cleared and the fog lifted from the hills. Of course.

Here are the menus:

I had the mussels starter:

Followed by the liver with pancetta and onions and spinach:

For dessert, I had the most noblest chocolate dessert of all (or at least yet this cruise), the double chocolate tortlet, with both dark and milk chocolate mousses:

 

The weather continued to improve until just before sailaway, when the sun (which had been Godot all day) made a few cameo appearances, before setting behind the city in what was, OK, a pretty impressive show:

We attended the sailaway performance by the Lido pool of two kilted gentlemen from the Halifax Citadel, but we were too far away from the bagpiper corporal and Highlander sergeant to get a good photo. The bagpipe music filled the space, even though the ship opened the Lido roof.

More later,

Dave

 

MDH and I just had the calves liver on the Maasdam. The liver was cooked perfectly! And it is so easy to over cook liver. Kudos to the chefs of the Maasdam for being able to cook the liver perfectly while turning out 1000 plus dinners each night.

[cruz chic]

Love the towel animal pics.

[boards]

Wow that was great. Some animals we haven't seen yet in our cabin. Great photos!!!

Thank you.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Mon., Sept. 9, 2013, at sea (Cont.)

 

We had breakfast in the Lido this morning, and when we went forward to the elevator to the Explorations Café, we discovered a wild scene – the towel animals were having a pool party. It seems many of the room stewards (including ours we later learned) had gotten together at 5:30 this morning to put together a tour de force of their art. What fun!

 

Here are some shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

 

 

I love this!!

That was a lot of work for the crew.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Love the food pictures.

[mowmow]

OK Dave,

 

You got me hooked into doing this cruise some day. Next year it's on the Veendam in July or the Eurodam? in August. I'd prefer the August date but prefer Amsterdm to Boston over Copenhagen to NY.

 

Maybe I'll wait until the following year and see if they switch it out.

 

I've also realized I'll be gaining 10 lbs on my SA cruise in Nov. Looking at those menus, it will be so hard to choose, and I'm having dessert every lunch AND dinner. I would have had the Boston Cream Pie AND the Whoopie Pie (saved that for a late night snack, lol)

 

I'd better plan to power walk around the deck each morning, then spend some time in the gym every day. It'll be rabbit food when I get home.

 

Great blog and pics. Can't wait til the photobucket thing is fixed.

[RetiredMustang]

Oh, what fun! :D I love it.

Give a whole new meaning to the term "chair hogs".

 

I am so glad you had your camera with you, and that you got there before the delightful scene was demolished.

 

Ruth,

The luck was not so much having my camera with me – a couple of quick minutes to run to the cabin and get it if I did not have it would not have made much difference. The luck came in being early risers, and thus being among the first to realize the zoo was assembled around the pool. That allowed me to take wide shots without a lot of various and sundry (some a lot more sundry than others) people parts in the way.

The word quickly passed, and at one point Cruise Director JT announced it on the PA. There was a sidewalk sale on the Lido deck starting at 9:30, and the deck was packed, and a few of the animals had lost eyes, heads, etc. by then. By a few minutes before 11, the crew had disassembled the zoo and packed laundry bags.

This is the first time I have seen this, and it may be first fleet-wide. It probably was a lot of work (and extra laundry) so it may not be done again except on occasion on longer cruises. But what a great treat it was!

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Mon., Sept. 9, 2013, at sea (Cont.)

Well, it has been another great sunny day at sea, although again with a strong headwind, meaning that most of the outside decks were closed for much of the day. Towards late afternoon, the winds slackened. The sunset was beautiful, with clear skies and only a few clouds here and there.

Tonight was the last formal night, with the traditional surf and turf, veal cordon bleu and others. Here are the dinner and dessert menus:

I had probably what most people had – the surf and turf:

For dessert, it was the “DAM” devil chocolate cake:

More later,

Dave

[Copper10-8]

Gotta love your taste in desserts!:) Better than Navy grub!

[Copper10-8]

Hey Dave; watch for these guys on your arrival in Halifax, NS

 

[cruz chic]

Gotta love your taste in desserts!:) Better than Navy grub!

 

Barely:D. Usually they look better than they taste.

[JamesEM]

I definitely going to put this trip on my to do cruising list.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Forget the lobster with the yellow goop on top.

I'll just have two desserts instead.

[RetiredMustang]

Tuesday, September 10, 2013, Halifax, Nova Scotia

We are in Halifax, Nova Scotia today. We embarked the pilot shortly after 7, and were berthed by about 8. It was a beautiful sunrise behind us, and the clouds lifted a bit as we came in. The sun is shining on the city, but there are lots of clouds about. Hopefully they will not send for reinforcements, and we have a dry day. Mostly cloudy would be nice. It is about 60 F, about 15 C.

We plan to go ashore and wander. We have been here twice before, and it is a great town for walkabout

Here are today’s program, and the port guide pages:

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Early photos are back

 

I checked this morning, and the photos from my earlier posts on this thread are now appearing again. That means I read the notice from photobucket correctly. I joined photobucket on Aug. 10. I started this thread and linked about 2 MB of photos on the photobucket site. After an average of about 500 views each, I reached the limit of 10GB in bandwidth for the month. On Sept. 10, the month was over and a new one started, so the 10GB bandwidth counter was reset to zero.

 

That means that the photos from the early part of the thread can now be seen … until they are viewed enough to add up to 10GB of bandwidth (about 500 times each), and the photobucket ad will replace them until October 10. Repeat cycle.

 

So, if you are planning to use photobucket, it is a great place to store your photos, but unless you pay for enhanced membership, you should not plan to link to them for a blog.

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Gotta love your taste in desserts!:) Better than Navy grub!

 

John,

Yes, the food is better than Navy chow, but not hugely so. Food is subjective, and I’ve read the threads that say that Celebrity, or Princess or whoever has better food than HAL. HAL food is not gourmet, but they do well in my opinion.

Navy chow does pretty well, too, and improved over the years I ate it. The main advantage is that it usually is hot, and is readily available. The chow absolutely beats MREs or other rations that you and your fellow Marines may have eaten ashore.

I am reminded of a cartoon I saw during Desert Storm that pointed out the differences among the services. It had four panels:

Panel 1, labeled “Army”: A guy in desert cammies is in a foxhole with sand blowing in his face, and he is saying “Man, this sucks!”

Panel 2, labeled “Marines”: The same sort of foxhole, with the sand blowing, and the guy’s saying “Man, I love how this sucks!”

Panel 3, labeled “Navy”: Two Sailors in work uniforms at a mess decks table eating hot steaks, and one is saying to the other “Man, I bet it sucks ashore!”

Panel 4, labeled “Air Force”: A guy in swim trunks, T-shirt and flip-flops sitting in a beach chair with an umbrella drink staring at a TV, is saying “What, this hotel doesn’t have cable? Man, that sucks!”

Dave

[rafinmd]

Hey Dave; watch for these guys on your arrival in Halifax, NS

 

 

And especially on departure.

 

Dave, enjoy your last few days.

 

Roy

[Copper10-8]

John,

 

Yes, the food is better than Navy chow, but not hugely so. Food is subjective, and I’ve read the threads that say that Celebrity, or Princess or whoever has better food than HAL. HAL food is not gourmet, but they do well in my opinion.

 

Navy chow does pretty well, too, and improved over the years I ate it. The main advantage is that it usually is hot, and is readily available. The chow absolutely beats MREs or other rations that you and your fellow Marines may have eaten ashore.

 

I am reminded of a cartoon I saw during Desert Storm that pointed out the differences among the services. It had four panels:

 

Panel 1, labeled “Army”: A guy in desert cammies is in a foxhole with sand blowing in his face, and he is saying “Man, this sucks!”

 

Panel 2, labeled “Marines”: The same sort of foxhole, with the sand blowing, and the guy’s saying “Man, I love how this sucks!”

 

Panel 3, labeled “Navy”: Two Sailors in work uniforms at a mess decks table eating hot steaks, and one is saying to the other “Man, I bet it sucks ashore!”

 

Panel 4, labeled “Air Force”: A guy in swim trunks, T-shirt and flip-flops sitting in a beach chair with an umbrella drink staring at a TV, is saying “What, this hotel doesn’t have cable? Man, that sucks!”

 

Dave

 

Awesome!:D Enjoy Halifax, Canada's Ellis Island!

[RetiredMustang]

Tues., Sept. 10, 2013, Halifax (Cont.)

We were cleared by the authorities about 8:15. I took a shot of the waterfront in sunlight in case that was all the sun we would get:

DW and I left the ship about 9:15 and walked along the waterfront, and I took a shot back of Eurodam:

We walked to the Historical Properties and then up Citadel Hill. The sun was out by then, and I got a shot toward the bridge to Dartmouth:

And one down the hill to the harbor:

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Tues., Sept. 10, 2013, Halifax (Cont.)

We then walked to the City Hall and the Grand Parade in front of it:

And visited St. Paul’s Anglican Church at the other end of the Parade:

We continued down Barrington Street to the Old Burying Ground:

Then we returned to the waterfront to a restaurant, wherein I had a lobster roll, and DW had something she has not had for two weeks or more – a good cheeseburger.

We then shopped a bit in the souvenir stores, and ambled back along the waterfront:

 

 

 

Just before we got back to the cruise port, I took a shot of the Bishop’s Landing:

When we returned, we noticed that the Grandeur of the Seas was berthed behind us.

It was a very nice, unhurried day under mostly sunny skies, which we really enjoyed.

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Hey Dave; watch for these guys on your arrival in Halifax, NS

 

 

John,

 

We saw (and heard) them on arrival, but they had stopped playing by the time we left the ship, so no photos.

 

Dave

[maxie99]

Oh , my kids would have loved that! They get such a kick out of towel animals.

it gave me my frist giggle today---what fun--:D

[Krazy Kruizers]

We love Halifax.

Good food there. One time we used the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus. Another time we went out to Peggy's Cove.

Walking the boardwalk is a lot of fun. One time we watched the firemen in competition.

[rafinmd]

Wave to the Grandeur for me; it's my Baltimore ship. And do watch for the pipers for a farewell sendoff.

 

Roy