Live and life from ms Veendam on her Mexican Riviera's New Year's voyage

[rafinmd]

From the Ryndam (but sadly not for long) welcome home.

 

Roy

[Copper10-8]

From the Ryndam (but sadly not for long) welcome home.

 

Roy

 

Safe trip home Roy and enjoy Maasie to Rio! :)

[TiogaCruiser]

Thanks for taking us along. Am considering this as a quick get away as I can easily reach The port via Amtrak or Mertolink + the coaster. San Sebastián sounds very interesting.

 

Was wondering your thoughts on advisability of a woman walking around some of the ports alone. Would you be concerned if your wife were to walk around alone in these ports? Any advise?

[Copper10-8]

Thanks for taking us along. Am considering this as a quick get away as I can easily reach The port via Amtrak or Mertolink + the coaster. San Sebastián sounds very interesting.

 

Was wondering your thoughts on advisability of a woman walking around some of the ports alone. Would you be concerned if your wife were to walk around alone in these ports? Any advise?

 

Amtrak L.A./Fullerton/Anaheim to SD is a nice ride and the SD station is not far from the port. We generally don't split up in foreign cities. Having said that, Cabo, PV and Mazatlan thrive on tourism and as long she'd stay in the populated areas with where other tourists hang out, I would not have any major issues. Mazatlan seems to be back where it was two years ago. Just take the routine precautions if you go out and about by yourself. Lots of taxis, incl. Pulmonias, available in Mazatlan inside the port gates/outside the cruise terminal

[Kenito]

Great Report. Wish they had a webcam for SD as good as FLL.

 

Leon

 

 

I recognize you said "as good as," but his may help some a little:

 

http://www.sundiegolive.com

 

[Copper10-8]

 

I recognize you said "as good as," but his may help some a little:

 

http://www.sundiegolive.com

 

 

That one is not bad but it can't touch the ones in FLL, Miami, Key West, Aruba, etc.

[Kenito]

Allow me to add mine to the chorus of "well done!" and "thank you" notes for an excellent account of your cruise.

 

I know it took some time, so it is much appreciated! ;)

[Copper10-8]

Allow me to add mine to the chorus of "well done!" and "thank you" notes for an excellent account of your cruise.

 

I know it took some time, so it is much appreciated! ;)

Much obliged for the kind words!

[78232]

I read your posts with great interest. We live in south Texas and no one from this areas has traveled to Mexico in years due to the violence and danger. Your descriptions of the Mexican ports sounded so fun and interesting..like Mexico used to be. Did you fel safe at al times or did you take special precautions?

Marcia

[Copper10-8]

I read your posts with great interest. We live in south Texas and no one from this areas has traveled to Mexico in years due to the violence and danger. Your descriptions of the Mexican ports sounded so fun and interesting..like Mexico used to be. Did you fel safe at al times or did you take special precautions?

Marcia

 

Thanks! I have a Southern California/L.A. law enforcement background so am in the habit of looking at "situations" with that experience in mind. All three Mexican ports came across as typical tourist locations and we felt safe there among our fellow tourists. All three ports had lots of security visible, i.e. armed Mexican Marines and sailors on the pier/dock and outside those ports, we saw lots of local law enforcement (municipal, state and federal agencies) on foot, on motorcycle and in marked vehicles.

 

Take your normal precautions, i.e. no flashing of cash, expensive jewelry, credit cards, stay off the beaten path/alleys, have folks around you, negotiate cab fares with the cabbie before getting in, have the port agent's contact info with you, etc., and you should have a similar good time

[yukongold]

Day 1; Saturday 27 DEC 14; San Diego and embarkation; We pulled out of the driveway and left the homestead just prior to 0900 hours and entered the south-bound 405 Freeway aka the San Diego Freeway to our destination, the City of the Padres. Had the iPod discharging good tunes as we went chugging along in the HOV lane of the interstate. It’s good to be out on the road again for a relaxing cruise vacation with the child bride! Took the 74 toll road which makes the drive a tad shorter by-passing Santa Ana and Costa Mesa and thankfully discovered that traffic was pretty light which put big smiles on our faces. We dealt with the usual congestion back on the (now) Interstate 5 Freeway, after passing Camp Pendleton, oorah!, in the Oceanside/Carlsbad area. We went bumper-to-bumper in the Aliso Viejo and Encinitas areas, unfortunately both due to crashes, one an overturned vehicle (hopefully no injuries) and the other, a vehicle with its rear end on top of the concrete center freeway divider.

 

We soon headed through La Jolla before passing Mission Bay and Sea World, and MCRD San Diego and adjoining Lindbergh Field on the right and taking the downtown off ramp. We were getting close now and soon saw the very familiar ‘Star of India’ sail ship/museum. Holland America’s Veendam was neatly ‘parked’ at berth #2 located on the north side of the San Diego cruise terminal/B-Street Pier. There were no other cruise ships in town today. USS Midway CV-41 was at her permanent normal berth at the Navy Pier, south of the new terminal on the Broadway Pier. The long-time construction project on North Harbor Drive is a thing of the past; construction inside the former long term parking lot across the street is not! More about this later. We were allowed to enter the cruise terminal parking lot and dropped off our bags with a porter/stevedore who, upon noticing my NL sticker on the rear window of my car spontaneously asked me if I was Dutch because he was from Belgium. I asked him about his country’s claim the fame, “patat frites”, and then gave him our two hard cases and one garment bag and slipped him a fiver in exchange for three green-colored Veendam bag tags. He said he would take care of them like they were his first born for which we thanked him. With the traffic slow-downs, we had made the drive from L.A. to S.D. in a little more than two hours.

 

Across the Bay, both USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan CVN-76 were once again “parked” in between deployments at carrier row of North Island Naval Air Station on Coronado Island. Just like on 08 DEC when I arrived here as part of ms Amsterdam’s crew, Reagan is still “wrapped up” undergoing some heavy duty maintenance.

 

In past cruises from San Diego, we were used to parking the hooptee in the Star 5 lot off Broadway and in between North Harbor Drive and Pacific Hwy but, with more than half of that concrete site now blocked off and lost for parking due to construction, only a small sliver remained and that was marked “harbor front parking” as opposed to the former sign that read “cruise ship parking”. Plan B was to drive north bound on Pacific Hwy until reaching the long term parking lot of Lindbergh Field aka San Diego International Airport at Pacific Hwy & Washington Street. With a coupon, daily parking there was $11 a day. An airport rental agency-type van was waiting for us and whisked us and another VEDM passenger, who had dropped his entire folk off at the cruise terminal, back to that same terminal with just our carry-ons. Check in was a complete breeze with a document check/health form, security screening and counter check-in by a nice HAL shore-ops lady called Lynn; had our obligatory ‘welcome aboard’ pic taken (your choice if you want to purchase same or not), and took the pax jet-way to Deck 5/Main Deck. We were onboard! Btw, once again, San Diego shore side folks had their caca together and the whole operation ran like a well lathered (in oil) Swiss clock. Good job San Diego! Our room, #009 on Nav Deck was done, so we dropped our hand carries off and then grabbed a quick lunch in the Lido on Deck 11.

 

Our luggage was delivered to the room by 2:00 pm by our room steward, Mr. Dewa Putu Sudiarta who, with his colleague Sapta or, more formally, Mr. Bernadus Agus Sapta Hanggara, are responsible for the cleaning and upkeep of twenty (20) rooms on the starboard side of Navigation Deck. Took a look on the Neptune Lounge where we met the concierge, a nice young lady by the name of Mei, hailing from Brazil. Starting at 2:15 so one hour prior, CD Jeremy started preparing his passengers with P/A announcements for the approaching (3:15 pm) mandatory passenger safety emergency drill, the muster drill underneath your assigned lifeboat. That drill took all of 20 minutes, once again with some passengers demonstrating their complete and total inability to refrain from talking for that time, never mind that those around them are unable to hear their room # and name called. It never seizes to amaze me!

 

Once the A-Deck gangway was taken and the mooring lines heaved in, Captain Eric used his thrusters, well his ship’s, to move ms Veendam sideways from the dock at exactly 4:00 pm. He then backed her into the turning basin, and swung her to port up close to the Ronald Reagan. Once the swing was completed we started heading towards Point Loma and the Pacific Ocean escorted by a San Diego Harbor Police patrol boat. While he, the captain, was busy getting this accomplished, we did our unpacking of the luggage. We passed NAS North Island, Lindbergh Field, Harbor Island, Shelter Island, and Point Loma submarine base with one sub home and undergoing maintenance. The San Diego pilot transferred back to his boat around 5:15 pm and we were headed southbound in open water with a pretty sunset on our, the starboard, side.

 

7:15 pm brought along the suite welcome cocktail party, this one being held in the Crow’s Nest as opposed to the Neptune Lounge. Much more room upstairs! We did way too much talking catching up so, at 8:00 pm, noticed that we were 15 min late for our 7:45 dinner reservation in the Rotterdam dining room. Instead, we decided to do the casual dinner in the Lido. The selection in the dining room tonight consisted of:

 

Appetizers:

Calypso Shrimp Cocktail

Captain’s Antipasto Plate

Seared Scallops

 

Soups and Salad:

Roasted Shallot and Butternut Squash Soup

Dos Frijoles Soup

Chilled Pear, Cucumber and Melon Gazpacho

Chopped Farmer’s Salad

 

Entrees:

Bucatini Caponata

Salade Nicoise

Blackened AhiTuna Oaxaca-style

Prime Rib of Beef au Jus

Baja Chicken Breast

Apple Cider-Brined Pork Chop with Cherry-Raisin Chutney

Eggplant Cannelloni Parmigiano

 

Available Daily:

French Onion Soup “Les Halles”

Classic Caesar Salad

Grilled Salmon with Ginger Cilantro Pesto

Daily Oven-Roasted Chicken

Daily New York Strip loin Steak

 

Desserts:

Devil’s Food Cake

Tequila Poached Pears

Viennese Apple Strudel

Lemon Torte no sugar added

Vanilla Ice Cream

Raspberry Italian Cheesecake Ice Cream

Lemon Sorbet

Vanilla Frozen Yoghurt

No Sugar Added Vanilla Ice Cream

No Sugar Added Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Hot Fudge Saturday

 

In the Lido, we both had the Dos Frijoles Soup and the Ginger Grilled Breast of Chicken with Mango Lime Relish. We then retreated to the Ocean Bar and had an after dinner Amaretto.

 

The welcome aboard show “Let us entertain you” started at 9:30 in the Showroom at Sea. We found a couple of open seats and a table in the second row from the stage with a good look at CD Jeremy introducing the Veendam’s entertainers (hi Erica and Kaleo) and explorations team. The singers and dancers will be back tomorrow in their first production show “Mackie’s Broadway”, a good one! ). Called it a night at around 11:30 and discovered that we actually lose an hour tonight with the clocks being set forward by one hour. Rediscovered those awesome Signature of Excellence mattresses. See ya manana! Pic is a look at our trusty escort from the San Diego Harbor Police; thanks guys!

 

Thee is a certain place in Dante's Inferno for people who post such tempting menus!:D

[Copper10-8]

Thee is a certain place in Dante's Inferno for people who post such tempting menus!:D

 

Ha! I think I know what it is you are referring to! ;)

[Cruising-along]

Thanks! I have a Southern California/L.A. law enforcement background so am in the habit of looking at "situations" with that experience in mind. All three Mexican ports came across as typical tourist locations and we felt safe there among our fellow tourists. All three ports had lots of security visible, i.e. armed Mexican Marines and sailors on the pier/dock and outside those ports, we saw lots of local law enforcement (municipal, state and federal agencies) on foot, on motorcycle and in marked vehicles.

 

Take your normal precautions, i.e. no flashing of cash, expensive jewelry, credit cards, stay off the beaten path/alleys, have folks around you, negotiate cab fares with the cabbie before getting in, have the port agent's contact info with you, etc., and you should have a similar good time

 

Excellent advice! Actually good advice for anywhere we travel. Thanks again for your review!

[thetexasaggiecruiser]

Just caught up on this - and thank you for the wonderful review. As has been mentioned, many of us in Texas no longer travel to Mexico, but I really like that itinerary, so it was very nice to see your comments on the area and the tours. Sounds like you all had a great time.

[Copper10-8]

Just caught up on this - and thank you for the wonderful review. As has been mentioned, many of us in Texas no longer travel to Mexico, but I really like that itinerary, so it was very nice to see your comments on the area and the tours. Sounds like you all had a great time.

 

YW and Gig 'em! ;)

[Lizzie68]

I read your posts with great interest. We live in south Texas and no one from this areas has traveled to Mexico in years due to the violence and danger. Your descriptions of the Mexican ports sounded so fun and interesting..like Mexico used to be. Did you fel safe at al times or did you take special precautions?

Marcia

 

I don't blame you for feeling that way, but I think there is a difference between border towns and ports and resorts. We've always felt very safe in the tourist areas, with simple precautions that you would take in any other place you visit. Puerto Vallarta is one of my favourite places, followed closely by Mazatlan.