LIVE from Eurodam Dec '15-Caribbean Collector Cruise

[sue117]

Day 1 Half Moon Cay

I forgot to say in yesterday’s note that there are new (at least I think they are new) little safety lights in the room. One in the bathroom…you can’t turn it off, but it’s great. It’s a small light that comes on when the other lights in there aren’t on. You can see perfectly fine to use the restroom, and you don’t have to turn on the big overhead light. There are also little, what I’m calling nightlights, next to each side of the bed. They are the regular lights, but when it’s dark in the room, they glow faintly. They give the room just enough light so you can see to walk around, but not trip over anything.

I hate lights on when I sleep and these don’t bother me at all. They’re just the right brightness, at least I think so! Lol

Today we slept in (for us) and got up around 730. We “arrived” at Half Moon Cay around 8…right on time. We went down to eat breakfast around 830, making it by thirty minutes. Breakfasts are the thing we love about being in a Neptune Suite the most…we each got an omelet and were on our way. We made it to the island around 1030 I’d say.

There are a lot of younger people and kids on this ship (because it’s the Caribbean and because it’s the holidays) and while the beach was very busy, the island didn’t seem crowded.

We walked around, getting the lay of the land and finally settled on the beach a bit down from the official swimming area. OMG, the water was perfect. The beach was perfect. The sand was perfect. I could move here and be happy for the rest of my life. Lol. We were hot from walking and the water felt great. No shells or rocks, just beautiful soft sand. The blue of the water was amazing.

We didn’t stay too long, as we are whiter than white and didn’t want to be sunburnt after day 1. The way they have lunch set up is great…it’s barbeque (hotdogs, hamburgers, fruit, brownies, beef tip steak…and of course all “free”). There were plenty of picnic tables for everyone to sit.

Overall it was a great day. We headed back to the ship around 1230ish. The tender wasn’t crowded because we still had 3 hours in port, but we had enough sun for the day and hubby had a blister from his new shoes (yes, I told him to break them in, and no he didn’t really listen to me) and sand getting up under them while we were walking around.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing after a shower. Our room attendant came in and told us of a new addition to the room, a Bose Bluetooth speaker. I connected it to my cell phone and played some music. VERY nice!

We ate dinner at the Canaletto. I wasn’t impressed, but I am very picky with my food and don’t eat seafood, so the selection was limited for me. I didn’t even ask for a kid’s menu this time! Lol. Hubby was pleased with the food, but we probably won’t eat there again. We like the conversation of the dining room with our tablemates.

After dinner we walked around the ship a bit and then headed to the comedian/juggler. The funniest parts were when the audience members came up on stage. I swear the second guy seemed “coached”, but he could’ve just been really funny himself. Lol

No dancing or drinking for us today, (I warned you before this started that we were boring!). We watched another episode of Criminal Minds and went to sleep.

[cruz chic]

Thank you for your reports. I enjoy reading them.

[InTheWASide]

I didn't realize a friend of mine was onboard and he sent dozens of pictures to me. The ship looks more incredible than ever before!

 

The gallery bar is my new favorite space for decor, hands down

 

The marble backsplashes in the suite bathrooms look incredible too.

 

The only misfire, IMO, is the tile flooring at Dive In... I thought at first he must have photo-shopped the design in the tiles... he swears he didn't.

 

Other than that... WOW!! :D

[idiebabe]

I didn't realize a friend of mine was onboard and he sent dozens of pictures to me. The ship looks more incredible than ever before!

 

The gallery bar is my new favorite space for decor, hands down

 

The marble backsplashes in the suite bathrooms look incredible too.

 

The only misfire, IMO, is the tile flooring at Dive In... I thought at first he must have photo-shopped the design in the tiles... he swears he didn't.

 

Other than that... WOW!! :D

 

Any chance you can post some of the pics? Would love to see them! Thanks! :)

[InTheWASide]

Any chance you can post some of the pics? Would love to see them! Thanks! :)

 

The way he sent them isn't just typical photo files. I'll give it a shot but I make no promises

[InTheWASide]

 

Gallery bar (former northern lights)

[idiebabe]

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Gallery bar (former northern lights)

 

Thanks! Looking forward to seeing all the changes on Oosterdam in September! :)

[Copper10-8]

Enjoying your EUDM review Sue; Merry Christmas and enjoy!

[sue117]

Day 2- At Sea

 

Ah, sea days. For me and hubby that means sleeping in, reading and generally relaxing. We ate breakfast in the Pinnacle, as usual, I need to remember to ask for the bacon “crispy” as it was a bit limp this morning. Lol.

In the morning I finished editing my book that is coming out in Feb and got it sent back to the editor for one last review. Then we ate lunch in the Lido and wandered around. I have to say, this being our first Caribbean cruise, there were a TON of people out on the back deck in the sun. lol. I guess I’m used to Alaska and Hawaii where there aren’t that many people out there (and the fact there are a lot more younger people on this cruise than we’re used to).

Then there was me…in my 3-quarter length jeans and fleece jacket. Ha! The Texan in me was coming out…but to be fair I had been hanging out in the chilly room and not on deck in the sun. I observed, of course, a man griping to an officer about how he had his towel on a chair and someone took it. *rolling eyes*. I would say about HALF of the chairs had towels on them, but no people.

I went to the future cruise talk in the afternoon. I was surprised to learn (although you guys probably already knew it) that the Stattendam was sold to another cruise line. That was the first ship me and hubby sailed on.

I got my bronze (copper?) medallion as well…hubby is 5 days from his, so I gloated a bit. Lol. It was a nice little ceremony, with probably around 25 people in attendance…not that many for sure.

Today was a “gala” night…and it honestly didn’t look any different than the “formal” nights I’d seen in the past. One man was turned away as he was wearing a black T-shirt. I didn’t see any tuxedos, but most men were wearing a coat and tie. I told hubby he didn’t need the coat, but he looked nice in his shirt and tie.

One of the women was feeling under the weather, but she came to dinner anyway. I was impressed. If I felt like crap, I certainly wouldn’t have put on a dress and come to the formal dinner! Dinner was slow again tonight. The trio said it was good last night when we weren’t there, so maybe we’re bad luck. I felt bad though because the waiters were obviously trying, but dealing with complaints and promising to be better the next night. We didn’t have anywhere to go or anything to do, so for us, it’s not a big deal. But it did _seem_ slow, even though it was only an hour and a half.

Anyway, we didn’t do the show tonight because it was singing and dancing, and hubby is allergic to that stuff (ok, not really, but you get my point). We went back to the room, changed into PJs, hubby ordered a pot of coffee from room service, and we hung out watching TV. A perfect ending to a lazy day.

One thing I didn’t mention before was that there are 2 USB ports next to the bed now. It’s very interesting, but handy for sure.

The other thing is that we are finding our balcony almost useless. Where we are (mid ship), the spray from the waves comes up and onto the balcony while we are moving, so it’s always wet and salty. It’s kinda a bummer actually. I remember when we went to Hawaii I was always on the balcony…reading, napping, whatever. But today that was out of the question. Poo.

[sue117]

Pics of the casino and the Galley Bar attached to it! It's beautiful!

 

 

 

 

[InTheWASide]

Caribbean cruises and warm weather destinations definitely get more chair hogs.

 

Thanks again for your detailed reports.

 

Statendam was transferred to P&O Australia (another Carnival Corporation brand) as was Ryndam. They are now named Pacific Eden and Pacific Aria and the renovations on the ships are jaw dropping. They look absolutely incredible.

 

Questions maybe you can check into if you have a couple minutes:

Does the Gallery Bar or Billboard Onboard have any sort of special drink menu/selections or just the same thing that is in every other bar/lounge?

Anything else whether new or not that strikes you as gorgeous, odd, bad, etc?

Edited December 23, 2015 by InTheWASide

[InTheWASide]

Pics of the casino and the Galley Bar attached to it! It's beautiful!

 

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Incredible! I've seen a couple pictures that make it sound like there is only 1 piano. Do you know if they plan to add a 2nd?

[cruz chic]

I hope the woman that dragged herself to dinner is not contagious. Thx for the pics and the update.

[expectGREATthings]

Hello,

I have one more question that I hope you can help me with. One of the upgrade features was to be an in room coffee maker. Did that happen? I know you mentioned ordering a late night pot of coffee and I was wondering if maybe the machines were not in place as of yet. If they are installed can you tell me if they're Keurig, Nespresso or what kind they are? I appreciate your help.

Happy Holidays,

Michael

[sue117]

I hope the woman that dragged herself to dinner is not contagious. Thx for the pics and the update.

 

Nope! She was at dinner tonight and ate normally! So YAY for her AND us! lol

 

I will check out the drinks in the gallary bar. I know in the schedule they have a "drink of the day", but I don't know about other specials. I'll scope it out tomorrow!

 

I will also check about the piano and see what I can find out. :)

[sue117]

oops, I hit return too fast.

 

I do like the shops area. It's wide open and bright...I don't really shop onboard, but I think they have a nice selection of "stuff" as well as jewlery and watches.There's this REALLY soft dress? coverup? thing that I love, but I would never wear it...but it's soooooooo soft (and a REALLY cute crab purse/bag thing)...

 

There is no coffee maker of any kind in our Neptune Suite...not sure if that's in the works or not down the line.

 

The same weird/creepy (in MY opinion...I'm sure they are "art" though) pictures are still in the stairwells...those weird looking men. lol

 

The day of the week carpets ARE in the elevators. :)

 

And I just LOOOOOOVE the service on HAL. Seriously. I can be ridiculously picky about food, and they guys just roll with it. Tonight I wanted to know how BIG the scoops of ice cream were in the dining room. I mean, if they were tiny "appetizer" size, then I wanted three. But if they were substantial normal sized, then two would do.:) All Edy did was smile at me and wink and say he'd take care of me.:)

But really, every single one, no matter how weird the request, or what YOU are doing, smile and are extremely polite (for example, we were walking down the skinny hallway and one of the room service guys comes out of a room holding a huge tray loaded down and he REFUSED to go first. lol. He wouldn't hear of it when we stopped to let him by.It's that sort of thing that really sells us on HAL.They don't make it seem like they are irritated with their job or the hours or anything.

[cruz chic]

Nope! She was at dinner tonight and ate normally! So YAY for her AND us! lol

 

I will check out the drinks in the gallary bar. I know in the schedule they have a "drink of the day", but I don't know about other specials. I'll scope it out tomorrow!

 

I will also check about the piano and see what I can find out. :)

 

Good to hear :).

[InTheWASide]

Nope! She was at dinner tonight and ate normally! So YAY for her AND us! lol

 

I will check out the drinks in the gallary bar. I know in the schedule they have a "drink of the day", but I don't know about other specials. I'll scope it out tomorrow!

 

I will also check about the piano and see what I can find out. :)

 

 

Very much appreciated. Thank you

[gsully224]

Thanks for the updates! Any insights on late night entertainment now that Northern Lights is gone?

[sue117]

Thanks for the updates! Any insights on late night entertainment now that Northern Lights is gone?

 

Honestly, we don't do the late night entertainment thing, but last night there is always something going on in the Queen's Lounge (last night Karaoke at 10 and late night dancing at 11).The other night they had jazz inthe BB King Blue's Club (floor 2) from 845-11 as well as ballroom dance hour in the ocean bar.:)

[Linda151]

Love reading your blog! Thank you! We're on the Eurodam on Dec 27th for 2 weeks, first time with HAL and super excited.:) we have ideas for Ocho Rios and Cayman Islands but if anybody has any tips for the best beaches on our other ports, that would be great!!! And Merry Christmas Everybody 🌲🎉

[sue117]

Day 3, Ocho Rios, Jamaica

 

We arrived today around 8am, as planned. Hubby got up and used the work out facility. He loves it! It’s big,it has lots of equipment, running, elliptical, lots of weight machines…he says he’ll be sore tomorrow, but he’s

I took a hot shower, and since the bathroom doesn’t have a fan in it, I left the door open to the little “sitting room” thing so it didn’t get too hot in the bathroom. BUT…I didn’t open the little curtain to the sitting room first….yup…smoke alarm started blaring when I pulled back the shower curtain. Dang!!! I waved the towel trying to get it to stop and the phone rings….Hubby is on the balcony and has no idea of the drama ensuing inside the room. I rush butt nekked to the phone and it’s an officer from the bridge!! All in all it took probably about 10 seconds for the call to come in after the smoke alarm went off. Pretty impressive as far as things go.

So I was flustered and trying to explain that it was just the “smoke” from the shower. I couldn’t find my words! He asked if it was the steam from the shower…and I sighed in relief. Yes, that was the word I was looking for. The alarm shut off, and all was well. As embarrassing as it was, it’s good to know that they are totally on the ball. I’m sure if I had said it was a fire the crew would’ve been busting in the room, with me nekked, and dealing with it if I had needed it!

After the drama (and hubby taking a shower with the bathroom door SHUT and the curtain OPEN), we ate breakfast in the Pinnacle again (darn, forgot to ask for crispy bacon!) and headed out to see the sights before our tour around 11.

I can’t say I would ever voluntarily come to this part of Jamaica for vacation. It seemed dirty, and we were accosted by “taxi? Taxi, mon?” every couple of feet (We were down a bit from the shops…about a .3 mile walk). There were “Security” people stationed along the sidewalk all the way to the shops…a bit disconcerting to say the least.

Then when you GET to the shops you are usually followed around the stores by the employees and anything you touch you are asked if you want that and what size, etc etc etc. There was a hint of desperation in everyone we passed and talked to.

Don’t get me wrong, I get it, I know why, tourism is their livihood, but it’s just uncomfortable for this sheltered American. Lol

We did our thing and supported the local economy by purchasing some T-shirts and a few other things, then headed back to the ship to cool off before our river rafting trip.

We met back on the dock at 1115 for our excursion, got put on a bus(ish---not really a BUS like we know a bus, but a smaller version that held about 20-25 people).

The trip up to the rafting (zipline, horseback riding) place took about an hour. They drive on the left side of the road here, like in England, which certainly takes some getting use to when you’re looking out the front of the vehicle! Lol. Once we turned off the main road we were on a one lane road that was windy and went up to the Chakka adventures place. There were a few scary moment with the bus driving on the skinny bumpy road and the huge drop-offs! Lol

The place was a zoo when we got there. They were VERY busy. There weren’t any lockers left to rent, so we stuck our stuff in bags and put them in a closet (which was fine).Then off we went to the put-in point. We had to wait there a bit for more rafts to come, but FINALLY we got started. IMHO there were too many people in one “group”, there were 3 of the little buses together, so maybe around 60 people. The trip down was nice, but mostly very slow. The three guides were funny and kept it interesting. There were only 3 places where there were “rapids”, and they were very short.But again, it was a good excursion for the price.

When we got back to the end we were the only people there. It was now 300, and all aboard was 330. And no busses there to take us. We waited for a bit and finally got going at 3:22.

Why did I report such a weird time? Because I wanted to know exactly how long it took us to get back to the ship. 36minutes. We flew down that mountain! If I thought the trip OUT was scary…woowee!!! That driver was DRIVING! At one point I looked up to see he’d made his own “lane” in the middle and was laying on the horn blasting by traffic to try to get us back to the ship. His phone was ringing every couple of minutes and finally he just started ignoring it, not wanting to tell the person on the other end…again…where he was in traffic.

But we made it back safe and sound, and there were 3 other buses from other excursions pulling in at the same time as we were. So we weren’t even the last on the ship! Some people were nervous we’d get left, but we kept telling them that was the beauty of the ship excursions…you won’t get left.

We showered and went to dinner (we were HUNGRY, we didn’t eat lunch before we left since it was kinda early, so we were ready to eat!).

The show tonight was the BB King Jazz group, and we decided to do our own thing. I did go and ask about the ship tour, you know, the SPECIAL ship tour, the expensive behind the scenes one. It was full, but the thing is that it is in 2 parts, one on Fri (sea day) and the other in Key West…well we have an excursion in Key West and I’d have to miss that part. BUT…I put my name on the list for NEXT week. I didn’t even THINK about doing that! Lol. Thank goodness for the Neptune Suite concierge for suggesting it. I tried to do the tour on this ship when we went to the Baltics, but it was canceled because of a code red. I’ve wanted to do one of the tours since I heard about it on these boards. Hopefully next week it won’t be during one of the stops we have an excursion.

Hubby went up to the crow’s nest to read and work on some spreadsheets he had. He said there was trivia going on and some music playing. I read in the room, cozy and snug and warm in our bed.

[sue117]

We're on the Eurodam on Dec 27th for 2 weeks, first time with HAL and super excited.:) we have ideas for Ocho Rios and Cayman Islands but if anybody has any tips for the best beaches on our other ports, that would be great!!! And Merry Christmas Everybody 🌲🎉

 

We will "see" you next week...ok, we probably won't "see" you cos we spend a lot of time relaxing in our cave, but if you see a chick walking around with a big scab on her lip....that's me! (And it's the remnants of a dog bite, not a cold sore! lol)

 

Honestly, Jamaica was a bit scary for us, but we're homebodies who live in rural Texas, so we aren't that worldly. lol. But there IS a free beach walking distance from where we docked at Margaritaville bar down in the shopping area. Our table mates said they spent the day there. It's probably crowded (as it's between 2 cruise ship docks), but it's a free option and you don't have to get too far away from the touristy areas).

 

Our bus driver yesterday said that the unemployement was 16% on the island, but he said that number comes from the politicians, so it's probably at least double that in real life.Also, there is no welfare system, so if a "person doesn't work, they don't eat." (direct quote from the bus driver). That's most likely why they are so insistent about "Taxi, mon?" and offering to sell you a joint as you're relaxing (that's what our table mates said happened to them). BUT, they are also pretty good about if you say "no" they leave you alone. (and why there were security people standing along the sidewalk leading from our dock to the shopping and all in the shopping areas). The main industry on the island is tourism.

 

Anyway, that probably wasn't a lot of help, but just more of my random thoughts. lol. But it could be an option. :)

[sue117]

Here are some pics from Jamaica!

This is me and hubby ready to go on our float trip. Not sure the helmets were completely necessary, but oh well! lol

 

 

More floating down the river. It was a very slow float for sure!

 

 

Safety first!!! (yup, there's NOTHING wrong with sitting on the back of a load of cinderblocks! lol)

 

 

And this is the driver making his OWN lane in the middle trying to get us back to the ship as fast as he could. My eyes were closed for most of the trip back. ha!

 

 

And here is the a pic of the plug next to the bed. It's only on one side though. The other side has the normal 220 and 120 (or whatever...the US one) voltage plugs.

 

[gsully224]

Thank you for all of your updates! Do you know if the Signature Suites have also been renovated?