**Near-Live Blog of Zaandam Inca and South America Cruise 24 Sep - 3 Nov 2018**

[erewhon]

Thank you for beginning your "live" blog, looking forward to reading of your adventures.

Wishing you and Roger a wonderful cruise.

Safe travelling.

[Dogstar]

Following. Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure with us. [emoji924]☀️

[CupKayke]

Following. Itinerary looks great...

[BarbarianPaul]

We were on the Zandaam last Feb...34 days in South America, 22 from Santiago to Buenos Aires including Antarctica, then a back to back 12 day round trip from BA to Brazil and back.

We loved the entire experience!

 

 

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[0bnxshs]

Not that anyone has asked (but I think I should have included it in my first post), here is a map of the itinerary of the 40 day cruise we are booked on.

 

 

The roll calls are a mixture of cruisers who are doing the full 40 days and those who are doing various segments along the way. There are a couple of people getting on in Seattle and debarking in San Diego I believe. There are lots of people boarding in Vancouver on Tuesday who are either going to Rio or will be debarking in San Antonio, Chile for Santiago. Haven't heard if there is anyone getting on in Vancouver and off in San Diego.

 

Then there are those boarding in San Diego, again either going all the way to Rio or debarking in San Antonio. In San Antonio, there are a lot of people who'll be boarding and going on to Rio. So it's quite a mixture and there are at least 4 different roll calls covering the entire 40 days. For some reason, HAL decided not to call the 40 day cruise a "Collector's Cruise" as I have seen, and been on, in the past. But it's not a "B2B2B2B2B2B2B...." cruise either. We have a single booking number from HAL and I suspect everyone else also does.

 

Those of you who know me, or of me, know that I've been given, from time to time, to create and maintain cruise spreadsheets and even websites in an attempt to gather together all the roll call members, their interests and wishes, their privately organized tours and various activities planned during the cruise in 1 place for simplicity's sake. There's always the last minute people who join a roll call who don't want to read through an entire thread to find private tours with openings and the like and ask hoping someone will reply. Referring them to a spreadsheet/website is so much easier and efficient. Actually, I will admit that I also do it for the selfish reason of knowing all the things I want, or don't want, to do with all these crazy people. :o But, this cruise I'm not doing any of that.

 

With 4 roll calls, you'd think that there'd be so many Meet and Greets that we'd have little time for anything else, right? :rolleyes: I know these sorts of things aren't the favorite of some here. Well, guess what? No Meet and Greets; not a single one. No one has organized one for any of the segments and very few have even asked about one. The only activity that has been organized, beyond several members who are seeking participants for various private tours they've organized (and had to re-post to as many as 3 other roll calls because no one has created a spreadsheet/website for this purpose or wanted the threads combined) is a Sail Away gathering of a few people at the Sea View pool from San Diego (Mardi Gras beads optional.) Go figure!

 

Back to gathering the packing together.....

Edited September 20, 2018 by 0bnxshs
always trying to make it better but rarely succeeding

[MrFunInTheSun]

Thanks for bringing us along.

 

 

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[kazu]

Rich I am surprised because:

 

A) you didn't do a spread sheet ;) :halo: (good for you for taking a break)

 

B) that there are no meet and greets for any of your segments.

 

By the way, I hear you on the different roll calls. Our cruise for next year has 3. But some doofus on the roll call was dumb enough to do a spread sheet ;) :')

[DianeNZ]

Hi Rich,

 

 

Looking forward to reading about your experiences. My sister and I are booked on the Zaandam's Oct 2019 17-Day Inca And Panama Canal Discovery, which will include Fuerte Amador,Manta, Salaverry, and Callao.

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Diane

[dodo bird]

Thank you for taking us all along. I am looking forward to read your blog. This itinerary is on my husband's bucket list for 2020. Bon voyage!

[0bnxshs]

Rich I am surprised because:

 

A) you didn't do a spread sheet :halo: (good for you for taking a break)

 

B) that there are no meet and greets for any of your segments.

 

By the way, I hear you on the different roll calls. Our cruise for next year has 3. But some doofus on the roll call was dumb enough to do a spread sheet. :')

 

A) I just couldn't get interested in creating one between having to monitor 4 roll calls to keep it updated and how slow they have been. Early on I mentioned trying to combine them but met resistance to that. Which I understand and was fine with. ;p

 

B) I agree, I'm a bit surprised no one stepped forward to do at least 1 along the way. I am guilty of considering setting 1 up but passing too. :o

 

Doofus?!? :rolleyes: Not at all. We both well know that while the work put into doing a spreadsheet is considerable, the satisfaction derived from seeing so many happy and satisfied roll call members is priceless.

 

Perhaps one of my motivations for starting (and hopefully finishing) this blog is to make up for my laziness of not doing a spreadsheet or M&G. :)

Edited September 21, 2018 by 0bnxshs

[0bnxshs]

Thanks for bringing us along.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Hi Rich,

 

 

Looking forward to reading about your experiences. My sister and I are booked on the Zaandam's Oct 2019 17-Day Inca And Panama Canal Discovery, which will include Fuerte Amador,Manta, Salaverry, and Callao.

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Diane

 

Thank you for taking us all along. I am looking forward to read your blog. This itinerary is on my husband's bucket list for 2020. Bon voyage!

 

Happy to have y'all following! I hope I can give you some insight into the ship and ports that will help you planning your cruises. :D

[0bnxshs]

Packing of clothes and items is nearly complete. I feel like I made good progress yesterday....

 

Lots of shirts:

 

Gadgets and a sports coat (but no ties... I'm on vacation!):

 

Checked bag for airlines... got to be under 50 lbs! :eek: :

 

The upright bag is my carry-on luggage while the backpack in the 2nd image is my personal item. ;)

 

Isn't on board laundry great? As 4* Mariners, we appreciate that it's free but have paid for unlimited laundry before we had that perk. So, we pack 5 - 7 days worth of clothing no matter the length of the cruise and then add the itinerary specific items we feel we need. For this cruise I'm only adding a light jacket even though we're going to Machu Picchu and will be in some cooler weather in South America. I love cool and even cold weather. I can sweat in a walk-in freezer. I brought a heavy coat for our Antarctic cruise and only wore it once, when we were permitted on the bow of Veendam in the Gerlach Straits. I was out there for probably an hour taking photos.

 

So, today I must get meds from the pharmacy and groceries for the DW. Then it's time to pack everything up and weigh it, then re-pack after deciding what to take out. Everything's printed that needs printing. Bills all paid up.

[0bnxshs]

Just thought I'd mention a couple of things of special interest that I am packing this cruise.

 

I bought a GoPro Hero5 on the recommendation of a friend (and her son, thanks 1of4 and 4of4!) from Canada. I have been looking to downsize camera equipment for a while, especially since I've become functionally blind in my right eye and carrying my bulky DSLR just doesn't make sense anymore since it now takes horrible pictures! Nothing is centered, everything is on a left to right slant, etc. :eek: So, I will be using my Samsung Galaxy S7+ Edge phone and the GoPro for all photos and videos. I hope to figure this thing out along the way:

 

I have been carrying this little treasure for several cruises now. It's a TripMate Elite TM06 Wireless Travel Router. It's basically a hotspot which allows you to share a wireless connection among multiple devices simultaneously (shhhh... keep this info under wraps!!!). :evilsmile: It's also a power bank and can share an external device like a portable hard drive to its network. Thanks go to my nephew, Mr. B, for the Christmas gift!

 

Lastly, I try to remember to bring a challenge coin. I have been nailed a few times for not having one on me, often by my FIL Roger, who knows I should have it, and occasionally by my SIL or BIL. Always costs me a drink if I'm caught without it. But, we've also caught a few other vets without theirs on cruises. We had a grand time once in Cozumel during a cruise a few years ago with a then recently retired USAF Sr NCO, who had forgotten his, and his wife, who he blamed for not packing it, drinking the afternoon away at Senior Frogs on his dime! They were a friendly and fun couple but I'll be darned if I can remember their names. If you don't know the story behind challenge coins, click here:

 

Anyhow, time to head to the pharmacy.

Edited September 21, 2018 by 0bnxshs

[0bnxshs]

39 lbs! Not even a pound a day in my checked luggage. :confused: Now I know I'm forgetting something, just don't yet know what.....

[superoma]

Looking forward to reading your thread. But your most recent pictures are not posting. The link is broken. Early pictures posted.

 

 

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[onewin]

Hello Rich

We will be embarking right after you debark! Really looking forward to hearing your impressions. Thanks for sharing with us :)

[erewhon]

We also are not able to view your most recent photos.

[Lido deck main]

Will be following. This is a cruise we are hoping to do as well. Thanks for sharing.

[jbhcw]

Cannot see pictures either:(

[jimbri]

I can see your first photos but not the newest. Looking forward to your review!

[0bnxshs]

Thanks to everyone for following. I really appreciate it. What's odd is that I can see all the photos but one (the 3rd one from the very top) from my desktop computer but many of them aren't showing on my laptop computer. I think there might be some periodic issues with access to them as each person views the blog here on CC but can't tell where the bottleneck is. I am going to clear my browser cache on my laptop to see if that helps to retrieve the photos and will advise.

 

Still haven't figured out what I'm missing in my checked luggage. Laid awake part of last night mulling it over. Checked in for our flight tomorrow to Seattle this morning. We have a rather early start tomorrow with a flight out of Orlando at 7:15 AM. For some reason, Delta says it is feeding us "Lunch, Breakfast, Breakfast" on this roughly 6 hour flight. Guess we'll see what that means tomorrow. My family is nothing if not, ummm.... "concerned" about being regularly fed and will often provision for such journeys. I mean, like.... "start looking for mules to pack the provisions for us" kind of provisioning. For me, food is something I like to eat (and I rarely miss a meal), I'm not picky about it (warm vs hot, tasty vs bland, underdone vs overdone) or its presentation and I find it's either something I'll eat again or not. There are foods I simply refuse to eat but I've never gone hungry. My DW says I should note that there are food "groups" I refuse to eat and I guess I can't argue with that. Otherwise, I'm not very discerning. No one should ever confuse me with being a "foodie".

 

So, don't expect sophisticated critiques of the food on board; my palate is simply not that perceptive. Besides that, we'll eat 95% of our meals in the Lido Market. Now, I will admit to being critical of poor service and that you might find noted now and again, should it happen. But, as I don't expect much beyond clean tables and chairs in the Lido, I do expect that I'll be generally happy.

 

More later..... :D

[Krazy Kruizers]

Just got caught up.

I also am not able to view your last several pictures.

Hope you get more food on Delta than we did when we flew on them -- cross country -- 5 hours -- lousy breakfast.

[0bnxshs]

Trying to post photos again.....

 

The GoPro Hero5:

 

The TripMate Elite TM06:

 

The Challenge coin:

 

Hopefully these are viewable this time. :mad: Clearing images and files cache didn't seem to work. However, I can see the 3 above on the laptop now.

[kazu]

Those photos are showing - nice and clear. Go Pro looks cool. I am NOT showing it to DH ;)

[jbhcw]

Thanks!! Pictures showing up:D