26 days on the Oosterdam-Venice to Fort Lauderdale-Report

[Sonora5]

A sea day!

 

We had so many ports on this cruise, with few sea days in the first three weeks. After a rainy day in Lisbon that was a little disappointing, we were looking forward to kicking back.

 

I did not take pics of any menus or food. I know those are popular and I will try to do better next time. We ate in the Lido on a lot of port days. The food there was good! There was rarely a line for anything. We liked the variety and the consistency. The aft end of the Lido had a special buffet of appetizers and small salad items. There were also nicely prepared seafood dishes quite often.

 

We also got room service a lot. Sometimes we were very lazy and we had one of the concierges order for us. Mr S would get himself a generous pour at the lounge honor bar and we would settle in to our room.

 

We got room service for breakfast a number of times also. They actually made a nice omelet on this ship, which does not always happen.

 

Trivia was usually played twice daily. The early trivia was hosted by cruise director Kelly, who really seemed unhappy to be there. The afternoon trivia was hosted by assistant cruise director Tino who was great. Entertaining, funny, personable, and great trivia questions. He also hosted 2 or 3 music trivias and we begged for more. If you are lucky enough to have Tino on your cruise you will have a good time.

 

After a relaxing sea day we were ready for Madeira, our last port before our seven day Atlantic crossing.

[ZN1300]

Sort of a mostly cloudy day heading to Madeira. Here are pictures from around the ship.

[Sonora5]

Madeira:

 

We love Madeira and we have been all over the island with Daniel Madeira Taxis, which I recommend. Great small group tours, they have several set options or you can customize.

 

This time we chose to go it on our own. Our objective was to ride the cable car at Monte. No sleds for us, just hoho up to the top and then a round trip cable car ride.

 

We took the free cruise ship shuttle into Funchal and hopped on the hoho. The blue line takes you up to the Botanical Gardens, and the cable car is an easy walk from there.

 

The ride was great, spectacular views, and we had beautiful, sunny weather. At the bottom we walked around and got a snack at a cafe, then rode back up. The line is longer at the bottom than the top, because many people ride one way and do the sleds back down.

 

We went back into town and looked around briefly, then back to the ship for seven days at sea.

 

That evening we had our second dinner in the Main Dining Room. This time we chose to dine alone, and had a very nice meal with efficient and pleasant service and no bores.

 

I believe we also played trivia.

 

Next: Water, water everywhere

[ski ww]

We always enjoy our stop in Funchal. The HO/HO is a great way to get around & see some of the sights. Enjoy your sea days.

[ZN1300]

Madeira in the morning. Always a wonderful port. More pictures later... I gotta go for now.

[ZN1300]

On the hoho to Monte.

The house had a fire. Don't know if it was from a few years ago when the island had a large fire.

The hoho stop by the botanical gardens.

A family about to head down the mountain in one of the sleds. I assume the man is checking to see if his medical insurance covers insanity. If you don't know about the Madeira sled ride then google it and look at the youtube videos.

[ZN1300]

The cable car gondola.

View of the port and other views.

 

 

[ZN1300]

When we go to the bottom we stopped and had a little snack. This is how our bill was presented.

[ZN1300]

Back on the ship.

Pico Fortress.

Early departure.

The bridge is one of many. They tunnel through the mountains for easy travel around the island.

Clouds move in on the mountain tops.

[ZN1300]

Parting shots of Madeira and other near by islands. Nothing to do now except relax and enjoy the Atlantic crossing.

[Sonora5]

This was our fourth transatlantic cruise, the third one east to west which we prefer. People ask us all the time about these cruises. The two most inquired about topics are the roughness of the seas and what we do for 7 or 8 days during the crossing.

 

This time, the seas were like glass, and the days mostly warm and sunny. The seven day crossing passed extremely quickly. We don't usually do a lot of ship activities, other than trivia, but the time still flies.

 

As suite passengers we had access to the Neptune Lounge, which is a fabulous suite amenity. Two concierges staff the lounge and take of everything for us. There is a wonderful rotation of snacks, changed every couple of hours. There is an honor bar, continental breakfast, and fresh coffee and juices all day. Iced tea and hot tea are also on offer. I liked a mix of iced tea and cranberry juice.

 

We got set with a great trivia team and generally hit all the trivia contests. We got a bar reserved for us and our friends to watch election returns.

 

We particularly enjoyed the Lincoln Center performances. The quintet of young musicians did an excellent job.

[Sonora5]

We also did some specialty dining. The Pinnacle Grill was available to us for breakfast, and we are there fairly often. I have to admit we did like the free mimosas with room service, and on particularly lazy days we just foraged in the Neptune Lounge.

 

One day we decided to try the Pinnacle Grill for lunch. It was a disaster. The service was so slow we missed our trivia game. We never did get dessert, after two hours we finally left. No drink refills, no follow up, etc.

 

For breakfast in the Pinnacle, the food was generally good. The service was not slow, exactly, but pretty disorganized. It seemed like every service had a different server. You want juice? That's not the same person that just brought you the bread tray. we muddled through but there was at least one couple who had a complete meltdown over something involving eggs.

 

We also booked a second Sel de Mer, and the Cellar Master dinner. At the Cellar Master dinner we sat with two other couples, one who we knew and one who were new to us. We were enjoying the evening. I don't think the wine was marvelous but it was ok.

 

Then, as the fifth course was to begin, the young waiter spilled my glass of wine all over me and the table cloth. His error was compounded by the fact that he let the rest of the tray of wine glasses start to tip, and a complete disaster was only narrowly averted.

 

He was clearly mortified, and an older waiter hustled him away,

 

Then we sat. And sat. All six of us. No one came back with fresh wine. No one served us the fifth course. No one checked to see if I was ok, or offered to dry clean my blouse. I was seated in the center seat on the banquette, and I did not want to disturb my companions so I sat there as my blouse dried.

 

We finally were able to flag someone down, and got our wine and our food. I was startled that no one came by to apologize or check on me or anything. Our friends we dined with saw us several times over the rest of the cruise, and they were similarly surprised that no one made any kind of amends.

 

Fortunately we had free dry cleaning, and my blouse, which was somewhat elderly, emerged unscathed.

 

Our second Sel de Mer dinner was fine. It was just the two of us and we enjoyed the meal.

[ski ww]

Loved your pictures of Madeira brought back good memories.  

[Sonora5]

Thanks.

 

More on the Pinnacle:

 

We know that other people had trouble in the Pinnacle, steaks not done right, slow service, etc. We also know that there were people who ate in the Pinnacle quite a bit and had no problems. For our disappointing lunch, we were offered to come back for a free lunch, but declined. We were not crazy about the menu.

 

We ate once or twice at the burger place by the pool and it was fine. We actually hit the Lido more than we usually do, especially in the port intensive part of the cruise. It was fine as well. I liked how clean it was kept, and I especially liked the appetizer station at the aft end of the Lido.

 

We had two meals at Canaletto. One was with friends, the other just us. Both were good. I liked the food, especially the soup and the shrimp dish.

 

I would say overall the food on the Oosterdam exceeded expectations. This may be due to the fact that the previous year on the Pacific Princess the food was not so great so the Oosterdam seems great in comparison.

 

 

[ZN1300]

Bobbing along in the Atlantic.

[Sonora5]

Well, I need to bring this report to a close.

 

First, I want to again express how great the Assistant Cruise Director Tino was. He is very talented, kind and runs a great trivia.

 

Second, a booking tip: If you are doing a Transatlantic and have a balcony, consider carefully which side you want to be on. East to west in the fall, port side can be very sunny and hot. Starboard side is shady and cool. We were on the port side this trip and have booked starboard for our next one.

 

Thinking back, as friends here have asked me what we liked best, I realized that the tour of Olympia was amazing and one of the best tours we have ever done. Albania was very interesting, with lots of potential. Barcelona wonderful as always and we really enjoyed adding a new country to our list with our Andorra trip.

 

We were glad to finally see Gibraltar. Monaco was a little cold, and our Toulon stop great. Cinque Terre should be on everyone's list.

 

Our cruise ended all too soon. Disembarkation was a little bit of a problem. Those geezers in blazers need to be trained about the ADA. Mr S was wearing his portable oxygen concentrator because it was hot and humid in Fort Lauderdale and we weren't sure how far we would have to walk.We got our bags ok, as usual there weren't enough porters to go around, and a kind person got us into the handicapped line. Then one of those officious oldies with a clipboard stopped us, and told us they were holding up the handicapped line so people from the Global Entry line- who were already using one checkpoint-could get through faster. We asked for a supervisor and she refused to get one for us.

 

This is really unacceptable. Fortunately, the very kind person at the head of the Global Entry line motioned for us to go when it was her  turn. When Mrs Clipboard tried to stop us, our fellow passenger pointed out Mr S's oxygen equipment. We thanked here and were through the checkpoint very quickly.

 

Grabbed a cab, on to the airport and uneventful flights home.

 

Now time to start planning the next cruise!

 

 

[I_r_a]

Thanx for sharing, S

 

Ira

[Mickb]

Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

We did a similar crossing on the Prinsendam a few years ago and it brought back wonderful memories.