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Rotterdam - Puerto Vallarta March 14


Rinderoo
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in one week things have gone from somewhat normal operations to cruiselines shutdown and most ports closed to ships. As such the remaining ships have to avail themselves of any opportunity to get their passengers off ship and home as soon as they can. 

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3 hours ago, DeeniEncinitas said:

Good morning everyone!!

Just an update to all!!

❤️ HAL is reimbursing all independent air flights we have a form to fill out and to show receipts. We just received our stateroom bill and no charges! They gave us back everything except to our dear stewards!  I found our stewards Fran and Rako gave them Thank you cards with $50.00 each and told them we cared!!

They are assisting all passengers who had flights with HAL and Hotels getting them rebooked and we have shuttles taking us to airport from HAL..

100% all monies back for our cruise and 100% FCC.

Take care all!

Getting ready to leave Rotterdam 

Denise😊

 

 

Thanks kindly for that update, Denise 🙂 

Sounds like you are being well cared for with this turbulence 😄 

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On 3/15/2020 at 9:45 AM, Himself said:

This is one mess.  Captain Albert's Blog of last night made no mention of this.

 

The latest from the Captain, Father

 

 

15 March 2020; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

I am somehow not in synch with the world leaders as every time, just as I have published my blog, something exciting happens. Same yesterday, I put my blog on line by 1600 hrs. ships time; early as I had to go on standby to teach the cadet and at 16.30 hrs. the Captain received orders to stay in port and send all the guests home.  After careful consideration the decision was made to abort our cruise and ask the guests to fly home, as at this moment they would still be able to reach home. As well as in the Europe, as in the USA and anywhere else, the countries could stop all (international) travel by Monday. Mexico is not yet in lock down as there are hardly any cases here but that might well happen as the numbers in other parts of the world continue to rise. Most of Europe will reduce travel and movement as of Monday and then it might become extremely difficult to get home.

 

Thus wheels were set in motion to get our 700 guests safely home. The captain made several announcements to alert all the guests and crew and then the Holland America Line Travel Organization took over. For those with HAL travel arrangements it was all quickly done, for those with private reservations (or no reservations as they came by car either in San Diego for Fort Lauderdale and were doing a back – to – back) the company helped with arrangements. For that purpose Guest Services had set up a relay system by which every hour or so the guests of one deck were called down and arrangements were then made.

 

The whole ship was then mobilized to assist the guests with disembarking. The first departures from the ship were very early in the morning and the last ones will be at 18.30 tonight. From that early moment on, the cabin stewards were standing in the corridors with trolleys’ so the moment a Cabin door opened, the trolley was there for the luggage. An abrupt change like that has a multiple impact on all the running operations of the ship. Guests who as late as 1600 hrs. put out their laundry, now needed it back ASAP before they could start packing. So also the Ships Laundry, went on high alert. They waited until 21.00 hrs. for the last laundry to come in, and then made sure that everything was dealt with quickly and went back rapidly to the guest to pack.

 

Then apart from the Guests also the “crew” with guest status were disembarked today. Such as the Billboard on board Piano players and the Lincoln Art quartet. We were already sailing with a lower number of entertainers and lecturers than normal as they were not allowed to transfer from other ships or could not get flights from home. Yours truly was already roped in last cruise for extra lectures and the idea was to do this again this cruise. Plus, as the Panama Canal narrator was not coming on board, I would have been narrating that all day long as well. But that is not needed now.

 

What is going to happen now? We do not know. The company, and we here we mean Carnival Corporation has to redirect all the 150+ company ships and the ms Rotterdam is only one of them. We will stay overnight here in Puerto Vallarta for a second night and then the captain will receive further guidance for the next step.  We were supposed to be one of the last ships to disembark our guests, at the end of our regular cruise; now we are one of the first ones, but our sisters ships are also on the way to home ports.

 

If you want to see where they all are, we are on the ships use marine traffic:

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:266342/mmsi:246167000/vessel:ROTTERDAM

 

Which gives an almost real life time position of the ships. Plus what ship it is. The website still gives Huatalco as the next port, and that is because when we prepared for departure yesterday afternoon at 15.30 hrs. That was what was put in the AIS transmitter. It will be changed the moment we receive orders for our next destination.

 

Once the company has decided when we should go through the Panama Canal, we could meet again if the company would decide on a joint anchoring area. Or we could be directed to go somewhere else. We just wait as there are too many factors in play to make even an educated guess. The ship is fully fueled, fully stocked, and because we were in motion for a 14 day cruise with guests, we have now ample provisions on board for a much longer cruise with crew only. Tomorrow we will know more.

 

The Puerto Vallarta authorities have advised that the dock will remain available. With all the cruise ships coming to stand still, there are no ships coming to Puerto Vallarta either and thus we are welcome to stay at our pier as long as is needed.  This gives the option for the crew to go ashore a little bit and I hope that they will do so, as once we start sailing it could be quite a long time before we can get ashore again. So we will see how things progress.

 

The weather in Puerto Vallarta is still beautiful and will also be so tomorrow. Partly Cloudy 29oC / 84oF and a gentle breeze. Tomorrow is also a National Holiday in Mexico but I have no idea if the Mexicans are going to keep it low key or not.

 

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3 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

The latest from the Captain, Father

 

 

15 March 2020; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

I am somehow not in synch with the world leaders as every time, just as I have published my blog, something exciting happens. Same yesterday, I put my blog on line by 1600 hrs. ships time; early as I had to go on standby to teach the cadet and at 16.30 hrs. the Captain received orders to stay in port and send all the guests home.  After careful consideration the decision was made to abort our cruise and ask the guests to fly home, as at this moment they would still be able to reach home. As well as in the Europe, as in the USA and anywhere else, the countries could stop all (international) travel by Monday. Mexico is not yet in lock down as there are hardly any cases here but that might well happen as the numbers in other parts of the world continue to rise. Most of Europe will reduce travel and movement as of Monday and then it might become extremely difficult to get home.

 

Thus wheels were set in motion to get our 700 guests safely home. The captain made several announcements to alert all the guests and crew and then the Holland America Line Travel Organization took over. For those with HAL travel arrangements it was all quickly done, for those with private reservations (or no reservations as they came by car either in San Diego for Fort Lauderdale and were doing a back – to – back) the company helped with arrangements. For that purpose Guest Services had set up a relay system by which every hour or so the guests of one deck were called down and arrangements were then made.

 

The whole ship was then mobilized to assist the guests with disembarking. The first departures from the ship were very early in the morning and the last ones will be at 18.30 tonight. From that early moment on, the cabin stewards were standing in the corridors with trolleys’ so the moment a Cabin door opened, the trolley was there for the luggage. An abrupt change like that has a multiple impact on all the running operations of the ship. Guests who as late as 1600 hrs. put out their laundry, now needed it back ASAP before they could start packing. So also the Ships Laundry, went on high alert. They waited until 21.00 hrs. for the last laundry to come in, and then made sure that everything was dealt with quickly and went back rapidly to the guest to pack.

 

Then apart from the Guests also the “crew” with guest status were disembarked today. Such as the Billboard on board Piano players and the Lincoln Art quartet. We were already sailing with a lower number of entertainers and lecturers than normal as they were not allowed to transfer from other ships or could not get flights from home. Yours truly was already roped in last cruise for extra lectures and the idea was to do this again this cruise. Plus, as the Panama Canal narrator was not coming on board, I would have been narrating that all day long as well. But that is not needed now.

 

What is going to happen now? We do not know. The company, and we here we mean Carnival Corporation has to redirect all the 150+ company ships and the ms Rotterdam is only one of them. We will stay overnight here in Puerto Vallarta for a second night and then the captain will receive further guidance for the next step.  We were supposed to be one of the last ships to disembark our guests, at the end of our regular cruise; now we are one of the first ones, but our sisters ships are also on the way to home ports.

 

If you want to see where they all are, we are on the ships use marine traffic:

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:266342/mmsi:246167000/vessel:ROTTERDAM

 

Which gives an almost real life time position of the ships. Plus what ship it is. The website still gives Huatalco as the next port, and that is because when we prepared for departure yesterday afternoon at 15.30 hrs. That was what was put in the AIS transmitter. It will be changed the moment we receive orders for our next destination.

 

Once the company has decided when we should go through the Panama Canal, we could meet again if the company would decide on a joint anchoring area. Or we could be directed to go somewhere else. We just wait as there are too many factors in play to make even an educated guess. The ship is fully fueled, fully stocked, and because we were in motion for a 14 day cruise with guests, we have now ample provisions on board for a much longer cruise with crew only. Tomorrow we will know more.

 

The Puerto Vallarta authorities have advised that the dock will remain available. With all the cruise ships coming to stand still, there are no ships coming to Puerto Vallarta either and thus we are welcome to stay at our pier as long as is needed.  This gives the option for the crew to go ashore a little bit and I hope that they will do so, as once we start sailing it could be quite a long time before we can get ashore again. So we will see how things progress.

 

The weather in Puerto Vallarta is still beautiful and will also be so tomorrow. Partly Cloudy 29oC / 84oF and a gentle breeze. Tomorrow is also a National Holiday in Mexico but I have no idea if the Mexicans are going to keep it low key or not.

 

I am one to say the crew was exceptional and the Captain was honest and emotional you could hear it in his voice! It was stressful but I am so glad we are home! What a wonderful ship and like I said our wonderful 2 month cruises were gone in 4’days!! We will do it again and all of us will cruise again and the world will renew again this virus will peak and DIE AGAIN. And HAL will SURVIVE AS THEY HAVE AGAIN WITH OVER 150 years of many things in their lives and came through it all!

 

Denise😊

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3 minutes ago, DeeniEncinitas said:

I am one to say the crew was exceptional and the Captain was honest and emotional you could hear it in his voice! It was stressful but I am so glad we are home! What a wonderful ship and like I said our wonderful 2 month cruises were gone in 4’days!! We will do it again and all of us will cruise again and the world will renew again this virus will peak and DIE AGAIN. And HAL will SURVIVE AS THEY HAVE AGAIN WITH OVER 150 years of many things in their lives and came through it all!

 

Denise😊

 

Good to hear you're safely home Denise! Take care and stay safe!

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10 minutes ago, DeeniEncinitas said:

I am one to say the crew was exceptional and the Captain was honest and emotional you could hear it in his voice! It was stressful but I am so glad we are home! What a wonderful ship and like I said our wonderful 2 month cruises were gone in 4’days!! We will do it again and all of us will cruise again and the world will renew again this virus will peak and DIE AGAIN. And HAL will SURVIVE AS THEY HAVE AGAIN WITH OVER 150 years of many things in their lives and came through it all!

 

Denise😊

I’m sure it was so very stressful for all-from staff to guests.  Glad you are home! 

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Just now, Copper10-8 said:

 

Good to hear you're safely home Denise! Take care and stay safe!

Thanks John! All smooth yesterday with flight San Diego a ghost town! 
Immigration no one👍 Now today the news shows immigration up to 7 hours wait at several terminals! WOW.

I tell you John HAL has your back in this kind of crisis. They did exceptional!

Lets hope our crisis around the world ends soon

Denise😊

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56 minutes ago, DeeniEncinitas said:

I am one to say the crew was exceptional and the Captain was honest and emotional you could hear it in his voice! It was stressful but I am so glad we are home! What a wonderful ship and like I said our wonderful 2 month cruises were gone in 4’days!! We will do it again and all of us will cruise again and the world will renew again this virus will peak and DIE AGAIN. And HAL will SURVIVE AS THEY HAVE AGAIN WITH OVER 150 years of many things in their lives and came through it all!

 

Denise😊

Who is the current Captain of the Rotterdam?

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Just now, Copper10-8 said:

 

Capt. Bas van Dreumel

I had him on my Rotterdam Panama Canal cruise in November, and have cruised with him several times. He's an excellent Captain and he and I agree that the Rotterdam is the finest ship in the fleet.

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11 hours ago, tkwbear said:

I had him on my Rotterdam Panama Canal cruise in November, and have cruised with him several times. He's an excellent Captain and he and I agree that the Rotterdam is the finest ship in the fleet.

With all the negative news, nice to read this.  I have a soft spot in my heart (some would say in my head) for the Rotterdam.

I have the most days on the Rotterdam of any of the fleet.  As Captain Albert wrote a few days ago in his blog, "the beautiful and elegant Rotterdam" is still a classy ship.  In 2014, going thru the Red Sea, the Captain explained he was going to test full ahead to make sure she still could do it in case of a pirate attack.  The officers were proud to share she hit 26 knots and said with a freshly cleaned hull she might have bested that.  

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10 minutes ago, St Pete Cruiser said:

With all the negative news, nice to read this.  I have a soft spot in my heart (some would say in my head) for the Rotterdam.

I have the most days on the Rotterdam of any of the fleet.  As Captain Albert wrote a few days ago in his blog, "the beautiful and elegant Rotterdam" is still a classy ship.  In 2014, going thru the Red Sea, the Captain explained he was going to test full ahead to make sure she still could do it in case of a pirate attack.  The officers were proud to share she hit 26 knots and said with a freshly cleaned hull she might have bested that.  

I also have the most days on the Rotterdam. They seem to have stuck her on the Panama Canal route (and Europe) for the foreseeable future, which I am not happy about because as amazing as the canal is, most of those ports were below par.

 

I first sailed the Rotterdam in 2011. I had lunch with the second officer at the time, Ian, who also loves the Rotterdam. He told me one day they had it up to 26.5 knots and had plenty of reserve. Last fall Captain van Dreumel told us the top speed of the ship is 28 knots. He did not offer how he knew that.

 

A couple of years ago, I was on the Rotterdam in Grand Cayman. We were supposed to leave in the mid afternoon, but one of the winches malfunctioned and they were unable to raise a lifeboat. They worked on it until 11pm when they finally left the lifeboat behind. We were going just over 24 knots on the way back to Tampa, and the ship handled it effortlessly, no vibration, just the usual excellent ride. Despite leaving Grand Cayman 8 hours late, we arrived in Tampa only 15 minutes late.

 

The Rotterdam was built for the World Cruises but they found all that extra power consumed more fuel - imagine that! Yes, management is often the group with the least common sense. So they built the Amsterdam with various engine sizes and in my opinion, a less comfortable ride. I've cruised that ship 4-5 times, including a 63 day Grand Voyage, and have had a problem with my stateroom every single time. I will take the Rotterdam anytime.

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30 minutes ago, tkwbear said:

..........................................

 

The Rotterdam was built for the World Cruises but they found all that extra power consumed more fuel - imagine that! Yes, management is often the group with the least common sense. So they built the Amsterdam with various engine sizes and in my opinion, a less comfortable ride. I've cruised that ship 4-5 times, including a 63 day Grand Voyage, and have had a problem with my stateroom every single time. I will take the Rotterdam anytime.

 

Just some trivia; One of the differences between Rotterdam and her younger sister Amsterdam, both "R"-class ships, is that Amsterdam, also built for world cruises, was the first HAL ship fitted with Azi-Pod propulsion but yes, Rottie is the fastest of the two. Rotterdam did HAL's anual Grand World Voyage from 1997 through 2001, before Amsterdam (and for three years, Prinsendam) took over

Edited by Copper10-8
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I wonder why there is an inconsistency between the way the passengers who did not book their flights via flight ease were treated on the Amsterdam?

 

Kathi shared that she was “on her own” to make her own arrangements. Very different from how the Rotterdam passengers were treated.  Could it have been the number of people?  

 

 

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On 3/17/2020 at 11:37 AM, St Pete Cruiser said:

With all the negative news, nice to read this.  I have a soft spot in my heart (some would say in my head) for the Rotterdam.

I have the most days on the Rotterdam of any of the fleet.  As Captain Albert wrote a few days ago in his blog, "the beautiful and elegant Rotterdam" is still a classy ship.  In 2014, going thru the Red Sea, the Captain explained he was going to test full ahead to make sure she still could do it in case of a pirate attack.  The officers were proud to share she hit 26 knots and said with a freshly cleaned hull she might have bested that.  

You may be interested to hear I’m sitting on the terrace of our suite at the Melia and watching her return to the Maritime Terminal here in PV right now. She’s been rather forlornly sitting there all week but pulled out last nigh and headed over the horizon. I tried googling but couldn’t find any information on where she was going.  I’m very surprised to see her back this morning.

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We flew home from PV yesterday.  Airport was a zoo but well organized.  Our flight was almost full-about six emply seats.  

 

We were watching the flight availability the past week.  There were many available flights to US hubs and beyond.  Folks on the Rotterdam should have had no trouble finding flights or hotels for that matter.  It took us all of about five minutes to book our flights on line.

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13 minutes ago, ronandannette said:

You may be interested to hear I’m sitting on the terrace of our suite at the Melia and watching her return to the Maritime Terminal here in PV right now. She’s been rather forlornly sitting there all week but pulled out last nigh and headed over the horizon. I tried googling but couldn’t find any information on where she was going.  I’m very surprised to see her back this morning.

See Captain Albert’s blog posting here - he explains the need for the overnight sea trip:


https://www.captainalbert.com/19-march-2020-puerto-vallarta-mexico-day-6-day-4-without-guests/#more-150101

 

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@tkwbearYour quote "They seem to have stuck her on the Panama Canal route (and Europe) for the foreseeable future, which I am not happy about because as amazing as the canal is, most of those ports were below par"

 

The Rotterdam will be sailing Hawaii, Tahiti, Marquesas next Feb. I am waiting to get my FCC from what should have been the Oosterdam on March 21st to above islands, so I can re-book!

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3 hours ago, iancal said:

We flew home from PV yesterday.  Airport was a zoo but well organized.  Our flight was almost full-about six emply seats.  

 

We were watching the flight availability the past week.  There were many available flights to US hubs and beyond.  Folks on the Rotterdam should have had no trouble finding flights or hotels for that matter.  It took us all of about five minutes to book our flights on line.

Our flight from PV to Houston was about 2/3 full and the flight from Houston to Orlando had 30 people....everyone had a row to themselves.

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4 hours ago, ronandannette said:

You may be interested to hear I’m sitting on the terrace of our suite at the Melia and watching her return to the Maritime Terminal here in PV right now. She’s been rather forlornly sitting there all week but pulled out last nigh and headed over the horizon. I tried googling but couldn’t find any information on where she was going.  I’m very surprised to see her back this morning.

 

She basically made a loop into the Bahia de Banderas at 17:54 hrs yesterday PM in order to run her engines at full speed, and then came back to the Terminal Maritima this morning at 08:06 hrs. She's currently back at Muelle No. 1 while Hapag Lloyd's Europa is at Muelle No. 2

 

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-106.4/centery:20.8/zoom:10

 

https://www.captainalbert.com/19-march-2020-puerto-vallarta-mexico-day-6-day-4-without-guests/#more-150101

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