Rotterdam - Hide and Go Seek

[81Zoomie]

Seas remain calm and the sun has reappeared.  The seas have a few white caps today, but it is still quite calm. Another sea day which leads me to….

 

Seek - Finding a quiet indoor place to read besides your cabin.  We had not anticipated the large #, estimate well over 50-60% of Dutch passengers who appear to travel with groups of friends.  The Explorers lounge up top, Grand Dutch Cafe, deck 9 pool deck are pretty much occupied all day and into the night.  This morning I migrated up to the Panorama bar on deck 10. All the bar seating and several tables and couches are empty.

 

Seek - How much bigger is the Rotterdam than the Nieuw Amsterdam? Rotterdam is ~99,000 tons to compared to ~86,000 for the Nieuw Amsterdam and carries roughly 450 more passengers. 
 

Seek - I have not found any rubber duckies.  Still hunting.

Found - The 2 story Lido pool area with sliding roof feels light and airy.  It also provides flex space during cool and in-climate weather.  Hint - there are eating tables on decks 9 & 10.

 

Found - The peak times in the Lido buffet are sheer chaos. You can avoid that if you are clairvoyant enough to figure out when that might be.  The Lido doesn’t feel any bigger than on the Signature Class ships. And, some items move around. One day I lost my DH and finally took my breakfast back to the cabin to eat. If you are lucky enough to find seats for 2, then you have to hope a server has cleared the table, or offers you juice or coffee.  Lemonade, ice tea, and juice are not available as self serve.  I much prefer the islands on Celebrity to the linear flow on HAL.  Good news, it appears that the evening buffet on HAL is still fully stocked with all stations open.

 

Found - Dining room breakfast a little quieter, but service was not as attentive as previous cruises.  DH ordered a Bloody Mary which never arrived. We may try room service tomorrow morning before the immigration procedure.

 

Found - The temperature on the ship is very consistent.  Unlike in the Caribbean with the pool lid shut, it’s very comfortable, not hot and steamy.  The dining room is very comfortable as are the casino and music venues.  The only noticeably cooler spaces are the Half Moon bar seating area outside Club Orange and some of the hallways. The temperature in the cabin is very responsive and easily controlled.

 

Found - This is the first ship I have ever sailed on where the bathroom mirror does not fog up after a shower.  The ventilation is very good in the bathroom!

Found - See the pictured self serve draft beer machine just outside the Pool bar.  I do not know if it is or was operational. 

 

 

 

[BetsyS.]

81Zoomie - Thanks for your very thorough reports and great pictures!

[BetsyS.]

Skicruiser55 - Bon Voyage! 🥂😊  Have a great cruise!

[Haljo1935]

Would be interested in knowing if the self serve draft beer was operational. Never noticed those, but will be sure DH knows if they do work.

[badtwin]

5 hours ago, 81Zoomie said:

Found - See the pictured self serve draft beer machine just outside the Pool bar.  I do not know if it is or was operational. 

 

If anyone on the Rotterdam figures out if these are working, my DH would love to know.for our cruise in September

Thanks

 

[electro]

18 hours ago, Crew News said:

My portable Waterpik charged every day in Rotterdam VD6223 bathroom last December.

Is it rechargeable?

[81Zoomie]

They posted the special ice cream flavor today 🤣🍦🤣🍦🤣

[shippmates]

Many years ago when we cruised on the Maasdam one of the flavors of the day was Coconut ice cream.  It was yummy and had lots of coconut.  Have you seen the coconut ice cream.

 

[Crew News]

1 hour ago, electro said:

Is it rechargeable?

My portable Waterpik is rechargeable.

 

FWIW Costco sells a combo pack for $79 that includes both a plugin model for home and a portable for traveling.

Edited July 10, 2023 by Crew News

[Crew News]

You can find the Rotterdam bread pudding, not with the ice cream but with the breads.

[BetsyS.]

shippmates- Years ago when I was on the Veendam, I was waiting on line to

get on the tender in Bar Harbor to get back to the ship. It was our last stop

before returning to Boston. At the very last minute, I realized I was on the

waiting line to go back to the Maasdam!  Last summer when I was in 

Halifax on the Niew Statendam, there was another HAL ship right next

to the Niew Statendam.  I had to make sure I was going to get on the 

right ship, because it was the last stop before returning to Boston. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

15 minutes ago, BetsyS. said:

shippmates- Years ago when I was on the Veendam, I was waiting on line to

get on the tender in Bar Harbor to get back to the ship. It was our last stop

before returning to Boston. At the very last minute, I realized I was on the

waiting line to go back to the Maasdam!  Last summer when I was in 

Halifax on the Niew Statendam, there was another HAL ship right next

to the Niew Statendam.  I had to make sure I was going to get on the 

right ship, because it was the last stop before returning to Boston. 

 

That mistake (not caught in time) was in an episode of The Love Boat.

 

There were two HAL ships at Boston when I was there several years ago, and I recall being asked by several port workers which ship I was looking for. I suppose if you got all the way to the place where they scan your card, the error would be caught there. 

[YourWorldWithBill]

8 hours ago, 81Zoomie said:

Found - The peak times in the Lido buffet are sheer chaos. You can avoid that if you are clairvoyant enough to figure out when that might be.  The Lido doesn’t feel any bigger than on the Signature Class ships. And, some items move around. One day I lost my DH and finally took my breakfast back to the cabin to eat. If you are lucky enough to find seats for 2, then you have to hope a server has cleared the table, or offers you juice or coffee.

We must have been very lucky! On the Rotterdam in May we always found seats for two and usually four at lunchtime! That might be because we went in late, maybe about 1 or 1:15. 

[BetsyS.]

3rdGenCunarder - Back in 1975, I was on one of the (old) HAL Statendams going 

from New York round trip to Bermuda.  I was on the deck before sailaway.

Another HAL ship was leaving before us. The guy standing next to me said 

"my luggage is on that ship!" 

[Florida_gal_50]

2 hours ago, 81Zoomie said:

They posted the special ice cream flavor today 🤣🍦🤣🍦🤣

OMG, thanks for the laugh.  That is hilarious. 

[electro]

1 hour ago, Crew News said:

My portable Waterpik is rechargeable.

 

FWIW Costco sells a combo pack for $79 that includes both a plugin model for home and a portable for traveling.

Thanks, I have a combo pack that has a large and small one but they are both plug in. I'll take a look for a rechargeable one.

[Crew News]

Another FIND is the NY Deli & Pizza for breakfast.  No lines.  Lots of tables.  Here is the menu:  NY Deli & Pizza Breakfast Menu

[LegoFan]

Seek - I have not found any rubber duckies.  Still hunting.

 

My wife is hiding ducks everyday on this cruise, so keep looking!

[YourWorldWithBill]

1 hour ago, Crew News said:

Another FIND is the NY Deli & Pizza for breakfast.  No lines.  Lots of tables.  Here is the menu:  NY Deli & Pizza Breakfast Menu

Just agreeing with this. I loved it. Easy to order from the app and it's ready by the time you get there.

[NCTribeFan]

Problem with the bread pudding being with the breads is that station closes earlier.  Actually, it wasn't a problem because I would've been tempted to have it every mid-afternoon when I have my afternoon tea.  And I really didn't need to have it every day.  😉

 

I'm not a fan of crowds and noise (yes, I know how difficult it is to avoid both on ships), and I like to spend my time reading.  We had something like 10 sea days on the 150th TA in April and I was in an interior cabin.  I'm a morning person, so would usually head to the library and hope that there would be one of the only 6 seats open (and preferably one with a view).

 

My biggest complaint is that even the venues that aren't open during the day (Rolling Stone, BB Kings, some bars) still have blaring pop music.  Yes, I used the app to complain more than once.  It just seems that the volume is set at 10 and is never adjusted.  I even bought Loop earplugs and they couldn't drown out all the noise.

 

I also was able to sit up on 10 across from the Panorama bar early some days where it was reasonably quiet.

 

I came across a couple of ducks but didn't do anything with them because I had no idea what I was supposed to do with them.  Guess I should read some of the threads about them.

 

The deli for breakfast is truly a find.  I had gotten breakfast there on K'dam but had totally forgotten about it and didn't think of it on R'dam until about day 12.

 

Also a find - for me - was congee in the buffet for breakfast.  

 

CO dining room was freezing for the entire 26 nights I was on her this past spring.

 

I was in Nassau once and started down the pier to get board Carnival Miracle, which I'd sailed twice.  Got to the water tent before I realized I wasn't on her that trip.  Oops!

[YourWorldWithBill]

4 minutes ago, NCTribeFan said:

Also a find - for me - was congee in the buffet for breakfast.  

My wife asked CO to bring her congee for dinner the next day, and they obliged. Wayan was very nice about handling our unusual requests. 

[81Zoomie]

Good day from Lerwick, Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. First things first:

 

****FLASH - As posted on another thread, for TODAY only, HAL is running an unannounced $1PP deposit promotion!**** You have to go all the way to the payment page to see the low deposit.

 

Well, the previous descriptions of the immigration and tendering process for Lerwick were overly pessimistic!  Happy to report it was pretty easy, seamless, and timely this morning.  
 

It’s always nice to learn about other places.  We left Norway and sailed for 2 days to arrive here.  Definitely not the most exciting stop of our cruise, but we touched Scottish soil for the first time.  The north part of the Shetland Islands is covered with many sheep, a few ponies, lots of peat (think moss), some scenic cliffs, and is home to very hardy people.  It’s quite windy, but we were fortunate to see a few rays of sun!  This is also the first time we needed our rain jackets.  We managed to find, and popped into a small local pub to get the “flavor” of the community before returning to the ship.

 

Found - We were seated upstairs in the dining room last night.  It was a little calmer up there and dinner felt more relaxing.  So much so, we would consider late fixed seating on our next cruise.  And, the menu included prime rib again.

Found - Attention wine drinkers - HAL uses nice thin glasses (maybe crystal?) to serve wine in all indoor venues.  They do not serve wine in the thick cheap bowl like glasses that some other cruise lines use.  It doesn’t help the quality of the package/HIA wines, but they look nice in the glass 😂🍷😂

 

Found - The entertainers and cruise staff have been touting having “David Copperfield” performing in the World Stage.  It’s not the magician, but a singer comedian.  He has an excellent voice and was entertaining, just not his famous namesake.

 

Found - The pea soup in the Grand Dutch Cafe was a nice snack since we toured through lunch.  I am not a pea soup person, but I enjoyed it.

 

Follow Up - The self serve beer machine “is not working” according to a bartender at the pool bar.  He didn’t elaborate beyond that.

 

Yes @NCTribeFan, the volume at the BB Kings venue is blaring when the band plays. I feel sorry for the people who work in the shops surrounding the stage.

 

We will be sailing back to Norway this evening.

 

 

 

 

 

[Florida_gal_50]

Actually there is a fairly long thread about the $1 "sale" and it is on Hal website (Canadian) when you first open it up.  Thanks for the update.

[81Zoomie]

Greetings from Bergen!

 

Rotterdam docked on the commercial side of the terminal.  We appear to be hooked up to shore power.  The ship was serviced by a petrol truck this morning.  NCL Prima is on the other side of the harbor and town center with the World Explorer.  HAL did not provide any shuttles.  It’s 1/2 to 3/4 mile walk depending on your desired destination. Cabs were located outside the secure area.

 

Found - The weather in Bergen changes quickly.  We put on, took off, and zipped and unzipped our rain jackets many times.  Our waterproof shoes came in handy, as did our travel umbrellas.  The temperature fluctuated +/- 10 degrees along with the wind and rain.  We got drenched boarding, but now the sky is blue again.

Hint - Love my little travel magnets.  Attach them to the walls or ceiling and you have abundant space to dry clothes on hangers or keep yourselves organized.  These little 40 lb hooks work well for hangers and are easily transported.  

 

Found - The tour busses did not get to the funicular early.  We bought our tickets online and took the 9 am tram up.  It’s a lovely view with lots of walking trails at the top.  We lucked out with a peak of blue sky and just a few dibbles of rain.  We took the 10 am tram back down, but you can hike both ways if you wish.

 

Found - Lots of interesting architecture in this city.  You will find many historical buildings and small alleyways.  One church was over 1000 years old! There are also some creative art and jewelry stores for more sophisticated souvenir hunting.

 

Found - The fish market/eateries under the red tents were fascinating. The displays were amazing.  There is no shortage of big lobster, giant crabs, or large shrimp on shore.  My DH was mesmerized by all the options.  I am not a fish lover, so I went for a reindeer dog.  We did….”eat local”.  There are more upscale fish restaurants under the tourist information center if you want something a bit fancier with sparkling wine, etc.

 

Found - Surprise! Unlike some of the other newer class ships, you can still walk around the entire Promenade deck outside.  I had the entire deck to myself for a walk this afternoon 😀

 

Hint - We would have loved to take some reindeer sausage home to share with our neighbors.  However, this type of meat is not allowed to be imported to the US.  So, we thought… maybe caviar.  Apparently, there are also strict limits on the quantity and type of those imports as well. Perhaps we will just be sharing our pictures 😊

 

We will dine in Tamarind tonight and then onto our last stop in Sandnes (for Stavanger).  We are fortunate that it looks like we will have a sunny sail away with temps ~ 60 deg!

[northernphoenix]

On 7/7/2023 at 10:35 AM, KU1and2 said:

 

They have adhesive strips included -- but we found command strips or tacky putty work to hold them in place longer.   https://www.amazon.com/Plasti-Tak-Original-Re-usable-Adhesive-Putty/dp/B075KQ9KYV/ref=sr_1_63?crid=ZFYMVN0OLFE6&keywords=tacky+putty&qid=1688740479&sprefix=tacky%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-63

I will add an adhesive magnet strip…should be strong enough to placed on ant of the walls!