Seeking the Eclipse on Zaandam!

[CruiserBruce]

A semi live report from Zaandam sailing Saturday to Mexico,  14 days, to see the Eclipse, April 8th.

 

Waiting at SFO for our flight to SAN. Raining here now, supposed to be raining in San Diego on Saturday. After that, expect warm weather. 

 

Most newsworthy info at this time is the crazy cabin situation. The cruise has been sold out since about November, with an astronomy group of just under 500 on board. We have a GTY booking. There have been at least two offers to "move over" to other cruises, but we have not received either. There have been upsell offers, didn't receive those either. There is a waitlist, and people are getting assignments off of it. But we have not received our cabin assignment. Have to admit it's frustrating. Not our first GTY booking (actually our 6th), but by far our latest. 

 

There are 3 ships in port Saturday. Zaandam, KDam and a Disney ship. It is going to be crazy. Then add rain, perhaps heavy. They have, after a false start, announced scheduled, assigned boarding times, with check in and boarding starting at 11am.

 

Zaandam should be at sea today, enroute to San Diego.

 

Will answer any questions I can.

 

 

[objko]

I know for certain there is a very nice veranda cabin on Deck 7 available, or it was yesterday, when we accepted their offer to rebook on another cruise.  We originally booked this Mexican Solar cruise just before it sold out back in December.  

We saw the a Solar Eclipse while on the Volendam in 2016 in the Makasar Straight and it was magical.  You all will have a wonderful experience!  

And on Saturday during boarding, take deep breaths and keep your eyes on the prize. This too shall pass.  Bon voyage!  

[objko]

3 minutes ago, objko said:

I know for certain there is a very nice veranda cabin on Deck 7 available, or it was yesterday, when we accepted their offer to rebook on another cruise.  We originally booked this Mexican Solar cruise just before it sold out back in December.  

We saw the a Solar Eclipse while on the Volendam in 2016 in the Makasar Straight and it was magical.  You all will have a wonderful experience!  

And on Saturday during boarding, take deep breaths and keep your eyes on the prize. This too shall pass.  Bon voyage!  

 

PS Our original booking was in December 2022 - WAY before it sold out!  We'd been looking forward to it for a very long time.

[Loreto]

49 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

A semi live report from Zaandam sailing Saturday to Mexico,  14 days, to see the Eclipse, April 8th.

 

Waiting at SFO for our flight to SAN. Raining here now, supposed to be raining in San Diego on Saturday. After that, expect warm weather. 

 

Most newsworthy info at this time is the crazy cabin situation. The cruise has been sold out since about November, with an astronomy group of just under 500 on board. We have a GTY booking. There have been at least two offers to "move over" to other cruises, but we have not received either. There have been upsell offers, didn't receive those either. There is a waitlist, and people are getting assignments off of it. But we have not received our cabin assignment. Have to admit it's frustrating. Not our first GTY booking (actually our 6th), but by far our latest. 

 

There are 3 ships in port Saturday. Zaandam, KDam and a Disney ship. It is going to be crazy. Then add rain, perhaps heavy. They have, after a false start, announced scheduled, assigned boarding times, with check in and boarding starting at 11am.

 

Zaandam should be at sea today, enroute to San Diego.

 

Will answer any questions I can.

 

 

We will be there too!  Have had our cabin since Nov. 2022.  We will have a meet and greet Sunday around 11:15 crows nest after the astronomy talk at 10am.  Speaker is supposed to come to our m&g.  Our checkin is at 11, I have my umbrella ready!

[VMax1700]

Have a great cruise!

[RuthC]

Saturday is going to be tough. Good luck with your embarkation. After that you will have earned a drink. Have a really great cruise. 

[joke2020]

Here’s a switch.  We were called and asked to downgrade from our Neptune to a A Vista..  The offer came with a partial refund, some OBC, and all the benefits of the Neptune suite, including the lounge and breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill.  We are 5 star so early embarkation or tendering wasn’t important.  After a few minutes we took the offer.  We have been traveling in Neptunes but mostly on longer cruises.  I’m sure we can endure.  We have 5 more cruises booked in Neptunes.

[CruiserBruce]

36 minutes ago, joke2020 said:

Here’s a switch.  We were called and asked to downgrade from our Neptune to a A Vista..  The offer came with a partial refund, some OBC, and all the benefits of the Neptune suite, including the lounge and breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill.  We are 5 star so early embarkation or tendering wasn’t important.  After a few minutes we took the offer.  We have been traveling in Neptunes but mostly on longer cruises.  I’m sure we can endure.  We have 5 more cruises booked in Neptunes.

Wow! Might become ours...we are waiting on a Neptune GTY. Guess I should say a big "Thank you!

[CruiserBruce]

Settled into our hotel. No cruise ships in port today.

 

Excitement today was a guy trying to scam a free upgrade to the front of the place, and a quick visit to urgent care to deal with a minor medical issue.

 

Weather is sunny, but a bit cool and breezy at times. Going to be a bit cooler tomorrow as the storm approaches. 

[Loreto]

43 minutes ago, joke2020 said:

Here’s a switch.  We were called and asked to downgrade from our Neptune to a A Vista..  The offer came with a partial refund, some OBC, and all the benefits of the Neptune suite, including the lounge and breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill.  We are 5 star so early embarkation or tendering wasn’t important.  After a few minutes we took the offer.  We have been traveling in Neptunes but mostly on longer cruises.  I’m sure we can endure.  We have 5 more cruises booked in Neptunes.

We have a Neptune which we are not giving up!....love the bigger verandah on this ship🙂. That was a fair offer to downgrade.  You are on my Nov. 9th 42 day cruise...I have a vista for that one, going as a single.  Hope to meet you onboard.

[Loreto]

6 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Settled into our hotel. No cruise ships in port today.

 

Excitement today was a guy trying to scam a free upgrade to the front of the place, and a quick visit to urgent care to deal with a minor medical issue.

 

Weather is sunny, but a bit cool and breezy at times. Going to be a bit cooler tomorrow as the storm approaches. 

Hope you get your Neptune GTY!

[BetsyS.]

Bon Voyage! 😊🥂

[CruiserBruce]

We have a cabin!!!

[DAllenTCY]

The Broadway Pier has no covered space outside of the terminal.  You might consider bringing a small plastic sheet to put over you while waiting to get into the building.

 

Umbrellas can pose a danger to others in a confined space.

 

Your best access to the pier would be directly west on Broadway in order to avoid the congestion at the B. Street pier which will berth Disney Wonder and Koningsdam.

 

The view of the eclipse should be well worth your inconvenience to board.....I believe.

 

David

[oakridger]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

We have a cabin!!!

 

Oh boy.....this is gonna be good!  I love your reviews and astronomy and eclipses are very interesting to me. 🙂

 

Have a fantastic voyage!!

 

~Nancy

[Haljo1935]

5 hours ago, joke2020 said:

Here’s a switch.  We were called and asked to downgrade from our Neptune to a A Vista..  The offer came with a partial refund, some OBC, and all the benefits of the Neptune suite, including the lounge and breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill.  We are 5 star so early embarkation or tendering wasn’t important.  After a few minutes we took the offer.  We have been traveling in Neptunes but mostly on longer cruises.  I’m sure we can endure.  We have 5 more cruises booked in Neptunes.

That is an interesting twist. I've not heard of that nor have I received an offer of that kind. I'm sure you'll enjoy your cruise!!

[CruiserBruce]

A beautiful,  if a bit cool, day here in San Diego. Love this city...very pretty and user-friendly downtown and port area. A bay view hotel room is a treat with all the ship traffic. The water front area is very walkable, and the ship will be just 10 minutes walk away.

 

Hastily putting together our raft to get us to the ship in the coming storm. Looking for oars...

 

More after we board tomorrow. 

[CruiserBruce]

Our day went like this..

 

9:30, left the hotel in a light rain for the ship, a little over 10 minutes walk away. We were wearing ponchos, and our 3 bags were wearing garbage bag chic. At 9:37, the wind doubled and the rain tripled, rendering our umbrella and suitcase protection just about useless. We made it to the terminal in one piece, but not with many dry body parts. There were still several hundred Zaandam disembarking pax taking up almost all the minimal shelter, but we squeezed in, and chatted with a few while slowly working our way to the door we knew we would be entering through. 

 

I had chatted with a couple porters,  none of whom was ready to take our checked bag. As we arrived at the door, which was open, I went looking for a bag tag, when a person inside side...."come in...passport and boarding pass, please". We picked our jaws up, and entered at 10:10. We checked in, and were seated up stairs at 10:20. Our checked bag went through the standard airport Xray with no problem, and continued with us.

 

At 11am, there was a noted increase in employee activity,  and we had filled the approximately 100 seats. Suddenly a couple appeared from the side seating area at exactly the right time to jump in front of us, making us #3 and 4 to board at 11:10. The rooms weren't ready yet...so the wet cement suitcases went to the Lido with us, and the first bite of food was taken at 11:18, and the first sip of champagne at 11:25.

[CruiserBruce]

A little bit ago, the Captain came on and said some stuff. It was a bit noisy at the Lido bar, but it appears a few pax are delayed, the harbor pilots are scheduled for 5pm, so we are sailing a little late (instead of scheduled 3pm). Might actually be a good thing, as the weather has been drying up a little, and people might be able to be outside for sail away.  We have dinner at 5pm.

 

Totally unpacked, and changed into dry clothes. Some wet clothes and shoes, and all three suitcases open, hanging or otherwise drying. Couple more empty glasses of champagne. Waiting to watch the KDam sail. She is so close on our port side I have been trying to high 5 some people on their balconies. 

 

DW went to Neptune Lounge and was greeted by a very enthusiastic concierge who was on for our September 2023 Canada cruise! Something to absolutely love about HAL!

 

Ship is filled to the gills ( where are the gills on a ship?). But, other than the rain, boarding was about as easy as it gets. Others we have talked report a pretty normal process. 

 

Ready to go!

[CruiserBruce]

On the FB side, I see someone actually got offered a cabin at 11:30 today! They couldn't put it together that fast.

[ski ww]

Bon Voyage, enjoy the eclipse.  

[Cruisetrekker]

I have plenty of friends aboard. Thanks for the report 🙂

[CruiserBruce]

We finally sailed at 6:30. Another partial reason was we didn't start taking on fuel until 2pm. The space between us and KDam was so tight they couldn't fuel both at once. KDam was still docked when we sailed.

 

At 5:15 last night we discovered we were on the wrong ship. Probably even the wrong cruise line!

 

We left the Ocean Bar enroute to the MDR. We dropped down the aft stairs to the elevator lobby and the mandatory first day cluster and chaos in the Open seating area. And............THERE WAS NO LINE! None! Zero chaos. One person who was being led off to their table as we hit the hand sanitizer. And, we were immediately recognized by the assistant maitre d with whom I had finalized our dinner arrangements 5 hours earlier. Without even getting to the podium,  she had a waiter assigned to us to take us to the table she had selected for us. Perfect table, exactly the one we wanted. First employee name for the commendation list!

 

Dinner was very good. I had the barbacoa enchiladas...very good. DW loves their lasagna...she had the meal planned before we boarded.

 

Went to the Ocean Bar Band. Pretty good quality musicians...piano player particularly. But their set was not too exciting. Back to the room, dealt with more of the wet stuff issues, and rocked to sleep by some mild to almost moderate seas.

 

 

[BetsyS.]

Thanks for the updates. I agree with your wife about the lasagna - I like it too. 

I've had it on the Niew Statendam and Zuiderdam.

[POA1]

Have a great trip, Bruce!