My First “Live”- Zuiderdam May 11, 2024 TA

[mawvkysc]

The crab crostini got a thumbs up from DH

 

Mozzarella tomato salad was very good although the one earlier this week was slightly better. 
 

The lingcod and salmon both were winners. DH is so impressed with the salmon in general on HAL. 
 

He was somewhat disappointed with the coconut cream pie. Not enough coconut.

 

I got the rhubarb crisp and the Swiss roll just in case rhubarb was a flop again. The crisp tasted like rhubarb! You could tell the Swiss roll was no sugar added. 
 

 

[mawvkysc]

Day 6:

[mawvkysc]

I forgot to mention that the PG bar is serving specialty coffees all day not just in the morning. It stays busy making them. 
 

Cute creamer jar came with room service coffee. 

[mawvkysc]

I forgot to screenshot the flyer with the unlimited laundry prices. 
 

We will send out a full bag around day 10. I had to send out a dress and sweater yesterday late morning. They came back that night. 

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, mawvkysc said:

I forgot to screenshot the flyer with the unlimited laundry prices. 
 

We will send out a full bag around day 10. I had to send out a dress and sweater yesterday late morning. They came back that night. 

The dry cleaning fees are very cheap.  They use eco dry clean so there are no harsh chemical smells. I have DH’s dinner jackets freshened first thing once onboard 

[mawvkysc]

Brunch 

 

Edited May 16 by mawvkysc

[mawvkysc]

Brunch had a New England theme. I kept it light and had  fruit with goat cheese (so good!) and burrata salad. It wasn’t creamy in the middle. I also had two perfectly poached eggs. 
 

DH loved the blueberry pancakes. Steak and eggs were fine. 
 

Brunch took a long time so we missed Origin Story. 😢 Do they ever repeat it on a cruise? I’m only on the 14 day cruise. 
 

Daily promenade walk ✅

Quite windy but not too cold. HARD to open the doors to get out there. Pads were on the steamers. 
 

Gin tasting ctd:

Bloody Margaret. - I prefer Bloody Maria

Gin Fizz- refreshing, good for the pool when you don’t want something sticky sweet. Someone recommended I try it. Couldn’t get a Sloe Gin Fizz. They don’t carry sloe gin. I have no idea on the difference. 
 

Hung out in Crows Nest and actually painted a bit. 

Wanted to go to game time at Billboard but got too lazy. 

Edited May 16 by mawvkysc

[BetsyS.]

You are NOT lazy! You're on VACATION - relax! 😊🥂

[0106]

35 minutes ago, mawvkysc said:

Couldn’t get a Sloe Gin Fizz. They don’t carry sloe gin. I have no idea on the difference. 

A gin fizz is basically a Tom Collins that is shaken: gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, soda water, fancy bars add an egg white.  Sloe gin is a liqueur, very sweet; if you substitute sloe gin for gin, it is a sloe gin fizz.

 

The Origin Story is shown on every HAL cruise.  Hopefully you will see it in the future.  
 

I am enjoying your positive attitude and your live thread!

[QuattroRomeo]

Origin Story has been on 2 or 3 times on our last 3 cruises so you have a good chance of seeing it! Worth seeing at least once!

[mawvkysc]

Oops. I forgot to screenshot the menus. 
 

Beet orange salad was good but very small. Also ordered the cheese plate as an appetizer because I wanted to smear Brie on that delicious bread. Tasted the crab cake and it was quite good. FYI I don’t like crab. 
 

The cornflake pollock was excellent!! Black Forest Cake  👍 

Berry Trifle was 100% better than the sad jello excuse for trifle I had on NCL last year. This isn’t important but the presentation didn’t fit the ambiance 

Edited May 17 by mawvkysc

[mawvkysc]

A few days ago I asked the assistant MD if my  server could preset the table with coffee cup, cream etc. as I felt it would help the team out. ( We like coffee with dessert) I think she understood I was subtly saying service could be better. 
 

Service did get better after that. The preset does help  and she may have talked to them, hopefully in a nice way. So last night I gave a compliment via the Let Us Know feature about our server and his assistant. He thanked me for it tonight. 
 

Piano bar tonight was fun. Then caught a few songs with the band. They are so incredibly good. 

Edited May 17 by mawvkysc

[mawvkysc]

Day 7: Daily Program to follow. 

Fabulous sunny weather. Flat water. 
 

Coffee Chat with captain was interesting. 

 

One mile walk and steamer chair time underway. We just saw whales thanks to the Captain’s announcement. Too far for a photo.  😞 

 

Random Thoughts: 

Outstanding carrots on board. 
Name tags do not state home country. 
Crumbs are not swept off the table with the little tool in MDR (not important to me 😉)

 

 

[JackSledge]

9 minutes ago, mawvkysc said:

Day 7: Daily Program to follow. 

 

Random Thoughts: 

Name tags do not state home country. 
Crumbs are not swept off the table with the little tool in MDR (not important to me 😉)

 

 

 

Hello, we're on this cruise with you also. I just discovered your "live chat" and enjoyed it greatly. 

 

Interestingly, our MDR steward does clean our table crumbs with the little tool. After our last cruise in December when they didn't do it, I thought it was lost to having too many tables to serve.

 

I also noticed that the home country is not on the name tags.

 

Thanks so much for chronicling our TA cruise!

[mawvkysc]

2 hours ago, JackSledge said:

 

Thanks so much for chronicling our TA cruise!

I’m amazed you’ve had time to wade throw my wordy chronical 😀 

[VMax1700]

Wow!  10.15pm last night "Summer of Love" in Rolling Stone Lounge.  That could have been a great playlist.........did you go to the happening and hear some great music?

[JackSledge]

2 hours ago, mawvkysc said:

I’m amazed you’ve had time to wade throw my wordy chronical 😀 

Well. I didn't need to read all the menus and daily planners 😉 ...and I didn't read what everyone else said, so I got to the end quicker. It was already enjoyable to look back on our cruise.

[mawvkysc]

4 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

Wow!  10.15pm last night "Summer of Love" in Rolling Stone Lounge.  That could have been a great playlist.........did you go to the happening and hear some great music?

Yes that  is the show that we caught. It was really great. Sorry but I can’t remember the playlist to tell you what they sang. All but the last  song really fit the theme. 

[mawvkysc]

[mawvkysc]

A couple that we talked to saw a turtle!

[1ANGELCAT]

FWIW, I don’t remember ever having the home country shown on a HAL name tag. They used to show if they spoke other languages-flag of the country.

 

[mawvkysc]

3 hours ago, 1ANGELCAT said:

Oops. Accidentally quoted

Edited May 17 by mawvkysc

[mawvkysc]

The afternoon consisted of more Indian food from the lido. 
 

A swim and hot tub session by the Seaview Pool. Got loungers with an aft wake view. These hot tubs seem to have a stronger jet than the LP ones. Nice and hot too. Both pools are sort of hard to enter. 
 

We went to the ice cream social. I’m not really impressed with the ice cream on board. 
 

The port talk by Daniel was very helpful. This is sooo different from other lines port talks. 
 

The mains show was based on famous songs with guitar riffs. It was ok. They should’ve turned up the guitar players mic so that he was highlighted as the singers were quite loud. I used to love production shows but I think over the years my taste has changed. I actually was looking forward to Step One as a nice change. I get that frequent cruisers were tired of it though. 

[mawvkysc]

[mawvkysc]

Quinoa salad -very good. Similar to tabouleh 

 

Berry soup- very good.  Not overly sweet. 

Sea Bass. Good although the skin wasn’t crispy 

 

Swiss Steak - dry and tough to cut. (The lunch lido version was very tender and didn’t even need a knife)

 

Manchester Tart- I didn’t finish it. Tasted like it was no sugar added with a fake banana taste