The 1st Ever LAFFNVEGAS "LIVE" from the MS Oosterdam Dec 15th -22nd

[SDHALFAN]

The stats reflect the percentage of people who are not Christians and therefore not likely to celebrate Christmas. Just google it.

 

Without singling out a particular group of people who do not celebrate Christmas, I can tell you that many are professionals, doctors, dentists, lawyers and financial services executives and most of them take vacations at this time of year. If they don't ski, chances are, a heck of a lot of them are on cruise ships, with friends and family.

 

 

Hi dear Captain my Captain: You know who you are and you know that I have nothing but the utmost respect for you and your educated and well considered opinions. Thou art far more learned than I: HOWEVER, in my humble opinion (God, how I loathe that expression and here I am using it:eek: ) Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus the Christ, and as a follower of Christ I rejoice in celebrating his birth and his life. I do not expect those who have different prophets or even very different religions to understand or accept my beliefs but I would ask them to please allow me to worship in my way as I believe that they should worship in their way.

 

In this spirit I want to wish everyone a very very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. This wish is in no way religious, but from my heart and most definitely not meant to offend anyone - I simply hope that each and every one of you has a wonderful "Holiday Season" - even if it's not your particular Holiday!

 

Valerie:)

[Char]

MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL :)

[DesertDiva]

[SDHALFAN]

 

 

I love It! - Have a great day (and I hope that you get your wish to dance with some (make that LOTS of) handsome crewmembers on your upcoming cruise.)

 

Valerie:D

[I Enjoy Life]

Rather than a review since I have been reporting all along what I will most likely do this as I think of additional items I want to mention I will just post some thoughts.

 

Many ask about how early do they decorate ths ship before Christmas? Since our sailing was the week prior I expected to see the Oosterdam decked out and have a true feeling of Christmas. Sadly that did not happen, while there were decorations through out the ship they were almost non noticable. They tended to look small and cheap. Only a couple of trees actually had lights on them. You really had to look hard to notice that there actually were decoration on the ship.The decorations just tended to blend into the decor. On our last port day in PV there was a truck load of potted pointsettias be loaded on the ship and on our last sea day they were starting to distribute them for decoration. Then also it was not till the last night that I noticed the entrance to the Vista Dining Room was now totally decorated as well as they had just placed out a lovely Ginger Bread House in the Explorer's Lounge on the last evening. Also I had read where each cabin had a wreath on the door, this was not the case at all but while sitting in the airport with a another CC member she made comment that on her floor as they were leaving they were starting to place the wreaths on the doors. We had also hoped that the piped in music or at least some of the music being played by the Musicians on board would at least be holiday music, it was not. I am sure that each ship handles it different from what I read. My guess is that since those of us that chose to sail the week prior paid considerable less than those that sailed over the Holiday that they saved the good stuff for them;) and actually that is fine they need to get more for the money they have spent.

 

Food quality I know I have mentioned but in all honesty this had to be one of the best. I thought the Noordam food was great but this was even better.

 

Now this next statement could shock a few but....after doing 2 sailings on the Noordam this past summer and now returned to the Oosterdam we now feel we really like the Noordam a bit better as for lay out of the ship and bars and with the Explorations Cafe. While we felt comfortable on the Oosterdam because she is home to us we really missed the Noordam. HAL definitely got it right when they built her. So I have have high hopes for the Eurodam:)

 

With sailing HAL as frequently as we do we are now at the point of always being greeted by crew members we know. I have to comment here that I remember when I first started to post on CC HAL board and had sailed our first HAL cruise on the Zuiderdam I would read how so many of you would run into a crew members you knew. Tom and I thought that would take so many years before that happened to us, to our surprise it really did not take that long. But with having sailed the Oosterdam so many times we were always being greated by crew members we knew. I will say that this time was the least amount of crew that we had known prior. Oddly the ones that knew us and we remembered each other were not from the Oosterdam. This time there were several including our Wine Steward Rudy that we knew from the Zaandam. Although I will say there are a few in the Pinnacle that did remember us especially from our last March cruise:) Also Yum Yum Man Rahmat said he remembered us from sailing on the Oosterdam prior. Just to say a quick note about Rahmat, he is very excited that we have named a cruise after him. By the end of the cruise several other crew members came up to us and said they would be there for our Yum Yum Man cruise and they wanted a T-Shirt with Rahmat on it.

 

A lot of this relaxing cruise I was preparing and getting information for our upcoming Yum Yum Man cruise in less than 7 weeks. I think the crew is looking forward to it because of how different this will be. Let me just say that Life Boat Drill will never be the same again since all of us on Deck 5 aft have the same Life Boat:eek: Of course us Yummers will still take this seriously but I am sure the crew will have a hard time keeping from laughing:D

 

I will mention just a bit about the Photographers on the Oosterdam, they were not overly obtrusive. This is a new company and they definitely do things a bit different. There is no longer a cruise video and the picture were just strange. I am sorry I did not check pricing because I was not the least bit impressed in the quality and what they did to them. each picture had numerous small pictures attached and you would have to buy the whole thing and take home and cut these up. I sort of missed the cruise video, while we seldom bought it we did enjoy watching it on the last day in our cabin. I guess this could be why the new company did not do it they felt no one was buying it, they just watched before they left.

 

Over all this was a great cruise was it the best NO nor was it the worst. I will say that the best ever cruise was our Aniversary cruise this past March but that was a very special occasion. We had thought for sure our June Noordam cruise would be a let down after our great Oosterdam cruise, it was not. It was almost as fantastic and we were not even in a suite. So we figured the 2nd time returning to the Noordam would be the let down cruise, again that cruise was very fantastic in how we were treated. This return to the Oosterdam was what we expected the Noordam cruises to be. There was just not the extra attention to details that we have grown to expect over the past previous 5 cruises. Don't get me wrong this was a great cruise and we had a great time but just felt a few things were missing.

 

Hi Lisa

 

Enjoyed meeting you and Tom, and wanted to tell you that I loved the Oosterdam, and had a super time on this cruise. Although new to HAL, I too am a lover of their ships, and booked another while on the ship. Same time next year on the Eurodam. By the way, is there anyway I can view the "sail away video that we took in San Diego"?

 

Happy Holidays, and always "enjoy life"

 

Tina

[seniormiss]

The stats reflect the percentage of people who are not Christians and therefore not likely to celebrate Christmas. Just google it.

 

Without singling out a particular group of people who do not celebrate Christmas, I can tell you that many are professionals, doctors, dentists, lawyers and financial services executives and most of them take vacations at this time of year. If they don't ski, chances are, a heck of a lot of them are on cruise ships, with friends and family.

 

Christmas has become so commercial I don't think the only people that celebrate are Christians. Lots of people just enjoy the holliday no matter what thier religion.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Hi Lisa

 

Enjoyed meeting you and Tom, and wanted to tell you that I loved the Oosterdam, and had a super time on this cruise. Although new to HAL, I too am a lover of their ships, and booked another while on the ship. Same time next year on the Eurodam. By the way, is there anyway I can view the "sail away video that we took in San Diego"?

 

Happy Holidays, and always "enjoy life"

 

Tina

 

Hi Tina, I enjoyed meeting you as well:) Tom and I will be on the Eurodam October 18th and on the day that you board the Eurodam December 13th we will return to the Oosterdam. As for a video, I did not take any videos at our Sail Away but I did take some pictures of the Sail Away Party. Some are a bit blurry but I hope to work on my web shots album today and post the pictures.

[hammybee]

In this spirit I want to wish everyone a very very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. This wish is in no way religious, but from my heart and most definitely not meant to offend anyone - I simply hope that each and every one of you has a wonderful "Holiday Season" - even if it's not your particular Holiday!Valerie:)

 

Oh Val...You can take a girl out of Catholic School but you can't take the Catholic out of the girl, even an old girl, like me. A lot of people, regardless of thier beliefs, have issues with the perpetual commercialism of the holiday.

 

There are a few posters who use this board to put down all things HAL because it ain't like it used to be. I don't know of anything that is how it used to be. To put down HAL for skimping on holiday decorations, compared to another cruise line, is silly.

 

My point was and remains that there are a substantial number of folk who cruise during the holidays who do not care about decorations. That's all.

 

I sincerely hope a little joy touches everyone this season.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

There are a few posters who use this board to put down all things HAL because it ain't like it used to be. I don't know of anything that is how it used to be. To put down HAL for skimping on holiday decorations, compared to another cruise line, is silly.

 

 

And back to the original post of why we are discussing this was not my point to say that HAL was skimpiing it was simply to state that not ALL of the Holday decorations were our the week PRIOR to the Christmas cruise. Many people book cruise in December hoping to see the ships all decorated, I myself was one of them. While the Oosterdam was in fact decorated she was not decorated as much as I had imagined and unfortunately the decorations tended to blend in so they were not overly noticable. I also wanted to note that a large amount of decorating was still being done our last day so that for the Christmas week cruise the ships would have far more decorations. So if someone really wanted to see the ship decorated it would be best to book the week of Christmas.

[Krazy Kruizers]

The stats reflect the percentage of people who are not Christians and therefore not likely to celebrate Christmas. Just google it.

 

Without singling out a particular group of people who do not celebrate Christmas, I can tell you that many are professionals, doctors, dentists, lawyers and financial services executives and most of them take vacations at this time of year. If they don't ski, chances are, a heck of a lot of them are on cruise ships, with friends and family.

 

You still didn't answer my question: How many cruises have you done at Christmas?

Since you didn't answer - I shall assume that you have done ZERO.

[hammybee]

And back to the original post of why we are discussing this was not my point to say that HAL was skimpiing

 

My original remarks were not addressed to your comments, Lisa.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Hi Tina, I enjoyed meeting you as well:) Tom and I will be on the Eurodam October 18th and on the day that you board the Eurodam December 13th we will return to the Oosterdam. As for a video, I did not take any videos at our Sail Away but I did take some pictures of the Sail Away Party. Some are a bit blurry but I hope to work on my web shots album today and post the pictures.

 

YO!!

After all your whining about Mariner's parties and lack of Christmas decorations on the decorations, you are going to sail again on the Oosterdam a few days before Christmas??

[hammybee]

You still didn't answer my question: How many cruises have you done at Christmas?

 

Since you didn't answer - I shall assume that you have done ZERO.

 

You are right KK. I have not and probably will not cruise over the Christmas holiday. If I had, my experience would be limited to only those sails, on those ships and cruise lines that I sailed.

 

What I do know is that cruising in the Caribbean is an annual event for a significant number of people who do not celebrate Christmas. Many of these people sail with their families as a part of groups organized by their respective houses of worship and professions.

 

My intent is not to offend anyone by a reminder that this holiday does not mean the same thing with a significant percent of the population. It's not even a holiday in most parts of the world. On this day, of all days, perhaps tolerence of our differences, is helpful.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

YO!!

 

After all your whining about Mariner's parties and lack of Christmas decorations on the decorations, you are going to sail again on the Oosterdam a few days before Christmas??

 

Why Not, I am not one of these complainer that come in and say I will never cruise HAL again. I love HAL and their product. I am chosing the week before Christmas because that is when it fits in best for when Tom and I can and are allowed to take vacation time. It is not to say that next year the ships could have all of her decorations out like other ships.I do not cruise simply for Christmas decorations. Also within a few months HAL could decide to do the Mariner event totally different.

Personally I don't think my comments are whining but rather showing disappointment. You can take it for what ever you want KK, as I stated I was disappointed and several others have also come in and stated they too are disappointed with the lack of recognition. We can only hope that HAL Mariner's Society will realized that this is something they forgot to relay to the ship in what they should do with the new prcedure and that along the way can make corrections. If I did not comment on my disappointment how else would others also be able to comment on these changes.

 

BTW MERRY CHRISTMAS:)

[Copper10-8]

Give me a couple of days and I will take pics of Oosterdam's Christmas decorations next week and tell you all about it;)

[Chivalrygirl]

By golly Lisa, I have got the feeling your whole thread has been hi-jacked and I don't think your well balanced commentory deserved this. I for one don't have too much time for sitting on my computer at Christmas time, I came for a peek and became a trivial irritated.

 

Oh well Christmas is over for me, fortunately we have another day's holiday today, its called Boxing Day. We bring out our boxing gloves and whack hell out of each other :D

 

Oh well forward and onwards to 2008, enjoy your cruise John ;) and all the Christmas decorations.

 

Val

[LAFFNVEGAS]

By golly Lisa, I have got the feeling your whole thread has been hi-jacked and I don't think your well balanced commentory deserved this. I for one don't have too much time for sitting on my computer at Christmas time, I came for a peek and became a trivial irritated.

 

Oh well Christmas is over for me, fortunately we have another day's holiday today, its called Boxing Day. We bring out our boxing gloves and whack hell out of each other :D

 

Oh well forward and onwards to 2008, enjoy your cruise John ;) and all the Christmas decorations.

 

Val

 

 

By golly Val, I think you are right. Thanks.

Happy Boxing Day to You:)

[Northshorecruisers]

Lisa,

 

I love your reports on your cruises, they are very balanced and informative. The "live from" was fantastic. Sometimes things are better on one cruise or another, and sometimes there are minor disappointments. That's life - nothing wrong with stating your opinion. I'm glad that you have had so much time on HAL sailing at different times during the year that you can really see how things change or stay the same. It really helps those of us who only get to sail once a year or only at a certain time of year.

 

Merry Christmas and the best to you in 2008 (gee you're sailing the Oosterdam in Feb - guess you're starting the year right :D )

 

Northshorecruisers

(Deb & Steve Olson)

 

PS - when you get a chance, let me know what I owe you and the address you want me to send the money and return envelope to. You are such a sweetheart! You can send the info to my home email.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Lisa,

 

I love your reports on your cruises, they are very balanced and informative. The "live from" was fantastic. Sometimes things are better on one cruise or another, and sometimes there are minor disappointments. That's life - nothing wrong with stating your opinion. I'm glad that you have had so much time on HAL sailing at different times during the year that you can really see how things change or stay the same. It really helps those of us who only get to sail once a year or only at a certain time of year.

 

Merry Christmas and the best to you in 2008 (gee you're sailing the Oosterdam in Feb - guess you're starting the year right :D )

 

Northshorecruisers

(Deb & Steve Olson)

 

PS - when you get a chance, let me know what I owe you and the address you want me to send the money and return envelope to. You are such a sweetheart! You can send the info to my home email.

 

Thanks Deb,and Merry Christmas to you as well Yes I have your package right here I will email you shortly:)