Review-Volendam "Down Under"-Oct. 24-Nov. 7-New Zealand and Australia

[Robin7]

So I thought I better start posting this. It's just growing and growing! I hope to post some photos to go along with it eventually. Until then, some of it is posted at the blog I (sort of) kept for my kids while we were gone.

 

http://www.heuersadventuredownunder.blogspot.com/

 

Be prepared. This is LOOOOOOOONG.

 

Background:

 

We are a couple in our late 40s. This will be our tenth cruise—eight on HAL, two on Princess. We are traveling with my husband’s parents, ages 71 and 75, and his brother and his wife, 50 and 49. All seasoned cruisers with more days than we have. We are celebrating wedding anniversaries—50 and 25 years. (We got married TWO MONTHS after my husband’s brother did. As a parent now, I’m surprised we weren’t killed for that!)

 

Flying

 

This cruise was more of a pain in the wallet than usual. We booked tickets on Korean Air nearly as soon as we could last year using Delta SkyMiles. 260,000 of them. Worth it to us though. Imagine my panic and dismay when I called KAL 28 days prior to our departure date (having called them every month since booking) and discovered our flight was canceled! And moved to 24 hours later with a 24-hour layover in Seoul! We would arrive on the day the family was in the Northland on our pre-cruise (and already paid for) tour! KAL could not move us any earlier. We managed to find tickets for $1300 each on Qantas through a TA who used a consolidator. We never received any official notification from either Delta or KAL about the flight cancellation. I don’t know how we were supposed to find out we’d been moved if I hadn’t called! And I also don’t know how you can plan any kind of vacation when airlines are not required to get you to a destination at the time (or even close to the time) you book. We would have been 36 hours late! A cautionary tale for cruisers. FLY IN EARLY. REALLY EARLY.

 

Pre-Cruise Tours

 

We flew into Auckland three days early and took a two-day land-based tour to the Northland, an area of New Zealand the Volendam visited before we boarded in Auckland. My husband and I arrived a day earlier than the rest of the family and drove ourselves down to the Waitomo area before going back to Auckland. We also enjoyed a half-day tour of the city with our guide before picking up the rest of the family and heading north.

 

Our Cruise Itinerary (I will address the ports one by one farther down.)

 

Day 0 24/10 Auckland, New Zealand 11:59 PM

 

Day 1 25/10 At Sea

 

Day 2 26/10 Tauranga (Rotorua) New Zealand 08:00 AM 08:00 PM

 

Day 3 27/10 Napier, New Zealand 01:00 PM 08:00 PM

 

Day 4 28/10 Wellington, New Zealand ON 09:00 AM

 

Day 5 29/10 Leave Wellington, New Zealand 05:00 AM

 

Queen Charlotte Sound (Cruising Only)

 

Captain Cook Ship Cove (Cruising Only)

 

Picton, New Zealand 10:00 AM 06:00 PM

 

Day 6 30/10 Christchurch, New Zealand 07:00 AM 07:00 PM

 

Day 7 31/10 Dunedin, New Zealand 08:00 AM 06:00 PM

 

Day 8 01/11 Fiordland Natl Park Westbound (Cruising Only) 09:00 AM 06:00 PM

 

Day 9 02/11 At Sea

 

Day 10 03/11 At Sea

 

Day 11 04/11 Burnie, Tasmania, Australia 06:00 AM 06:00 PM

 

Day 12 05/11 Melbourne, Australia 08:00 AM 06:00 PM

 

Day 13 06/11 At Sea

 

Day 12 07/11 Sydney, Australia , disembark 06:00 AM

 

Captain Peter Bos: He was fabulous! Many ‘interesting’ things happened on this cruise, and he kept us well-informed of everything. One of my Roll Call members said they’d been on a previous cruise with him and started calling him “PA” because of how much time he spent making announcements. I really appreciated his chattiness! I like to know what’s going on, and some captains are just not that forthcoming.

 

Hotel Manager: Robert Versteeg

 

Cruise Director: Rebecca Fabischek

[Robin7]

Embarkation

 

We arrived at the pier (which is so close to the Auckland Hilton that’s it’s practically inside the Auckland Hilton) at 5:30pm after a full day of touring. The porters were there immediately and helped our tour guide remove our luggage from the van and whisked it away. (It made it to our room before we did!)

 

HAL staff were just in the process of moving embarkation from the large warehouse-like area to a smaller area upstairs so we started out filling out the health questionnaire then were led upstairs. The six of us were the only ones checking in! The agent told us there were only 90 people left who hadn’t checked in yet even though all aboard was not until 9pm with sailing at 11:59pm.

 

We were on board just after 6pm which was a good thing because we’d been changed from As You Wish Dining to (our originally requested at time of booking) fixed seating at 5:45. Yikes! We were very happy to get our original request but dismayed to think the dining room doors would already be closed. We RAN to our stateroom (7086), dumped our carry-ons and stuff, and RAN to the dining room. A very benevolent Assistant Dining Room Manager named Sam let us in to eat in spite of our lateness. (Sam helped us out several times during this cruise. Great guy!)

 

After hearing about the chaos embarkation was earlier in the day (this was the first ship for HAL this season), we were glad we’d spent the entire day touring. One person said there were so many people there so early that the port people were telling them to “Go see the city! Come back this afternoon! Enjoy the day in Auckland!” I guess it was just a madhouse.

 

Dining

 

After being assigned to and worrying about receiving As You Wish Dining (which, for the record, I thought would have been very nice to have on this particular trip), we found out we had assigned seating when we boarded. (This made our used-to-traditional-seating family members very happy.) We had table #30, right on the aft wake in the port corner. What a wonderful table! We had incredible views. We saw Albatross, Gannets, Shearwaters, and many other sea birds feeding. Dolphins. A volcano. Sunsets. Bagpipe bands. Very large and scary waves. Rainbows. We could not have been happier with our location. And our stewards Alberto and Sukijo were outstanding.

 

There are several drawbacks to traditional dining on this itinerary. We missed nearly every sailaway because we had to be in the dining room so early. We also had to talk to Sam and arrange to eat later on two other days as we had shore excursions that did not return to the ship in time for us to eat so early. He told us we could not just show up at AYWD on those days, but he did have an empty table at which we could dine at 8pm (fixed, second seating).

 

We did miss the show on those nights as well, not being able to attend the early one at 7pm and not being finished eating by 9pm. (Oh well. Eating is more important, right???)

 

The other thing I find a drawback is I do not like to go to the dining room in the clothing I wore on my excursion. I like to change and wear nicer (FRESHER!) clothes. Several times we had no choice, being on all-day tours that lasted from 8am to 5:30pm. By the time we waited through the security line to board, it was RUN to the dining room or miss eating there. (And I hate the Lido, so that wasn’t an option.

 

Also, the one time we happened to pass through up there during dinner hours, it was just a regular Lido line, none of that special stuff for dinners that I’d read about on here. I did wonder if that was a casualty of Code Red, though. Not enough servers maybe?)

[Robin7]

Food

 

We found the food to be very good. We always ate dinner in the Dining Room, opting to not do the Pinnacle this cruise. HAL chefs are excellent with fish, and there were many different (read: unknown to us) kinds of fish to choose from this trip.

 

We ate nearly every other meal in the Lido, which is not my choice, so I had a rather bad attitude about it. I never went hungry, though, as my jeans will attest.

 

Muster drill

 

A note about muster drill: It was held before we boarded. We received notification that we were to attend a make-up drill the next morning at 10am (right over the top of my Roll Call meeting!) We dutifully went. What a joke!!!!

 

They didn’t even take roll! There was one officer there, no guy with a clipboard, no jotting of stateroom numbers. It was held at some random lifeboat. He told us to be sure to find our assigned lifeboat, showed us how to put on the life jackets, and sent us on our way. Seriously casual. I guess I expected it to be more…I don’t know…important? If we weren’t all seasoned cruisers, I would have been a little worried about the lack of information given to us. I guess I was just surprised at the lack of attendance. There were about 20 of us there, and I know there were at least 90 people who boarded after we did, plus people from the previous 32-day cruise who were staying aboard for this one who were required to come.

 

Stateroom 7086

 

This is the best-kept secret on HAL R-Class ships. It’s sold as an inside but has a window. You do pay for it in other ways—only three versus five closets, a third of the couch is behind the bathroom wall, and the TV is on the desk instead of above it. I loved the layout! Because the bathroom is basically a box inside the room, beyond the end of the couch is an extra space next to the end table and lamp. We left our camera and computer bags there. And when it got rough (and BOY, did it!) we were able to set the fruit basket and ice tray with its glasses over there out of the way. (Although one of the glasses ‘escaped’ and was rolling around over there one night!)

 

Our room steward and his partner had 28 rooms! HAL changed the way they’re doing cabin service at the beginning of this cruise. They do the full service in the morning and just a light service at night which didn’t bother me except for two things: the toilet would get a black ring in it by the next day, and there was black mold building up on the shower walls by cruise-end. I will be interested to see if this change is fleet-wide.

[Robin7]

If someone could tell me why the font is not consistent througout, I'd appreciate it. I'm cutting and pasting from Word, and it's consistent in Word. I tried cutting and pasting it into Notepad before posting it, and the font still changes at the end and gets smaller. VERY annoying!

 

I'll have more tomorrow! (If anyone is still interested, that is.)

 

Robin

[rochelle_s]

Robin,

 

I might be the only person up right now reading your review...but so far I am enjoying it. So far I have read your second entry. I will keep going! :)

[rochelle_s]

Can't help you out with your font question....I am having no problemreading it though. And you have at least one person interested...I am sure there will be many more. Thanks for writing a review...

 

Rochelle

[Robin7]

Entertainment

 

Typical cruise ship fare. Several singers, a banjo player, another instrumentalist we missed, four cast shows (two of which we’ve seen TWICE before!), a ventriloquist and a juggler.

 

One of the singers, an Australian, fancied herself a comedienne. She was a…er…lady of size. Now, I’m large myself, but she came out and started making all kinds of fat jokes. I found her terribly offensive. If my husband hadn’t been SOUND ASLEEP, we would have walked out.

 

We really enjoyed the Welcome Aboard Show. They did these silly little ‘games’ with some passenger participation we had never seen before. “Stack That Tray”, “Hit That Ball” (with men in full tam-o’-shanter golf duds), and “Make That Bed.” It was very funny and novel!

 

The juggler was HILARIOUS--Barnaby. We also enjoyed Gary Wick, the ventriloquist.

 

One of the cast shows ("Hats Off") was scheduled and canceled twice due to high seas before it was performed the night we were left Burnie.

 

I didn’t see the other ‘games’ we used to see pre-show on former cruises. Hmmm. Maybe I just missed them. We really didn’t do any of our ‘normal’ cruise stuff on this cruise because it was a) so port intensive, we were EXHAUSTED and b) we had family along and made our own entertainment. (My husband wore a pedometer and recorded our steps each day: 206,729 total for 97.58 miles. No wonder we were so tired most evenings!)

 

Dress Code

 

This was a very casual cruise. I think part of that stemmed from so many all-day excursions and our early dining time. It did seem the people in the later dinner seatings dressed up more. LOTS of jeans. Yes, in the dining room. We tried to change and freshen up before dinner but some nights it just wasn’t possible.

 

On formal night, this seemed to be the most formal of all the cruises we’ve been on. I’d say fully half wore tuxedos (including my husband and brother-in-law). It was very nice!

 

I did notice many people changed and came casual to the 9pm show, though. And even though there were four formal nights designated in our docs, we only had three. I don’t know if that had to do with Code Red or the rough seas or if that’s going to be the norm for this itinerary.

[fann1sh]

Thanks for giving the link to your blog. I'm up late tonight, and enjoying every word.

[Gsel]

Thanks so much for your review, please keep it coming! Will be doing this trip in January and can't wait to hear the rest. Your pictures are wonderful.

[boards]

Thank you for the great job you are doing on the review. We are booked for Mar 2010 on the Volendam - 29 day circuminavagation of Australia. Also for your blog, we are enjoying both. We have already been on the cruise you are doing on the Statendam. The weather co-operated and we were able to do Milford Sound. Also the weather co-operated on our crossing of the Tasman Sea. My DW does not handle the kind of seas you had very well, so I hope in March they are as quiet as ours were in Dec. 2006. Thanks for the pictures too. We will continue to follow you on your cruise.

[BlackJack2]

Hi Robin -

How was the cruise director and her staff? Did they offer many day time activities? Did they have the Mr & Ms Volendam game??

Keep posting, we are going on this cruise over the holidays and your information is fantastic!!!!

[Robin7]

How was the cruise director and her staff? Did they offer many day time activities? Did they have the Mr & Ms Volendam game??

 

I thought the cruise director Rebecca Fabischek was a huge ZERO. No personality whatsoever. BUT I only ever saw her pre- and (sometimes) post-show. Maybe by not going to any activities, I missed what makes her a good CD. She didn't even do that thing where the CD comes on after the show and 'sells' whatever else is going on around the ship! I just found her to be pretty useless.

 

I also can't speak about her staff since we did no activities.

 

There didn't seem to be an enormous number of daytime activities, but enough that if we hadn't had family along we could have kept ourselves busy.

 

I've just looked through my daily programs and find no mention of "Mr. and Mrs. Volendam".

 

Robin

[Robin7]

There were many unusual happenings on this cruise:

Save The Seabirds We sailed under outside blackout the entire trip. It was interesting. From the daily program:

New Zealand Seabirds

We encourage you to assist us as we work to protect the environment both on board and ashore. Please switch off your balcony lights when not in use. All lighting on the Sports Deck, 9 and Lido Deck, 8 aft, will be switched off each evening, so please use caution. Lighting on Lower Promenade, Deck 3, will remain on.

The captain explained that the seabirds, attracted to the lights, were crashing on the decks and being injured/killed. I thought the blackout was an excellent solution.

FirstSea Day We spent our entire first day sailing VERY slowly. So slowly, in fact, that the stabilizers could not be used so it was a rockin’ and a rollin’. But as it was such a slow roll, it did not make me seasick. That night the ship was listing so far to port for some reason that my shower wouldn’t drain and became a bathtub! Heh.

We were sailing so slowly because our first port (Tauranga) was not far from Auckland. This was the first time HAL has taken a sea day instead of just going straight to port overnight. I guess that was to allow newly-arrived-to-New-Zealand passengers some time to get over their jetlag.

We also spent FOUR HOURS sailing around and around and around the White Islands. Scenic cruising, the Captain called it. Of a volcano and a gannet colony!

Code Red Our ship spent 12 of our 14 days in Code Red. The virus came in on Qantas flight 26. 37 (maybe 34) people were initially. We ended up with over 100 sick by the end. I don't know how the crew even managed to still be on their feet by the end, and yet many seemed just as cheerful as usual. The 'corporate partners' were all helping in the Lido--photogs, shop persons, etc. Even spouses of crew were helping!

We nearly got out of Code Red, the Captain said, but in spite of repeated (and I mean REPEATED) instructions to please report in as soon as you think you might be ill, two passengers who were sick STILL went on a shore excursion in Melbourne and didn't report until afterwards. (Stupid, selfish idiots, if you ask me.) So we remained in Code Red until we disembarked.

[Robin7]

The “Roaring Forties” We missed Milford Sound due to 70mph winds. The Tasman Sea was running 12-15ft swells with ‘an occasional larger one in the sequence’ (according to the captain). During this…er…exciting time, the Volendam lost power, and we were absolutely dead in the water for five minutes or more (which seemed A LOT longer than it was). We were in our stateroom getting ready for dinner when it happened. The captain came on and asked that we all remain in place and expect a lot of heavy rolling as we were going to drift sideways to the swells and get some really good rolling going. (THAT was reassuring—not.) We, of course, headed out in the hallway to get our family members (in true inside cabins) to come into our room with the window so we could all see what was happening. Many other passengers and our steward were all out there. I’m sad to say this is not the first or second time my husband and I have been on a ship dead in the water, it was our THIRD time! (1991 Westerdam and 1993 Regal Princess) Our steward’s eyes were as big as saucers! If I had not been mildly worried, it would have been funny. About the time all six of us were choosing seats in our stateroom, the engines came back on. Hurray!

The captain said we ‘dropped an engine’. As if one just fell off or something! My husband retained the explanation (my comments in italics):

The captain said that a sensor on an oiling unit on one of the two engines indicated a problem, and the engine shut down to prevent damage. Usually a computer system will automatically lighten the electrical load going to the other engine, but it didn’t work, and the other engine overloaded, so it shut down too. These engines generate electrical power and that, in turn, is used for the ship’s electrical needs as well as for propulsion. They were running a lot of energy to propulsion (probably due to the high seas) and the hotel was taking a bunch too (everyone getting ready for dinner?), and it was too much for their fail-safe system. They had to restart both engines, and that’s why the ship went dead. It turned sideways into the swells, and that’s not so good on big swells. Fortunately, it didn’t take them too long to get one engine back online and get the ship turning back into the swells and then they got the other one online again, and all was well.

“If You Smell Smoke…” The captain announced that some passengers were smelling smoke in their cabins, but not to worry. He said if you smell smoke that you should alert the front desk. Oh, really? Wow, and here I thought you were supposed to IGNORE signs of fire, smoke, or electrical overload. Silly me!

My husband again explains: The heating coils were getting too hot when they came back on line (after the engines quit) because too many cabins were asking for too much heat (because it was SERIOUSLY cold). They asked everyone to turn their thermostats down while the system had a chance to catch up, then to slowly raise it a few hours later. That seemed to do the trick.

[Robin7]

Mayhem in the Dining Room When we started dinner after all this excitement, the dining room was about two-thirds full. The Tasman Sea got even rougher than it had been, and people started scooting out of the dining room VERY quickly. Dinners and glassware and anything not secured started flying off tables and steward’s stations. (At one point, the tall pepper grinder started to roll off our steward’s station, but he managed to get his foot up there just in time to save it. Quite a ‘feat’ in such high seas!!!!)

You know the seas are bad when your Dining Room steward offers you meclizine, takes one himself, and says, “This is the first time I’ve been in the Australian Seas, and it’s very rough!”

The display stand outside of the liquor store tipped over. (Rumor running rampant had it as liquor bottles all over the floor and the store guy injured! Not so.) The shops were closed.

The next morning, my husband could not get his beloved fresh-squeezed orange juice in the Lido at breakfast because “too many glasses were broken last night”.

[Robin7]

Later in the cruise (Burnie night), the Captain gave everyone free wine (red or white) or anything you wanted from the bar. (We don’t drink alcohol so had some virgin Pina Coladas and daquiris.) The stewards rushed dinner soooooo fast! I finally asked our guy why they were in such a hurry. He said so many glasses were broken the other night that there weren’t enough glasses for both sittings at dinner. So they had to have time to wash the glasses from the first sitting (5:45) to be prepared for the second sitting at 8pm!

We had a fire alarm while waiting to go ashore in Burnie, Tasmania (and how glad were were to be in Burnie after that crossing!?!?). The queue was really long and moving very slowly. (They had had to move the gangway up so it had been closed for a while, and the line had gotten quite long.) Suddenly, we heard eleven short blasts. My MIL and I looked at each other and I said, "Well, at least it wasn't seven short and one long blast." Then the security and other crew working the gangway came bounding by, one shouted "Fire alarm!", and they all went tearing down the stairs. That's when I figured it was serious.

The Captain came on the loudspeaker to say it was not a drill, and there was smoke reported in the aft boiler room. (I swear he said 'boiler room'.) A minute or two later, he came back on and said, "The aft fire doors will be closing." Or whatever it is they're called. (At that point I became very sad that I had not grabbed my iPod, as all our photos were backed up on it. Heh. Our stateroom being all the way aft on Deck 7.)

Before we could 'evacuate' the ship, he came back on and said it was a false alarm. Thank goodness! That line was moving so slowly, if it had been a fire, we all wouldn't have made it off.

[BlackJack2]

Hi Robin -

I was reading your blog about Picton. What tour did you use to go to Ship's Cove? Did you pick up a tour in Picton or use the HAL tour?

[Robin7]

Hi Robin -

I was reading your blog about Picton. What tour did you use to go to Ship's Cove? Did you pick up a tour in Picton or use the HAL tour?

 

We took the ship's tour. I felt the timing was too iffy to get a private tour. As it was, we were some of the last people back on the ship. In fact, the gal who was the owner of the tour company was on our boat, and she was pretty stressed about getting us back on time, having gotten in trouble last year for being late, and she really didn't want to lose the contract! That was my favorite tour, but probably only because of my Cook obsession. Others in my roll call who were also on the tour weren't so enamoured of it.

 

Robin

[drdentist]

thanks for taking the time to post this. loving every word :)

[Gsel]

Robin, this is wonderful, but you are making us very nervous! We are coming in on Qantas 26. Guess we should be very careful. (Usually are anyway) Please keep it coming, great review.

[RuthC]

I'm truly enjoying your report. Do you have the names of the entertainers you referred to above? I'd be interested in knowing who performed. (I like to keep track of HAL performers.)

And do you have the names of the lounge entertainers, too?

Thanks.

I sure remember what it was like hearing dishes crash while in rough seas. I wondered if we would run out of dishes before we ran out of storm. ;)

I could picture your description exactly.

[Robin7]

I'm truly enjoying your report. Do you have the names of the entertainers you referred to above? I'd be interested in knowing who performed. (I like to keep track of HAL performers.)

And do you have the names of the lounge entertainers, too?

Thanks.

 

• Liz Layton (the singer I didn't like)
  
• Stuart Gillies (Australian singer I didn't see, too tired)
  
• Marty Hill (a 'multi-instrumentalist' my family said was quite good, played nearly all wind instruments)
  
• Sinead Blanchfield (a tiny Irish soprano with a HUGE voice)
  
• Gary Wick (ventriloquist)
  
• Doug Mattocks (banjo player we missed)
  
• Barnaby (juggler)
  

plus the four cast shows "Gold" (which we missed last fall on the Volendam because the second show was canceled due to high seas) and "Hat's Off" (a new show just brought into production according to the CD), plus the two we saw previously on the Zaandam and Volendam "Southern Nights" and "H2OH!".

 

The Crow's Nest had Stryker on the piano and Charlie and the HAL Cats. (I didn't hear any of them. I found the Crow's Nest too smoky this trip.)

 

Explorer's lounge had the Champagne Strings (who need MORE in their repertoire! We heard sooooooooo many repeats. I have three kids who play violin, viola, and cello respectively. I know there are more pieces out there than what they had).

 

The Ocean Bar had Stryker and The Manila Quartet. (I didn't hear either of them except from afar.)

 

The Piano Bar had Randall Powell who I thought was fabulous. Not quite Kory Simon fabulous but close.

 

I figured you'd like these images best of everyone, Ruth. Ride 'em, cowboy! I was so relieved that I wasn't seasick. I guess I don't get seasick on the large ships. I sure do on smaller boats. (I about heaved my toenails up on our tour of the Bay of Islands pre-cruise.) I didn't even take any Meclizine on the second and third day in these kinds of seas. Go figure. It was scary-entertaining. (I bet you know what I mean.)

 

Robin

 

 

[aussiedisneyfan]

Thanks for the great report. I am the same cruise as Blackjack2 and your report is giving a great insight on what to expect, well hopefully not the seas and emergencies.

 

We sailed the NZ/AU run on the Celebrity Mercury in January and there were numerous injured birds flapping around the decks. It was very distressing for the kids to see them. Guess for the birds too.

[RuthC]

Thanks for the info on the entertainers. I was interested in knowing who the singer was; I was worried that you were speaking of another singer who has gotten rave reviews.

Yes, I sure do know what you mean by "scary-entertaining"! :D It's kind of fun to sit in that window in the Lido---the one that faces forward---and watch the waves crash (as you listen to the dishes do the same ;)).

[Down-Unders]

I thought the cruise director Rebecca Fabischek was a huge ZERO. No personality whatsoever. BUT I only ever saw her pre- and (sometimes) post-show. Maybe by not going to any activities, I missed what makes her a good CD. She didn't even do that thing where the CD comes on after the show and 'sells' whatever else is going on around the ship! I just found her to be pretty useless.

 

I also can't speak about her staff since we did no activities.

 

There didn't seem to be an enormous number of daytime activities, but enough that if we hadn't had family along we could have kept ourselves busy.

 

I've just looked through my daily programs and find no mention of "Mr. and Mrs. Volendam".

 

Robin

 

 

I always think it is sad when staff members are named on the boards as they cannot defend themselves.