Just completed 22-29 Westerdam Eastern Caribbean

[timothy998]

My family & I just returned from a wonderful week. I'll post details during the week, but just wanted to let everyone know that the Code Red was lifted on Wednesday and that the crew went above and beyond, working countless extra hours to make it feel like nothing was amiss in their worlds. We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, albeit we were told that seas were the roughest in months (but that is beyond HAL's control) and our kids cried when they had to leave Club HAL, they were having so much fun. I will touch base on specifics in a day or two when I catch up on things like work.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome home.

Will be looking forward to your review.

[cmdchiefthom]

Glad to hear you had a great time, and especially about lifting the code red. We board the Westerday on Sunday, and can't wait to read your review.:)

[laplaya29]

Glad to hear that the Code Red has been lifted.

 

Bill

[~Jo~]

Thank you for letting us know that the Code Red has been lifted! We are going on the Westerdam in 2 weeks and although we always take the usual precautions, it's nice to know that we are not sailing on a "sick" ship.;)

~Jo~

[timothy998]

This is a long one, but wanted to give you our thoughts on our cruise last week. We loved it!

We were on the ms Westerdam Eastern Caribbean sailing March 22-29. This was our first cruise…our family includes DW and myself, plus our three kids, ages 3, 7, 10. We booked two Verandah cabins that connected, 5083 & 5085.

We flew into Miami Saturday the 21st and booked a Hertz rental car, then drove to Fort Lauderdale. We stopped at Walmart along the way, and picked up a few things like a case of water, some extra chocolate, and things like that. The Walmart wasn’t terribly convenient, but it was what we found.

We used Hilton points to stay at the Hampton Inn on 12th Street in Fort Lauderdale. The room was clean with two queen beds & the rollaway was already in the room. Across the street was a Dollar General store, plus a Winn Dixie, and a Subway sandwich shop, a Wendy’s, and a local Italian pizza/pasta place. Breakfast the next morning was good…a variety of yogurt, hot and cold cereal, waffles, and fruit. Our kids loved the guava juice. They also had coffee, tea and hot chocolate.

We had our laptop with us so learned of the Code Red before we headed to the ship. Our original plan was to board as early as possible, but a kind CC’er on the previous sailing forewarned via a post that passengers would not be able to board until about 2:00 p.m. the 22nd. So we walked to Subway for sandwiches (our kids prefer Subway to the arches) and tried to leisurely pass the time…of course our three-year-old had been jumping bed-to-bed, pronouncing, “I have energy!”

At about 1:00 pm we couldn’t stand the suspense so we drove to the Fort Lauderdale airport and dropped our car with Hertz. The signs pointing to the rental car shuttle to the pier were not very clear (or in existence) so we had to ask our way. We finally learned that we were to go to Bus Stop #1, at the far right side of the rental car building, for the shuttle. For some reason we had to switch buses, but some kind gentlemen helped us move our luggage to the new bus. It was about a 5-minute ride to the pier.

HAL check-in went pretty smoothly. Actually the HAL agent was very thankful we’d completed our online check-in and after we’d filled out our “Have you been sick” forms, we were able to get our photos taken and keycards in minutes. Then we went to the “big room” where everyone was waiting to board while the crew scrubbed the ship from stem to stern, literally. The room was set up with folding chairs and HAL had provided bottled water and granola bars. I feel for the passengers who weren’t able to learn about the delay and who stuck it out at the facility, although we were offered a free shuttle to the 17th Street Mall.

Once our number was called we got into a line that snaked here, there & yonder, and finally onto the ship. The line took about ten minutes and before we knew it we had been scanned onboard (love how fast the computers pulled our photos up!) and were being directed to the Verandah deck to find our staterooms.

In their haste, the attendant cleaning 5085 had left snack wrappers and cereal in one of the cupboards, and the prior passenger had left their BVDs in one of the closets. Our newly boarded cabin attendant cleaned up the things and apologized profusely, set up the beds and we were soon on our way. I attribute that oversight to the Code Red. Crew members were working feverishly to clean the ship.

I did learn that to open the Verandah divider, it had to be done while docked, for whatever reason I don’t know, but once at Grand Turk I called, and it was completed within minutes.

We enjoyed our tablemates, with whom we found much in common, and I hope they enjoyed sitting with us, as well!

Ours was a very rough cruise, according to Capt. Peter Harris. We had 7.5- to 12-foot waves and a lot of pitching and rolling of the ship. At one point on Monday, with the ship speed and the wind, we had winds on the port bow of about 45 mph. The weather sign stated it was a “gale,” and veteran cruisers said it was an abnormally rough cruise.

Once we settled in a bit we went exploring, whereupon entering the Lido Deck, DD exclaimed, “Let’s Eat!” So we did. At 4:00 p.m. we went to Mass with Father Mickey, and at 5:00 p.m. we took the kids to Club Hal to fill out the paperwork and meet the staff (Jo, Kaitlin and Natalie). I cannot comment enough about just how much my kids loved going to Club HAL. I will try to provide more details in a separate post, if you want, but the little ones cried whenever we brought them to our cabin for bed, or took them to eat. They would have spent all day and all night at Club Hal, had we allowed them!

We had a fun CC Roll Call meeting Monday afternoon at the Crow’s Nest. Coffee, iced tea, water, and assorted cookies were provided. The view was great but the weather made it a bit rough up top. The best part of the Roll Call group was to be able to compare notes with people we “knew” and to take pictures or help out at various times by watching gear on the beach, etc.

Our dining room servers were Adi, Eric, and Darwin (bar). They were very accommodating to our tired kids, and made sure the kids’ meals were brought out with the soup/salad courses each night. The kids’ meal options were pretty limited, ours liked the chicken noodle soup and the nuggets. Occasionally the two younger ones opted for one of the “adult” appetizers, like shrimp or fruit. Our 10-year-old ate from the adult menu. We really miss our servers--they were always very accommodating—sometimes too much so.

The selection, presentation, quality and taste of the food was impressive, particularly given the great quantities of meals that were provided (13,000/day according to the staff). I did not memorize the menus, as they had a variety of options each night, plus daily offerings of salmon, steak, chicken, and pasta.

Monday night was the first sea day and the first formal night. That was also the night our eldest became seasick just as we’d finished our appetizers. I took him back to the cabin and ordered the room service “seasick menu.” He felt much better with that and some fresh air. One complaint was that it took about 40 minutes to get through to room service, and another 50-minutes to receive the food. That said, I am sure it was due to the fact that we were still on Code Red and the crew was working overtime to keep the basics going for passengers…so I won’t dwell on that as Code Red was a one-off situation. We had very good luck the other times we ordered from the room service menu.

On Tuesday night I took DW to the Pinnacle Grill for an early 15th anniversary dinner. Anna and Timo were our servers. It was nice to have a quiet dining experience, but we missed our tablemates (we had fed the kids early at the Lido buffet, and taken them to Club Hal). The quality of meat was very good at the PG. DW had the surf & turf and I had the porterhouse. Mmmm. The scalloped potatoes were excellent, and although the quantity was small, I was still stuffed at the end of the meal. The service was comparable to the dining room, but the ambiance was much calmer.

We were beach bums at Grand Turk, then at San Juan we took a taxi to El Morro, then walked back down the hill to the ship for lunch. Word to the wise on taxis…we had been to San Juan before and knew NOT to take the first taxis we found. We walked in a few blocks to the left and up, away from the pier, and found a regular taxi. Our fare was $8 including tip, to the fort, where other taxis at the pier were charging $10 per person to get to the fort and into Old San Juan. There’s also a free trolley but we took the taxi as we were on the 1:00 pm rainforest drive. Our only other stop in Old San Juan was the Cathedral where we saw Juan Ponce de Leon’s crypt.

The rainforest drive was fun. The bus was packed, but it had air conditioning. People were in pretty good spirits and we had three stops of 20, 10, and 30 minutes, respectively. That’s as much as our kids could handle anyway, and I remember waking up at one point. The driver provided a running monologue of various things going on in Puerto Rico, and was very proud of his beautiful island and a good spokesman for Puerto Rico tourism.

At St. Maarten we rented a car at Budget. Hertz in the U.S. had told us they did not have any service at the pier, but they did, along with Budget, Europa(?) and some others. Our original booking was with AVIS, but it was about a 10 minute walk from the pier so we let that expire and took the Budget car, which was $10 cheaper. Go figure. We then found a parking spot in Phillipsburg and picked up some trinkets and shirts, then made our way to the French side. We made the mistake of going the west route, as the main road in Marigot was closed for reconstruction, so a 30-minute trip took over an hour. We ate at the Grand Case Beach Club (where we spent our honeymoon) and spent an hour or so on the beach. The sandwiches are plenty to share at the GCBC, and various birds and lizards picked up any crumbs the kids happened to drop.

We returned to the port via the eastern route, which was much quicker, and boarded easily. Three other ships were in port that day. When we left, we had a Dutch Navy escort, as they were doing various maneuvers with their helicopter. When the naval ship passed us, many of the sailors were on deck taking photographs & video of the ms Westerdam, and many passengers on our ship were doing the same of the Navy vessel.

Friday was a sea day and the kids got to spend more time at Club Hal. One night the kids in the 3-7 age group were “pirates” and got to use “pirate language” on various passengers they encountered on their rampages! The counselors also painted fake blood on them, helped them to make pirate hats, and tied various bandages on their arms and legs. Very cute.

Saturday was Half Moon Cay. We loved it and wanted to stay, but followed the crowds back onboard. We enjoyed the barbecue and as usual, ate more than our share. The tender rides were efficient, if a bit rough in the seas, but we arrived at the ship safe and sound.

My DW and I took turns going to various shows, as one of us kept watch on the little ones once they were in bed. She enjoyed the variety show & I got to see part of the karaoke competition. Kerry Watkins was the CD. The only question we had was “When does he sleep?” He seemed to be just about everywhere during the cruise…which to us meant that he was a hard worker who wanted the passengers to have fun and to be involved.

The Code Red was very tough on the crew, but once it was lifted on Wednesday and we were serving ourselves using sticky utensils in the Lido, I sort of missed it! Our kids got into the good habit of never passing a purell dispenser without stopping, and Laode at the Lido always stopped and high-fived the kids before we went in. We ate all of our breakfasts and lunches in the Lido…we figured that one sit-down meal per day was enough for the kids to endure.

One thing that bothered me, but was NOT the fault of HAL, was when a couple would take a table for six, when smaller tables were available in the Lido. At one point I was getting frustrated & asked a server if there were other larger tables available, and one passenger who had just taken a larger table offered to move to an available, smaller table. ..as we needed the six-top to fit our little crew.

We appreciated the “smaller” 1848 passenger ms Westerdam, versus the megaships we encountered at various times. We had lines in the Lido on occasion, but often that was rectified by going to the other side. We felt like the crew truly enjoyed having us aboard and every time we encountered a crewmember, he or she would greet us. We also appreciated that many of the officers and managers were very visible and were working the Code Red alongside everyone else. I have great respect for them…and know that is one reason the crew all seemed to be happy to be there, for the leadership didn’t ask the crew to do anything they weren’t willing to do themselves.

I had used the CC boards prior to the cruise to glean helpful hints about cruising, and want to thank everyone for their helpful hints. Things that worked well for us were the over-the-door shoe organizers, the pop-up hampers, the unlimited laundry (that was a TREAT) and the soft drink card (future occupants of 5083 need to check out John’s Gospel and the wedding at Caana). Room service was fun to use, and the food was hot and plentiful. Due to the Code Red, we didn’t have the fruit bowls, but frankly we ate so much that we didn’t really need them. We ended up not getting any of the onboard gifts for the cabin, but we did get some HAL merchandise, some of which was 50% off, but who knows if that was a permanent sale or what?!

We aren’t certain when we will cruise again, but we appreciated our time on the ms Westerdam and think we’ll avoid the 4,000+ passenger megaships. That said, HAL is definitely at the top of our list for the next time.

[~Jo~]

Thank you for taking the time to post this review. Looks like you had a great vacation! Now I'm really looking forward to OUR FIRST WESTERDAM cruise.

~Jo~