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The LAFFNVEGAS LIVE From the Statendam Panama Canal Cruise

LAFFNVEGAS

By LAFFNVEGAS,
in Holland America Line

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LAFFNVEGAS "Live from...." Rare

LAFFNVEGAS

Posted
Posted

Good Evening CCers or is it a very early Good Morning?:D

It is almost midnight and we are waiting to board a Continental flight to Houston that will connect to FLL and we will arrive around 10:45 in the morning. For those that have followed my Live threads before you know that we were recently in FLL in December for our Eurodam cruise and we had a pre cruise night stay at the Embassy Suites. We were less than pleased because of the condition of the room specifically the very thin see thru sheets. So we were given a free nights stay at any Embassy Suites so we are going to use that and see if they can improve on our accomidations ;)

We will board the Statendam on Friday.What will be interesting is that there will only be two ships in port on Friday so it should not be crowded at Port Everglades or the hotel for that matter.

This is our first time going thru the Panama Canal. I have been told that it is a very different feeling doing an actual 14 day as opposed to a B2B of two 7 day cruises. This is also our first time on the Statendam and it has been since 2006 when we were last on an S class ship ironically it was the Ryndam and the Captain was Frans Consen who will again be out Captain :D We have most cruised the Vista class ships and the Eurodam in recent cruises so I expect this to feel very different.

I am hoping to make the large internet package last the 2 weeks so if you ask any questions I may not be able to answer them till we return home. But I am confident that there will be other readers that can answer the questions;)

Thanks for following along we are of course hoping for a FUN Journey:D

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luvcruisn'

luvcruisn'

Posted
Posted

Thanks for posting Lisa. Have a wonderful time! I like the Statendam - I was on her for a five day cruise last September.

You might be right about your hotel not being crowded. When I was in Fort Lauderdale in January/08, many people were staying at the hotel I was at just to get away from their cold winters. Maybe now everyone's gone home.

You will love the full transit, just remember to have your sunscreen with you on the day going through the canal. I had left mine in my cabin, and didn't want to miss anything by going back down to get it.

 

Marnie

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Silverwing

Silverwing

Posted
Posted

Really looking forward to following this thread from the UK, Lisa. Reading your posts from Alaska in 2006 led me to book our very first cruise which was on the Ryndam. We had a fantastic time in Alaska in 2007, were on the Eurodam last summer and will be cruising in the Mediterranean on the Norrdam this September. HAL suits us perfectly and it's all thanks to you!

 

I hope you have a wonderful time - or should that be I know you will have a wonderful time!! Thank you for once again sharing your travels with us.

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brucory

brucory

Posted
Posted

Thank you for including us all in your trip... You have posted so many links to pics from webcams of the Panama Canal.. And we have always enjoyed them. Cant wait to see your own pics (hopefully some with your own big smiles)...

 

Have a ball... We will be following your thread with great enthusiasm.

 

:D:D:D

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Ine

Ine

Posted
Posted

Of course we will try and read your reports Lisa.

Since our departure from P. Vallarta will also take place during your cruise it will not always be daily.

We are surprised to read Capt. Frans Consen is now on Statendam, so no more announcements from the RRRRRRRRRRRRyndam for him.

Have a great cruise.

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted

Yes, a fourteen day cruise does feel different than seven day b-to-b's. I think we enjoy both equally though. :)

 

Hope you and Tom have a wonderful time.

Enjoy your cruise and Canal transit.

 

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jbhcw

jbhcw

Posted
Posted

Have a great day in Fort Lauderdale and a wonderful cruise. The Panama is one I do want to do but it will have to wait a while I suppose:) So I will follow your journey, thanks so much for doing a live report - I love them:)

 

There is a great little restaurant within walking distance of the ES, it's in a little strip mall and is called Kelly's. It serves New England style seafood. A friend from FLL took us there when we sailed the Westerdam in February.

 

Bon Voyage:):)

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SDHALFAN

SDHALFAN

Posted
Posted

Have a ton of fun Lisa and Tom. I got your e-mail re the card, and yes I was awake and thinking of you as you left home and headed to the airport.

 

I look forward to reading your reports and especially to enjoying your enjoyment of a fabulous cruise.

 

Valerie:)

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Stakeout

Stakeout

Posted
Posted
Good Evening CCers or is it a very early Good Morning?:D

 

It is almost midnight and we are waiting to board a Continental flight to Houston that will connect to FLL and we will arrive around 10:45 in the morning. For those that have followed my Live threads before you know that we were recently in FLL in December for our Eurodam cruise and we had a pre cruise night stay at the Embassy Suites. We were less than pleased because of the condition of the room specifically the very thin see thru sheets. So we were given a free nights stay at any Embassy Suites so we are going to use that and see if they can improve on our accomidations ;)

 

We will board the Statendam on Friday.What will be interesting is that there will only be two ships in port on Friday so it should not be crowded at Port Everglades or the hotel for that matter.

 

This is our first time going thru the Panama Canal. I have been told that it is a very different feeling doing an actual 14 day as opposed to a B2B of two 7 day cruises. This is also our first time on the Statendam and it has been since 2006 when we were last on an S class ship ironically it was the Ryndam and the Captain was Frans Consen who will again be out Captain :D We have most cruised the Vista class ships and the Eurodam in recent cruises so I expect this to feel very different.

 

I am hoping to make the large internet package last the 2 weeks so if you ask any questions I may not be able to answer them till we return home. But I am confident that there will be other readers that can answer the questions;)

 

Thanks for following along we are of course hoping for a FUN Journey:D

 

hope you enjoy your cruise thru the Canal.. we got back from a B2B on the Statendam on 3/20---28 days.. also did the same cruise last Jan-Feb on the Maasdam when it was 30 days... the Canal is definitely unique and a neat place to transit.. get those Panama buns and coffee when you are out on deck early in the AM going thru the Canal...

 

not sure where you're gonna hang out for the Canal- day.. best place we found for taking pics is up on the Lido deck in front of the Gym outside--but standing only.. no chairs...also get the Panama buns right there at the stairwell at the entrance to the Spa/Gym..

 

as usual I took a bunch of pics both times we've been thru it.. for the entire cruise snapped about 4200+ this cruise.. last year 4800 or so..... on the Statendam the Sky Deck above the Crows Nest is 'blocked' by glass not like it is on the Maasdam which is wide-open up there..

 

have fun..enjoy!!:D

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kakalina

kakalina

Posted
Posted

Glad you are off to a good start Lisa. We are certain you will love this itinerary as much as we did.

Another great place to watch through the canal trip is the bow where you send everyone for the waves.

Hope you and Tom have a wonderful time, give our best to Frans, he's grrrrreat!

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LAFFNVEGAS "Live from...." Rare

LAFFNVEGAS

Posted
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Greetings CCers OH My it feels like it has been days since I started this thread :D

 

Let me start from the beginning but all is good so this could sound boring or rather funny which ever way you want to take it ;)

 

Our flight went absolutely perfect as far as time and all the important things, but seriously I will never take Continental cross crountry again unless maybe I have a first class seat. We were in row 31 next to the last in the back of the plane on a old 737. The seats were by far the smallest and most uncomfortable seats we have ever sat on in a plane. We had a short lay over in Houston and we were off to FLL, fortunately the plane going to FLL was newer and the seat had a bit more cushion but still no room. I guess we are just spoiled with Southwest and their crew always smiling.

 

We arrived in FLL about 5 minutes early, our luggage was one of the first few to arrive, we grabbed a taxi and headed to the Embassy Suite at about 11:20. OK Got to tell you about the Taxi . If you remember the last time we were here in December that night we arrived we got the song and dance that the meter in the cab was broke and we were charged 20 some dollars.

There was a bit of discussion about this. Well today's ride to the Embassy was a bit different. The cost was $11.80 but we were driven here by a women that I would call the Jamaican Mr. Toad's WILD Ride

:eek: OMG it made our son's driving look perfect. But we got to the hotel in record time :D

 

We checked in and was given a room toward the front of the hotel on the 2nd floor. First thing I did was check the sheets. Yes they were nice and thick but in all honesty this hotel is just not that great (more about that later) After we took our luggage upstairs and sat down for just a few minutes we decided to take off for lunch. Tom had thought in our wild ride that just before we turned into the Embassy Suites that he saw a Burger King, we thought we wanted something light then I would go to the pool for a bit then take a nap. Well, we walked and saw nothing like that so across the street from the Embassy Suites there is a Chuck's Steakhouse it was about 11:50 so we crossed the street and went in. I had the tastiest Mushroom Swiss Burger which was the special for the day for $8.25. By the time we left this place was packed for the lunch crowd. Sure beats the heck out of a Burger King sandwich.

 

Afterwards we decided we wanted to go get our extra bottles of champagne so we headed over to Wines Plus that is in the shoppping center behind the Embassy Suite. We purchased just 4 bottles of Korbel, it is pretty bad when you can walk into the store and know right where to walk to, to find the champagne ;)

 

Well, then headed back to our hotel, I decided I wanted to go out by the pool and read for a while and soak up a few rays and lighten my hair. OK girls you remember Sun IN well they still make it and I still use it to lighten my hair up a bit.I have the kind of dishwater blonde hair the lightens so well with it and never looks red, my hiar dresser always thinks someone else has frosted it for me. So I saturated my body with 45 SPF and sprayed my hair with Sun In and with book in hand spent about an hour by the pool. Well, an hour by the pool I quickly learned that even SPF 45 may not do the trick, I did not get burned but I certainly had some red coloring so I can tell we will need to be mighty carefull the next 14 days the sun is very intense.

 

Once back in the room I wanted to shower, get into my PJs and take a nice long nap. While yes the sheets were thicker the bathroom was just kind of sad. The tub I know probably cannot be cleaned any better but looked very dirty. I tried wiping it down first myself and the grout looked black. The shower head was so clogged up that no matter what setting you place it on the water barely comes out then the first two towels I opened up both had holes/tears in them. I am sorry but this hotel has seen seen better days. The Hampton Inn we stayed at after our Eurodam cruise was just so much cleaner and fresher. This hotel needs to rip out those tubs and replace them. At this point I am not even going to bother to complain I just will not return and I will continue to tell people of our two bad impressions of this hotel then they charge $9.95 to use the wi-fi when most hotels give it free.

 

After being showered brushed my teeth I felt so much better and was ready to crawl into bed for a nap, I think I was out before my head hit the pillow. I woke hearing my phone beep that someone had texted me. I am guessing they had not seen me post here so wanted to make sure we got here OK.

 

Tom and I both feel so much better, we will soon head back over to the shopping center to Gators. We actually enjoyed that place last time, mostly because they made some very good Mojitos :D I know there are some very nice restaurants around here but Gators is fairly cheap and easy and gives us a bit of exercise.

 

I will report back in after dinner......

 

Signing off from almost being on the Statendam but instead at the Embassy Suite in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

I am attaching if it works a picture of the Statendam leaving Port Everglade that I took from the Eurodam starting our 2nd half of our B2B. Little did i know when I took this pictures that we would be sailing out of Port Everglades on the Statendam just 4 months later.

100_2993.jpg.71b5d8712402246202d49ba142ddf02d.jpg

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innlady1

innlady1

Posted
Posted
Good Evening CCers or is it a very early Good Morning?:D

 

It is almost midnight and we are waiting to board a Continental flight to Houston that will connect to FLL and we will arrive around 10:45 in the morning. For those that have followed my Live threads before you know that we were recently in FLL in December for our Eurodam cruise and we had a pre cruise night stay at the Embassy Suites. We were less than pleased because of the condition of the room specifically the very thin see thru sheets. So we were given a free nights stay at any Embassy Suites so we are going to use that and see if they can improve on our accomidations ;)

 

We will board the Statendam on Friday.What will be interesting is that there will only be two ships in port on Friday so it should not be crowded at Port Everglades or the hotel for that matter.

 

This is our first time going thru the Panama Canal. I have been told that it is a very different feeling doing an actual 14 day as opposed to a B2B of two 7 day cruises. This is also our first time on the Statendam and it has been since 2006 when we were last on an S class ship ironically it was the Ryndam and the Captain was Frans Consen who will again be out Captain :D We have most cruised the Vista class ships and the Eurodam in recent cruises so I expect this to feel very different.

 

 

I am hoping to make the large internet package last the 2 weeks so if you ask any questions I may not be able to answer them till we return home. But I am confident that there will be other readers that can answer the questions;)

 

Thanks for following along we are of course hoping for a FUN Journey:D

 

That makes perfect sense, Doing a "live from" but waiting til you get home to answer questions!

 

Wish I'd thought of that when we did our b2b! I didn't post a "live from" because I knew how quickly minutes get used answering questions.

 

Hope you and Tom have a wonderful cruise and I look forward to your live from...a very different cruise for you!

 

GraphicBonVoyage1.jpg

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nik953

nik953

Posted
Posted

Lisa and Tom,

 

I'm so glad you made it to FLL ok. I am looking forward to reading your live from.

 

I hope you have a fabulous time on the Statendam. I'll be watching for your sail away tomorrow.

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