2019 Dec. Zuiderdam cruise

2019 Dec Zuiderdam Cruise: ABC islands

2019-Dec. 10-20 : Zuiderdam 10 nt. sunfarer (Bonaire; Curacao; Aruba; Amber Cove; Half Moon Cay)

It's been over 2 years since our last cruise.  During that cruise, we paid the $100/person for the FC Deposit.  Of course we had no idea of what was to come in the next year.  Ken's diabetes caused his ankle to collapse.  For the next 1 1/2 years he was in and out of hospitals and Dr.s' offices.  Ultimately it appears they were able to fuse his ankle and save his foot, but he's still a long way from moving well.  But we hope that a cruise will be a good way to finally get a little rest and relaxation.

So I booked us an inside handicapped accessible room for $750/person with gratuities included.  At that point, we weren't sure if he'd still be in his wheel chair full time or in a boot when the cruise date came.  Turns out, both.  So when prices for  a verandah cabin dropped to $799/person shortly after final payment, I called to grab one of them.  But they said we'd loose our gratuities, unless we wanted to upsell to a signature suite for $999/person---then, somehow, we would be able to keep the paid gratuities.  Sounded a bit fishie, but I liked the idea of a suite, so I took it. Only thing that was a bit annoying was they wouldn't increase the OBC for booking a suite with our FCC.  They said it stays at the level of your original booking.  At least it was only a loss of $50 OBC.  And we still had the OBC for owning CCL stock.

Then came the months of waiting to see what cabin we'd be assigned---and hopes for an offer to upsell to a Neptune Suite.  Almost a month before our cruise, we got an offer.  At $399/person, it really wasn't a bad deal, but I noticed there were a lot of cabins available so I declined it and hoped for better offer.   2 weeks after the upsell offer, we got an offer to buy into their new Club Orange.  Still not interested.  The benefits of priority boarding, special area in the restaurant for breakfast, tote bag, upgrade within booking category, designated concierge, and whatever didn't seem worth an extra $500.  But they did say they'd put me on a  waitlist for a Neptune Suite offer (whatever that means!). 

 

 As it turned out, we did get a waitlist call on Dec. 2nd (8 days before our sail date) offering us an upsell to a Neptune suite.  But they still wanted the $399/person for it.  I mentioned I hoped it would have gone down from the previous offer to which she said she could give it to us for $299/person.  So, Merry Christmas to us, I took it!  Maybe a bit much for the benefits, but I'm ready to be spoiled for a while.  I do look forward to the breakfasts in the Pinnacle Restaurant, easy access to the Neptune Lounge, and the larger table on our verandah---as well as a much larger cabin.   It'll only be our 2nd time in a suite.  Only had a choice of 2 suites to choose from. We ended up going with SA 7082.  Turned out to be a great cabin.  As I'm sure all the Neptune Suites are. 

Neptune Suite 7082: 

We had never been on the Zuiderdam before, so I'm including a bunch of random pictures from around the Zuiderdam:
 
Around the Zuiderdam:

The itinerary is one I love for the snorkeling opportunities.    Turned out Ken didn't leave the ship in ports, but I did.  
My links to each day:

Dec. 10, 2019  Embarkation Day: 

Dec. 11 & 12  Sea Days:

Dec. 13, 2019  Bonaire (and a great Friday the 13th) 

Dec. 14, 2019  Curacao   

Dec. 15, 2019 Aruba: 

Dec. 16, 2019 Sea day: 

Dec. 17, 2019 Amber Cove, DR:

Dec. 18, 2019 Sea Day:

Dec. 19, 2019 Half Moon Cay:

Dec. 20, 2019 Debarkation:


I dreaded the drive (which I did all of since Ken's driving ankle is in a boot), but the overall experience made it well worth it.  I had a great time.  I think Ken did, too.  Since this was the first real vacation he's had since his ankle collapsed 1.5 years ago, I'm sure he needed this trip, too. 

2017--- 11 nt HAL sunfarer cruise

2017  Nov. 28 - Dec. 12:  11 night HAL Koningsdam sunfarer cruise (St. Kitt's, St. Lucia, Barbados, Martinique, Antigua, St. Thomas, Half Moon Cay) and 3 night S. Florida stay:

When Southwest offered some insane airfares to FLL from ATL for $37@ way, I decided it was time for another trip!  So I chose Nov. 28 - Dec. 10----the week after Thanksgiving until a couple weeks before Christmas.  Now all I had to do was find accommodations and wait for Nov. 28th.  We were able to find a good deal for an 11 night Caribbean cruise of Holland America's newest ship, the Koningsdam, for $899@.  We were on her last year and really liked it.  But we still needed a night before the cruise and 2 nights after the cruise.  Having a bunch of Wyndham points, I was able to book the Wyndham Palm Aire.  I was even able to get the 4 bedroom penthouse for half the points of a 2 bedroom unit with our VIP status for the night before our cruise.

But before Nov. 28th came around, a little storm called Irma decided to pay a visit to the whole state of Florida and even up to us in Atlanta!   2 weeks before the trip, we got an email from Wyndham saying they were cancelling our pre cruise reservation---and might still cancel our post cruise 2 night reservation.  Dang!!!!  I did call them closer to our trip and confirmed that they were not going to cancel our 2 bedroom unit for the 2 nights after the cruise.  Yea!!!

I had thought about cancelling our trip, but since it was past the cancellation period for the cruise, we decided to go anyway.  We'd stay in a Ramada Inn and pay $85 for the pre cruise night.

11-28 :  Travel day

The Koningsdam:  VA 8065 and around the ship

11-29 :  Koningsdam 11 night Embarkation day

11-30 :  Sea day

12-1   :  Sea day

12-2   :  St. Kitt's

12-3   :  St. Lucia

12-4   :  Barbados

12-5   :  Martinique

12-6   :  Antigua

12-7   :  St. Thomas

12-8   :  Sea day

12-9   :  Half Moon Cay

12-10 :  Debarkation Day-Green Cay

12-11  :  Wakodahatchee Wetlands

12-12 we headed back to the airport and flew back to ATL.  Another long travel day, but our daughter did pick us up at ATL so we didn't have to go to the car rental building off site.
It was another great trip that went way too quickly!  The snorkeling wasn't the greatest this time, but the weather was pretty darn nice.  Even were welcomed several mornings by a rainbow!  The Koningsdam was as nice as we remembered, maybe even nicer.  It was another great trip! 

2016 Dec. 4-14 Koningsdam 10 nt cruise (Half moon cay, Grand Turk, Amber Cove, Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba):

On our last cruise (2015 Nov. cruise) we signed up for the future cruise bonus.  The Koningsdam is the newest ship in the HAL fleet and was going on a route we wanted to do.  Didn't know if we'd like being on such a big ship, but it turned out to be great.  We met a lot of interesting people, ate a lot of great food, visited several interesting ports, enjoyed the entertainment; everything would have been perfect----if it hadn't stormed all day in Bonaire.  Oh well, there's always next time!

We tend to base most of our cruises (and most of our land vacations) around beaches and snorkeling.  This one was no exception.  In fact I chose this specific itinerary because it went to Bonaire and Curacao again, plus a couple new ports for us---Amber Cove and Aruba.

Instead of making a ridiculously long blog, I'm supplying links to the ship, ports, and sea days individually---and the 4 days pre-cruise mini S. Florida vacation.  

11-30-16  back to our old stomping grounds in South Florida!
12-1-16  back to the beach!!!
12-2-16 Mounts gardens in West Palm Beach:
12-3-16  Wakodahatchee and Green Cay! 

Now---on to the cruise!

The Koningsdam

Dec. 4---embarkation day

Dec. 5---Half Moon Cay

Dec. 6---Grand Turk

Dec. 7---Amber Cove

Dec. 8---1st sea day

Dec. 9---Bonaire

Dec. 10---Curacao

Dec. 11---Aruba

Dec. 12-14---sea days and disembarkation

I'd read a lot of complaints about the Koningsdam---no library, walking was hard on the promenade deck, lines were bad in Lido, not enough elevators,  more places to nickel and dime you, and more that I can't think of right now, but none of that bothered us.  We loved the Koningsdam.  But then, we've loved every ship we've been on.  This one was different from the other HAL ships, but I kind of liked that.  Shows they're trying to grow with the times.  I especially loved the digital daily Navigators, the Lido movies, the New York Deli, and the World Stage.  I wouldn't hesitate to cruise on the Koningsdam again.

2015 Nov. 8-15 Western Caribbean Cruise on the Eurodam: Key West; Grand Cayman; Jamaica; HMC

When we "temporarily" moved to South Florida (as my husband likes to put it), I figured this might be a good time to try and get some good deals on last minute cruises.  Don't know how good of a deal we really ended up getting, but I managed to keep from accepting the up sell offer to a suite.  I had already upgraded us for $100@ to a balcony from the $499 OV room I had originally booked.  The first up sell offer arrived about 3 weeks before our trip and was $499 for a signature suite and $699 for a Neptune suite.  About a week later I got another up sell offer for the same super high price.  When we finally got our Verandah guarantee room assignment, I noticed we were in a less desirable room near the front of the ship with metal half walls on the veranda and no tub.  I called and requested a different room.
About 4 days before our cruise, we got an email with a new cabin number---mid ship, tub, and with a super deep veranda with Plexiglas walls and even 2 lounge chairs on the deck as well as the 2 other chairs, ottoman, and little side table.   About a day or 2 before the cruise, I called again because I noticed a couple suites opened up and I wanted to see if I could get an up sell for really cheap, like we did a couple years ago.  This time they quoted me $250 for a signature suite and $350 for the Neptune.  I was tempted, but also curious about the VA room we were reassigned.   Apparently there are 4 of these rooms---1 on either side of the lifeboats, so they're a little deeper then the boats are wide (about 14').  I read a lot of mixed reviews about those rooms.  Some people liked the extra space, others didn't because most of the veranda wasn't covered and, therefore, didn't have privacy.   I wonder if that's how we ended up with it.   I don't know for sure, just that there were no veranda rooms showing available for the last week or so before the cruise.
I'd say the actual covered area of our veranda was about what the regular verandas have.  We were on the sunrise side of the ship most of the time, so only got to watch sunset from our veranda 2 nights.  But I did spend a lot of time out there enjoying just gazing at the water.

This was my 2nd time on a Western Caribbean cruise.  Our ports were Key West, Grand Cayman, Jamaica (Falmouth), and HAL's private island in the Bahamas---Half Moon Cay. 

 2015-11-8 Embarkation day!

 

2015-11-9 Key West:

 

2015-11-10 Sea Day

 

2015-11-11 Grand Cayman:

 

2015-11-12 Falmouth, Jamaica:

 

2015-11-13 another sea day:

 

2015-11-14 Half Moon Cay:

 

2015-11-15 disembarkation day:

 

This was my 16th cruise.  Considering how my 1st one was, being evacuated back to Ft. Lauderdale with my Dad, I'm happy to say they've all been great since then.  

2015 (April 17- May 1) Southern Caribbean Cruise: St. Thomas; St. Barths; St. Lucia; Barbados; Grenada; Bonaire; and Curacoa

 We enjoyed our 2014 Maasdam cruise so much, that when  we received an email with an OBC offer if we booked a future cruise --- we checked the Maasdam itineraries and decided to go back to the Southern Caribbean in 2015---but for 14 nights this time (our longest cruise yet) and with some new (to us) ports of call (Grenada,Bonaire, and Curacao).  We booked a Spa Oceanview since we like being higher on the ship and it was almost affordable.  A couple months after booking our 2015 cruise, they offered a free Beverage Package and a cheaper fare for new bookings.  Since it was well before final payment, I called and got the reduced fare and the Beverage package, but had to give up our "welcome back OBC" which was only $50@.  After that, we waited about 7 months for the cruise to finally get here.  I was surprised the rates never lowered again.  Since we're not big drinkers, I didn't figure we'd get much use out of the Beverage package and would have given it up for a lower fare.  No further reduction came, but it turned out really nice having the Beverage Package.  On board they were charging $44.99/person/day for the package which included up to 15 drinks a day as long as they were under $7@ ---per person!   We did end up using the drink package a lot---a couple beers a day, bottled water, soda, hot chocolate... .

2015 April--The Maasdam (suite A 182) and around the ship:

 

2015-4-20   St. Thomas---8am-6pm:

 

2015-4-21  St. Barths (8-3)  Shell Beach:

 

2015-4-22  St. Lucia---8am-3pm: Pigeon Island

 

2015-4-23  Barbados (8-5): Folkestone

 

2015-4-24  Grenada (8-5): Aquarium beach 

 

2015-4-26   Bonaire (8-5): Eden Beach (Spice Island)

 

2015-4-27  Curacao (8-6) Blue Bay

 

  
We were suppose to have a stop at Half Moon Cay, but the surf was too rough, so we ended up having another sea day.  Although I was disappointed, I was really happy with the way the rest of the cruise went and the beautiful weather we had at all the other ports.  Can't wait until we board another ship for ports unknown!

 

2014 April 11-22 Maasdam Southern Caribbean Cruise: Barbados; St. Maarten; St. Vincent; St. Kitt's; St. Croix; Martinique; Half Moon Cay

 Hard to believe it was 1 1/2 years since our last cruise.  At that time, we made the $200 on board deposit for a future cruise to get on board credit on the future cruise.  Shortly after we got off that cruise, we got an email from HAL offering additional obc if we booked another cruise right away.  So I hit the web and checked out the itineraries and decided on this 11 night southern Caribbean cruise.  It went to 4 islands we had already been to (St. Maarten, Martinique, Barbados, and Half Moon Cay); plus it went to 3 new ones (St. Kitt's, St. Vincent, and St. Croix).   By booking a verandah suite, we were able to get $200 obc for the future cruise booking and another $200 for the welcome home booking.  Plus we got $100 obc for being a CCL stock holder.  Then in the Fall, HAL ran a promotion, Explore 4, which included 2 - $50 drink cards and 2 free Pinnacle dinners (their upcharge steak restaurant).  After a couple of calls, I was able to get that added to our reservations.  I had hoped that in 1 1/2 years our fare would go down, but it didn't.  We booked a BB guarantee and hoped for another upsell offer like we got the last 2 cruises.  This time we didn't get one.  Maybe because it was a much smaller ship and near the end of the season, but we did get un upgrade to an A suite on the same floor as all the Neptune suites.  At first I was worried about the location---very last room at the back of the ship on the 10th floor with a bar and smoking area next to our room and it was also below part of the Lido deck, so I anticipated lots of chairs being moved around overhead, but it really wasn't bad.  We heard chairs being moved around for 5 or 10 minutes in the morning.  We also liked that we were right by the elevator and stairs and only one floor down from the Lido Restaurant.  We also liked being so close to the Seaview pool.

We had never been on a ship this small and were a bit worried that lines would be long and spaces would be crowded, but it turned out to be really nice----5 minutes to walk anywhere on the ship, ran across people we met at dinner many times throughout the cruise, liked that there were fewer people, and this ship had the best food and entertainment of any ship we had been on before! Instead of 2000 passengers like on the last 3 HAL cruises we took, there were only 1265.   Instead of 86,700 tonnage, it was 55,800.  The only thing missing on this ship was the extra cabins for more people.

2014-4-11  Embarkation day:

 

The Maasdam:

 

2014-4-12  Sea Day:

 

2014-April 13, Sunday---another sea day:

 

2014-April 14, Monday---St. Maarten  (10am-9:30pm):

 

2014-April 15, Tuesday---St. Kitt's (8am-4:30pm):

 

2014-April 16, Wednesday--St. Vincent (10am-6:30pm):

 

2014-April 17, Barbados (8:30-4:30) :

 

2014-April 18, Good Friday-Martinique (7-1:30):

 

2014-April 19, Saturday-St. Croix (8-2:30):

 

2014-April 20-Easter Sunday-sea day:

 

2014-April 21, Monday-Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (8am-2:30pm):

 

2014-April 22, Monday-Debarkation Day :

 

 At least our vacation wasn't over yet---we spent another wonderful week with our daughter and son-in-law.  They even treated us to a gondola ride, dinner at the food trucks in a nearby park, and a couple trips to the beach.  Then they took us to the airport on the 30th for our short flight back to STL.  
What a rude awakening we got back home!  After 3 weeks of beautiful sunny 80 degrees weather, we returned to temps in the low 50s for a high!  At least that only lasted 3 days, then we were back to temps in the 80s.  Good 'ole St. Louis---no Spring or Fall, just Winter and Summer!
  

2012 Nov. HAL 11 night Noordam Southern Caribbean Cruise: Barbados; Dominica; Martinique; St. Lucia; St. Maarten; St. Thomas; Half Moon Cay

11 night Southern Caribbean Cruise

After our last 2 November Caribbean cruises in less then ideal weather conditions, you would think we'ld learn not to cruise the Caribbean in hurricane season!  But we persisted and gave it another try.  This time we did our longest cruise yet---11 nights on the Noordam and had almost perfect weather the whole time!   We actually booked this cruise while we were on the Eurodam last year.

I chose this cruise , (Holland America's Noordam) mainly because it went to St. Lucia.  I've always wanted to see St. Lucia.  The cruise also included stops in St. Maarten, Barbados, Dominica, Martinique, St. Thomas, and Half Moon Cay.  It was very port intensive, which I loved---6 port days in a row, another port later.  Ken's more of a sea day fan, but he held up pretty well.

2012 Noordam ship

2012-11-5,6, and 7  Up to and including our first 3 nights:  Sea days

2012-11-8  St. Maarten 

2012-11-9  St. Lucia

2012-11-10  Barbados

2012-11-11 Martinique

2012-11-12  Dominica

2012-11-13 St. Thomas


After 6 port days in a row, the next day was a welcomed sea day!  Even though I'm not a big fan of sea days, the day of rest was nice.  Althought my plans for sleeping in didn't go so well.  Somewhere in the Caribbean waters I encountered what I assume was sea lice---invisible to the eye, larvae or jellyfish or other stinging ocean critters that attacked me---and I ended up with an extremely itchy rash.  I had this happen before on a couple of our trips to Hawaii (out of about 20 trips to Hawaii), so I wasn't surprised.  Apparently they don't bother everyone---like Ken---but they sure like me.  Took about 5 days for the extreme itching to subside.  At least it happened near the end of our cruise.

2012-11-15 Halfmoon Cay

his was Ken's 4th cruise, my 10th.   Other than my first cruise (when my Dad almost drowned), I haven't had a bad one yet (not counting weather).  I really enjoyed seeing the new places and revisiting the ones we've been to.  We enjoyed it so much we even did the onboard booking for the ship board credit for the next one.  The $200 ship board credit for booking onboard last year and the $100 OBC for having CCL stock came in really handy this year.  After gratuities of $12/day@ , the Canelleto dinner, and a couple other items we bought onboard, we only owed $56 when we debarked.

Now to start dreaming about where to go next!





2011 Nov. Eurodam cruise do-over Eastern Caribbean: Grand Turk; San Juan, St. Thomas, Half Moon Cay

2011 Nov. Eurodam cruise do-over Eastern Caribbean: Grand Turk; San Juan, St. Thomas, Half Moon Cay

The "suite life"!  Originally I booked the same category room that we had last year (a VD veranda), but when the lowest suite came available for about $60/person more, I jumped on it and booked a SZ guarantee.  We had never had a suite before, so I was really looking forward to that. 

It just so happened that our daughter, Angie, and her husband, Josh, were going to be in Puerto Rico on vacation with some friends and scheduled to fly home the day we were in port there. After joking around with her about continuing on the cruise with us instead of flying home, I managed to get approval for her to board in San Juan for the last 4 nights of our cruise.  She was even elgible for a special 3rd person add on fare of $49 + about $90 in taxes and fees.  It took some doing, but persistence paid off.  I had to call 5 or 6 times and work out everything from: does the Jone's Act apply here; to writing a letter to get approval for "late embarkation"; to getting a room assigned (went from the SZ guarantee to a complimentary upgrade to an SS cabin) before she was approved.   So instead of flying home, Angie was able to join us for the remainder of the cruise.
About 2 weeks before our cruise, I even got an email from HAL offering us an upsell to an SA suite (next category down from the penthouse) for another $398 total. I immediately called them and jumped on the offer. Not only did we have a suite, but the SA, SB, and SC suites had a lot of added benefits over the SS, SY, and SZ suites, like breakfast in the Pinnacle restaurant, a private lounge and concierge, larger pull out bed for Angie; much larger room and balcony, flowers for formal night, free laundry service, and a few other things. We very much enjoyed the SA cabin. It may be hard to go back to any other cabin now!  

2011-11  Eurodam

2011-11-5  Embarkation day

2011-11-6  Sea day  

2011-11-7  Grand Turk

2011-11-8  San Juan

2011-11-9 St. Thomas

2011-11-10  Sea day

2011-11-11 Halfmoon Cay

Too quickly it was time to disembark the ship.  We hopped in a taxi and took the $14 ride to the airport.  Angie lucked out and was able to fly standby on an earlier flight and made it home to Atlanta before our flight even took off from Fort Lauderdale. 
 

It was another fantastic vacation.  Made even more special by Angie joining us.  It definitely won't be our last cruise!

2010 Nov. 7 nt E Carib Eurodam

2010 Nov.5-12 - Another Dam vacation! 7 nt, Eurodam: Samana, San Juan, St. Thomas, Half Moon Cay 

 It was going to take a lot more then a rude airport gate attendant and port agent, and a little storm named Hurricane Tomas to ruin my vacation! So on Friday, Nov. 5th, 2010, the fun began.

This was Ken's 2nd cruise and my 8th (I think) cruise. This was my 2nd Holland America cruise. I thought the laid back clientele and more unique activities, such as cooking classes and computer classes, not to mention the food, would be something Ken would enjoy. That it left out of Ft. Lauderdale was also a plus (that was even before our daughter moved there, now it's really a plus!). So on the day before the cruise, we hopped on a non-stop flight and eventually headed off to Ft. Lauderdale.

I say eventually because there was a problem with our plane being overweight. So they grounded us for about 45 minutes while they pleaded for 3 people to delay their trips. 1 couple did finally agree to, but noone else on the plane was budging. I guess we were all heading to a cruise. Finally the gate attendant threatened us in a harsh voice that since noone else would get off the plane, then 4 pieces of luggage were being removed and they wouldn't tell us whose. Soon the flight attendants took over the intercom and apologized profusely and guaranteed us that noones luggage was going to be left behind. Over weight and all, we did make it to Fort Lauderdale safely.

We spent that night overlooking the ocean at one of our Wyndham properties in Pompono Beach. We rented a car for the day and enjoyed our short, but sweet, stay there.

Next morning our adventure continued. We dropped the rental car off at the Budget dealer closest to the port since it offered complimentary shuttle service to the cruise port.

Soon we were waiting in line at the port to board the Eurodam. But only for a short time. The scanners quit working and we were all told to sit down. Passengers just arriving walked up and got in line and before they were made to sit down, the scanners would start working and we would be at the back of the line again. This happened 3 times before we finally were able to board.

Around the Eurodam:

11-8-2010 Samana, Dominican Republic:

11-9-2010 San Juan

11-10-2010 a rainy St. Thomas

11-12-2010 Halfmoon Cay

What started out as a challenging vacation turned out to be another fantastic one.                 

2008 - Oct. Holland America Oosterdam Mexican Riviera Cruise: Cabo; Mazatlan; Puerto Vallarta

2008-Oct. 25-31  Oosterdam 7 nt Mexican cruise with Carolyn: Puerto Vallarta; Mazatlan; Cabo

 Carolyn survived her 3 first ever cruise a couple years ago, so it was time to take a longer one.  So we booked a 7 night one out of San Diego.  I flew there from St. Louis, and she joined me from Portland, Or.  We spent the night in a hotel near the port and were on the way to another great sisters' cruise.

Oct. 25-embarkation and ship: 

 

Cabin HH 4061: obstructed ocean view 

 

Oct. 26---sea day 

 

Oct. 27---Cabo 

 

Oct. 28--- Mazatlan:  

Oct.-29-08  Puerto Vallarta: 

Oct.-30-08 sea day--- 

Oct.-31-08 sea day 

We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise---but then I've thoroughly enjoyed 6 cruises now! My sister enjoyed it so much that she booked us on another one with the same itinerary for Dec. 2009. That time we'll be on the Carnival Splendor ship.