Let’s look at Vista: Decks 5 & 6

On October 15, 2023 By Jim BellomoIn Food Experiences, PhotographyLeave a comment

We are home, and I am sitting in our living room after a very late flight, a good ride home with Century Car Service of Seattle and a fairly decent night of sleep. So, as promised, I am bringing you (between taking a walk, helping Kathleen with loads of laundry and sorting through our mail) my virtual tour of Vista with my comments on the different parts of the ship.

Going up! Let’s start on Deck 5

Unlike any ship we have ever been on before, Vista started with public decks on deck five (there is the infirmary on four). Most ships start at two, three or at least four, but Vista starts on five. And only about half of deck five, is open to passengers. Starting from the very front, there’s the Vista Lounge, Vista’s main showroom. I would love to say that I saw a bunch of shows there, but sadly I didn’t. If you want to read about the shows, make sure and check out my buddy Mike’s review in a few weeks. He saw them all. I saw one—a hilarious comedian—Cory Kahaney. We had seen her on an old show called Last Comic Standing and truly enjoyed her, so I joined Mike and Cathy at the show.

BTW: The reason I don’t attend shows is not because we don’t like shows. It used to be (on Celebrity) that we stopped going to shows because we had seen them all after so many cruises on the same line. We stopped going because, in case you can’t tell from the description on my photos, I get up REALLY early to take photos and to write posts REALLY early, like 4:30 a.m. (See what I give up for you my readers 🤪) So, by the time it rolls around to show time (usually 9:15 or 9:30), I am out of it. Cory’s performance was hilarious, and I really wanted to go back when she did her second show a few days later; I was wiped out and had to skip it. I should also say that I did attend some of the lectures by our two excellent enrichment speakers held in this lounge.

The Vista Lounge is a nice theater, but it needs more height. If you are at all of a diminutive stature (short 😁) then you will be moving your head from side to side to see anyone on the stage. Part of this is due to Vista’s size. On most cruise ships, the theater is much larger, but on Vista, they don’t need the large number of seats that a 6,000-passenger ship needs. There is nothing that can be done about it, but this is just a heads-up. Here are some pics. For all of these shots, feel free to look at them on your phone. Nothing artsy here. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping.

Shops and Customer Service

Also, on Deck 5, you will find the Oceania Shops and a reception desk, a concierge desk and a Destinations desk (shore excursions) midships. Not being a big shopper, we walked through these once, just for me to get photos. And I only had to visit the reception desk once. And I almost forgot, these shops and desks are placed all around the grand staircase in the Atrium, where there is a beautiful glass sculpture. Here are some pics.

Two specialty restaurants

I am going to review the dinners we had at these two restaurants in an upcoming post on food. But I did want to show them to you. Vista has four such restaurants, and deck four has Red Ginger (Asian food) and a new restaurant to the Oceania fleet—Ember. (We heard it referred to as this shipboard version of Applebees.) Either way, here are some pics.

Red Ginger

Ember

Going to Deck Six—climb the stairs–the elevators suck

Before I go on to Deck Six, I want to take a moment to talk about the elevators. There aren’t enough, the ones they have aren’t big enough, and many of the people on them are beyond rude.

First, let me say that other than walking on with carry-on luggage at embarkation, I NEVER take an elevator on a cruise. But Kathleen does, and she encountered so many problems she reminded me that I had to mention them.

First, there are only two elevator banks on Vista. One aft (nearest our stateroom) with two full-size elevators and the other at midships with four elevators. Of those four, two are full-size elevators, and two are small, oddly shaped glass elevators that hold fewer people. Just about every day, at times when people would be moving around (usually meals or before shows), those elevators were slammed. Going to lunch in the Aquamar Cafe on Deck 12, I would leave her at deck nine and climb the stairs. Many, MANY times, I would climb the stairs to deck 12 and have to stand and wait for 5-10 minutes for her to arrive. It was even worse at the dinner or cocktail hour. It got REALLY horrible when one of the elevators would go down. This is ridiculous on a six-month-old ship. By now, they should have fixed any problems and they can’t chalk it up to the ship being old.

At disembarkation, I had to carry my carry-on and my 35lb computer/camera down a flight of stairs because one of the aft elevators was out…during disembarkation—when people are trying to get down to get off—are you kidding me? Every floor had at least six to eight people waiting to get on an elevator. And many of these people were elderly or handicapped.

Deck 6—you got here—let’s eat and drink.

Deck 5 had started at the bow and went back to the Atrium. Deck six starts at the Atrium and goes to the stern. Basically, decks five and six are one deck. This is because the theater on deck five needs more space above the theater, and when you enter the Great Dining Room (GDR) at the stern, you walk down into the room. That gives the GDR some very nice high ceilings.

Starting from the Atrium, you have the Oceania Club (people who have sailed with Oceania before) and future cruise sales. This sits right above the Atrium. If you are interested in purchasing a future cruise, please keep in mind that there are only two reps selling them (they give you GREAT incentives for booking on board), and that means a lot of waiting. They also have limited hours because they have so much paperwork, so be cognizant of that when you are planning your time. Sea days are the worst—big lines.

Moving aft, you run into Martinis, a very nice lounge—especially early in the morning—this is where I did most of my writing and photo processing between 4:30 and 7:00 a.m. We only went there for drinks once or twice because of the live music they play that makes conversation almost impossible. Otherwise, it is a very nice lounge. Here are some pics.

Further on beyond Martinis is a long hallway with a beautiful floor that runs on the outside of the casino. We are not casino people, so the only time we walked through was when I was taking photos. I did walk by a few times when it was open, and since the wall between the hallway and the casino is glass, I could tell that things were hopping and people seemed to be really enjoying themselves.

Further down that hallway, you walk into the Grand Lounge, which is really just a long, wide room leading to the Grand Dining Room, where they serve you drinks prior to dinner. It is also where the wonderful classical string quartet plays every night. We had cocktails here a few times (which were great), but this, too, was not a place where we could converse. The quartet were excellent musicians, and the people who were there to hear them deserved to be able to hear them and not us talking, so we continued to search for a place where we could have a nice cocktail and talk.

On the other side of the ship from the Grand Lounge, in a much smaller space (with a VERY low ceiling, as my brother found out), is the Founder’s Bar. This was the place for truly special cocktails. The kind that cost a bunch but are often smoky (with real smoke). But this one didn’t work for us because there were only tables for two. It’s a kind of an out-of-the-way bar, and their main job is providing the cocktails for the Grand Lounge.

And lastly, at the stern is the aforementioned Grand Dining Room. This room is drop-dead beautiful. It is everything I like in a dining room, lots of space but divided into smaller spaces. It reminded me of a nice restaurant instead of a banquet hall. My only quibble with the design was that the only two tables we ever had dinner at were in the corners with no windows. When I go on a cruise, I want to see the ocean. More about this in my final round-up but I will say that this dining room is beautiful. Here’s my final set of pics for this page.

This is a kind of waiting area for those waiting to get in but we never saw it in use. When you got to the GDR you were seated promptly.

Our table in the very far right corner of the GDR. The window behind us was not really that close to our table.

Whew! NYC wore me out…but it was GREAT!

On October 11, 2023 By Jim BellomoIn Photography11 Comments

So much to tell you. I hope I get this done before I have to go upstairs to do laundry (If I’m not the first person there on a sea day, I will never get it done.)

So, to go back what is now three days, there will be no report on Martha’s Vineyard. After a fairly bumpy ride on Saturday night, the Captain made the decision that the seas were too rough and the swells too high to use the tenders safely, so we skipped the Vineyard and floated around out at sea for most of a day. But that worked out as early Monday morning, we sailed under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge into New York Harbor. We got incredibly lucky with the weather for both of our days in NYC. From the sail-in until the sail-away, we had either sunny or partly cloudy skies. Temps in the 50s and 60s, so I was loving it.

Day 1—we sail in

My day started at 4:45 a.m. when I headed up to the Horizons lounge at the front of the ship to watch the city get closer. Then, around 5:45, we sailed under the aforementioned VN Bridge, past Lady Liberty and all the way up the Hudson to Pier 88. We arrived at around 8:00 a.m., and the captain made what I thought was a miracle turn into our berth… I came back in from shooting photos to warm up. Even though the temps weren’t that bad, the wind on the deck made it feel a whole lot colder. But I got some great pics, and here they are. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Incredible sunrise to start the day.

I am not going to caption all of these but…

…I had to include them because I can’t decide which ones I like the best.

The Narrows Bridge…

From both sides

Coming into the city…

…with the World Trade Center in view.

The Staten Island Ferry from New Jersey to the Island.

No words here.

Or here.

I really appreciate the color of the ferry.

Can you tell?

Lady Liberty at her finest.

With the ferry in the foreground.

And closer. The lady was on our left as we sailed up the Hudson.

This was on our right.

I believe this is the original Customs House.

56 Leonard Street. Known as the Jenna Building.

It seemed like there were so many more buildings than when we were there five years ago.

The sunrise was spectacular.

This is Little Island.

A man-made, Gaudiesque island on the Hudson.

Largest pilot boat I have ever seen.

The leaning condo of NYC.

The Empire State Building almost disappears amidst the new construction.

Not sure I could live in this one. Not sure how the elevators work???

Looking up 48th Avenue from our berth for two days.

Day 1–The Whitney and a High Line walk back

After a quick breakfast, the entire group (minus one who was still not fully recovered) set out to the Whitney Museum of American Art. We had pre-purchased tickets to see their collection. We had planned this because we were on the East Side of Manhattan, and the gigantic Columbus Day parade was on the West Side. We would head that way tomorrow. The main reason I wanted to go to The Whitney was that they have the largest collection of paintings by my favorite American artist, Edward Hopper. Sadly, not a lot of them are displayed (BOOH!). But we still enjoyed our two-hour visit. Then we walked across the street to see The Little Island up close and personal.

The Little Island. Taken from the outdoor viewing area of The Whitney Museum

The Little Island is one of the newest parts of the waterfront. It is entirely man-made and very reminiscent of the Gaudi architecture in Barcelona. The entire island sits on what looks like flowers coming out of the water, but once on the island, you would never know it. We walked all over the island. There’s an amphitheater, food stands and some incredible views up and down the Hudson. You will see them in a few minutes when I get to the midday slide show.

After our visit to the Little Island, we grabbed a quick bite of pizza in front of the Whitney, and Kathleen, Mike and Cathy took an Uber back to the ship while Steve and Jamie did a little shopping, and I set off to walk back to the ship via the High Line. If you are not familiar with the High Line, it is an elevated platform that runs from just outside the doors of the Whitney up Manhattan’s west side to just about where Vista was berthed. It used to be an old elevated railway but is now a beautiful pedestrian walkway.

I had previously walked the High Line on our last trip to NYC in 2018, but that was before sunrise when it was empty. This time was midday, and it was jam-packed with people out for a holiday (Columbus Day—which is still celebrated in NYC) stroll. As I walked north towards the ship, I shot a bunch of pics…and here they are. You know the drill. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

My three favorite exhibits at The Whitney

Can you imagine showing up in these shoes and seeing this?

An awesome display of clothing worn by Black activists in the 1960s. Can you tell what the gloves are about?

Took some shots from the outdoor gallery on the Whitney’s six floor. First, imagine King Kong here.

The start of the High Line I would walk back to the ship on later.

This new building which is obviously owned by Tony Stark. You can see Loki up there.

Nothing like NYC architecture. It’s like they all compete to out crazy each other.

The view from the highest point on the Little Island.

Me being artsy.

Looking down from the High Line.

I shot this same photo from this exact spot 5 years ago.

Some great fish sculptures on the High Line.

And a super mural.

Lots of art everywhere. Can you see the mermaid here?

Loved the reflections. The skies were perfect.

Different parts of the track are still in place…

…from the original elevated railway.

I love that they have kept them in.

Did a little street photography.

Loved the way she is looking at him. Like he is telling her his dreams for their future.

Maybe the world’s largest sculpture.

The reflections make the building almost transparent.

Just liked this guy.

Looking up 34th to the Empire State Bldg.

The High Line ends with a huge yard full of old rail cards.

Me being artsy again.

Our evening—sorry, no pics

After I got back and gave my legs a rest, we all met up at 4:15 to go to dinner at Kellari Taverna. Kathleen and I had eaten there on our honeymoon in 1999. We loved it then, but not so much now. Their menu had gone from traditional Greek to pretty much seafood, and we had all come with dreams of a great Greek feast. The only truly Greek dish on their menu was mousaka, but it was a vegan dish (are you kidding me???). They did have a tasty octopus that I liked and a nice Greek salad. At least their baklava was excellent.

Almost forgot to explain why we were going to dinner so early—we had tickets to a Broadway show! Come on, you can’t come to NYC without seeing a Broadway show. When we booked the cruise, one of the highlights was this overnight stay in New York. But one big problem—most Broadway shows are dark on Monday nights, and we were there…on Monday night. But thankfully, a few still run, and we were lucky enough to snag tickets to Six. If you have not heard of Six, it is the story of the six wives of Henry the Eighth. I know, sounds boring, right? But what a high-powered, amazing musical that turned out to be all about feminine empowerment. Each of the wives sang in the style of two of our current pop stars—for instance, Catherine of Aragon sang in the style of Beyonce and Shakira. And she and the rest of the Six could sing. Grab the cast album from your favorite streaming site and have a listen—an uplifting and energizing show. It is on a national tour currently, so if you get a chance, go see it. You won’t be sorry—we weren’t. By the time we were done with Six, we were exhausted, and it was back to the ship and bed. I needed to be up for Day 2’s predawn photo walk. More about that in my next post.

“I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline.” —Ayn Rand

Please Stay Tuned…NYC got in the way

On October 9, 2023 By Jim BellomoIn Photography3 Comments

Good morning, all! Just a quick note: your favorite travel blogger will return in a few days. I usually write in the mornings before dawn, but today, I took this photo (and a lot of others) as we sailed into NYC. We will be here until late tomorrow night, so I will be using tomorrow morning for a long walk on the Highline before the sun comes up. Thankfully, we have a sea day after we leave here so that I can catch up. Until then…stand by.

Quebec City…in the Daylight

On October 3, 2023 By Jim BellomoIn Photography4 Comments

I tossed in that “in the daylight” line because the last time we were in Québec City, we were here overnight, and I was lucky enough to be able to get some incredible shots. This time, I got a chance to actually take the same photo at midday that I took five years ago at 5:00 a.m. It will give me a great photo to show to people when they think I am crazy for getting up so early just to take photos. In fact, while I am mentioning it, here are the two pics, side by side. Five years ago at 5:00 a.m. and yesterday, at around noon. Click on the photos to read my captions.

It was around 5:30 am and as usual I was wandering around downtown Québec City, taking pictures. If you have never been to Québec, it is built on two levels. You can get from the bottom (where our ship was docked) to the top in one of two ways. There is a funicular (which I rode with Kathleen later in the day) and a very steep climb which is what I was doing when I looked down into the lower part of the city and got this shot. Again, for me, the light made all the difference. That and the solitude. It’s photographic proof that there are great photos to be had at as the sun comes up. And it’s a huge reason why I love cruises that have overnight stops so I can get up and take photos like these in cities around the world

It was noon. There were a lot of people and the sun was HARSH!

We had a pretty good day in Québec City. Kathleen and Jocelyn had gotten totally worn out from our three days in Montreal, so I set out with Cathy, Mike, Steve and Jamie to explore the city. As I mentioned above, we were here just about exactly five years ago. It was a lot warmer yesterday than it was five years ago. Our ship was docked just a few hundred yards up the pier from where we had been that time. But both were just a short walk from downtown. We walked through the lower town to the funicular that, for $5CAN, would take you to the upper town. It’s a good thing we were early because when I walked by the lower station later in the day, there was a line the proverbial mile long.

Once up at the top, we found something that amazed me—the Québec Marathon. What were the chances that the two times I would come to Québec City in my lifetime, I would be there for the marathon? Of course, that meant that we would have to see the city and work our way around the city, avoiding the race. We were able to get across the track with the help of race officials, but we still seemed to run into the racers wherever we turned.

We walked around, as Cathy was looking for a kind of embroidery museum that she had seen on her previous land-based visit. It was part of the works of the Ursuline nuns who pretty much-founded education here in Québec City. When she had been here before, she said it had been a cute little shop attached to the convent. Now, they have a complete museum, but it was more about the order’s history than the embroidery. The others decided to take a look and I decided to shoot a couple of photos of the church next door. Mike and Steve were out in almost no time, but Cathy and Jamie really enjoyed it.

I decided at that point to head off on my own to take some more photos and then head back to the ship to have a late lunch with Kathleen and Jocelyn. We ended up trying the Waves Grille. I would tell you all about the lunch and the Grille, but I am saving those thoughts for a big post on the food. That is really what Oceania is all about, and I want to hit it all at once. So here’s my meager number of photos from Québec. The light was just too harsh for me to really get into taking photos. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

The first thing I saw off our verandah.We were docked net to the Coast Guard station and I am assuming these are buoys waiting to be placed.

The Château Frontenac Hotel.

Hotel Frontenac in Québec

It dominates the city.

And I have a very hard time NOT taking photos of it.

Even up close when we get into town. It is incredibly photogenic.

Pork Restaurant in Québec

I kept this one of the area in front the the Château because of the great clouds.

Street performer in Québec City.

We see our first marathoner.

A very cool sculpture in a park.

I tiny hotel that looked so French I had to shoot it.

A French street not far away.

The provincial capital of Québec.

The Ursuline chapel. I loved the tin roof.

From different angles

And over the top of it.

The inside had a nice altar but after the Cathedral in Montreal, it was just meh.

Back on the ship, I saw this boat behind Vista that I liked.

On openness

When I do a live report on a cruise, I also put most of the text and one of the photos on a thread on Cruise Critic (for the non-cruisers, find out about Cruise Critic here). Fellow cruisers will ask me questions on the board, and I got one this morning. I thought I would post the question here as well. The person asking was comparing Viking Ocean to Vista and wanted to know if this was an “open ship.”

Here’s their exact question:

“Does the new Vista have the same openness as a Viking ship? Can one see the sky and water when in common spaces? Or is there drapery hanging from the ceiling, or are there walls of windows? I am a Viking Cruiser because of the ship design, first and foremost.”

Here’s what I told them:

If it’s sky and water you want, stick with Viking. Thanks for making me think about this. It’s not something I usually would even contemplate, but you really made me realize how little there is below deck 12. When I got up in Québec, I wanted to see the city. I had to climb to Deck 14 and go into the Horizons Lounge to be able to see the Hotel Frontenac. On Viking, I could have done that from at least three lower decks.

I would say, on the whole, this ship is more closed up. I know exactly what you mean. I found the Viking ship we sailed on to be VERY open. Like most cruise ships, some lower decks are public (in the case of Vista, that is, five and six) and some upper decks that are public (12 through 16—there is no 13). You can only see the water from the upper decks or your own verandah. I am typing this sitting on deck six. You can’t see a thing anywhere on this deck except in the dining room, and there, we have been put in a windowless corner every night because of the size of our party. Most of the rest of the dining room is covered with sheer curtains you can see through. Some people sitting by the windows have opened those up.

This also reminds me that on sea days, I exercise by walking on the ship. On Viking, there is a wrap-around promenade deck that I walk on. Here, the only place to do that is a very nice walking/jogging track around the back portion of deck 15. The Viking promenade is 1/4 mile, and the Vista track is 1/10th of a mile. So you see a lot of the same things again and again.

Quebec City is the most European of any city in North America; they speak French all the time. There is a part of the town called Old Quebec, which is really like being in France. The architecture is just gorgeous, food, shopping. I’d say Quebec City is the most beautiful city in North America I’ve seen. —Sebastian Bach

Vista Day 1–Embarkation and Our Stateroom

On October 2, 2023October 2, 2023 By Jim BellomoIn Uncategorized2 Comments

When last I wrote, we had just boarded Vista and been through a beautiful embarkation. When we left the hotel in three separate Ubers, we truly believed we would not be boarding until at least 1:30 or 2:00. But about halfway through our Uber ride (Kathleen, Jocelyn and I), my brother texted that they were letting anyone on and should they go through. We said to hang on; we would be right there. The cruise port was only a 10-minute drive from the hotel. But by the time we got there, the others had gone through and were waiting to board the ship.

We got in line (which was a little longer by then) and were also on board within ten minutes. The port of Montreal is the EXACT opposite of the port of Vancouver, where on our last cruise in May, embarkation had taken three hours and forty-five minutes (you can read about that fiasco here).

When we reached the inside of the ship, we were met by an officer who asked for our key cards (which came to us in a really cool little leatherette folder) so he could see where our muster stations were. We had already watched the video at home when we did our check-in and again a few days later when they sent another reminder (I think we got about five e-mail reminders to watch the video). The officer directed us to our muster station (we were in the main dining room), and we headed there immediately, got our key cards scanned and as far as Oceania was concerned, we were through with them until we sailed the next afternoon. We headed up to the buffet for lunch, where the rest of the gang was holding a table for seven for us, and we started to sample the amazing food that Oceania calls “the best at sea.” Just a note here. I could start going on and on about the food here, but I am going to do a complete post on the culinary glory that is Vista cuisine (at least so far).

Our stateroom–Concierge Verandah 9118

When we boarded, we were told that our suites would be ready by 2:00 p.m. and the rest of the staterooms soon after. But about halfway through lunch (close to 1:00), there was an announcement that suites (not us) were ready. We were in a Concierge verandah, and they announced that those would be available by 2:00 and the rest of the staterooms by 3:00. Lo and behold, at around 1:30, there was an announcement that our staterooms were ready. It was then I realized what had happened with our embarkation time, and what was now true about stateroom readiness was that Oceania was one smart cruise line. They were practicing one of the greatest marketing tools known to business: underpromise and over-deliver. Tell us things will be bad; we grumble a little and then be a hero by getting them done a lot better. It’s impressive to me and something I love to have happen. Should they not have been able to deliver early, they were fine. I had already grumbled.

But getting back to our stateroom, we are in Concierge Verandah 9118, which is aft of amidships on deck nine. We had read that the staterooms were pretty large, and our last stateroom on HAL’s Koningsdam was only 185 square feet, so we thought these would be much bigger at 250 square feet, but honestly, they don’t feel any bigger. Sadly, we have been spoiled by our last three major cruises. In July of 2021, our first cruise back after the pandemic shut down was on Celebrity’s Flora in the Galapagos. Those staterooms are HUGE—almost suite size (330 square feet). Then we were lucky enough to snag a Neptune Suite on HAL’s Nieuw Statendam, and they are even bigger (380 square feet). And last year, we did 21 nights on Viking Ocean in a Penthouse Veranda, and it was smaller than the Neptune but much larger than we are now (338 square feet).

I am only really concerned about the comparison to Viking Ocean because we are VERY loyal cruisers (as evidenced by our 20+ Celebrity cruises), and we are looking for our next cruise line to give our loyalty to, and the stateroom we are in now is just about the same daily price as the much larger one we had on Viking Sky. Not only was it larger and had about 3x the storage space (the worst part of our current stateroom) and about the same size bathroom. The shower is bigger, but not by enough that I noticed it. But where we have a tiny couch and the usual oval miniature coffee table today in 9118, on Viking, we had a full-size couch and coffee table plus plenty of room between the bed and a full-size dresser/desk. Let’s look at some room photos instead of continuing with the comparison. And I apologize for the fact that I took the pics after we had unpacked. I usually get them right away, but because Jocelyn was in a regular verandah stateroom, she came down to ours while Kathleen unpacked, and I walked around the ship taking photos.

BTW: No admonition on looking at these on a cell phone. Feel free. Not my best photography. And if you click the first one, they play as a slideshow. If you can’t read the captions, do the slideshow and if they are still cutoff, click the i in the circle.

Welcome to Concierge Verandah 9118

Right inside the door is a control panel with a card holder below that turns your electrical off and on.

The screen controls temperature (works well) and buttons for Do Not Disturb and Make Up the Room.

Looking in.

This is the view from the room back to our door. Large mirror on the right. Two hooks beyond that for coats. We also brought our own magnetic hooks.

Totally cramped left-hand side of the bed.

But with a full compliment of plugs including one USB A and C and a US electric socket as well as switches that controlled most of the lighting in the cabin.

Looking across the stateroom from the left-hand side. Tiny couch and table.

Two of us barely fit sitting next to each other.

The desk and chair are both so short my head can barely be seen in the mirror above when I am sitting down.

In front of left side of the bed is a small counter with water bottles and ice bucket. You can take the metal ones home with you at no charge.

Above that shelf is a cabinet that houses…

Two shelves and the safe. The safe is the biggest we have had at sea and my laptop and camera both fit inside.

Next to that is the closet. If it just had a few more shelves below the hanging area.

Below the shelf is a small fridge with complimentary soft drinks at our level of stateroom.

Here’s the bed.

The bathroom is quite big.

Lots of space.

Large shower.

Big Oceania mirror

And even more storage.

Our verandah which we haven’t used much yet.

But the very nice chairs do have cushions. Our verandah is larger than most verandah staterooms

A great feature of the stateroom that I almost forgot is the huge (for this size room) television. There are a lot of choices on this Smart-TV. Free movies, TV shows, A great bridge cam, two maps—one interactive, a music library, ship info and of course you can check your ship account as well.

One other thing that is kind of a pain. If you cruise, you know where your big suitcases go when you are done unpacking them—under your bed. You can’t slide large suitcases under these beds. They are too low. We were kind of worried about that until Mike told us that you could ask your stateroom attendant to put them under there for you. They have a special tool that lifts the beds. Sorry, but that’s poor planning on Oceania’s end. I mean, buy a bed that’s a little higher (like every other cruise line).

All in all, we feel like this Concierge Verandah stateroom is a poor value when compared to a similar-priced Penthouse Verandah stateroom on Viking Ocean. Score one for Viking. But that might be the only one. Stay tuned.

I have been black and blue in some spot, somewhere, almost all my life from too intimate contacts with my own furniture.
—Frank Lloyd Wright

Was this cruise really that bad? Yes and no.

On May 7, 2023May 11, 2023 By Jim BellomoIn Uncategorized8 Comments

I have been posting this review as a day-to-day live blog on the Cruise Critic website and here. They don’t get the photos. I have been taking a lot of heat over there. I have been called entitled, whiny and SPOILED (their emphasis). Sorry, I don’t think that reporting what has happened to us (all eight of us in our group) and others that we spoke to is being whiny. We have been cruising long enough that I think we can give an accurate view of what happened to us on Koningsdam and call HAL out for it. And I write these to make people aware of what is going on.

Kathleen got really upset at one of the posts because they keep saying that they have done this or that and we must be wrong. She rightly pointed out that these are our viewpoints of what happened to us. Others may not have felt the same way. That is their experience. Certainly, some of those people who had a different cruise than we did have commented on that thread, and I would never call them names or impugn their character. I guess it takes all kinds. And sometimes I can’t believe the loyalty some people have to cruise lines that obviously need to improve. We are Elite Plus cruisers on Celebrity, and we are finished with them as well (except for Flora in the Galapagos). But I still hold out hope that they will come around and get back to their roots someday. It could happen.

But all that said, I did want to come back after a day or so to think about it and give you a final report with some good things and some bad things. I also realize that so many people who disagree with me have not read the entire thing. They have commented on my main dining room problem, and that is it.

The Good Stuff

There were good things we really liked about our cruise on Koningsdam. Here they are:

The food and service in the specialty restaurants were both OUTSTANDING! We loved the dinners we had in all of them even though we were forced to eat in two of them because we couldn’t get into the main dining room and didn’t feel like eating in the buffet. On the drive home with my daughter-in-law and her husband, we rated the order of how good they were. My DIL surprised me when she rated them in this order: Rudi’s, Canaletto, Tamarind and Pinnacle Grille. I was surprised because she is a real Asian food fan, but she thought the Italian food was better. At all of them, the service was great as well. I just think Tamarind is the perfect specialty restaurant…great food, great service and the prettiest setting on a ship.
The muster drill. Kudos to HAL for not returning to the old way of doing the muster drill. Being able to watch the video on your stateroom TV and then going to check in at your muster station in your own time frame was great! Keep that one. The best thing in cruising that came out of the pandemic was this improvement.
Our stateroom was kept clean and shiny by our two very overworked stateroom attendants, Faisol and Mafa. They always had our room completely made up while we were at breakfast. Their speed and high standard were impressive.
Just about every single crew member we encountered was doing an awesome job. Special kudos to the Activity Director (I wish I could remember her name), who is from South Africa. She ran some of the best trivia contests we have ever had on a ship. The rest of the crew is so overworked it is sad. And felt so bad for the new people who were on their first contract and just thrown to the wolves (so to speak) without adequate training.
The entertainment was super. The band in BB Kings rocked. The comedian truly made us laugh. I should point out that he made a number of jokes about how bad embarkation was and got a lot of applause for doing it.
Bettianne is an excellent cruise director. We sailed with her on Nieuw Statendam in January 2022, and it was great to touch base with her again.
The HAL Mariner App isn’t bad. With eight people in our group, I wish they had a group chat. It would have been great to be able to send everyone when we were meeting for dinner without having to copy-paste to everyone. I did love that you could see the entire day’s activities and then click to add them to your schedule. Then I would get an alert on my Apple Watch about five minutes before whatever I wanted to do.
Unlike our last cruise on Viking, the beds were great! With my wife’s hip being replaced and both my shoulders surgically repaired a good mattress was essential.
Our stateroom was very nice, if a little small for us. If you are six foot two, the placement of the toilet leaves much to be desired, but the shower is one of the best in a standard stateroom that we have encountered—great water pressure and lots of hot water as well.
Disembarkation was wonderful. They let us off right on time; we were through Canada Place in no time and home and starting laundry in just about three hours flat. Please compare that to the three hours and thirty minutes we stood in line in Canada Place to board the ship.

That about covers it. Of course, for us personally, the fact that we were traveling with our best cruising buddy Bob and his family, as well as taking our kids (both over 40) on their first cruise, really was the best part for us. I think that may have been a big part of our frustration—the fact that we had built up cruising so much with Michelle and her Brian, and then to have them tell us that even though they liked being with us, they didn’t think cruising was for them. And for Bob and Judy, it was their first cruise since the pandemic, and we wanted that one to be great as well. As the travel agent who booked them all (as well as having clients on Koningsdam later this summer), it was a disappointment.

The Bad Stuff

I think you know what these are, but I just want to walk through them quickly for those who have criticized me for only complaining about the Main Dining Room and, sadly, add one more.

Embarkation. It was the worst in 35 cruises, and we cruised right after 9/11. Even in Singapore, when we had to wait three hours due to the crew doing a thorough norovirus cleaning, we were kept abridged of everything that was going on, and Azamara did the best job of getting us on board quickly.
The things we missed out on due to the late embarkation including not being able to make Main Dining Room reservations before 8:15 pm, having lunch (the first time we have ever not had lunch on embarkation day) and getting to take the kids on a tour of the ship. By the time we got on, we only had time to unpack, check in to our muster station and get dressed before making our 5:15 Tamarind reservation.
The long lines everywhere on board. You name it, and there was a line for it. Especially bad were the ones getting into the main dining room, but also horrible were the Dive-In, Guest Services, the Dutch Cafe and many stations in the buffet. They never went away.
The fact that the ship was obviously understaffed. When you see the Dive-In that has always had six people prepping and serving food reduced to three, the gelato bar with one poor guy (on his first contract) or our stateroom attendants who had more than 35 staterooms to deal with, when we started cruising, you never had a stateroom attendant with more than 20.
Staff was not allocated correctly. HAL could have fixed many of the problems with food staffing by assigning long-time crew members to work with new staff. We ran into many crew in the buffet that were on their first contract. Many had joined the ship in Australia or Hawaii within the last few weeks. On the other hand, long-time crew members who were on their sixth, seventh or more contracts and were working alongside other long-time crew in the specialty restaurants. I totally get seniority but put some of the more experienced people in with the novices to mentor them in their new jobs. One of the saddest things we saw was a person manning the buffet waffle station on disembarkation morning who could not understand why the waffles weren’t coming out of the waffle maker. He didn’t know he had to grease the waffle maker before he put the batter in. No one had told him. He had never been taught.
The fraudulent scam that HAL pulled in Prince Rupert by buying out the only tram rides in the town and jacking up the price much higher than it would have been had you have been able to pay cash for a tour. It sounds like the entire Carnival Corp is doing this.
And here’s the new one. Bob pointed out to me that when he met his stateroom attendant, they offered to make up his room whenever he wanted. Once a day, twice a day or not at all. For the five-day cruise—they could do whatever he wanted. This reminded me that ours had said the same thing. And we learned from Brian and Michelle that theirs had said the same thing. We opted for once a day. With all the new cruisers, it is highly possible that many, like Brian and Michelle, said not to bother at all. This seems to be a new thing—offering not to service a stateroom at all. Bob thought (and I agree), what about the $18 per person, per day gratuity we must pay? Now I realize that those gratuities go to a lot of people. For those of you who didn’t cruise in the old day, you used to tip your stateroom guy $6 a day, their assistant $4 a day, your waiter $8 a day, and their assistant $3. And the assistant maître d $2. So, if you don’t get your room cleaned and you don’t get into the dining room, where do your gratuities go? HAL’s pocket?

Things I wish I had known and what I would have done differently

I did come up with some concrete suggestions that I wish we had done ourselves.

If HAL assigns you a time to board, ignore it. Everyone else does. Go as early as you can and get in line. They may make you wait before you can actually board, but getting through the Customs and scanners will get you to where you sit in chairs and for my bride, that would have been a godsend.
Book fixed seating. Do not do Select Dining unless that’s all you can get especially if you need to eat early.
If you can’t get fixed seating, as soon as you get on board, make a beeline to deck three next to the Ocean Bar, where they make dinner reservations. Reserve for the entire cruise. I think this is wrong but if HAL allows people to do it, play that game.
If you want a hot dog, see if you can order it on the HAL app or go late (like 3:45).
A great and empty bar is the one that is part of Tamarind on deck 10 aft.
Book private excursions in every port. Try Tours By Locals or ask your local travel agent.
Use the HAL Mariner app. It really isn’t bad once you figure it out. It helps if you have an iPhone and an Apple Watch to get notifications. Make sure to turn on notifications for the app on your iPhone.

So, was it a bad cruise? Yes. Did we have a terrible time? No. But that was not because of Holland America. Some of my long-time cruising friends think I should ask for a full refund. I understand where HAL and the entire Carnival Corp are at this point. Their stock is down (although coming back), and they are deeply in debt from staying alive during the pandemic. But is not the old HAL I sailed on before. After our Nieuw Statendam cruise, I came into this Koningsdam cruise with the thought that when we wanted to sail on mainstream ships, HAL was the way to go. I no longer feel that way. That makes me sad.

In deep sadness, there is no place for sentimentality.
—William S. Burroughs

Koningsdam Day 4-Prince Rupert

On May 5, 2023 By Jim BellomoIn Photography12 Comments

Every time I think that things will get better, they get worse. So many bad things have happened that I can’t remember if I have already written about them or if I still have to. I have to say I have not talked to a single person on this cruise that is happy about it. Not one.

And I feel so bad for the crew. They are working as hard as they can, but they are HUGELY understaffed and HUGELY overworked. Having talked to some crew members, they work 11, 12 and sometimes more hour shifts. Everything to do with food is being manned by fewer people than they would normally have. Here’s how the end of yesterday and today went.

I posted early this morning, but I think I forgot to mention that we had a comedian who performed last night in the BB King venue, and he was pretty funny. The place was packed, and there were lots of people standing around the edges. He did two shows, we were at the first one, and the laughs were quick and numerous. See, there’s something positive.

We did dinner at the buffet, where only one side was open. That meant there were no seats on that side of the room, so we sat on the other and walked back and forth. I ate what I call my “not willing to stand in line” menu. I would get anything that I didn’t have to stand in line behind ten people to get. Not much selection in that lineup.

I have not mentioned how HAL is handling the buffet. In about 85% of the buffet, you cannot serve yourself. There is a plastic shield preventing you from doing that. In 15%, there are tongs and a space to reach through for a roll or a small sandwich. The only problem is that if you get a roll and want butter, you must get in line to ask for the butter. Or (like I did last night) I grabbed a sandwich and then took the same tongs to reach a little further back for potato chips and was quickly scolded by the person behind the counter that I was not allowed to reach that far and if I wanted chips with my sandwich, I would need to get behind the 11 people in the line. I was welcome to as many sandwiches as I could eat, but not the chips. Go figure.

Breakfast in the Main Dining Room

This morning, against my better judgment, Bob talked us into going down to try to get into the dining room for breakfast. We had not eaten any meal in there as of yet and really wanted to see what it looked like. So we went down expecting a long wait. Lo and behold, we were second in line and ushered to our table at 8:10. Keep track of that number; it’s important 😜.

At 8:40, we were still waiting for water and coffee and had not had a waiter stop at our table for anything. Judy was coughing and really needed water, and Bob pointed out that there were water pitchers on a table behind me. So I grabbed one and poured us all some water. Before I could set the pitcher back down, a waiter grabbed it from me. He finished pouring and went and brought us back to carafes of coffee, one with decaf for Bob and the other for the rest of us. Sadly, they were lukewarm and became cold pretty quickly.

The server came back about five minutes later to take our orders. He told us that it might take a while since they had just had a big group of people come in, and there were a lot of orders coming in. By this time, it was close to 8:55. I really wanted to point out that if he had taken our orders when we came in, we would have had our food by then, but I didn’t. I want to point out that this situation was NOT HIS FAULT! He was covering a lot of other tables, and the food was NOT coming out very quickly. We knew we would be waiting a while for the food to come back because the tables near us had been seated before we were, and they didn’t have food yet, either.

The food finally showed up at about 9:20. This is where it really gets good. Kathleen had ordered buckwheat pancakes, and they were OK but not hot. Just lukewarm. Judy had ordered banana pancakes, and as you can see from the photo above, they came with exactly THREE slices of banana on them. I asked her if there were any mixed into the batter, and she said, “No, these are just buttermilk pancakes with three slices of banana on top.”

Bob and I had both ordered the same thing—the ham and cheese scramble with hash browns, and I also ordered an English muffin. Now wouldn’t you think that a “scramble” would have the eggs scrambled into them? You know, scrambled eggs? No, when Bob moved aside the tortilla chips that were, for some reason covering his “scramble,” there were two (kind of) soft-boiled eggs on top. When I moved mine back…there were two hard-boiled eggs on top. That is NOT a scramble. It just isn’t. The ham, cheese, green bell peppers, onions and potatoes looked great, but the entire dish was dry without the scrambled (or poached, soft-boiled or any other kind of egg other than hard-boiled) eggs.

Not being willing to eat hard-boiled eggs, I called another waiter over and asked them to take them back and get me some scrambled eggs in my scramble. He did, and miraculously within about 5-7 minutes. But one small problem. The veggies and ham that were on the bottom were not cooked. Basically raw. The scrambled eggs were on top, and they were almost raw, very runny. And the cheese? Nowhere to be seen. It has probably run off with the hash browns and English muffins because they weren’t there either. So I pushed the veggies and ham aside and ate the wet eggs. Just as I was finishing them, out came two servings of hash browns. One was cooked almost well-done, and the other was close to raw.

We just gave up at this point as the coffee was cold, and it was obvious that my English muffin had gone to HAL food heaven with Bob’s Dive-In hot dog. I hope they are doing OK together. We left the dining room at 9:50 according to Kathleen’s recollection.

HAL rips off everyone on the ship…or at least attempts to

So after this wonderful breakfast, we decide to go and check out scenic Prince Rupert. Regular readers of this blog know that I walk a lot. My daily walk is always between four to eight miles. Kathleen, on the other hand, is not a big walker. She has a few things that make it difficult for her to walk long distances, and she can’t keep up with me. When we do go out together in a port, I try to walk slower so we can stay together, but she knows it is driving me crazy…but we make do. This also means that we like to tour by tram or bus.

So today, we get off the ship, and there is a tram that takes you around Prince Rupert. Super! When we go to buy tickets, we are asked for our sea pass card. Now this is NOT a HAL excursion. Anyone can walk up and take it. But once they knew I was off the ship, they wanted my sea pass and would not take cash. So I gave the woman the card, and she wrote us a receipt. She had told me the trip around town took 90 minutes, and the cost for us would be $59.95. She handed me the receipt to sign, and I was SHOCKED to see it was $59.95 EACH! For a 90-minute tour around a very small town. We decided to skip that.

Then we started talking to a couple of local people who worked for the tram service, who were only too glad to fill us in on what was going on. It seems that HAL (and all the other Carnival Corp lines who stopped here) were buying out all of the trams for the days they have ships in port. Then they set the price for that day for everyone. Even if you happen to drive to Prince Rupert and want to take the tram, you pay the price set by the cruise line that is in town that day. He said the day before when Princess had been there, the price had been $69.95 per person. I don’t know about you, but this is just WRONG as far as I am concerned! They buy out the entire set of 15 trams (the only ones in town) to be able to charge their own customers more. Shame on them!

And later on, when I went out walking on my own, I passed one of these trams and saw them stopped in front of a house with the driver pointing at the house. That’s cool. Then as I went past him, he moved up one more house and started talking about that one and the people who had lived there. I walked another 300 yards to the corner where I was going to turn and looked back, and he had pulled up two more houses and was doing the same thing all over again. You see, I think Prince Rupert must not have that many things to show people who are from out of town, so they probably tell the guides/drivers to take as long as you can describing things to stretch this out as long they can. I am fully willing to hear from anyone who took this tour that it was a good value.

I also want to point out that when we got off the ship, there was not a single vendor selling any kind of tour. No boats, no helicopters, no airplanes, no taxis. Nothing near the port. The collusion between the city and the cruise lines is really evident here in Prince Rupert.

Lunch on board Koningsdam in Prince Rupert—how sweet it ISN’T!

After we had tried to go out (we did walk around for a short time), we came back to the ship; I changed into my walking shorts and a tee shirt and went out to do my four miles. Had a very nice walk as the weather was uncharacteristically (we were told by a local) beautiful and sunny. And then, when I came back, I had to again…stand in a 20-minute line to get back on the ship. We took our grandkids to Walt Disney World in February, and we were told by Disney that it was the most crowded four days in the park’s history. We have stood in more lines to get places on this ship than we did there. And at least at WDW, they give you something interesting to look at while you wait in line.

Once I was back, we went up and got a sandwich/slice of pizza on deck 10 (above the buffet, next to the indoor/outdoor pool). Got it pretty quick (which was awesome), but then we both felt like something sweet afterward (I had missed my English muffin at breakfast, remember?), so I went down to check out the desserts in the buffet. Above is the list of the desserts they had on offer today. Below is a picture of the actual desserts that were available directly below the sign. This was the only place to get sweets (except for a small ice cream station serving two flavors of ice cream with a line of at least 15 people waiting at all times) on the entire buffet. This is the second day in a row that this has happened. Nothing there for sometime before the meal is set to be over. At the point I took this photo, they still had more than an hour before the time the buffet was scheduled to close. I did walk by a little later and they were putting out a few apricot tarts but as soon as they were out, a swarm of people grabbed them all. Ah, the hoarding of desserts.

They did get me to spend money on gelato again. HAL has been doing really well getting me to spend money on extra stuff. Besides the gelato, I have purchased meals in specialty restaurants (which have been really great so far) on four of the five nights of this cruise. We are eating in Canaletto (the family-style Italian place) tonight and Rudi’s (Fish house) tomorrow night, the last night of the cruise.

For your viewing enjoyment here’s my selection of my favorite Prince Rupert photos from early morning and my walk around town. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Early morning as we were sailing into Prince Rupert.

The sky was kind of layered.

This boat looked like it was going to sink, bow first.

But it didn’t sink and it was overshadowed by a huge freighter waiting to take a load on.

As I walked off the ship on my walk, there was a crab boat unloading right next to the gangway and these women were sorting them.

This guy would hook up the crab pots to a winch and they would be hoisted to the dock.

This guy guided them on to the dock to start the sorting.

When I came back, this guy had his crab waving to us.

As I walked up a fairly busy street, this deer ambled by and just started grazing next to the parking area.

These two Mounties were in full dress greeting people as they came off the ship. Later I saw them taking photos with people at Service Park.

Found the very cool, old and falling apart church at the top of the hill.

It makes an interesting subject but it desperately needs a coat of paint.

My Prince Rupert Panorama.

It’s after dinner as I am finishing up this post; we are back in our stateroom. I have succumbed to the lure of a reduced-cost WiFi package and picked up the last three days of the cruise for around $25 US. Worth it to be able to check some things going on with Kathleen’s estate stuff and a medical appointment I have coming up, plus I get to post the rest of the way.

We had a very nice dinner at Canaletto, and we all ate way too much. When we had been on Nieuw Statendam with my brother and his bride, we had thought the food was kind of weak in Canaletto, but it is much improved here on Koningsdam. So far, we have eaten in three of the four specialty restaurants and we have had great food, efficient and friendly service and wonderful experiences. I just said to Kathleen, “this is where HAL is putting their experienced waiters and cooks—the specialty restaurants. Where they make money.” Again, that’s pretty sad, but I believe it’s true.

I’m scammed almost every day. Or, if not scammed, at the very least someone tries to scam me. Usually more than once a day. —James Altucher

Koningsdam Day 3–Ketchikan

On May 4, 2023 By Jim BellomoIn Food Experiences, Photography4 Comments

Yesterday when I signed off, I mentioned that I was sitting and waiting to try and get a reservation for the main dining room for dinner. At 11:30, the crew member showed up and started taking reservations. I was thrilled that I was second in line until she told the couple that was first in line that there were no reservations available for Select Dining before 8:30 pm for the balance of the cruise. It seems that on the first day of the cruise (while we were getting on), they allowed folks to reserve dining times for the entire week. So today, there was nothing available to reserve until late. And tonight there are two shows members of our group want to see. If we did dinner at 8:30, we could see neither of them. The same is true for tomorrow night. We didn’t even ask about the last night of the cruise as we have booked Rudi Sel de Mer specialty restaurant.

The lady making reservations said we could wait in line starting at 5:30, and they would take walk-ins as they came up. The couple in front of me said they had gotten in line the night before at 5:00 and finally reached the podium at 6:00, where the head waiter handed them a buzzer and said they could wait in the bar until it buzzed. They waited until 7:30 and then went to the buffet. It never buzzed. We aren’t getting into that mess. So it seems we are destined never to eat in the main dining room. We will do dinner in the buffet tonight, and then I am buying everyone dinner at the Italian specialty restaurant Cannoletto tomorrow night. Since I am the travel agent for everyone, I feel like I have misled them.

After that fiasco, I wanted to speak to someone in Guest Relations about it, but when I went up, there was a line of 20 people ahead of me, and I gave up. I am done. I thought we will just go with the flow. But at lunch, it got worse.

Mind you; this was a port day. Experienced cruisers know that if you stay on the ship on a port day, it is usually pretty empty. Not yesterday. The ship was packed. After we had tried to get the reservation, we figured we should go get lunch…in the buffet. Three of us wanted to go to the Dive-In, HAL’s hot dog and hamburger restaurant. What a mistake. When we got there, there wasn’t a big line, maybe 10 people. Kathleen grabbed a table while I ordered. They gave me a flasher and said it would go off when my food was ready. There were four people working in the Dive-In. On previous voyages, there have been seven or eight.

Our buddy Bob had gone off to help Judy find what she wanted in the buffet before he came and ordered his hot dog and fries right about 10 minutes after I had. About 20 minutes after I had ordered, I went over to see why it was taking so long. They were deep in the weeds and weren’t putting out a whole lot of anything. Finally, at about the 25-minute mark, my buzzer dinged. I couldn’t see anything that looked like my order, but when the frazzled lady shoved a tray my way, I had to tell her what was missing, which she supplied a few minutes later. At this point, we were 30 minutes from my order and 20 minutes from when Bob ordered his. Bob waited ten more minutes and then wandered over to see what was happening. In the meantime, I finished mine, got some gelato for dessert (that’s another story—keep reading) and told Kathleen and Judy I was going off to walk in Ketchikan. I passed Bob on the way out, still waiting for his hot dog. At this point, it had been about 40 minutes since he placed his order. When I returned from my walk, Kathleen told me Bob had waited another 30 minutes (a total of more than an hour), and he, like many others, just walked away. This is just wrong.

And I promised the “other story” about dessert. When I went back into the buffet, Judy came with me. We were just looking for something sweet to finish our meal. There are two entire dessert areas. On top of them was a list of today’s desserts. There were seven different items listed, including a chocolate cupcake, two types of fruit tart, a chocolate pudding-like mousse, a lemon bar and some other fruit cups. All were listed as desserts today. How many were under that sign? Just one. No, not one type of dessert, just one lonely chocolate cupcake. Not a single other dessert. When I asked, I was told they had run out.

When I am writing this, we have just finished eating dinner in the buffet. The food was mediocre at best. The funniest thing we saw was a huge, paella-sized pan filled with something—I wasn’t sure what. I asked the young lady who was serving it what it was. She said, “The people who baked it said it is apple pie. I think it’s apple soup with a crust. I had nothing to do with making it.” Cracked us up. At least she knew that what she was supposed to be serving was crap. So funny, but funny in a sad way.

Speaking of funny, yesterday morning at the buffet, Judy came back to the table with a pastry. She said she had seen another one she liked the looks of but wasn’t sure what the little things on top of it were. So she asked the person serving, and they said it was “beans.” Yup, beans. Now, I realize that you can make a great sweet topping for rolls out of some black Asian beans, but that isn’t what this was. I was intrigued, so I went over and got one. Those weren’t beans. They were tiny chopped pecans. The pastry was delicious. Now this is funny…but it is also dangerous. I asked her myself what those were, and the server told me, “Those are beans.” What if I had been allergic to nuts? Can you imagine someone at the buffet going into anaphylactic shock? That’s not sad; it’s scary. We did make a point to tell one of the managers, and he assured us there would be some education going on soon. He said he was sorry, but they had a lot of new people that were still in training.

I want to get this posted, and I promise to do my best to find something good about this cruise sometime before I get off on Saturday. In the meantime, here are some shots I took early in the morning from the ship and while off the ship in Ketchikan. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Early morning sailing.

More of the same.

Not sailing on this boat.

The scenery is beautiful and the weather better than we expected.

There were a lot less float planes than the last time we were here.

Coming into town.

The snow that’s still on the mountains is gorgeous.

Looking up the sound.

Saw a ‘merican drive by.. Loudest noise I heard all day.

The sun came out to prove it is possible to get a tan in Ketchikan.

Downtown with the gorgeous snow in the background.

Of course Ketchikan is the home to many totem poles.

Climbed to the top of what is called Married Man’s Trail. Now to get down.

This photo is the epitome of Ketchikan. The town is falling apart.

Back at the pier is the only place that looks good.

Kathleen on our verandah.

A quick panorama of the harbor with Konigsdam.

As I am posting this, we have just arrived in Prince Rupert—more tomorrow.

To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world. — John Muir

Konigsdam, May 2023-Embarkation

On May 3, 2023 By Jim BellomoIn Photography13 Comments

Well, we are on our way. As I write this, I know I won’t be able to get it online until tomorrow in Ketchikan, and I am not even sure I will be able to do that. YEAH! I WAS! We are sitting in Ketchikan right now.

Embarkation

So, let’s get this out there right now. After 35 cruises, this was the WORST embarkation we have ever experienced. To be honest, I am not sure who to blame here, but they better fix it soon. It could be Holland America’s fault, or it could be the management at Canada Place. Either way, it was horrid.

I went out around 10:00 am (or should I say down) from our room on the 14th floor of the Pan Pacific to find out the best way to drop luggage and get into the lines to get on the ship. I had really good luck because I got some inside knowledge about dropping luggage from a very nice Canada Place employee. So Brian and I went down to Parking Level 2 and dropped our bags. If we hadn’t done that we would have gotten into the check-in line, had to wait in that line to go down an elevator, drop off our bags and then get in another line to go upstairs and check in. At that point, we thought we were getting ahead of the system.

Check-out time at the hotel was noon, and our “listed boarding time” was 1:00 pm. We decided to go down to the hotel lobby at noon, and Brian and I would go down and scout out the best way to get in line and see if they were holding people to their assigned times. We discovered that we could go ahead and get in line right then. It looked like we would just go up an escalator and be off to check-in. We couldn’t tell what was beyond the escalator, but we could see others coming down and heading off to what we thought was a line to get on the ship. We couldn’t go up the escalator and come back down without going through the process, so we went back to get Kathleen and Michelle.

Then we walked all the way down, got on the escalator and went up. By then, it was about 12:15. When we got to the top of the escalator; we were taken out into a hallway where we had to get in a line that ended way back in the lobby of the hotel…where we had just come from. We literally could have taken an escalator to the ground floor and gotten in line. At one point, this line went all the way out to the street. That’s the length of one and a half cruise ships.

I didn’t want Kathleen standing through that long line, so I suggested to her and the others that they step outside and sit on a bench and that I would stay in line and text them when I was close to the door it looked like we would go through. It was VERY warm in this confined hallway waiting in line, and it moved sloooowwwllllyyy—inches at a time. Part of the problem was that there were three ships embarking that day, and people kept getting in the wrong line, so the line kept growing.

After about 40 minutes, we finally reached a door where we thought (hoped) we would get checked in and get onboard. But just like waiting for rides at DisneyWorld, there was an entire other room with winding back-and-forth queues. We spent another 35 minutes or so getting through this room and then had our picture taken by HAL (even though we had submitted one in their app), and they confirmed that it matched our passports. Once we were done doing that, we were sent down the other side of the escalator. We had come in on to what we hoped would be the ship…but that was not to be.

We were funneled into a room with airport-like scanners to have our carry-on luggage scanned and to walk through metal detectors. To get to the detectors, we waited in another line (with people from all three ships) for at least 40 minutes, hoping against hope that when we got through that line, we could get onboard.

But it was not to be. Once through the scanners, we found another large room with around 15 lines going up and down to get us to Canadian/US Customs. It took us about 40 minutes to get to the front of that line where there were machines you shoved your passport into, and then it created a little receipt-like sheet of paper that you handed to the Customs person as you exited that room.

When we finished that, we were told we could board the ship. But we still had a way to walk. So far, we had traversed the length of Canada Place (a building long enough to have two big cruise ships docked next to it) at least twice on two different floors. We walked about the ship’s length back to where we could board Konigsdam, and someone asked us for our boarding passes (after all this—where else could we have come from), and we had to bring them up on our phones again. (Next time, I am printing them out and pinning them to my shirt.) It felt like I was asked for them and my passport about 25 times. Notice, I said it felt like. Probably only 24.

Once we got past that guy and got on the gangway, we were up and almost on the ship, but again…we were asked for our boarding pass…come on, people…talk to each other.

Total embarkation time—THREE HOURS and 15 MINUTES! We got in line at 12:15 and got on the ship at 3:30. I should also mention that Konigsdam was supposed to sail at 3:00. Glad they didn’t. We didn’t end up sailing until after 5:00. The captain announced it was because we were parked in by the Princess ship behind us, but I am sure the truth was that about half the 2,900 passengers on this ship were still being processed.

We will admit that we were spoiled. On our last cruise with Viking, we embarked in Athens, Greece. We were picked up by the Viking bus and taken to the port. We got off and walked through a single metal detector, had our bags scanned and walked onboard. Less than 15 minutes from the bus door to being sitting down to a glass of rosé in the restaurant.

I am hoping that all this is because this was only the fourth day of ships leaving from Canada Place in 2023 and that things will get improve…soon. They better improve or people will stop sailing from Vancouver.

Here are a few things that would have made this better that you might want to know if you are sailing from Vancouver. First, I made the mistake of checking my rolling bag. I should have taken it on board with me. Not that our bags got lost. We were in line for so long that when we finally got on board, not only was our stateroom ready, our bags were on our bed. But because I had thought that it wouldn’t take too long to get through check-in, I checked my carry-on-sized, wheeled luggage. And that meant that I had to carry my computer/camera bag on my shoulder for more than three hours. Just an FYI: fully loaded it weighs about 15 pounds. Today my shoulder is really wishing I had kept the rolling bag so I could have just pulled the camera bag on it like I usually do.

Another tip for getting through the lines quicker is to bring a cane or be with someone with a cane or crutches. Our buddy Bob had brought one with him (that he borrowed)probably just to hit me with it, and when an attendant saw him, she whisked him and Judy off to the front of the line. It really didn’t help that much since he only got on about 30 minutes before we did. Another trick is to be fairly high in Holland America’s loyalty group, the Mariners. We are two-star, but you don’t start getting priority bookings until you are four or five-star. Lastly, if you book a Neptune suite, you get right in a different line, and you get to board first so no one is ahead of you.

Let’s close this sad story with one piece of advice for everyone. If they say you can board at 1:00 pm, get in line at 10:00 am. You might get on by 1:00. Pay no attention to the boarding time they give you. No one else does.

On board the Konigsdam

We kind of know this ship. Long-time readers of this blog know that we sailed on her sister ship, Nieuw Statendam (NS), back in January of 2022 down in the Caribbean. Konigsdam was the first ship in the Pinnacle Class of Holland America ships, and NS was the second. They are virtually alike, with NS having some tiny improvements.

The biggest differences between us were two things. First, on NS, we had a Neptune Suite. If you forget what that was like, you can see a video of it by clicking here. It is the largest stateroom we have ever been in at sea. On this ship, we have the basic verandah stateroom. The Neptune Suite is HUGE. Massive king-size bed, huge verandah, full desk, full-size couch and the bathroom…oh, the bathroom. This is the best comparison that I am sure of; our entire bathroom on this cruise would fit into the shower of the Neptune Suite. Seriously. Queen-size bed, miniature couch, tiny desk, barely any room to get around the bed. (Photos of our stateroom are below.) Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Here’s a big pano looking from the entry way.

Two bathroom shots

There is no way a grown man can sit on the toilet facing forward. Not one who is taller than six feet.

The verandah looking forward.

And looking aft.

Looking back from the verandah

We are truly spoiled. In our last three out of four cruises, we had either a suite (on NS) or two of the most amazing staterooms in the world—Celebrity’s Flora and Viking Ocean’s Penthouse Verandah. Both are almost twice the size of the stateroom I am writing this post in.

The other reason our NS cruise was so much better…the number of people on board. This morning we spoke to the cruise director here on Konigsdam, the delightful Bettianne. She just happens to have been our cruise director on NS as well. We told her facetiously that we thought the ship was a touch more crowded now than when we had sailed with her last in 2021. She reminded us that she had warned everyone on NS that it would probably never be that way again. You see when we sailed on NS, it was when restrictions were starting to loosen up from the pandemic. Masks and vaccinations were still required. This ship holds 2,700 people when fully sold out. That’s just about what we are sailing with now—2,700 people. But back in January 2022, no one except the really brave was out there sailing, so when we did that cruise, there were only 900 people on board. It was like having your own private ship. Combine that with having a Neptune suite, and this is a totally different experience.

Food

Pre-cruise, I (as the travel agent) had booked all eight of us reservations at two (of the four) specialty restaurants on board. It’s really hard to get a reservation for eight. In fact, much to my disdain, they were only able to put us at two tables for four next to each other in the first place we went to last night. Ticked me off because there were many tables for two. They could have slid together so we could all be at the same table. It also meant the only nights they could accommodate us were the first night and the last night.

So last night we went to Tamarind, Konigsdam’s Asian restaurant. We had eaten there twice on NS with our buddy Seth, who worked for HAL then. Both times on NS, everything about it was superb. And I am thrilled to say the same is true on Konigsdam. Outstanding food, outstanding service, great cocktails and one thing was even better…our server told us we could have as many appetizers as we liked. We all ordered two! Plus, I got each table an order of lobster rolls from the sushi restaurant that is part of Tamarind (sushi is NOT part of the one price for Tamarind; you pay for that separately—but it is a great price. Eight rolls for $7.95) and they are soooo good.

That was it for me. A couple of the group went to BB King’s Blues Club, but we were wiped out from the waiting in line (and for me, the six-mile photo walk at 5:00 that I posted pictures from yesterday). We went back to the stateroom, and we were out like lights.

More tomorrow. Here are a couple of pics I took of the Canadian Inside Passage. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Shots from…

the Canadian…

Inside Passage.

And of course, a pilot boat. I do love pilot boats.

That’s about it at this point. All I can say to close this out is that the ship is CROWDED. There are signs at Guest Relations stating that there are NO empty staterooms, so no upgrades are available. I am guessing that has been there since we got on. We were not able to eat dinner in the Main Dining Room last night because the wait was more than an hour to get into Select (open seating) dining. We gave up and paid for dinner at the Pinnacle Grille. The food was very good but we really weren’t planning on eating there on this trip. Right now, as I am typing this, we are waiting to make “reservations” for the main dining room tonight. That’s ridiculous.

Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded. —Yogi Berra

The best and worst of 2022

On December 30, 2022December 31, 2022 By Jim BellomoIn Uncategorized4 Comments

To quote Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Isn’t that just the way life works? I always thought so. How would you know what the highs were if you didn’t have any lows? And sometimes, the lows lead to the highs. This brings me to the high and low of 2022.

To start the year, a quick substitution was just what we needed.

This one kind of slips in from 2021. If you have followed this blog for a while, you know that we booked a Christmas Market river cruise with Viking River Cruises that was expected to sail in early December 2020. Well, we all know that didn’t happen, so we postponed to December 2021, but then the Delta variant of COVID showed up just before Christmas. Even though Viking still sailed the cruise, we let them keep our money for another year because most of Europe shut down their Christmas Markets. But that second cancellation killed us. And that’s how we ended 2021.

But that brought us to one of the high points of 2022—our Sail with Seth cruise on Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam that we booked as a quick replacement. We went with my brother and sister-in-law and had a Neptune Suite (a last-minute upgrade), some incredible food, found new parts of the Caribbean that I actually liked (Bonaire and Grand Turk) and just generally had a great time.

Old condo problems lead to a new home that we LOVE.

Our disillusionment with our former homeowner’s association started a long time before Spring 2022, but that’s when things went from bad to…we have to get the hell out of here. We had lived in our condo for 23 years (two months before we got married), and to be honest, we really loved living there. So we made the decision to start looking for a new place. To be totally honest, I was sure I would never leave that place and making the decision to move from our close-in, easy-to-walk-anywhere condo where we had the best neighbors anyone could ever want was both tough and quick.

Kathleen and I have always made joint decisions quickly. When we bought our condo back in 1999, we weren’t even looking. We just stopped to see an interesting model home, liked what we saw, went for coffee for half an hour and then went back and bought it. Moving this year was no different. We already knew the area we wanted to move to (Trilogy Redmond Ridge, a 55+ community about seven miles from our condo), and we found an awesome realtor (Hi Linda) who took us to see a grand total of one house—the one I am sitting in right now. We walked in, looked around for about 15 minutes and told Linda to make an offer. Then we went and looked at another place so that we could see what else was out there but to be honest; it could have been wonderful (it wasn’t); we still would have bought the one we now call home.

We love living here! And I would say this was the best thing that happened to us this year. Of course, there is always a downside. We had two big downsides. One, we had to leave behind the world’s best neighbors, Jayesh and Lisa. Sure, they are only 15 minutes away (we are having our annual New Year’s Eve dinner with them on Saturday), but it’s not the same as sticking our head over the fence or having drinks on the spur of the moment to celebrate that it’s Friday. And two, we actually had to pack and move. But that’s another of this year’s highlights.

A Moving Experience

I hate moving. In my past life (BK=Before Kathleen), I moved a bunch. But since we bought our condo in 1999, we haven’t moved. Not for 23 years. The idea of taking things down off our walls, packing all our belongings, dealing with multiple trips to and from the new house, getting the condo ready for sale, and getting all the stuff done we would have to do to move into the new house…I hated all of it. But sometimes, good things come from bad things. Like the day in April when all our kids and grandkids showed up to help us patch walls, touch up paint and clean our old place to get it ready to sell. It makes a dad and grandpa very happy to have his entire family coming together to help.

Unless you have been to our house, you have no idea how much art we have hanging on our walls. Just the downstairs powder room alone had 84 framed pieces of art on the walls. We know because Maylee (our awesome granddaughter) counted them for us. And in our kitchen, we had more than 60 decorative plates hanging on the soffit. Those all had to come down, have the holes spackled and then have the paint touched up. There were other things that needed doing, including moving a bunch of stuff to a storage shed. But everyone pitched in to help, and we got it all done. Special thanks to our eight-year-old (at the time) granddaughter and our eleven-year-old grandson because we struggled to figure out what to have them do, and they just grabbed the spackle and the paint and went for it. They did an awesome job.

We should add that they all returned again a month later to help us move out of the condo and into our new house. And all of them worked their butts off that day as well. As I said, it brings a tear to this old grandpa’s heart.

Our travels: some good and some bad

As I mentioned at the top of this post, we had a great time in the Caribbean on Nieuw Statendam in January; then, we sailed on a May cruise on Celebrity Millenium from San Diego to Vancouver, BC. And we had our BIG trip of the year—our Viking Ocean Mediterranean cruise from Athens to Barcelona that took us to Europe for almost a full month.

Since I have detailed so much of this travel before, I will just list the tops and bottoms of that travel:

The WORST parts

Kathleen falling and breaking her elbow when we were in San Francisco on the Millenium cruise. Six hours in the emergency room, two long cab rides, one surgery and about ten weeks of recovery, all while we were moving, was not fun. All of this happening on a cruise that proved to us beyond a shadow of a doubt that our favorite cruise line (Celebrity) was not what it used to be and that this might have been the worst cruise we had been on in years. It is just sad.
Catching COVID in Venice or at least realizing we had COVID while we were in Venice. No awful symptoms (just a slight sore throat), but still a pain. Kathleen’s cough went on for a month.
Kathleen getting food poisoning on Viking Sky and then being quarantined because of something the cruise line did.
Us realizing that 28 days is too long to be gone from home.
Being on Nieuw Statendam with our good friend Seth (Sail with Seth) and finding out from him that he had been let go from Holland America on the day before the cruise, with his last day being in July. That was not cool, HAL. They then expected him to do his job helping the sixty or so people in the Sail with Seth group have a fun time.

The BEST parts

Most of our Viking Sky cruise around the Mediterranean was great. We had a great time, and we enjoyed Viking, but our expectations were a little too high.
I had at least two ultra-amazing photo-shooting experiences, one in Venice and one in Tarragona, Spain.
We spent another amazing five days with the grandkids at the beach (we have been doing this for a few summers), celebrated Maylee’s birthday and played MULTIPLE games of Skipbo.
Going back to Amsterdam and the Banks Mansion.

Hopefully, I will be back tomorrow to finish the year with my best photos.

The good times of today, are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.
—Bob Marley

Going up! Let’s start on Deck 5

Going to Deck Six—climb the stairs–the elevators suck

Share this:

Like this:

Day 1—we sail in

Day 1–The Whitney and a High Line walk back

Our evening—sorry, no pics

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

On openness

Share this:

Like this:

Our stateroom–Concierge Verandah 9118

Share this:

Like this:

The Good Stuff

The Bad Stuff

Things I wish I had known and what I would have done differently

Share this:

Like this:

Breakfast in the Main Dining Room

HAL rips off everyone on the ship…or at least attempts to

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Embarkation

On board the Konigsdam

Food

Share this:

Like this:

To start the year, a quick substitution was just what we needed.

Old condo problems lead to a new home that we LOVE.

A Moving Experience

Our travels: some good and some bad

Share this:

Like this: