Nieuw Amsterdam Cabin 1113

Posted on October 10, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

oceanview cabin

The Stern Cabin

Normally we book cabins near the bow of the ship. We like to be near the front because it’s the best place to watch for flying fish. They scatter when disturbed by the ship moving through the water and fly out to the sides so near the bow is where they are most likely to be seen. We have on occasion been near the center of the ship, but my cruise on Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam with my sister was my first time in a cabin near the stern. We were on deck one just beyond back elevators. That was near to the end of where passenger cabins went on that deck as there were just 6 rooms beyond ours toward the back of the ship with a door to a crew area beyond that. That location was convenient to the food, but far from the Crow’s Nest lounge, theater, and spa, though it’s a relatively small ship so it doesn’t take long to get from one end to the other. The dining rooms were just one and two decks up so very close. The buffet was 8 decks above us which is a lot of stairs to climb or a quick shot up on the elevator.

frigatebird (internet photo)

We didn’t see any flying fish from our room, but discovered a new way to watch for them from the outside promenade. Frigatebirds often circled the ship and whenever they would dive down toward the water it meant there were flying fish above the surface. Unlike seabirds that swim and dive underwater to catch fish, the frigates are not swimming birds so they literally catch their meal on the fly. Most seabirds have waterproof feathers, but frigates don’t and would likely drown if submerged. Wherever the frigates headed on their dive was the place to look to see flying fish, which sometimes the birds caught and sometimes they didn’t. The poor fish were pretty much out of luck. Not flying out of the way could mean getting ran over by the ship, but going airborne made them vulnerable to birds.

flying fish (internet photo)

From the ship flying fish mostly look like white specks, sometimes large groups of them. Some just go a short distance, others stay in the air until they are out of sight. Sometimes you can see the whole fish shape on the bigger ones.

Nieuw Amsterdam in Cabo

The reason why we ended up at the stern on the Nieuw Amsterdam was because of a special price deal offered by Vacations to Go for that room, which was $1000 per person cheaper than the going rate for an oceanview cabin on that cruise when the entire cruise was paid in full upfront rather than just a deposit with the balance paid later. There were only 2 rooms to choose from to get that deal – the one we booked or one on the other side of the ship located under the galley. Under the dining room where ours was is far preferable as there is no activity in the dining room during the night, but there can be people working in the galley. We could not get that same deal on a cabin at the bow even though there are cabins there in the same category as the ones at the stern.

cabin 1113

I was afraid that the engine noise might be pretty loud in that room, but it actually wasn’t too bad. We could hear it, but it was a quiet background noise rather than really loud. It did seem a bit louder to me when my head was on the pillow in bed, but my sister said she didn’t notice any difference. We did hear a noise from below for several nights that sounded like something banging against a metal wall. We thought maybe someone hung something on the inside of the exterior wall that swung back and forth and hit it making that noise and then removed the offending item a few days later. The decks below ours were crew decks so we didn’t know what was directly underneath our room.

It seemed like there wasn’t a lot of storage in this cabin, but it may have just been due to one side of the closet being inset so it was not quite deep enough for the regular size hangers to sit straight and there weren’t a lot of slightly smaller ones. It did lack any of the overhead storage that some rooms have above the couch, but a lot of rooms on this type of ship lack those, though some do have them. Each nightstand had two small, shallow drawers and a shelf, none of which held a lot. There was one small corner shelf above the desk. Luckily the steward did not have things stored in the large drawer at the end of each bed. Sometimes they have stuff in there making those drawers unavailable, but after asking the steward to remove a pile of ice buckets in one of them we had those drawers to put our things in. They held a lot more than both small drawers and the shelf combined in the nightstands.

bathroom

The bathroom was standard for oceanview and balcony cabins on Holland America ships. It had 3 small shelves above the counter and one larger shelf under the sink. There was also some space on the counter to put a few things. Separate shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in the shower and hand soap and lotion dispensers by the sink were provided in the bathroom. Holland America provides separate shower products, which is quite nice since there are lines that just have the nasty all-in-one. Most of the cabins on Holland America ships other than inside or accessible ones have a bathtub rather than a shower, which also makes more space to hang things to dry. That comes in handy not only for wet swimsuits, but also for doing laundry in the cabin sink on long cruises. Holland America does not have guest laundries and sending laundry out for the crew to wash is expensive until a person reaches 4 stars in the loyalty program and can have it done for free. The deck plan shows all of the cabins farther back than the one we had having just showers rather than tubs even though they are all oceanview rather than inside cabins.

shower products

The room seemed smaller than previous cabins we’ve had on Holland America ships, but that may have been due to the fact that it had a pretty low ceiling. We’re not tall people and my sister could touch it from flat feet. I could if standing on my tiptoes. She noticed that the hallway outside of our room had a dip where cabins slightly forward of ours would have had higher ceilings, but then the floor went back up just before getting to where ours was. Most likely the cabins on higher decks also have higher ceilings. I don’t remember the cabins I’ve been in on previous Holland America ships having particularly low ceilings.

connecting door, TV, and closet

Cabin 1113 has a connecting door to cabin 1117, the one next door on the side one cabin closer to the stern. Normally I would try to avoid booking a cabin with a connecting door unless I happened to be traveling with the people in the next cabin and wanting direct access to each other’s rooms. You can hear the people in the next cabin more through a connecting door than through a wall. In fact we could sometimes hear the people in that room if standing right next to that door, but not from anywhere else in the room. So they could probably sometimes hear us if they stood right next to the door as well. On this particular cruise since my only option other than paying a lot more was a cabin under the galley having the connecting door was the better choice.

Generally there are two wall hooks in the cabins on Holland America ships, as well as some on the inside of the bathroom door. This cabin just had one hook out in the room so it’s a good thing that I brought some magnetic hooks so we had more places to hang things besides in the closets. Cruise ship cabins vary in magnetivity. Sometimes its the door that is most magnetic, sometimes the shower. In this one the door and shower were pretty weak magnetically, but the walls were strong enough to hold a hook with clothing hanging on it. The decorative magnet slid down the door and didn’t stay in place, but the frame around the door and walls in the hallway were stronger so that’s where most people put their magnetic door decorations. It took several magnetic hooks to hold a clothesline in the shower when needing more linespace than the built-in one that pulls across. Since it was a 21-day cruise we did need more linespace sometimes for hanging laundry. For some reason the laundry dried faster on this ship than usual on cruise ships.

annoying bed light

We did not like the design of the reading lights by the beds. It was a tiny little light on a fairly long pole that the steward would leave on and sticking out in the way every night even though we always pushed them up against the wall out of the way which was how he’d find it. We never actually used those lights so they were just in the way. I suppose someone who wanted to read in bed from a regular book might use it. I use the kindle app in my phone and it makes its own light so I can read that in total darkness.

The last Holland America ship we were on had a dim nightlight that stayed on in the bathroom as well as the motion light by the closet, and a curtain between the closets and sleeping area that blocked some of that light even if the bathroom door was open and the motion light on. This room had no curtain to close off the closet area and no nightlight in the bathroom. The motion light would make light from under the door when first going into the bathroom, but it didn’t stay on long so you’d be left in the dark unless turning on the actual bathroom light. Which was also a problem if yours is the card in the slot that makes the light work and you want to go somewhere while someone else is in the bathroom because pulling your card out of the slot would leave them in the dark. Sometimes business cards will work in those slots, but they did not in this room.

couch and table

Furniture in the room consisted of two beds – which can be set together as one if the people in the room want it that way, a small couch (loveseat size), a table, a desk with a chair, and the two nightstands. The desk had no drawers, but it did have a cupboard with a small refrigerator and a little storage cabinet with shelves holding drinking glasses, a hairdryer, and a make-up mirror.

desk and TV

The room had a lot of mirrors, but the only one with enough light for putting on make-up or earrings was in the bathroom. There were lots of lights, just not where the mirrors were. The extra lighting at the mirror above the desk was probably supposed to work for that, but didn’t. There were also no mirrors positioned where you could see your back in one from another. There never are in cruise ship cabins, though it would be nice if there were.

cabin art

Artwork in the cabin was a sort of strange picture above the couch that initially looks like a bowl of fruit in the middle of the desert, but if you look closer it’s on a table with a sand-colored tablecloth. At least it wasn’t a sinking ship like we had for room art on the Zaandam.

our own art gallery in the cabin

We added our own art gallery with things made in art classes on the ship. Usually I have lots of spare magnets now that things like shore excursion tickets are all digital, but on this ship we actually ran out even with some things sharing magnets. By the end we had more art than what’s in the picture. I’ve never done onboard art classes before, though Holland America always has them. This time I went because my sister wanted to and they actually were quite enjoyable. We did watercolors, origami, doodling, and coloring. They had calligraphy too, but we didn’t go to that.

one night the stewards left us a towel dinosaur

There were 4 USA standard outlets in this cabin. Two above the desk and two more just above the little shelf hanging over one corner of the desk. The room had one TV, which hung on the wall next to the connecting door.

chocolates!

On formal nights the stewards left a towel animal and chocolates along with the usual stuff which included the next day’s program and any additional information for the next day like time changes. They also moved the room service breakfast order form from the desk to the bed every night even though we always put it back and never used it.

towel turtle and ducks guarding the stewards tip

Overall we were comfortable in this cabin with 2 people on a 20-day cruise. Storage space would have been an issue with more people. This particular cabin was only for 2, though the ones nearby that held more didn’t likely have any more storage space. At the end of the cruise we left the stewards a towel turtle with 2 ducks guarding the tip, which hid underneath the ducks. Stewards make towel animals for guests, but I’d bet it’s not often guests make one for them. The stewards worked in pairs so we left 2 ducks so each could have one. A lot of crew on cruise ships like finding ducks and if these particular people don’t they will know someone who would love to have them.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025

Posted in Holland America, Nieuw Amsterdam, Shipboard Life | Tagged cruise, deck 1 cabin, Holland America, Nieuw Amsterdam, ocean view cabin, photos, stateroom, stern cabin, travel | 1 Comment

Rarotonga Cook Islands Cruise Port

Posted on October 3, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Noordam in Rarotonga

Rarotonga is an island of volcanic origin in the South Pacific. Though the name has tonga in it, it is not part of the Kingdom of Tonga, but rather one of the Cook Islands. At just over 26 square miles it is the largest of the Cook Islands. The highest elevation on the island is 2139 feet or 652 meters. Money is the New Zealand dollar. Credit cards are widely accepted and tipping is not customary.

view of Rarotonga from the ship

About 75% of the Cook Islands population lives on this island. The island is surrounded by beaches and shallow reefs that drop off into deep water and is forested in the center. Watersports are popular pastimes. Cruise ships are too large for the island’s lagoon harbor so they anchor outside and tender in. There is a road encircling the island with busses running in both directions. It takes about 50 minutes to circle the island. Bus fare is pretty cheap, but it was cash only and they only accepted New Zealand dollars. There are ATM’s within walking distance of the tender pier, but it’s best to come prepared with New Zealand dollars in hand if you want to ride the bus around the island.

map of Rarotonga

Bus service is pretty lacking on weekends with short hours on Saturday and only the clockwise bus with even shorter hours on Sunday. The town of Avarua is just a short walk from the most-used tender dock, though there is another farther dock that is sometimes used due to weather conditions. This is the sort of port that is often skipped due to unsafe tendering conditions. There may be excursion vendors at the tender dock, though they were lacking during our visit.

expensive island tour bus

It was kind of hit and miss as to whether we would stay and tender in or miss the port, but in the end they decided on a somewhat limited tender service. There was not much available at the dock, just an island bus tour for $90 (same price for any acceptable currency, no discount if yours is worth more) which only lasted an hour and had two stops, or the public transit bus which did not have full service that day since we were there on a Saturday. Also the problem of if you got off anywhere there may not be space available to get back on when the next bus came and there wouldn’t be many more busses going by since they quit early on Saturdays.

scooters and cars for rent

Places that took American dollars, euros, or any other non-New Zealand money did not offer any sort of exchange rate so it could end up costing more for the same thing depending on the currency used and its current rate opposed to New Zealand dollars. Credit cards charge the actual exchange rate so they’re the best bet for those lacking in New Zealand dollars, other than the bus that only took New Zealand cash or anywhere else that wouldn’t take credit cards.

market sign

Between the lengthy decision time on whether or not to tender to shore and the long wait for a tender it was 10am before we got to shore in a port scheduled for 8am. Even at that we were way better off than people with tender ticket numbers so high they were still waiting for their call after we returned to the ship.

outdoor market

Just before the ship people started calling the first tender numbers a guy stood up and addressed the group around him in German and they all left together. I didn’t really think anything of it, figuring that they’d all booked some sort of group excursion together through an outside source. There were no excursions available through the ship that port, but I know any time I’ve had anything booked through an outside source at a tender port they’ve always said to make sure and get on the first tender. Such a small thing apparently brought out the pettiness in some people though. People were complaining that nobody explained to the room at large in English what that group was doing, and that instead of each one of them holding their own tender ticket the guy who appeared to be the leader of them had the whole stack. It’s still one ticket per person regardless of who holds onto them and really nobody else’s business what that particular group had going on, but I guess small things anger large groups if they think they’ve been slighted because somebody else got to go first. Probably the same sort of people that leave their towels on deck chairs all day long to keep other people from sitting in them even though they are nowhere in the vicinity. Because they think they are the only ones who matter. Several days later I came across a lady who was still mad about it until I mentioned the bit about that group probably having something booked through an outside source to which she said she’d never thought of that. It did seem to dispel her anger a bit though.

bikes for rent

Deciding to pass on the ridiculously expensive for nearly nothing island tour and not having the right currency or desire to wait for the next bus, we opted to just walk around the area near the port. There was quite an extensive market nearby with lots of small stalls selling mostly souvenirs or food. Some had colorful cloth, which apparently some tourists actually go there to buy. Others had clothing. Quite a few sold the sort of things not allowed on our ship as most people would disembark in either Australia or New Zealand where there are a lot of restrictions on what types of things you can and can’t bring into the country.

playground in Rarotonga

There were a variety of places to eat within walking distance of the tender pier. For anyone with kids there was a pretty good playground there too.

view of the ship from a little beach

We found lots of places with good views of the ship. We saw a shop with cars and scooters for rent not far from the dock, and a bicycle rental stand along the walkway near the sea. Some places had signs advertising much better tours than what was available at the dock, but they all looked to be the sort of thing geared to people staying on the island rather than passing through on a ship. Things could probably be booked pre-cruise through outside sources, but you would want to be sure you had reliable transportation to get to it. There was only one taxi sitting at the pier when we got there. Anyone counting on the bus would need to check the schedule and make sure that would work out for them, especially if they are there on a weekend since bus service is reduced then.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025

Posted in Holland America, Noordam, Pacific Ocean & Islands, Ports of Call | Tagged Cook Islands, cruise, photos, Rarotonga, Rarotonga cruise port, travel | Leave a comment

Enchanted Princess Penthouse Suite

Posted on September 26, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

balcony on penthouse suite R731

Other than mini-suites, the most numerous suites on Enchanted Princess are the Penthouse Suites. The nicest of these are found at the back corners of decks 9-15, which is a total of 12 rooms since there is no deck 13. These suites have balconies that wrap around the back corner of the ship. They run 587 to 682 square feet including the extra-large balcony. There are sliding glass doors to the balcony from both the bedroom and living room areas.

penthouse suite R605

There are an additional 14 penthouse suites located on either side of the wedding chapel and concierge lounge near the back of deck 14, with 7 on each side of the ship. The balconies on these rooms are no wider than balconies on standard rooms or mini-suites, though they are considerably longer since they are attached to a bigger room and run the length of the room. These rooms are about 440 square feet including the balcony.

bedroom in penthouse suite R605

Proximity to the concierge lounge is convenient for suite guests since they have access to the lounge and the services of the concierge within it. They can also get snacks there and sometimes there are events for the suite people that spill over into the adjacent wedding chapel, which is otherwise closed off from that lounge as anyone can go into the wedding chapel when it is not in use.

bedroom in corner penthouse suite R731

Penthouse suites have a bedroom separated from the living room area. It’s more of a separation in the corner ones than in the others where it’s just a partial wall.

closets in penthouse suite R731

The corner suite has a hall of closets at the entrance to the bedroom.

penthouse suite bathroom

These suites have an extra-large bathroom with access from both the bedroom and living room areas. The bathroom has a freestanding shower and separate bathtub. There’s also a separation between the toilet and bathing areas, each with its own sink.

penthouse suite R731 has a bar counter by the doorway to the bedroom

Like all rooms on the Enchanted Princess, these suites have a mini-fridge under a counter, though being suites these come with a complimentary bar set-up that you don’t get in a standard cabin unless your loyalty level is elite.

corner bar in penthouse suite R605

These suites come with full suite benefits, which include priority embarkation and tender, priority on a whole lot of other things like shore excursions and specialty dining reservations, access to the suite and elite only line at guest services, complimentary mini-bar set-up, free laundry service, and upgraded room service menu among other things.

living room in penthouse suite R605

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025

Posted in Enchanted Princess, Princess | Tagged cruise, cruise ship suite, Enchanted Princes, Penthouse suite, photos, travel | Leave a comment

Things to Do on Holland America Zaandam

Posted on September 19, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Zaandam in Vancouver

There’s always something to do on a cruise ship. Even a smaller ship like Holland America Zaandam that doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the mega ships still has plenty to do. Some people are quite capable of keeping themselves amused while others take advantage of the activities the ship has to offer.

main Lido pool with sliding cover open

Even a small ship like the Zaandam has some built-in things people can do. It has pools, hot tubs, a library with books and games, ping-pong tables, deck chairs, the Crows Nest observation lounge and other places with views, and a promenade deck that goes all the way around the ship.

sports court

It also had a sports court with basketball and pickleball. There’s a casino too and some bars. Most things at the gym are free to use, though there are classes that cost extra. The ship has a spa too, but other than things like sample massages or a boarding day spa tour everything there costs extra.

hiding ducks for other people to find is a thing on cruise ships

People can bring ducks to hide and make their own fun hiding them. It’s also fun to find them if anyone else brought some to hide. Most ducks have a tag that either says conquackulations or oh what luck you found a duck. The finder can either keep or re-hide the duck.

chairs by windows

Movies and shows are available on the stateroom TV. It also has a bow channel if you want to see where the ship is going from the comfort of your own stateroom. Otherwise you can get a great forward view from inside at the Crows Nest or outside on the little open bow accessed from the port side of deck 6 that is open even when the main bow is not. There were also places with window seating on the sides of the ship. Most of the time we were sailing through scenic areas, and sometimes there was wildlife to see as well – which included whales, orcas, porpoises, and of course birds.

sale table at one of the ship’s shops

The ship’s shops are open when it is out to sea. There are shops on 2 different decks on the Zaandam. Exploring the ship is fun too. Even the hallways on the decks that just have passenger cabins have a different sort of artwork on each deck. There is all sorts of other artwork around the ship including the enormous centerpiece in the atrium that looks like a gigantic pipe organ.

one of the kid’s club rooms

There are kid’s club spaces for several different age groups.

Dutch Tea

Eating is always a good part of any cruise, and the Zaandam had good food. Besides meals they also had afternoon tea in the dining room each day. The ship also had a couple of coffee bars besides the regular bars.

movie theater

The ship had a little movie theater separate from the main theater. The movie theater had several showtimes for a movie each day.

production show in the main theater

The main theater had two performances of the whatever the show was for that evening each night. Sometimes it was production shows by the ship’s cast and other nights they had guest performers. During the daytime the theater had port talks or lectures.

bar with a piano

Some of the bars had musicians playing each evening.

scenery in Endicott Arm

Whether we were sailing through scenic areas or not (mostly we were) there were also quite a variety of scheduled activities each day. Zaandam still left a paper copy of the next day’s schedule in the cabin each evening, and it was also available on the app. Their app actually worked most of the time, which is quite an improvement over a lot of ships we’ve been on where the app often had issues.

ping pong tables on the Lido deck

Daily scheduled activities included things like dance classes, origami folding, adult coloring, calligraphy classes, lectures & port talks, Tai Chi, yoga, mahjong, bridge, and trivia. Sometimes they had deck games like cornhole or ladderball. Dancing was often an option in the evening, and each morning the schedule included an option to walk a mile around the ship with a group.

gym

There were also one-time things on the daily program that would only be there just for that day – like sailing through the inside passage or down Endicott Arm to a glacier. Other one-time things included a 5-mile walk for a cause charity walk, an Alaska brunch in the dining room one morning, and chocolate surprise one evening. Another passenger kept telling people that chocolate surprise was just the gift shop trying to sell chocolate diamonds, but that person was quite wrong. Chocolate surprise was actually waiters wandering around deck 5 with trays of various different chocolate treats to hand out to anyone who wanted them. We found the best treats with a couple waiters standing outside the theater waiting for people to come out when the show ended. They had better stuff to offer than the ones wandering around the deck had.

part of the library in the Explorer’s Lounge

It’s always nice to sit somewhere near a window with a good book where you can read and watch the scenery go by. I have the kindle app in my phone so I always have lots of books without actually bringing any, but for those who didn’t bring their own they had a lot of them in the library. It was in the Explorer’s Lounge, which also had view seating, a computer room, a coffee bar, lots of games, and tables where people could spread out the games or puzzles which were also available there.

puzzle in progress on a table in the Explorer’s Lounge

One nice thing about cruises is the option to do as much or as little as you want. If you just want to relax and do nothing you can, but if you want to fill your whole day with activities you can do that too. Or some of each.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025

Posted in Holland America, Shipboard Life, Zaandam | Tagged cruise, Holland America, photos, things to do on a cruise ship, things to do on Holland America Zaandam, travel, Zaandam | 1 Comment

Viking Longship Below Water Level Cabin

Posted on September 12, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Viking Skirnir standard cabin

Viking Skirnir Cabin 118

On our 15-day Grand European Tour on Viking Skirnir we stayed in a standard cabin, which are located on the main deck mostly below water level. Only the little slit window is above the waterline. The rest of the room is below it. The room was very cold when we first got there, and it seemed to take days to get the heat to go up a degree or two. It gradually got slightly warmer when the heat finally rose, but it was still pretty cold in there. The public areas in the rest of the ship weren’t exactly warm either, but not as cold as our room. Whether it was because they keep the ship cold or because of the cold water on the outside of one wall of the room I can’t say. The warmest place was the bathroom because it had a heated floor so we kept the heat on in there. The room had an adjustable thermostat. It just wouldn’t heat up to the temperature it was set for. Too bad the floor heating didn’t extend to the rest of the room. This was a wintertime cruise so the temperature might be better in those rooms in the summer.

window view

Other than being cold and having to stand on the bed to see out the window if you’re shorter than window height, the room did have some good amenities. There was a wide ledge below the window, which was a handy place to put things. The wall under the window was magnetic, where cabins above water level only had the outer bathroom wall for a magnetic surface. We used that wall to hang a clothesline on magnetic hooks for things that were dry well beyond the dripping point so they could leave the bathroom, but not quite dry enough to put away yet. Being a cold wall they didn’t dry real fast there, but it did free up the shower in the bathroom.

bed with nightstands and above them outlets and controls for the room’s lights

The room had a comfortable bed with two pillows provided for each side. Like ocean cruise ships, the bed can be spread apart into two separate beds if needed. Upstairs in the lounge people could get a small blanket, which besides using up there when chilly, if you brought it to the room it stayed there even if left out when the steward cleaned. Quite useful in a cold room. There was a small nightstand on each side of the bed. No drawers, but it did have a cubby for a bit of extra storage and enough surface space for small things like a phone to sit at night. It also had a pull-out shelf if someone needed more surface area for something.

closet, drawers, and TV

Though the room was somewhat small, which is to be expected since the longships aren’t very big, it did have ample storage for 2 people. It had 3 drawers, a closet with half hanging space and half shelves, and space under the bed for suitcase storage. It only had one empty bathroom shelf above the countertop rather than the 3 most ocean ships have, though there was a second shelf there supplied with one tube each of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and hand lotion. If you moved any of those products off of that shelf they were replaced the next time the steward cleaned the room. There was also bar soap provided at the sink.

bathroom

Racks above the toilet held two each of bath and hand towels. Other than when we first boarded and they were at the opposite end of the counter the steward always put the washcloths right next to the sink. That area tended to get a bit wet so we moved them to the towel rack. Towels left hanging were not replaced when the room was cleaned, but those left on the floor were. The bathroom had a small clothesline that could be pulled across the top of the shower, and an additional shelf under the sink.

shelf of products

The room was cleaned twice daily. It had a sign for the door with whatever their version of do not disturb on one side and room available for cleaning on the other. Putting that out with the cleaning side showing makes for faster service as the stewards generally clean the rooms they know are empty first.

Quietvox charger

The room had 4 each of American and European outlets, though one of the European ones was taken by the charger for the Quietvox audio boxes used for the daily tours included with the cruise at each port. There was one of each outlet above the nightstands and one on either end of the long narrow desk that ran from where the closet ended to the outer wall. We found a hair dryer hidden in the closet.

desk

It looked like there were 6 drawers under the desk, but there was actually just one set of 3 and what looked like the other 3 drawers had a refrigerator hiding behind it. There was a skinny little ledge above the desk useful for holding small things. One end of the desk was open underneath with space for a stool and a garbage can. The stool was the only furniture in the room besides the bed. There was a big screen TV above about half of the desk and a mirror over the rest. There were also mirrors on the back of the cabin door and in the bathroom.

view of the Main River from the cabin window

The room had quite a lot of lighting. There was one under the shelf below the sink in bathroom that stayed on all night. Lights in the closet came on automatically whenever it was open. There was also a lamp for each side of the bed as well as low-light wall lighting for each side in addition to the overhead lights. The bathroom and closet lights worked whether the room card was placed in the slot by the door or not, but the others did not. The slot could sometimes be fooled by a business card into working without the room card, but only if the card was undamaged so it’s best to just leave a card in the slot rather than taking it in and out if not using the room card.

Skirnir in a lock

For anyone who can afford it, I’d recommend booking one of the above water cabins. They cost considerably more, but they do come with a great view and are a lot quieter. Sound travels through water so below the water you hear a lot of things that the above water cabins don’t. When underway as the ship often is at night you can hear its engines. The movement of the ship passing through the water is also loud sometimes. Even when it is docked you often hear sounds from passing ships. Some of the smallest boats passing by have the loudest engines. When the ship passes through locks at night you hear the water gurgling and a high-pitched sort of whistle or ringing that may go on for quite some time, then the whooshing sound of water rushing in or out. Occasionally there’s the crunch of the boat bumping a wall in the lock too. Above the waterline unless there’s daylight and you happen to look out the window at the right time it’s easy not to even notice passage through the many locks along the journey, but in the below-the-waterline cabin it doesn’t matter whether you can see anything or not, you will know. These cabins do make the journey more affordable though.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025

Posted in Europe, Shipboard Life, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged below water cabin, Longship, river cruise, Skirnir, stateroom, travel.photos, Viking, viking longship standard cabin | Leave a comment

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile Cruise Port

Posted on September 5, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view of Puerto Chacabuco from the ship

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

Puerto Chacabuco is a small town in the Patagonia region of southern Chile in the Aysén Province located at the head of Aysén Fjord. The town is named after a ship that explored the area in the 1870’s. Fish and shellfish processing are the main industries there. There were fish pens in the bay near the tender port.

docks in the port

Money in Chile is the Chilean peso. One US dollar was worth 978.76 Chilean pesos while we were there in January, but is now down to $968.19 since the US dollar has been declining in value compared to the currencies of other countries. Annually the temperature varies from 34°F to 63°F and rarely falls below 23°F or climbs above 74°F. Average rainfall is about 280 days a year with an accumulation of over 121 inches.

port building and Oosterdam at anchor

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile Cruise Port

Puerto Chacabuco is a tender port, which means that the ship anchors offshore and passengers are brought to shore in smaller boats called tenders. It’s a very small port. There’s a floating dock where the tender comes in.

tender at the dock

The tender drivers on Holland America Oosterdam were quite skilled at docking them, coming in very smoothly each time. Unlike the ones on the Noordam last year who had great difficulties docking tenders. There are a lot of tender ports on an Antarctic cruise so they get a lot of practice.

walkway into the port building

After docking there’s a ramp to walk up to shore and then an outside pathway leading into the port building. The building is mostly full of seating areas for people waiting for excursions or using the free Wi-Fi. There were restrooms both upstairs and downstairs as well as free coffee and snacks upstairs. The free Wi-Fi there was faster than the usual cruise ship port Wi-Fi which is kind of surprising considering how tiny the town is.

costumed locals

After walking through the building when we went out the other side there were 4 people in the area’s traditional clothing that people could take photos of or with.

port building

Outside of the building there’s a parking area where the excursion busses go. A dirt road up a little hill leads to the port exit. There were initially people just outside of the port offering last minute van tours. Later there was a girl with a sign for those tours just outside of the port building in the port. Taxis were also available just outside of the port. Ship cards were required to get back in after leaving the port area.

shopping booths in a canvas tent near the port

There’s not a lot to do right in the port area other than the van tours for anyone who didn’t book an excursion. There was a large canvas tent with local people selling mostly handmade items. Lots of wool hats and other knitted things. One booth had sandwiches and other edibles for sale.

Viña del Mar shipwreck

It’s an easy walk from the port to a shipwreck on a beach. It’s a large rusted hulk of a passenger ship built in 1911. You can also get great photos of the cruise ship from near the wreck or from just outside of the port building. The rusted hulk of a wrecked ship was the Viña del Mar, stranded there since 1963. It was on a routine voyage when a viscous storm with strong winds and rough seas caused the ship to run aground.

photo from near the shipwreck

There’s a bit of a town about half a mile from the port, but the whole region is sparsely populated so there’s not a lot there. Most things to do in the area are farther away so it’s a good idea to book something to do at this port before the cruise.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025

Posted in Holland America, Oosterdam, Port Cities, Ports of Call, South and Central America | Tagged Chile, cruise, cruise port, Holland America, Oosterdam, photos, Puerto Chacabuco, travel | 1 Comment

Budapest Hop On Hop Off Bus

Posted on September 1, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Hop on Hop off Bus in Budapest

When you’re with a group of people with no specific plans on what to do, or who don’t all necessarily think all of the same things sound fun, or you just want an easy way to explore a new place, the Hop On Hop Off bus generally works. There’s usually a variety of options for things to do depending on which stops you decide to get off. If you just want a tour of the area riding it around the entire route to see what’s there or just to see the scenery that works too. These are especially useful if there are a lot of busses running so that there is never a long wait at the stops. In Budapest the busses came by every 10-15 minutes.

We met with some friends in Budapest before our Viking river cruise with maybe a vague idea of things we might do, but no definite plans and not really any idea of what there was to do in the immediate area. The hotel where we stayed sold tickets to the HoHo bus, and said there was a stop fairly nearby. It didn’t cost much more for a 48-hour ticket than for a 24-hour ticket so we went with the longer one. The stop nearest our hotel happened to be stop 1 on the route. As per the 10-15 minute expected interval between busses we did not have to wait long – in fact one showed up right about the time we got there.

Viking ship by the Chain Bridge in Budapest

We didn’t stay on it long though. The very next stop was the Chain Bridge, which was on the must-see list for some of the group. There were a couple Viking ships docked next to it so we figured we had found where our boat would dock in a couple days when it would be time to board. Later we saw some more Viking ships on the other side of that bridge, and noticed that besides those two the last email they sent lists the Elizabeth bridge as another possible docking place. At least they included a phone number to call if you can’t find the ship. That was how they phrased it anyway, but calling to see which dock it is actually on before searching all over for it is probably a better idea. We ended up seeing it docked by the Chain Bridge in the first spot we saw a Viking ship on the day before our cruise so we knew where it would be without having to call when we were ready to board.

Chain Bridge

We walked across the Chain Bridge and found another HoHo bus stop on the other side. There was a castle on top of a hill, but the bus stopped at the bottom. A funicular went to the top, and also some funny little blue castle hill busses, who had a 4-stop tour up on the top of the hill. Hop on Hop off runs the castle bus, but it is a separate tour with an additional cost. We wanted to ride the funicular up, but the wait for that was 50 minutes so we decided to go early the next day before it got such a long line.

bus by the Chain Bridge

The next bus that came by had a better layout than the first one and nobody else on it so we got much better seats there. The first one had an open top, but all of the other ones we saw both that day and the next had roofs over the second story, which is definitely better for winter in Hungary. We didn’t go up to the top, but pretty much everyone else who got on that bus did so we had the lower floor mostly to ourselves.

The bus stops by Margaret bridge at Margaret Island. After people get off for that stop and the bus starts moving again the optional spiel you can listen to on the ear pods they give you mentions all sorts of things to do on that island including a Japanese Garden. It would really make more sense to let people know what is there before it stops to let people off instead of after the stop when it’s too late to get off. If anyone decided they wanted to do any of the things there they would have to either get off at the next stop and walk back or ride the bus all the way around until it got back to that stop. Neither is really a good option since it is a long way to the next stop and it takes a long time to make the whole loop. There is a shorter loop for the green route, but we were on the longer red route.

book wagon seen from the bus

We decided to ride it all the way around and see what all the options were for all of the different stops. At stop 9, Heroes’ Square, it came to a place with a whole line of HoHo busses with some other busses mingled in. We were told we had to leave the bus we were on and go to the one at the front of the line. Since everyone on all the other busses was told the same thing it was pretty crowded. The first one filled and left so we got on the second one. Instead of the nice padded seats the previous one had on the new bus the seats were lower down and cold plastic so not nearly as comfortable.

parliament building

The internet said the parliament building was closed, but the bus guide said it was open. One of our group really wanted to go there so after completing the circuit we got off in front of an eatery called Titiz since that was the stop closet to the parliament building. It’s a bit of a walk and google maps kept changing its mind about the directions after we got about halfway there so we just headed toward the river and came out right where we wanted to be. Turned out the internet was right for a change, the buildings were closed. That doesn’t prevent taking pictures from the outside.

shoe memorial

After that we walked down to the riverbank. There is an area with a bunch of shoes that is a heartbreaking memorial from World War 2. It consists of many pairs of shoes. We saw a shoe memorial in China where the shoes were bronze and expected something similar, but the ones in Budapest are the real actual shoes off the feet of Jewish people that were lined up on the riverbank near the end of the war when the Nazis were running low on bullets. They were all tied together and one was shot. That body fell in taking the rest along with it to drown. The shoes from those people’s feet are now on the riverbank where the people were standing. Some are adult shoes, but the sizes go down to toddler feet. People could walk to the parliament buildings from stop 2 at the Chain Bridge and see the shoe memorial on the way.

Titiz cafe

From the shoe memorial the closest stop was stop 2 the one on the Pest side of the Chain Bridge where we had first gotten off, which is stop 2. Google maps said it was an 11 minute walk back to the hotel from there which would have been the choice I’d have made if it were just me since that would take far less time than riding the bus all the way around again since some people were ready to go back leaving other stops for the next day. Another option would be crossing to the other side of the Chain bridge and picking it up at stop 16 where we started the full circle from and skipping a bunch of it, but while we were all deciding what to do John called an Uber, which got us to the hotel in about 4 minutes instead of the 10 google maps said a car would take. It also only cost $4.

Turkish tea at Titiz

If we had been looking at a map we’d have realized we could have just gone to stop 3, which was nearly as close to our hotel as stop 1. Stop 1 is listed on their map as St. Stevens Basilica, but it is not actually at the Basilica. Stop 3 is listed as Jozef Attilla St. and is near the Budapest Eye.

On the second day we took an Uber to the funicular early in the morning before the HoHo bus started running in order to beat the crowd. There were a couple people at the ticket booth when we got there, but no line and only a short wait until one of the cars of the funicular was down at the bottom and ready to go. There is a restroom near the lower station, but it is of the sort you have to pay for. There was a sign pointing toward one at the top as well, but I don’t know whether that one is paid or free. Free ones are available in some restaurants and coffee shops around town if you stop in for a drink or something to eat.

funicular

A funicular is a cable railway system on a steep slope where two cars counterbalance each other as one rises and the other descends. This system of two cars balancing each other is what distinguishes a funicular from an inclined elevator, in which a single car operates individually. The top station of the funicular is right at Buda castle. It doesn’t cost anything to walk around the castle grounds, which is pretty expansive. It also has an excellent view.

Buda Castle at sunrise

By the time we finished walking around the castle grounds and came back down the funicular it had gotten late enough that the Hoho bus was running for the day. We weren’t at the stop long before one came by. They ran every 10 minutes or so, but one always seemed to come by quicker than that.

Budapest Eye

That time we stayed on the bus until we got to the stop near the Budapest Eye, which is a large Ferris wheel with enclosed compartments along the lines of the London Eye. It was not scheduled to open for about half an hour after we arrived with an opening time of 11am that day. Being winter and with a temperature right about freeing level we were all cold from the day’s activities so far so we were all happy to go to a nearby coffee shop for a hot drink while waiting for the eye to open.

Budapest Eye

It was not very busy so they only filled a few compartments, then ran the wheel up and loaded a few more on the opposite side. For some reason they ran a whole ride with just a few people on it even though there were still some waiting at each of their 4 stations so we had to wait for that round to complete before we could get on.

on the Budapest Eye

It doesn’t take long to load when they’re just putting a few people at either end so it wasn’t a long wait for our ride. This one does not run continuously, rather stopping to load and unload and then running around several times before taking on the next batch. If there was a crowd it would take quite some time to load and unload all of the compartments.

view from the Budapest Eye

From the top of the wheel you can see over all of the nearby buildings. We could see the top of St. Stephen’s Basilica, the tallest church in Budapest at 96 meters. This is the same exact height as the parliament building. Both of these two tower over everything else in the city as nothing is allowed to be taller than the parliament building. The church was allowed to be equal in height to symbolize that the government is not above god.

view with a balloon in the distance

We also saw a hot air balloon from there, though rather than a free-ranging balloon as it appeared from that distance it actually turned out to be a ride that is tethered to the ground. It just goes up and down without leaving that spot.

paddle wheeler seen from the river cruise

The hop on hop off bus ticket includes a short canal cruise so we next got off at the stop they said was closest for that, which was stop 13. Stop 2 at the Chain Bridge is actually closer as well as right on the river so they probably just want people to walk by all the shops near stop 13. The brochure doesn’t actually give much detail about what is at or near any of the stops. Sometimes the ticket person on the bus announces things and sometimes the recorded spiel will tell you if you listen to it. The ongoing spiel has a variety of language choices. Neither spiel nor ticket person are completely reliable though because sometimes the spiel rambles on about things that you have no idea what or where they are and some of the ticket people don’t say anything. It would be nicer if they got rid of all the advertisements taking up much of the space on the brochure and replaced them with close-up maps of each stop and what could be found nearby or at least listed what was there rather than mainly just the street name or square where it stopped. And not say the bus stops at a particular attraction when you can’t even see it after you get off the bus and actually have to walk there and find it on your own.

Margaret Bridge and Margaret Island

Regardless of which stop the hop on hop off boat dock is approached from it’s going to be a little bit of a walk because dock 6 where the boat was is in the middle of an area without direct access from the road and trolley tracks above. The trolley goes right past it, but does not stop in that area. It’s a fairly short boat ride down one side of the canal up to the Margaret Bridge with a turn there and then down to the Elizabeth Bridge and then back to where it started – about a 45-minute ride.

We didn’t get off at any of the other stops, but there are 20 of them on the red line. The green line only has 6. It’s surprising how many signs on various buildings are in English. Not all of them, but considering that is not the main language in Hungary we didn’t really expect any. A lot of people in many of the various non-English speaking countries of Europe do know how to speak English though so quite a few tourists probably find it helpful.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025

Posted in Europe, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged Budapest, Europe, Hungary, photos, travel | 1 Comment

Grand Turk Beach Day

Posted on August 29, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

whale statue

Grand Turk

Grand Turk is the capital island of Turks and Caicos and the largest island in the Turks, but there are two in the Caicos island archipelago that are bigger. Turks and Caicos together make up a country which is also an overseas British territory, though they use US dollars for their money. English is the official language, but some residents speak Spanish or Haitian Creole. The cruise port at Grand Turk is the only cruise ship port within the Turks and Caicos. Annual rainfall is about 21 inches. Average summer temperatures run from 85 up to the mid 90’s F (29-35 degrees Celsius) from June to October. From November to May the average temperature is 80 to 84 degrees (27-29 degrees Celsius). Water temperature in the summer is 82 to 84 degrees (28-29 degrees Celsius) and in winter about 74 to 78 degrees (23-26 degrees Celsius).

Grand Turk Cruise Port

The port at Grand Turk has a dock with space for two large cruise ships. If one comes in while another is there the dock is closed while the second ship approaches and until it is secured. Anyone from the first ship is stuck onboard or onshore, wherever they were at the time the dock was closed. There was a bin near the ships where people could dispose of any questionable substances before walking down the dock and a sign on the dock that said Carnival passengers would be subject to inspection by a sniffer dog.

swim-up bar at Margaritaville

The port in Grand Turk has plenty of things to do right where the ship docks. There’s a beach where people can swim, snorkel, or sunbathe. Local beach bars line the area next to the cruise ship beach and people can get drinks or rent beach chairs at them. There’s often locals offering things to do like banana boat rides from shore as well. The cruise port area has shops, restaurants, and a flow rider. It costs extra to use the flow rider, which you can book onboard as a shore excursion even though it is right at the port. There is also an extensive Margaritaville with an expansive shallow pool with swim-up bar and cabanas. You have to pay to use the cabanas. Margaritaville also has indoor bar space and a logo shop. It’s one of the port’s most popular attractions.

Apollo display

There’s also a display about an Apollo splashdown right by the beach. Next to the shopping area there’s a taxi stand for people who want to go off exploring on their own. There’s usually a place to book local last-minute tours available in the port area as well.

whale themed bar near the statue

A whale statue on the beach is a favorite photo spot for a lot of people. Next to it there’s a whale-themed bar with food.

beach with beach chairs

Day at the Port in Grand Turk

We’ve been to Grand Turk on several cruises, but rarely leave the port. It’s a good spot for not spending any money, though you could also spend a lot without ever leaving the port. Things changed a bit between our last visit and this one. There were both more free beach chairs scattered about out in the sun and more of the sort with shade that you have to pay for.

fish and rock structure just beyond the rope

The far end of the swimming beach used to have the most underwater structure for fish to live in so it was the best snorkeling area. On this visit several water trampoline things had been installed in what used to be the prime snorkeling spot within the roped off swimming area of the beach. There were numerous schools of tiny fish near the beach. Farther out in the water the fish got bigger. Just when you get to some big rocks perfect for snorkeling over to see way more fish you get to the rope marking the end of the swimming area. You can’t go beyond the rope so all of what would be the prime snorkeling spot is roped off. You can see fish at the edge of that structure from within the rope, but there’s a lot more beyond the area where people are allowed to go.

Out of the water the beach was pure sand, but at the waterline it got rocky. Not little rocks in the sand, but the entire bottom was mainly rock with a bit of sand covering. Enough to make the ground uneven so it is easier to swim over than to walk on, but not enough to make a lot of places for fish to hide.

shops at the port

I hadn’t really checked out the shopping area at this port before our port stop there on Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam. My sister wanted to check out the shops so we first went out for that figuring to go back to the ship to change and put away anything we might buy before going snorkeling, There are a lot of shops selling overpriced clothing and jewelry, as well as some with souvenirs, but none with any sundries or other practical things for people who may have run out or forgotten to bring them.

We wandered around the shops awhile without finding anything we actually wanted to buy. They did not have anything that my sister was looking for, nor did we find anything we wanted that we weren’t specifically looking for. We went back through the duty-free shop which is where you go to get back to the ship intending to change and come back out. Just as we got to the door to leave port security closed off the way out off by pulling one of those barrier strips across the exit just as the people directly in front of us were about to pass through the exit. The security people would not let anyone else through. That is how we found out that people are not allowed on the dock if another ship is on its way into port even if that ship is not yet close enough to actually see it. There was no ship visible, but one was on its way there. They had to clear the dock area before it could come alongside. It took awhile before it finally arrived, and awhile longer before they finally let anyone back out onto the dock. We’d already looked at everything we wanted to see onshore so we just sat on the edge of an unused cabana that people are supposed to pay for and waited until we could go back to the ship. We were not the only ones doing that and nobody made any effort to chase anyone away. That was the only place with shade.

Carnival Freedom coming into port

We watched the ship come in and dock next to ours. After awhile they let people who worked there walk down the dock, but it took longer before passengers from either ship were allowed to go to or from the ships.

By the time we got back to the ship it was lunchtime so we had a salad before going back out to snorkel. The other ship was Carnival Freedom on a round-trip cruise out of Port Canaveral. It’s a bit bigger ship than the Nieuw Amsterdam so things got a lot more crowded, but we still managed to find beach chairs to put our things on while we went out to snorkel. It turned out to be somewhat disappointing since most of what there was to see was beyond the rope now so we didn’t stay as long as we otherwise would have.

just a small section of the Margaritaville pool

The pool at Margaritaville which had been too cold to give a try on my last visit was warm enough to swim in this time. It’s a shallow pool, but deep enough to swim. The flowriders got going once the Carnival ship arrived. They were off when it was just our ship. In general Holland America isn’t much of a flowrider type crowd. The passengers off the carnival ship were for the most part considerably younger. You could guess with probably about 90% accuracy which ship any given person was from by their age, though there were a few gray hairs with carnival towels and a handful of younger people with Holland America ones. Partly due to the cruise line, but also because of the length of the cruise. Ours was 3 weeks whereas the Carnival itinerary was just one. In spite of the sign on the dock we did not notice anyone getting checked by a sniffer dog even after the Carnival ship arrived.

FlowRider when it was closed with no water running

Ship’s Excursions Offered on Grand Turk

Although there is plenty to do right at the port in Grand Turk, there are other things to do on the island if people want to leave the port area. For those looking to book organized tours the Nieuw Amsterdam offered quite a variety of excursions there. The list included jeep, ATV, or dune buggy adventures, several snorkeling options, semi-sub or sailboat excursions, touring by hummer, duck boat, tram, or golf cart, a trip to a private beach house, or a couple bus tours of which one ended at a beach and the other included a painting class where people could paint their own masterpiece for a souvenir. The snorkeling from an excursion would probably be a lot better than what’s left now at the beach. We have done excursions there a couple times. Once a power snorkel and the other a semi-sub.

Posted in Caribbean, Holland America, Nieuw Amsterdam, Ports of Call | Leave a comment

Food on Holland America Noordam

Posted on August 22, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Dining Room

The dining room on the Noordam was usually good for breakfast or dinner, but lunch not so much. Between very slow service at lunchtime, quite limited menus, and food that wasn’t that good the Lido buffet was often the better choice. The first time we tried lunch in the dining room the menu said pork chop, rice and veggies. It said nothing about breading. The pork chop showed up with breading so thick around a very thin bit of meat that the breading accounted for most of the thickness of the entire pork chop even though neither the item title nor the description on the menu had mentioned any breading at all. John ordered grilled cheese with gluten free bread and each slice of bread was the thickness of two slices. It was just warm bread rather than toasted and the mountain of cheese inside was not melted at all. He also asked for French fries with ketchup instead of potato salad and initially they brought potato salad with no fries or ketchup, though they did bring those later. The dessert was good though. We had lunch there one other day and it was better.

gluten free pork dinner

We’ve not had much luck lately with ordering specifically gluten free food on ships and started out on as you wish dining where you can come any time while the dining room is open rather than at a specific set time on this cruise where it’s even harder so we just tried to order carefully this time. We’re not celiacs – I just have limited tolerance issues and John avoids it because of its inflammatory nature so a little bit won’t hurt us. That worked fine until one night when nothing on the menu without a lot of gluten in it appealed to me so I asked if they could make that night’s pasta gluten free. They did, but then brought the menu ever after to pre-order the night before for the next day’s dinner. It did actually open up additional options for the dinner courses since any breaded or pasta dish would be special made gluten free, but they didn’t make any of the menu desserts in a gluten free version.

flourless chocolate cake

They had standard options for gluten free of flourless chocolate cake, crème brulee, or the sorbet flavor of the night. They could do a gluten free fruit crumble too, but pre-ordering meant not knowing what kind of fruit it would have. Ice cream would also be an option for anyone who didn’t also have lactose issues, but dairy upsets my stomach more than gluten does unless it’s a lactose free version which ships rarely have. So in the end pre-ordering gluten free meant better dinner choices, but a lot of repetition in the dessert. After the first couple weeks or so people who tended to show up at the same time and sit in the same area every night were assigned times and tables rather than keeping everyone on the as you wish dining so we ended up with a table for six by the back window. Another couple we had made friends with also was assigned to that table. The last two seats sometimes had people in them and sometimes not.

Canadian Thanksgiving

We happened to be onboard during Canadian Thanksgiving, which is mid-October instead of late November like American Thanksgiving. One of the dinner options was turkey, with a meal pretty much the same as what would be served for American Thanksgiving.

afternoon tea

They had afternoon tea every day in the dining room at 3:00. Each table gets one or more little stands of sweets, scones, and tiny sandwiches and of course everyone has a cup of tea. Some days they would have a theme such as Indonesian tea rather than just regular afternoon tea. We did not ask for anything gluten free there.

Mariner Lunch Dessert

Mariner Lunch

Holland America has a special lunch in the dining room one day during each cruise that all return cruisers receive an invitation to called the Mariner Lunch. If there are too many people onboard qualified to attend they will have it on more than one day with some people invited to each session. The same menu is repeated in that instance since the people are different. There’s a limited menu with food that is upscaled from the usual dining room lunch fare. Some ships have better options than others. This one wasn’t my favorite with just beef, seafood, or a breaded vegetarian option for the main and the dessert was some sort of deconstructed something. The captain always gives a brief speech. The cruise director also did on the Noordam. At previous mariner lunches we’ve attended there was a tile picturing the ship at each place setting, but there weren’t any on the Noordam. Just the food. There’s not a dress code specified, but people usually dress nicely to attend. We did get tiles later in our seamail box, but rather than the usual one of the ship these were a 150 years commemorative tile. Maybe they changed that so that all of the repeat passengers get a tile and not just the ones who attend the Mariner lunch.

chicken dinner at the officer’s table

Officer’s Table

One night at dinner one of the dining room staff stopped by our table to say that we along with the other couple that regularly sits at our table had been invited to sit at the officer’s table a couple days from then. We don’t know why they pick who they pick to sit there, and prior to that didn’t even know that they had a table assigned for that purpose on a regular basis. One of the other officers we talk to sometimes mentioned having a dinner like that to go to one night, but we really hadn’t thought anything of it until we were invited. It’s a big round table and has a different officer with different guests each night.

dessert at the officer’s table

Besides the four from our regular table there was another couple there. The officer was a young engineer named Thomas. He said they sign up for that, it’s not something they are forced to do so the officer involved is someone who wants to be there. He was quite interesting and informative. He was from Amsterdam and said since the ship is flagged in the Netherlands and he is from there he has some perks to his contract like the pay for a year being spread out monthly rather than just while at sea for a steady income.

vegetarian starter

Like the bridge crew he works 3 months on and 3 months off, usually returning to the same ship each time. When changing ships they have a 2-week orientation period to the new ship that is not required when returning to the same ship as each ship is a bit different even when of the same ship class – more so the older a ship gets. The menu for the evening at that table is the same as for everyone else in the dining room and the participants are expected to dress nicely for the evening. The officers have a drink allowance that is apparently more than they would ever spend on themselves so they buy drinks for anyone at the table who wants wine or some other specialty drink with their dinner.

duck starter

We were also allowed to invite officers to our table and did a few times with various people we had met on the ship. That gives them a chance to eat in the dining room that they might not otherwise have and they always have interesting tales to share.

pastries at the breakfast buffet

Buffet

The buffet didn’t have a gluten free section, but the pizza station had gluten free items for the asking. In the morning it’s the waffle and crepe station and they could make gluten free crepes or toast and had gluten free muffins available as well. Later they could make gluten free pizza and had some sort of gluten free dessert out where people could take it. Usually just jello or a flan thing or sometimes the same flourless chocolate cake the dining room served. You could ask for gluten free cookies. They had some really good chocolate chip ones that were also dairy free, but quickly ran out and then they just had butter cookies.

Phad Thai and veggies at the lunch buffet

Besides a variety of beef hamburgers, the Dive-In poolside grill offered beyond beef patties, a veggie burger, and a chicken burger among their options as well as one with a lettuce wrap instead of a bun. They also had gluten free buns available for the asking.

nachos from the taco bar

Next to the grill in the pool area there was a taco bar that had a variety of different fillings and toppings. It had chips as well as tortillas and taco shells so people could make nachos, burritos, or fajitas there as well as tacos. It was a good place to get lunch and never had a line.

tables at the Lido Buffet

Canaletto

Canaletto is an Italian themed specialty restaurant at dinner time in a section of the Lido. The surcharge there is less than at the Pinnacle, but there still is an extra charge to eat there, which we did not do.

Pinnacle Grill

Holland America’s upscale restaurant, the Pinnacle Grill is often popular on short cruises, but on a cruise where people are booked for 34-48 days or longer it’s pretty hard to keep a pay-extra eatery full every day. Dinner saw a few more people, but even then walking past often meant seeing numerous unoccupied tables, though more people than at lunch time. When we originally asked about reservations at first they said they weren’t sure if they could get us in because the computer system was down, but once we said it was for lunch rather than dinner they said no problem. They weren’t kidding since on the two days we had lunch there only 2-3 other tables had guests.

chicken lunch at the Pinnacle Grill

At less than half the cost lunch is a bargain compared to dinner. It’s not the same menu. The do have gluten free bread and buns available on request and they did sub a gluten free bun for John’s burger. Food there is a bit more upscale than the free venues offer. There are more options for mains than in the dining room at lunch, but not a very extensive menu for sides and starters and far fewer choices than at the Lido buffet. The dinner menu has more options.

coconut trifle dessert

The first time I had a salad for the starter that would have been better without the funky-tasting cheese. The prawns on my second visit were better. It was supposed to be bruchetta, but I ordered just the prawns without the bread. The chicken on my first visit was a bit on the tough side, but tasted good. On the second visit I had a chicken salad for the main. Both times I had the coconut trifle for dessert. It was tasty and not anything you could get in any other places onboard. Trifle as I remember my mom making when I was a kid had cake in it, but the Pinnacle version did not. It was more of just a layered pudding, in the American sense of the word pudding. You can’t go wrong with coconut and chocolate though, two of my favorite things.

Pinnacle Bar

Bars

There were some specialty drinks available at only one bar, but most things were offered at all of them. The coffee bar at Explorations Lounge and the one in the Crows Nest made specialty coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, which could be spiked if desired. They could also make other bar drinks at the Crow’s Nest, which was both a coffee bar and a regular bar. The Atrium Bar down on deck 1 by guest services and shore excursions looked to not be used any longer as it was void of anything to serve and never had anyone there, but all of the other bars on the ship had hours that they were open. Cruise ships always have lots of bars. Noordam had the Sea View bar, Ocean bar, Lido bar, Pinnacle bar, and bars at the Rolling Stone lounge and Billboard Onboard entertainment area.

Posted in Holland America, Noordam, Shipboard Life | Tagged cruise, cruise food, Holland America, Noordam, photos, travel | 3 Comments

Saint Thomas Two Island Snorkel and Beach

Posted on August 15, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Enchanted Princess from the snorkel boat

Long before our Caribbean Cruise on Enchanted Princess we booked an excursion for our first port stop in Saint Thomas that was to have a bit of a tour on Saint John and then go to Trunk Bay for snorkeling. I’d had this same excursion booked on a previous cruise on a different line only to have it cancelled shortly before the cruise started. This time it was cancelled about an hour before it was to start while we were in the midst of getting ready to go. Trunk Bay is supposed to have excellent snorkeling and we’ve never been to Saint John so that was quite a disappointment. We took a last-minute replacement for a different excursion that was a 2-stop snorkel and beach tour. The excuse for cancelling the first excursion was that it was too stormy for snorkeling at Trunk Bay, but we later found out it had been dead calm there that day so they probably really were just short of the minimum amount of people required for the excursion and hoping someone would sign on last minute, then canceling when they didn’t. Our back-to-back cruise stopped at Saint Thomas again the second time around so we booked that excursion again figuring to take the ferry over and get there on our own if it got cancelled, but it was actually stormy that day so we didn’t end up going then either.

view of ships in Saint Thomas from the snorkel boat

The new tour met on the dock shortly after the time scheduled for the original one. From there we walked just shy of a kilometer to where a catamaran was docked. Not the sort with sails that often do snorkel excursions. This one was called a fast cat. We were far enough back in the line to be the last ones to get seats in the covered area rather than the open area out in the sun, where nobody sat until the shady seats were all full. On the way back some of the people from the inside moved out there though.

snorkel boat at the first stop

The crew of this vessel were all young and female. Probably early 20’s other than the youngest deckhand in the fleet, 3-year-old Nai Nai, Captain Jen’s daughter. Gigi was quite the performer. Her rendition of all the rules and how-to’s for the tour were far more entertaining than any of the ship’s comedians at the comedy shows. The other deckhand Rosi seemed to have all the worst chores (like cleaning out the toilet if people threw paper into it instead of in the garbage where it belonged.)

dark fish in the rocks

The first stop was at Buck Island, which is a bird sanctuary so nobody is allowed on land. There was already another boat there when we arrived, with the area around it full of people from that boat. We were told we could go anywhere in the little bay between rocky outcroppings on either side. Over on our side the water was pretty murky.

colorful fish in the rocks

Out by the boat there was nothing but seagrass and the occasional fish. Closer to shore there was more structure and more fish, but the water was pretty murky there too so it was hard to see them. Since the other side was so crowded with people from the other boat I never went over there, but the people who did said the water was clearer on that side. It had more fish and even some small corals so the other boat definitely took the prime spot.

beached boat wreck

After an hour at the first stop the boat moved on to our second stop, a sandy beach on Water Island. There was a beached boat wreck in the rocks on one side of the bay. Lots of boats were anchored there. Some occupied and for others it appeared to be the moorage where they stayed when not in use. Especially the unoccupied one with the giant rent me for charters or tours sign.

beach at Water Island

The beach there had lots of amenities, but other than the restrooms everything came with a cost. Beach chairs, water toys, even a volleyball had a rental cost. We were there for an hour in which people could have a drink or a meal, rent a beach chair or water or beach toys, or go swimming or snorkeling.

snorkel boat anchored at the beach

The boat anchored up quite close to the beach, but there was a drop-off just beyond the shoreline. The foot or two at the edge of the water was shallow, but after that a very steep little hill went down a couple feet. It wasn’t far from shore to the boat ladder, but the water at the ladder was waist deep – at least on me.

The beach had a roped off swimming area, but you could go beyond the rope when snorkeling rather than swimming. Out between a couple buoys beyond the rope was where the boat crew said turtles hang out. I swam out there and did find a turtle, but the water was so murky I could barely see it. The crowd of people hovering over the turtle made it impossible to get close. If the water had been clearer I would have stayed out there and looked for other turtles, but since it was so murky I could probably pass over one without even noticing it was there I went to the side of the bay where it was rocky to look for other sea life.

sea urchins in the rocks

There were urchins and corals among the rocks, but in order to see them you had to be among the rocks as well and there wasn’t a lot of water to pass safely over the rocks without risking damaging the corals or damaging yourself on a spiny black sea urchin so I didn’t stay there very long.

time to get back on the boat

John hadn’t wanted to snorkel again at that stop so I met him on the beach and we just walked along the water’s edge until it was time to go back to the boat. It was quite a pretty little beach.

serving up the rum punch

After the first snorkel stop and on the way back to the ship the pitchers of rum punch came out. Most snorkel excursions in the Caribbean end with rum punch. Occasionally land tours serve it as well, though it mainly seems to be a boat thing.

Nai Nai with the tip jar

The snorkeling wasn’t that good on this excursion, but the boat crew made it fun. Instead of waiting to collect tips as people exited the boat or setting out a tip jar, as we approached the dock they had adorable little Nai Nai walk around the aisles of the boat with a tip jar. Apparently that was her job on the boat crew. Smart move. I bet that probably came close to doubling their tips. People who hadn’t had any money out like they were going to give them anything on their way off the boat were digging through their stuff for money to put in the jar for Nai Nai.

medallion in a waterproof bracelet

Once the boat docked we all walked the nearly one kilometer back to the ship. The walk passed by a lot of shops so if anyone felt like shopping along the way they could. I am so going to miss the medallions Princess has when we sail on a different line and it’s back to fishing through my stuff to find a ship card instead of wearing the medallion in a waterproof bracelet. Since the medallion is waterproof there’s need to take it off for snorkeling or any other water activity which is really convenient on a Caribbean cruise.

Posted in Caribbean, Enchanted Princess, Ports of Call, Princess, Shore Excursions, USA | Tagged cruise, photos, Saint Thomas, snorkel, travel | Leave a comment

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