Zaandam Vista Suite

Posted on March 21, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Zaandam Vista Suite

Vista Suites on the Zaandam are comparable to what is typically called mini suites on most ships. Zaandam does not have balcony cabins so the only way to have a balcony is in a suite which makes the Vista suites the balcony cabins of that ship. They are larger than the ship’s inside or oceanview cabins as well as slightly larger than most standard balcony cabins on ships that have them.

balcony with a view of Canada Place while the ship was docked in Vancouver

The balcony is about twice the size of the veranda on most ship’s standard balcony cabins. It came equipped with 2 chairs with footstools that slip under the chair when not in use and a small table.

jetted tub in the bathroom

The bathroom is equipped with a jetted tub. While few cruise ships have bathtubs anywhere other than suites, Holland America has them in everything from ocean view and above and suites have jetted tubs. The bathroom also has the standard 3 shelves for storing things and a row of pegs on the inside of the door to hang things on. The tub has separate dispensers for shampoo, conditioner, and bodywash and there’s dispensers for both soap and hand lotion by the sink.

row of closets by the room entrance

The vista suite has lots of storage space. It has 4 closets, two with hanging bars at the top and 2 with shelves. One of those also has a low hanging bar and one of the ones with a top bar also has some optional fold-down shelves. There were enough hangers already in our cabin that we didn’t need to ask for more, which is quite rare on a cruise ship. One of the closets had bathrobes on a shelf, something we often have to ask for. The desk area has 3 sets of 3 drawers and the nightstands have 2 drawers each.

desk in the vista suite

The big drawers under the ends of the beds only had a tiny bit of stuff in them rather than being full of spare bedding as they sometimes are – at least at the beginning of the cruise. Later the steward had more stuff in one of them. A lot of the ships we’ve been on recently have had those big drawers at the ends of the beds, but the stewards nearly always have stuff in them so they rarely ever count for passenger storage space. There’s still room under the bed for luggage storage even with that drawer taking up a lot of the underbed space. There’s also a couple shelves above the desk. Suites on the Zaandam also come equipped with a set of binoculars, which can come in handy for wildlife spotting on an Alaskan cruise.

living room area

Besides the bed, which can be set up as 1 queen or 2 twins, the room has a couch a table, and a small refrigerator. Upon arrival the refrigerator is set up as a mini bar. If you don’t want to buy those things you can ask the steward to remove them. Which is always a good idea since they want a fortune for each tiny thing. Better to have empty space in the refrigerator so you can put things you want there.

vista suite

There are some hooks on the wall which is nice for hanging coats, especially since the walls on this ship are too magnetically weak to add magnetic hooks. A magnetic hook will stay on the wall by itself, but they just slide down the wall as soon as you hang anything on them. Even on the door a magnetic hook could only hold very lightweight items. The walls were magnetic enough to hold up paper for anyone who wants to post the itinerary or something on the wall. The old printed excursion tickets would have been too heavy to hang on Zaandam’s wall, but on this cruise the excursion tickets were digital in the app – and you didn’t even need that to check in for an excursion because they could just scan your key card instead. There were no paper reminders of excursions provided so unless you printed out the itinerary that included them before leaving home it was all digital in the app, including excursion reminders.

the stewards made different towel animals each day including this bear

The TV on the wall across from the bed was somewhat smaller than the wooden frame it hung in, but big enough. The safety video for the muster drill kept saying text this and text that, but texting things was not actually required so that was probably old information that had not been updated or removed. The safety video had to be played through to the end on boarding day to unlock the TV and make any other programming available.

Zaandam in Vancouver

Various things said to go report to your muster station to have your card scanned as soon as possible after boarding, but they did not actually have anyone at those stations to scan cards until they announced for everyone to go there when it was getting close to all-aboard time. Muster stations on this ship are out at the lifeboats, whichever one is assigned to your cabin. Information posted on the inside of the door says where the muster station is and maps out routes to get there.

a sinking ship might not be the best art choice for a cruise ship

The artwork in our cabin was a painting of a sinking ship – not exactly the best art choice for a cruise ship! Initially we thought there were no USB ports in the room, but then I found one hiding on the backside of the base of a lamp. The cabin had 3 outlets, which is 3 times better than the single one found in some older ships. With a 3-outlet plug and a clock with 2 USB ports we extended that a bit and had enough places to plug things in.

the stewards got a towel owl and a couple ducks along with their tip

If you happen to stay in Vista Suite 6147 on the Zaandam I hid a little stealth black duck behind the TV that blends in well enough that it isn’t likely to get found by anyone who doesn’t know to look for it there unless someone repairs or replaces the TV or is a really thorough duck searcher. I haven’t found a duck in any of the cabins we’ve stayed in yet, but usually leave a couple for future guests somewhere the steward isn’t likely to look. I also leave one for the steward, but that’s out in plain sight with the tip. We left two for the stewards on this ship since they worked in pairs. Also a towel owl, which is one I commonly leave for stewards because it’s my own creation so not one that they make, or at least not that I’ve seen so far. It’s a pretty easy one though so once they’ve seen it they might start making them. Possibly some already have.

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Posted in Holland America, Shipboard Life, Zaandam | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Rosenborg Castle

Posted on March 17, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Rosenborg Castle

Prior to our European river cruise on Viking Skirnir, we spent a couple days in Copenhagen, Denmark before moving on to Budapest where the cruise began. We stayed in a hotel called Wakeup Copenhagen-Borgergade. The hotel had a great location within walking distance of a lot of Copenhagen’s attractions, but the room was tiny and the bathroom weirdly surrounded in frosted glass instead of actual walls.

not the entrance

The closest attraction to our hotel was Rosenborg castle, which was just a few blocks away so we went there the first day we arrived after checking into the hotel. We got there late enough to get a room on arrival, but on departure day we did make use of the hotel’s luggage storage lockers which they have available for guests who need somewhere to put their things for awhile before checking into or after checking out of their room.

statue in the rose garden outside of the castle

Rosenborg Castle was built from 1606-1634 as a summer palace in the country for King Christian IV, who died there in 1648. This one was his favorite castle. It may have been a country estate at the time, but the city has grown up around it now. The castle remained in use as a royal residence until 1710. It was also the place where the Danish royals stored their greatest treasures since about 1660 – treasures which they could show off to their guests as a mark of their wealth and position. The castle became a museum in 1838.

decorated ceiling

Apparently the royals of that time liked very ornate things as just about everything in the castle is quite ornate. All of the ceilings have at the very least paintings. Most have structural décor as well.

ceiling art

They really seemed to like paintings of people who were naked or nearly so as that was the topic of much of the ceiling art. Even when it looks at first glance like there’s one where the people all have clothes on there might be some nude people somewhere in the painting.

room with fancy tapestries on the walls

The furniture, dishes, and even keys on display are also very ornate. Some of the walls have massive tapestries. Much of the castle is within the area tourists are allowed to go, but some spaces are not. The self-guided tour winds through several floors of the castle as well as a couple additional spaces accessed from outside. At the desk where tickets are purchased there’s an option to scan a QR code for audio to compliment the self-guided tour and there are informational brochures available in quite a variety of languages.

winter room

On the ground floor a room called the Winter Room was undergoing renovations, which appeared quite necessary considering some of the exposed inner walls showed quite large gaps and cracks. According to the brochure this room contains 3 secret music channels which are likely some sort of tubes or open space in the walls where music could be heard in the room from musicians playing in the basement. The room labeled as Christian V’s chamber in the brochure has a mouthpiece in a windowsill which they assume was used for communication with a hall at the other end of the castle.

king’s toilet

Besides all the ornate decoration of the castle itself and objects within it, there are also many portraits of the former occupants in various places around the castle. One small room on that floor was completely covered in tile except for a wooden commode in one corner, which is labeled in the brochure as Christian IV’s toilet. This was the only bathroom in the tour, but the brochure says the castle has 3, each of which has its own chute to the moat. There was nothing else in the bathroom, but since this castle predates indoor plumbing they may have had a pitcher of water or something for hand washing. Or else they just didn’t care since it also predates the discovery of bacteria and back in the day even doctors inadvertently spread disease through unwashed hands.

Marble Chamber

A room called the Marble Chamber had marble everywhere.

room in the castle

After visiting the 9 rooms on the ground floor, the tour continues up a stairway to the first floor, which has 14 rooms. Throughout the castle Some areas are set with furnishings as they would have used them. Others have displays of things like dishes, jewelry, small statues or other ornamentation – or some of each. Most are open or just have some things roped off, but in a few rooms all of the displays are behind glass.

royal fishing tackle

One of the rooms on this level has mirrors all around the walls, ceiling, and even part of the floor, which gives the impression that you are looking down through many levels when looking at the floor part, though it is really just the floor and ceiling reflecting each other. Although this room is the least ornate, mirror glass was quite expensive at the time the castle was built so a room full of mirrors was an impressive extravagance. Just about everything in the castle has extravagant decorations. Even things like fireplaces, cabinets, beer steins, chess pieces, and weapons. They even had fancy fishing tackle.

throne room

The second floor, which is the third one visited since the first was called the ground floor is a long open room with the king and queen’s thrones at one end and another throne at the other end.

trouser wetting chair

Near the other throne there’s a chair called the trouser wetting chair from 1673 that would trap the unsuspecting victim who sat there and dump water on them while making fart sounds and then leaking to the floor as if they were wetting themselves. A very strange thing to have, but pretty impressive technology for way back then.

castle in a glass case in a castle

Some of the statues in the castle depict horseback riders in saddles without stirrups, but not all. There were 2 very ornate saddles on display in the basement which looked like they were made from fabric rather than leather. One was a wedding saddle which also had no stirrups. There were all sorts of artworks in glass cases throughout the castle – even a castle. Definitely not a model of Rosenborg Castle since the little one looks nothing like the real castle.

portrait of a prince hanging above toy cannons

The basement held numerous displays of weapons from various eras from swords to guns – most with ornate decorations like everything else in the castle. It had some instruments that look like big circles, but were used to calculate the positions of the planets and to predict eclipses. The planetarium equipment was from 1682.

ivory sailboat

Other things found in the basement included giant kegs and a storage area that still has many bottles of ancient wine. Also a display of ivory and amber items. There was quite a large sailboat made from ivory and a whole army of chess figurines that look like they’re made out of gold. On the way in there’s a portrait of a small child next to 3 miniature cannons – war toys for royal boys.

king’s crown

The treasury held crowns, crown jewels, and some more swords. The centerpiece is Christian Iv’s crown from 1596 in a glass case. The crown jewels include 4 sets – pearls, rubies, emeralds and diamonds. Information there said diamonds could only be worn in Denmark by the sitting queen.

winter room undergoing renovation

The brochure lists 11 different kings of the castle from 1534 to 1863. All of them were named either Frederik or Christian with 6 Frederiks and 5 Christians. I’m not sure why the first Frederik who is listed as Frederik II was included since it says he died in 1588, which was before the castle was built for Christian IV, who is the second one listed. The last one, Frederik VII, lived both before and after the year it says the castle became a museum.

fancy floor in the castle

During the same time period there were 17 queens. Their names had a bit more variety, though there were 3 named Sophie (and one with Sophie as a middle name), 3 named Louise, and 2 each of Caroline and Charlotte. The rest didn’t share names other than there was an Anne and an Anna, and 3 with the middle name Amalie. One of those was Charlotte Amalie, which is the name of the city where cruise ships port in Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands.

Linden tree

Overall there’s quite a lot to see and you can take as much or as little time as you want to go through the castle. The extensive grounds around the castle are like a park with a flower garden, lawns, pathways, and some statues. Also lots of locals walking dogs. Some of the trees have crazy pod things that look like big burls where a group of branches grows. The whole tree is covered in what looks like burl-type growths. That appears to be from pruning since all of the pruned linden trees we saw had those, but unpruned ones did not.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Day Trips, Europe | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Danube River Cruising

Posted on March 14, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

the biggest locks

The Danube is the second-longest river in Europe. Stretching from Central through Southeastern Europe it runs from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea. Only the Volga River in Russia is longer.

in a lock waiting for the back gate to close

Early in our river cruise on Viking Skirnir we passed through a set of locks, the first of over 60 on the journey. We were told the first one was the largest lock of the entire journey.

sunrise at the top of the locks

At first all of the locks started out with the water low, then raised us to a higher level. About halfway through the cruise we started going into high water and getting lowered instead, though that was on other rivers farther into the cruise. On the Danube they were all going up as we worked our way from the start of the journey in Budapest to the end in Amsterdam.

bridge on the Danube River

We passed under many bridges on our journey. The ones on the Danube were high enough for the Viking longship to pass under easily, but later in the journey there were some low bridges where everything on the top deck including the pilot house had to fold down in order to fit under them.

sailing past a town

The Danube wasn’t just historically an important means of transportation for the area, it still is. It’s not just river cruise boats sailing there, though there are a lot of them. Many different companies that we’d never heard of before we saw their ships on the river. There’s also plenty of barges still transporting cargo by river.

mistletoe in trees on the riverbank

In some areas trees full of mistletoe dot the banks of the river.

passing by a town called Weißenkirchen in Austria

Picturesque towns and the occasional castle dot the riverbanks with countryside and vineyards in between. And of course churches. No matter how small the town it has at least one church. Often more.

Spitz an der Donau, Austria

One day we had scenic sailing through a UNESCO World Heritage area along the Danube called Wachau.

a castle perched on the hill above Spitz au Donau

The scenic area included castles as well as picturesque towns.

Schönbühel castle

Schönbühel Castle was built in the 12th century. It sits on a rock about 40 meters above the Danube River.

another riverside town

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Europe, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

San Antonio Chile Cruise Port

Posted on March 7, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view of a hillside by the hotel

We arrived in San Antonio, Chile a couple days before embarking on Holland America Oosterdam for a cruise to Antartica. We really only needed to come to Chile one day ahead to get there in time for the cruise, but since flights sometimes get cancelled or delayed we figured better safe than sorry and booked one for an extra day ahead. This flight had no issues with both the first and connecting flights leaving right on time. We have in the past had flights that were delayed or cancelled though and once nearly missed a cruise because of a delayed flight. It’s also nice to have some extra time to visit the port city before the cruise.

view of the port from our hotel window

Money in Chile is the Chilean Peso. $1 USD is currently worth $929.31 CLP. A dollar was worth over a thousand Chilean pesos when we were there in January and has declined more just within the last week so that won’t likely be the correct amount for long. Although price tags looked high, due to the value of their money things there were actually pretty cheap. Temperatures in San Antonio average 42°F to 71°F and rarely fall below 35°F or climb above 75°F. Average annual rainfall is just under 33 inches.

Oosterdam coming into port in the dark

Some years back we took a cruise that went from Valparaiso, Chile to Sydney, Australia. That time we spent several days in Santiago which is where the airport is before going to Valparaiso. Since we had already done some tours from Santiago this time we just took a taxi straight to San Antonio from the airport – which is over an hour away. There is not an airport near the cruise ports in Chile. Luckily things in Chile are pretty inexpensive compared to a lot of other places, including long taxi rides. As it turned out there is a lot more for tourists to do in Santiago and Valparaiso than there is in San Antonio. There aren’t a lot of people who speak English in San Antonio. Even at the hotel there weren’t very many employees who did so anyone planning on spending much time there would benefit from learning to speak some Spanish before they go.

view of the hotel from the promenade

We stayed in a nice hotel called Enjoy San Antonio. The hotel part of the building is perched atop of a much larger building that houses a casino, parking garage, shops, and a couple restaurants. Hotel rooms start on floor 7, which is where ours was. The room was quite large and had ample storage space and a big bathroom. They did not supply washcloths, just towels. They did have separate body wash, shampoo, and conditioner for the shower as well as soap and hand lotion at the sink. The hotel provided a shuttle to the cruise ship for a small fee.

sea lions and dogs on the beach

From our hotel room we had a lovely view of the harbor. We could see sea lions on a beach. They had some time to rest peacefully in the morning until people with dogs showed up. Then the dogs and sea lions would bark at each other until the dogs eventually chased some of the sea lions into the water. A promenade along the shore had a lot of little booths selling things and some restaurants and a fish market. It was quite a busy harbor with a fishing fleet and harbor tour boats near shore.

view of boats and the hotel from the promenade

There was a whole flock of other boats too so some were probably pleasure boats. Between that and open water there’s a commercial port with different areas for loading or unloading container ships, car carrier ships, and the sort that carries grain. Some of the berths have enormous cranes for unloading the containers. The one for grain ships had a piping system that extends from shore to the ship. We saw our ship come in from the hotel window, though where it docked in the container port was behind another ship and some containers so not much of it was visible from the window after it docked.

dancers on the promenade

Other than walking along the promenade or the small beach and visiting the shops and restaurants there’s not a lot to do in San Antonio. There’s a dock on the promenade where you can walk down and get harbor tours on the spot, which only cost $4 per person at the time of our visit. The harbor tour just goes around the commercial harbor. All of the dialog is in Spanish. We saw a lot more sea lions on the tour than what we could see from the hotel. If you google things to do in San Antonio, Chili most of the tours take you to a different area. Some of them go to Valparaiso, which is more than 50 miles away.

view of the port from our hotel

The port in San Antonio is a commercial port rather than a cruise port. It has berths to unload multiple ships at a time and many giant cranes. There is a small terminal building which is where busses or shuttles take cruise ship passengers. On boarding day we saw a lot of busses going to and from the port all morning. They were dropping off new passengers coming straight from Santiago for the cruise and picking up disembarking passengers from the previous cruise to go back to Santiago for their flights home.

seagull by the promenade

Prior to the cruise we were sent an email from Holland America saying that there is nowhere to sit indoors at that port. Boarding was not to start before noon. Boarding times were assigned by deck and people warned not to show up before their assigned time. Since the assigned boarding times ranged from noon to 3pm that was not really feasible for most people. Anyone coming straight from the airport on one of the many busses gets there when the bus gets there. Coming from our hotel the shuttle times ranged from 9am to 1pm. Checkout time at that hotel was noon. Other hotels probably had similar schedules.

chairs in the terminal building

The information we were sent about the port was false. The port building did have some folding chairs set up for indoor seating. There was even a little coffee shop in the port building. Boarding likely started as soon as the prior group of passengers finished disembarking as is standard at most ports. We booked the noon shuttle from the hotel because our boarding passes said that our boarding time was noon even though our assigned deck was for 2pm. When we got there the line was pretty short. The chairs were empty. People were already boarding so any early arrivals from before boarding started had already been cleared out of the waiting area. Nobody checked what our assigned boarding time was or cared.

luggage drop

The first thing you get to after being dropped at the port is the luggage drop. Anything that is not small enough to carry easily should be dropped off as you will have to board a bus before going to the ship.

people walking to the terminal building

Important information we were not provided with prior to check-in was that they required the paper you are given at the airport in Santiago when you go through customs. The hotel required that as well. Nobody tells you that you will need that little slip of paper for anything when they hand it to you at the airport. Nobody tells you that you will need it when you book the hotel or cruise either. They also required a printed boarding pass. People who brought a printed one got through check-in faster as those who did not have it had to go through another line to get one printed before they could go through the line to check in for boarding. That is the first time we have seen printed copies required in years, but luckily we do always bring a printed copy as a backup just in case. Usually we don’t need it since the one in the app on phones is normally sufficient. Speaking of which it’s always a good idea to screenshot that boarding pass in the app so if there isn’t any internet at check-in you still have the photo. Not that it was of any use in San Antonio, Chile, but elsewhere it is.

google maps location of the terminal building

Assuming you have all of the required documents (which includes passports) check-in is pretty speedy. If you did it online you go to a kiosk and there is someone there to help you. If not you go to a desk where there are also people available to help. Once that is completed you go through security, which was very fast since we got there after the line of people who arrive before boarding time cleared. If you don’t like lines don’t arrive at cruise ships before boarding time or right when boarding starts because there are always long lines then. If you get there a bit later getting through the process is usually pretty quick.

snack bar inside the cruise terminal building

They took our passports at check-in and gave them back near the end of the cruise. Before the first Chilean port there is a form to fill out that is supposed to be brought to shore in all ports in Chile. The passport number is one of the things required on the form. The instructions sent to the cabin also said that a photocopy of the passport should be brought to shore, but there was no warning of that prior to the cruise and the front desk will not make you one. At least they didn’t on my cruise. They just contradicted the written instructions saying it wasn’t needed. They will give you your passport number to write on the form since they have the passport and you don’t. Nobody at any of the ports ever asked for either the form or copy of the passport.

busses waiting to take people to the ship

After going through security at the terminal people go outside of the building and are on their own to find the busses, which are just beyond the corner of the building. Several busses loaded at once and when one filled it left. There was a steady stream of busses going from the port terminal building to the ship.

busses at the gangway

The distance is not far, but it is a container port and people are not allowed to walk through container ports. The bus drops people right at the gangway. It also brings over some of the luggage. Luggage arrives fairly randomly to the room. Although we dropped 3 bags together, the one small bag came to the room within a couple hours of boarding, one suitcase came a couple hours later, and the other suitcase not until many hours later after we had gone to dinner. A lot of other people in the dining room line were saying they also had some of their luggage but not all of it so that seemed to be pretty standard.

Oosterdam leaving the dock

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Holland America, Oosterdam, Port Cities, South and Central America | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Tahiti Van Tour

Posted on February 28, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Noordam in Tahiti

Following our missed port in Kiritimati, we arrived in Papeete, Tahiti at noon, a couple hours ahead of Holland America Noordam’s scheduled 2pm arrival. We had nothing planned for that day, but found people with signs for bus or taxi tours just outside of the port gate. We signed up for a taxi tour which took 8 people and was to start about 15-20 minutes later. The taxi in this instance is a van.

van and driver

When the van arrived people piled out from a previous tour, passengers from Ovation of the Seas, which was already at the dock when we arrived. The driver was a little old lady who appeared to have thought she was done for the day – and did not seem pleased to get sent out on another tour. The last time we were in Papeete we took a bus tour. The driver then was also a little old lady. That one spoke clear English and was a wealth of information and fascinating stories. This one spoke enough English to get by, but not enough to keep up a narrative even if she’d wanted to, which she did not seem to want to do anyway. It probably didn’t help that some of the passengers were Germans who spoke very little English themselves. Being a part of French Polynesia, Tahitians speak French.

flower at one of the tour stops

The first thing the little old lady did was point to me and a German lady as the two smallest people and said we had to sit up front as the seats there were smaller. The one by the window was a normal sized seat, but the one in the center was barely wide enough for a very skinny 5-year-old. She pointed me to that one so I felt like an airplane passenger who is far too large for the seat that they purchased for the entire 4-hour tour. I had to scoot off the end toward the driver’s side for the other lady to fasten her seatbelt, and then scoot over the other way or lean sideways on one butt cheek to fasten mine – which then dug into me the whole way where my rear hung over the edge of the seat onto the apparatus that holds the seatbelt between that seat and the driver’s as there was not enough room in that tiny seat for me and the German lady didn’t share any space out of hers. Mostly she kept a hand in the small bit that could have made enough room for me to nearly fit in the seat. She had plenty of room in her seat and could have put that hand on her lap, but she never did. Probably on purpose. Not to mention her rear was probably actually a bit smaller than mine. The leg room for my seat was about 4 inches wide so my legs did have to hang over into her area. That seat was probably intended for either a dog or a very small child whose feet don’t hang out beyond the end of the seat. Definitely not for an adult.

flower at the grotto

Normally all the seats in a tour van are big enough for an adult. This tour should have been limited to 7 people rather than 8. All the other last minute taxi or van tours we’ve been on also had a careful driver that we felt safe riding with. I’m not sure if this lady always drives like a maniac or if she just wanted to get a tour she obviously didn’t want to do over as quickly as possible. She would pass on blind corners or when there were oncoming cars not all that far away. She was quite fond of using her horn. There were a few bicyclists and scooter riders that we flew past with no room to spare. Every time we saw a dog on the side of the road I’d hope it moved out of the way quickly because she wasn’t slowing down for any of them. Luckily she did not hit any, though when some birds waited until the last minute to fly away she said something along the lines of if they were in the way it was their problem if they got ran over. She appeared to feel the same way about dogs, bicyclists, pedestrians, and scooter riders as well. John was happily chatting away with other passengers in a nice comfortable full-sized seat farther back blissfully unaware of any of that. He liked that tour a whole lot more than I did.

map of Tahiti

The driver said at the outset how much time we would get at each stop, repeating it at each place before letting anyone out of the van. She was quite cranky when the German seat hog lady came back a bit late at the first stop, but snapping at the German lady didn’t do her any good. The German lady came back late at every stop so she either didn’t care about the time allowed or wanted to make sure she was back last so she wouldn’t have to get into the van before me and be stuck in the teeny tiny seat.

Grotte De Maraa

The tour made a complete circle around the main island, Tahiti Nui, but not on the smaller bit, Tahiti Iti. There’s just one main road around the island so traffic was pretty busy in town, but not so much farther out.

it looks much bigger with a person in it

Our first stop was at Grotte De Maraa, a place the tour guides all refer to as the grotto. What appears to be a small water-filled cave at the bottom of a tall greenery-shrouded cliff is actually significantly bigger than it looks. Although it wasn’t raining, water dripped off the plants and into the grotto. The site had some honeybuckets near the entrance and a small souvenir shop. There are more trails there besides the short one leading to the grotto, but we didn’t have time to explore. We’ve also only ever seen just that one cave there, but if a person had more time to explore the site has three. The cave doesn’t look nearly as big as it actually is unless there is a person in the water. That person then appears tiny in relation to the grotto.

waterfall at Vaipahi Water Garden

Next we saw the a brief glimpse of the Vaipahi Gardens, also called the Water Gardens of Vaipahi. A short path led to a small waterfall. There are several paths through the garden, but we only had time to see the waterfall. The garden has about 2.5 acres of trails with over 75 species of plants as well as ponds, bridges, and archeological relics.

pathway leading to the waterfall and Viamahuta Falls

Later we went to another waterfall located in Fa’aurna’I Valley. The second waterfall we saw was significantly larger than the one at Vaipahi Gardens. The one we saw there was called Vaimahuta, located at the end of a short trail beyond a bridge leading away from the parking lot.

bridge from the parking area to the trail at Viamahuta Falls

A side trail had a sign to two more waterfalls, but since we had just 15 minutes at that stop and the sign said it took 20 minutes to get there we did not get to see those.

lighthouse at Point Venus

Our 4th stop was Point Venus, which has a tall lighthouse from the 1800’s and monuments to Captain Cook, missionaries to Tahiti, and people from the Bounty. It also had a beach where locals were surfing. There were a bunch of outrigger type canoes parked on a different section of the beach and people paddling more of them into shore. A big building at that beach looked like it may have been a restaurant or something.

outrigger canoe

It seemed like pretty much everywhere in the south Pacific has a monument to Captain Cook. Point Venus got its name because of an observatory he had there in 1770 to study Venus’ trajectory. The lighthouse there was originally built in 1867. The top story was added in 1953 and it got electricity in 1973. It is still in use today and now aids planes as well as ships having had lenses for aerial navigation added.

gift shop at the blowhole

The last stop was Arahoho Blowhole. When we went there on our last visit to Tahiti, the blowhole was next to an old washed-out road that had been replaced by the tunnel the road now passes through. This time much work had been done there with a walking path and edge walls where the old road had been, and a gift shop at the entrance to a parking area that had some picnic tables.

Arahoho Blowhole

Besides the blow hole at the edge of the sea, there’s a smaller inland one a short distance from the shore, which had also had stuff coming out of it on the last visit, but just made noise this time. It was quite damp around that area though so maybe it still blows when there are bigger waves or higher tides.

cove by the blowhole

After the tour we were dropped off inside of the outer security gate to the small parking area at the port, but outside of the one you walk through to get back to the ship. I was happy to make it back in one piece without the van having crashed or ran over anything, and to get out of that immensely uncomfortable seat.

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Skagway Yukon Tour

Posted on February 21, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

footbridge in Carcross, Yukon

The White Pass Railroad is by far the most popular excursion in Skagway. The main one goes up to the top of the mountain just over the Canadian border and back down again without ever leaving the train, though there are options that go farther with a bus in one direction. I took one of my earliest cruises with my son and grandson when Justin was only 6. It stopped in Skagway and the highlight of the train ride for Justin was an old rusty engine we saw out the train window, lying on its side between the train tracks and the river after derailing decades earlier. The second time I went with my sisters. That old rusty engine had been moved to the train yard, but was still lying on its side visible from the tracks.

train at the port in Skagway

Having already done the White Pass Railroad a couple times we opted for something different on our port stop in Skagway from Holland America Zaandam. We docked next to Grand Princess, who was at the dock that had been blocked by a landslide last year when our cruise on Quantum of the Seas got diverted to Sitka since its berth in Skagway was inaccessible. That dock sits next to a steep hillside, which was bearing a vegetation-free scar where the landslide had been, though the dock was totally clear for this visit. The train for that dock goes all the way down the pier to the ship since it is a longer dock and farther from shore. Zaandam’s dock was closer to shore so the train parked in front of the ship on land rather than on the pier next to the ship. That pier didn’t even have tracks, but it’s a short walk up the pier. Busses for other excursions meet in the same area as the train. There was a little booth for booking last minute excursions with a list of a variety of things to do, and a couple covered sheds where people could stay dry while waiting for ship’s excursions to start.

excursion meeting point sign – people checked in there, then went to the sheds to wait out of the rain for the bus to arrive

Experience the Yukon and Suspension Bridge

The bus showed up for our Experience the Yukon and Suspension Bridge tour with people already sitting in the seats in the first few rows other than the very front which had reserved signs on the seats. Excursion busses are normally empty before the ship’s passengers start to board, but either the Princess ship only had a few people wanting to do that excursion or they had a few too many and Zaandam didn’t quite have enough because they were joining us from the Princess ship. We sat just behind the last of them and the bus filled behind us.

Zaandam in Skagway

Before we even got going a lady behind us burst into a seemingly non-stop coughing fit. It seems like wherever we go we always end up sitting near to someone with a major coughing problem, which you never know if they have some sort of chronic condition or a contagious disease. Once the bus was loaded and only the front seat on one side was taken by someone with mobility issues the driver said the other one was open if anybody wanted it so we jumped on the chance to get farther away from the coughing lady. Up to that point nobody else had coughed, but shortly after we moved both someone behind us and one of the people in the other front seat started to cough, and did so periodically through the tour so apparently we are unable to escape it. Meanwhile the original cougher finally stopped and didn’t cough again for the rest of the tour.

buildings at Wild Adventure Yukon

The bus went up the mountain parallel to the tracks for the White Pass Railway, on the other side of a canyon. We have seen vehicles driving on that highway when riding the train, but just saw the train tracks occasionally from the road. No trains went by on our way up. On the way back we saw a short little train pulled by a steam engine chugging along on some tracks beyond where the train ride that just goes to the top of the mountain goes, but we never saw any the trains from cruise ship excursions.

train cars full of gravel

There were several stops at lookout points along our way. At one of them we could see train cars full of gravel parked on the tracks. That place had more than one set of tracks so trains could still go by, but the train cars sitting there were not going anywhere. Further down the highway there was a bit still covered in gravel from a recent landslide that the bus driver said had closed the road for several weeks and work to clear it away had just recently finished. He didn’t know where the gravel from that clean-up effort had gone so it’s possible that is where the gravel in the train cars came from.

Near the top of the mountain the rain began turning to sleet and eventually snow. It didn’t snow hard enough to stick to the road, but it did snow hard enough to see white snowflakes swirling in the air and snowflake shapes in any that landed on the bus windows.

Yukon Suspension Bridge

Our first major stop was at Yukon Suspension Bridge. As with the rest of the tour it would definitely be better on a day with nicer weather. The suspension bridge is a tourist attraction out in the middle of nowhere. It has a café and a gift shop and lots of displays and models of historical things from the area as well as its main attraction of the bridge.

logging display on the way to the bridge

The walkway down to the bridge entrance passes through several displays about history and animals of the area.

people crossing the suspension bridge in the rain

The suspension bridge has a woven sort of metal decking and cables stringing it from both sides of a canyon over a river. Fall colors lent to the beauty of both scenery around the river and scenery along the road and at the various viewpoints where we stopped.

view of the bridge from the far side

The bridge is the sort that can get a bit bouncy if there are very many people on it, or if you ever got to be the only one there you could jump up and down a bit and make it bounce, but there was never nobody else on it to give that a try.

example of a historical supply storage cabin,

On the far side of the river wooden pathways led to a viewpoint of the bridge and the buildings on the other side. There was a display of an old gold rush or trapper’s cabin and a tiny cabin on stilts where they would keep their supplies safe from bears.

The next stop was a brief photo stop at a viewpoint overlooking a lake. A lot of trees were starting to turn color, sporting bright yellow fall foliage. Yellow was definitely the dominant color for fall leaves in that area of the Yukon.

viewpoint at a lake

The bus driver had many stories and some information on the places we passed along the way. Different bodies of water ran next to the road, sometimes rivers or sometimes lakes. One lake he said held a monster along the lines of Scotland’s Loch Ness. This one he said was too shy to show itself so they called it Too Shy Lake (actually spelled Tutshi.) Soon we made another scenic stop at another lake.

Carcross Desert sign

The next stop was also a brief photo stop at a place called Carcross Desert. This area is an ancient lakebed that for some reason stays mostly sandy with just sporadic small groupings of trees and other plants here and there. It’s mainly sand dunes made of silt deposited in ancient glacial lakes that have long since dried up. Wind keeps the dunes exposed.

Wild Adventure Yukon

The main stop for this tour is called Wild Adventure Yukon. There we had a chicken barbecue lunch which was quite tasty. There was a Mountie Museum and a taxidermy museum with many sorts of animals. Mostly the sort that are still living, but some prehistoric ones like a mammoth. Then again you probably can’t get an actual mammoth so maybe at least some of them were models of animals rather than actual preserved dead ones, which would be a whole lot better.

what a ton of late 1890’s gold rush goods looked like

The Mountie Museum included a display of a ton of goods, which is what the gold rush people were required to have to enter Canada. The Mounties had an outpost near the boarder to watch over the gold rush stampeders and make sure they complied with that rule. The most-used routes into the Yukon for the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1898 were the White Pass trail from Skagway and the Chilkoot Trail from nearby Dyea, a town that no longer exists. The train was not built yet so they had to bring that 1000 pounds of goods up the mountain bit by bit on their backs or those of pack animals. So many horses died along the White Pass trail it has a place called Dead Horse Gulch where their bones still lie at the bottom. Horses weren’t the only ones to die. Would-be miners died of hyperthermia and avalanche. Once they got their year’s worth of goods to the border, which took an average of 3 months, they traveled by boats they made or bought for the remaining 500 miles to Dawson City. Those who could afford it had an all-water route to Dawson City, avoiding the months of mountain trekking with all their goods, but the majority didn’t have enough money to take that route. The gold rush was over by the time the White Pass Railway was completed.

a very friendly goat – just a barnyard goat, not a mountain goat

There were also live animals at Wild Adventure Yukon. The petting zoo included a very friendly goat as well as some other goats, some alpacas, a horse, chickens, and sled dogs. For an extra $45 people could book a 15-minute ride in a wheeled sled dog training cart pulled by actual sled dogs, but since the weather was alternately pouring, raining, or drizzling we opted to skip that, though I would have done it if the weather was better.

sled dogs at Wild Adventure Yukon

After looking at their website, I’d have been pretty disappointed if I’d spent the money for a dog cart ride thinking it was going to be a small cart with just one or two passengers and a driver pulled by a lot of dogs. It’s actually a 12-person motorized monstrosity that looks in the photo like a few dogs in front of a dune buggy sort of thing.

fake mountain goats

The dog cart ride would have been about as disappointing as the mountain goats on the hill above the adventure park. The bus driver acted like he spotted actual mountain goats, but as soon as everyone got all excited over getting to see them he said that they are always there and never move because they aren’t actually real live mountain goats, just fake ones put there so people think they saw some.

wet puppies out in the mud and the rain

They had some sled dog puppies, but they were outside in a muddy pen so instead of nice clean dry puppies to cuddle these were dirty wet ones that got mud all over anyone they put their paws on. Some of them were in a pen where people could go along with a short-legged little dog that was definitely not a sled dog, though one person joked it was for short runs. The puppies that weren’t in the pen where visitors could go were in a pen next to it where a couple of them were whining loudly for attention, probably wishing they could go out where the people were in hopes that someone wanted to pet wet muddy puppies.

not a live wolf

There was a vending machine for alpaca snacks, but all of the other animals including the puppies had signs saying not to feed them. The gift shop spanned two rooms in the main building, which also housed the Mountie museum and non-living animal exhibit. The gift shop had a lot of local products.

Carcross foot bridge

Our last stop of the day was a tiny town called Carcross. It was originally called Caribou Crossing, but according to our bus driver there were a lot of towns called Caribou Crossing so the mail kept getting mixed up. They shortened the name to Carcross to avoid confusion. A mountain near there is called Caribou Mountain due to the huge numbers of caribou that once lived there. Now there’s just a statue of one where you turn off the highway toward the town. The bus driver said he didn’t know where all the caribou went, but since all of the gold miners passed through that area it’s highly likely that a bunch of them got eaten.

Carcross tourist shops

Carcross had a new-looking set of shops where the bus stopped. The driver recommended one that sold syrups. It was a small shop with shelves of things for sale around the outer edges and a counter with samples of the things sold there. The guy behind the counter handed out samples of various syrups and different flavors of maple butter to anyone who wanted them. The shop’s specialty was maple syrup aged in whisky barrels, but they also had fireweed and birch syrups too.

Carcross General Store

Near to those shops an old church stood alone, and a short distance away an old pink general store was said to be the oldest one in Yukon. Inside of that one it was sort of part store part museum with relics of the past hanging on the walls behind counters of items for sale.

Whitepass Railway bridge in Carcross, Yukon

Kitty-corner across the street from the old general store the town had a bridge from the White Pass Railway. Just down the river from that was a foot bridge, which a little trail slightly above a small sandy beach led to. Both bridges were quite photo-worthy. The train bridge reflected into the still water below, easily photo’d from the foot bridge. Trees in yellow fall color reflected into the water on the far shore, also begging to have their picture taken from the foot bridge. Nobody else from the bus wandered out that far so they really missed out. The bridges and surrounding scenery were the best thing in Carcross. It even stopped raining while we were there and the sun peeked out a bit so at that stop we could wander around and stay dry.

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Valentines Day on Enchanted Princess

Posted on February 14, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

carved fruit display

Where better to spend Valentines Day than on the cruise line of the original Love Boat? Though it’s not the Pacific Princess of the old Love Boat TV show, Enchanted Princess is still a Princess ship. It’s newer, bigger, more modern, and can do something the ship from the show couldn’t do – toot the Love Boat theme on its horn.

chocolate buffet

On the Enchanted Princess Valentines Day started first thing in the morning with decorations in all of the public interior areas of the ship and a little chocolate buffet along with the other breakfast offerings at the Lido buffet.

decorations at one of the ship’s bars

As well as the eateries and main public areas, each bar had different valentine decorations.

a few of the cabin door decorations from around the ship

Some passengers added their own touch to Valentines Day aboard. Various staterooms around the ship had Valentine decorations adorning their doors. Some just had a few door decorations, but others went all-out.

valentine ducks from Enchanted Princess

Among the duck hiders onboard, valentine themed ducks were quite popular. We brought some to hide and found some that other people had hidden. We found a couple that looked just like the ones we brought, except with other people’s tags.

valentine duck on the bike in the gelato shop

The gelato shop had a bike cart that was probably just for decoration, but made a good place to set a valentine duck for easy finding.

piazza ready for Valentines Day

The biggest Valentine themed activity onboard for the day was a mass renewal of vows in the central area of the ship which Princess calls the piazza for any couples who chose to sign up for it. The piazza was decorated for the event.

dinner menu on Valentines Day

The menu for the dining room looked quite festive adorned with hearts, but the food itself was the same as the previous week’s second formal night.

Love Boat heart dessert

The only valentine dessert there was the Love Boat heart that is actually on the menu every night rather than anything special for Valentines Day.

Valentine cake

There were valentine cakes on display though. Maybe they served them at the buffet. We did not go up there to see at dinnertime, though the ones they had on display at the buffet earlier in the day were just for looks.

Valentines Day photo stand

Some of the backgrounds set up around the ship for the photographers each evening had Valentine themes starting a week or so before Valentines Day. When the day came there were quite a lot more Valentine’s themed photo ops. Not just backdrops like they had before. They added in several Valentine themed set-ups. People used them for selfies during the day and there were photographers there in the evening for professional photos.

love tag tree

Reminiscent of the love locks seen around various places, the ship had some Valentine trees where people could write a message on a tag to hang on the tree.

Valentines decorations at the port in Saint Lucia

Even the ports we visited just before Valentines Day got into the act with some Valentine themed decorations at the port. Both Antigua and Saint Lucia had things. Saint Lucia’s was mainly a selfie set-up on a round stage thing.

Kissmas tree in Antigua

Antigua had different things along the main walkway through the port. They even had a Kissmas tree – like a Christmas tree except decorated with Valentine colors and hearts.

piano in the piazza

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Budapest Panoramic Tour

Posted on February 7, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view of Castle Hill from Viking Skirnir

Budapest

Our 15-day river cruise on Viking Skirner began on the Danube River in Budapest, Hungary. The Danube divides Budapest passing between the historic cities of Buda and Pest, now connected by 7 bridges. The Buda side is hilly with a historic castle looming above the river at the top of a hill. The Pest side is flatter and is home to the sprawling parliament buildings on the side of the river.

Viking Skirnir in Budapest from the Chain Bridge

Budapest River Cruise Port

Viking has 3 docks in Budapest. Its ships dock both north and south of the Chain Bridge as well as at a third dock near the Elizabeth bridge. There were ships at all 3 of their docks while we were there, sometimes 2 or 3 connected to each other at the same dock so people on the boats further out have to pass through the one(s) closer to the dock to embark or disembark. Our ship, the Skirner was on the dock just south of the Chain Bridge.

Budapest Panoramic Tour

Viking cruises have an included shore excursion at each port that doesn’t cost anything extra. At some ports they also have some optional additional excursions you pay extra for, but we only signed up for the free ones. In Budapest the free tour was called Panoramic Budapest. The other offerings were to a thermal spa and a market. It would be cheaper to take an Uber and do those things on your own, though the market one likely included a guided tour that you wouldn’t get if you went by yourself.

Chain Bridge

In cruise ship lingo, panoramic usually means bus tour, mostly looking at things through the window as you drive by. The Viking tour did exactly that on the Pest side of Budapest through the old part of town where there are lots of old buildings with interesting architecture and tourist attractions. Most of them we had seen pre-cruise either walking around or on the Hop on Hop off bus, but the continuous spiel from the guide on the Viking bus was different from the one on the Hop on Hop off bus. The Viking guide made a point of showing all of the things that Hungary is second in. Second biggest synagogue and a whole bunch of other things I don’t remember.

New York Cafe in Budapest (internet photo)

He did not mention that the New York Café, which always has a ridiculously long line, is the most ornate cafe in the world, which is what the HoHo bus said about it. Probably because being first at something would not fit in with his bit about everything being second. He said it was once the cantina for workers in that building, which the HoHo bus did not mention. Like all the locals there, he pronounced the pest part more like pescht than pest whether talking about just the Pest portion of town or all of Budapest.

Budapest Eye

We also passed by the Budapest Eye and a couple of Christmas markets, which were close to the hotel we had stayed in prior to the cruise though we had only discovered one of the two Christmas markets. The Budapest Eye is a large Ferris wheel, which we took a ride on while we were in town for a few days before the cruise.

Lego train car

Another interesting thing we went by is an actual train car made of Lego. It always sits in the same place on the tracks rather than going anywhere. After driving around the Pest side the bus crossed a bridge over to the Buda side. Information from the guide included that 2/3 of the city’s population is on the flat Pest side while 1/3 lives on the more expensive hilly Buda side, which has more green spaces due to the lower population of that area. The bus went partway up castle hill, but big busses are not allowed all the way to the top. They are allowed 10 minutes at a stop by a gate with a bathroom in it – one with a fee to pee as is the case with many public restrooms in Europe.

shops in the old town area

From there we walked up the rest of the hill. Just a short distance from the bus the guide pointed out a café where anyone not wanting to do much walking could wait for a couple hours until time for the bus to return to the pick-up point to take people back to the ship.There is an old town area on top of the hill 550 feet above the Danube. Around a corner past the cafe we walked down a street lined with little shops in historical buildings.

old church

Then he led us on to a couple buildings that looked like churches, but had been used for many purposes over the years. One started out as a church, then was a mosque, stable, and weapons storage before being restored back into a church. The other though it looked like an old building was just on the last stages of restoration having been rebuilt since a lot of things there were destroyed in World War 2 and they are just now getting around to restoring some of them. We just looked at those from the outside.

newly restored church

Further on we went to a Matthias Church, which has a fee to enter. The guide paid that for all of the ship people on the tour. It was a beautiful church with many stained-glass windows and other ornate features. The first of many ornate churches we saw on this cruise.

inside Matthias Church

Some side rooms in the church held a variety of artifacts including a crown from a previous ruler. Stairways from a side room led up to a balcony above the alter area with a good view of it, and a higher one that overlooked the ground floor of the church, but not such a good view of the alter area due to pillars blocking the view.

view from the balcony over the front of Matthias Church

The church was close to Buda Castle, but the guided part of the tour ended at the church. People were given free time to walk over to the castle and wander around there at will. Anyone wanting to take the bus back was required to return at the given time because not being allowed to stay in that spot more than 10 minutes it would leave on schedule regardless of whether or not everyone came back.

Fisherman’s Bastion

In between the church and Buda castle there was part of the old city wall and the fisherman’s bastion. The fisherman’s bastion is a UNESCO world heritage site built between 1895 and 1902 as part of a series of developments celebrating the 1000th year of the Hungarian state. It was built in the style of early medieval times from around the year 1000. Theories of why it is called the fisherman’s bastion include it being guarded by fishermen who lived below it or that the town they lived in was called Watertown, but nicknamed Fishtown.

Buda Castle

Buda Castle was built in the 13th century and expanded in the 18th as a home for Hungary’s kings. It’s a tourist attraction now.

wall at Buda Castle

There’s a wall that is just a wall, the rest of the building having been destroyed in World War 2, but it looked like there was some restoration work going on near that area. That part was a soldier’s barrack rather than part of the actual palace, though one end of the remaining wall was attached to the main building.

Karla by a tiny door in the castle

The castle has statues in the courtyard, a tower behind a wall, and a fantastic view of the river and everything on the other side. It has a restaurant, a coffee shop, and a gift shop. It also has a museum and a library. There is a fee to go inside, which we did not do.

funicular

There is a funicular that goes up and down the hill between the Chain Bridge and the castle. We opted to take it down the hill and walk across the bridge to the ship rather than going back to the bus. A funicular is transportation up and down hills that consists of a pair of counterbalanced carriages on parallel tracks where one goes up while the other goes down.

shoe memorial on the bank of the Danube River

The guide mentioned walking to the shoe memorial and parliament buildings after the bus came back to the ship for anyone who wanted to go, as it was not far from the ship. The shoe memorial is the actual shoes of holocaust victims who were all tied together near the end of the war when the Nazis were running low on bullets. They shot one and them falling into the river dragged the rest along where if the fall didn’t kill them drowning would. Someone collected shoes they had on when they died and lined them all up at the edge of the river where they had been standing. Some are just tiny children’s shoes.

parliament building

The parliament building sits on the side of the river, not too far from the shoe memorial. It’s a sprawling building with many towers, a central dome, and many statues. It was built by 1000 workers from1885-1902.

As is generally the case with cruise ship tours, this one gives a quick overview of the city, but doesn’t begin to cover everything that is there to see. We were there for 3 days before the cruise and didn’t come close to seeing everything so a tour of just a few hours has no chance to cover it all.

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Back On the Oosterdam

Posted on January 31, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Oosterdam in Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

We’ve taken quite a few cruises on Holland America, mainly on some of the directional ships (Westerdam, Oosterdam, & Noordam, but not Zuiderdam). Of the compass directions, Oosterdam is east. Oosterdam was one of the first few ships I ever sailed on, long before starting this blog, and again later so it was nice to be back onboard again.

casino

Thankfully Oosterdam still had no indoor smoking during this cruise, but according to the future cruise guy onboard as each ship goes into drydock throughout 2025 it’s getting converted to having smoking casinos and Oosterdam’s time is coming soon. I can only hope he was wrong, but since that information is losing future cruise bookings for him he probably wouldn’t say so without knowing the facts.

life ring

Oosterdam was the second of the directional ships, which are Holland America’s Vista class ships. It launched in 2002 and was last refurbished in 2023. It is 936 feet long, 105.8 feet wide, and holds 1964 guests and a crew of over 800. Stateroom categories include inside, ocean view, balcony, and suites with subclasses among those, particularly in the suite category.

strange art

Typical of most cruise ships, the Oosterdam has some ugly, odd, and just plain weird art. Some of it hasn’t changed since the last time we were on the ship. It does have some nice art too, like the paintings of older renditions of Holland America ships on the front staircase and some traditional Dutch flower paintings and other old-world scenes.

stairway art

The middle stairway has some sort of giant round plaques in hexagonal frames and the back one random artworks that vary from one level to the next. Hallways by the rooms have different art depending on which deck it is. Some have Dutch flower paintings, others old world scenes, black and white photos of earlier Holland America ships, or other things.

Lego model of the ship

The giant lego model of the Oosterdam in the Crow’s Nest lounge is new. There’s also a set of shelves made of little cubicles filled with games people can use whenever they want. Shore excursions has moved from down near guest services where it is on most cruise ships up into the Crow’s nest. The Crow’s nest also has the only all-day coffee bar onboard for fancy coffee, tea, or hot chocolate drinks. It also serves regular bar drinks. The main purpose of the Crow’s Nest is an observation lounge with floor to ceiling windows spanning the front of the ship and beyond. One corner of the room is sort of separated and used for scheduled art activities during the cruise.

library

There’s a new library on board down on the promenade deck on deck 3. It’s just a library with different sections for books depending on whether they are fiction, non-fiction, romance novels, or a variety of other options including a book exchange shelf where people can leave a book they have finished and pick up a different one someone else left there. The Noordam had a nicer set-up with the library and explorer’s lounge together along with a coffee bar so people had a second option for buying specialty coffee and other hot drinks at any time during the day. The line in the Crow’s Nest can get very long, especially if there is scenic sailing in the morning.

view from the heated ceramic bench in the thermal suite

The thermal suite at the spa was in need of some maintenance. One of the heated ceramic benches was out of order for the entire cruise. There’s only 6 of them so that left just 5 that were usable. Heated ceramic benches are nice, cold ones not so much.

water volcano in the spa pool

The rack area where people sit in the thermal pool to enjoy the bubbles also needed some help. It had water a volcano at one end of the rack and barley any bubbles at the other instead of being more even all across like they normally are. At some point during the cruise it sprouted a second much smaller bubble volcano near the middle of the rack, which was the goldilocks zone of just right with the big volcano being too much and the other end not enough.

view of shipping containers in the port in San Antonio, Chile from obstructed view balcony

We tried a different sort of cabin than we have had before. An obstructed balcony cabin. It’s like a normal balcony cabin except the balcony has a metal wall where there’s usually plexiglass. The balcony is nearly twice the size of what standard balcony cabins have so if you don’t mind the metal wall you get a bigger balcony in a cheaper cabin. From inside the cabin you can see over the wall just fine, or if you stand up on the balcony you can easily see over it. When sitting in the deck chairs you can see anything you could see above the railing on a regular balcony, just not what you would see through the plexiglass under the railing. In exchange you have lots of room to stretch out rather than being cramped against the plexiglass like on standard balconies.

pastry squares

For the most part the food was good, as it usually is on Holland America. They had different little pastries at breakfast though. They were almost square with a dollop of filling on top instead of a filled center inside of the pastry. The new ones are much denser and not so soft and flakey as the ones they usually have with the filling on the inside. They did still have regular little croissants and pains au chocolat though. It could be that the usual pastries just aren’t readily available in South America rather than having changed them on the entire cruiseline. I suspect that may be the case since a few of the usual sort appeared at the very end of the cruise after a port stop where they loaded new supplies.

Lido pool and hot tubs

Since this was a cold-weather cruise to Antartica, the cover was closed over the Lido pool most of the time. It’s nice to have that option because who wants to use an outdoor pool when it’s cold and sometimes rainy or windy. There was also a lift chair by the pool for anyone who could not get in and out on their own. The pool in the thermal suite and outdoor pool on the back deck each had one too. I think those are relatively new as I don’t remember seeing them on previous Oosterdam cruises.

back deck

There is an outdoor pool on the back deck without a cover, but that’s a lot more likely to get used in warmer climates. The cover also makes it a lot warmer and drier for people who like to sit in deck chairs around the pool or even for just passing through that area to get from one end of the ship to the other. They did use the outdoor pool for a polar plunge event one day. The pool itself might be heated, but the air around it was freezing.

promenade deck

All of the top-deck chairs were stacked and stowed under a tarp because nobody wants to sit out there in the cold. When the weather was too cold or windy the ones on the promenade deck were stacked away too, though they did put them out sometimes. There are a couple shuffleboard games painted on the top deck, but again something that sees more use in better weather, though there were sometimes shuffleboard tournaments on the schedule as well as pickleball because there’s a court for that too. Those activities would of course be weather permitting. People did make use of the ping-pong tables in the enclosed area by the Lido pool. There were also lots of indoor daily activities listed in the daily program. The most popular choices tended to get crowded.

upper level of the dining room

Dress codes have relaxed from what they once were on Holland America. There was a time when jeans weren’t allowed in the dining room, but now they are on casual nights so long as they aren’t full of holes. They still turn people away for wearing shorts to the dining room at dinner though.

piano show

Besides the production shows from the ship’s cast that performed some evenings, on other nights there were guest entertainers instead. These included singers and instrumental musicians as well as other entertainers. There was a comedian on a couple nights and once a juggler who did a lot more balancing stuff than juggling anything.

Chilean Fjords from the promenade deck

The captain did a good job of avoiding bad weather even when it meant rescheduling a port stop to a different day and finding new fjords to explore for glacier watching rather than the scheduled ones to avoid a hurricane-force gale that hit the day we were supposed to go to Punta Arenas. We went a day early. Ships that did not reschedule had to skip that port.

Crow’s Nest bar

Our favorite hang-outs on the ship were the thermal suite and the Crow’s nest. It’s a popular place due to the floor to ceiling windows around the front of the ship and a variety of places to sit and enjoy the view or play games. And of course the coffee bar. The thermal suite is only an option for people who buy one of the passes, which is limited to 40, so not where most people go. Some like to hang out by the Lido pool, or in some of the bars and lounges around the ship, all of which have lots of seating, some near windows. People like to sit by windows.

gallery bar

The gallery bar besides having all sorts of artworks that give it its name also has a chest full of games as well as several big wooden sort of mini shuffleboard type games. That might all be gone soon if the future cruise guy was right because he said that’s going to be where they put the casino. The current casino is just outside of the gallery bar so whether they are moving it into that bar or adding a separate smoking casino in what’s now that bar I have no idea. He said it would be enclosed, but they will have to add walls or doors to do that.

Ocean Bar

Besides shows and games, nightly activities onboard include music at Billboard Onboard, The Rolling Stone Lounge, and the Ocean Bar. During the daytime there are movies and other activities at the Rolling Stone and sometimes trivia or other games at Billboard Onboard or other locations. There were also some one-time activities throughout the cruise like the polar plunge in the back pool and a carnival games day by the Lido pool.

penguin duck

People can go to the ship’s scheduled activities or not as they choose. They can also do their own thing or schedule their own activities. We enjoy hiding ducks. There weren’t a lot of duck hiders or even people who knew about cruise ducks on this cruise, but the crew are always thrilled to find one and there were some passengers who enjoyed them too even if they hadn’t heard of them before. We ran into one passenger actively hunting them.

cabin crawl

One person scheduled a cabin crawl through cruise critic. Quite a few people attended. It was fun to get to see a variety of different cabins from the people who volunteered theirs to be part of the tour. Most didn’t even know the obstructed balcony cabins like we had on this cruise even existed before the tour.

viewing a penguin rookery from the bow in Antarctica

The Oosterdam has an outside promenade deck that goes all the way around the ship which is always a nice thing to have. When the weather is decent it’s a nice place to take a walk. It used to be a good place for a run, but now it says no jogging. It’s a handy place to dart out and get quick photos of the scenery. They also had the big front bow open sometimes when sailing through scenic areas. Usually the smaller bows on the 3 decks above the big one are also open whenever the big one is.

lower dining room

There were too many formal nights for our liking, but at least they aren’t so formal as they once were. Nobody wears tuxedos or evening gowns anymore. Not everyone even wears suits or dresses. Nicer pants and shirts than worn on casual nights are perfectly acceptable these days.

atrium centerpiece

The atrium on the Oosterdam is small with just a bit of seating at the bottom and a giant globe hanging at the top. On deck 1 guest services and future cruises are near there, but not in the part that opens up 3 decks high. There’s no longer a loyalty person onboard which is unfortunate because they were generally the most helpful for a lot of things. Holland America’s app is fairly functional, though it does have a few glitches sometimes. It’s also pretty useful, though it would be nice if it showed the dinner menus for the entire cruise and not just the current day. Excursion tickets are all in the app now. They don’t send paper tickets anymore. You can just have your room card scanned to check into an excursion so people who don’t have the app or are going on the sort of excursion where they don’t want to bring a phone aren’t left out. When bringing a phone it’s a good idea to screen shot the excursion ticket so you have it available to show if there is no service for using the app.

ship’s shop

There are a few shops onboard and some rooms for holding different events, some of which are ship-sponsored and others used by private groups who request space for their activities. There are 2 premium restaurants besides the included food and lots of bars around the ship. People still have the option for 2 cabin cleanings daily if they want, or can choose just one. There is a kid’s club area though there were not many kids on this cruise. There are more on shorter cruises, especially in warmer places, Holland America is a line that attracts more older people than young families. It’s a mid-sized ship. Big enough to have room to move around and things to do, but small enough to go places the enormous ones can’t.

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Papeete, Tahiti Cruise Port

Posted on January 24, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Noordam in Tahiti

It seemed like a tight squeeze to get a cruise ship through the narrow entrance to the harbor in Papeete, Tahiti, but the Noordam docked next to the much larger Ovation of the Seas so apparently even a large ship can fit. The dock crew on land seemed quite a lot more skillful than some of the ones in Hawaii, who had great difficulties with the lines. The ones in Papeete had no trouble at all.

Noordam entering the port at Tahiti

The ship docks right in town in Papeete (pronounced Paw-pee-eh-tay by some of the locals, but others say it differently). The main language there is French, but a lot of people speak at least passable English. As we got off the ship there were people just outside the gate with signs for last-minute taxi or bus tours around the island. Just across a very busy street there’s a visitor’s tourist information center where people can find options for a variety of things to do. Lights and crosswalks assist in crossing that very busy street.

little boat takes dock crew guy out to a cleat beyond the dock in Tahiti

There are two cruise ship piers next to each other in the harbor. We stayed overnight there. The first day Ovation of the Seas was at the other pier for awhile until it left, but the second day it was just us. The pier we were on looked like it could take another ship on the other side, but nothing was there at the time. After Ovation left we could see a huge luxury private yacht on the far side of that pier.

Ovation of the Seas at the dock in Tahiti

You can book tours at the visitor’s center, or online pre-cruise from a variety of other sources. Things like diving, snorkeling, and whale watching can be found that way. If there’s space available you can even book last minute diving or snorkeling directly from the providers. After the dive excursion I took, the 3 other people all booked an additional excursion on the spot for later that afternoon through the same people that took us diving, an outfit called Fluid.

Visitor’s Center

You can walk to shopping or restaurants from the port. There’s a whole bunch of places on the busy street that runs past the pier. Taxis are available for anyone who wants to go farther.

local entertainment at the dock

Currency in Tahiti is the pacific franc, but tour operators were happy to accept American cash for payment and tips. Cards are also acceptable most places. If you are looking for pharmaceuticals, French Polynesia is a great place to find them. You don’t need a prescription for some things that you need one for elsewhere, and the prices are pretty low. You won’t find even basic things like Tylenol or Advil at a grocery store, just in an actual pharmacy.

last minute island tour sign

Tahiti has a warm tropical climate with the warmest temperatures during the rainy season from March to November. It has about 3000 hours of sunshine per year, but also an annual rainfall of over 69 inches. December is generally the wettest month and August the driest. Temperatures range from 70 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, with the average at 80.

people with tour signs at a little park next to the port

Excursions from our ship at this port included a sunset sail, island tours, catamaran sail & snorkel, lagoon tour & swim, and a 4-wheel drive tour.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025

 

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