Antigua Island Tour

Posted on January 17, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Enchanted Princess in Antigua

On our Caribbean cruise on the Enchanted Princess we docked in Antigua with nothing planned to do. The dock our ship was on exited directly into a port shopping area called Heritage Quay, though that was not the case for people we talked to from a Carnival ship whose dock went straight into town. The two docks are right next to each other with just a bit of water between the two ships so nothing is far away from one to the other. There’s also a third dock at that port and a bridge from where the Carnival ship was to the port shops.

bird and nest by the port shops

The port shopping area had a live local band playing for tips which was one of the first things we came to after leaving the secure area on the pier itself. One scrawny little tree had a nest and a loudly chirping little yellow bird who probably lived in it. There were some of the usual shops found at most every cruise ship port in addition to other shops as well as bars and eateries. In the middle of it all there was a little booth with photos of places an island tour goes and of various beaches you can get a ride to. Lots of people with island tour signs milled about that area waiting to find enough people to fill up their van for a tour.

Devil’s Bridge – internet photo – something we didn’t get to see on the tour even though it was in the tour photos on the signs that say where the tours go

It’s a pretty short walk through the port shops and out into town, but that was just more shops. If you don’t know the area and want to do something on your own it would be best to look that up ahead of time so you know where you want to go and how to get there. We should have done that since we had no actual plans, but since we didn’t and didn’t notice anything straight off that looked interesting we went back into the port area where all the people with the island tours were.

ornamental palm tree

The photo on the booth and what the tour guides show on their maps apparently has things from more than one tour. There were places we wanted to see where we thought our tour would go as the driver had specifically pointed them out when saying which things cost extra and which did not while telling us about the tour. It turned out not all of those places were actually on the tour we took. Some went to a different tour if the guide had gone out in the other direction. So when booking one of those last-minute tours if there’s a specific place on their photo where you want to go make sure they are clear about whether or not that is part of your tour and not just a place where some tours go. He had pointed to one specific place and said they didn’t go there because it was closed, but he made it look like the tour would go to all of the other places shown so when he said we were going back to the ship before we had seen them all we were surprised. It wasn’t until then that he said it was a different tour that went to those places.

cricket stadium

The first stop on the tour was a cricket stadium that also holds international soccer games. It was empty at the time other than a few people who worked there, though they will still charge admission if they see people go inside. Outside of the stadium were some palm trees with a different sort of palm fronds than what we used to always see. The guide said that all of the coconut palms that used to populate the island died of a disease and these new ones were some sort of ornamental palm planted to take their place. They also mentioned a major die-off of the coconut palms on Saint Kitts so apparently the palm plague spread to more than one island.

donkey and egrets

A herd of feral donkeys grazed in a field near the stadium so we stopped to take some photos of them. There is a donkey sanctuary on the island, but you have to pay to go in there and these donkeys were free to see. There were quite a few egrets hanging out with them. Probably cattle egrets since those like to hang out with livestock and keep them vermin free.

view of Nelson’s Dockyard

We passed a whole field of solar panels, which the guide said were not yet operational as whoever had negotiated for the panels forgot to include any batteries in the plans for them.

sign at the entrance to Nelson’s Dockyard

Next we stopped at a viewpoint overlooking Nelson’s Dockyard, which is one of the major tourist attractions of the island. It costs $15 to go in and sounded like mainly a shopping area so only a couple people paid to go inside. In the 18th century British naval ships docked there. Now the docks are full of fancy yachts. There is a museum and art galleries there as well as shops, a hotel, and restaurants. There is a park and trails outside of the dockyard.

Pigeon Beach

Meanwhile the driver took the rest of the people to a nearby beach. It was called Pigeon Beach. It looked like a nice beach and there was a sign there about a snorkel trail. The guide said it also had a hiking trail which went about 6 miles uphill to Shirley Heights, another of the places where a lot of the cruise ship tours go. It’s a former 17th century military lookout which is now a tourist site with food and entertainment and a cost to get in.

snorkel trail sign at Pigeon Beach

It costs $1 USD to use the restroom at that beach. I have to take other people’s word for it being nice and clean because I took photos of the beach instead of going into the bathroom.

yachts

Next we stopped at a viewpoint overlooking multi-million dollar yachts. One the driver said was for sale, having been confiscated from a Russian Oligarch the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

church made from naturally green stone

We made a brief photo stop at a small old church called Saint Barnabas Anglican Church made from naturally green stones local to just that one area of the island. It wasn’t actually on the tour, but after everyone wishing we had stopped at one of the stone churches on St. Kitts this time I asked and everyone in the van got out to take photos. There were some people working on the building, but they didn’t seem to mind us taking pictures of it. Besides the unusual colored stone walls it also had some lovely stained-glass windows.

stained glass window at the church

Next the driver/guide made a quick stop at a tiny stand in front of a little house and bought some fresh local pineapple for everyone to try. It was supposed to be the best pineapple ever, but I thought it just tasted like pineapple. It was good because pineapple is good, but it tasted the same as any other pineapple. The little shop had a variety of other things besides fruit.

little local shop

All along the way we passed through different areas and neighborhoods. Like anywhere some areas definitely looked nicer than others, but in a lot of places there appeared to be a mix of everything from really tiny houses – some no bigger than an average sized bathroom – to giant mansions. Most of the houses were somewhat on the smaller side. Some looked new and nice, some had seen better days, some were under construction, and others abandoned and on the verge of falling down.

view of a beach

We made a view stop overlooking a beach, then went down the hill and stopped on that beach. One end was crowded with a cruise ship excursion, but the other end where we went was quiet. To me that would be the better end of the beach, not only for the lack of a crowd, but also because that side had a coral reef which the driver said was good for snorkeling where the end where all the people were was just sand. He did not say what the name of that beach was.

on the beach

After that we went back to the ship, not having seen any sugar mill ruins or the rock formation called Devil’s Bridge. Those were some of the things in the photos that we thought were part of the tour where we didn’t get to go.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025

Posted in Caribbean, Enchanted Princess, Port Cities, Ports of Call, Princess | Tagged Antigua, Caribbean, cruise, Enchanted Princess, island tour, photos, travel | Leave a comment

Decor on Holland America Zaandam

Posted on January 10, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

hallways on deck 2 have paintings of scenes from old Dutch villages

Some ships have a theme within the décor of the ship, like the music theme in the decor of some of the public decks on Holland America Zaandam. The largest bit by far is the atrium centerpiece, a gigantic three-story high depiction of an ornate pipe organ dominating the central area of the ship. A stairway winds around it, ascending or descending around the different levels as you can’t view the entire massive structure all at once.

central part of the atrium centerpiece

On one side of the bottom of the structure a chair sits in front of an actual keyboard – roped off with a sign saying not to touch it. The rest of the sculpture doesn’t look real enough to actually make music, just the keyboard. Besides the many depictions of organ pipes throughout the statue there are also numerous figures and embellishments.

top of the giant pipe organ

The center rises ever upward with something different to look at on every side, though always the appearance of an extremely large and ornate pipe organ. A dome tops off the structure a couple decks above its base.

old piano in a glass case

Other music decor around the ship takes up far less space whether it’s an old-time piano in a glass case or signed guitars hanging on the wall. All sorts of other instruments line hallways, bars, or lounges, encased within glass as they are for looking at rather than playing. There are functional pianos for making actual music in some of the bars.

old clothes and ornate gold things

Ornate gold works – or at least gold colored anyway – adorn hallways and other public areas. Some just look like fancy frills, others are actual shapes like dragons and things. There’s even a clock that has way more space taken up by frills than the actual clock part.

old sailing ship model on a glass box

One hallway has a whole bunch of masks that seem out-of-place with the rest of the ship’s decor. A sign identified most of them as Balinese while one was Javanese. There are a lot of old boat models and boat paintings around the ship too so not all of the decor besides those random masks is music related or ornate gold things.

horse statue with a duck riding it

There’s also plenty of statues and busts about the ship, also not related to the music theme or to each other. Statues do make great places to hide ducks. Most ducks on this ship were left in plain sight rather than actually hidden due to the lack of people onboard who knew about looking for them.

painting of an older version of the Zaandam

The front stairway has a painting of various renditions of the Zaandam on several levels, but since there are more than 3 decks on the ship and the current Zaandam is only the third a lot of the decks have paintings of older versions of some of Holland America’s other current or previous ships.

black and white bird art

The middle stairway has 3 little pictures of plants or things that resemble plants at each level. On the back stairway the theme is black and whites, with birds featuring in the artwork of more than one level.

deck 2 elevator bench

Most of the elevators have some sort of picture on the wall between sides with a bench underneath. Most of the ones on the cabin decks are fairly plain and simple, but deck 2 has a really fancy one. Often the fanciest trappings on cabin floors are found near suites, but deck 2 is just oceanview and inside cabins. The explanation was obvious one port day when the gangway disembarked on deck 2 – they had that fancy bench set up for photos with a ship’s photographer there.

elevator bay on a public deck

The elevator bay on a public deck is fancier than most of the cabin decks, but not as fancy as the one on deck 2.

deck 1 flower painting

Each stateroom deck has pictures around the hallways. Deck 1 has flower paintings. Flower art is a popular Dutch thing and has been for centuries.

black and white photo of old ship scene

Deck 2 has paintings with old time scenes of Holland. Deck 3 sports black and white photography with scenes from early Holland America ships, including earlier renditions of the Zaandam of course.

all around the hall there are paintings of different ships

Deck 6 has paintings of old-world sailing ships.

sketches for the suite deck

Deck 7 has sketches. You would think the deck with the biggest suites would have the fanciest pictures, but it doesn’t. All the colorful flower paintings and village scenes are down on decks 1 and 2 where there’s oceanview and inside cabins.

How now brightly colored cow

The most whimsical statues are found in the form of 2 brightly colored cows lounging by the seaview pool on the back deck.

dolphins at the Lido pool

The main Lido pool has far less colorful dolphins.

the elevator carpet says it’s Tuesday

If you forget what day it is, just look in an elevator. The carpet there will tell you the day of the week.

Zaandam in Vancouver

Even the outside of the Zaandam had a bit of art with a We ❤️ Alaska banner. When we got back to Vancouver at the end of the cruise we could see the crew peeling the banner off after we disembarked the ship because that was the last Alaska cruise of the season.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025

Posted in Holland America, Zaandam | Tagged cruise, cruise ship decor, Holland America, photos, travel, Zaandam, Zaandam decor | 2 Comments

Viking Skirnir

Posted on January 3, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Viking Longship in Budapest

Our European Grand Tour 15-day river cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam took place on the Skirnir, one of many identical Viking longships cruising rivers in Europe. In Budapest alone we often saw 5 or 6 of them docked on the same day. Viking has docks both north and south of the Chain Bridge as well as one near the Elizabeth Bridge. There are 7 bridges across the Danube in Budapest.

stairway from the lobby to the upper deck

Boarding a Viking Longship for a river cruise is nothing like boarding an oceangoing vessel. There’s no port building or security screening or long lines of people waiting to get in. You just hand over your luggage to the waiting crew in the parking lot next to the ship and walk down the gangway. Once inside you show your passport at the desk and that’s it. We arrived around noon, which was about an hour before they had rooms ready so they said to come back to the desk in an hour to get the room cards. Meanwhile they had a small buffet lunch going in the ship’s lounge. People arriving after the rooms were finished got their room cards on arrival. One of the crew shows you to your room and then you are on your own.

one of two coffee stations

Skirnir is named after a servant of the old Norse gods. The ship is 443 feet long and was built in 2015. It holds 190 guests and 53 crew. Free wifi is included for all guests as well as beer or wine at lunch and dinner. A couple coffee stations with machines that make a variety of different coffee drinks as well as hot chocolate and hot water are available 24 hours a day. There’s a small selection of teas to go with the hot water.

random seating near the top of the stairway

Everything onboard is on a small scale compared to much larger ocean cruise ships. Rooms vary from below water level cabins with small windows just above the waterline to their biggest suites. In between there are cabins with French balconies or regular balconies, the difference being a balcony with chairs and a table that you can actually go out on or a door to open and look out from inside the room. The standard suites have a bedroom and sitting area with both French and regular balconies and the two large explorer’s suites are 445 square feet each with wrap-around balconies at the back of the ship. Rooms have refrigerators and a TV, but there is very little choice in things to watch on the TV.

mini golf and shuffleboard on the sun deck

Unlike many-decked ocean vessels, Viking longships have just 3 inside decks and an open sundeck on top. The lowest level is called the main deck. Most of this deck is below the waterline, though the tops of the rooms are above it. Passenger cabins on this deck have little slit windows at the top of the exterior wall, with a shelf all along the wall a couple feet wide making the floorspace in these cabins smaller than cabins on higher decks even if the ceiling space is the same. These cabins are at the center of the main deck with crew areas both fore and aft.

sunroom area of the Aquavit Terrace

The middle deck has balcony cabins down one side and cabins with French balconies down the other. Forward of the cabins, this deck houses the reception area, dining room, and kitchen. All meals during the voyage are served in the dining room, but people also have the option of eating upstairs in the sunroom area called the Aquavit Terrace or at the tables in the forward area of the lounge instead. There are outside tables on the bow too, but on our cold winter cruise nobody ate out there.

lounge

The upper deck has the two explorer suites at the back with balcony cabins on one side and a few French balcony cabins near the back and suites the rest of the way on the other. Forward of the cabins there’s a library with books and games and a small internet space with a couple of computers. Hallways forward of that on either side pass by the coffee stations. These have a choice of paper or glass cups and the machine sizes up which you put on it and fills the cup accordingly. The area also has a couple bins for morning pastries or cookies later in the day. Doors from each side lead into the lounge, which has a bar and a variety of places to sit and relax. It also has a piano where live music often plays. The Aquavit Terrace is just forward of the lounge. Any live entertainment, lectures, or breifings on the next day’s activities are done in the lounge. People can watch that on the lounge TV channel from their room if they don’t want to attend in person.

track on the sundeck with a view of the Chain Bridge in Budapest

The sun deck had a couple putting greens and shuffleboard as well as some seating areas surrounded by a walking track. The footing in that area is some sort of soft rubbery substance rather than a wooden deck. There’s more seating in front of that as well as the pilot house. It was a surprise to find a smoking area near the back of the sundeck since all the Viking brochures claim that their ships are non-smoking rather than just not indoors.

pilot house

The pilot house is attached to a mechanism that can raise and lower it because when the ship passes under low bridges everything on the sun deck has to fold down to the lowest possible height in order to fit. If the water level is too high to pass under the bridge then the ship can’t go beyond that point. It also can’t sail if the water level is too low for the bottom of the ship to clear shallow waters. Sometimes people end up switching to ships on the other side of bridges or getting transported on a bus if the water is too high or too low for the ship to sail. We heard scare stories before our cruise from people who spent part or all of their river cruise as a bus tour instead due to the height of the river, but ours went as planned on the same ship all the way from the beginning to the end.

library on the Skirnir

It’s been years since we’ve had to bring lifejackets to the muster drill, but on this ship it’s required. The safety video on the TV at boarding makes no mention of lifeboats, and there are none to be seen on the ship. People said that’s because the rivers are shallow enough that if the ship sinks the top of it will still be above water. In most places along the journey the shore is not that far away either.

dining room

There’s not the expanse of or ever-available food found on ocean ships. Dinner was not served until 7pm except one night when it was early due to an activity later that evening. Nearly all of the passengers would have preferred to have dinner earlier every night. Lunchtime varied a bit due to the day’s schedule, but was generally around noon. Breakfast has more hours of availability, especially for those who just want the pastries that are set out very early or continental breakfast at the Aquavit Terrace before the full breakfast service in the dining room opens.

lounge with piano

The nightly entertainment was mainly a live piano player in the lounge, who also played sometimes during the day. Each night before dinner the cruise director Marko (who went by Program Director on this ship) gave a port talk about what was going on the next day. An excursion at each port is included in the cruise and most ports also had optional excursions that cost extra. Times of daily excursions were not necessarily exactly the same as what the schedule provided pre-cruise said they would be, though they were fairly close. Some nights they did have other entertainment besides the piano player. Two evenings they had a guest lecturer, a couple times they had guest music performers, a few times they did game show competitions, and one night a glass blower came onboard to do a demonstration.

glass blower

The glass blower actually blew the glass, not like the one we saw in Venice who had a blob of glass, a barrel of fire, and long rods from which he made a horse by pulling rather than blowing molten glass. The one on Viking started with pyrex tubes, which he heated with something resembling a glorified bunson burner. He did not use any rods, but rather heated the glass until he could shape it to where it made its own rods from the ends of the glass tube stretched thin while he had a larger diameter bit in the middle. Blowing into the end of the skinny part enlarged the wider portion, which he had rolled in colored bits of glass while it was hot so he could make a Christmas ornament out of it. The live demonstration was just round ball ornaments – after all how much can you do on a ship. He had other more complicated things he brought with him to sell.

chef demonstration

One day the chef had an afternoon demonstration on how to make apple strudel, after which samples were passed out. A couple passenger volunteers helped out. During the demonstration they also provided coffee with whipped cream and chocolate liquor. In Vienna a local came in one evening for a talk about Vienna’s history.

Katz Castle on the Rhine River

The ship had port stops every day, but when it sailed during daylight it was quite scenic. A couple times were specified as scenic sailing when we had a longer sailing time than usual during daylight. One of those days we passed a whole lot of castles on the Rhine before stopping to tour one of them. After passing one called Katz Castle the next (smaller) one was named Maus. Cat and mouse right next to each other.

Skirnir in a lock

There were quite a lot of locks to pass through along the journey. Most would go unnoticed during the daytime other than happening to look out the window at the right moment. At night in the below-water-level cabin it was a different story. We could hear the ship bumping the lock wall, the water rushing in or out, and some sort of unidentified high-pitched whiny sort of ringing noise each time we passed through one. People in cabins on the higher decks did not have that experience. The noise may or may not have been the underwater sound of the lock gates opening and closing.

top of the stairway

The cruise started on the Danube River, passed through the Main/Danube canal to the Main River, which then connected to the Rhine River. The Rhine ends in Rotterdam rather than Amsterdam, but in the dark of night we did end up in Amsterdam. Probably through the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal which links Rotterdam to Amsterdam without having to go offshore and pass through the sea.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025

Posted in Europe, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged photos, river cruise, Skirnir, travel, Viking longship | Leave a comment

Copenhagen, Denmark

Posted on January 1, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

building in Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capitol and most populous city in Denmark. The language of the country is Danish, but most Danes also speak fluent English. Like other Scandinavian cities it tends toward the pricier of places to visit in Europe. Money is the Danish Kroner. Currently $1 USA is equal to 7.17 Danish Kroner. Because of that it looks like everything is way more expensive than it actually due to the prices posted. Weather is comfortable in the summer, with long cold wet winters. It snowed a bit while we were there in November. It’s a walkable city. Copenhagen has been given the title of the greenest city on earth and is heavily invested in renewable energy sources.

bike on the Inner Harbor Bridge

Bicycles are a popular form of transportation in the city. There are bicycle lanes alongside of the busier roads. There was also a separate bicycle lane from the walking lane on the Inner Harbor Bridge at Nyhaven, a popular tourist area of town with colorful buildings, lots of little cafés, and boat tours.

Rosenborg Castle

Copenhagen was first settled in the 11th century. It has been the capitol of Denmark since 1445. Denmark is located on a peninsula with a 42-mile land border with Germany and the rest of the country surrounded in water.

Cisternerne

Copenhagen has lots of tourist attractions with historical buildings, museums, gardens, castles, canals, and more. A cistern that once held water for the city has been transformed into an art museum, though I would find it more interesting for the cave-like stalactite formations than the art. Unfortunately when we went there it was a dark exhibit involving sound rather than sight so the cave formations were hard to see.

ice skaters at a Christmas market in Copenhagen

Architecture includes a lot of old buildings along with some modern ones. Public transportation includes trains as well as busses. There’s also a water taxi that is something like a bus except in the water. Bikes are available for rental. For tourists there’s also a hop on hop off bus as a way to get around to see a number of the tourist attractions.

merchandise in front of a shop

It appears that crime is not a big problem there. Large groups of private bikes are parked pretty much everywhere, some without locks indicating the owners don’t fear them being stolen. Even the ones with locks generally just have the lock around a wheel rather than attached to anything solid. Many of the little shops leave large assortments of merchandise on the sidewalk in front of their store with nobody out there watching over it.

There’s often more than what you see from the road. Little openings or archways lead into courtyards that sometimes have more businesses and others are the entry to parking areas or apartments.

little mermaid statue

We stayed in a hotel called Wakeup Copenhagen Borgergade. The last word is the street it is on, which is important since there is another hotel of the same name in a different area of the city. The other one was about half the distance from the airport. The one we were in was within walking distance of many things. Rosenborg Castle was the only obvious one on the tourist maps, but a whole lot of other things were also easy to walk to including the famous little mermaid statue, the winter palace, and Nyhaven so the location was quite convenient.

weird frosted glass bathroom

The hotel room was very tiny and the bathroom just had frosted glass around it. It’s a pretty awkward design lacking privacy. The hotel had a lot of nice seating areas on the ground floor where people hang out in the evenings, probably because the rooms are so small. It had a buffet breakfast, but for an additional cost. They had elderflower juice, which I had not heard of before. It’s pretty sweet, but good. The pastries are very soft and flaky. I’ve always heard European wheat is different – not GMO or full of chemicals so less likely to cause stomach issues.

St Alban’s Anglican Church

The hotel did not take luggage behind the desk for people who had some time to kill between check-out and a flight, but they did have a whole bunch of storage lockers in the basement. There were also some bathrooms down there which required a room key to get into, the accessible one of which contained an ironing board.

guard at the King’s Palace

If you have specific things you want to do it’s a good idea to know in advance not only what, where, and when, but also to have a plan as to how to get there. If you don’t have any concrete plans just walking around you may find all sorts of things to do. Wandering about from our hotel we passed by numerous museums that could have been visited had we so desired, and lots of old churches that are quite photogenic from the outside. The only one we checked whether or not people could go inside charged a fee.

segway tour passing through at the King’s Palace

We happened across the famous mermaid statue and then got to the king’s winter palace about half an hour ahead of noon when they had changing of the guard so we stuck around to watch it. While we were there several segway tours passed through.

Nyhaven

Later we made it to Nyhaven, where we enjoyed seeing the colorful houses along the canal and took a boat tour. There’s also a whole row of cafes along one side of the canal. One is in a boat. The Inner Harbor Bridge across the main waterway led to an outdoor skating rink and beer garden on the other side. We found another skating rink at a park near our hotel that had other stuff around getting set up for a Christmas Market. The Christmas Market wasn’t open yet, but the skating was.

cafe with indoor and outdoor seating

Pretty much all of the little cafes and coffee shops everywhere in the area had outdoor seating as well as seating inside. People actually sat out there in spite of the fact that it was literally freezing. As in ice on the ground and on our second day a bit of snow that fell the previous night.

windmill

Other things we saw in random wanderings included a windmill at a park with some trails and lots of photo-worthy architecture.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025

Posted in Europe | Tagged Copenhagen, Denmark, photos, travel | Leave a comment

Hits and Misses on Quantum of the Seas

Posted on December 27, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Quantum of the Seas in Icy Strait Point

On every cruise there are always things to like and dislike about any ship. Of course these things are all a matter of opinion where one person’s biggest dislike could be another person’s favorite thing. Some things are generally liked or disliked by most people onboard. While we have enjoyed every cruise we’ve taken, every ship does have its high points and low points. These are entirely my opinion of the things I liked and disliked about Quantum of the Seas.

Hits

North Star nearly up

The North Star is a unique feature of Royal Caribbean’s Quantum Class ships. This pod reminiscent of one pod of a giant Ferris Wheel provides the best views at sea. Reservations are required, but the cost is pretty low. Only a small group of people go up at any one time. The length of time spent above the ship varies with different booking options. During the course of the ride the pod extends over each side of the ship as well as straight up to the top of the giant metal arm that supports it so you get a variety of different views looking down on the ship as well as at the surrounding area.

bumper cars at the SeaPlex

The SeaPlex is another unique feature of the Quantum Class ships. So much more than a standard sports court, this area can be transformed for quite a variety of activities varying from sports tournaments to lasar tag to bumper cars. When not in use, the bumper cars park along the edge of the area alongside the SeaPlex court, but when it is bumper car time they move into the sports court, which has more room to drive them around than often found in bumper cars at carnival rides. It’s lots of fun.

solarium pools

Our favorite hangout on any Royal Caribbean or Celebrity ship is always the solarium. On Quantum the solarium had three levels with cascading pools going from one to the next. The top level had the most area with deck chairs lining both sides as well as the bow area. This level also had the Solarium Bistro and the solarium’s bar. The lower levels went down the bow area with deck chairs next to the pool on a couple levels and hot tubs on either side of the bottom pool. Below that deck chairs lined a floor to ceiling window at the front of the ship with the top of the window going all the way up from the top level of the solarium. Those were the favorite chairs of most people.

No saving deck chairs!

Deck chairs both in the solarium and on the outside decks had no seat saving signs right on the chairs every few chairs or so, which worked a whole lot better than just a sign as you enter the area as found on most ships. This meant there were actually chairs available for use rather than mostly occupied by towels with no people anywhere in the vicinity as is often found on ships where a lot of selfish people stake out chairs all day long in case they might want to use them at some point, but spend very little time actually in them.

gluten free section at the buffet

Quantum had a gluten free section in the buffet, which was nice to see. Wonder of the Seas did not so we were glad to see that it had just been that one ship and not that Royal Caribbean had gotten rid of the gluten free section in the buffet entirely.

boarding photo

After a couple not so good boarding experiences on previous Royal Caribbean cruises, we were quite pleased with the easy boarding on Quantum. We actually haven’t ever had a bad boarding experience in Seattle, but have had several at various ports in Florida. We got right inside without having to wait in line outside at all, and right through the check-in process without a hitch. The ship hadn’t quite started boarding yet once we were in, but there were plenty of chairs for anyone who wanted to sit and the line that had formed by the door in anticipation of boarding starting soon moved along quickly once the door opened.

Royal’s App is better organized and easier to use than what some of the other cruise lines have. Both pre-cruise and onboard it has a lot of useful features.

Bionic Bar with robot bartenders

Like all cruise ships, Quantum has lots of bars. It’s always fun to watch the robots at Royal’s Bionic Bar even if you don’t buy anything. The solarium bar is pretty handy for people lounging there. (As are all the other bars for people in other areas of the ship.)

iFLY

Besides Royal’s standard fun things like flowriders, rock climbing walls, and ice skating arenas, the Quantum class ships have several unique things of their own. In addition to the ones mentioned earlier, it also has an iFLY skydiving simulator. Reservations are of course required and there is a nominal fee for it, but the price is a whole lot less than going to an iFLY on land. The groups for this activity are very small and each person gets a couple individual sessions with an instructor in the iFLY wind tunnel.

two70

The other unique venue on Quantum class ships is two70, so named for the 270° view from its floor to ceiling windows. The ship’s featured show is held there and the space is used for other things as well. When not in use it’s a good place to get a view from the back of the ship in the daytime.

owl in an elevator

The elevators on Quantum were a bit of a source of entertainment in themselves. There were some glass elevators, though their view was to the inside rather than outside of the ship, but the ones that didn’t have glass at the back each had a different animal.

SeaPlex Dog House hot dog stand

Besides the dining room and buffet, Quantum had lots of other complimentary food options. There were some pay-extra places too, but with so many free options that really wasn’t a necessity unless someone wanted to go to one of the specialty places. Free options included pizza, a couple cafes, hot dogs, the solarium bistro, and sometimes a pop-up ice cream stand or hamburger grill on the pool deck.

teapot in the cabin

Even though we had 4 people in one cabin, there was a lot to like about it. It was decent sized. It had lots of storage space and several outlets and USB ports. There was a teapot in the cabin, something I’d only previously seen on a British ship (P&O Arcadia). The crew was friendly and helpful. Our steward went above and beyond the call of duty by making the extra bed back into a couch in the morning and setting it up as a bed at night even though corporate wanted to cut corners by not allowing stewards into the cabins a second time in the day since they have cut cleanings to once daily. Having that bed out all day would have rendered half of the cabin unusable so we greatly appreciated our steward.

Misses

stairway from the casino to the promenade

In spite of both the app and their daily newsletter stating that there was no indoor smoking on that ship, they allowed smoking in the casino. Besides being open on both ends, it had a stairway directly onto the promenade deck. When it was too busy for the ventilation system to keep up with it smoke spewed out into other areas of the ship in several directions. While it would be best if they lived up to what they advertised, at the very least they should add only when sailing in Australia to the bit that says no inside smoking so people wouldn’t think they are booking a non-smoking ship when they’re not.

disgusting smoke trail

The casino wasn’t the only thing spewing smoke on this ship. One day the smokestack left a trail of thick brown smoke for miles behind it, making it look as if there was a huge forest fire where it hit shore. I’d never seen a cruise ship smoke like that before. Sometimes there’s thin wisps of black smoke that quickly dissipates, but that thick brown smoke trail was not normal. At the time I was hoping it wasn’t normal for this ship, but it seems to be an issue with this ship class sometimes. One time my husband was driving through Port Angeles when Quantum’s sister ship Ovation of the Seas was in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It was spewing so much brown smoke he could hardly see the road. Another time when I was hiking on the bluff on the Washington side of the strait while Ovation was in the area I could see across the strait that the entire south end of Vancouver Island was engulfed in a toxic-looking brown cloud of smoke. These ships don’t smoke like that all the time, but often enough that they should be pulled from service and sent somewhere for repairs or pollution controls. Nobody should be allowed to pollute like that no matter who they are. Royal Caribbean definitely deserves a fine for that amount of pollution, especially since it was not a one time or even one ship thing. Smoke was definitely the biggest miss on this ship, both from people smoking in the casino and from the ship’s smokestack.

Sumdum Glacier

We’ve been on a couple cruises that were scheduled for Tracy Arm and went down Endicott Arm instead, both of which made it down to Dawes Glacier at the end. This one was scheduled for Endicott arm, but turned around long before reaching the glacier, yet made no announcements of any sort to let people know that. Everyone missed out on Dawes Glacier since the ship turned early. We were quite lucky that we just happened to be looking out on the right side at the right time to see the far less impressive Sumdum Glacier because they didn’t say anything about sailing past that one either. Most people probably didn’t see a glacier at all since there aren’t any others in Endicott Arm. We thought we were heading into Endicott Arm rather than out until we saw Sumdum Glacier on the wrong side of the ship for where it would be if we were heading in, after which Mel said she’d been walking on the outside deck early that morning and the ship did a 180. Being a newbie to cruising she didn’t realize at the time that meant we were not going to the glacier so she hadn’t said anything before we saw Sumdum glacier on the wrong side. It would have been nice if someone from the ship had bothered to clue people in so they weren’t waiting to see a glacier they were never going to get to.

Parliament buildings by Victoria’s inner harbor – where cruise ships never go

Dawes Glacier wasn’t the only thing we missed on this cruise. It didn’t make it to port in Victoria either. I’d never heard of a ship not going to Victoria before. That’s their foreign port requirement for complying with the Jones Act for ships sailing to Alaska from Seattle. Granted there were waves splashing over top of the pilot boat when he came aboard, but he managed to make it onto the ship. Right at the time people were gathering at the meeting places for excursions they announced that the captain and pilot had decided it wasn’t safe to dock- just as we sailed past Victoria for the second time looking at a Norwegian ship already docked there. Perhaps this ship is just too big for Alaska cruises.

ships in Sitka (Quantum of the Seas and Westerdam)

On most cruises there’s at least one photographer outside of the ship at each port stop – preferably out of the way of the gangway. There were no port photos from outside of the ship at any of the ports on this cruise. We did see one on the dock in Sitka, but they were from the Westerdam which was docked next to us and not from our ship. The closest we came to a port photo on this cruise was someone in a bear suit by the buffet at Icy Strait Point.

it’s sort of a trundle bed except both sides are the same height

Corporate is going a bit too far on cost cutting by not wanting stewards to put the extra bed up and down when more than 2 people are in a room. Having that bed out all day would make the room unlivable with barely any access to some of the drawers, the fridge, and the desk. It’s not possible to fully open any of them with the bed out, or to sit at the desk or get the chair out from under it. The amount of space left with the bed out all day would be crowded with just one or two people in the room, let alone 4. Whoever made the decision that stewards can’t go into the cabins more than once per day should try sailing in one of those rooms with 4 people and the bed out all day and see how they like it. They will likely lose dollars to save pennies with the lack of re-bookings by anyone whose steward didn’t take a minute to put the bed up and down for them regardless of what corporate says. (It takes less than a minute to fold the bed up and put it away so if you add time for coming into the room and going back out it might take 2-3 minutes tops of a steward’s time each evening to make the difference between a miserable crowded room and a nice one.) Luckily our steward did put the bed up for us in the morning and back out at night even though he wasn’t supposed to. The first time it was left out we couldn’t find him and another steward showed us how to stow the bed out of the way so we would have done it ourselves if he hadn’t. The trick to it was that there is no trick to it – you just manually push the trundle part of the bed down.

There was also no clothesline in the cabin shower, which is crazy on a cruise ship because even if people never wash a thing they are most likely going to have wet swimming suits that need to hang up somewhere to dry. Even when cruising to cold places where you won’t be swimming from shore, people still use the pools and hot tubs on the ship.

view from the ZipRider on the way down

The shore excursions department did a horrible job on organizing the first zipline group of the day at Icy Strait Point. Instead of getting us out the gangway first so we could get up the mountain before the crowd and check in on time, they had us meet onboard and didn’t let us out until the time we were supposed to be already on the zipline, after which we had to make our own way to the top of the mountain in the crowd of people who had already gotten off the ship. Obviously we were very late and the people onshore who exchanged tickets for wristbands were not pleased when we came in to exchange ours for a time slot long since passed. Luckily the people at the top of the mountain running the ZipRider were not upset about it and let us go even though our time slot was long gone.

solarium bar

I only looked for a drink once during the cruise and couldn’t find a bar that could make a mango daiquiri. I’ve had them on Royal before, but maybe they only stock mango on Caribbean cruises. They had strawberry daquiris, but that wasn’t what I wanted. The solarium bar couldn’t even manage a pina colada as they’d run out of the ingredients for that. The pool bar, which is the next-closest to the solarium, made a pina colada for me, but they didn’t have the ingredients for a mango daiquiri either.

Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas

The one thing I look for at the gift shop on every cruise is a Christmas tree ornament ship model of whatever ship I’m on. There were no ship model Christmas tree ornaments available on this cruise. That’s not all that surprising since they generally only stock them at Christmastime, but stupid on their part since anyone who collects those would buy one regardless of the time of year.

wall magnets

Normally there’s a door sign – or on Royal the smarter choice of a magnet – that has whatever their version of do not disturb is on one side and room available for cleaning on the other. People can leave that on the door when they either don’t want to be bothered or to let the steward know they are out and about and want the room cleaned. This room had a door magnet, but it was one-sided for do not disturb only. I think it said something like sleeping off the adventure. There was nothing to let the steward know when the room was available for cleaning. We’d all leave for breakfast and whatever else people had to do in the morning, but with 4 people someone often would duck into the room for something or other, and if the steward saw them go in, but they came out while he was in a different room he wouldn’t know ours was open for cleaning. With 4 people coming and going at various times even a brief duck into the room might prevent it from getting cleaned. Some days it wasn’t even done by lunchtime until I got the bright idea to write my own note and hang it on the door with one of the magnets I always bring for keeping paperwork organized on the cabin wall. Once I thought of that the room was always clean by the time we got back from breakfast which it never had been before, making the need for the two-sided magnet quite obvious.

standard poses

When sailing with my sisters we always get a photo package. There were lots of photo stands around the ship each evening, but all of the photographers always wanted people to do the same few poses over and over and over again. After a few days that gets really boring, plus you don’t want all the photos to be the same thing with a different background. They’re probably all told to do those poses, but allowing them a bit more creativity would certainly make for far better photo packages. If asked for other poses some of them looked delighted like they were just as bored of the standard poses as we were and came up with all sorts of creative things, but others act like it’s a huge imposition to deviate at all.

While Royal’s app is a lot better than some other cruise lines, it did have one major fault. There was no alert for incoming messages on phones. We didn’t all have the same brand of phone either so that seemed to be all phones. Melissa had an apple watch and she got alerts for new messages, but she was the only one. Some of us have iPhones so that didn’t hold true for all apple devices, just the watch. If you happened to look for messages in the app there would be a red dot for anything new, but unless they were waiting for a reply or something had just happened that everyone would be trying to contact each other about nobody was constantly looking for messages so some things got missed for not finding someone else’s message until it was too late and the activity they were asking about was already over.

Sorrentos and the promenade cafe

While it was nice to see a gluten free section in the buffet, there were no gluten free options at the promenade café and only plain cheese gluten free pizza available at Sorrento’s. This was a bit of a disappointment since some of the other Royal ships we’ve been on did have gluten free snacks at the cafe and any toppings you want on the gluten free pizza.

Quantum’s painted line top-deck track

The outside promenade deck did not go all the way around the ship which is always a disappointment to me. Promenade decks that circle the entire ship are a great place to walk or run, but the ridiculous top deck tracks that are really just a painted line in a high-traffic area are in my opinion useless. Besides being less crowded, the promenade deck has some shade and a bit of protection from sun, wind, and weather while the top deck has none of that – just a bunch of people trying to get from one place to another in the way of anyone trying to use that painted line track.

Smoke aside, the biggest drawback of all is always the post-cruise survey. Apparently if you don’t mark everything a 10 they act as if it’s a 0, which means they are just looking to tick boxes and don’t really care what people think. That’s definitely accented by the fact that you get very few comment boxes. Having comment boxes for every section would be the only way for them to know what people really think – if they could be bothered to read the comments, which they must not want to judging by the scarcity of opportunities to leave any. Sometimes it takes so long to get a comment box that by the time you get one you forgot what you wanted to comment about. Putting a low number in one of the boxes will sometimes get you a comment box, but not always. When you do finally get one it always asks about one specific thing, which isn’t usually what I wanted to say anything about so they get a whole lot about whatever I remember by then that I wanted to say anything about instead of what they asked for. Who knows if anyone actually reads it.

Reasons to book with Royal Caribbean include all the fun things to do on their ships and the solarium. Reasons to book elsewhere include Royal’s stupid cost-cutting decisions and that there are other lines that actually have ships with no indoor smoking.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2024

Posted in Quantum of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, Shipboard Life | Tagged bad things about Quantum of the Seas, cruise, good things about Quantum of the Seas, photos, Quantum of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, travel | 5 Comments

European Christmas Markets

Posted on December 25, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

entry to a Christmas market in Koblenz, Germany

Christmas markets are a big thing in a lot of European countries from sometime in November until Christmastime. These festive marketplaces pop up in all sorts of places. On our Viking river cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam most of the towns along the way had Christmas markets. Not in Amsterdam though. Apparently it’s not a thing in the Netherlands.

Christmas market in Copenhagen, Denmark

The first place we went was Copenhagen, Denmark where we stayed a couple days pre-cruise. At a Christmas market there John found a little felt stuffed dog ornament that was white with black spots wearing a little hat. It was supposed to be a dalmatian, but it sort of resembles our dog Piper, a blue heeler that is white with black spots. A couple of the Christmas markets we saw in Copenhagen had ice skating, as did some of the others in other places, though most of them did not.

Christmas market in Budapest, Hungary

In Budapest there was a Christmas market about a block away from the hotel where we stayed for a few nights before boarding the ship. When we first went there on a Saturday night it was so crowded you could hardly move from one place to another. Trying to go opposite the main crowd felt like a salmon swimming upstream in boulder filled rapids where a whole lot of effort brings very little progress. We managed to find some dinner, but with no hope of getting anywhere near one of the few already occupied tables standing near the booth out of the main traffic stream was the safest place to eat it. There was a big Christmas tree in a small open space between booths. A church in the square had a light pattern running down the front resembling falling snow. It was realistic enough that just a quick glance at the church looked as if it actually was snowing until the mind registered that there was no snow coming down anywhere else. Although we were in Hungary, the Christmas carols playing there were songs commonly heard in America – and in English.

chocolate stall in Budapest

The next night we went back to get a better look at the booths. It wasn’t as crowded so we could actually get close enough to see what they had. A lot of them had different kinds of food or hot drinks while others sold Christmas ornaments and other holiday items or things like jewelry, paprika or other spices, and things people could give as gifts. Paprika is a big thing in Hungary. Rather than just a generic jar of paprika they have a variety of different kinds. Hot wine also seemed popular as quite a few booths had it. A local tour guide said that Hungary is better at making wine than beer so more people drink the wine.

chimney cakes cooking over coals in Budapest (photo by Karla Ermel)

One booth had something called chimney cakes, though the sign there was in Hungarian so we really didn’t know what it said. We saw the name chimney cake with a picture of it on a store elsewhere in Budapest. They made it by rolling out some sort of bread dough and then winding it around a fat stick. This was then buttered, sugared, and set over a bed of hot coals. As they added one at one end of the grill they would move the rest on until they made it to the far end of the row where the toasty brown one would be removed and then immediately coated with whatever topping the person ordering it wanted. They had quite a variety of things including pistachios, coconut, cinnamon, and raspberry. Chocolate chips were also an option, but those were rolled into the dough before cooking rather than sprinkled on top after it was done. The finished cakes are removed from the stick and put into a plastic bag. It’s big enough to serve 4 or 5 people. We tried a pistachio one and it was pretty tasty.

Christmas market by a chapel in Vienna

Vienna had a lot of Christmas markets. Where our bus tour ended in a shopping area near a very tall and fancy church there was a Christmas market next to the church. The market area looked small, but actually continued around a corner that wasn’t visible from the side where the tour went so it was about twice as big as it initially appeared.

Christmas market near city hall in Vienna, Austria

From there we set out to walk to what was supposed to be the biggest one near city hall. On the way there we passed through another Christmas market where we wandered through and looked at the various stalls. Typical of them all some sold food, some sold Christmas ornaments, and some had other things. A lot of them had the same or similar things to each other in all of the various markets, but occasionally a booth had something unique and different.

double carousel at a Christmas market in Vienna, Austria

We passed by another small one, but did not stop to look. The big one near city hall had a double decker carousel, something I had not seen before. The booths there were similar to the others. The chimney cakes like we had tried in Budapest were available at the Austrian markets too, but smaller and for more money. We saw them at several more markets along the way, but they were all baked in ovens except at the one in Budapest.

booth at a Christmas market in Vienna

Last time we went to Austria things seemed quite cheap there after having been to Switzerland first where everything cost twice as much, but this time they seemed expensive after coming from Budapest where stuff was cheaper. There was a Ferris wheel at that market, but it was not the oldest one in the world still in operation so we went on to an amusement park to find that one.

little Christmas market at the amusement park in Vienna

The amusement park was quite large with many rides. The old Ferris wheel was pretty unique with pods that were the largest I’ve seen on a Ferris wheel and resembled small cabins. There was a little Christmas market near the base of the wheel with booths circling around a tree. We got some hot drinks and a giant pretzel to share there. A lot of the booths at these markets sell hot drinks in a glass mug, which you pay for, but then can use at other stalls and even other markets if you bring it with you to avoid buying another cup. The one in Budapest had paper cups, but the Austrian ones and all of the ones in Germany had the glass mugs. Hot wine was a big thing in all of the markets. It was called glogg in Denmark and gluhwein everywhere else. The glogg was not quite the same as gluhwein.

Christmas market in Passau, Germany

In Passau, Germany the walking tour included with the cruise ended at a cathedral with a Christmas market just outside of it. Thus was the only Christmas market we went to in that town. It was a pretty big one with lots of stalls. The majority of them had food or drinks, though there were also some selling trinkets, Christmas ornaments, and warm things like hats, scarves, or socks.

sign at the chimney cake booth in Passau, Germany

One booth had chimney cakes like we had tried in Budapest. These were smaller and baked like all of the ones we saw after the first market. Only the ones in Budapest were huge and roasted over coals. This booth had a sign about them saying that all are a yeast dough rolled out into strips and wrapped around a pole for baking, but each region has its own secret ingredients for their recipe. The toppings vary from one place to another as well.

stalls at the Christmas market in Regensburg, Germany

Regensburg, Germany had a fairly big market. Unlike some of the ones in other towns, quite a few of the booths at this one had unique merchandise that looked like it might be handmade. Of course it also had the usual mass-produced looking items and plenty of food stalls. This was the last market we saw that had giant hot dogs or sausage dogs on elongated buns.

tables at the Regensburg market

The Regensburg market had some rustic wooden tables to give people a place to eat the things they bought there.

Nuremberg Christmas market after dark

Nuremberg has the oldest Christmas market in Germany having had one in the same spot since the 1600’s. It’s a pretty big one with lots of different stalls. The sausage stalls there sold small sausages instead of the super long ones the prior places had. Most stalls put several links on a round bun, but one of them made big round sausage patties instead.

Nuremberg Christmas market

The hot wine stalls had punch instead of hot chocolate for people who didn’t want anything alcoholic. All of the markets we saw before this one had hot chocolate and all of the ones after had the punch. There was quite a variety of merchandise, but the majority of it probably wasn’t handmade. Gingerbread is big there, but it is more of a soft cookie than the cake-like dessert called gingerbread in the USA. They come as big, bigger, and giant cookies, mostly dipped in a variety of flavored coatings including chocolate among many others. We tried an orange flavored one and it was good.

Christmas market in Bamberg, Germany

The market in Bamberg was fairly small as the town is not that big. It had a big carousel-like decoration and a large Christmas tree among the food and market stalls.

Würzburg, Germany Christmas market

Würzburg has a decent sized Christmas market in their market square where the temporary stalls for the Christmas market shared space with permanent stalls for a market that is always there. That meant a mix of things with the usual Christmas market fare and things like produce stands from the regular market.

booths at the Christmas market in Würzburg

One shop selling all kinds of glass Christmas ornaments had the closest thing to our dog Piper we’ve found yet. A white dog with black spots and the ears going up rather than down, with the insides of the ears black. If the backside of the ear had been black too it would have really been good since her ears are all black, but close enough we had to buy it. As previously mentioned, Piper is a blue heeler, but white with black spots rather than the mottled color they usually are.

Christmas market in Würzburg, Germany

The giant church next to the Würzburg market is called a chapel rather than a church because the common folk in medieval times built it without the bishop’s consent so they couldn’t call it a church. Some of the buildings or parts thereof are original in Würzburg, but many buildings there are all or partially restored after World War 2 bombings.

little train at the Christmas market in Koblenz, Germany

In Koblenz there are several Christmas markets. A small one was just a short walk from the ship. It had a miniature train ride around a Christmas tree for very small children. Some tiny booths with a table in them where people could sit were interspersed among the other small booths, which mostly sold food or drinks.

Christmas market in Cologne, Germany

The tour guide in Cologne, Germany repeatedly said that they have the biggest and best Christmas markets anywhere, but other than there being more of them and closer together than what we saw in most other towns, the markets themselves had similar stalls selling similar things.

meat stall at a market in Cologne, Germany

Grouping all of the markets that are next to each other or very close together probably makes the biggest market space we saw, but each individual market was not necessarily bigger than some of the larger ones elsewhere.

Christmas market in Cologne, Germany

One of them was at the base of the towering gothic cathedral. Markets at the base of churches seemed quite common, but then again some of those towns have a very lot of churches so pretty much anything is near one. Not all of them in Cologne were by churches though. The one closest to our ship had an ice-skating rink. Another one farther down the river had a large Ferris wheel. One of the others had a smaller Ferris wheel and a carousel.

Christmas market in Vienna, Austria

Most of the markets in most of the towns were open from about 10 am until late evening, but the small-town market in Wertheim, Germany was only open on weekends. We were there during the week so all of the stalls were closed. We just saw a small sample of Europe’s Christmas markets. There are many more in many other places.

Posted in Europe, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged Austria, Budapest, Christmas Markets, Europe, Germany, photos, travel | Leave a comment

Snorkeling With Whales

Posted on December 20, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Noordam in Tahiti

Our trans-Pacific cruise on Holland America Noordam made an overnight stop in Tahiti. We had no set plans on the day we arrived, so we took a last-minute island tour that was available through locals at the port. For the second day there I had a dive booked through an outside source (not a cruise ship excursion.) John didn’t want to dive and hadn’t made any other plans for that stop pre-cruise. Some of the people working on the ship that we met onboard had plans to go snorkeling with whales, also booked through an outside source. Their excursion had room for a couple more and they invited us to come along. I already had the dive booked, but John decided to go. He found the website that they had booked through. It was all in French since that is the language of Tahiti, an island in French Polynesia. This is his story of his amazing opportunity to interact with humpbacks.

snorkelers with a whale

Swimming With Humpback Whales in Tahiti

By John B

Humpback whales migrate from Antarctica and arrive in French Polynesian waters in July to breed or give birth to their babies. The warm waters provide a perfect place for them to nurture their young and teach them how to be a whale. They stay in these warm waters until sometime in November until the natural urge to migrate back to Antarctica overwhelms them.

people snorkeling with whales

Tahiti, the largest island in French Polynesian offers adventurous tourists a rare opportunity to swim with these whales. This type of tour is not offered through the cruise ship but can be booked via Internet for $80 in advance of arriving in Tahiti. Reservations are very limited as there’s only room for eight guests aboard the small inflatable outboard-powered boat. (Price given was at the time of our cruise and may not reflect the current price.)

on the inflatable boat

Upon arriving in port at Papeete, a group of three ship’s officers and myself gathered outside the ship and shared a twenty-dollar taxi ride to nearby Tahiti Yacht Club Marina. At the dive shop the crew gives everyone a ¾ wetsuit, fins and snorkel. I brought my own snorkel, fins and colorful air vest. After everyone seated themselves on the inflatable the tour guide gave a talk about whales while the boat captain motored out of the marina.

snorkeling with whales

He explained that mothers with calves were the most likely to allow us to swim among them, but we had to be patient. First off though, we all had to watch for “spouts” from whales. The ship’s Naturalist, Christie, was the first to spot a spout. Once spotted the captain of the inflatable stops and waits at a distance. The first mother whale and her baby did not come close and headed out to deeper water.

humpback whale

Optimum depths to swim with the whales are 30 to 60 feet so the captain continued slowly motoring along the shoreline on the border of the shallow reef where the whales frequent. Once again Christie spotted another spout and once again the captain stopped the boat. This time however, the baby swam closer to us. The guide explained that the baby whales are very curious, but the mothers can be reluctant to allow their babies to get too close unless they deem us safe. It’s a waiting game they explained. After turning off the outboard motor we drifted for about an hour while the baby and mother whale came closer and closer. Finally, the guide gave the word to slowly slip over the side without splashing. He said to swim slowly and don’t make any splashes or fast movements.

it’s a fluke

With crystal clear blue tinted water visibility allowed us to spot the baby quickly. It kept coming closer and closer exploring us as much as we were exploring it. My first sight of the baby’s fluke (tail) as it dove down sent adrenalin through my veins, a sight I never expected to see while snorkeling. My brightly colored air vest seemed to attract the massive sized baby whale and it swam right to me and looked me in the eye. Its eye connected with mine and clearly showed curiosity. I’m sure my eyes showed awe and admiration as this could only be described as an amazing once in a lifetime experience.

snorkeling with whales

After looking at me eye to eye the baby turned and gently swished its tail to turn away, nearly touching me with its fluke. For the next half hour everyone watched the whales swim in and among us, gliding gently through the warm waters. As explained, not every tour experiences swimming with the whales so we all felt extremely lucky, especially at the end of the season, within days or weeks of their annual migration back to Antarctica.

curious whale

To book a swim with whales adventure in Tahiti visit https://www.scubatektahiti.com/fr

whale up close

The website is in French so be sure to hit the translate button on your browser or use a browser that will translate the page.

humpback whale

Cost: Roughly $80 U.S. depending on exchange rate. Please note, you will need to book in advance and pay with a credit card that will calculate the exchange rate from French Polynesian Franc to your own currency.

whale

Also note, on the other side of the island from Papeete another dive company offers tours. Since cruise ships port at Papeete the most convenient tour is the company listed above. For best chances of swimming with the whales plan your trip to coincide with the whales from July to November. You can also book trips originating from Moorea if your ship stops there. The problem with booking from Moorea however is timing. Since Moorea is a tender port, you may not get off your ship in time to make your tour time, especially since guests who book ship’s tours often get priority on tenders ahead of do-it-yourself tours not booked through the ship.

Posted in Guest Blogs, Holland America, Noordam, Pacific Ocean & Islands, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions | Tagged baby whale, humpback, photos, snorkeling with whales, Tahiti.Papeete.snorkeling, whales | Leave a comment

Antigua Cruise Port

Posted on December 13, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Enchanted Princess in Antigua

Antigua is a coral-reefed Caribbean island in the Leeward islands of the Lesser Antillies. Despite the spelling, it is pronounced An-tee- ga as if there were no u. English is the official language. The climate is warm, tropical, and drier than some other Caribbean islands. It’s close enough to the equator that there’s not a lot of variation in daylight or seasons. Currency is the East Caribbean Dollar, which is tied into the US dollar at 2.7 ECD to 1 USD. Ports in the Caribbean are always happy to accept US dollars.

band at the port

Antigua has historic sites, beautiful beaches, and a sister island called Barbuda. Together the two islands are their own country. Cruise ships dock in the capital city of St. John’s. This is a city on Antigua, not the same place as the US Virgin Island called Saint John near Saint Thomas. Like the Enchanted Princess, most ships visiting Antigua dock at Heritage Quay which is right in town. Some dock at Redcliffe Quay which has old Georgian buildings with shops and cafes. If there are too many ships in port some ships may end up at Deep Water Harbor a mile and a half outside of town.

Heritage Quay cruise port

The main cruise port holds multiple cruise ships. The dock we were on exited right into the usual cruise port type shopping center on the pier, but the one next to it had a walkway straight into town. Access is only controlled at the dock itself where you have to show your cruise ship ID to enter the pier and walk to the ship. The shopping area is open to the public.

taxi stand at Heritage Quay

The shopping area has some of the usual shops found in nearly every port as well as some local shops, bars and eateries. There is a taxi stand and a lot of people with signs offering island tours or rides out to a beach. There was also a live local band playing for tips.

port entrance from town

When you exit the pier shopping area you are right in town where there are more shops, though these look older and somewhat rundown compared to the ones at the pier. There are people offering island tours out in that area as well. The ones they have may be cheaper and shorter than what the people inside have to offer. At least that was what we saw from all the people wanting us to book tours from both areas.

port shops

Excursions from our ship at this port were: Best of Antigua – Nelson’s Dockyard, Shirley Heights & Dow’s Hill; Nelson’s Dockyard, Shirley Heights & Blockhouse; Easy Antigua Panoramic Drive; Antigua Beach Break; Nelson’s Dockyard, Shirley Heights & Lunch; Fig Tree Drive & Turner’s Beach; Walking Tour of St John’s; Rainforest Canopy Zipline Adventure; Devil’s Bridge & Beach; Fort James Segway Adventure; Scenic Coastal Cruise, Snorkel, Beach & Lunch; Catamaran and Lobster Lunch, Scenic Cruise & Swim; Antigua Pineapple & Champagne Cruise; Scenic Cruise, Snorkel & Beach; Stingray. Snorkel, Swim & Scenic Country Drive; Local Connections Eco-Kayaking, Bird Island, Snorkel & Beach.

port shops by a dock

A lot of the ship’s excursions go to Nelson’s Dockyard, a national park in Antigua which once belonged to the British navy, but is now a marina with shops, restaurants and a museum. Outside of the marina area it also has hiking trails, some of which pass old forts, end at beaches, or go up to Shirley Heights which is a restored lookout and gun battery on a high point of the island with an excellent view.

Posted in Caribbean, Enchanted Princess, Ports of Call, Princess | Tagged Antigua, Caribbean, cruise, cruise port, Heritage Quay, islands, photos, travel | Leave a comment

Zaandam Cabins

Posted on December 6, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

door to the Pinnacle Suite

Standard cabins on most cruise ships include inside, ocean view, balcony, and suite, often with variations within each category – especially the suites. On the Zaandam, one of those categories is missing. That is balcony cabins. On this ship balconies only come with suites, but even the inside cabins have a sitting area with a couch. Fully accessible cabins have roll-in showers while ambulatory accessible cabins have showers with no threshold. Showers only are standard in inside cabins, but other than the accessible cabins ocean view and above have bathtubs with shower included.

inside cabin with one bed

Inside cabins are found on every deck that has cabins, though the majority of them are on the lower decks with the oceanview cabins with just a few sprinkled among the center of the suite decks higher up. Interior cabins range from 182 to 293 square feet with most of them a lot closer to 182 than 293. As with any stateroom category, the largest cabins are generally the accessible ones as they need more space for wheelchair maneuverability in the main cabin as well as larger bathrooms to allow wheelchair access.

inside cabin with two beds and a lived-in look

Most cruise ship cabins on most cruise ships have the option of having the beds set up as one or two.

porthole cabin

Ocean view cabins are mainly found on the 3 lowest passenger decks, though there are a very few at the front of one suite deck and back of the other. Ocean view cabins range in size from 140 to 319 square feet. Those nearest the bow of decks 1 and 2 have portholes rather than full windows. The portholes on this ship are double small portholes rather than one large round window.

oceanview cabin

There are no cabins behind the lifeboats on this ship, though there are still some with partially or fully obstructed views. Cabins on decks 1 and 2 have windows directly overlooking the sea.

cabin windows on the promenade

The outside promenade deck runs completely around deck 3 so cabins on that deck are set back behind the promenade deck with their views looking across the promenade. Even the ones not marked as partially obstructed will have the deck railing and any people walking by in their view. Partially obstructed view cabins on the promenade deck have some of the ship’s exterior metal structure in their view whereas fully obstructed cabins are completely behind the metal structure and just have a view of the promenade. The better ocean view cabins are found on decks 1 and 2 where there is no promenade between the cabin and the sea. Some of the deck 3 cabins are under the stage or under the galley. The stage will be noisy until shows end and the galley can be noisy all night so definitely not the best locations on the ship.

some promenade cabins are behind partial structure like this or full metal structure completely blocking the view

Cabins at the very back of the ship may experience engine noise and vibrations on any level of the ship, more pronounced the lower you go of course. The bow cabins can be noisy in stormy weather. When the ship slaps into big waves it can sound and feel like it is bouncing over logs. We like cabins toward the bow anyway because you are more likely to see flying fish from there when sailing through areas where they live. They are seen more near the bow because they are fleeing from the ship as it passes through the water where they were. Bow cabins are also likely to hear the anchor drop at tender ports.

Vista Suite

Vista suites are found on decks 6 and 7. These rooms are comparable to what many ships refer to as mini suites. They are 297-379 square feet. Vista suites include a whirlpool tub rather than just a bathtub and have private balconies. The balconies are larger than the standard cruise ship balcony. There is also lots of storage space within the room. Cabins located on a deck between two cabin decks are usually the quietest, but that is not an option for these as deck 6 is above a public deck and deck 7 below one.

Neptune Suite

Neptune suites are found on deck 7. They are 558-566 square feet and have larger balconies than the Vista suites. These suites come with more perks than what you get with smaller cabins. Some of the extra perks include use of the Neptune lounge, concierge service, in-suite coffee, complimentary laundry service, and priority boarding and tender.

pinnacle suite

There’s just one Pinnacle suite on this ship, which is Holland America’s biggest suite. It’s 1296 square feet including the spacious veranda. This suite includes a living room, dining room, second bathroom, and pantry. It takes up the same amount of space as 2 full Neptune suites, with more interior space than the two Neptune suites combined due to the equivalent of one Neptune balcony being interior space.

different colored arrows for each side of the ship

If you’re not sure whether you’re on the correct side of the ship (odd numbered cabins starboard and even numbered on the port side) just check the arrows on the mat that points the way forward at elevator/stairway intersections. The arrows are red on one side of the ship and green on the other.

Posted in Holland America, Shipboard Life, Zaandam | 2 Comments

Shows on Enchanted Princess

Posted on November 29, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Enchanted Princess in Grand Turk

The main theater on Enchanted Princess has no balcony like most cruise ship theaters. The seating nearest the stage has no slope to it so if you are down near the front, but not in the very front the view is mostly the backs of other people’s heads. If you are off to the side at the front you can only see a small part of the stage and none of the background screen. If you are front and center the stage is quite a lot higher than your view so you still don’t see everything.

theater on Enchanted Princess

Up higher there are better seats, but there are some on the sides, especially near the back that you don’t see much from either – especially if the person in front of you is taller than you are (which is more people than not for me.) There is a section of prime seats reserved for suite people that opens up to everybody else 5 minutes before the show starts so if you happen to be there right when they open that section you get a really good seat. They pretty much fill as soon as they open though so you have to time it just right. We only got seats there a couple times. The other way to get good seats is to come way early before the non-reserved seats in the best viewing area fill up.

acrobat show

The first night’s show was a comedy/acrobat show with a husband and wife team. They were fairly entertaining for a cruise ship show and had some pretty good tricks, especially near the end when it was pretty much all acrobatics.

rock opera show

The second night was a rock opera, which was pretty good other than some bits that were more opera than rock. More rock than opera would definitely have been preferable -at least in my opinion. Also in one number the cast all had giant masks on sticks which lit up with bright white light. When they faced the audience it was like driving down the road toward a bunch of oncoming cars with their brights on. It’s usually the spotlights at those shows that sometimes shine blindingly bright out into the audience and seem to find you no matter where you sit rather than part of the actual show.

Brian Cheatham

The third day’s performer was Bryan Cheatham from America’s Got Talent. He was part singer, part comedian. He had a good voice.

Spotlight Bar production show in the theater

There were several production shows with the ship’s cast of singers and dancers.

5 Skies show

The last production show we saw was called 5 Skies. It had a lot of special effects depicting being inside a video game with the hero of the game working his way up the levels to save the Sky Princess, which in this case was a person and not the ship named Sky Princess. Having good seats where we could see the whole stage as well as the two side screens really made this show as we could see all of the video enhancements from there. We had to get there nearly an hour early to get those seats, but that show would not have been nearly as good if you couldn’t see the whole thing.

production show

One night they had a magic show. We got there barely before the show started that night and ended up in the back and off to the side. The rest of the group I was with actually saw the show, but I had a very bad seat with a post and a tall person blocking my view. Magic shows aren’t very impressive if you can’t see anything. He did a few tricks in the variety show at the end of that cruise, which were much better from my perspective because I had a seat where I could actually see the stage that time. Still not a good enough seat to get any photos though.

Benny and the Rest Elton John tribute show

Other shows included various musicians, some doing their own thing and some tributes to more famous people like Whitney Houston and Elton John. The Elton John group was called Benny and the Rest. Of course the first song they played was Benny and the Jetts. On the last night they had a variety show with short bits from whatever guest performers were still onboard as well as from the production cast. At least with music it’s mainly about what you hear rather than what you see so it’s not as bad if you have crappy seats for that as it is for some of the other shows.

chef show

One afternoon they had a comedy cooking show with the chef and Matre’d. After making spaghetti together the chef seriously made a black forest cake of the sort people would actually want to eat while the cake the Matre’d made in comedic fashion did not look so appealing. Possibly to alcoholics considering the amount he poured on it. The show ended with a galley tour, which involved a whole crowd of people walking across the ship from the theater on one end to the galley nearly to the other.

Yes or No game show at Princess Live

There are shows in other areas of the ship sometimes too. Game shows like Deal or no Deal, crew demonstrations, or comedy. Show venues other than the main theater include Princess Live, the Vista Lounge, and the Piazza, which is the central area of the ship at the bottom of the fancy stairs.

comedian

We saw a comedian in the Vista Lounge, who was better than average as cruise ship comedians go. His show was mostly prepared jokes with very little picking on people in the audience and no x-rated jokes or swearing. Sometimes there are comedians who spend the whole time picking on the audience, or whose entire show is a nonstop stream of swear words or body parts without anything actually funny at all. A comedian on a different ship even ran off the stage and assaulted a person who tried to leave the show early. The comedians on the second leg of our back-to-back cruise were even better than the ones on the first round. The last one was the best of all even though we had crummy seats and more heard than saw his performance. I don’t remember his name, but he did a different show in a different outfit for each of his 3 performances that night and most people stayed for at least 2 of them.

vegetable carving demonstration

One day in the piazza they had a demonstration with 3 talented galley crew making creations out of fruit and vegetables. One said his was a koala, but it looked more like an ewok from the Star Wars movie. Another made a tropical bird, which looked like it would be a cockatoo until he rubbed it with beet juice or something to make it somewhat pink, after which it looked more like a galah – a big pink bird of the parrot family native to Australia. The other one had a pair of what we thought were ducks, but she said they were love birds.

There was also live music in various venues around the ship in the evenings.

Posted in Enchanted Princess, Princess, Shipboard Life | Tagged cruise, cruise ship shows, Enchanted Princess, photos, Princess, travel | Leave a comment

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