Halloween on the Noordam

Posted on October 31, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Halloween Pumpkin Display

Our 34-day pacific crossing on Holland America Noordam from San Diego to Sydney didn’t originally include Halloween. Not because of the time of year, but because of the timing of crossing the international dateline.  This cruise actually crossed the international dateline 3 times – going to Kiritimati, going back from Kiritimati and then later for real. That’s because the dateline doesn’t run straight down the globe, but rather takes a jog around Kiritimati. The over and back had already been completed about a week prior to Halloween so at that point we were crossing the dateline for good.

international dateline goes around Kiritimati

The schedule on the booking pre-cruise gave October 30 as a sea day, with the next day November 1 and no October 31st. Once we were onboard they passed out a new schedule for all of the dateline crossings which changed the original days skipped and added for the first crossings as well as dropping the 30th and adding Halloween. It was a sea day so it really didn’t matter what date they called it and since the ship crossed the dateline during that day it could go either way. I guess they decided they’d rather have Halloween than skip it. All of the passengers were happy about that. It’s kind of a bummer to miss a holiday even if you didn’t have any plans to celebrate.

a small sample of our Halloween ducks

Halloween on a cruise ship isn’t ever a huge affair, but they always do something for it. We had our own Halloween bit in that some of the cruise ducks we brought to hide were Halloween themed ducks. Little witch ducks, vampire ducks, cat ducks, pumpkin ducks, and that sort of thing, some of which glowed in the dark. We also found some Happy Halloween duck tags to go with the Halloween ducks. Instead of our initials where the tags say cruiser on the Frankenstein and vampire ducks, I wrote Frankenduck or Duckenstein and Duckula. I did not think of anything Halloweeny to say on the other ducks though.

Halloween Spider with a Halloween duck tag

I also had a few spiders that we bought at one of our port stops in Hawaii to hide as well as ducks for Halloween.

The Lido buffet had different Halloween characters on light fixtures

Starting early Halloween morning the Lido buffet was all decorated up for Halloween with carved pumpkins and decorations all around. One of the decorations they put over a light fixture looked like a witch doctor so I hid a little witch duck under it early in the morning, which was still there at lunchtime. If no passenger ever found it then whoever takes down the decorations got it. Some of the crew collect ducks too and it always makes their day when they find one so it made someone happy whether passenger or crew.

witch duck hiding in a witch doctor

The first onboard Halloween activity was a pumpkin carving demonstration on the pool deck, but we didn’t go figuring it would be a madhouse crowd and hard to see anything anyway, plus there was a shark lecture from the naturalist onboard at the same time that we wanted to go to.

Halloween cake at the Lido buffet

At lunchtime there were a couple fancy Halloween cakes in the dessert area at the buffet. People had already cut into them before I got there even though lunch had barely started so I only got photos of partial cakes. One was about half gone and the other just had a corner missing.

pumpkin display at one dining room

At dinner there were pumpkin carving displays in front of the dining rooms, a different one at each of the two levels. They did not have a special Halloween dessert like ships sometimes do.

pumpkin display at the other dining room

I did not hear anything about having the kids trick-or-treat to the ships shops as has been done on other ships sometimes, but there were only 5 kids onboard so if they did that sort of thing they may have just sent them invitations directly rather than announcing it to everyone.

bird witch on our cabin door

A lot of people put Halloween decorations on their cabin doors. We had a witch bird that we bought at Target at one of the port stops in Hawaii earlier in the cruise. It was pretty small compared to what some of the other people had on their doors.

Halloween decorations on 3 different cabin doors

The last activity for the day was a Halloween party and costume contest, which we also didn’t go to. It was at a relatively small venue so they must not have expected too many people. We did see some people wandering around in costumes during the day and wearing them at dinner so some people brought them in spite of the original schedule not including Halloween. Or they bought them at one of the previous ports. The next day a door to a cabin down the hall from ours had certificates for the best costume hanging on the door under their tiny Halloween decorations so they obviously dressed up and attended the party.

another decorated light at the Lido Buffet

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Food on Quantum of the Seas

Posted on October 25, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

lemon tart

Like most cruise ships, Quantum of the Seas has a variety of places to eat. Some are included in the cruise fare and others cost extra. We found plenty of good food in the complimentary places and did not try any food at the ones where you had to pay.

chicken dinner in the dining room

As with most ships the two main eateries are the dining room and the buffet. The main dining room was split into two sides with different decor and separate lines. One side was for people with reservations and the other for those without if you were on the any time dining. Set time dining was on a different level, though one night we were taken to a table there rather than in the anytime area. Another time we were seated on the reservation side of the anytime dining room even though we didn’t have a reservation so they were flexible when tables were available in different areas. Suite guests had their own dining room called the Coastal Kitchen.

eggs Benedict in the dining room

The menu varied daily for dinner and the food was always good. We never tried lunch in the dining room, but did go for breakfast a couple times. It was both less crowded and more relaxing than breakfast at the buffet.

lobster dinner

There were two formal nights during our cruise. On one of them they served lobster.

gluten free section at the buffet

The buffet had a gluten-free section. We were glad to see that Royal Caribbean hadn’t entirely discontinued those since there was not one on Wonder of the Seas. It didn’t have a huge selection in the gluten-free section and tended to be repetitive on what was available at breakfast and lunch, but at least they did have it. Dinner may have had more variety, but I can’t say for sure since we never had diner in the buffet.

lunch at the Solarium Bistro

We had lunch at the Solarium Bistro a couple times and the food was good there too. It’s a much smaller buffet than the Windjammer Cafe, which is the name of the main buffet, but it is also far less crowded.

SeaPlex Dog House

Up by the SeaPlex entertainment area there’s a hot dog place called the Dog House. The SeaPlex is a multi-use space that has a variety of different activities including bumper cars. The Dog House there was smaller with less choices than the ones on Symphony and Wonder. They did have gluten free buns available. There weren’t a lot of hot dog choices, only beef hot dogs and pork or pork and beef sausage. Sides available were potato salad and coleslaw. The hot dogs are good, but skip the potato salad – it’s just cut up pieces of potato and onion and nothing else. Not even any mayo or sauce of any kind. There wasn’t anything to drink near the hot dog stand unless you had the soda package. Not many tables nearby either and the ones that were there were mostly full of people watching the activity in the SeaPlex rather than anyone eating hot dogs. We just took ours back to our room and made tea to drink in the handy dandy tea pot this ship provided in the cabins.

drink from La Patisserie and pastry from the cafe on a table outside of the cafe

On the promenade deck pretty much right across from each other there’s the Promenade Cafe and La Patisserie. The Promenade Cafe has free pastries, cookies, and sometimes little sandwiches. It has basic tea or coffee like you could get at the buffet. La Patisserie has fancy coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. It also has larger pastries. There is a charge for the things there. I did get some hot chocolate there a couple times since it was the only place onboard that would make it with non-dairy milk. I tried a couple different flavors that you can add and both were good.

Vintages wine bar

We had pizza at Sorento’s one day for lunch. Both Symphony and Wonder had made gluten free pizza with whatever toppings people wanted, but Quantum would only make plain cheese pizza if you wanted it gluten free.

Jamie’s Italian on Quantum of the Seas

There’s another little complimentary cafe called Cafe Two 70 near the venue of the same name, but we didn’t have anything there. It probably would have been a good place to avoid crowds though since it wasn’t really near anything where most people would be hanging out at breakfast or lunch. It was down a long hallway beyond Jamie’s Italian and the wine bar with nothing other than art for sale and Two 70 next to it.

noodle shop

Most ships have a pool grill that’s open daily all afternoon, but this ship only had a part-time pop up one. Both that and the ice cream stand were behind garage style doors on the pool deck. Neither were marked or listed on the deck plans. When the doors were open they served their respective products, but when they were closed you would never even know the place existed. There was a noodle place on the pool deck, but the noodles cost extra. It did offer chicken nuggets or mini-hot dogs for free.

photo op by Wonderland

The ship had quite a few specialty dining options, but as previously mentioned we didn’t try any of them. Wonderland is an Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant that serves very out-of-the-ordinary food. There was a photographer set up outside of it one evening so we have photos that make it look like we went there even though we really didn’t. Other premium restaurants include Jamie’s Italian, Chops Grille steak house, Izumi sushi, and the really exclusive Chef’s Table that only seats 14. According to Royal’s website there are also snacks available at Vintages wine bar.

turkey dinner in the dining room

Nothing was open 24 hours other than Cafe Promenade, but overnight they just had cookies and beverages so room service was the only real option for anyone wanting much to eat in the middle of the night or very early in the morning.

baked Alaska

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Things to Do on Holland America Noordam

Posted on October 18, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Holland America Noordam

The Noordam is a fairly small ship compared to the megaships that ply the oceans these days, but it’s still big enough to be a full-service cruise ship. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles some ships have like waterslides, ziplines, rock climbing walls, go-karts, skating rinks or any of the other many things various larger ships have. Those aren’t Holland America’s thing. It does still have things to do though.

people hanging out at a bar

If you like a quiet peaceful ship this one had lots of places to hang out away from crowds. Although it was sailing near capacity, one of the benefits of a smaller ship is that it holds less people so there aren’t as many of them crowding into the space that it does have available.

hot tub at the Lido pool

Noordam has all the basic things you expect to find on cruise ships. It has two pools, the main Lido pool and a back deck pool. The back pool is always outside, but the Lido pool has a sliding roof so it can be either an indoor or outdoor pool. There are also hot tubs by the pools. There’s not a whole lot of deck chairs around the pools so of course the usual chair hogs have towels on them all day whether they are actually using the chair or not. There are more deck chairs in other areas of the ship. The back deck behind the pool has deck chairs. There’s some on the upper decks above the pool deck and some along the outside promenade deck on deck 3. Shady chairs are scarce though since the majority of those are all out in the sun.

outside promenade deck

The outside promenade deck circles around the entire ship. Promenade decks that circle the ship are great for walking or running or just as a place to go outside and see the view from any direction. Any but the front anyway, it does have solid structure there. For a front view the Crow’s Nest lounge is the place to go as it has floor to ceiling windows all across the bow. View notwithstanding, it’s actually good that the front part of the promenade is sheltered. It would otherwise be quite windy there whenever the ship is underway.

Crow’s Nest Lounge

Besides having a great view at the front of the ship, lots of places to sit and relax, and a coffee bar that also makes drinks, the Crows Nest lounge had a section set up for puzzles and games. That section included a whole bunch of puzzles and games available for people to use, which a lot of people did.

gym

The gym got quite a lot of use on this ship. It opened at 6am, but should have opened earlier since there were always quite a lot of people wanting to get in before opening time. Some ships leave the gym unlocked for people to use anytime and the official open hours are just for when it is staffed, which is nicer. It doesn’t require staffing to use things like treadmills, elliptical trainers, or exercise bikes. Perhaps they are afraid someone will get hurt when there is nobody there to help.

afternoon tea

Ships generally have activities scheduled throughout the day that people can participate in if they want to. Noordam’s daily activities included things like tai chi, stretching, yoga, walk a mile, origami folding, trivia, coloring or painting, movie of the day, afternoon tea, bridge instruction and games, port talks, nature talks, guest speaker talks, ukelele and dance lessons, lots of different music, and varied things like flower arranging and lei making. Of course there’s always a nightly show.

whale lecture

Pickle Ball seems to be a new thing in cruise ship entertainment and Noordam had some instructions for it as well as a court for people to play in. Other scheduled games included things like shuffleboard, cornhole, mahjong, and poker tournaments – assuming enough people showed up to hold the game. John tried to do the poker tournament a couple times, but they never had enough players to actually hold one. We had better luck with cornhole when we tried that one day since there were enough people to hold the game. It was outside on the top deck in the wind so throwing beanbags in the direction with the wind was a whole lot easier than throwing them into the wind.

casino

Deal or No Deal seems to have replaced BINGO on a lot of cruises now, though our cruise on the Noordam had both. Perhaps because bingo is getting way too expensive to interest the crowds it once had. When we first started cruising we played bingo sometimes because you got a lot of games for not much money. Over the years it has become a lot of money for very few games so we probably weren’t the only ones who gave up playing bingo ages ago. Deal or No Deal is another way to take your money as they take in a whole lot more than they pay out. It’s also somewhat deceiving because the cards you get don’t have all the same amounts as the cases do. Unless you’re the chosen person to pick cases the odds of winning anything aren’t good, and even if you do manage to win something it’s just a pittance. Even that chosen person never gets a very high offer from the imaginary banker. The host from this ship was pretty entertaining though. She was the best part of the game, and you don’t have to buy a card just to watch it.

library at the Explorer’s Lounge

There’s lots of things you can do on a ship to entertain yourself too. Watching for flying fish is always fun. If you happen to have a cabin with a window or balcony near the front of the ship they can often be seen from there. On the Noordam the promenade deck is a good place for that too. Relaxing in a deck chair with a good book is always a nice way to pass some time. For anyone who doesn’t load up their kindle or bring enough books of their own, the Noordam had a brand-new library with quite a variety of books and even a book exchange where people can trade in a book they’ve finished for one somebody else left there.

This duck sat under the bottom stair in the atrium near guest services for about 3 weeks before anybody found it. It could be seen from several places above if you looked in the right spot.

Hiding or searching for ducks is also a fun way to entertain yourself on a cruise. Hiding them is generally more successful than finding any unless a lot of other people on your cruise are also hiding them. We brought a good supply on the Noordam and enjoyed looking for places to put them. Some easily found and others not so much. The more people who hide them the more there are available for finding which makes it more fun for everyone. There were more duck hunters than duck hiders on our cruise so there weren’t a lot available to find, but some people did re-hide the ones they found so that got a few more out and about. We sometimes found our own ducks that other people had moved to new hiding places. Most of the people we talked to had never heard of cruise ducks even though the majority of them had been on many previous cruises. A lot of them said they’d bring ducks in the future – and started hunting them once they knew there were ducks around. Some of the crew like duck hunting too. It makes their day when they find one.

pool at the thermal suite

Noordam has a nice thermal suite in the spa. It costs extra to use it, which can either be as a one-day pass or for the entire cruise. The thermal suite includes the hydropool, heated ceramic chairs, and steam rooms. The spa also has massages and other treatments as well as hair and nail salons, all of which also costs extra. The sauna is located just outside of the thermal suite and is free to use for any passengers.

window display at a ship shop

There’s a variety of shops and this ship did have ship model Christmas tree ornaments available even though our cruise was not at Christmastime so that was a good find for me. That’s the first thing I look for as soon as the ship shops open, and often the only thing I buy if they happen to have them.

Hawaii show

The nightly shows were sometimes mediocre at best, but since this cruise lasted nearly a month it’s not like they could repeat the same shows each week like they do when sailing a series of one-week cruises. They did occasionally have a good one. In Honolulu the ship stayed in port until 11pm so some locals came on board for that night’s show. Though it was the sort of thing you’d find in a small local theater or school type performance, it was something different, a taste of their local culture, and kind of cute. They had another local performance in Tahiti.

Xylosynth show

After Hawaii they got some new outside entertainment onboard. A show called Dawn and David Meyer didn’t sound all that promising, but was actually quite good. He was very energetic and played something called a xylosynth which was a combination of a xylophone and a synthesizer. It could make the sounds of various instruments. He often had two mallets  in each hand and could play it very fast. Dawn came out now and then to dance, mostly in the dark with either handheld brightly lit color changing sticks that looked like light sabers from Star Wars when she first came in before she started moving them around making colorful patterns, or a cloak reminiscent of butterfly wings covered in lights of everchanging colors. Later David played some sort of laser instrument that shot large green light beams upward and made different sounds whenever he put his hand on a beam. They had another show a different night. Their shows were the best shows of the voyage.

the Diamonds

Later they had a singing group called the Diamonds. It consisted of three girls from Australia who performed songs from women’s singing groups of the past. They also did a bit of dancing while they sang. They were better than most of the rest of the nightly shows.

King Neptune

When we crossed the equator they had a cheesy King Neptune ceremony where some of the crew who had not previously crossed the equator got slimed and then either sent to bake in the sun or allowed to rinse off in the pool. It was hot and crowded so we only stayed for the first 3 things. There was a very entitled lady on a small mobility scooter who would yell at anyone who blocked her view even for a second whether it was someone trying to get just one good photo or the professional photographer from the ship. She even yelled at guys dressed as pirates that were part of the show.

life raft demo

There was a life raft demonstration one day that was pretty interesting and fun to watch. Some of the crew were more entertaining than the actual entertainment. Of course rafts are just for the crew. In the event that the ship had to be evacuated passengers would all go to lifeboats. The raft in the demonstration was much smaller than the ones in barrels on the promenade deck that they would actually use if the ship had to be evacuated. Those would not fit in a pool.

some of the Art

There was always something on the schedule, though we generally entertain ourselves and don’t go to a lot of it. Exploring the ship is fun when you first board, and even once you know your way around and where everything is it’s still good exercise to walk around the ship. For anyone who likes art there’s always some to be found in hallways, on stairways, and in some of the other public areas. Statues are also good places to hide ducks.

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Saint Kitts Cruise Port

Posted on October 11, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Enchanted Princess docked next to AidaDiva in Saint Kitts

St. Kitts is the larger of the 2 islands within the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. These two islands form the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere. Basseterre on Saint Kitt’s southwestern coast is the capital. Cruise ships dock at Port Zante in Basseterre at a large wharf that can berth 4 ships at a time. The island is known for its beaches and rainforested mountains. Temperatures are generally 75 ° – 80 °F year-round. The people who live on the island are not allowed to cut the rainforest down so they have to import building materials.

sign at the port

Saint Kitts and Nevis are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. They sit south of St. Maarten, west of Antigua, and significantly farther southwest of St. Thomas. Currency is the eastern Caribbean dollar, which is tied to the US dollar at the rate of 2.7 ECD is always equal to 1 USD.

welcome sign by the dock

Like Basseterre (which means low land), there are other places on the island with French names. Some parts of the island once belonged to France while the rest belonged to England until the British took over the entire island before it became its own country.

aerial photo of ships docked in Saint Kitts

The end of the original pier brings passengers into a fairly extensive shopping area. It has some of the usual cruise port shops as well as some more local ones. Most of them have clothes and souvenirs. There’s a casino, a fairly centrally located bar, and a food court. Also a chocolate factory, or at least a chocolate shop that called itself a chocolate factory. The best deal we found at any port was in one of the shops at St. Kitts where they had men’s button front tropical print shirts for just $7.00.

arrival building

The arrival building at the end of the pier has space for ship’s shore excursions to gather in the shade as well as restrooms and a tourist information desk. Beyond the building is a large open square. Off to the sides outside of the square pre-booked local tours are allowed to meet.

barrier around the entry building

There is a barrier that last-minute tour vendors are not allowed to cross so they are found beyond the barrier.

dock in Saint Kitts

The cruise terminal in Basseterre has two docks to hold the 4 ships it has the capacity for. While the original pier exits directly into the port’s expansive shopping area, there is also access from the second pier. The name of the port is Port Zante.

shops at the port

Basseterre’s historical old town is within walking distance of the port. The offerings at the port for last minute things to do for people who didn’t have anything booked include lots of taxis available to take people to a beach as well as people with signs offering island tours. The tours are available either in vans or open-sided trucks. People can also take a ferry to the nearby island of Nevis.

more shops at the port

Passengers are always advised to bring photo ID with them into every port. Not all of them ask to see it when you return, but at Saint Kitts they did.

information booth in the entry building

Excursions offered from our ship in Saint Kitts: Best of Saint Kitts (Brimstone Hill, Romney Manor & Caribelle Batik); Local Connections (Romney Manor, Caribelle Batik & Timothy Hill Lookout with Artist); East St Kitts Scenic Drive & Romeny Manor; Scenic Railway Ride & Circle Island Drive; Fairview Great House and Gardens & Panoramic Drive; Local Connections Caribbean Culinary Demonstrations & Tasting with chef; Cockleshell Beach, Timothy Hill & Scenic Drive; 4×4 Island Safari & Beach; Souffa Stone Hike & Beach Getaway; Rainforest Walk, Romney Manor & Caribelle Batik; 4WD Expedition & Beach; Scenic Railway Ride & Coastal Cruise; Nevis Island Tour, Beach & Lunch; Dolphin Encounter; Dolphin Swim; Cruise to Nevis, Pinney’s Beach, Snorkel & Lunch; Scenic Coastal Cruise & Snorkel, Coastal Kayaking, Snorkel & Scenic Drive.

food court at the port

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Holland America Zaandam

Posted on October 4, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Zaandam in Vancouver

Holland America Zaandam began service in 2000. The ship was refurbished in 2018. This is one of Holland America’s smaller ships carrying a max of just 1432 passengers and 607 crew. It is one of the Rotterdam class, though the current Rotterdam is a newer and larger vessel as the one called Rotterdam that was similar to Zaandam has been retired and replaced. Holland America’s ships tend to be one of a long line of ships with the same name as each eventually gets replaced with a newer ship. Maybe there are only so many dam names to go around since all of their ship names end in dam. Holland America themselves refer to their fleet as the dam ships. On a previous cruise we even saw t-shirts in the onboard gift shop saying just that. All the Holland America ships that we’ve been on had paintings of various renditions of that ship on different levels of the stairway, but the current Zaandam is only the third ship to be named Zaandam so the remaining levels of that stairway had older versions of other ships – including one called Spaarndam, which is not a current ship and one I had never heard of previously. One called Spaarndam hit a mine and sank in 1922 so perhaps that’s why they chose not to use that name again. Veendam and Prinsendam are also missing from the current lineup.

bottom, middle, and top of the atrium centerpiece which looks like a giant pipe organ that rises 3 decks high and takes up the entire center of the atrium

Zaandam ship stats: ship’s registry – Netherlands, gross tonnage 61,396, length 781 feet, beam 105.8 feet, speed 23 knots, inside cabins 134, outside cabins 582.

promenade deck

Zaandam has 10 passenger decks, 5 of which have cabins. There are no cabins specified as balcony cabins on this ship. Balconies come only with suites though the vista suites are similar to mini suites found on other ships which is basically a slightly larger balcony cabin. There are also no cabins behind the lifeboats, though there are some with obstructed views on the lower promenade deck where the window is behind the metal structure on the outside of the ship. All oceanview cabins on the promenade deck have windows looking onto the outside promenade where people can walk around the entire ship. Most of those cabins have views to the sea across the promenade, but not direct views like the ocean view cabins on the two decks below with a window directly above the sea. The outside promenade goes all the way around the ship, making a nice place to go for a walk when weather permits.

stairway art of the Zaandam

The fourth and fifth decks have public areas with the ship’s shops, stage, dining room, casino, guest service areas and other public spaces. Decks 6 and 7 have suites and a few inside cabins, with all the larger suites found on deck 7. There are 3 ocean view cabins at the front of deck 6 and 2 at the back of deck 7. The ship’s bridge is at the front of deck 7.

main pool on the Lido deck

Deck 8 holds 2 pools, 2 hot tubs, the spa and fitness center, and the buffet. The main Lido pool area which includes the hot tubs, burger place, taco bar, pool bar, and seating areas has a sliding cover to keep that area sheltered and dry in inclement weather. The front of deck 9 is the Crow’s Nest, an observation lounge with views to the front and sides of the ship. The back of deck 9 has a sports court and the kid’s club area. The front and back sections of deck 9 are not connected inside the ship since the center portion of the ship only goes up to deck 8 other than an outside walkway. Deck 10 is just a very small section of deck called the Sky Deck. Since this ship only goes up 10 decks high it doesn’t even have to pretend not to have a deck 13. On American ships with 13 or more decks you never see an elevator button for deck 13 or any deck labeled as such so if you’re on deck 14 it’s really the 13th deck. Other countries that do not have superstitions about the number 13 do include that deck – like the MSC Meraviglia which has a deck 13, but no deck 17 even though the highest deck is labeled as deck 19 because 17 is considered the bad number in Italy.

guitars signed by famous musicians

Ship’s décor is a music theme and they do have several venues onboard for listening to live music as well as a variety of different instruments on display in public areas. Other entertainment includes shows, movies, lectures, and games. Food included in the cruise price is found in the dining room, buffet or poolside grill and taco bar. For an extra charge steak and seafood is available at the ship’s upscale restaurant, the Pinnacle Grill or Italian food at Canaletto. There are of course a number of bars to be found around the ship as well, and coffee bars in the Explorations Cafe on deck 5 and in the Crow’s Nest on deck 9.

duck in the bottom of a music themed table

There are lots of nooks and crannies and statues and things in which to hide ducks besides the commonly used flowerpots. Unfortunately on our cruise there were very few people hiding ducks and most of the passengers we talked to had never even heard of hiding ducks on cruise ships. Some of them sat out in plain sight for several days before anyone picked them up, especially at the beginning of the cruise.

Vista Suite

The cabin walls in Zaandam are only slightly magnetic. Enough to hold lightweight things like paper, but not enough for a magnetic hook to hold much of anything. The door is slightly more magnetic than the walls. A hook there will hold a very lightweight sweatshirt, but not a coat. Magnets will stick to the outside of the cabin doors if you have magnetic or lightweight decorations that you want to put there, but again it is not strong enough magnetically for magnets to hold up anything heavy.

The Explorer’s Lounge has games, a library, a computer room, and a coffee shop

Internet on ships has greatly improved since they are all getting upgraded to Starlink. It doesn’t rival shore internet yet, but is much faster and more functional than it used to be. Holland America’s app was quite functional. Everything worked most of the time, which is way better than the apps of other cruiselines we’ve sailed on recently. The chat feature even alerted people when someone sent them a new message, which you would think is a no-brainer, but we have been on ships where it did not.

wide open casino next to a bar

Apparently I’ve just always sailed on the right Holland America ships before. In recent years none of the ones we sailed on have had indoor smoking, or even allowed smoking anywhere except under a shelter on one side of the open back deck. After coming across the occasional person smoking in the Zaandam casino, hearing of it from others, and choking on the smoke it as it spread about the ship, I looked up their smoking policy. Turns out that keeping it limited to that one shelter on the back deck is not the policy on all of their ships, just a select few. According to the app, the Eurodam, Neiuw Amsterdam, Noordam, Oosterdam, Westerdam, and Zuiderdam only allow smoking outside on the back deck near the Seaview bar. The Konningsdam, Neiuw Stattendam, Rotterdam, Volendam, and Zaandam also allow active players to smoke in designated areas of the casino. Online after listing things the same way the app does, it then adds the Eurodam in its own space saying casino smoking is allowed, contradicting what the app says about that ship.

the seaview pool on the back deck has cow decorations

There weren’t a lot of people smoking in the Zaandam’s casino, but it only took one for smoke to spread a long way. Not long before the cruise I had just recommended Holland America to some relatives because of the no indoor smoking, thinking that applied to all of their ships so I gave them a bum steer after finding out it does not.

dining room

We had one night sailing through rough waters. Cruise ships these days have pretty good stabilizers that reduce the motion you would otherwise feel, but various things around the room did a lot of creaking that night so it was a bit noisy. I’ve never had any issues with seasickness on a cruise ship even though I get motion sickness sometimes on other things and have been seasick on smaller boats before. Those who are bothered by the motion can get seasick pills from guest services if needed.

75% off sale at the gift shop

The weather was not cooperative, raining nearly the whole time we were on this cruise, which was Zaandam’s end of the season cruise to Alaska. We still had fun though. I’ve never not had fun on a cruise. It’s what you make of it. You can choose to gripe about the weather and not do anything in port, or you can bring raingear or an umbrella. I’d recommend rain gear. Umbrellas are good for light rain or to bring along in case of a shower, but for constant heavy rain good rain gear can’t be beat. Sailing on the last cruise of the season had its advantages in everything Alaska related being 75% off in the gift shop – which included some really good raincoats. I bought one there that kept me totally dry, which the one I had brought from home would not have as heavy as the rain was at times. The gift shop also had ship model Christmas tree ornaments of the Zaandam, something that is often hard to find when not sailing close to Christmas.

Zaandam Christmas ornament

When cruising through scenic areas like glaciers on Alaska cruises Holland America allows passengers out on the open front bow. Additional smaller open areas on some of the decks above will usually be open for scenic sailing as well. Zaandam had just one open bow area above the main bow, accessed from the port side of deck 6. This area was open throughout the cruise rather than only when the main bow was open.

photo of the bowcam channel view in Endicott Arm with people on the upper and lower bows

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Hits and Misses on MSC Meraviglia

Posted on September 27, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Meraviglia in Cozumel

There are always things people really like about any individual cruise and things they could do without or feel could have been done better. Some things are likely seen as either good or bad by pretty much everyone onboard, whereas with other things some people may not care or may even feel exactly the opposite of my opinion.

HITS

The boarding process on MSC Meraviglia was easy and efficient. For the first time that I’d seen since covid they let people into the terminal before the ship actually started boarding. We were allowed wait until the ship was ready to board in those multitudes of chairs in the terminal where people used to go pre-covid, but have just walked past the rows and rows of empty chairs after waiting sometimes for hours outside since. Other than priority boarding, of which they had just one group rather than the many seen on some ships, people were given boarding group numbers as they checked in, again like the good old pre-covid days.

room full of chairs on the Meraviglia

The ship was nice, clean, spacious, well cared for, and had mostly tasteful décor.

Carousel Theater show

Most of the shows were entertaining to watch.

Meriviglia’s take on pecan pie – a normal on-menu dessert

For anyone not on a special diet they had mostly good food. They were pretty lacking in accommodating with things like gluten and dairy free options though.

cloudy sky in the dome

dome show

dome portraying a stained-glass ceiling

One of the highlights of the ship is the dome over the galleria, or promenade area. Patterns change throughout the day portraying anything from fancy ceilings to sunny skies. Several times throughout the day there’s a dome show on that ceiling. Some were patterns of light and color where others were a sequential show.

balcony cabin

The cabin was nice, and the bed had a comfortable mattress.

There were lots of different things to do onboard.

waterslides

The ship had fun waterslides where you go down on tubes, of which there were options for singles or doubles.

The crew was friendly and helpful.

MISSES

The muster drill was a crowded cluster. Instead of watching the safety video individually and going down to your muster station to get your card scanned on your own, they had everyone go to their cabin at the same time to watch the video, then call a number given at the end to prove they’d watched it – after which they announced the code so anybody could call whether they’d actually seen it or not. Then they called several decks at a time to all go down to their muster stations together for card scanning. They started with the highest decks, so those people were all on the way back up as they called lower decks to go down. This made for a huge pile-up on the stairs as elevators were not allowed and none of the crew stairways were open like they used to be back in the days of the in-person muster drill. That jam-packed stairway is a great way to spread all the germs not having the in-person muster drill is supposed to prevent as well as just being an annoyingly slow pile-up of people. Plus they kept repeatedly announcing that it was mandatory to go there as if people weren’t bothering to do it rather than being stuck on a crowded stairway unable to get through. The way all of the other ships we’ve been on since covid have done muster where you just watch the video on your own and wander through your muster station at will sometime during the boarding hours works far better.

no kleen-x in the bathroom or anywhere else

This was the second ship we’ve sailed on that had no kleen-x box in the room. The other was a different cruise line and also a newer ship.

gluten and dairy free tapioca dessert with fruit sauce

There was no gluten free food made onboard so their only option was removing sauces and things from meals or thawing frozen pre-packaged items. Getting something as simple as a pre-packaged croissant took forever from the buffet because they had to go all the way down to the dining room to use a microwave to thaw it out. Also the only gluten-free dessert offered in the dining room was cake (from the freezer of course) that was covered in whipped cream frosting so useless if dairy is an issue as well – and their so-called sorbet from the dining room contained dairy so it wasn’t even real sorbet. They did have actual sorbet for sale at the gelato shop, but would not serve that in the dining room even though they had nothing else to offer. The only dessert they ever came up with that was both gluten and dairy free was some sort of tapioca thing that was almost edible when served with a fruit sauce, but pretty bland and tasteless by itself. Of course dessert should be tasty and enjoyable, not just almost edible.

The cabin came with neither washcloths nor bathrobes so we had to ask for both at the start of the cruise and they stopped including fresh washcloths with the room cleanings a couple days before the cruise ended.

not quite dry laundry hanging on the wall with magnets and clothesline

There was no self-serve guest laundry so we had to hand wash in the cabin sink because we’re too cheap to pay the exorbitant prices cruise ships want for doing people’s laundry and we were on too long of a cruise to pack enough clean clothes to last the whole time.

MSC’s website and app leave much to be desired. Things that should work online and in the app don’t so people end up in long barely moving lines onboard for stuff that could have been taken care of in a few seconds if either the website or app worked as it should.

casino

Lines are a constant for just about everything. For example on most ships you can go into the theater ahead of time, find a seat, and wait for the show to start. On this ship people stand in line outside the theater until nearly time for the show to start even though most shows required reservations in advance. Getting on or off the ship often involves a slow-moving line too. There were also those long lines to get reservations for a lot of things that should have been done through the app, but it didn’t work. MSC is not very good with lines. Even the always long line at the customer service desk barely moves – and most of the movement it does get comes from the screener removing people that can get the help they need elsewhere.

Looking at the backside of the Houdini show from seats behind the stage in the Carousel Theater

Worst of all was the line to shows at the Carousel Theater because the doorway to that theater was at the back of the casino so the wait for those shows was inside of the smokey casino – and you had to get there pretty early if you wanted a seat where you could see the front of the stage. The first time we went to a show there we ended up behind the stage where we just saw the backside of everyone in the show. There were also seats going way out to the sides of the small round stage where views probably weren’t the best either. The view was excellent from the few available seats front and center which meant being at the front of that really long line to get them.

sorry, there’s no reservations available

There are no free eateries other than the dining room, buffet, and pool grill & ice cream. All of the specialty eateries require reservations even though some of them could handle a whole lot more people if they did walk-ins and filled tables as people left instead of reserved seatings a couple hours apart. Even if you are looking into a totally empty restaurant you can’t get in without a reservation, which you can’t get on the spot. We had dinner at the Mexican place one evening and there was only one other occupied table the whole time we were there, yet nobody who stopped by the door was allowed in. We also were not allowed in when trying to eat there another time when the place was completely empty other than the people who worked there, yet their reservation system said it was full.

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Four Women in One Cruise Ship Cabin

Posted on September 20, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

mom & Barbara by the Quantum in Juneau

When my sister casually mentioned that my mother had once sadly said she thought she’d never go on another cruise I decided that a cruise would make the perfect Christmas gift. Sailing along with my sisters as well made 4 of us for the cruise. While two cabins for two would have been nice, the price of the cruise drops for extra people beyond 2 in the same cabin, plus at the time of booking I wasn’t sure whether one of the sisters would be able to come or not so it had to be a cabin for 3 or 4. The other advantage of having everyone in the same cabin is that if you buy a photo package it will cover everyone in the cabin in one package. When sailing with my husband we avoid photographers like the plague, but when sailing with my sisters we’ve always bought a digital photo package. As it turned out the sister I wasn’t sure would come ended up inviting her two daughters as well, but the nieces had their own cabin that they booked for themselves long after the booking for this one was done.

cabin on Quantum of the Seas

There weren’t a whole lot of options for a 4-person ocean view cabin and the balcony cabins were a bit too pricey so I went with the best location available from the couple options we had. Four person cabins on the Quantum of the Seas are scarce to begin with and of course our choices were limited to any that weren’t already booked. We went with one fairly close to a public restroom, which was likely to be a necessity when booking 4 people into a one-bathroom cabin. It was a major reason for choosing that particular cabin. Looking at the deck plan pre-cruise it looked like that bathroom was just a short distance down the hallway from our room.

casino on Quantum

Unfortunately that particular public restroom turned out not to be in a hallway near the elevators like nearly every public restroom on nearly every cruise ship – including this one. No, that restroom was in the casino. A casino which according to both the app and the daily newsletter onboard should have been smoke-free as both proclaimed smoking was not allowed in any indoor areas of the ship, yet in reality that only applied to sailings out of Australia. Unlike Explorer of the Seas, the first Royal Caribbean ship I ever sailed on, which actually was totally smoke-free inside and had been for a couple years when we sailed on it. Luckily the next two decks above us both had normal restrooms near the stairways and elevators which were not too far away so there were still pretty convenient restrooms nearby – and the one in the casino was OK for early mornings when there was nobody in there and the ventilation system had had all night to clear the air.

2 of 4 storage cubbies

The room did have lots of storage space with 4 large cubbies above the beds and couch (which was also a bed). It also had 2 closets and lots of drawers. There was extra bedding stored under the beds even when the couch bed was made up, but we still found room under there for all our luggage. The bathroom had the usual 3 shelves above the counter so space in there was a bit tight for 4 women and nobody had room to store all their products there. Luckily we had all brought our own shampoo and conditioner because there was just that awful all-in-on garbage in the shower. The shower also lacked the usual clothesline that you can pull across so it was a good thing I brought some or we would have had nowhere to hang wet swimsuits. The usual line across the shower never would have held 4, but it would certainly have helped make the extra line less crowded.

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

Pre-cruise we wondered if the 4-person room would have 2 beds and 2 bunks or 2 beds, 1 bunk, and 1 couch bed, but neither were right. It just had an extra flap that pulled out of the couch turning it into a small double bed. They did at least put 2 separate quilts folded in half something like a sleeping bag for a bit of separation between people, but definitely not what we expected at all. According to our steward that ship did not have any bunks so a different cabin would not have changed that. We decided pre-cruise that mom and Linda got the beds and Barbara and I would have whatever the alternative sleeping places were so we shared the couch bed. She had the couch part and I had the pull-out. Which worked out well because she managed to get in and out without crawling over me even though there wasn’t much space for her to do that. It looked like it might be crowded, but it really wasn’t. Unlike my bedhog dog at home, we each stayed on our own side. It was actually quite comfortable.

teapot with added cups

A teapot in the cabin was a nice surprise, though we had to find our own tea for it from other places like the buffet and promenade café. Like the rest of the things in the room, it was only set for 2 and we had to bring in cups from elsewhere to get any more. Not sure if our steward was new and poorly trained, overworked without enough time to do a thorough job, or just had a hard time finding supplies, but it was difficult to get much more of anything. He did bring bath towels enough for 4, but never enough washcloths, hand towels, or cups. He brought lots of hangers when we asked for extra, but it took a few days to get bathrobes. At least tea and spare cups were easy to find elsewhere on the ship.

Returning to the cabin after it had been cleaned following our first night there we were surprised to see the couch bed had not been folded back up. We initially thought it was because the steward was lazy, or perhaps Barbara said she hadn’t understood something he’d asked her and said it was OK to leave it, but that turned out not to be the case.

the steward left us a different towel animal every day

Apparently now that Royal has gone to one daily cleaning some idiot in corporate in all their “wisdom” thinks it is a good idea to make their guests live in cramped quarters with the bed folded out all the time  leaving less than a foot of space between that and the drawers, no real access to the window, and no couch to sit on because the stewards aren’t supposed to go into the cabin a second time that day. So really throwing away dollars to save pennies because people aren’t so likely to book another cruise on that line if their living arrangement is that cramped just because corporate doesn’t want a steward to take a couple minutes to make them comfortable. Obviously whoever made that decision has never stayed in one of those cabins with more than two people. You can’t even fully open the refrigerator or drawers in the desk or use the desk or the chair under it with the bed out. Not to mention if people don’t know it’s a corporate thing they will just think their steward is lazy and the poor stewards will lose the all the tips they might have otherwise gotten from people with more than two in a cabin.

we left the steward a towel owl along with his tip

Luckily our steward did make the extra effort to put the bed up in the morning and down at night after that first day even though he wasn’t supposed to. We tipped him well for it. People in those cabins may not dish out the big bucks that suite guests pay, but still should get to enjoy the maximum space the cabin they did pay for allows. Hopefully corporate has gotten a significant enough number of complaints in the post-cruise surveys to come to their senses by now.

formal night photo of the 4 of us

Sometimes 3 of the 4 people had somewhere to go and something to do while the 4th one didn’t. Which always resulted in putting that 4th person into WOO-HOO I can take a shower without bothering anyone else mode rather than them feeling left out of whatever the others were doing. Regardless of who the 4th person was we all felt that way and we all took advantage of the empty room whenever the chance arrived.

Other than not wanting to hog the bathroom for showers when others were in the room when that could be avoided we didn’t feel too crowded with the four of us in there, but if the bed had been pulled out all day we sure would have. Even if there was only one or two people in the room it would be crowded with the couch bed set up the whole time.

mirror over the desk

If we all needed to get ready to go to dinner or out into a port or something at the same time we managed without getting into each other’s way too much, though sometimes one person had to move aside for another to go by or to get something from a drawer or closet. Mostly mom & Linda since the closets were in their area as were their drawers, while other than our closet stuff Barbara & I had everything in the drawers by the couch bed or the cubbies above the couch and none of mom or Linda’s things were in our area. It definitely helped for everyone getting ready at once that there were a couple of mirrors out in the room as well as the one in the bathroom.

it never hurts to have extra space to plug stuff in

Some of the older cruise ships just had one outlet and no USB ports, but now they tend to have more. Some definitely have more than others. It still doesn’t hurt to bring something along that gives you more options for charging things, especially when there are multiple people in the room. Quantum had 2 outlets by the desk, which was increased with the addition of my 3-outlet plug, of which one was used to plug in a clock that has 2 USB ports.

The bathroom had a shelf under the sink that didn’t have anything stored on it, which comes in handy for stashing clothes and whatever else might be needed for a quick getaway in the morning without disturbing anyone else too much if you’re the sort of person who tends to wake up earlier than the others and want to go prowl around the ship for awhile. Early mornings are a good time to take ship photos with nobody in them, or to explore the ship undisturbed, or just go out for an early morning walk.

4 happy cruisers

If we had spent the whole cruise in the cabin it might have felt crowded sometimes, but since we were mostly out and about in the daytime and just in there at night or in between doing other things it all worked out fine. Unless we all needed to get ready to go somewhere together at the same time we were rarely all in there at once during the daytime. Even when we all went out to the ports together we didn’t all return at once. Linda and sometimes Barbara liked to browse the shops after we were done with whatever else we did in port, where mom and I didn’t really care to spend a long time shopping.

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Kona, Hawaii Taxi Tour

Posted on September 13, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Noordam in Kona

We came into Kona with no set plans figuring to see what was there and find something to do. I was hoping to find parasailing, but out of a group of 4 nobody else was that interested so we were going to do an island tour first and then see about parasailing when we got back. When we got back we saw the parasail boat on a trailer getting hauled out of the water, apparently done for the day. Either the water got too rough or they just finished all their bookings and didn’t figure on getting more. Anyway whatever the reason the boat left the area on its trailer so that was it for that.

flower in Kona

Some discussion had taken place regarding the hop on hop off bus, but there were guys with signs for van and taxi tours so we ended up with a private taxi tour for just us and another couple we met on the ship.

coffee beans on the bush

The first stop was a place called Kona Joe who has a patent on growing coffee on a trellis like grapes are sometimes done. Our guide said the owner of that farm had previously had vineyards and patented growing coffee that way so nobody else can do it. Apparently it allows for better sun-ripening of the coffee beans. Their website mentions tours of the coffee farm, but we just went into the store and nobody said anything about a tour.

shop at Kona Joe

They did have free samples of coffee and chocolate covered coffee beans for anyone who wanted them. The others said the coffee bean didn’t taste like coffee so I tried one, but they were wrong. It takes longer to chew the bean than the chocolate surrounding it and once the chocolate was gone it did leave a bitter coffee aftertaste, so not particularly something I would enjoy eating much of since I don’t like coffee. The others liked it though.

view from outside the store at Kona Joe

The pure Kona coffee is seriously expensive. At the time we were at that store it ran from the cheapest bag at $36 to the most expensive at $100 – and these are not big bags, just little 8-ouncers.

Kona Kettle Chips store

Next we went to the place that makes Kona Kettle potato chips. It was a little store attached to the factory. They did not do any factory tours, but they did have some free samples for the asking. The chips weren’t as expensive as the coffee, but still somewhat pricey unless you buy the bag of bits, which is the pieces that are too small to go into their regular bags. They still taste the same though.

painted church outside and inside

After that we went to see a painted church. On the outside it looks like an ordinary little church, but the inside is covered in scenes hand painted by the first priest there, Father John Velghe. He was quite talented for someone with no artistic training. It was all done in house paint of which he only had 3 colors available. He created all of the other colors using dyes made from plants. The paintings are still the originals which have never been touched up or restored yet remain colorful and intact.

inside the painted church

There are different scenes all around the church walls. Even the ceiling and columns are painted. The church is called St Benedict’s and was built in 1899. The priest used the scenes for teaching as most Hawaiians of the time had not learned to read.

garden outside of the painted church

On the way to the next stop we saw a sign by the road about a lava tube being open, which was not included in the places we were scheduled to stop. The guide said that was because it was unregistered which means the place holds no responsibility over any accidents that might happen there if someone were to fall or something.

monument at the site of the island’s first Christian funeral

We went on to a beach which was the exact site of the first ever Christian funeral service on the big island (or maybe in all of Hawaii), performed by Captain Cook for a dead member of his crew. However he used a spot sacred to the natives of the area for their own rituals without their permission so they were quite upset about it. They were also curious about the nails holding his ships together and stole one of his small tender boats to check things out.

obelisk at the site of Captain Cook’s death

Cook’s response to that was to kidnap one of their kings to offer up in trade for the boat back. They made the trade to get their king back, but he knew they were angry and he was no longer welcome there. While fleeing back to his ship one of them stabbed him with a knife he’d given them as a gift followed by a blow to the head with a native rock and rope weapon. An obelisk on the other side of the little bay marked the exact spot where he died. He traveled all over the south seas before his death. There are Captain Cook monuments on a lot of islands in the south Pacific.

stand back or you’ll get wet

The bay there was quite rough, with some serious splashing sometimes coming up and out far enough to shower anyone standing too close to the water. The area for people was a raised paved area rather than the beach itself, though not one that juts out into the water like a pier, just on the edge of it. There was nobody out in the water and signs warning of it not being safe.

lava tube

After that stop the driver agreed to go back to the place with the lava tube. He pointed out where to go, but stayed with the taxi and did not come down there with us. Getting there involved walking down a driveway to a coffee farm where coffee beans were in the process of getting turned into coffee. There were piles of beans and some spread out to dry. Many machines looking somewhat like semi-barrel shaped oversized rock tumblers churned away, though there were no people in site. The partially processed coffee beans let off a fairly strong smell of vinegar which when asked the guide said was the sugary coating that grows around the beans fermenting as they are soaked to remove said coating.

coffee bean production by the trail to the lava tube

A pathway past the coffee building led to a ramp with a bright yellow rail down the center, which in turn led to the entrance of the lava tube. As the guide mentioned, it was a fairly short walk through to the other end. You could see one end from the other, but the passage through still would have been fairly dark on uneven ground except for the motion lights that came on in several places along the way whenever anyone passed by them.

inside the lava tube

The lava tube is pretty much a stone tunnel, any active lava having long since passed through and gone someplace else to cool off. It was quite big in circumference though so quite a volume of lava could have flowed through it at once way back at the time of its creation. It did not cost anything to walk through the lava tube. When we got back to the car the driver had tiny samples of rum cake for everyone from a store next to the lava tube parking lot.

lava tube

Next we paid a quick visit to a small grocery store because some people wanted a few supplies. Our guide had mentioned bananas called apple bananas that grew on the island, and how good they were. The other cruisers we were with bought enough for everyone including the guide to each have one and they were quite good. Also as the guide had mentioned that these were smaller than the bananas we buy on the mainland. The perfect size really for making one banana split or adding to a bowl of cereal. A free rum cake sign at a nearby store to that one brought us to another impromptu stop where we got larger free rum cake samples, and one person bought a few things, which is of course why they offer the free samples to get people into their store.

dog on a boogie board

After that we went back to the pier where we watched a couple people with a little dog out boogey boarding with them. The dog sometimes did tricks and jumped from board to board. I thought they might have a collecting tin on the shore since they were entertaining a small crowd, but they didn’t. It was just something they did for fun. Or maybe to train or exercise the dog. All around the pier there are good places for photo ops of the ship, though the sun wasn’t really in a good place for it. We took a few anyway and then boarded a tender back to the ship. Kona is a good place for people with no prior plans. Besides taxi or bus tours, there’s also a little booth on the dock where people can book a lot of other last-minute activities.

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Posted in Holland America, Noordam, Pacific Ocean & Islands, Ports of Call, USA | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sky Suite on Enchanted Princess

Posted on September 6, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Enchanted Princess in Saint Thomas

The biggest and most expensive suites available on Enchanted Princess are the Sky Suites, of which there are only 2. These are the only lodgings on deck 18, the sky deck. The sky deck consists of front and back portions at either end of the ship that are not connected through the middle. The sky suites are in the front portion, which also contains a hot tub on either side that is above the adults only retreat pool, but part of the retreat area. In front of that is the pay-extra-for-access sanctuary. The extensive balcony extending across 3 sides of each sky suite has a private entrance to the retreat area. S10 is a standard sky suite. S309 is accessible and slightly larger.

living room

Including the balcony these suites have over 1700 square feet, with over 1500 of that space inside. Booking a suite always comes with some perks above what you get with standard staterooms like priority boarding and tender, a special line for suite and elite guests only at guest services, complimentary champagne on arrival, reserved seating in the theater, dining options not available to other guests, and concierge service with access to the concierge lounge. The sky suite has additional perks and benefits over and above what the others get.

dining room

Other suite benefits, some of which are exclusive to sky suites include pre-cruise shoreside concierge, suite experience manager, complimentary access to The Enclave (thermal suite), reserved bungalow on Princess Cay if the cruise includes a port stop there,  two full bar set-ups, complimentary wine tasting, private shopping concierge, telescope in the suite, complimentary ultimate balcony breakfast and dinner, lots of balcony furniture, and a two-bedroom suite that sleeps up to 5 people.

sky suite balcony table

The extensive balcony provides a 270 degree view as you move from one area of the balcony to the another. One end of it overlooks the lido deck, facing the movie screen. There are loungers in that area for private movie watching. The balcony has multiple groupings of furniture, one of which is a table and chairs for private al fresco dining.

relaxation area facing the outdoor TV

Other areas have places for relaxing. The end with the private entrance to the retreat area is set up for ultimate relaxation with padded loungers, a pod, and even an outdoor TV.

central area

The center of the suite has dining room and living room areas. The dining room has a table and chairs as well as wet and dry bars. The living room has a couch, table and chairs. It also has a desk and a TV as well as the telescope and a sliding door out to the balcony.

bedroom

There is a bedroom on either side of the central area. The main difference is a fancier bathroom in the one considered the master bedroom, though the bathroom in the other bedroom is bigger and fancier than what is found in most of the ship’s other accommodations.

bedroom

The master bedroom is somewhat larger than the other bedroom so it’s not just the bathroom that is bigger. The extra-large master bathroom includes a bathtub and separate stand-alone shower. These bathrooms have more products than standard cabins. The shower has 3 separate containers for shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel instead of only 2 with shampoo and conditioner combined. In addition to the usual liquid soap and hand lotion at the sink there are also some spa products.

master bathroom

The master bedroom has two closets and a desk. Each bedroom has its own TV.

bathtub

The smaller bedroom has one closet and a desk. It’s bathroom just has a shower, no tub, but is still bigger than bathrooms found in most staterooms onboard. Each bedroom is more spacious than some entire cabins.

wet bar

This suite has more space than a lot of people’s homes. It’s quite a luxurious place to spend a cruise, but you have to spend a lot of money if you want to stay there.

Sky suites video from Princess’ website

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Butchart Gardens

Posted on September 2, 2024 by LBcruiseshipblogger

sign near the entry

Cruises from Seattle to Alaska generally make a stop at Victoria on the way back to fulfill the required foreign port. Most of these are late evening stops from around 6 or 7 pm until Midnight. Quantum of the Seas was scheduled for a bit earlier stop at 5 pm. On previous stops in Victoria we either just went out and walked around town on our own or stayed on the ship, but on Quantum we had booked an excursion to Butchart Gardens. It was a windy, stormy day, but there was a Norwegian ship docked in Victoria when our ship passed by, circled round, and passed by again. A wave splashed over top of the pilot boat as it pulled up to the ship. The pilot made it onboard, but together with the captain decided not to take the ship into port. I had not realized prior that ships ever didn’t make it into Victoria. Quantum is bigger than most ships that go to Alaska, and considering all the things we didn’t do on our cruise it may be too big for that area. Just to make things confusing to people not from the area, Victoria is on Vancouver Island, but Vancouver, the other nearby Canadian cruise port is not. There is also a lesser-known city called Vancouver in Washington State – all named after Captain Vancouver who explored the pacific northwest in the 1790’s.

map of Butchart Gardens

Later we went to Butchart Gardens on our own, taking the Coho ferry across the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Port Angeles to Victoria. We found a hotel right across the street from the ferry dock so did not have to go far with luggage after walking onto the ferry. There are actually 3 hotels just across from the dock and quite a few others in the surrounding area. Victoria’s inner harbour where the ferry stops is right in the heart of the touristy part of town, unlike the cruise ship port which is at Ogden Point on the outskirts of the harbour (spelled the Canadian way).

boar fountain with foal and donkey statues

Butchart Gardens is quite a ways from town, but it is not hard to get there even if you are there without a car. Tour busses are an option, but they cost quite a lot more than the city bus and don’t have as much freedom on the times you can come and go. Taxis are also an option, but the price is quite high for them. The city bus is a good option. It runs about every half hour through a lot of the day. Later in the evening it goes to more like every 40, then 50 minutes. The bus schedule for the garden is somewhat seasonal reflecting the garden’s hours since it stays open later in the summer. There’s also a bus stop close to the nearby butterfly garden if someone should want to go there as well. The bus has a stop right in Butchart Gardens near the entrance. It is bus 75 that stops in the garden, but when the bus is running at times when the garden is closed it skips that stop. It’s a short walk from the bus stop to the entry gates. There’s a ticket booth where people can buy tickets and get maps of the garden. People with pre-purchased tickets can skip that line and go straight to the entry scanners. You can buy tickets at the Visitor’s center in Victoria or online.

sunken garden

In the garden there are pathways leading to a variety of different gardens. The oldest is the sunken garden, built in a former limestone quarry shortly after the mine shut down. The garden now covers 55 acres. It began through the ideas of Jennie Butchart, wife of the owner of the former mine. The gardens are still owned and operated by the family, descendants of the original owner. They no longer live on the premises though. The former estate house is now the dining room that serves afternoon tea in a portion of it and houses offices in the rest. Besides the dining room, food is also available at another restaurant, a coffee shop, and a gelateria so people can spend the day there without going hungry.  Advance reservations are advised for afternoon tea, which can be made online.

fountain at the sunken garden

The sunken garden is the largest of all the gardens there. Most of it is on low ground since all the original rock was mined away, but there’s a lookout in the middle on a pillar of limestone that was not of sufficient quality for them to mine it. At the far end there’s a fountain, which changes if you watch it long enough. It gets taller and shorter and has sprays that twist around each other. When in season there are rhododendrons there among many other plants. A group of garden workers were replacing the flowers in one of the beds while we were there, something they do as needed all around the garden to keep it always looking nice.

even the trash cans have little gardens on top

All of the gardens have multiple flower beds. There are flowers everywhere. Even the trash cans have little gardens on top.

rose carousel

Not far from the sunken garden there’s an indoor carousel. It’s called the Rose Carousel, though it is not in the rose garden. There’s a small fee to ride the carousel. It has hand-carved animals, not all of which are horses. People can choose to ride all sorts of exotic animals on the carousel from big cats to ostriches, a camel, or even an orca among many others. The guy running it said the orca got the most attention though we did not see anyone ride it while we were there. The carousel is near to a pond with a fountain that said it was the fireworks viewing area.

wall lizard

We saw lots of little lizards in the garden. They are cute, but also a non-native invasive species called common wall lizards native to the sunnier regions of southern Europe. When a 60-s era roadside zoo closed down they turned a few lizards loose. Descendants of those lizards now number over half a million. Since these lizards eat bees they can be detrimental to anything requiring bees for pollination. Although some of the area’s animals will eat the lizards, they don’t catch enough of them to curb the population. The garden did have a lot of wild bees so at least the lizards haven’t eaten all of the bees.

dragon fountain

Near to each other on the map, but down separate pathways there’s a dragon fountain and a sturgeon fountain. As the names indicate, one has a dragon in it and the other several fish, though all of them are statues. There were some actual fish in a small pond in the show greenhouse near the entrance. The greenhouse is also home to some giant begonias and other flowers. People can look in through a viewing window, but not go inside.

rose in the rose garden

The rose garden is near the sturgeon fountain and the Dining Room Restaurant. It has many different types of roses, all with little signs saying the name of the rose, who that rose variety is attributed to, and the year it first came out.

the most memorable rose name sign, but unfortunately not in bloom so we didn’t see what Rosie the Riveter rose actually looked like

Not all of them bloom at the same time so only some of the plants had blooms on them. There were also other plants like delphiniums filling in space between roses in some of the gardens.

star pond

The Italian Garden is quite small, occupying a former tennis court behind the Dining Room Restaurant and next to the star pond, a large shallow star-shaped man-made pond.

bridge in the Japanese Garden

The Japanese Garden sits beyond the star pond and is the second biggest of the gardens. It has many pathways and pools winding through mostly shady areas. There’s a little rock garden and lots of interesting little details.

trees in the Japanese garden

On a hot sunny day the Japanese Garden is the place to be since it has a lot of shade.

stepping stones

It also has a pond with stepping stones.

boar scarer fountain

Other interesting features in the Japanese Garden include little bridges, archways, and a funny little bamboo fountain called a boar scarer where water flows into a bit of bamboo until it slaps down on a rock, then pops back up for another go. It does make a noise, but it’s hard to picture that actually scaring a boar since it would probably just get used to it.

cove with boat dock

The back side of the Japanese garden has a gate out to a little cove where people who come to the garden by boat can dock.

tiny teapot Christmas ornaments in the gift shop

Up near the entry area there’s a small waterwheel and a gift shop. There’s also a visitor center and the coffee shop. The gift shop has all sorts of garden themed items as well as ornaments and teacups. It also has some clothing items like hats, shirts, and socks. Quite an array of wall art is available there as well.

 

well at the rose garden

Although it’s not in town, Butchart Gardens is one of Victoria’s biggest attractions.

pond

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