Welcome to the Chronicles of
At Sea
11/03/2006
Welcome to Day 10 of our 10 day cruise. Alas, today is the last full day onboard the Noordam. Right now, we are pretty much due east of the Barrier Islands of North Carolina. There is a solid overcast, and seas are still fairly calm, in the 5-7 foot range. Considering the last time we were here on a ship, the seas were running 10-12 feet, I think it is a smooth ride. But there is a bit of motion in the ship - its hard to describe unless you have been here before. For those of you who haven't, imagine a slow earthquake. The temperature is supposed to be 70, so it feels pretty nice. I have decided I am an optomist, so I am wearing shorts today. When I made the pronouncement, Carol just snickered at me! I am not holding out much hope for my chances, either.
Here is the morning view: One change I really should note. The sea is not the beautiful aquamarine blue it was yesterday. It has gotten much darker, a sure sign of our northward trek. Obviously, we survived the storm last night. Actually, it wasn't all that big of a storm, but it was impressive. The seas never really got crazy, which I was expecting it to do at least a little. The lightning was wild, though, as was the resulting thunder. I watched a bit thru the glass of our balcony door and wall - and no, I did not go out on the balcony, as much as I really wanted to. I am crazy, not stupid. Besides, it was raining pretty good with a bit of a wind. But what I could see was entertaining enough. I don't think I have ever been in a lightning storm at sea before. I imagine we must have gotten hit by lightning, being the highest point for miles (and its not liek the ship isn't 200-250 high at least), but the thunder didn't have the sound it has when it hits right near you - it still had some roll to the sound. When I was a kid, we used to go to the beach during a thunderstorm, and watch the lightning hit the bridge near the parking lot we were in. Probably not the smartest thing my parents ever did with us, but luckily electricity follows physical laws, and we were safe. But it wasn't the rubber tires that were going to save our asses, like my mother told us! Anyway, it was neat, both then and now, and we survived! It is funny looking at the ship's schedule for today. It is all centered on ending early. The show for the late dinner seating (the one we have) is before dinner, so that they don't keep you up too late. Now, that is not to say that there are tons of activities normally scheduled for the later evening (its not that kind of crowd - for that you would have to go to Carnival, where the schedule goes much later), but there is a notable shift. One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was the movie in the Culinary Arts Center. All thru the cruise, they have had screenings of movies in that space. Yesterday, it was the Da Vinci Code. Earlier in the week they had Pirates of the Caribbean II, The Devil Wears Prada, and I will be damned if I can remember what else. Its not a bad space for movies, but the front rows are all on the same level, so seeing is not great, especially for a movie with subtitles, like the Da Vinci Code has. Actually, I was really looking forward to the Culinary Arts Center - it is touted as a one of the ship's big features. They had a program there on the first sea day, but it conflicted with our Cruise Critic Get Together, so I didn't get to go, and I can't say I saw any other cooking programs there. I did see Destino, the Salvador Dali - Walt Disney animated short there (did I talk about that earlier? It is hard to write about everything we did onboard because we did so much! And there is so little time to type - especially when you possess the typing skills I do!). Overall, teh Culinary Arts Center was a disappointment. The really funny thing is that the picture on the Holland America website, as I recall, shows the center as having an Emeril-type kitchen stage on it. They must be able to roll it out of there, because I have only seen a flat stage there, or a screen lowered from the ceiling. Oh well. Its not like I was bored with nothing to do all week (obviously!), but I know Gayle and I were looking forward to seeing some cooking programs there. And I wasn't going to go to the Viability of NATO ot the Future of Europe lectures just to use the space (yes, they actually had those letures onboard - I don't know how well attended they were, and if I was home, I might have been interested, but I figured I was on vacation, so I skipped them). Air temps are dropping. In the last hour or so, its down 5 degrees. Optomism only gets you so far..... Anyway, enough complaining! I still have one day at sea! And I am going to enjoy it! So, I will see you all later, and let you know how our last day on this fabulous ship goes! Keep Smiling!!!
Okay, we got together so the girls and Paul & Carolyn, our dinnermates, could see the web pages. Here they are watching the screen: Here are some of our memorable moments from the cruise:
I probably should explain the first item about the "Can you speak in vowels?" thing, because it was one of the funniest things that happened on the trip, and I am not sure if I mentioned it on the St Thomas day. When we were on the Winifred, Gayle had her camera in her hand, and said to me "Picture." That's it - just the one word. I said to her, "Can you speak in whole sentences? You know, use verbs, adjectives, and stuff?" Later on, she was trying to give me a hard time, and she asked me, "Can you speak in vowels??" I said "What?" and she repeated the question. Now I want you to imagine her saying it with her Tennessee accent. So I just said, "Sure I can, A, E, I, O, and U" Then I thought better of it, and said it again, but that time with a southern accent for each letter. I thought Tommy (the first mate on the Winifred) was going to fall overboard, he was laughing so hard! Really, there were so many incredible moments on this trip. Those of you who declined our invitation to join us missed a really good time. Next time say yes, and we could have even more fun! As wonderful as the Noordam is, there are some shortcomings that I should get around to mentioning, just in the interest of fairness to those who are looking at these writings with an eye toward whether or not they want to cruise on her, but I am going to do that in the next entry for the trip. I am relaxing a bit too much at the moment to talk about things less than ideal. Stay with us for the negatives, such as they are. Til then, Keep Smiling!!!
1604 Okay, its getting cold out there! Right now we are off the coast, pretty much due east of Norfolf, VA. The seas are still pretty relaxed, much better than they were last time we headed north. The air temp outside is 54F - and I might have to change into jeans. And we are now slated to get to NYC at 7:00am - back on time! Okay, I promised you the things that I would have to say are lacking or disappointing about this ship. Keeping in mind all the good things I have said about the ship in these pages, here goes. First and foremost, considering that the ship is less than a year old, and thus should be pretty much state of the art, and the fact that it seems to be wired for Cat 5, there is no internet hookup in the staterooms. Okay, I can understand they don't want to have all those hubs and stuff, so make it wireless in each cabin. Something! So, instead, I got from Deck 5 where my cabin is located, down to Deck 3, and then to the Exploration Cafe for the internet connection (which is wireless). The second thing is the fact that I can go to just about any Holiday Inn in the the country, and go on the TV to see my current room charges. I can't do that here. We get a statement on the final sea day, and they say to let them know if there are any problems. Now, I understand that some people don't want to be depressed by their bar bill, etc. while in the middle of their cruise, but let those of us with stronger stomachs and constitution see what is going on while it is happening. And if they use the arguement that the older clientelle won't use the technology, they should keep in mind that Holland America is actively marketing to those of us who are younger and enjoy an "upscale" experience. To not have this available is plain stupid (and to those of you who say that maybe the technology won't work on a ship, it has on each cruise I have been on before this one). Currently, Noordam is experimenting with "flexible seating times" for dinner. That means that they have a window of time you can come to the main diningroom in, rather than a fixed time. I think that if you are going to have freestyle dining, then do like Norwegian Cruise Line, and just go for it. Right now, we sit down, get served soups or salads, then they get around to clearing dishes, then we wait. In the meantime, they are taking other tables' orders, serving them a course, and suddenly the table for 2 sitting behind us has their main course before us while we wait, even though they started their meal way after we did. This has happened a couple of times during the cruise. And when our main courses come, there is always an issue with one of the meals - usually that they didn't get it. Being the quasi-civilized people we are, we all sit there and wait for the problem to be fixed before we eat our meals. Better to have everyone come in the same timeframe (as in close the doors 10 minutes after they open), and drop everyone's courses at the same time. No fuss, no muss, and we all get to the show on time. It obviously doesn't work well the way they do it. They should do more with the Culinary Arts Center - or don't call it that. I think if they had a Cooking with Alf (or insert whatever Indonesian or Phillipino name you want here), featuring how to make some dish they were serving that night, or one from the night before, I'll bet you'd have a standing room only event each sea day. I'll bet it draws bigger than a discussion, however well informed, on the Viability of NATO! Also, they need to schedule more things in the afternoon. I'm sorry, but it is dumb to schedule the talent and kareoke contests at 7:45 or 8:00pm, because it conflicts with the late seating of dinner. And it is not like there is an overabundance of activities going on in the afternoon. Again, stupid. That's pretty much it. This list by no means contains any deal breakers, just stuff that I can't figure out why they don't get it right - especially since they seem to be easy stuff to see as issues, and fix. And there is SO much these people do right. For instance, this has got to be the friendliest compliment of crewmembers I have ever seen. You would not believe the number of people who wished us "Welcome aboard" the first day, or who say "Hello" "Good morning" and "Good evening" when you see them. The guy cleaning the brass basemolding of the Promenade Deck hallway will look up, smile, and say "Hello, how are you today?" at 11:30pm when I go down to upload the webpages. It is amazing. The ship's crew is so friendly that the people who are hired on by the stores onboard, the salon, or the internet girl stand out like sore thumbs because they don't smile anywhere near as much as the crew does, not do they greet you. They are not unfriendly, they just pale by comparison. Or the fresh flowers that can be found everywhere. There are live orchids on every table of the Lido Deck Buffet. There is a bowl of fresh fruit in your room - restocked at least daily, if not more often. I have seen that nowhere else. And the ship's elegance is warm and comforting. Then there are the larger verandahs. Or the fact that you can walk around the entire deck of the ship - something you can't do aboard most ships. Wanna get spoiled, this is a good place to do it. Like I said, there is just some things that get you wondering what they were thinking, and why they don't see it like you do. But this is one of those cruises that I think I could easily do a back to back cruise without thinking twice. That is not always the case, despite how much we enjoy our cruises. Well, that's the end of my complaining. Its coming up on 5pm, and its starting to get dark out. I will go and post this, then pack up a bit, since we are meeting the gang at 6pm for drinks before we go to the show, do dinner, and finish packing. Then its up early for the transit into NYC - the weather looks good, so maybe I will finally get the pictures of the Statue of Liberty that I always wanted! Stay tuned, keep your fingers crossed for me, and we'll see how this whole cruise things rounds out! Thanks for reading these rambling thoughts over the past week and a half. Hopefully, I'll be reading about your adventures at sea soon! Keep Smiling!!!
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