Hawaii / Tahiti 30 Day Cruise - Day 3 At Sea

Monday Day 3 - At Sea

When we got up this morning and looked out our window we again saw overcast skies, but slightly warmer temperatures.  We opted for breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill this morning and then it was off for the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet in the Crow’s Nest.  They had a section roped off for us as we were quite a large group.  Besides all the roll call participants the ships Cruise Director, Beverage Manager and Hotel Manager showed up to welcome us and answer questions.  The group was so large (unusually large with about 100 people) it was hard to meet everyone, but it was good to put faces with the names from the roll call.

After the roll call function is was off to a talk by Bill Harris on the history of MGM Studios.  Evidently Bill Harris is / was a well-known Hollywood reporter, but I had never heard of him.  Not what you’d expect on a cruise, but they bring in speakers on a wide variety of subjects.  It turned out to be a fairly interesting talk, but we may pass on the rest of his presentations.

We spent the rest of the morning reading and relaxing in the Crow’s Nest and then had a few snacks for lunch in the Neptune Lounge.  They were having a slot tournament in the casino this afternoon so Val and I signed up for it.  It runs for two hours and you can buy as many entries as you want, but we only bought one each.  There are six of these tournaments and the top point-getters in each one compete against each other in the final for $750 in prizes.  I didn’t do well, but Val turned out to be the top point-getter today and will compete in the finals towards the end of the cruise.  It turns out she sat next to the guy who did the part of Al Jardine in the Beach Boys tribute band we heard last night.  They chatted and got to know each other during the tournament.

 

Val at the top of the chart in the slot tournament.

 We spent some time wandering around the ship and then it was time for Happy Hour in the Crow’s Nest where we were once again entertained by a really good singer playing guitar.  Soon it was time to clean up and get ready for the night’s show and dinner.  The entertainer tonight was Jeff McBride who I guess is a pretty well-known magician who performs at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, but not being much into magic, I had never heard of him.  It was a pretty entertaining show and he really was a good magician doing some amazing slight-of-hand tricks.  After the show we had another good dinner and then back to the casino to lose a little more money.  Have you started to notice a pattern here?  ;-)  We’ve had a request to show some food pictures so I will try to remember to bring my camera to dinner with us tonight and get some pictures.  The food has actually been very amazing these first few days, much better than our previous cruises.  Another wonderful day at sea comes to an end, two more days until we reach Honolulu.

Hawaii / Tahiti 30 Day Cruise - Day 2 At Sea

Sunday Day 2 - At Sea

Today is the first of five sea days until we reach Hawaii.  We got up a little late this morning as we didn’t sleep very well last night despite being pretty tired.  The seas did get a little rough during the night, but nothing too bad.  We had a late breakfast at the Lido Buffet which was good and then spent a while exploring the ship.  Although the ship isn’t very large by modern cruise ship standards, it is the biggest we’ve been on.  It has accommodations for 1850 passengers and 800 crew members.

We returned to the Lido for lunch and then headed to the Crow’s Nest to relax a bit.  The Crow’s Nest is a large lounge area on the top deck with wrap around windows facing forward.  There are many comfortable chairs and seating areas where people congregate to chat or just watch the sea go by.  It is also an area where some passenger activities are held, such as the team trivia game, which was going on when we got there.  We sat there for a while listening to the trivia questions, but it was pretty crowded so we decided to head outside to the Sea View pool to relax.  Unfortunately the weather is still rather cool,windy and mostly cloudy so it really wasn’t very comfortable to sit outside so it was back to the cabin to relax.  I just noticed I use the word “relax” quite a bit, but that’s what it’s all about.  You can do as much or as little as you want and relaxing is one of the prime activities.

Late in the afternoon we headed back to the Crow’s Nest to read and relax and have a couple of drinks.  I rarely drink alcohol and Val doesn’t drink at all so we enjoyed a couple of the excellent “unleaded” (non-alcoholic) drinks they offer.  A guitar player sung and played songs from mostly the 70’s making for a pleasant afternoon.  After that it was time to return to our room and get cleaned up for the evening’s entertainment and dinner.  Tonight was a formal night, so most everyone was dressed in their best clothes, the men in suits and tuxes and the ladies in evening gowns.  The show was a Beach Boys tribute band which did a pretty good job on their early music, but went downhill a bit as they attempted some of their later more sophisticated music.  You can see that Holland America attracts an older crowd by the type of music they offer.

After the show ended it was time for dinner so we made our way to the main dining room where we had another very good meal.  After dinner we went to the casino to try our luck.  Val did quite well coming out $100 ahead, but I lost all of my allowance for the night.  We don’t gamble very much money on the ship so Val’s winning was quite good.  We never expect to come out ahead, but anything we win means we can gamble a little longer.  After that it was back to our room and to bed.

Before I wrap this up I wanted to talk about all the dining options on the ship so you’ll know what I’m talking about when I talk about our meals.  First there is the formal Vista (main) Dining Room where they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and you are seated and served by a wait staff.  The other main dining option is the Lido Buffet which is an informal dining area which serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.  You serve yourself cafeteria style and seat yourself wherever you like.  The dress for dinner in the Lido is casual while the Vista Dining Room requires “smart casual” or formal attire on formal nights.  There is also the Terrace Grill near the Lido pool which is open in the afternoon and early evening and serves hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza and tacos.  There are two specialty restaurants which require a minimal surcharge to eat.  The first is the Pinnacle Grill which is a high-end restaurant and requires smart casual or formal attire for dinner.  The other specialty restaurant is the Canaletto which serves Italian food and has a dress code similar to the main dining room.  The Pinnacle Grill is open for lunch and dinner and the Canaletto is open only for dinner.  Since we are staying in a suite we have two other food options.  We have the option of having breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill, and there is also an option for snacks throughout most of the day in what’s called the Neptune Lounge which is an area reserved for suite guests.  I think that covers it all in more words than I thought it would use, sorry.

Since I don’t have any other pictures, here are some pictures of our room which turned out to be quite nice.  I plan on taking some pictures around the ship before we reach Hawaii and I will post them soon (I hope).

 

Looking into the room with the balcony to the left.

This time with looking towards the inner wall to the right.

Looking from the bed to the sitting area and entrance.

The front door, storage and a small wet bar.

The bathroom with both a shower and tub to the left.

A small dressing area just outside the bathroom.

This is where I sit to write this blog, not a bad view.

Out on the balcony the entrance end.

The balcony looking towards the cabin door.

Hawaii / Tahiti 30 Day Cruise - Day 1

Saturday Day 1 - San Diego

We’re finally on our way.   It was a pretty hectic start, but we made it.  Before I get to that though, I’m going to backtrack a bit to our pre-cruise day in San Diego.  We left my brother’s house around 10:00 AM and were in San Diego just before 1:00.  We were staying at the Best Western Yacht Harbor Hotel because they offered a deal that allowed us to leave our car there in their covered parking area for the duration of our cruise.

Our first impression of the hotel was pretty neutral, it was OK, the rooms were pretty ordinary and nothing really stood out, but it turned out, it was an excellent choice for a pre-cruise stay.  For the size of the hotel they offered quite a few services; the parking, free shuttle service to cruise pier and great all around service.  The only downside was the free continental breakfast, the breakfast area was small and very cramped with all the people using it and a limited breakfast offering.  The parking was a great deal, it was free if you stayed there the day before and day after the cruise, or five dollars a day if you only stayed pre-cruise.  Believe me, that was a deal.

Anyway, onward to day one.  We had been warned to expect embarkation delays because of construction around the pier area and there would be two ships in port.  Because of this we chose the hotel shuttle leaving at 12:15, but we still faced long delays.  The heavy traffic caused the shuttles to run late so we didn’t actually leave the hotel until close to 1:00.  Once we arrived at the cruise pier it was chaos, first of all it was difficult to even find a porter to check our luggage because there was so many people, and then we were faced with an enormous line as passengers from both ships waited to go through customs.

After several hours of waiting we were finally aboard the Westerdam around 3:30, but our luggage hadn’t arrived yet.  We waited and waited for our luggage and I began to worry. Can you imagine a thirty day cruise with no luggage? 

Val on our balcony with the San Diego skyline in the background.

The Zaandam, the other ship in port.

After finding our room we went up to the outdoor Sea View pool on the Lido deck to attend an informal "meet and greet" with the Cruise Critic role call people, but we didn’t stay long.  We watched the Zaandam, the other ship in port, leave around 5:00 PM and then finally we were on our way by 5:30.

 

The sail-a-way party getting underway at the Sea View pool.

 

The Zaandam on it's way.

 

We're finally underway, our cruise has officially begun.

We went back to our room and our luggage still hadn’t been delivered so we checked with the front office and they said there was a few pieces of luggage still being delivered.  I was still worried, but Val was sure it would get here.  She was right, finally just after 7:00, our luggage arrived to my great relief.  By the time we got unpacked it was time for dinner as we had chosen a fixed late dining time at 8:00.  There are two fixed dining seatings at 5:00 and 8:00, and there is also what they call "anytime dining" and you just go anytime and wait to be seated.  We prefer the fixed as we have an assigned table.

We had an excellent dinner and then walked around the ship a bit before returning to our room around 9:30.  We were both exhausted after our long and stressful day, so we were in bed early around 10:00.  The seas were a bit rough, but it actually was nice to lay in bed and be rocked to sleep.  We are now looking forward to a few leisurely days at sea with nothing to so but relax.

We sail off into the sunset.

Hawaii / Tahiti 30 Day Cruise - Ready To Go

Our long awaited 30 day cruise to Hawaii and the French Polynesian Islands is finally at hand.  We booked this cruise over a year ago and it seems like it has taken forever for it to get here.  Saturday we board the Holland America MS Westerdam in San Diego and needless to say, Val and I are both very excited.  Thursday afternoon we will drive down to my brother's house in Granada Hills to spend the night, and on Friday we travel to San Diego, and then we board the ship Saturday morning.  We have spent months planning tours and activities in every port.  Some of them are the ship's excursions, but most are private tours arranged by Val.

One very valuable resource has been the Cruise Critic website that has forums for every cruise line, plus a number of general interest forums such as Ports of Call and Photography.  They also have what is called a "roll call" forum for every cruise ship and each particular scheduled cruise.  On the "roll call" people who are booked for the same cruise send posts and a few words about themselves so you get to know some of your fellow cruisers prior to getting on the ship.  This was invaluable for us as several people volunteered to make arrangements for private tours at different ports, and all we had to do was join the group to go on that tour.  Our roll call has over a hundred people which is quite large.  Our roll call members have planned several gatherings throughout the trip.  We will have a "sail away" party on the Lido deck when we are pulling away from the port in San Diego, and then a couple of "meet and greets" and a cocktail party later on during the cruise.  Our thanks goes out to those who take the initiative and plan both the parties and the tours, they've certainly made it easy for us.  We're looking forward to meeting everyone we've been talking to on the roll call forum for all these months.

This is only our third cruise so we are not experienced cruisers, and thirty days is by far the longest cruise we've been on. Many of the days are sea days, and on our previous cruises we have always enjoyed the sea days; reading, relaxing and participating in the various shipboard activities makes the time go by quickly.  Holland America tends to attract an older crowd (60ish) which is fine for us, our heavy partying days are behind us and we now enjoy more quiet relaxing time together.

One thing we have done is treat ourselves to a deluxe suite, our first cruise was for our 25th wedding anniversary so we opted for the deluxe suite and as many have said, once you've tasted the "suite life" it's hard to go back. 

The ship has wi-fi so I plan to update the blog as often as possible (I hope daily, but we'll see).  The only problem may be that the internet connection is typically very slow so I may have to make my photos very low resolution or not include them at all.  I hope that is not the case as Val and I are both bringing our cameras, plus we each have a waterproof camera to shoot with when we're snorkeling.  

So I guess it's finally time to do the final packing and hit the road.  Here is the the itinerary for our cruise.