Happy Holidays to all, I would say Merry Christmas but now that Christmas has passed we are into the lull between Christmas and New Years, so Happy Holidays it is. Back to were we left off at the Denver Airport, our flight was indeed canceled and rescheduled for 6 am the next morning. We called an Uber and stayed at the Quality Inn Hotel for about 5 hours before coming back to the airport at about 4 am to get into the unbelievably long TSA line. All good as we did make our 6am flight. We did hear that a major storm was coming in to the Denver area that night, so we were fortunate to slip through the small travel window to get home, there was talk of being delayed until the 26th and that would not have been good.
A quick note about United Airlines; we were in group 4 at loading in Fort Lauderdale and we did wait until our group was called before boarding but we so happened to be the first people that were forced to check in our carry on luggage, and I mean forced as the claim was that all the overhead bins were full. Jan had to pull all her meds out of her bag while I complained and stated that my bag contained all our expensive camera equipment, the attendant just ripped the bag from my hand and said, “doesn’t matter, you must check your bag, I’ll put fragile on it”. Well she did not put fragile on my bag. When boarding the plane we found that there was still plenty of bin room still available and that many of the, family travellers, brought all their luggage on board. I say, come on United you claim a one piece policy but don’t enforce it until it’s too late - we were not impressed. This problem did not become evident to me until our plane was delayed in Denver, my warm puffy jacket and my sweatshirt were also in that bag, all I had on was a golf shirt. The temperature in Denver was below freezing and if the storm came in early there was talk of temperatures going down to minus 50 the next day. I did ask about getting my bag back in Denver and was advised against it as it would take some 4 to 6 hours to find it. Yes, we understand that this was perhaps a one off but this was just not right for United to not follow their own policy. And no I did not want a “I love Denver” sweatshirt from the airport. Lol. For those of you that say, well you should have taken the cameras and jacket out of the carry on, well if I took those items out, the bag would be empty as that was all that was in it. I did stand at the baggage carousel at Vancouver and watched for my bag and caught it before it got crushed in the luggage outflow and no, there was indeed not a “Fragile” label on the bag, pretty sad of United for not only ripping the bag from my hand but by lying about the sticker. I did check everything before leaving the airport to ensure there was no damage. Fortunately, all good.
So, the summary of the Good, Bad and the Ugly of the first Holland America Grand Voyage after coming back from Covid or “The Pause”.
Well I have said it before and will simply restate that it was a small “g” grand voyage but came with a massive feeling of crew love that echoed throughout the voyage that really helped make it a great cruise. It was not long ago that this ship was dark and with a skeleton crew just to keep it alive. The crew are delighted to see the lights on and guests aboard having the best time that they could have given this first restart.
THE GOOD
To be back on the water with a company that has survived for 150 years through many difficult periods is the first and foremost good. The crew driven by Florin are delighted and thrilled to be back at work and able to provide for their families. I have never had so many crew members remember my name or in fact even know my name, even crew members on the gangway, amazing. The ship itself is also in amazing condition given it was dark not so long ago, the Zaandam shines. Mentioning the ship, it was wonderful to not only be on the first grand voyage but moreover on a sister ship from the former Amsterdam, this class of ship is designed for longer voyages as there is plenty of space given the amount of passengers. I was also impressed by the food offered throughout the voyage. We enjoyed almost all our dinner meals in the Main Dining Room where the same menu over the 71 days was never repeated, very impressive. We love Grand Voyages also because of the itineraries offered and this itinerary did not disappoint, were all the ports fantastic, well no, but wow, we were there at these amazing places not many ships go to. I thought overall that the entertainment was very good, the singers and dancers were excellent as were the two on board bands, great diversity. We also had a fantastic, pianist, separate from the piano bar entertainer, a wonderful piano bar entertainer as well as an excellent, classical duo. This was the first cruise that we took advantage of the Cruise Critic group and the tours offered by them. There were over 300 members on board and these folks are not only wonderful people but are so well organized and did offer many small group tours that indeed rivalled the ones offered by HAL. We met mostly wonderful people that have become good friends. So this brings me to the people we have met along the way in this journey, it really is the people, the interactions and connections that really enhance the experience. We have met many wonderful people both within the cruising environment as well as many people on the tours and in the ports. Finally, the item under no one’s control was the weather, which isn’t a factor until you get to the port, we had fantastic weather throughout this entire voyage, not a day or excursion was effected negatively by the weather. It was perhaps very hot in some of our ports but I will take that over the rain. The only port effected somewhat by the weather was our last port in San Juan, which was fine as it was our last port of many. In the most part all our excursions worked out very well, both the Cruise Critic tours and the ones we took from the Ship’s offered excursions, for us, no real complaints except as in the Bad, as noted below.
THE BAD
As mentioned most our excursions did work out just great but there were some complications with both the private (cruise critic) and HAL excursions. Although I still would recommend the folks at Across Africa, I do with a caution, especially if there is a tender port and if cruise ships have had any difficulties with the port in the past. The problem that was encountered was when a port is cancelled, most companies understand the industry and will offer refunds, Across Africa seemed to have trouble with this and would simply throw the cancellation policy at you. The issue cruisers have with this is that the guests are not canceling the tours but it is the cruise company, thereby a hole in the cancellation policy. AA also had some issues including some local tour providers, including quality of vehicles, guides, as well as some guests forcefully hijacking some tours. HAL Shore Ex on the other hand is great at refunds but also did have some issues with some providers, now this could because of new ports and tour companies but doing a HAL tour you are paying a premium to ensure that this does not happen. Guests can also hijack tours on HAL by not returning to the buses at the predetermined time and this did happen with us, an example is that our guide tried to find this guest for over 45 minutes causing us to miss some sights including on the itinerary. Here I do blame the guide as he was not entirely clear with his instructions but this did cause us some trouble. HAL did give us some compensation for this but that’s only money, we missed seeing things that we will never see again, so priceless. The bad on the ship for us are a few things, first is the trouble with climate control in the various common areas of the ship, the ship runs on the cold side in the dining room and the main show lounge. Now this could do with bums in seats, or human radiated heat related, you see the first sitting and shows are basically full while the second seating and shows have far less people, thereby less human radiating heat, the ship’s systems just can’t respond that quickly to temperature adjustments. The second thing is the streamed music in the main dining room, it is the same set of music every night, we knew it was time to go to the show when, Juke Box Hero, plays at 8:35pm. Now apparently this is controlled fleet wise from Seattle, how crazy is that, this makes sense for one week cruises with new people every week but to have to listen to this same hour and half playlist every night for 80 days is a bit much. For the longer cruises and for Grand Voyages, HAL should allow the ships more control over the music that is piped in. The final area in this category has to do with the enrichment programs, many got sorted out with the first week, for example, the watercolour instructors added an additional class as 11:30 to help with the demand but for me many lecturers are still presented at that time, 1:00pm would have worked better for my schedule, so I unfortunately missed out on this program, so really that’s my bad. The enrichment program that Jan and I really enjoy is that of Tai Chi, although the instructor did her best for some of the class members, we have, I guess, been spoiled by having top rated Tai Chi Masters performing the class, so this instruction fell short of our expectations. I also believe that this combined with venue (crow’s nest) did not help in being able to see the movements correctly.
THE UGLY
Beyond the control of HAL but Covid still played a part in true enjoyment of the onboard experience. When we docked in our first African Port, Abidjan, Morocco, the officials wanted everyone to be tested prior to letting everyone off the ship and this was a short day port. The feeling around the ship at this point was, oh boy, this is going to be the case in every port. Fortunately it was not the case, we only had one other port that required all guests to have a temperature check prior to docking. Covid from then on became an on again, off again mask wearing requirement throughout the cruise - not the worst thing in the world but the Covid hangover is still real. Some of the ports were just not ready to welcome cruise ship passengers, some ports were just disorganized and created some headaches for our ship to get clearance. Abidjan on the Ivory Coast comes straight to mind as this dock had to be cleared of debris before allowing passengers to disembark, a process that took close to two hours. Scams, be aware there are people out there that are just evil and then there are some that are wolves in sheep’s clothing. We experienced an attempted fleecing by our guide, driver and restaurant where way more food showed up than ordered. I wrote about in the blog but be aware, I would recommend getting a physical menu and pointing to the items you wish to order, if there is any confusion around this, just leave. Finally, it has to do with some guests, some people I guess are just born unhappy and can’t be pleased with this incredible opportunity to be on a beautiful ship visiting some amazing ports in this world. Some of these guests go so far as hijacking tours when they become unhappy. They change the itinerary or demand to go back to the ship leaving all others out of pocket for a tour they paid for. Or you have a guest where one thing goes wrong on the tour and demands their money back, even though they had an unparalleled experience in this foreign port and they get smug about getting all their money back, sorry if I am organizing a tour you are not invited to participate. Yes, there is more than one that fits into this category. Finally some of the onboard cutbacks and this could just do with the sign of the times that we are currently in. For a grand voyage there we limited formal night pillow gifts, there we limited theme night parties, they did have some but not with the lavish decorations as in the past, especially in the dining room. Now this could all stem from the fact that most guests on board are cruising with their Future Cruise Credits that they earned from the shut down, so limited new money to be able to budget for a true Grand Voyage. Time will tell.
Summary
First and foremost we get it and we are happy to be back on the water with this amazing company, the alternative of HAL not making through the pandemic and thereby going bankrupt. We saw that the crew are very happy to be back on board and there amazing positive attitudes radiated that. We were very happy with the food, entertainment and the ports, even though some were less than desirable, we were in Africa after all. My fondest memory and there are many but the apex was the wine and cheese party sail away from our last port in Africa, Mindelo , as the lines were cast for the last time in Africa the band played, Toto’s Africa, goose bumps as I write this.
Thank you for coming along for the ride, we hope you found this to be entertaining for you. Thank you for all you emails and comments they are all appreciated and stay tuned to this blog as we have more amazing adventures coming ahead soon. We have a major travel announcement coming soon in 2023. Until then, happy holidays and Happy New Year and all the best to you and your families for 2023.
Some highlight pics of our journey, hope you enjoy…
Quote of the day, “We travel, initially, to lose ourselves. We travel, next, to find ourselves.” - Pico Lyer
We begin, Montreal to Fort Lauderdale first. 80 days in total.
Old Montreal
Boarding the Zaandam on October 1st.
Our stateroom for the first 10 days.
The lines are cast to begin this amazing voyage.
An old friend and beverage server, Enrico.
Beautiful Quebec City.
With Florin, the amazing Hotel Director. We are forever grateful for everything.
With Glen Michael, Cruise Director on our first leg.
With Desy and Jearmelyn in the Canaletto. Congratulations Desy on your recent marriage.
Leaving Boston.
Our new stateroom, 1816 for the next 71 days.
Cruise started with a wonderful block party.
Black and Gold Gala night.
With Nona, thank you Nona for all the organizing you did for this adventure.
With Cruise Specialist, Tom and Florin
At Rudi’s Sal de Mar with cruise friends, Kate and Albert.
The wonderful, Gusti.
A cappuccino and Pasta de Nada in Madeira, Portugal, yum.
In the Canary Islands with Bill and Tatiana
The market in Morocco
Visiting the incredible, Fes in Morocco
In Fes with Tim, Cindy, Don and Lynn.
The Rock of Gibraltar
Thank you Florin for the wonderful dinner in the Pinnacle Restaurant
Dougga in Tunisia
Nice dinner with Tom from Cruise Soecialists.
Great Nona Tour in Crete.
Transiting the Suez Canal.
With Tatiana in Sharm el Shiek, Egypt. Best beach ever.
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