Category: Culinary (page 2 of 2)

2025 Oct. 18; Stornoway to Gairloch, Scotland.

October 19, 2025 / Captain Albert / 6 Comments

The route from Stornoway to Gairloch. I think that the captain wanted to be in the lee of the islands ahead of the turning weather, intstead of having to bounce through it tomorrow.

We left Stornoway at 08.00 hrs. in the morning and crossed a stretch of open waters called “The Minch”. An excellent area for bird and whale watching and several reports came in that all this wild life had indeed been sighted. It turned into a sunny day, which is very good for mid October in Scotland, but it is also the harbinger of a change in the weather. There is a depression moving in from the North Atlantic ocean and it is pushing the area of high pressure into Europe. This high pressure system gave calm and warm weather with overcast skies but the depression coming in is pushing the clouds away for the day and the coming night.

Gairloch harbour on the inside of the Ferry dock which also acts as a breakwater.

So after a sunny crossing of”The Minch” we docked at the town of Gairloch, which has a ferry dock. The ferry only comes in every other day or so, so the dock is open to the Hebridean Princess, which with its 85 meters is about the biggest ship that can dock here.

Even while being a small ship, the stern still overhung the nick in the dock. The ships gangway had to be hooked in on the Promenade deck, due to the tide, on a deck where most of the public rooms are and some cabins.

Fishing and tourism is the main business here and the buildings around the dock were all there to support the industry. A small village shop complemented the setup. Gairloch is home to the Gairloch and Conan Estate, a 60,000 acre spread, owned by the MacKenzie family but is open to those who want to go walking around the place. At the entrance to the Gairloch Estate, there is a small Inn called “The Old Inn” which, looking at the empty beer barrels outside, must be doing a roaring trade. For once I did not see any Germand or Dutch cars but there was one from Belgium , from Antwerp and that is also sort of Dutch /Flemish.

The main locality here in Gairloch is the Old Inn. As it is an Inn, it is more focused on rooms and dinners, than on being a Pub, so we walked by. I like my pint in a pub atmosphere,not while over looking tables with diners.

The main reason to be here was to offer the guests the opportunity to visit the Inverewe gardens. (Not to be mistaken by the Inverness Botanical Gardens. The ship had laid on a coach for transport and paid the entrance fee. The main reason for these gardens to be here, is the influence of the Gulf Stream whose warmer waters just hit the sheltered bay in the right way, and thus all sorts of plants, even palm trees can grow here and survive the winter. But you have to be into plants and gardens to really apreciate it.

Inverewe Gardens, located north of Gairloch. (Photo courtesy, unknown source on the Internet)

We left Gairloch at 18.00 hrs. and dropped anchor in a location called Applecross an hour later, in a sheltered bay for a quiet night. During cocktail hour, the Captain was rather vague about what he was going to do tomorrow, it is a mystery cruise after all, but we were going for a morning stop at the metropolis of Shieldaig, and then sailing down the coast for the remainder of the day. I think he did not want to be more specific as the route will depend on how fast the wind will turn from the East (which gives the sheltered bay in Shieldaig) to the South West which could give a bumpy ride in The Minch.

This is from an internet photo, but it gives a good idea of how intense the Northern Lights were this evening.

Thus we had a quiet day today, but during dinner pandemonium broke out as the naturalist Brian came down to show the photos he had just taken of the the Northern Lights. Luckily he did so after the main course had been served as a considerable number of guests dropped their cutlery and raced out. Had he come in earlier, I think he would have been confronted by a Chef who would not have been “amused”. The Northern Lights were rather faint but on the Smart Phones the fotos came out quite nicely. Lesley and I did not race out as we have seen it much more intense in the North of Norway and in Alaska.

The shipping forecast for 19 Oct. We are in the forecast area called Mailin which is just North of Northern Island.

Tommorrow morning we are in Shieldaig and then in the afternoon scenic cruising while heading South. The Shipping Forecast is predicting a 975mb low off the Scottish Coast with gale force winds. But with nearly every port being protected by high mountains, there will sufficient anchorages and/or docks to pull into.

As she was originally, the RMS Columbia in 1964.

As this was a short blog, a little bit of history about the ms Hebridean Princess as before 1989 she was the car ferry RMS Columba and later the MV Columba when the Royal Mail Contract fell away.

Cars being loaded in the old days. This location is now covered in with cabins and the ships galley.

She could handle 500 – 600 day passengers and 50 cars, via ramps in the stern and in the bow and a few extra could be hoisted on deck by means of a deck crane.

The main restaurant. Slightly less luxurious than that shown on the photo in yesterdays blog. (Photo courtesy: from a Calmac Brochure)

The ship was in those days in service between the ports of Oban, Craignure (on Mull) and Locahline (on Morven) until new ferries came along with much better Ro-Ro capacities and the company decided to change the ship into a small cruise ship. She was converted in Great Yarmouth to a very high specification with a capacity for 48 passengers and 38 crew.

The high “quality” cabin accommodation of 1964. This looks like an inside cabin, so see below, how an inside cabin now looks like.

Since then she has been sailing around the coast of Scotland with deviations into Norway and the English southcoast. Lately she has been concentrating on North West Scotland and also for 2026, there are no cruises further afield than what can be reached from the port of Oban.

The Loch Crinan cabin on deck 1 (that is on the lowest deck) where there are four insides in the bow section and 2 in the stern section. All cabins are named after Lochs or Isles so there are no cabin numbers. The cabins one deck up (Waterfront deck) have portholes and the deck above (Princess deck) has windows and are the biggest ones.

2025 Sept. 23; Kotor, Montenegro.

September 24, 2025 / Captain Albert / 3 Comments

Today we are in Kotor, Montenegro which is located at the end of a fjord. From the pilot station, where we arrived at 08.00 it is a 2 hour sailing time to the dock. And it is a very scenic route so we had breakfast on the balcony and watched Montenegro float by.

The fjord has one narrow part where you have a nice view at the local villages. Fully in line with local tradition they built on this very scenic spot a church. I suppose it is a way to stop people arguing who has to right to build a house there. This little place is called Kamenari and provides a ferry service to the other side of the fjord.

The ship had made a lot of noise about the fact that this country is not (yet) in the European Union and thus everybody was warned multiple times that the global roaming on their phones might not work and that one could incur considerable costs. For the North Americans who had packages for Europe, they had to find out if their “Europe” package was the whole of Europe or only for the countries included in the European Union. I never have worries here as my Lord and Master can quote each England package and tariff out there by heart and I am reminded every day whether my phone package works, does not work or where it is subject to expensive tariffs.

For the large ships (Mein Schiff carries about 3000 guests) it is a long tender distance. The area of houses you can see in the photo is the modern part of Kotor where most people live and which has the larger bars, restaurants and shops. The Mein Schiff tender is the brown box at the dock.

There was another ship in port, the Mein Schiff 6, belonging to the German Operator Tui but as she was much too big to dock, she had to anchor quite far out and ran a 6 tender service to the pier where we were docked. Big tender as well, with two big entry doors, so the 300 person capacity could embark or disembark very fast. The pier can handle ships up to about 220 meters length and that normally means nothing over 60.000 tons or 1400 pax. Thus for these little ports it makes sense to come in with a smaller ship. It did not deter the Germans from marching ashore in large numbers and the small old town was full to capacity with 3000 of them, tourists coming for a day tour or staying in Montenegro and about 600 of us.

Old Kotor is a walled city with a moat at the sea side and snuggled against the mountain at the other side. A number of years ago the City decided (see the blue canopy to the left) to put in a under ground crossing with escalators for tourists to get to the old town. There were too many car accidents. The Kotorians are very friendly people but once they drive a car , there is a certain disrespect for the rest of the world that also might be using the road. And of course there is always a number of pedestrians who just cross the street with paying attention to any traffic at all. Together a potential mix to keep the emergency services busy. Now accidents have been reduced to tourists falling down the escalator.

The old town has been completely taken over by souvenir shops, small restaurants and the upper floors of the houses are now all apartments for rent. I did not see many locals living there but they must be making a lot of money from the apartments and shop rents. We just went for a walk, bought another soup spoon and avoided the more expensive goods. There were a lot less jewerly shops than in the other ports but they had been replaced by leather shops. Also ceramics were more prominent. All in all better quality than we have seen before. But the nicer ceramics were the large hand painted plates and how do you get them home ?The problem is that with the United Kingdom out of the European Union, the postal charges are quite considerable. The Ottoman (turks) were in the area for a long time and this considerably influenced the merchandise in the shops as well. Hence the leather, ceramics but also very nice turkish lamps. Which look a bit like Tiffany lamps but are much more detailed.

The wall or ramparts as they are called locally, leading to the top of the protecting mountain San Giovanni. Above the top of the photo on the rim of the moutain is another fortress, serving as a look-out and early defense against intruders.

Most of the old town defences and buildings are from the Venetians days when the City State of Venice controlled much of the Mediteranean and established a very large trading network. They built or improved the city walls and also the ramparts going all the way up the montain. If you want to walk them it is 1350 steps to the top. Maybe ok in the winter but not on a summers day like this.

Kotor Square with Bell Tower. I had to wait a considerable time before the square was somewhat cleared for a photo as it was a very touristy day,

Because the city is walled, you always end back up in the middle of the town which has an open square, overlooked by the Clock tower of the 15th. century. It still rings the hours. More to the back is the Tryphon Cathedral (yes yet again another cathedral with a bishop) that is even older. After looking at so much culture it was time to go back on board. We decided to skip lunch as we had a heavy evening coming, “white night”. This is a signature event of Azamara and we had heard good reports about it and if the buffet was comparable to the Balkan Buffet of a few days ago, we would have nothing to complain about. It runs for the whole evening and the ships crew sets up tables and chairs around the pool, on pool level and deck 10 above (running track). Everybody is encouraged to dress up in white. About 90% of the guests were completely in white and the rest in a variation of white. A few guests had not gotten the memo and showed up in other colors. Here crowd control set in, with “Negative Vibes” and they quickly left the scene to go to the dining room)

Table set-up. Those who are “in the know” arrived early to beat the quickly forming line for the food,

18.15 White Night warm up with DJ Symz (barbed wire techno music)

18.30 Buffet opens (Guests start to line up)

19.00 Get the party started with SensAsia (4 piece band with singer)

20.00 Special Event Crew Waves (crew parade)20.15 Azamara Presents…. The White Night party (Cruise Director, full cast and showband)

21.45 White night After party with SensAsia

10.45 White Night After Party with D.J Symz.

We were dressed accordingly and I was one of the very few gents who wore white shoes (courtesy of my sailing days and in normal life hard to buy) and it was a great party. The setup was perfect with the SensAsia band providing entertainment during dinner. Then most of the crew marched in, waving flags to say thank you (for paying their salaries) accompanied by some wise words of the captain. Then it was dancing time and the band & performers & C.D sang and danced for 90 minutes straight. The dance floor was full and each castmember and also the C.D could showcase their individual talents. Compared to this, Holland America’s Orange party, is a VERY poor relation. This how a deck party should be ran and the entertainers clearly loved it as they could show off their talents. And most entertainers are at their best when they are not hemmed in by corporate restraints. So they went for it here, while making sure that the music remained dance music and the crowd could hop, swing and disco. This was very good………… very very good.

The buffet being prepared. Similar to the “Balkan night” but with more variations in meat and a spaghetti station.

The line up for the buffet.

The crew is coming out, everybody waves their napkins.

The crew assembly and flags at the ready.

With drinks included it is not so difficult to get a conga line going.

The ship sailed at 22.00 and it was a very scenic sail-a-way though the fjord with the lights of the small vilages on the mountains twinkling at either side. Tomorrow we are in Dubrovnik and we were supposed to drop anchor under the walls of the old town. However the weather, with rain storms and wind gusts, is not looking that great so the captain wisely decided to dock at Gruz which is the commercial port at the other side of Dubrovnik. The ship will lay on a shuttle bus service to the entrance of the old town but now from the land side. Weather for tomorrow: partly cloudy with rain and thunder storms expected later in the day. Tl 25oC / 75oF.

As can be clearly seen from this photo, sea air does shrink a men’s T-shir.t

2025 Sep. 20; Zadar Croatia.

September 21, 2025 / Captain Albert / 4 Comments

It is only 120 miles from Opitija to Zadar and thus we are basically coast hopping from district town to district town

Today we are in Zadar Croatia, a nice old town going back to the Roman Days. When you walk around the pedestrianized roads in the centre of the City, it feels like a mini Dubrovnik. The main difference is that the town has been laid out on the side of the old Roman forum of which has been excavated and some pillars still stand.

But we started the day with enjoying our balcony with a nice cup of tea and fruit. With soo much food going around in the ship we decided to reduce our calorie intake by having only a small breakfast. And then it started to rain. Not from the skies but from the window wash basket running by on a rail above us. Normally with window washing and/or balcony scrubbing you get a notice in the cabin but nothing in this case and suddenly water came cascading down. A shout from me stopped it but by that time computer and cell phone were wet. Luckily not damaged. Other balconies suffered worse and tables, chairs and the cushions were all soaking wet, all along the portside of the ship. Nice for the guests when they come back from shore and have to sit with their bums on wet cushions. So before we went ashore we stopped by our Guest Relation Lady, who was suitably embarassed and shocked. I think we are not her favourite guests anymore, but if you do not let them know, then they can not improve their product. So she was going to have a word with the Staff Captain.

“home made ” rain on the balcony. Refreshing but not good for my laptop.

A very nice thing, at least we like it, is that there are no announcements. There is only the arrival announcement, when at anchor, for open tenders and at departure a few wise words from the captain. For the rest it is all peace and quiet and the ship runs by the daily program. The program is made up of two parts. Basically an A4 (legal for the Americans) size paper folded double with the opening times of all the venues and the regular advertisements for the concesionnaires. (Tonight the highlight was a Sun Glasses pop-up by the shops) then there is an insert which lists hour by hour of what there is going on from early morning to late at night. And that is enough to get around without missing anything. We were very happy with this during our cruise with the Germans on the Amera, six weeks ago, and now we have it here as well. Wonderful.

The St. Donalds or St Donatus Church from around 800 AD. Behind it the Zadar St. Anastasia Cathedral and to the left of the yellow marquee one of the very few Roman pillars still standing. The stones in the foreground are parts of the Roman Forum that was excavated.

Because we are a small ship, we docked in downtown. There were two bigger ships in port, a MSC ship and an Celebrity one, but they docked so far away that they needed shuttle buses to get their guests to downtown. Those buses all stopped in front of our ship; good advertisement for Azamara. Go small and you Go downtown. And we were really in downtown, to the Roman Forum was less than 5 minutes away and the old town, next to it, 7 minutes, Apart from the forum the place is dominated by the Church of St. Donald / Donatus which was built around 800 AD, partially with stones pilfered from the old Roman buildings around the Forum. So in the end there were only a few pillars left standing.

All these stones were once part of various buildings that made up the Roman Forum. Some have inscriptions that are still clearly visible.

Looking at those was enough culture for the day. The Romans ran a very standardized empire, so a ruin in England is the same as a ruin in Germany or in France, Italy or Zadar. With some small local variations of course, Her ladyship was more interested in the little shops in the alleyways. Plenty or restaurants as well and also two Candy shops, so I assume that the Zadarians have a sweet tooth. Thus we had a look at the $ 3000,— gold chains and other jewelry but matrimonial peace was restored as in the end only a soup spoon was bought (we have about 40 hanging in our kitchen at home) and a few bags of Lavender. The south of France is well known for Lavender but the Zadar area is very good as well and apart from little bags, they sold it in combination with a small bottle of essence to revitalize the lavender dish or bag at home.

One off the small streets in Zadar. Quite narrow and some made even more narrow as local restaurants had put their tables and chairs in the street.

By 1500 hrs. we were back, just on time, as it was getting very warm on a sunny and windless day like this. Although Saturday, there were no locals to be seen, only the cruise ship hordes. The locals waited to about an hour before sunset and then came out in droves to see sunset.

Waiting for Sunset. Saturday evening and the locals (and also tourists of course) streamed to the waterside to watch sunset over the islands off Zadar. The light blue circle is called the “Greeting to the Sun” and is 22 meters in diameter. With photovoltaic sun ray absorption it comes to life after dark and then shows vivid swirling colors with an ever changing display. The ship had a organized a “Balkan Buffet” around the pool and set up tables and chairs to enjoy all the food. The buffet was very elaborate and very well done. Also the drinks were flowing freely and a local duo had been hired to provide Croatian music (which seemed to include Beatles & Billy Joel songs as well ………, but who cares, they sounded very good) I think that about 50% of the guests attended, just enough to fill the deck. The rest must have been in the two Speciality Restaurants (Steak or Italian) or had taken room service, as we saw the last tour bus coming back at 18.45 and they all looked quite knackered.

The “Greeting to the Sun” now in full action.

By this time we were sitting down for the Balkan Buffet on Deck 9 & 10 around the midships pool area. Good music, good company with friendly and attentive crew was very really nice. Captain, Cruise Director and Hotel Manager were standing in a far corner but ready to talk to the guests which was appreciated. Azamara makes this a point of their product, so I assume that “being out and about” during part of the day, is calculated into the captains working hours. With Holland America and the 400 emails a day and all the side duties, captains who would like to socialize a bit more hardly have the time, as the job is very much turning into a Process Operator, instead being a Captain in Command and Host of the Ship. It seems that Azamara has gone the other way.

Overview on top deck, just when the buffet opened. All the tables would fill up quite quickly.

On the starboard side of this deck around the pool, which is called The Patio, is a hamburger & ice cream bar called Top & Swirl and here the Executive Chef had created a buffet with several food stations. Salad Bar, Bread and Cheese section, Hot food, Roasted pig station, barbecue and a dessert station.

The dessert section with a wide range of pastries including Backlava, On the photo the pastry chef to the left and the ships Executive Chef to the right.

As the ship has a high space ratio of 42 (= elbow room on the tonnage) it never feels crowded, not even when there are a lot of people milling around. So with half the ship being present there were still no lines to get to the buffet stands.

The buffet area with all the food.

A lot of local specialities were made available which included local sausage in all it forms and shapes, local cheeses and local meat and poultry. The roasted pig made a great impression on everybody as did the barbecued beef..

The barbecue station.

By 2100 hrs. this was all over and we had a look in “The Den” on deck 5 midships where the resident piano player was having a jazz jam session with 3 members of the Show lounge band. As expected it was much too loud for such a small room for people with good hearing, so we vacated to the Living Room (Crowsnest on deck 10) Here the Resident band was playing Beattles music and related, also loud, but this room is really large for the size of this ship and thus we found in the far corner a good spot where we could talk without having to raise our voice. By now we had not eaten for at least 45 minutes and luckily the ship had set up a small buffet so we would not suffer from withdrawal symptoms. Here we met a Canadian couple who we had talked to on the first day and who were up in arms about the on board drinks package that they had bought. Quite rightly so.

complimentary part 1

Complimentary part 2. These two have been copied out of the Beverage booklet in the bars. As you can see it is quite extensive and much more than “some” included as mentioned in the paper work.

Azamara announces vaguely in their pre cruise paperwork that during the cruise “some beverages are included” but does not elaborate on the what and how many Then they want to sell you, two upgrades. One for $31.95 pp and one for $ 39.95 a person a day. The problem is the complimentary drinks package includes so much that it does not make sense to take the $31.95 upgrade. (See listing below) there is not much extra. Only if you insist that you are going to drink all the premium alcohol drinks, you might take the $39.95. Several guests, including us had the $ 31.95 package included as part of the booking but we cannot pay an extra $ 8,— a day to upgrade to $ 39.95. No you have to pay the full price for the upgrade package. So the inclusion of the $ 31.95 package as a perk in the booking, does not mean anything as if hardly gives anything extra over the complimentary package.

The ship has the “Atlas Bar” on deck 10 overlooking the de pool area. This used to be the “Drawing Room” which name is still on the location diagrams in the staircases. The Atlas Bar is a premium cocktail lounge which is only included if you have the $ 39.95 package, or you have to pay the full price for the cocktails and those are not cheap. So my suggestion is, if you get the $31.95 (called the Premium package) included with your booking, that is fine. If you do not, then it is not worthwhile to pay and extra $ 31.95 to get a few more choices. If you are planning to swill cocktails all day and expensive whiskies and cognacs, then that is up to you for $ 39.95. We found that most guests who did not know the extent of the complimentary package were quite annoyed about this $ 31.95 top up with only marginal extras.

The full 3 package options.

Tomorrow we are in Hvar, also in Croatia, Weather supposed to be as today. Sunshine, hardly any wind and temperatures around 28oC. or 82oF. It is an anchor port and thus we need a tender to get ashore.

27 July 2025, Flam; Norway.

July 28, 2025 / Captain Albert / 9 Comments

Still in the wider part of the fjord at 08.30 am.

Although the days are getting shorter, it is still sun rise around 5 am. and thus a beautiful sail in with the sun shining on the mountain sides of the fjord. I am never much bothered about having a balcony cabin but when cruising here it does pay off and one can enjoy breakfast on the balcony while seeing Norway float by. Or better said the other way around, Norway stands still and we float by. It is nearly 6 hours from pilot station to Flam, depending how much speed the ship is allowed to make. From the pilot station to where the fjord gets smaller you can run at sea speed but as soon as you get in the smaller parts the ship has to slow down to avoid the ships wake hitting the shore side. It would not do to tip a local fisherman out of his/her boat due to pulling a large wake.

The dock in Flam. There is space for one cruise ship to dock. Right on the grassy area are the souvenir shops, and sitting areas for the local hotel and the new Viking brewery. To the left the walkway to train station and in the back (yellow) the super market..

We could dock today as a larger ship scheduled cancelled for unknown reason their call. This is happening more and more that due to port congestion or weather, ships are re-arranging their schedules and show up another day. Port calls are normally reserved 2 years in advance but there are not many ports that charge for the booking up front, so there is a lot of last minute (read 3 or 4 months) re-shuffling going on and that can indeed still happen at the last minute. But the captain was happy to take the spot and docked stern in so our portside cabin was overlooking the port of Flam and with it the local train station which is the main reason we are here. Guests from the ship and tourists coming in by car, will take the scenic train up the mountain and then either come down again in the same way or continue with a bus or coach further inland and that bus then ends up on the Flam Dock side again. Apart from the train station, there are a few small hotels and B&Bs, a small CO-OP supermarket (open today to service all the cars and RV’s coming in) and now they also have a brewery here. Built in the form of a Viking Longhall (modern version as it has WI-FI) which shows the brewing process and beer for sale. Normally that has my great interest but the “Viking” prices charged made me change my mind.

What made me very happy was the fact that my HAL posters were still there. I put them up in 2010 when HAL added the new cabins on deck 8 aft. There was only this bare brown wall which hides the old lifts going down to the dining room from the demolished Midnight Sun Lounge.

So we waited until the majority of the ship had marched ashore and then took the chance to have a good look around. I estimate that Phoenix Reisen has spent since 2019 about $30 million on the ship. In 2019 during a six months dry dock it was roughly $24 million on new engines, new rudders and a lot of pipe work and renewing of all the cabins. Then later on they did more work on the suites and also made the Captains cabin smaller by putting an extra suite in the sitting room space that we always used for parties.

The Panorama lounge ex Crows nest. All the same except some chairs added to increase capacity.

If we start on the top deck, deck 12, the Crows nest, now Panorama Bar remained the same. Then a deck down 11, the midship pool was taken out and replaced with a wooden decking for deck parties. This area is now called “Schone Aussichten” or “Nice Views”. See the photos on the blog of yesterday with the deck party/lunch.. Then the Lido part at the stern has been spruced up considerably and what was with HAL a semi outside venue is now completely closed in with good air-conditioning. If you then enter the aft staircase, you can see the 17th. ships painting that was once hanging in the HAL explorers lounge has been installed against the bulkhead. So it was not thrown out, as often happen during refit.

Deck 10 & 9 is still the same with all the cabins having been rebuilt, and to my wife’s consternation the self service laundry on deck 8 was taken away. There is another ,bigger one, on deck 6 but from the top deck cabins that is a long way down. For the suites there is free laundry but it is not always wise to send a Ladies dress to the ships laundry as they tend to kill it with kindness. Then on Deck 8 the public rooms start. The show lounge has not changed at all, even the carpet is still the HAL carpet. Front desk is still front desk and the photo gallery on the portside is still the same as is the cinema. The shops have been reduced to only the center large one and the boutique that was on the port side is now the Future Cruise office for Phoenix Reisen. The Explorations library is still there but much less elaborate than in HAL days. Also the large Captains cabins, where I could hold parties for up to 70 guests has been reduced to a regular officer cabin and an extra suite installed. Makes sense from a revenue point of view but not from a service point of view as now they have to block off part of a public room for a party. For the “Gold service” meeting, the Panorama Bar was closed off and tomorrow when we have the “Gold & Silber cabin” party and they do it in the Main Show lounge at 15.30 in the afternoon. We will see if it works, but I like my parties at cocktail time between 6 and 8 in the evening but not in the mid afternoon.

The old Explorers Lounge looking forward.

The biggest changes made are to the old Explorers lounge area & the casino & the Java Cafe & small bar on deck 8. It has been completely changed. The Casino was removed as Germans do not gamble and replaced by 10 cabins. The the Java Cafe & bar area and the Explorers lounge have been completely ripped out and made into “the Piano Lounge” and it has a large bar. Now many more guests can enjoy this venue and listen to the piano player & singer. Originally this lounge was called the Casablanca Bar and the old Ocean Bar, the Harry’s Bar. Both names taken from the movie Casablanca with Humphry Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Then for some reason the name was changed to Piano Lounge & Piano Bar and they do have a duo playing and singing there.

The new Piano Lounge with bar. The photo taken from the same location as the photo above. The lounge curves around to the portside at the end.

On deck 7, the old Ocean Bar is now Harry’s Bar. The bar itself has been made larger, the band stand re-arranged, and all the partitions removed so there is more place for sitting. In the starboard forward corner an enclosed Smoking Room has been put in, with glass wall so you can see who is working on a slow suicide. In the afternoon and evening there are two older gentlemen playing (They look a bit like motor cycle lovers with a mid life crises) and they play a mixture of German pop and dance music. Obviously they must think that their public has hearing issues as last night it was very loud.

Harry’s Bar. With Royal Viking this was a dining room. With HAL it was remodeled to the Ocean Bar with band and dancefloor, but with the bar hidden behind a screen. Phoenix has now opened everything up. It has a bigger band stand and much more seating.

Phoenix needed to make these two rooms bigger as Germans go much more for drinks in the afternoon and after dinner drinks and dancing than the Americans with HAL do, and I think they did a very good job, Two very nice lounges, who serve their guests well.

Deck 6, 5 and 4 are cabins again with on deck 5 in the forward staircase there is a multi purpose room, which with HAL was mainly for crew training, incentive group meetings and Club HAL. Now this is a “Kreativ Room” which on this cruise seems to consist out of “Sit & be Fit”. For that purpose a hard wooden floor has been put in while with HAL it was carpet. And then finally, “hurrah” they put in 4 new tenders. That meant installing new davits to hang them from which is quite expensive but they did so.

The menu at Pichlers.

We went for pre-dinner cocktails to the Piano lounge, which was completely empty. We are now getting the hang of the German flow. They were either watching the scenery on departure outside or they marched directly into the dining rooms or Lido. I wonder if they are indeed afraid that the kitchen will run out of food. Then they all congregate in the lounges afterwards where the bars were doing a roaring trade. We had a booking for Pichlers which is the old Holland America Line Pinnacle Restaurant and it is still exactly the same. The system works in a German way, everybody comes in between 18.30 and 1900 which gives the staff time to take your drinks order. Then when everybody is in, they close the doors, ……….yes they close the doors………… and then you get served a set menu served. If there is something you do not like or cannot eat (like milk in a dish) then they will get you something from the dining room. Food is free, drinks, water, tea and coffee you have to pay for. With a specialty restaurant you do not expect to pay for tea and coffee but here you do and they do not tell you. But once having experienced this, you know and can be ready to make a more quantified decision next time. The food was very good and the service very smooth. Even with a full house, there were enough waiters to make it all work perfectly.

That meant of course we missed the show but when we came out, “Die Beatles Show” was still going on, in the theatre, here called “Die Atlantik Lounge”. Again this was a revue show, so same cast as last night, and again it was very bad. 3 of the four singers are not too bad to listen to , but the sound system, the back stage lighting and set-up, and cheography of the dancers is not good at all. Maybe Phoenix should only have bought 3 new tenders and spent some more money on the shows. On the other hand the guests did not seem to notice and were enjoying themselves so what can I say. We will have to find out eventually what quality of the shows are on “Mein Schiff ” and “Aida” but it cannot be that bad. That concluded our day, so time to translate the daily program to Lesley and plan for tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are in Sandane from 0700 – 1300 hrs. then a 60 mile jump to Floro for an evening call. Sandane, is an anchor call, so with tender service, but Floro is docking. We have never been to neither of the two places so we want to step ashore, even if it is only for 5 minutes. Weather for tomorrow, it calls for overcast weather with rain on the mountain but that rain normally has a tendency to come down the mountain at some time during the day. Who cares, the cabin is equipped with 2 large umbrellas so we can handle weather. Temperatures around 61 oF / 16 oC. and maybe somewhat higher.

2025 June 14; Going Home, the Verdict.

June 16, 2025 / Captain Albert / 23 Comments

So today we drove home after a very nice 14 days on board the ms Nieuw Statendam. We would prefer a smaller HAL ship (hence we are going to try Viking next February with 900 passengers) and we hope that HAL/Carnival will build some as HAL is losing customers to Viking as they have 12 midsized cruise ships that can call at smaller ports. (That will also make it easier to find another port during inclement weather) Something I was used to when I was with the ms Veendam (now still laid up in Greece) and ms Prinsendam (now ms Amera) in Europe.

Will we be back ???. YES. My Lord and Master has already booked a 14 day cruise in 2027 in the Baltic (September 17) with the Nieuw Statendam. There are some ports there, that were not visited by HAL during my days of sailing (Klapeida, Gdansk, Riga etc.)

The only real two complaints were:

A. the noise in the dining room in the “As You Wish” part. It could be quite easily fixed by HAL (egg shell sound proofing of ceiling, something I have seen at other companies). But for ourselves it also was easily avoided. Being married to an (almost) 700 day Mariner gave an extra Specialty Restaurant visit (plus extra one that came with the “Have it All package) and made it that the dining room was easily avoided, But my greatest respect for Host Fernando and his team to make it all work during the rush hours of serving. (We went twice to New York Pizza as well when we knew it was quiet)

B. The overbooking in the Pinnacle Restaurant near the end of the cruise. There is really no excuse for that, and it is not nice to expose the staff to this, when all they want to do is deliver the service that Holland America indicates, is famous for and expect them to deliver.

What would be nice:

A part of Crows nest that could be used for cocktails in the evening (the portside and midships), with a proper ambience and with all broken equipment removed. And maybe a small stage in the corner for a guitar player??

The late show to start at 21.30. It would relieve congestion (between 19.00 and 19.30) in the dining room and just give everybody enough time to enjoy a “good dinner experience”, instead of a rushed “going to eat”.

For the rest many compliments for our cabin stewards (hardly ever to be seen as usual), the cheerful Lido staff and the very had working Bar Staff, who did earn their money with soo many cocktail loving Dutch on board. Same for the Kitchen staff who kept up the best Lido afloat and delivered in the specialty restaurants even under high pressure circumstances. We liked the shows and the Dualling Piano’s and also the classical trio but we stayed away from the Rock lounge and BB Kings as the volume is way too high for people with good ears.

A pity was the sudden ending of the Orange Party, that was just gearing up (under the infectious enthousiasm of Miss X) and then it went back to BB. King, what a bummer.

This time we had a Vista Suite but her ladyship found it too small so next time we go for Neptune Suite. As ex HAL I can get discounted fares but with the danger that it all gets cancelled at the last minute, if the ship is fully booked or they can do an up-sail. Hence we book in the normal way via a travel agent. We do not have children so there is no excuse for not spending our inheritance anyway.

ms Nieuw Statendam

ms Queen Anne

On day 3 (4 if counted from Dover) I promised a comparison between HAL and Cunard now they both operate Pinnacle class ships (Costa Cruises has some as well).

This is a personal rating and the one that wins is in bold.

HAL Cunard: ,

Capacity 2600 Capacity 2900

Deck 1 Atrium Grand Lobby

Cunard has this wonderful space with a sitting area, coffee bar, drawing room, games room and in the corner the Pursers office. HAL has changed a previously completely lost space into the Park West art gallery. The Front desk is on desk 3, which is prime space now handed over to offices. Cunard has Shops here and open walking space for the guests.

Meeting Rooms ?????

For incentive cruises, HAL has 3 nice meeting rooms here. Could not find anything on Queen Anne except two small rooms.

Note: Meeting Rooms versus Pursers Desk location is a money decision to attract more groups. But I wonder with Cunard if the extra guest space provided does not generate a lot of revenue per square foot to offset the use of the function rooms. Cunard Shops and Barista bar where was always doing a good trade, when were there. (Ad I do not know if the knitting group we had on board this cruise were drinking very much)

Dining room 4 venues

Cannot compare as with Cunard as their restaurants are connected to your cabin class and get better with the size of the cabin, But Cunard has the same problems with “As You Wish” dining as HAL in the main dining room.

World Stage Royal Court

Cunard has a conventional setup and no LED screen. It is oke, but for lectures and shows the HAL LED screens knocks spots of Cunard.

CrowsNest Commodore Club

Cunard has a setup that HAL used to have back in 1992 with the arrival of the S-class, with comfy chairs and tables, an extensive bar and cocktail music.

Tamarind Sir Samuels Cunard’s expensive steakhouse looks like a cafetaria.

Library Library Cunard has many more books and a librarian.

Club HAL xxxxxx Cunard has a space but it is not as elaborate as HAL.

Grand Dutch Cafe Carinthia

The menu options and service are much better with Hal. Cunard took away the mid partition and thus created more tables. The GDC is too small between 1000 and 1400 hrs.

Ocean Bar Chart House Bar

Cunard has this beautiful round bar instead of a row of chairs backing into the Musicn Walk – walkway and half of the sitting area used by guests waiting for the Sel de Mer or Pinnacle.

Queens Lounge Queens Lounge.

For HAL, the most beautiful lounge on the high seas. For Cunard, they have a nice orchestra and dance floor in there, with good secondary shows, but only one (small) pathway on the starboard side, causing congestion and people standing in the way, while watching what goes on when going from one lounge to the other. The “Music Walk” flow works much better.

Pinnacle Space taken up by the Cunard Club Class Restaurant.

Rudy’s Sel de Mer Space taken up by the Cunard Club Class Restaurant.

Canaletto Lido Tramonto / Lido

At Cunard the space looks like a road restaurant with pretensions.

Regular Lido space Indian / Lido

At Cunard, the space looks like an road restaurant with pretensions.

Lido Restaurant Lido Restaurant. (Lido Market versus Artisans Food Hall)

HAL has much more variation and longer opening times.

Dressy nights Formal nights Cunard has formal and enforces it. And we love dressing up.

HAL service Cunard Service

Although the service at Cunard is very good, we always get the feeling that the Cunard crew serve us to do us a favor, instead of HAL “being happy to serve”.

HAL bar Prices Cunard Bar prices Cunard is very expensive.

HAL Drinks Package Cunard Drinks Package. This is a bit more complicated but:

Hal top package = $ 65.95 a day (with drinks to a maximum of 15 at $ 15,– each)

Cunard top package = $ 72,– a day (with drinks to a maximum of 15 at $ 13.50 each)

But if you book “Have it all ” (which Cunard does not have) then you get included WIFI, Drinks, Tips. $ 200 shore excursions and 2 x Specialty Restaurants . AND THAT MAKES THE HAL DRINKS A VERY GOOD DEAL.

So in general AND THIS IS US PERSONALLY, we like Holland America better as a whole. Regardless of having worked for HAL a very long time. But we are going on the ms Queen Victoria for the Christmas Cruise as it has more style and everybody dresses up. We are not going back to Queen Anne.

Looking a the number of hits, in the last 14 days, and the numbers of comments (thank you very much, much appreciated) I will do another blog for our next cruise in July. ms Amera (ex Prinsendam) of Phoenix Reisen in Germany. It will be a seven day cruise to Norway. I was 3 years Captain on the ship so we want to see what the Germans have done with it.

In the mean time, I will continue to add information to the Captain’s bio’s.

Thank you for your continued interest.

2024 Sept 20. Review ms Celestyal Journey (ex Ryndam)

September 20, 2024 / Captain Albert / 10 Comments

Good morning,

our travels continue and after the Celebrity Apex, we have now tried a “trip down memory lane” sailing on the Celestyal journey ex Ryndam of Holland America with a 7 day cruise from Pireaus to the Greek Islands.

This review can be found to the right of this post under the header:

My Cruises and Reviews

Please click on it, and then go one more time to the right and you will see the name of the ship at the bottom and click again.

I hope you will find it interesting and maybe diverting.

24 March – 10 April 2020; Panama to Fort Lauderdale.

April 16, 2020 / Captain Albert / 56 Comments

So I am back on the blog. A blog which I had to stop as things were getting too confused and fast moving for me to relate correctly and with sufficient authority. If you look at the last blogs, I had mentioned already a few times that the company was moving faster than I could record it. Then throw the world stage, with all its politics into the mix, and I did not know any more if I was coming or going. So we stopped.

On 09 April the last guests left the ship, and then ship went into warm lay-up. Healthy guests but a few guests remained on board who could not leave as they could not get home for all the reasons that went with the current situation. Things on board are now returning to a sort of normal, albeit a new normal.

This blog is a compilation of the past period as seen through the eyes of yours truly and as I am not involved in politics (*) there is no opinion about why something happened, just what happened and how the ships made it work.

(*) Maybe Captains should all run for office, each in their respective country, I am absolutely convinced the world would have less issues. Continue reading

18 Feb. 2020; Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.

February 18, 2020 / Captain Albert / 5 Comments

It was a beautiful day, sunny not too warm but a little bit windy. As a sailor I would like to have seen a bit less wind at the anchorage but luckily we had shore tenders today as we were the only ship. And for the guests it did not matter at all as the beach and most of the facilities are on the lee side, so it was perfect and the breeze kept the temperature down. We had all the shore tenders available because we were the only ship. If there is another HAL ship in, then the biggest ship gets the two large shore tenders and the smaller ship (and the Veendam is always the smaller ship) the two smaller shore boats but often then has to augment the tender service with its own ships tenders. I would not be amazed if the company will keep investing in more ship – to shore transport so it will get easier and easier all time. But today we were all by ourselves and thus not a worry in the world. Continue reading

09 December 2019: Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.

December 9, 2019 / Captain Albert / 2 Comments

I was amazed about the internet last night. When I verified the weather for today, I typed in Half Moon Cay instead of Little San Salvador Island (which is the official name) and Low and Behold the weather forecast popped up. So the Weather Guru’s must have decided that HMC was an official enough name to add it to their database. Holland America is going up in the world…………. And they were right with the weather. The sun was there, the clouds were not there, there was just a bit more wind than anticipated. 30+ knots on arrival. Lessening to 20 knots during the day. If we would have been there with the Prinsendam it would have been complicated but the Nieuw Statendam has so much power that staying in position was still a doddle and we had a very good day. Continue reading

12 Dec. 2016; Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Honduras.

December 12, 2016 / Captain Albert / 3 Comments

We were the only ship docking at the Mahogany Bay Pier today, courtesy of the fact that this dock was constructed by Carnival Corporation. Therefore our poor competitors, in this case RCI, had to do with docking at Coxen Hole a little bit more to the west. There is another cruise terminal but with some fewer facilities on the dock for guests who do not want to go too far. And a lot of guests had one look at the weather: dark clouds gathering overhead causing the occasional downpour and decided to stay on board or were back quite quickly. Main reason was they had already been here before, so why get wet during a repeat visit? We have a larger number of guests on board who are just taking a “quick Holland America cruise” in between. They are here for the ship and the service and could “not care less about the coconuts” as one guest expressed his reason to stay on board.

Hence the High Tea was having a full house and all the bridge tables were occupied as well. Always nice to see the public rooms being in use at other times than just when there is entertainment or happy hour.

Apart from all the activities on board, Holland America has also made it a standard of its product of giving the guests something to look at. All the ships have a lot of antiques on board which can bring many hours of happy hunting and observing if you are so inclined to do so. With the Koningsdam what is on display is more contemporary but that is not bad for a change either.

So as part of my hobby (and hopefully for posterity as well) I photograph & document the complete interiors of all the ships; as one day also the Oosterdam will also be gone. Not all the art is on display where all the guests can get at it, some is hidden in the private offices on board. So today a few pieces of art to look at, which are hidden on deck 1 in the Hotel Offices. Senior hotel staff offices are gathered near the Atrium where we have on the portside the Security Officers Office, IT office, the Front Office (with inside the Pursers office) and the Cruise Directors office.

Boats in a Harbour by Heinrich Hermanns

From all those offices the Cruise Director has the nicest piece of art hanging on the wall. Made by a German painter Heinrich Hermanns who lived from 1862 to 1942 and the painting is called Boats in a Harbour. Normally I am very critical of paintings with ships but this is a nice atmospheric piece. Sailors always look at shippy paintings with the eye……………… is it correct. And you can only let that go if there are no real details on it. One of the painters who is always very in depth and scrutinized by us, is the maritime painter Captain Stephen Card as we have his paintings hanging on each of our ships, mostly in the forward staircase. Luckily he is a sailor himself who carefully documents first what he is going to paint because if he gets it wrong, the old Holland America line employees are very vocal.

Nicholas Berthon. Dutch Harbour.

On starboard side we have the Controller’s office, shore excursion, Beverage department, Culinary Department, Hotel Directors Office and the Executive Housekeepers office. The 2^nd painting of my liking is hanging in the Executive Housekeepers office. Again a painting with a ship on it, this time by Nicholas Berthon 1839 – 1888 and called Dutch Harbor. Looking at the name it sounds like he is a French painter and this is the first time I see this name coming up in connection to something with boats. Knowing how my company sources Art and also how much budget there is, plus the need to keep the art from “walking away” the price for these sorts of paintings lays normally in the area of 800 to 1500 dollars. Good enough quality to have on board for guests to enjoy, not expensive enough for somebody to be tempted to embrace it as a permanent souvenir.

Not a painting but also art. A Christmas Village by the Oosterdam Culinary Department.

What I have forgotten to mention is that Christmas has fully arrived on the Oosterdam. During last cruise the decorations started to come out and by now everything is in place. Including the Christmas village in the Atrium. We have now Christmas Music played through the ship and to my utter amazement I have not heard White Christmas from Bing Crosby yet. All the other songs have all come by already including the missing two-front-teeth.

Tomorrow we are in Santo Tomas de Castilla in Guatemala which lays 142 miles to the west from here. And that means I am not going to predict the weather, as it might be the same as today; but it might just change as well, depending what pressure system wins the battle. The one to the south, the one to the north, or the one to the East.

- Captain Albert's Website and Blog -

Ocean Liner History and Stories from the Sea, Past and Present. With an In Depth focus on Holland America Line