View from the gym aboard ms Zuiderdam.

My first thought when I woke up this morning is that the gym was going to be packed. I was wrong. I got there around 8am and there was plenty of machines available. Our time went ahead one hour last night so we’re now in the Atlantic time zone.

Craig went to the excursion talk at 10am to learn about some of the excursions and then listened to a few minutes of the port lecturer. The over-the-top shopping lectures crack me up. We know they are hustling for commission and they do a hell of a job selling the shops.

At 11:30 we had a champagne lunch with the officers and Cruise Director. We had a table of eight and spanning all over from Canada, New York, Washington DC, and Raleigh, NC. The Cruise Director gave a brief talk and then we got to eat a great lunch with beef, fish, or salad, all delish! After lunch we made our reservations for Canaletto, the surcharge-free dining option on the ship. It’s actually a part of the Lido buffet area that’s transformed at night and made available to guests who want to enjoy a great Italian meal.

This afternoon I experienced my first Park West Gallery art auction. I won’t lie, I saw free champagne and I thought “what the hell, I’ll go.” I wound up walking through the gallery, talking to the PW employees and asking them about different pieces of work. Afterwards I stayed and watched the auction. If you’ve never been to an art auction or even if you hate art, I suggest you sit in at least one on your next cruise. People drop some major money on these art pieces. To be honest, I had no clue that cruises had so much disposable income. Many people spent well into the $1,000’s on a piece of work today. It’s kind of exciting to even watch the process.

Tonight was formal night in the Main Dining Room but we wound up eating in Canaletto instead. They had a lot to choose from in Canaletto: anti-pasta, soups, veal, pasta, lasagna, and a ton of Italian desserts like tiramisu, gelato, and cakes. They also serve cotton candy on a dish just before dessert. Kind of random but good!

The captain did the gala ceremony at 9:45p. There was complementary champagne and the captain introduced the key staff members and the two employees of the month. I thought that was a nice touch.

It was 50′s-60′s night in the disco but there wasn’t a lot of people in there.

We arrive in Aruba tomorrow at 1pm.

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Norwegian’s rich history of innovation, particularly in the evolution of onboard entertainment began with the line’s early roots as the first to bring Broadway-style shows and celebrity entertainers aboard its ships to its most recent success with Norwegian Epic featuring brand name entertainment such as Blue Man Group, Legends in Concert, Cirque Dreams & Dinner, and Howl at the Moon, all never before offered at sea. This partnership with Sixthman provides an opportunity to continue to evolve cruise ship entertainment by offering unique musical experiences.

Sixthman, founded in 2001 by industry leader Andy Levine, has pioneered the destination event movement by hosting guests on more than 43 full-ship charters over the past 11 years. Based in Atlanta, Sixthman has partnered with artists such as KISS, Kid Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Mayer, Zac Brown Band, 311, Lyle Lovett, Barenaked Ladies, Sister Hazel and many others, as well as brands such as VH1, Graceland and Turner Classic Movies. The mix of intimate artist interaction within environments shared by like-minded communities has ignited a passionate, loyal and growing following for the cruise events and festivals Sixthman produces.

“We have been impressed with the range of events Sixthman has produced and believe strongly in this growing segment,” said Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian Cruise Line’s chief executive officer.  “Sixthman’s expertise and relationships will help us further extend our position as the leader in cruise ship entertainment.”

The new partnership allows Norwegian and Sixthman to work with the many travel partners and music and theme cruise producers in expanding this growing and exciting segment of the cruise business by delivering the highest quality, unique experience for fans.

Source: NCL

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Video: CCL

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Carnival Breeze rendering. (photo: CCL)

Carnival is sweetening the deal for their agents booking their upcoming Carnival Breeze trips out of Europe. The cruise line is offering a grand prize trip of a 7-night sailing for two for the grand prize winner and 50 runner ups will receive $50 MasterCard gift cards. Each online reservation counts as an entry.

“Our sales team is working closely with agents in the field to build excitement for Carnival Breeze, which boasts some of the best features available in Europe this summer and fall,” said Joni Rein, vice president of worldwide sales. “From Fun Ship 2.0 to new design features and incredible itineraries, there’s an array of key selling points for this ship. The sweepstakes is an added way of infusing some fun into the selling process for agents.”

Carnival Breeze is set to debut June 2012.

Following an inaugural 12-day cruise from Venice departing June 3, 2012, the ship will operate a series of 12-day Mediterranean voyages from Barcelona through October 25, 2012.

Source: Carnival

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Half Moon Cay.

We arrived in Half-MoonCay,Bahamas around 7:45am and dropped anchor where we were joined by another HAL ship ms Westerdam. The tender process was pretty straight laced. We had to go to the Queen’s Lounge, get a tender ticket and then wait for our tender number to be called. The process from getting our ticket to getting on-shore was about 30-45-minutes. When we arrived on HMC it was an awesome sight with white sandy beaches and plenty of room even with two ships in port. The island is 2,400 acres with only 45 acres developed.

I didn’t do an excursion this time but there’s a lot to do there from renting jet skis, swimming with the sting rays to renting a cabana beachside. I went straight for a walk and passed a horse riding excursion where people were in the water with the horses. Not being a huge person of just baking in the sun, I pulled a chair under a tree and listened to my iPod. Lunch was served around 11:30 in the main BBQ pavilion area. It seemed a little cramped with two ships in port but the servers also put the food on your tray there, so that made things a little slower. When I was on HMC on Carnival Fascination last year, I didn’t remember that.

I stayed on HMC for about three hours and went back to the ship, or so I thought I was going to. When I grabbed my wallet out of my friend’s bag, I forgot to make sure my ship card was in there – it wasn’t. I had to walk all the way back and get my card before heading BACK to the ship tender boats again. The ride back was a breezy 15-minutes and then we were back on the ship. They don’t do a security check point with the X-rays when you get back on the ship from HMC because they search your bags on the pier and there’s really nothing that you could bring on the ship.

Back on the ship I went to the Explorations Café where they have lots of library books, computers, and a sitting area called the Crow’s Nest. The café is powered byt the NY Times. Everywhere you go you see NYT screen savers on the computers and print outs of the daily news. All good stuff.  I found a John Grisham book that I haven’t read yet so settled in a reclining chair until sail away. This was the first time I’ve ever really walked into a ships library. The ship staffs a librarian and has an extensive selection of books. I was impressed.

I still think internet on a ship is the biggest racket. $100 for 250 minutes. It’s crazy how the prices change from ship to ship. When I was on MSC a couple months ago, the price was 13-cents a minute. Last week on Costa Atlantica it was $24 for three hours. In comparison you could buy 12 hours on Costa for the same prices as four hours on this ship. I’m thinking we should all buy some stock in MTN (company who runs the internet on the ship).

Dinner was in the main dining room and I went with the Caribbean jerk chicken, French onion soup, and a fruit plate for dessert. If I keep eating desserts my ass is going to be as big as a house. Since we have anytime dining we dine on deck two and the past couple nights we’ve eaten alone. We did make reservations for Canaletto (Italian venue), Pinnacle Grill (lunch $10 and dinner $25), and Le Cirque (held once this cruise). More on that to come..

After dinner we checked out the show of multiplatinum artist Journey South. The brother duo opened with a trio from their longtime music idol Billy Joel and continued to delight crowd with classic favorites from Elton John, Van Morrisson and Michael Bublee. Yet, the highlight is when they performed acoustic and played songs form their albums including one they originally wrote. Their life was a dream come true from their humble beginnings in New  Castle,England and they shared their story of how they received a chance after years of struggle through the Simon Cowell hit show “The X Factor.” A very inspiring story added emotion and excitement to the music.

Tomorrow is a day at sea as we head toArubaand I plan to hit the gym pretty hard. If the food consumption keeps up there will be no weight loss on this cruise.

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Renovations throughout the ship include new flooring and replaced carpeting, elegant new furniture, new window treatments and decorative wall panels, and new signage, providing a lighter, brighter feel.

Additionally, all suites and staterooms feature new teak railings on the balconies and new bathroom flooring. On the culinary front, La Veranda offers guests a redesigned entrance, refinished indoor and outdoor furniture, and solar shades throughout. Le Grill boasts new decorative partitions and divider walls, as well as a new buffet area and new lighting. L’Etoile also features a redesigned entrance in addition to video equipment for conferences.

Promenade Deck 5 boasts a new built-in banquette and expanded casino in Le Casino, and Deck 6 received a new integrated display case for books and art. La Palette features a decorative stone band along the front of the bar and an updated lighting system, as well as new outdoor furniture. Le Grand Salon and La Palette offer refurbished dance floors to provide the perfect venue to dance the night away.

Guests now cruise aboard a vessel that has been thoroughly updated and redecorated for even greater luxury and comfort, reflecting Paul Gauguin Cruises’ level of commitment to the ship and the importance of the overall guest experience.

Source/Photo: PG Cruises

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Someone told me today that I’m a slave to free wifi and that’s pretty much true. Port Everglades website said that all terminals at the port are now equipped with free wifi (woo-hoo).

The curbside process was very efficient. We pulled up around noon, they put a tag on my bag with my room number on it and I was on my way. They told me that I would get my bag in my room by four (it arrived much earlier). Again, I forgot my boarding paperwork, but it was fine. They checked my name on the manifest, went through security, and I went to the check-in counter. The agent was VERY helpful to me. I did ask her about cash deposits and debit card holds. She said with a debit card, it’s typical for Holland America to hold $60 per day, this was a 10-day cruise so $600. If you want to do cash deposit, it’s recommended that you give $600 into which you’ll be refunded via check if you don’t spend it all on the last night of the cruise. I hung in the terminal for about two hours getting caught up on emails and editing files before I made my way on the ship and to my room. The room is on deck 7 (Rotterdam deck), port side, between midship and aft. I have a balcony stateroom, a nice sitting area, an actual tub, and three big closets to hang clothes. There is also a dressing curtain that I didn’t notice when I sailed ms Eurodam back in 2010. Each room has it’s own dvd player, flat screen TV, and super comfy beds. I think I’ve never been on a cruise ship or a hotel with a bed this comfortable.

The lifeboat drill was at 4pm and I have never heard a cruise line so strict on the policy. The cruise director came on the mic and said “if you don’t drill, you don’t sail.” He said that not once, not twice, but three times. I think he got the point across. The lifeboat drill took exactly 19-minutes and the captain released us with the blast of the ships horn. We were the third ship to pull out of port. Princess Cruises’ Pacific Princess was out first, followed by Holland America’s ms Maasdam, then us (ms Zuiderdam) and Seabourn was last. All Carnival Corp. ships.

The sail away band was great and they had an amazing sail away BBQ with all the fixings: steak, chicken, ribs, grilled salmon, grilled corn, and kabobs. There’s a Port Everglades webcam in one of the last buildings when you are pulling out of port, they didn’t zoom in close enough to check us out though. I stood on the aft end of the ship, port side during the sail out and watched the pilot boat take the river pilot off the ship.

We have open seating and went to dinner, cutting it close, around 8:45pm. More on the dining on this ship in the days to come.

Tomorrow is Half Moon Cay, Holland America’s private island that’s located about 100-miles southeast of Nassau, Bahamas. This will be my third time to the island in the past couple of years and has to be one of the better private cruise line owned beaches I’ve been too. I think HMC has actually won awards consistently from Porthole Cruise Magazine on the best private destination.

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This was my first breakfast in the main dining room for the past 10-days, but all my table mates were going all along. Not being a huge breakfast person, I was just eating an apple from my room every morning. The MDR breakfast started with different types of rolls, then you could pick omelets, bacon, eggs, toast, fish, plus a fruit bar was set up in the center of the dining room. It never fails on the last morning, it’s so obvious that the crew wants you to get off the ship so they can turn the ship and get it ready for the next cruise. I really can’t blame them.

At around 7:45, I went down to deck three to walk off the ship. It was a flawless process. With my luggage in hand, they scanned my card, and I went through the terminal and into customs. When I got to the customs window, the agent told me I was the first American he had through his line all day. The customs process was a little bit longer than normal because of all the Europeans coming back into the country. There were a lot of scanning fingerprints and things like that. I got my USA passport stamp (first time ever on a cruise) and I was on my way to Fort Lauderdale to do some shopping and go to a laundry mat before boarding my next cruise.

Overall my experience on Costa Cruises was a good one.

Pros: Great Italian food, the entertainment was very visual and the magic show was a 10, great cabin space with two plugs, attentive staff, and guest relations were very helpful with no language barrier.

Cons: English was not the first language (it’s an Italian cruise line), not great communication about shore excursions that were canceled, service fee not clearly indicated to passengers on board (to an avid cruiser, it’s a given – but there were lots of first timers on board).

If you don’t have an open mind and have little patience, this cruise isn’t for you. If you want to experience the European culture on a magnificent ship with a great ports of call, look more into sailing Costa Atlantica in the Caribbean market (here seasonally).

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At 10:30 I had an interview with the Hotel Director, Stefano, who answered some questions about operations on board the ship and being in the North American market seasonally. Turns out he was a cruise director and has been around for the past 17 ship launches. I’m pretty sure they thought I was on the ship doing an undercover investigation on Costa Concordia because all my questions had to be vetted.

Around the ship there was lots of games, music, and one last day for the servers to push drinks. Late afternoon I went down to the guest relations office to make sure everything was taken care of and the line was about 20 people deep.

It’s always interesting on the last day watching people complain about their bill and trying to explain to the staff that there’s no way they spent these charges. I’m sure they heard it all by now. From what I gathered, US residents had the option to remove the daily hotel service charge and pay with cash, but anyone else couldn’t, the charge was mandatory. I removed my service charge and got envelopes from the front desk and did the cash thing. I’ll definitely have to get back with you on that.

The disembarkation talk has  been on TV all day. I have a black luggage tag, which means I’m doing self assist, the only way I go (until I get too lazy). I have to meet in the lounge at 7:30am tomorrow morning.

Dinner was fun and it Roman themed. They passed out togas for everyone to wear but because I didn’t ask for one, I didn’t get one. The guys at our table dressed up, actually about 50% of the dining room was dressed up. I’m definitely calling it an early night tonight because of the early morning. As I type this we are off the coast of Florida, probably about 10-miles or so. A lot the European folks aren’t flying out until 11pm on debarkation day so that’s going to make a long day in Miami. Luckily Costa lets people stay in the public areas of the ship til like 11:30, I don’t know of a place to store luggage in Miami airport. My guess is they wouldn’t have that after 9/11, but I don’t fly enough to know.

Packing time!

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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (Feb. 17, 2012) —

From the time defueling began until 7 a.m. Feb. 17, a total of 952 cubic meters (251,492 gallons) of fuel have been pumped out of four tanks located in the forward part of the ship.

A total of 1,428 cubic meters (377,237 gallons) of fuel is still to be removed from 13 tanks, of which 576 cubic meters (152,163 gallons) is located in the forward part of the ship. According to the schedule drawn up by the Neri/Smit Salvage experts, if sea and weather conditions remain favorable, all of the fuel still on board the ship should be extracted within three weeks if operations can continue 24 hours per day.

Since the outset Costa Crociere’s priorities have been to guarantee maximum safety, the least possible environmental impact and protection of the environment of Giglio and the island’s tourism industry, while carrying out defueling within a reasonable time frame.

Both the defueling procedure and the other operations scheduled on Costa Concordia are being conducted jointly with full cooperation between Costa Crociere and the Concordia Emergency Commissioner’s Office.

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