THE
CRUISE -- A TRANSATLANTIC CROSSING
on
Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam
On
a lark one day in January 2012, my husband sent me an email
with a link to an incredible transatlantic cruise ship sale.
Leaving Miami, Florida, on April 1 it would take more than
four weeks to arrive at its final glorious destination
-- Venice, Italy. Along the way it would stop several times
in Portugal and Spain, once in France, followed by three
or more stops in Italy, then Turkey with Venice bringing
the adventure to glamorous end. Seeing all of these places
sounded terrific and we spent wonderful hours giving it some
serious thought.
Our
original plan for this year's spring holiday had been to
spend April in Sicily and May in Naples, but the cruise idea
put a little more complexity in the planning. On the one
hand, cruise voyages never seemed like "real" traveling
to me. I thought of them as secure and pampered vacations
-- lavish dining, lazing on board, massages in the spa, shopping,
poolside sunning, light gambling in the casinos, meeting
and greeting thousands of other passengers with the whole
experience enhanced with beautifully managed visits ashore
in exotic ports of call. On the other hand, taking a cruise
was something totally new for me and my husband was thrilled
with the idea. In the end, the real plus was crossing the
Atlantic by ship. Stassi had sailed it a few times and wanted
to share the romantic feeling that truly being at sea can
bring. The first of April is our anniversary and that sealed
the deal -- we were on for a cruise!
We
had business to do in Miami and couldn't confirm our sailing
date until a few days beforehand and by then the ship's schedule
had changed for the type of cabin we wanted. Now we would
be leaving Miami to arrive at our final destination Barcelona,
Spain, in only seventeen days. And what luck, Stassi, my
husband, had spent some years of his youth there building
a steel ship replica of Joshua Slocum's Spray. He loved the
city and had many fond and funny memories to share with me
on arrival.
April
1 came, our business was done in Miami and we were off! Getting
on board the Holland America ship, the Nieuw Amsterdam was
a pleasure especially compared to flying these days. Security
was in place, but not intrusive and invasive. Anticipating
the civilized welcome, most passengers were well dressed
and all were excited to be traveling. Everyone we interacted
with on staff was courteous and helpful, even gracious and
within a short time we were on board and invited to a pre-sailing
lunch. There was a buzz on board with the anticipation passengers
brought with them while the ship's crew actively welcomed
their guests and made all of us feel at home.
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After
lunch we found our cabin which was inside and free of windows,
but it was on the seventh deck many stories above the ocean.
On first sight, I had a touch of claustrophobia, but recovered
in a few minutes. My husband called our cabin the sleeping
cave and that seemed perfect. We had stayed in a land based
cave in Santorini just a few years ago at my insistence and
in truth a sleeping cave made the idea of crossing the Atlantic
in a sailboat sleeping in a berth below deck a lot more real
-- everything had to be in its place at all times and opening
windows was often dicey. On the Spray, an 80 foot sailboat,
sleeping cabins had 12 inch glass port holes opened only
if the sea was just about flat calm.
On
board the Nieuw Amsterdam, everything we needed to be comfortable
was there in our little cabin -- a queen sized bed with nightstands
on each side and good reading lamps, a desk with a good reading
lamp and access to the internet, a large closet safe, great
storage for luggage and clothes, a very appealing bathroom
and a steward who introduced himself as Helmi. He would prove
to be one of the best features of the cruise. From Indonesia,
Helmi brought his culture of graciousness to his work. He
proved to be a lovely person and we are grateful to have
met him. Helmi kept our cabin spotless and well organized,
he answered our endless questions about his country and about
the ship and he never once forgot the chocolates on our pillows.
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Helmi
from Indonesia
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Though
all seemed to be going well initially, there were a still
a few points on which Stassi and I differed -- sharing
dining tables with strangers, engaging in conversation
in a heartbeat with yet more perfect strangers and signing
up for shared activities that I'd never considered interesting
or appealing and still don't. Now that I think back on
it, I am reminded of settling in to my college dorm at
B.U. I didn't like it much then either. Those issues settled,
we had a wonderful trip. I spent a lot of time in the cabin
at the desk writing every day, Stassi gambled now and then,
had a go at bingo, played basketball with pick up guys,
perused the library and engaged the internet manager, we
read books sitting on the deck, we ate wonderful food and
we interacted with staff from many countries, mostly young
people with bright shining eyes and an eagerness to learn
about passenger's lives. Even the young woman in charge
of passenger internet services had an exotic home base
-- Namibia. She showed us her wonderful photographs of
the wildlife and exquisite landscapes in her country.
Below
are photographs of just a few of the charming staff we
met. They work very hard on these cruises, but they also
visit beautiful ports of call even if only for a few hours.
They will have those memories forever.
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Indriyani
from Central Java in Indonesia |
Chef
Christopher from India |
Tomo
Iputu and Dalo Fachrud
both from Indonesia
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Septiari
(Ari) from Bali Island, Indonesia |
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Some
of the service staff were older and one felt the weight
of their separation from their families and home countries.
Our voyage had a predominance of Indonesian staff with
others from Thailand, India and even Mexico where we lived
for many years. In the days we were on board we got to
know some of these staff better than with any of the other
passengers. Most of those we remember well were in the
dining rooms calmly serving food in a gracious manner to
hundreds of people three or four times a day.
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Chef
Emmanuel Calderon
from Cancun, Mexico
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Chef
Gabriel Meyer
from Mexico City (D.F.), Mexico |
Chef
Andy
from the Philippines |
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This
was a seventeen day cruise, leaving warm sunny Florida
to first touch land in the chilly springtime of the Portuguese
islands. The first land we saw was on a rainy gray day
in the harbor of Horta Island in the Azores.
With tenders being used to ferry passengers to the docks
on shore we decided to remain on board. Lots of passengers,
even those appearing infirm, hustled on down to board the
tenders and made for land. Maybe it was the desire to walk
on terra firma after almost a week at sea or a feeling
that this was their chance in a lifetime to explore. Nothing
would be missed. We watched the tenders being unloaded
from the promenade deck with admiration as these large
capsule shaped boats were lowered from their perches above
deck, slung overboard and lowered to the sea.
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Tenders which
you see in the photographs above and below double as lifeboats,
but that is not a thought I want to dwell on. When we boarded
the ship in Miami, before leaving port all passengers were
required to participate in a safety drill so we were well
acquainted with the deck and with procedures should anything
go wrong and there were additional drills for staff every
few days along the voyage -- man over board and others.
Our captain was a serious fellow from Holland named Vincent
Smit. He was very gracious with the ship's passengers and
with us personally, but he was all business about his job.
That proved very comforting as there had been a few serious
cruise ship problems in the news in the month before departure.
As it is easy to say, Captain Smit "ran a tight ship."
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in range of mainland Europe our next stop was Ponta
Delgada, also in the Azores. This time we were docking
in a port where one would have had to hog tie me to keep
me on board. I was excited about walking on land and seeing
something new! The weather was still pretty chilly though
and being folks who haven't experienced a winter in two decades,
we faded pretty quickly. The ship docked for several hours
and our send-off was fantastic. One of those tugboat/fire
fighting ships sprayed water for several minutes in all directions
while our captain tooted the ship's horn. They made our departure
quite an event! Usually considered a hard hearted Hanna,
even I found it very romantic.
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Lisbon was
our next port of call and it proved itself not only a lovely
respite from ship board days, but an exciting place to explore.
This relatively unknown city has a long history that is well
evidenced in its architecture and unique culture. We loved
it and look forward to visiting the city again when we can
spend a week or two. One of the wonderful features of cruising
with Holland America is the wealth of accurate information
provided on each and every port of call -- what to shop for,
special places to visit foods and entertainment to enjoy
and much more, even good maps with outlying areas of interest
well marked. And, there are always guided tours available
for those who want them.
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Our
next port of call was Cadiz, a Spanish city I
can also readily imagine revisiting. It has not yet become
a tourist destination so it still has a feel of the vibrant
life of its residents. Its fresh food market is wonderful
especially for the wealth and variety of fresh seafood.
Just imagine eating some of the seafood featured in the
photographs below. We bemoaned not having a kitchen, but
once again Holland America came through with a truly fabulous
shipboard seafood extravaganza. It was extraordinary!
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Malaga is
a city seemingly created for tourism. Shops sell goods that
will pass airport inspection and the port is comfortably
arranged to move people from visiting cruise ships into the
central city and back within the 7 or 8 hour ship's visit.
It's pleasant and much of the city is beautiful with carefully
restored architecture, but where is the adventure or the
nooks and crannies with something surprising? It was all
very civilized.
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 The
excitement of our arrival in Barcelona two
days later was dampened by a cold rainy day and almost impossible
to find accommodations. As is our custom we hadn't made any
advance reservations and that is a mistake if you are heading
to this extremely popular city. As with Malaga, Barcelona
is a city of tourists and those that serve them. I don't
think we actually ever met anyone who grew up there. That
said, the city has a list of interesting things to do each
day and offers lively choices for evening diversions. In
particular we loved the Miro Museum. The
renowned Las Ramblas is a very wide promenade dotted with
flower shops, souvenir kiosks and street performers as you'll
seen in the photographs below. It is also truly filled with
people, even on a chilly day in April. What had been a rustic
port neighborhood before the Olympics arrived -- the Barcelonetta --
is now very stylish with cafes and upscale renovated apartments,
but all in all I thought it a little too sanitized to be
interesting now. Having spent a couple of days there getting
our landlubber legs back, we were then on our way to Sicily.
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This
sea voyage passed more quickly than I would have imagined.
The Nieuw Amsterdam was beautifully managed, always
spotlessly clean with attractively and comfortably furnished
spaces.
The
air handling system was the finest I have ever experienced.
We had narry a sniffle nor a morning cough during the
whole voyage. Staff were friendly and helpful without ever
being
intrusive. The food in the two main dining rooms was
always good and there was enough variety to keep everyone
happy.
The three small specialty restaurants were each disappointing
even though there was an extra charge for dining in them.
There were lots of spaces for socializing, but as well
there were comfortable places to enjoy a bit of solitude.
The Nieuw Amsterdam seems to appeal to mature adults
who aren't looking to be scaling rock walls or other things
of that sort. It did have a schedule of activities --
lectures,
cooking classes, bingo, music ensembles, night club acts
and it had a beautifully outfitted gym with huge windows
overlooking the sea. Stassi and I entertained ourselves
reading, catching up on unseen movies, walking the deck
and writing. All in all, it was a very pleasant time. |
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