Hi Yonnie!!! Glad your happily aboard the Maasdam!!! Sorry to hear about the noisy kids, it's still summer vacation here for the kids, guess a few of them are cruising eeeks!
I love lobster so all your yummy talk about lobster rolls and bisque are making me hungry!!!
I always like reading your "live" reports Yonnie and you're doing great so far!! Those lobster rolls sound fabulous and the weather sounds like it is beautiful.
I'm glad to hear that they still have the liquors for the ice cream. It's those little things that sets HAL apart from all the other lines.
Hopefully those kids next door will quiet down. If they don't, just make a lot of noise around 6 am because kids like to sleep in.
I am willing to bet that the flaming desserts are being made in the kitchen because of those KIDS!!! Can't take a chance that some will have a race around the dining room while a waiter is putting a match to the pan!
I am looking forward to hearing more about your ports of call - this is an itinerary I am very interested in. I also appreciate learning about what to expect on my HAL cruise next year.
Hi Yonnie, Lobster Bisque? Crab Cakes? Stop making me hungry, will ya? All those dishes you mentioned are great. Glad you're having a good time. Plenty kids = plenty disturbances, but I hope you enjoy your cruise despite their helter skeltering around. Have tons of fun.
We almost didn’t make our tour this morning. I went to open the safe and it nothing happened. Our concierge called maintenance and left a message since they do not begin to work until 8 AM. The man showed up at 8:15. We were hoping that it was only the batteries (had this happen a few times in the past) but when he checked them, they were all right. The motor was dead. We had to remove everything from the safe so that he could work on removing the motor. So he had to completely dis-assemble everything after which he had to go and get a new motor. He finished putting everything back in working order and tested it. He was gone by 8:50 and we were throwing everything back in the safe and literally running to get our 9 AM tour.
We chose the Hop On Hop Off tour as we have been here before and have done Peggy’s Cove, The Titanic Graveyard, etc. If you stay on the Double Decker Bus and don’t get off at any of the stops, the tour is about 1 ½ hours long. We began Right at Pier 21 and our first stop was to have been Blackrock Beach but we skipped that and moved on down to Point Pleasant Park - nothing but a park to walk through. From there we passed through the South End were there are some pretty pricey houses ($1 million and up). We then passed by St Paul’s Cemetary on our way to Citadel National Historic Site. The Citadel is a large star-shaped masonry built between 1828 and 1856 to defend the city and harbor. There are exhibits and restored rooms that depict the fort’s significance as a key naval station within the British Empire. It took us nearly 1 ½ hours to view the musketry gallery and vaulted rooms.
We had excellent views of Halifax and the harbor from the ramparts. There are interpreters dressed as members of the 78th Highlanders regiment that re-enact military drills. They fire the guns at noon -- we missed that. We didn’t stay for the 50 minute audiovisual presentation: “The Tides of History”.
We got the next bus and rode past the Museum of Natural History and chose to get off at the Public Gardens - takes about 20 minutes walk through them (very beautiful) and then you arrive at the next 2 stops: The Spring Garden shopping district. Not much here -- restaurants, fur shops, clothing, etc. We weren’t interested in shopping so we got the next bus and continued on our journey. We rode past a couple more cemetaries and passed by the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, some historic buildings, the Alexander Keith’s Nova Scotia Brewery on our way back to the ship.
After a quick fresh-up, we walked along the Harbor Walk just to what has changed since we were here in 2004. Everything is pretty much the same. There are a couple of restaurants and a couple of shops. The morning started out sunny but chilly again. By noon we had taken off our jackets and after our walk and lunch back on the ship we were in Bermudas. Something new is open across the street from the ship - Garrison’s Brewery is now open for sampling and drinking -- 4 samples for $3 (2 ounces each) - don’t know the cost of a bottle or tap beer. We just peeked in - no one but the bar tender was there.
Before I forget - these are the laundry deals for our 7 day cruise: Laundry by the bag is $12 and unlimited laundry is $45. The Lido Pool (Fresh water pool) is open from 7 AM - 8 PM; the Aft Pool (Salt water pool) is open from 7 AM - 7 PM and the Hot Tubs are open from 8 AM - 11 PM.
Did you know about the Halifax Explosion of 1917? At around 9 Am on Dec 6th, a Belgium relief ship, Imo, collided with the Mont Blanc, a French munitions ship at the Harbour Narrows. The northern end of the city including much of the dockyard was devastated when the ships exploded. The blast, the largest man-made explosion prior to Hiroshima, left thousands injured and homeless and nearly 200 dead. The southern end of the city escaped most of the destruction because the Citadel Hill acted as a giant shock absorber. Then that evening a blizzard hit the city.
The sail away party today was held in the Crow’s Nest at 4:30 - wine and cheese. There was a large table set up with several kinds of cheeses, cheese bread twists, small pieces of bread, and 2 types of rolls. There weren’t any fondues this time. Across from this table was another table displaying various types of wine for purchase. There weren’t wine specials. We did leave at 4:50 - 10 minites before the longshoremen charge us extra! This evening’s show was “World Beat” which we have seen before so we chose to walk around the ship for an hour or so before retiring for the night.
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Live from the Maasdam - Aug 18th - 25th
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All those dishes you mentioned are great. Glad you're having a good time. Plenty kids = plenty disturbances, but I hope you enjoy your cruise despite their helter skeltering around. Have tons of fun.
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