Tuesday, June 14, 2011-- We board the ship

Tuesday, June 14, 2011



Traveling light?



We both awoke early, in part because our body clocks are still discombobulated, as I have said before, but also because we both were excited to board our cruise ship today.  Still, it was a leisurely morning as we couldn’t board until eleven o’clock.  We both enjoyed a nice European-style breakfast at the hotel.  We sat at a small window-side table where I could watch the trolleys passing by on the Weena (yeah, that really is the name of street).  There are trolleys everywhere in the city centre—at one moment during breakfast this morning there were nine trams in my field of view!!!!  After a leisurely breakfast we packed up and wasted time until 10:45, when we came downstairs, closed out our account, and caught a taxi to the cruise terminal.

The terminal is on the other side of the River Maas, so we drove over the Erasmusbruke.  As we crossed the bridge we could see her in all her mighty glory, the ms Rotterdam, docked at the huge Rotterdam Port Building adjacent to the antique Holland America line building.

Our first view of the ms Rotterdam, as we crossed the Erasmus Bridge. 

As we drove over the bridge I wondered how this trip would compare with the World Cruise.  I anticipated that the different crew, the changes that have been made in the ship itself over the last two and a half years would make things seem a bit different.  I also suspected that differences in the type (nationality) of passengers might also be a factor.  I mused to Lynn about this, wondering if it would be a predominantly European passenger list; she wondered too. 

The terminal has an interesting display of antique steamer trunks, many with the stickers of famous hotels still attached.

Check-in was a snap, basically just a personal health form to fill out.  (Last year’s “Cruise to Hell” aboard a Carnival ship where the majority of the passengers became sick, coupled with the recent e-coli outbreak in Europe has resulted in cruise lines paying serious attention to passenger health before boarding as well as following stricter health practices while on board.)  We went through the terminal past a display of pre-World War One luggage (remember steamer trunks?), handed in our health info, displayed our passports and, as “Mariners” (lots of travel days aboard Holland-America ships) were were warmly escorted aboard the ms Rotterdam.  We were here!  Our rooms were not quite ready yet so we waited in the Lido until the announcement was made over the loudspeakers that cabins were available.

We have been assigned Cabin 3359, located on Deck Three, the Lower Promenade Deack.  Although there is not a private verandah such as we had on the world cruise, a sliding door opens on to the Promenade deck, the walkway which encircles the ship.  Lynn is thrilled because she plans on walking this “track” every “at sea” day.  Otherwise, the cabin is similar to what we had had on the world cruise, just a tiny bit smaller, but still comfortable.  Needless to say, we are quite pleased!

Lynn places our picture on our cabin door.  This was a common custom aboard the World Cruise, but few seem to be doing it on this cruise.

Every cruise begins with a bit of re-orientation, but there have been many changes on the ms Rotterdam since we were aboard her for the World Cruise in 2009.  We knew about the major changes, such as the rebuilding of the stern area of the ship, but it was still strange to see this ship which had been our home for so long seem so unfamiliar.

My supposition about differences in the passengers was correct—there were many more Europeans (why not—its their continent).  (In fact I learned that this cruise had a predominantly Dutch passenger list, so much so that announcements were made in Dutch as well as English.)  We even spoke with an Aussie couple and heard how their flight eastward to Europe was almost cut short by the Chilean volcano—I guess I shouldn’t complain about Iceland’s Grimsvoten and the 17-hour flight from Los Angeles, they had it much harder.  I immediately noticed a wide range of languages being spoken by the boarding passengers, even Russian.  But I must add that the Europeans seem to be a lot pushier and less polite than I would have expected.  The do not step aside politely, they do not give way in a crowd or in an elevator and, most irritatingly, they push their way without respecting lines.  I think it funny that many people, expecially Europeans, claim that Americans are crass and pushy, but the only examples of this behaviour I saw on this trip were from Europeans, particularly the Dutch.

At 4:30 in the afternoon the safety review was performed on the Promenade Deck—you know, every passenger must go to the lifeboat station to which he or she has been assigned.  To our surprise, however, the wearing of life vests is no longer mandatory.  Crew members reviewed the donning of life vests during the drill, but we didn’t wear them.  When I asked why, I was told “for safety reasons,” which seems to me to be the epitome of strangeness!

Then it was time for the mighty ship to leave the Port of Rotterdam.  Lynn and I went aft (toward the back end of ship) on Deck Eight to watch the tricky maneuvering needed to get the ship back out to sea.  It was an impressive maneuver, including backing away from the Cruise terminal building past the old Holland-America building, backing nearly a quarter of a mile past the permanent mooring place where the old Rotterdam V is preserved (and used as a hotel in the fashion of the Queen Mary in Long Beach), making a 180 degree “turn on a dime” spin, all the while avoiding undesired contact with the busy traffic on the river.  The spin caused our ship to fill the river nearly from bank to bank, but the entire maneuver was skillfully handled by the Captain and his crew.

Lynn is ready for the voyage to begin.  That's the Erasmus Bridge in the background.

And Bill is ready, too!

As the ms Rotterdam backs out of her dock and begins her spin around in the middle of the River Maas, we see the Port of Rotterdam headquarters (round building on left) and the old Holland America Line headquarters (low brick building in middle).

The old SS Rotterdam (V), now preserved as a hotel and convention centre.

The Port of Rotterdam is now the busiest in all of Europe; the decline of London is an indication of the contraction of Great Britain’s economic status in the late twentieth century.  The port is stretched out along many miles of the River Maas, and as we headed down towards the sea we could see plenty of evidence of the economic vitality of twenty-first century Europe.  It took over an hour to get to the breakwater which protected the entrance to the port, and to pass by the flat sandy beaches so typical of this part of the North Sea coastline. 

Leaving the mouth of the River Maas and going into the North Sea.

Our dinner seating is at 8:15 and it was still as light as midday in this northern latitude at this time of year (we are just a week away from the longest day of the year).  While at dinner we saw a large collection of wind turbines out in the waters of the North Sea.  It was calm at this moment (the sea was literally as smooth as glass), so there wasn’t enough wind to make the turbines turn, but it still was an interesting sight, something like a modern version of the old stereotype of Holland and windmills.  The westering sun gave us a great view. . . .



Glimmerings of the late night sun on the North Sea



Wind turbines out in the North Sea, which was unusually calm right then.

After dinner we came back to our cabin right away.  Lynn was exhausted so she crashed in bed right away while I downloaded today’s pictures from the cameras—again I marvel at the joys of digital photography—and wrote my blog notes.  Now it is after midnight and time to stop.  Tomorrow is an at sea day as we cruise northerly through the North Sea and around the peninsula of Denmark.  Gute Nuit. . . .

Oh yeah, one more thing—unlike on our world cruise where the cost of satellite internet access was one of the free benefits, we have to pay for it here, so my downloads to the blog will not be as frequent as I would like to do.