The Lloyd
Hotel and Cultural Embassy is a true treasure in A’dam. While the rooms are a bit dated, you must
take into consideration that it is a nearly 100 year old historic facility. The folks there are the tops with a special Kudos
to Robin and whole front desk team and of course the ever-delightful
Flora in the café. They all are THE BEST! And our Trip Advisor review will reflect
that.
An early
morning wake up was met with groans, again Chucky only got a few hours sleep
and was up long before the alarm. SHE on
the other hand is actually feeling close to normal… well almost. Still hacking and wheezing but she’s
functional.
After a final
bag check and pack, a once over of the room for any stray STUFF and it was down
to the café for a quick continental before calling an UBER.
Flora who
was off, happened to be in for a quick breakfast with her two beautiful
boys. Seems that the teachers were on
strike [for an hour] and she had to wait before dropping them off.
UBER
arrived almost immediately for the short ride to the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam
[PTA] and upon arrival, checked our bags and texted the Templeshifs that we
were there, then waited for them to arrive.
As they are Diamond +, they get priority boarding so we piggy backed
with them and were on the ship in no time.
Since it
was now 11AM and cabins wouldn’t be ready till 1PM it was up to the buffet for
a little nosh where we met up with the rest of TE10 and lingered till it was
time for a once around the ship.
After a quick
check with the Dining room to confirm our “My Time Dining” reservation and to insure we would get the same table and waiter for the duration and we were
off to our cabins.
When we
booked this last year, the agency must have been running a special because we
wound up in a Junior Suite, for the regular balcony price and what a pleasant surprise
it was. Quite spacious with a roomy
bathroom and… a TUB, not the normal tiny, “stick to the curtain” shower stall.
As this is being posted on a “Sea Day” on the way to our 4th port allow a quick note
about booking a balcony for this particular trip.
If this were
a Caribbean jaunt - great, but a balcony on the North Sea… Not worth the extra cash. It's Waaayyy too cold to
sit out there for breakfast or anything else for that matter. In fact for the most part, the
only time you're in the cabin is to Shower and Sleep. The rest of the time you're wandering around
the ship looking for something to do or ashore on a tour. For that matter, if the interior cabins weren’t
so small they would probably suffice... at a significant savings. But cruising with the Ever-Lovely Dragon Lady requires a balcony-PERIOD. {but this time she actually agreed that the balcony was a waste}
The
Vision of the Seas, is an older RCL ship, much smaller than the current
Mega-Ship class sailing from US ports. As
such everything is close and since we’re on the 8th deck, just a one
flight up to the buffet and 2 flights down to the Schooner Bar.
Of course
Chucky would use the crew stairs right next to D&L’s cabin, to run up to
the Spa Solarium or aft deck bar if he could, but the stewards and Dragon Chic
keep catching him in mid-stride.
Chucky
was dragging a bit from 3 nights of short sleep so he took a quick nap, waiting
for the LUGgage to arrive and then it was time for dinner, but first…
We had to
find “That Bar and That Waiter” who we will cultivate for our nightly Happy Hour. The Schooner bar, and the affable XXX [name withheld
for his protection] were all the above.
After
Chucky and Donna educate him with their ridiculously complicated drink orders. Hers
a Dry Vodka Martini-no Vermouth- Straight up with the ice used to shake it on
the side.
His, a
bone dry Dewar’s Rob Roy {dry Vermouth Please} Straight up, Stirred, NOT SHAKEN
{curse you Ian Fleming} with a lemon Twist, and a soda back, no ice… we'll they
do “Want What They Want”.
Lenny and
DL on the other hand are content with, Vodka on the rocks {Grey Goose Please}
and Vodka & Tonic, with lime {Squeeze and Toss}, respectively.
Since D&L
are Diamond+ [hereafter D+], they get a handful of complimentary cocktails at
happy hour which they graciously share with us, so this could be a very “Light
Bar Bill” cruise. And of course, a
little Spiff up front to Super-Waiter XXX will insure the drinks will be
plentiful and the pours generous.
Then it
was off to dinner where the Hostess recognized us immediately [the little “Spiff”
we slipped to her earlier probably helped] and we were seated at a lovely
Window 4-top with the Highly Competent Constancio {Stan-The-Man a/k/a STM} and his Most able assistant
Julius, who we happily find anticipate our every desire.
A little
about the food [with more in upcoming posts sure to follow]
For those
that don’t cruise, it helps to understand that in the main dining room, as
opposed to the buffet on the top deck, they are serving several hundred people,
pretty much all at the same time, so in essence it’s like banquet service. Not that banquet service is bad, it’s just
that what happens in the kitchen to handle this type of volume in a short time
will cause some quality to be sacrificed.
That said, for the most part it’s OK… not Great. Some things better than others, with heavy
salt being the norm.
Now, here
you have a table full of current and former Caterers, and ya just gotta know that if anything co however what came next was just as bad. If this is a precursor of things to come… it’s
gonna be a looonnng cruise. Hopefully this
is a "one of" occurrence…
After
diner it was into the casino, for some Slots action and after dinner cocktails.
Chucky,
who is a crap shooter finds no crap table and after fiddling around sits at one
of the poker slots next to Donna. Now,
he has no idea how to figure the odds here like he can on a crap table and it
takes him awhile and a few $$$ to get the hang of it. Which he does along with a little help from
MR LEONARD. After the boredom of just
pushing buttons gets to him, he finally cashes out $50 up for his efforts. Had he figured the machine out earlier it
would probably have been double.
Still,
there should be at least one Crap table, but he understands, that most of the
euro clientele this ship caters to don’t understand, thus don’t shoot craps,
ergo… no crap tables.
A Cognac
and coffee later and they were headed to nonny-nonny land since the first stop
in Bruges was an early wake up call.
Ciao 4 Now
Uncle
Chuck & The almost over Da Bug,
Dragon
Lady
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