Eurodam Cruise Planners Bahamas Cruise
Posted Sun, Oct 19th 2008, 13:53My wife and I just returned from the 3 night sailing on the Holland America ms Eurodam. What a fine ship she is, having just been launched in July of 2008. This itinerary was the 3 night jaunt to the Bahamas, with stops in Nassau and Half Moon Cay (previously called Little Salvador). I will add pictures to this blog later in the week, but I wanted to give you a flavor of the trip.
We were part of a Cruise Planners convention, so with 300 or so travel agents, it was interesting to get a perspective from a host of people. We arrived in 4 large busses on Wednesday morning the 15th of October, and check in was a breeze. By the time we got off the buses, in 30 minutes we were on the Lido deck, enjoying a buffet that was WONDERFUL!
Not a lot of time on this trip, so we started exploring this 11 passenger deck Signature Class vessel.
One of the first things we noticed was the exquisite art collection based on the theme “The Dutch Golden Age-An Inexhaustible Tradition”. This includes works by Dutch masters and contemporary artists, with some of the pieces featuring 17th century watercolor maps by famed cartographer Johannes Vingboons, and photo realistic oil paintings by artist Jan van’t Hoff and “The Nightwatch, Two Minutes Later”, a contemporary reinterpretation of Rembrandt’s famous painting. The whole scene was beautifully done, and exemplifies the fine tradition of Holland America.
As we usually do, we started on the top of the ship, and we first visited the “Retreat” a private oasis, that was SO RELAXING, I thought we would never leave, but duty calls so we’re off to the Crows Nest. This area of the ship has a 270 degree off the bow, and at night is a club (never got to it though, but the views are breathtaking). On the way down, we glanced at the Silk Den, but spent time at the Greenhouse Spa & Salon, and actually took a quick dip in the Jacuzzi pool! I was hoping to get a quick acupuncture treatment for allergies, but again, too much to do with too little time. Before I knew it, time for the muster, then off to the top deck for our sail away from Ft. Lauderdale, complete with mai tai’s, confetti, and great times.
Dinner in the main restaurant was FLAWLESS! Holland America is known for its fine dining, and once again we were not disappointed. One item which caught our minds, was the fresh orchids at every table, every meal. A detail lost on some, but my wife Louise, loved it (that’s why I wish I had time for the acupuncture treatment). After dinner it was a little time at the Casino, where my luck has always been consistent………..bad.
Thursday in Nassau! After our meeting, it was off to explore the city, and it really hasn’t changed that much over the years, so we ventured back to the ship. It was a relatively busy day for Carnival and Disney in at the same time. We had a chance to spend some time in the Greenhouse Spa that in my opinion is the absolute BEST with what seemed like 30 or so bikes with few people using it, at least for now. Louise talked me into using one of the Cabanas where you were treated like royalty with specialty drinks and more privacy than you might think. Again, a terrific dinner then off to the Main Theater to see Jeff Taveggia, and his amazing juggling. From here we stopped at a lounge to see who wanted to try out for the Superstars karaoke and overall we were impressed by the talent. One guy was into his sweet 16 song, it was a little creepy. Good voice, but he thought he was Frankie Avalon. I wanted to stop at the “Northern Lights” to dance, but we were looking forward to our next day in Half Moon Cay, a private island leased by Holland America.
One of the many nice things about having a balcony is sitting outside as you sail into an idyllic location, and the once called Little Salvador was no different. We could see the pristine beaches in the distance, and couldn’t wait to go ashore. There was only a 15 minute wait to receive the tender tickets, and the ride was kind of fun as well. Very little wave action on the beach made it perfect for everybody. Fish swam all around you while you were floating in paradise. There were plenty of lounge chairs available, with beach cabanas and a nice barbecue to top it all off. From here, time to snorkel off one of the boats where there were only 10 of us. We went to a location that was rich with coral that attracted some nice and colorful fish. We spent 45 minutes in the location, and had to make it back to the tender. This time, it was another wait, but nobody really cared since the weather was perfect. We had just enough time for another quick dip in the pool before our farewell cocktail party and dinner.
We decided to embark as soon as we could to see if we could get an earlier flight out of Ft. Lauderdale. A $20 cab ride to the airport, and a guaranteed standby ($100 extra) we were able to get home 6 hours early. Unfortunately a 3 night cruise doesn’t give you a lot of time to explore as much, or take advantage of all this great ship has to offer, but if you take a cruise of this timeframe, you can’t go wrong with Holland America.
I will add some photos this week, and I appreciate you looking at what we experienced.
