Good morning to All,
I have been quiet for an awful long time, mainly due to all the work on the 5 Holland America Line history books. Part II & II were presented to the CEO of HAL, Mr. Gus Antorcha. Part III (photo book covering the periode 1872 – 1922) was published in December 2023 and now I am working on Part IV and Part V. These together cover the HAL period in photos between 1922 and 2023.
But since I am retired, my Lord and Master, Lesley, has decreed that we should make cruises. Nothing against that and we have decided that we would try all the different cruise ships calling at UK ports, to avoid flying as much as possible.
We just completed the maiden voyage on the ms. Queen Anne of Cunard, a ship that could have been the 4th. Pinnacle ship of Holland America. More reviews will follow.
This first one, can be found to the right of this post under the header:
My Cruises and Reviews
Please click on it, and then go one more time to the right and you will see the name of the ship and click again.
I hope you will find it interesting and maybe diverting.
June 5, 2024 at 11:05 pm
Good to see you here again Kaptein Albert! All the best and enjoy cruising as a passenger and not having to respond to alarms going off! 😉
June 5, 2024 at 11:14 pm
Great to hear your update . Looking forward to more stories . Enjoy your retirement
June 5, 2024 at 11:20 pm
Welcome back. Have missed your blog.
June 6, 2024 at 12:30 am
Enjoyed. Want more
June 6, 2024 at 1:23 am
captain thanks for the last book i just bought it from the store on the Oosterdam. How do i get my hands on the other copies as i would like to have the whole set.
We miss seeing you but who knows we may catch you on a HAL ship in the future as the Nieuw Statendam will now be docking in Dover next year
CHEERS COR & KANDES BREGMAN
June 9, 2024 at 8:45 pm
Hallo Cor,
great to read that you both are still doing well. As a mater of fact Lesley and I have booked a cruise on the statendam from Dover at the end of May 2025. so yes who knows.
for the books. Best thing is to look at the publishers website and if needed send Nico Guns an email. Shipping to the USA has gone up in price, so he tries to find the cheapest way possible.
This is the link:
https://gbooksinternational.nl/coming-soon/
Best regards
Albert
June 6, 2024 at 1:37 am
So lovely to see you back! You have been missed.
June 6, 2024 at 1:50 am
Good to hear from you Cptn, we will be following your reviews, en het allerbeste toegewenst, ook van onze vriend, Cptn. Peter Bos.
June 6, 2024 at 3:46 am
I am glad to see that you recognized that Cunard keeps with the class system, although you did not call it that. I was on the QM2 in 2016 and was horrified by that. I was in Brittania. The cabin was fine, the public spaces were breathtaking. However, in the Brittania class the food selections were very limited and there was no taste to the food. The chicken was what we call “rubber chicken “, there was only 1 beef selection, and it was a lower quality. One night I asked for something specific since there was nothing on the menu, and the waiter laughed in my face and remarked that is not served in Brittania class. Also, I was assigned seating and they put me at a table of six, which is fine, but it was in front of the kitchen entrance, so all night long you heard noise from the kitchen and the doors opening and closing and th waiters traipsing by our table.
I am a very experienced cruiser and a retired travel agent. I went on the QM2 out of curiosity but believe me, I will never set foot on a Cunard ship again.
P. S. I wish HAL hadn’t sold the Prinsendam. That was my favorite ship.
June 6, 2024 at 8:30 am
Welcome back. We enjoyed meeting you on the Q A maiden voyage and we returned for 14 days around The UK. Oh my Goodness, what a day we all had in Liverpool, for the naming ceremony. A day filled with special events and live music on the pier. All we passengers were invited into a reserved viewing area. Our send off at 10 pm was amazing. Thousands of people along the pier head, still enjoying outstanding entertainers. The fireworks were wonderful.
Sandra and John Hutchins
June 6, 2024 at 2:10 pm
Wonderful to see that you and your wife are enjoying retirement.
We always looked forward to receiving your posts and are so happy to be getting them again.
David and Ardele Bond
June 6, 2024 at 3:18 pm
So good to see you back. Looking forward to reading what you have to share.
June 8, 2024 at 12:02 am
Same!
June 6, 2024 at 7:19 pm
Capt. Albert, Great to hear from you again we have missed your stories of the Sea.
Please continue to write about the different ships you are sailing on.
We will be sailing the Oosterdam for the first time, October 31, 2024, a TA. My Husband loves TAs.
June 7, 2024 at 11:36 pm
Hi captain, I love the new idea of doing cruise reviews, after all, you are the expert. I mean, you must REALLY love cruises if you’re still going on them after having retired. My question is, did it ever get boring living on a ship?
June 9, 2024 at 8:41 pm
Thank you for reading my blog.
No I really never got bored. Only sometimes the work was a bit tedious if you had to do 23 seven day cruises to Alaska in a row. Alaska is beautiful, but 23 x Ketchikan in the rain could be a bit too much sometimes.
best regards
Capt. Albert
June 8, 2024 at 8:39 pm
Welcome back Captain Albert, missed you blogs and updates, enjoy your retirement ⚓️
June 12, 2024 at 1:19 am
Captain Albert — My wife Birdie and I have enjoyed multiple cruises on Holland America ships , including one on which you were the Master . This is a fine , comfortable line on which things were predictable with no surprises . Something we always felt reassured by is that HAL ‘s ships are Dutch flagged . A well done cruise line in all respects !
July 3, 2024 at 9:49 pm
I feel sorry for those seated next to the dishwashing station, but I found your description of the event leading up to the ‘leaked noise’ hilarious. The humor might’ve been unintentional–I have family members who worked in and retired from the travel industry (cruise, bus tour, and travel agent parts) who would find some events described here to be good inspiration for a cruise-themed “Fawlty Towers” season. (I was reading this aloud to one of them, and we were both laughing at some parts) I agree that it seems that not enough (if anyone did) Cunard staff went to a HAL Pinnacle ship to observe the flow of crew and staff–perhaps thinking that they did not want to inadvertently being HAL ways to a Cunard ship. But that is a missed opportunity to learn from a sister company. We have been long-time HAL cruisers but have been curious about Cunard (thanks to the marketing team sending out mailers) and others. Your honesty absolutely helps with knowing what to expect and where to go for the ‘lively’ and popular places. Having sailed on the Koningsdam’s first TA back to Europe in 2017, it was good to see the comparisons and what was improved upon (or worsened).
Glad to see your blogs again! I wish you and Leslie many happy cruises.