Dining on the Maasdam

Posted on December 16, 2010 by M. Timothy O'Keefe

Herb-crusted prime rib with horseradish

In-room service often reflects a ship’s commitment to overall dining quality

Good dining and good service: Some ships I have cruised on had one but not the other. Several, including now the Maasdam, have had both.

Having never sailed on NCL, I am not sure why they paint “Freestyle Dining” on the sterns of their ships, which implies the rest of the cruising world is somehow enslaved or held captive to their main dining room.

On the Maasdam and all HAL ships, the dining program is called As You Wish. Even though I think of the film The Princess Bride (and what Westley always said to his great love, Buttercup, every time I hear the term), As You Wish does perfectly describes the dining choices we have on the Maasdam.

In the Rotterdam Main Dining Room, before departure you choose either the traditional pre-set seating and dining times or the more freestyle approach of Open Seating (our choice) for dining anywhere between 5:15 and 9pm. For those with Open Seating, the Rotterdam opens a half-hour before the first main seating and extends 45 minutes beyond the second main seating.

Strawberry cheesecake

Or, for a more casual, Caribbean-type atmosphere, the Lido Dining Room buffet features about 80-percent of the same items as the Rotterdam for every dinner. Sometimes the specials on a particular night are better in the Rotterdam; on others, they’re in the Lido. The Lido Restaurant also is where the buffet breakfast and buffet lunch are served.

HAL’s website has detailed information about the Maasdam’s other dining areas. As a note, it is worth pointing out that the only rolls not cooked on the ship are rolls needed for the huge quantities of hamburgers and hot dogs served at the Terrace Grill from 11:30am until 6. The demand is just too great for the ship’s cooks. The Terrace Grill also features freshly baked home-made pizzas and—about 80-percent of the time—a Taco Bar throughout the afternoon.

Room Service
As anyone who cruises on the Maasdam or any HAL ship should learn on their first cruise, the As You Wish promise extends to room service, available 24 hours a day. The 24-hour room service menu provided in the staterooms is limited to 10 items and some suggested remedies for “high seas.”

However, a breakfast as full as you possibly could want will be delivered from 6am-10am every morning. The tags with your selections are hung outside on your stateroom door handle in the night, which is the way most ships operate.

From noon until 10pm, the room service menu offerings increase but you need to know this important fact: Anything served in the main dining room is available for room service when the main dining room is open, either for lunch or dinner.

Which means anything on the Rotterdam’s featured dinner menu will be brought to your room without extra charge. The key to ordering this way: You need to check the posted Rotterdam menu in advance and know precisely what items you want when you call in your order. No one has time to read the menu off to you over the phone, then give you added time to think about it and ask questions.

So, be prepared. The in-room dining phone is a busy one.

In order to blog as much as we have, most of our Maasdam dinners have arrived by room service. Delivery always is promised within 45-60 minutes but it usually arrives within 20 unless the ship has an unusually busy in-room dining night.

Seeing is Believing
Wish I could insert a drum roll here. To prove again that each picture is worth a thousand words, the following is a sample of the Maasdam’s in-room dining. If a ship doesn’t provide this kind of service, then it doesn’t live up to the grand heritage and traditions of cruise dining. It’s just another buffet joint, in good disguise.

Something that may or may not be important to you when choosing a cruise. To us, because we are on the go all day in port and usually don’t feel like dressing up, it’s a significant consideration.

No, we didn’t eat as much as it appears Sashimi of salmon

Chilled blackberry soup Rotisserie of duck breast

Dark and stormy Ahi tuna Quail stuffed with apricot dressing

Clam and shrimp appetizer Classic surf and turf

Caesar salad Grilled chicken breast, sliced mango, peppers

OK, this is enough! I have many more pictures but you get the idea. Putting them together has me starving. Time to call in-room dining, one final time. We arrive home tomorrow.

Cruise Planning – Gadgets and Gear

Posted on December 15, 2010 by M. Timothy O'Keefe

These items make extended cruising much easier

Power Strips
(Those of you who normally cruise in a suite can skip this first part, assuming you have a plethora of electrical outlets in such cabins. Not in my budget for such extra amenities.)

The average cruise cabin, regardless of age of the ship, typically is way behind the times when it comes to the electrical needs of the modern traveler. Think of all the items you need to charge every day: iPod, cell phone, iPad and/or Kindle, digital camera, Nintendo DS, you name it.

That switch on the right controls our cabin lights on the Maasdam

But many cabins have only a two electrical outlets, located just above the desk and under the mirror. One outlet is for 220 volts, the other outlet for 115 volts. If you have an adapter for European travel, many smart phones and digital battery charges will also work off 220v, but you still end up with a grand total of two outlets.

No problem if you carry a power strip with you, right? That certainly will help but maybe not as much as you think.

Take a look at the basic power strip below (not surge protected) and how the outlets are positioned side by side:

Now, here it is, full . . . or as full as can be considering all the different style of plugs these days.

This second type of power strip is surge protected and the outlets are positioned in a row, just as you find them in most homes:

Yet even it isn’t perfect:

Solution: Carry both types, plugging one into the other. That way you can handle more than one odd plug size at a time and keep everyone fully charged at the end of each day.

Staying in Touch on Ship
At home, many families with children are in the habit of texting each other to see what they’re doing during the day. You can’t do that on a cruise ship unless you’re willing to pay cell phone surcharges. More likely, your cell phone won’t have a signal most of the time.
On days-at-sea, only satellite phones work. Those are much too costly to give to all family members, especially children.

Better to go retro and use an old fashioned device to keep in touch: walkie-talkies Get a pair with a range of several miles, making it more likely they will work the entire length of the ship. If you have an inside cabin you might have to go out on deck to establish contact.

In addition, walkie talkies are a good way to keep in touch with one another in a cruise port. You, for instance, can stay by the pool to relax and be updated by the serious shoppers as they report about the bargains they find.

For Digital Photographers

A Powered USB Hub
Buying enough SDHC memory cards to allow you to photograph freely on your cruise without downloading any video or images could be almost as expensive as taking another 7-day Caribbean cruise, especially if you are shooting HD video or raw and large jpeg still images. Most photographers don’t want to wait until returning home after their trip to view their material. Besides, who wants to wait until then to find out if their camera(s) are working properly, when it’s too late to take corrective measures.

Downloading to a laptop as well as a portable external memory drive (for backup) is routine for many serious photographers. Downloading pictures in several places is the kind of redundancy that NASA tried to employ.

Personally, I prefer to download simultaneously to 2 external hard drives and not dump them onto my computer’s hard drive. Many high capacity external drives will not function properly by simply plugging them into a regular USB port. Instead, the external drives work only when each drive is plugged into the computer because of the power they need to operate properly. Not all computers have enough ports (mine doesn’t.)

My solution is to choose a USB hub which is self-powered because it has its own plug-in power adapter. Like all USB hubs, it requires a host computer to be attached to.

Memory Card Case
SD cards are scarily small compared to the old compact flash cards, which you could dump in a camera bag or pocket and easily find them. My solution to avoid misplacing them and to make them easy to locate is a hard memory card case I originally purchased for the larger compact flash cards but never used because they didn’t play hide-and-seek every day. The card case keeps my four 8-gig SDHC cards trapped together quite well. They are allowed to come out only when they need to go to work. This memory card case has me the most organized I’ve ever been since digital cameras entered the market. Because I’m deathly afraid I’ll lose one of them.

Memory Sticks and High Speed Digital Flash Card Reader
I normally bring several memory sticks on a cruise to bring along documents not on my laptop. They can come in handy in other ways. You can use them to carry photos to show on other laptops. And, when docked in cruise ports, to download emails and other items using the faster and cheaper onshore Internet services.

If you download photos from your camera directly to your computer by using a cable, you risk losing all your material. If the camera battery is weak and the camera shuts off during the transfer process, you could lose all the images in the camera as well as the material you were downloading when the battery died.

No need to take that kind of risk if you use a digital flash card reader. You simply fit the card into one end and the USB end into your computer and that’s all there is to it. You can use whatever program you want to make the transfer, too, not rely on what your camera furnishes. However, most lap tops don’t require a card reader since they have a built-in card reader slot, which sends your images directly into your computer and much easier and faster to send to external hard drives.

Have some special gear or gadgets of your own that others might be interested in? How about sharing them with the rest of us.

How to Carve Decorative Fruits and Vegetables

Posted on December 14, 2010 by M. Timothy O'Keefe

Not as hard as you think, thanks to this Maasdam demonstration

Ever wonder how to make one of those beautiful fruit carvings to accentuate your dining room table? Or tried doing them? My own attempts always end in total disaster so today I’m attending a seminar at the Maasdam’s Culinary Arts Center to see if there’s any hope for me.

Cat Noble, the Maasdam’s Party Planner, introduces Apprentice Chef Romel David who will demonstrate how to make carvings from various fruits and vegetables.

He begins with a watermelon, intending to create a rose petal with leaves on one side. Using an extremely sharp bread knife, he first slices off the bottom of the melon to make a base with a gentle tilt. Next, with the same bread knife, he carefully cuts away several thin strips of green rind to expose the white covering beneath. This gives Romel a white background from which to fashion his rose.

Cat explains one side of the melon is for display while the other side is what you will eventually serve from.

As Romel picks up a small paring knife, he explains that it doesn’t matter how expensive your knife is—he buys his at a dollar store–but how sharp it is. He says he sharpens his own knives. The one he uses today has been ground down to half the size of a normal paring knife blade.

In the middle of his white melon “canvas,” Romel makes a small circle to form the center of the rose. Around the center, he designs four petals to surround it. To me, this looks like a stencil on the white rind; interesting. I can do that!

After his basic design is outlined, Romel begins cutting deeper, carefully shaping and forming each petal. Then he fashions four larger petals that surround the four small ones. Next, he finishes by crafting six leaves. As he works, each row increases in size and is placed to alternate with the previous row to create the depth and dimension of a real rose petal.

Once he finishes the floral design, Romel carves zigzagging cuts on the remaining white background area to give it a textured detail and create a frame around the melon canvas.

Cat says, “The best way to keep the melon fresh is to drape it with wet paper towels and store it in the refrigerator. When you take it out to display, put plastic wrap over the carved area.” So that explains why some of the carvings displayed in the Maasdam’s dining areas are covered in plastic.

Chef Romel explains he became interested in how making fruit and vegetable carvings by watching others. Then he began sneaking food into his room to practice. He says his favorite thing to carve is ice and that last year he made a large dragon for a captain’s farewell party.

The next item Romel chooses to carve is a tomato. I feel more confident about this than attempting a watermelon. With his same dollar store knife, he starts peeling the skin off the top of the tomato and continues he reaches the bottom. The peeling is a long continuous strip about ¾ inch wide.

Next, he takes the long strip and simply keeps curling it until it becomes a flower blossom. He says to use the rest of the tomato in a salad, garnishing it with the edible flower.

For his final demonstration, Romel chooses a lemon. This is another one I feel confident at attempting, especially when lemons sell seasonally at six for $1.

Romel cuts the lemon in half, then cuts a base out of one of the halves. With his magic knife, he peels a thin, ¼-inch continuous strip of lemon rind from the half but does not cut it from the lemon. Next, he takes the free end of the strip of rind and circles it around the end attached to the lemon to create a loop knot. Place a piece of parsley inside the loop and you have the perfect garnish to add to any seafood plate.

This seminar is a lot of fun with good ideas about how to give home dining and entertaining the same extra flair you find on the Maasdam. I only worry about grinding the super sharp knives and my clumsy fingers.

By Linda O’Keefe

St. Kitts Sugar Train A Sweet Ride

Posted on December 14, 2010 by M. Timothy O'Keefe

This train has an unlikely association with Skagway, Alaska

Sugar Train is a Fun Ride

Many of us seated in the fifth and last of the two-story passenger cars are acting like jacks-in-the-box as we continually pop up from our seats, photographing one stunning island view after another as our toy railroad chugs along at a maximum of just 8 mph.

On the right we have the coastline to shoot and, later, the islands of St. Eustatius and Saba in the distance. The left is dominated by seemingly endless fields of sugar cane with a dramatic backdrop of cloud-capped mountains, villages and old estates.

Whenever our energy starts to flag from all the activity, our waitress always seem at hand to provide a free rum punch, pina colada or Diet Coke. Or the gospel chorus may appear on our car and sing something uplifting to bolster our spiritual sides.

Caribbean’s Only Railroad

We’re riding the St. Kitts Sugar Train, a one-of-a-kind tour in the Caribbean that’s likely to remain that way. Unlike most other islands, St. Kitts never tore up its train tracks even after they went out of use back in 1970’s when sugar cane stopped being the island’s main economic mainstay..

Also called the St. Kitts Scenic Railway, this 90-minute tour uses a 500-hp diesel engine (made in Romania, of all places) to pull its five passenger cars along a 30-inch narrow gauge railroad bed built between 1912 and 1926 to transport sugar cane from the fields to the processing factory in the capital city of Basseterre.

The tracks still extend for about 30 miles but the Sugar Train uses only 18 of them, among the most scenic. The train departs Basseterre to travel northward where the tracks parallel and sometimes hug the Atlantic coastline. Chugging along at a maximum speed of just 8 mph, the train crosses three bridges up to 200 feet long over chasms as much as 90 feet deep.

Canopy Covered Top is Favorite Seat

When we board the train, almost everyone chooses the canopy-covered, open-air top deck of our car and its bench-style, cushioned seats extending along both sides. A few chose the lower level, which is enclosed and air conditioned. Seats there are in the form of rattan chairs clustered around a table located beside large vaulted, tinted windows.

We definitely get more of a feel for St. Kitts out in the open but the train also shakes, rattles and rolls up here quite a bit. People susceptible to motion sickness may find conditions more to their liking at the lower level. Ours is the last car, #5, and that allows us to notice how much #4 right in front keeps pitching and rolling from side to side. Not the steadiest photo platform whenever we shift to our “top” 8 mph speed.

It’s important to choose the correct side of the car when you board: right for the coastline, left for the inland region. I go right, Linda sits across on the left; that way we can quickly trade places if necessary. With large tour groups, there may not be any open seating (like today). And the lurching train makes it impossible to stand in the center and take photos on both sides.

Last Car Good for Photograpahs

We choose the last car since it allows us to lean out and photograph the entire train whenever it comes to a curve. Best morning sunlight starts out with the sun on the right side of the train but as we circle the northern end of St. Kitts the light shifts to the left.

Live Commentary

Wherever you sit, everyone hears the live running commentary, not taped, which makes the experience much more spontaneous and entertaining. And this is how we learn of the amazing association with this Caribbean narrow gauge train ride with one in Skagway, Alaska: they were both started by the same person who chose locations where many miles of abandoned but still usable rail lines were available. (This trivia should be good info for making small wagers the next time you’re in Skagway or St. Kitts).

Ever since the Sugar Train began running in January, 2003, there has been a kind of waving contest between passengers and the locals, who are known as Kittians. We’re advised by our conductor that passengers always are supposed to wave first. Whenever we pass a school yard or a group of youngsters, they gallop toward the train with their arms waving in the air. Their unadulterated enthusiasm always exceeds our best waving attempt.

Trip Is Not a Complete Circle

After our 18-mile trip from Basseterre, we arrive at a roundabout where the train stops in a circle. We will not return to the city by train but by buses, the same ones that took us from the cruise port to the train station. They arrive with another group of passengers who will retrace our route. .

Depending on demand, the train may make another round trip later in the day. In summer, outside of the cruise ship season, the train may not even run every day. For more information, visit .

For a quick overview of the northern half of St. Kitts, no other tour offers such high vantage points, visits the same out-of-the-way places or does it with such style and fun.
If you’re not into photography, you may find the last 20 minutes of scenery a bit repetitious. If so, sip a rum punch and just relax to the rock and rolling of the Sugar Train. And see if any more of that sugar candy is left. That stuff is addictive!

St. Thomas: Making Lemonade Out Of Lemons

Posted on December 13, 2010 by M. Timothy O'Keefe

Or stranded in a strip mall

The clock goes off at 6am and after a few minutes I drag my groggy-eyed self out of bed. Before heading up to the Lido Restaurant for a quick breakfast, Tim checks the weather outside via the camera HAL has mounted on the bow connected to our stateroom’s TV. It looks fine and I’m anticipating a fun day of sightseeing and photography on beautiful St. Thomas.

As I step off the elevator and peer around the corner toward the window-lined dining area, all I see are gray clouds. Then as look more, I wonder, “Where in the world are we? It doesn’t look anything like the Charlotte Amalie I remember. ”

Crown Bay Cruise Terminal

Then I remember we docked at Crown Bay, which looks like an industrial park instead of a cruise terminal. With the threat of rain heavy in the air, Tim and I head toward the plain buildings and recognize the names of a few jewelry stores.

I notice good directional signs with arrows pointing to the locations of different stores, the bank and Wi-Fi hotspots, so we decide to forget Charlotte Amalie and get caught up on some computer time. But the signs lead to empty storefronts.

Iguanas fighting over bread The winner!

As I’m returning to the ship for a computer power cord I notice several people standing around the edge of the walkway throwing pieces of bread at something. Turns out iguanas are enjoying the hospitality of some passengers passing time in this middle-of-nowhere- port. Cheap entertainment. The best St. Thomas has at the Crown Bay port?

Tim spends several hours on the computer while I try to get my phone to work. By now my patience is wearing very thin; my phone won’t work. Only one computer can connect off the ship. This cruise ship terminal looks like a bad dream. I’m tired and hungry. Back on the ship finishing up lunch Tim says, “I’m going to take some pictures of the port this afternoon.”

The Lido Pool sign My hat

I reply, “Not me, I’m on strike. The sun is finally out and I’m going to put on my bathing suit, sit by the pool and read my book.”

Bag and hairclip Favorite Tevas

After changing and gathering my pool gear plus my camera, I go to the Lido deck for some fun in the sun. As I’m empty my bag an elderly gentlemen stops by and asks, “Like your book?” pointing at my Kindle, I tell him how much I love it and he proudly holds out a small notebook and says, “Got me one, too!”

Love my Kindle

Before I settle down in the chaise, I decide to take some pictures I can use this in our blog. After finishing my shots, I pick up my things and glance around to realize everyone at the pool was watching—and probably wondering why—as I photographed everything I brought with me. I’m laughing as I put on my hat, settle back and start reading.

After a while, watching everyone walk by with ice cream, gets to be too much. I bypass the pool bar and head for the Lido Restaurant for a pineapple sherbet waffle cone. By now, the ship is pulling out of St. Thomas. I tote my bag containing my camera to the upper deck for pictures as we leave.

Lido Pool bar Friendly Lido Pool bar bartender

It’s a beautiful sail away and can’t help but think of Jimmy Buffet’s song “One Particular Harbor,” as we pass sunlit sail boats anchored in small coves with white sand beaches. After finding Tim, we watch the coastline of St. Thomas slip away as the Maasdam leaves Crown Bay, the worst port we’ve encountered on our cruise.

Sail away shots A beach and anchorage we pass

So what started out as a crummy sour day, finally turned into frosty lemonade thanks to the beautiful sunlit island we pass on our left, no part of St. Thomas.

By Linda O’Keefe

Unwelcome in St. Thomas

Posted on December 4, 2010 by M. Timothy O'Keefe

Balcony view from starboard side—inside cabin walls look better

Maasdam exiled from Charlotte Amalie, which is nowhere in sight

What does the Virgin Islands Port Authority (VIPA), which owns and operates all public seaports in the Virgin Islands, have against Holland America? Or the West Indian Company Dock, which owns the cruise dock at Havensight, St. Thomas’s best cruise port?

Here in St. Thomas, we are marooned at a new cruise dock far from Charlotte Amalie and all its attractions. Some might call it Hell but its real name is the Crown Bay cruise dock, which has the forlorn feeling of a quarantine facility. Few people man the port and many of the stores either are not open or are vacant, seemingly abandoned.

Consider the huge, empty Jumbie Bay and Visitor Bar large enough to function as the main cruise terminal facility. Like much of this place, it is deserted. The numerous restaurants and shops that Crown Bay advertises on its web site simply don’t exist; neither do the links to them on http://www.viport.com/cbc/index.html. This may well be the worst cruise facility in all the Caribbean.

Balcony view from port side—and you paid extra to see this?

With only two other cruise ships docked in St. Thomas at Havensight on this day, it makes no sense why we also are not docked there. Mooring space obviously is available. Or, at the very least, why isn’t the Maasdam anchored just offshore of Charlotte Amalie where we can be tendered in and set ashore almost in the middle of the city, as on my last HAL cruise to St. Thomas not so long ago.

At our isolated leper colony of Crown Bay, the island scenery consists mainly of commercial facilities, such as the 20-acre Crown Bay Cargo Port filled with scores of red containers that are a lousy substitute for the red rooftops of Charlotte Amalie.

This is all of Crown Bay; note lack of people

Curious about why we’re outcasts, I check with two sources. The woman at the Maasdam’s Front Desk seems apologetic; the tourist board rep stationed in a small shed on the dock obviously is tired of hearing such questions and complaints. Both explain we are isolated here because the Virgin Islands Port Authority says this is where HAL must dock now and forever more.

Seems to me HAL’s mid-size ships are being discriminated against while the gigantitus vessels of other cruise lines enjoy priority. Whatever the reason, HAL is stumbling badly on its promise of “A Signature of Excellence.”

Ever seen a cruise port parking lot with so few cars before?

As for our own day the Crown of Thorns Point, we arose at 6 a.m., looking forward to exploring St. Thomas on foot. However, heavy cloud obscures the sky and rain appears imminent. We have no incentive to go into Charlotte Amalie and pay $8-$10 for a taxi (one way) to update our photo files.

In the afternoon, the sun finally emerges but I’ve lost all incentive to visit Charlotte Amalie. Crown Port has one saving grace, a small convenience store called Love and Joy that offers unlimited internet for $4 if you have your own laptop. This is how I’m able to make multiple blog and twitter posts this afternoon. Convenient wireless service is the only positive thing I can say about being docked in St. Thomas.

As we depart Crown Bay and the Maasdam makes its short journey out into open sea, the lush green island and gleaming white sailboats and fishing boats anchored beside it are a poignant reminder of how beautiful St. Thomas can look, compared to the industrial slum where we docked for the day.

Finally! A good view as we depart.

If HAL can’t negotiate a better location than Crown Point, it should boycott St. Thomas. The shopping is no better or different there than on every other island we’ve visited. As for Magens Bay, continually promoted as one of the world’s top 10 beaches, that rating is misleading because it is decades-old. Many far better beaches have been discovered since then.

St. John is a far superior choice for superb beaches, particularly Trunk and Maho Bays. St. Croix has more interesting historical architecture because its two main cities, Frederiksted and Christiansted, haven’t been demolished to build strips malls for more jewelry stores.

When it comes to outstanding beaches, it’s hard to top the clean, gorgeous white sand of Half Moon Cay. And passengers can enjoy their day without the same risk of crime that might befall them at a public beach on St. Thomas. Not only is the island’s crime rate almost 13 times greater than the U. S. national average, a teenage girl on a cruise was shot and killed this past July while riding in a tour bus near Coki Beach. Authorities at the time said they believe she was an unintended target, caught in the cross fire of two rival gangs. On Half Moon Cay, something like this would never happen.

We didn’t visit St. Thomas on the first segment on our 35-day cruise and we never heard anyone complain about missing it. Instead, we heard several wishing they could stay on the ship for our third and final segment when the Maasdam visits St. Croix.

HAL tries to put the best face on the Crown Bay situation but what it says is kind of sad in the Explorer, our daily bulletin: “… there is also a shopping complex in Crown Bay, which has a variety of shops similar to Havensight.” Hardly. Havensight has more than 60 shops and many more nearby. Crown Bay is a failed mini-mall that echoes like a deserted building.

More importantly, the Explorer makes it sound like shopping is the main reason for cruising the Caribbean. Maybe it once was but not anymore. You can find better bargains on the Internet.

How about this as the ultimate St. Thomas insult to HAL. I’ve been told the Maasdam will be the only one visiting St. Thomas on New Year’s. Guess where the Maasdam will be docked? The same old Crown Bay ghost town, better suited to Halloween.

How is that for another slap in the face to “A Signature of Excellence?”

Note:
Those who have docked at Crown Bay, please send comments:
1) Whether you disagree or agree that the Crown Bay cruise facility ranks among the Caribbean’s worst cruise port based on location and facilities.

In terms of Caribbean ports regardless of where you are docked
2) How important is a St. Thomas stop to you?

I want to publish these responses. Please indicate if I can directly quote you in my posts.
Thank you!

What it felt like to be abandoned at Crown Bay

The Eggs Benedict Dilemma

Posted on December 3, 2010 by M. Timothy O'Keefe

How many different kinds of Eggs Benedict can you name?

Eggs Benedict normally are reserved for or served only on special occasions. Not on the Maasdam. They are an everyday offering at the buffet breakfast in The Lido Restaurant.

This morning a woman standing next to me said aloud the same thing I wondered the first time I discovered the Lido’s Eggs Benedict station.

“I thought there was only one kind of Eggs Benedict, “ she says seeing the seven different types on display. “I never knew there were so many choices!” Neither had I.

Below are photos with descriptions of the seven Eggs Benedict styles available every day. Of course, you’re free to come up with your own combination of ingredients. And add sliced mushrooms and other available accoutrements not mentioned in the daily Magnificent Seven.

After this Maasdam cruise, Eggs Benedict will have an astonishing new range of possibilities. Such as using a minute steak or a sausage patty or a thick slice of ham? I
can’t wait to experiment.

Eggs Benedict: The Magnificent Seven
Including the happy chef who makes it happen.

Unless mentioned otherwise, all poached eggs are served on traditional English muffin and
topped with hollandaise sauce.

With spinach, no meat Canadian bacon, tomato sauce, cheese

Artichoke bottom, nacho cheese sauce, mushrooms With sliced smoked salmon

With fresh salmon flakes                                                         With crabmeat

The original with Canadian bacon                                        The man who makes US smile!

Curacao Shopping

Posted on December 3, 2010 by M. Timothy O'Keefe

A few stores actually carry some interesting items

Bon Bini (warm welcome) to Curacao, largest in both size and population of the ABC islands of the Dutch Caribbean. Curacao boasts an amazing array of colorful Dutch architecture that blends well with the natural beauty of the dry, rugged island.

The floating market where locals gather to buy their fresh fruit and vegetables is a work of art in itself. Oddly enough, this line of floating produce platforms is only a short walk from stores such as Benetton, Diesel and Lacoste Boutique. Curacao has done such an admirable job of blending traditional with new, the transition is barely noticeable as you walk through Willemstad’s different shopping districts.

But since the Maasdam is docked on the Otrobanda side, my first stop is there, at the relatively new Renaissance Mall located inside Rif Fort. The large oblong open area within the Fort’s walls is lined with a mini-mall consisting of open air cafes, business offices, coffee bars, restaurants, boutiques and upscale shoe stores such as Birkenstock. The shade trees and table umbrellas provide a unique ambiance that reflects island life. It’s also home to the recently built Renaissance Curacao Resort & Casino.

Courtyard at the Renaissance Mall

Leaving the Renaissance Mall, I pass a group of local vendors selling paintings, clothing, bags, hats and the usual array of touristy artifacts. Unlike other islands, there is no harassment or pressure from any of the locals wanting to make a sale. Not a single “Hey lady, come take a look—it cost you nothing!” What a pleasant surprise.

Later, back on board the Maasdam, I will overhear several people discussing the gifts they found at this group of vendors and how pleased they were with the variety of merchandise and the prices.

I still have yet to explore the Punda side, so I walk the Queen Emma Bridge connecting Otrobanda to Punda. I come to love this bridge because of the way the whole thing is able to swing away on huge hinges and go from perpendicular to paralleling the Otrobanda shore. Warning blasts warn when the bridge will close and guard rails come down to stop pedestrians whenever the bridge opens to allow freighters through. Yet a few hapless tourists (cruise passengers?) seem to get stuck on it. I can’t help laughing when I see them impatiently waiting to get off.

Looking to find stores that carry more than the usual same old tourist fare, I turn to the left after reaching the Punda side. As I walk the busy waterfront street, dodging traffic and steady streams of pedestrians, I see Maravia, a jewelry and sculpture shop. Unfortunately it is not open but peering through the window I can see beautiful works of turquoise and bronze. According to a sales clerk in one of the other stores, Maravia customizes all her artwork, both jewelry and sculpture, and everything is handmade.

Walking into Little Gifts, I expect to see displays of mugs, t-shirts, shot glasses and the like. Am I wrong! Instead, there are racks of washed soft white cotton eyelet dresses, skirts, blouses, tanks, capris and shorts. The material is 100% cotton so it will shrink some, admits the clerk, but everything is no iron. Little Gifts also carries children’s sizes as well. The price of every piece of clothing I ask about is $39, with kid’s prices half that. A truly perfect store for a little gift.

Down the block, I walk into Ackermans, a fabric store with bolts of cloth hanging from the ceiling to the floor. Bright colors, stripes, plaids, and brocades–you name it, Ackermans probably has it. But you’ll be interested in the merchandise only if you can sew.

With my sewing abilities ranging between little and none, I next visit The World’s Closet, a small boutique with some the most unusual jewelry I’ve seen so far in the Caribbean: Bracelets, necklaces and earrings, all reasonably priced between $5 and $150 for designs I have not seen anywhere else. The World’s Closet clothing is more typical of an upscale department store in the U.S. in terms of variety, quality and prices.

Iguana Too is a small store combining the usual touristy fare of t-shirts and hats but also an ice cream bar. Although the one-price $16.96 t-shirts are of higher quality than usual, at this point I am so hot and tired I would buy a big bowl of ice cream, pay the t-shirt price and find it reasonable.

Iguana t-shirts Christmas placemat from Mr. Tablecloth

Trying to watch the tummy, I bypass the ice cream and head over to Mr. Tablecloth where Battenberg tablecloths, runners, placemats and napkins abound. I feel like I have been transported to tablecloth heaven: every size, shape and style, along with Christmas décor. A 14 x 20 table runner is $28, regular placemats are $6.50 and Christmas placemats go for $9.50. A beautiful silk placemat with rose colored sequins can be yours for $35. Pillow casings and cushion covers are also available at Mr. Tablecloth.

A few doors down are several Jewelry stores. Freeport Jewelers and Gifts carries the complete line of Tag Heuer sports watches as well as Italian gold designs by master John Hardy. Also in stock are Hublot Big Bang watches and diamonds by Hearts on Fires that claims to use the world’s most perfectly cut precious stones. Freeport Jewelry also carries more upscale jewelry and watches along with crystal and porcelain. The prices are not outrageous and I see some items on sale.

As I head back to the ship, the sun is setting but I notice Queen Emma Bridge is not open. So I take a ferry instead. It drops me off close enough to the Maasdam for a leisurely stroll back to my stateroom. Exhausted, I desperately need a shower after another day of window shopping. Nothing of interest yet we can’t usually buy at home, or almost every other port.

By Linda O’Keefe

Curacao Photo Tips

Posted on December 2, 2010 by M. Timothy O'Keefe

Willemstad appears like a wedding cake on steroids

Willemstad, the capital of Curacao, has to be the prettiest port in all the Caribbean. Dating back to 1634, it boasts hundreds of mansions and commercial buildings in the classic Dutch style. This distinctive architecture gives Willemstad considerable cultural and historical significance, which is why UNESCO in 1997 declared the entire city a World Heritage Site, one of few such designations in the Caribbean.

The Dutch buildings typically are painted in bright blue, green and yellow and often framed with white trim, reminiscent of cake frosting. Willemstad contains many outstanding subjects like these, best photographed at only certain times of day. Here’s my guide about what to shoot, when and where; including the green and white building locally known as “the wedding cake.”

Background: St. Ana Bay divides the city of Willemstad into two distinct sections. Punda, on Willemstad’s east back, is the older district and contains the government offices, the more upscale shopping and most of the best photo opportunities. The cruise ship dock is on the west bank, known as Otrobanda, which also has quite a few good photo subjects.

Start from the ship’s top deck: This high vantage point gives you many unusual perspectives. In the morning, the light is on the Otrobanda side, which is at your feet thanks to the cruise dock location. Photograph the city from bow to aft, taking both wide angle and telephoto shots. Most of Punda will be still in the shade, though you may have good sun on the famous floating market—also your first photo stop. If the ferries are running, take one across St. Ana Bay to Punda. The Otrobanda ferry terminal is next to the cruise ship dock and the Punda ferry dock is just down from the floating market. Leave the more distant floating bridge until later.

Always shoot verticals and horizontals

Floating Market This iconic landmark, near the customs house, consists of a line of wooden Venezuelan boats displaying the city’s freshest fish and produce. The market, open before daylight, is covered with mostly plastic tarps to protect the produce, the sellers and the shoppers from sun and rain. To begin, concentrate on what each boat is selling as possible photo subjects. Don’t overlook the people, too. Locals at the floating market are accustomed to photographers, yet it never hurts to ask.

After reaching the last of the boats, take the bridge immediately on your left. This will allow you to use the morning sunlight, which is on the back of the boats, not on the produce side. This is a better view than you would expect, with lots of color and sometimes action, too, as men row small boats shuttling produce between boats. To take advantage of the sun when it does shine on the colorful exhibit of fruits and vegetables, return about two hours before sunset. You may have to wait a short while for the sun to get at the perfect slant but better to be early because tall buildings block the sunlight far too early.

Scharloo: The bridge from which you photograph the floating market in the morning also leads to a neighborhood of wonderful old mansions in a section known as Scharloo, also part of the World Heritage Site designation. To be honest, I have photographed this area only in the afternoon since sunlight is on “the wedding cake” mansion only in the afternoon. There are equally good subjects morning subjects as well, though I can’t document them.

If you have plenty of time, take the first road on the right you encounter. To be honest, the number of photo subjects on this walk are few. However, after a short walk you will reach a yellow mansion on the left I consider one of the best reconstructed buildings on the island (afternoon shot). This street ends at a main thoroughfare where you’ll see some excellent architectural styles as well.

Which of these mansions is the “wedding cake?” The green one.

Once you reach the main highway, go left; then take the first road on your left. Among the first buildings you’ll encounter on this street is an oblong, elaborately decorated green and white building introduced to me by a tourist board rep as “the wedding cake.” You will find no sign designating it as such.

On the Maasdam cruise, the building is undergoing some renovation; so no telling what it is being turned into or what it will be named. Continuing on this street, you’ll encounter old mansions in all the popular colors—purple, blue and yellow, all on the right. Those on the left have the morning sunlight. The first road this street intersects with will take you back to the floating market if you go left. But feel free to explore the rest of this relatively small district.

Queen Emma Bridge: Affectionately known as the “swinging old lady,” this floating pontoon bridge is the only route for pedestrians to cross the channel dividing Willemstad. The city uses a floating bridge instead of a permanent structure so cruise ships and huge oil tankers can transit in and out of St. Ana Bay. When a ship needs to enter or exit, the bridge disconnects from Punda and almost its entire length swings to the Otrobanda side.

While it is quite a humbling sight to be at the waterfront when one of the huge tankers passes through, the prime location to capture the giant ship with Willemstad in the background is from your ship’s highest deck.

But back to Queen Emma Bridge itself. Photograph this Caribbean one-of-a-kind throughout the day since the background will change from Otrobanda in the morning to Punda in the afternoon. When you walk its length, take varied horizontal and vertical images that include people as well. Also shoot the bridge on show to capture the side of it to show the series of pontoons that keep it afloat.

Queen Emma Bridge with Otrobanda in background

You’ll notice electric lamps placed in the middle of the series of metal arches that line the bridge. These lights do not provide enough illumination for an interesting night-time photo subject compared to when the metal arches were wrapped with strands of seemingly brighter Christmas-type lights. Now, that was a picture worth taking. Maybe this new lighting system will be, too. I just didn’t have time to experiment and see the results.

Punda waterfront: The waterfront’s main commercial street is the iconic image of Curacao. Its narrow but tall series of buildings were built by Dutch merchants who made built them so high because they served as offices, warehouses, stores and living quarters. Each of the adjoining buildings this a different color, most in bright shades but some also surprisingly bland. The best known is the bright yellow Penha building, definitely worth photographing as a single subject while on the Punda side.

Best time to photograph the entire line of buildings is the afternoon, the later the better.

Your best straight-on view is from the Otrobanda side. Be creative. Shoot horizontals and verticals. If you use a wide angle lens to capture all the buildings in a single frame, sky and water will dominate the picture and the buildings will look like miniatures. Now is the time to take advantage of your camera’s panorama mode. Or stitch together a series of close-in views for a panorama in Photoshop.

On this 35-day voyage, the Maasdam does not leave until after dark. Unfortunately, the sun sets sooner than I expect and I miss the chance to shoot the Punda at twilight from the Otrobanda side. The lights on buildings are not as bright as the photo above indicates. I used a slow speed with a tripod. This is the one time that having a lot of water in the photo is a good thing since it reflects the lighted waterfront and makes the picture far more interesting. This is another good opportunity to make or stitch together a panorama.

Finding other photo subjects: There are many more good picture opportunities on the Punda and Otrobanda sides to find on your own. Such as Punda’s Fort Amsterdam, worth visiting in morning and afternoon. And the fort at the mouth of St. Ana Bay on the Otrobanda side, both AM and PM. Finding unexpected and special locations is what travel photography is all about.

Grenada Harbor Walkabout

Posted on November 29, 2010 by M. Timothy O'Keefe

St. George’s looks like brand new after Hurricane Ivan

Grenada (pronounced “Greh-NAY-dah”) so reminded early Spanish sailors of the beloved green hillsides above their home port they named it Granada (“Grah-NAH-dah”). The spine of a steep hill divides St. George’s, the island capital. The harbor side of the hill, known as the Careenage, is the most picturesque.

The cruise dock is located on the wrong side at the Esplanade, which has been developed extensively due to the fairly recent opening of the cruise port. The most obvious way to walk over the hill is by sidewalk.

No thank you. The streets of St. George’s are so steep that during the annual carnival, steel band platforms have had to be winched up and down the main roads because motorized vehicles had difficulty hauling and breaking with such heavy loads on the dramatic inclines.

The easiest access to the Careenage is to go through the hill, not over it. The Sendall Tunnel, was built in 1895 a shortcut to avoid contending with all the hilly ups and downs, is not a walking route most visitors would consider since the narrow one-lane road is used mainly by vehicles. This being the Caribbean, islanders figure if cars and minibuses can use the tunnel, they can, too. And do.

I urge Linda to follow me into the tunnel and walk on the right side, hugging the wall. Vehicles go only one-way in the narrow confinement, and it happens to be towards us. Good! That way we know if we might be run over and press ourselves into the tunnel wall when it looks like we might get clobbered.

Foot traffic in the tunnel goes both ways and we sometimes have to stop to wait for a minibus to pass but with most cars it’s possible to pass the person coming the other way. We should have no problems unless we encounter a tourist with a rental vehicle hogging too much of the road.

I’ve always been wary of walking through this tunnel but the Maasdam is in port only until late afternoon and we have a lot to see. I do not tell Linda about my previous misgivings about using the tunnel on foot; she knows I have been here many times and figures I know what I’m doing. No reason to upset her.

An exciting walk through the Sendall Tunnel

We exit into bright sunshine and only two flat blocks from the waterfront. The cobblestone street When our access street intersects with the Careenage, we stand next to the National Library, a brick warehouse is where it has been located since 1892. The library itself was established in 1846.

Many cruise ship visitors don’t come over from the Esplanade to the Careenage since St. George’s harbor remains a working, commercial hub with few attractions for tourists. For me, the harbor’s authenticity is part of its appeal, along with the old homes bordering it.
I have a long history with Grenada and the Careenage, first visiting them about six months before Clint Eastwood, assisted by other U.S. forces, invaded the island in what grateful Grenadians term “The Intervention.”

This is my first visit to Grenada since Hurricane Ivan wrecked the city, leaving most of the structures without a roof. The color of the harbor has changed dramatically.
Previously, there was a much greater variety of colors, delicate shades of yellow, beige and rose. Now almost all of the wooden buildings have been painted white, which makes them glaringly bright. Fortunately, most have reclaimed a red roof of some sort, which helps brighten up the scene.

Expecting to find more reminders of the previous St. George’s appearance, such commonality of color is a disappointment. But I’m thankful how well the town has been restored following such devastation. One battered building right on the waterfront in the center of the Careenage has yet to see any reconstruction. The stone dwelling, basically an empty shell, starkly illustrates how badly St. George’s suffered.

A structure on the Careenage still to be rebuilt. It is a
good indicator of how St. George’s suffered from Ivan.

Several large wooden boats are taking on cargo to transport to neighboring islands. The diversity of supplies is intriguing. One boat is filling its open bow with 20-gallon propane tanks. I assume these are empty the way one man on a truck platform tosses them to the crewman on the boat. Several dozen cylinders have been loaded already and the men show no fatigue.

Another boat is loading sacks of potatoes and onions. These heavy loads have to be tossed up and caught as well. Not that I ever could do this, but appreciating this backbreaking task reminds me how out of shape I am from sitting in front for a computer for sometimes 12 hours a day. Either of these two men could probably win a championship arm wrestling contest.

About half around the horse-shoe shaped Careenage is a statue of Christ looking toward the harbor and with his arms raised skyward. This is the Bianca C Statue, which commemorates the courage of the Grenadian people in saving passengers aboard the 600-foot Italian luxury liner which caught fire in St. George’s Harbor in 1961. Three crewmen were killed in the boiler explosion. The “Bianca C” now rests in 160 feet of water offshore, one of the largest Caribbean wrecks accessible to scuba divers.

I’ve dived this wreck four times. Three were in early morning to avoid the strong current that always picks up during the day, regardless of the tides. And once I visited the ship at night where I found a green turtle sleeping in a hold of the ship. A storm before Ivan broke the Bianca C in two; what might Ivan have done to it?

In the afternoon I make the dreaded steep climb up to Fort George, which has the best panoramic overview of St. George’s for that time of day. Built by the French in 1705 to overlook the harbor mouth, Fort George is now the city’s main police station. The imposing fort supposedly still contains a system of underground tunnels once linked to other fortifications.

St. George’s harbor from Fort George

Fort George is the best vantage point to understand how Grenada and St. George’s harbor were formed. Like many Caribbean islands in this region, Grenada is of volcanic origin. And the harbor of the capital city, St. George’s, is actually the crater of an extinct volcano. Scientists say that the crater was an inland lake before an opening was created to the sea.

So, the Careenage has a long history of violent natural forces, with Hurricane Ivan perhaps the worst in human history. Considering the havoc the storm created, St. George’s is fortunate to have bounced back as well as it has. I decide to get over all that bright white paint blinding me from the surrounding buildings. Thank heaven they and their residents are still here.

Maasdam in front of Grenada cruise terminal

Travels With Tim O'Keefe

Travel stories and images from around the world

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