Holland America Line

[Pieter Boelen]

I love using the word "DAM" as a curse word.
Learned that back on Holland America Line.
Cruise directors used to bid the passengers farewell with the phrase:
"Hope to see you again on one of our DAM ships".

They put "DAM ships" on T-shirts and hats and all sorts of other stuff as well:

Spoiler

You can take a wild guess WHY:

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And also... Holy Mother Forking Shirtballs!
The M/S Maasdam is now the OLDEST ship left in the fleet.

The Holland America Line S-Class used to consist of 4 ships:
M/S Statendam (1992, resold as "Pacific Eden" and now "Vasco da Gama")
M/S Maasdam (1993)
M/S Ryndam (1994, now "Pacific Aria", to be sold to Cruise & Maritime Voyages in 2021)
M/S Veendam (1996)

VERY interesting how they sold the 1994 Ryndam, the 1992 Statendam and NOT the 1993 Maasdam!!!
You'd expect them to sell by age, but the Ryndam is newer than the Maasdam.
What could be the difference then?

Well, one thing I can say for certain is that I personally worked on the:
- Maasdam
- Zuiderdam
- Prinsendam (originally "Royal Viking Sun", then "Seabourn Sun", now resold yet again as "Amara")
Maasdam BY FAR the longest; from 2009 to 2012 and again in 2014.

Correlation does not necessarily mean causation, but.... I did add a certain "PIRATE factor".
For example, to her brand new Fire Fighting Contingency Plans back in 2011:

Spoiler

Perhaps doing something like that does NOT actually work against commercial profit...?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

her brand new Fire Fighting Contigency Plans back in 2011

For the record, these are the very same plans mentioned under Projects on my LinkedIn profile:

The cruise ship Maasdam required new firefighting contingency plans. As Safety Officer, updated procedures and firefighting plans. Made an inventory of all fire zones onboard the ship; sub categorised internal spaces, including watertight and fire screen doors, valves, dampers and ventilation sources for smoke management; facilitated meeting with key stakeholders and gained buy-in; and issued 3 x binders for bridge, engine room and On-Scene Commander with 1-page firefighting overviews per area. Successfully replaced old plans and new plans were adopted as standard during every weekly fire drill.

Since I already asked you to make "wild guesses" in the first post,
how about taking another wild guess on HOW I "gained that buy-in".

My above post contains, what some might call, an ANVIL-sized hint...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The M/S Maasdam

The video that link points to also relates to this real life ice chart here:



Me to James Russell Dunford: "Captain, I think they are trying to tell us something."
Captain to me: "Is this... is this real...?"

Spoiler

I'll... uh... let you take a wild guess on that one.

 

[The Nameless Pirate]

For it to be real, it would be one hell of a coincidence but you never know.

Maybe the planet is telling something to us, through ice.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Maybe the planet is telling something to us, through ice.

Maybe indeed it is...
Review - Galapagos: HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Exactly one year earlier, the same cruise was actually the Maasdam's 700th voyage.
This photo was taken upon our return back in Quebec, Quebec:

Spoiler

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Hey @Donna, nice to "sea" you again!

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Donna was with me on the Maasdam from May 2010 to Feb 2011.
And also on the Prinsendam 2013 until 2016 or so.

I myself was on the Prinsendam for her 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 Holiday and South America cruises.
In-between, I spent a few months in a wheelchair and relearning to walk.

 

[The Nameless Pirate]

Welcome aboard @Donna!

Exactly one year earlier, the same cruise was actually the Maasdam's 700th voyage.
This photo was taken upon our return back in Quebec, Quebec:

Spoiler

View attachment 35924

Nice, 700th voyage; nice number!

 

[Donna]

Hi Peter!!

Do you know the date for that number cruise? I only recognise a few faces and just spotted you!

 

[The Nameless Pirate]

17th July 2011, if I understood correctly.

This picture was taken on July 17, 2011, to celebrate Maasdam’s 700th voyage.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I only recognise a few faces and just spotted you!

Check back again.
I updated the picture with a few more names I remember.

17th July 2011, if I understood correctly.

Then I was wrong.
The picture was taken BEFORE the start of the cruise; not after completing it:
Maasdam Voyage of the Vikings 2011

 

[Pieter Boelen]

As Third Officer Navigation on the Maasdam and Second Officer on the Zuiderdam, I was personally directly responsible for the stability of the ship, including "ballast water management".
Plenty of stories to tell about that, but I'll start with this simple one:

This is a needlessly panicky headline:
Cruise: Carnival ship causes pollution scare with ‘grey water’ spill | Cruise | Travel | Express.co.uk

Normally Grey Water can be freely discharged 3 nautical miles (NM) outside the coast.
Holland America Line voluntarily made 4 NM its official company policy, as extra safety margin.

Discharging ANYTHING in any US port is completely illegal.
However, at least still back when I was in charge of it, this exact same thing differed greatly in Quebec City.
There, to our own great surprise and confusion, discharging grey water was ALLOWED while moored in port.

One limitation: only on the OUT-going tide, so it gets washed out towards the sea.
Instead of going up the Saint Lawrence River, further inland.
With up to 3 knots (nautical miles per hour) of tidal currents there, that makes a lot of difference.

Quite a sensible rule then, if you ask me.
Grey Water is only the stuff from sinks and showers.
As long as you don't literally take the piss, that is pretty mild as far as discharges go.

Whenever possible, both Black Water (the REAL bad stuff from the toilets and worse) as well as Grey get treated first.
This results in "permeate" that is clean enough to fit official drinking water standards.

In most ports in the world, permeate can be discharged 24/7 even while alongside.
It's mainly the US EPA waters where even this is prohibited.
This causes all sorts of difficulties for the ship, for example "exceeding the maximum stability sheer force safety limits" EVERY Wednesday on a weekly Alaska cruise in Glacier Bay.

The Vista class ships are considered badly designed by Fincantieri.
And to some extent that is true as "2 degree natural list to port" is very annoying to continuously counteracts.
This was taken as the reason for the cracks always appearing in the staircases.

Except... couldn't that have something to do with them sheer forces instead?
Is it possible perhaps to NOT go over that 100% limit every week?

Turns out... Yep, that WAS perfectly possible.
It required a bit more creative thinking on my part to make a ballast plan which worked for that.
But in the end, it worked quite fine.

Quite a few different sides to that story then, eh?

Exactly one year earlier, the same cruise was actually the Maasdam's 700th voyage.

Spotted another inaccuracy in my story:
Voyage of the Vikings 2010 was the one where we DID manage to get into Prince Christian Sound.
Voyage 700 was the 2011 one with that massive ice field instead.

I was there for both and I'm always mixing them up in my head.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@Donna, I just confirmed your "Spa Manager" was a Shoppie.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

"Already 'long' time, Chiep!"
-- 'All' the Asian crew

 

[Pieter Boelen]

VERY interesting how they sold the 1994 Ryndam, the 1992 Statendam and NOT the 1993 Maasdam!!!
You'd expect them to sell by age, but the Ryndam is newer than the Maasdam.
What could be the difference then?

Apparently the Maasdam is being tailored to be a more expedition-type cruise ship,
but it's not quite working out for Holland America Line just yet.

In the meantime, I made this diagram of everything I can think of related to the ships I worked on:

Source file of the diagram is attached.
Just in case somebody wants to add other companies/fleets/ships for a more complete picture.
File is editable with the free and super-handy yEd - Graph Editor by yWorks.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I believe I should sign up for this:

Find Cruises - Search Cruise Itineraries 2024, 2025, & 2026

Explore all destinations through our many itineraries with Holland America. Find the cruise that suits your expectations. Book now for a voyage of a lifetime.

www.hollandamerica.com

Seriously, that is not even 70 euro's a day!

Plus, I'd get to celebrate my birthday properly this time round.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I want one:

Secure Credit Card Application - Barclays

I already have two functional credit cards.
One is also a VISA.

Am I greedy?

 

[DavyJack]

Am I greedy?

I say no. Other people have it worse.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I say no. Other people have it worse.

On the other hand...
Turns out that here in NL, credit cards are basically dysfunctional outside the door.
I've been testing mine...

I believe I should sign up for this:

Find Cruises - Search Cruise Itineraries 2024, 2025, & 2026

Explore all destinations through our many itineraries with Holland America. Find the cruise that suits your expectations. Book now for a voyage of a lifetime.

www.hollandamerica.com

Seriously, that is not even 70 euro's a day!

Plus, I'd get to celebrate my birthday properly this time round.

On the other hand:
Yesterday, I officially confirmed the start of booking.
Location: Veenendaal.

On the other hand:
The start of booking = for 1 single person only.
I do not know the identity of my girlfriend.

However, even the cheapest room has room for 2.

define: "celebrate my birthday properly"