Hi Everyone&#33;<br /><br />It&#39;s a chilly 44 degrees here in Mpls.  They are saying we could have some snow flurries by Sunday.  Yikes&#33;  I&#39;m not ready for snow&#33;  Anyways, it seems strange to be here in chilly weather when last week I was sweating it out in Cabo San Lucas.  It was really hot there that day.<br /><br />We are watching our little grandson this weekend, tonight and tomorrow, so I won&#39;t have a lot of time to be online.  I hope I can catch up with you all soon.  I haven&#39;t had a lot of time to read back, but looking back a few posts it sounds like a lot of you are under the weather with colds and such.  Hoping you are all feeling better, soon.<br /><br />Marc was scheduled to have surgery on Nov. 5th but we heard that the doctor who was to perform wasn&#39;t a very good surgeon, so he has an appointment on Monday to see a recommended urologist. He is supposed to be tops in his field.   I am feeling better about this since I wasn&#39;t too keen on the other doctor.<br /><br /><br />We had a really nice cruise.  I don&#39;t think I&#39;ll write a formal review since we didn&#39;t do tours, except for a last minute city and hill tour at Puerto Vallarta.  We went with someone named Aidrienne, I&#39;ll have to check the spelling on that, and he was wonderful.  A very nice man and a good driver.  I have his card here somewhere if anyone wants his name.<br /><br />The Oosterdam is a nice ship, we had a balcony room..it did seem a bit smaller than on Celebrity (the room) but I think it&#39;s actually about the same..it just used the space differently.  Our room steward was really great the first night...he helped me with some special needs and then there were a couple of days that we left the room for around 3 hours and the room wasn&#39;t done yet.  To be fair though, they did have some fire and lifeboat drills so that may have caused the delay.  I don&#39;t really have any problems with our room service.  The rest of the week everything was great.<br /><br />The food was good to very good.  We had a prime rib that was very tender and tasty.  I had a parmesan chicken breast with a yummy mustard sauce.  The lamb was good.  It did seem that the food was very much down home instead of done in a more gourmet way, but what I had was consistently good.  Some better than others.  We had dinner at the Pinnacle Grill one night with friends.  I had a filet with Bernaise sauce...mine was excellent.  My hubby had a porterhouse...he said it was good, but not as good as he expected it to be.  The desserts that I had were good, but there were times that I didn&#39;t see anything that sounded good to me...which is rare for me...LOL  They do make their own ice cream which is very good.  The soups were good, but I remember the soups on Celebrity as being fabulous.  Don&#39;t know if they still are, though.  I do think the food on Celebrity was better, but to be fair, it has been almost 4 years since I was on Celebrity and I have heard that they have changed their menus and no longer have top chef, Michele Roux with them, so some say that their food isn&#39;t the same anymore.<br /><br />We were with a group of friends on this cruise, and had many group get-togethers, so that made this a very special cruise for us.  I didn&#39;t have a chance to see much of the entertainment, but it seems that if I were on this cruise with just my DH and wanted to see some special shows that it was very limited in the entertainment.  They did have live music in quite a few of the lounges which was nice.  They had a comedian, which I missed, and a magic act which I did attend; I&#39;m not really into magic shows, but this one was pretty good.<br /><br />They did have two special shows which I missed since we had other get-togethers planned, but I saw the tail end of one of them and wasn&#39;t impressed.  I did see their audience participation show, Superstars, a competition for the best singer, and it was hilarious.  People were singing, and most of them were putting on a comedic act also.  I never did see who won, but the show was really funny.  There were a couple who could really sing.  LOL<br /><br />The ship itself is very nice...it has an elegance about it.  I do like the layout on the Celebrity Millenium ships better, though.  When I went to the shops onboard to pick up some gifts for people, and a few souvenirs, I was surprised to see only a couple of shops.  All in all, it was a very nice cruise, and I like the fact that they don&#39;t have constant announcements on the loud speaker.  Celebrity is that way, too.  It&#39;s more quiet, and I like that.  I don&#39;t drink a lot, but I usually find a special drink that I like on every cruise...I didn&#39;t find it on this one, but then, I really didn&#39;t hit all the bars and lounges, so I have to be fair about that.  I did order a margarita at the outside pool bar one day, and it had so much lime that I asked for a shot of Grand Marnier to add to it.  I had my pina colada and it had too much of a coconut taste.  I just stuck to brandy and amaretto on the rocks before dinner.<br /><br />We had a nice, relaxing cruise and spent a lot of time with friends that I have talked to for around 5 years and finally got to meet.  It was a very special cruise that I won&#39;t ever forget.  We even got to meet up with our Tonia, in San Diego....who is a sweetheart, and was so wonderful to us.  We had breakfast with her and had a wonderful time chatting.<br /><br />I would definitely go back on Holland America, although, I still like Celebrity the best...still saying that it has been almost 4 years since I was on Celebrity...to be fair.  I know that &quot;things&quot; change.<br /><br /><br />Have a great weekend, everyone..<br /><br />