Travel Maven Blog ...... David Molyneaux posts from TheTravelMavens.com

Holland America's Eurodam: A mid-sized ship with 2,100 passengers

With more than a dozen cruise ships carrying 3,000 passengers or more -- and giants of 5,500 passengers on order -- what used to be called a big ship now is considered small.

Mid-size? Well, that's somewhere between what once was big and what today is too big to fit through the Panama Canal.

Holland America Line looks at its new ship, the Eurodam, as mid-sized. (At left, the ship is docked on the River Tynen in England.)

Yes, we have come that far in the evolution of floating hotels, when a ship of 2,104  passengers is mid-sized.

The Eurodam, which was christened in early July in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, is barely larger than Holland America's Zuiderdam, Oosterdam or Westerdam.

But the Eurodam carries an extra 200 passengers or so by adding another deck on top, pushing the mid-sized limit over 2,000 people while preserving the size of the hull so the ship can squeeze through the Panama Canal (though not anytime soon).

The result is a ship that is much like the others of Holland America Line (HAL). The company, in business for 135 years, has built a reputation on traditional service; designs that include generous portions of space on deck, in cabins and public areas; and art collections that are worthy of a guided tour.

CLICK for info on new cabins, Asian and Italian restaurants, and what the experts say about Cruising Holland America's Eurodam

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Molyneaux is editor of TheTravelMavens.com. CLICK for articles on cruising, golf, Florida, Europe, adventure and travel gear and gadgets.

Where coffee is free in Europe

Eurodam is a perfect name for a new cruise ship, especially in Europe during a summer when every American vacationing on the other side of the Atlantic is talking about the damn Euro.

One Euro, the currency in most European countries, costs more than $1.50, so my cup of coffee earlier this month in Copenhagen, Denmark, at 4 Euros, actually cost me $6.

That $6 cup of Joe -- which at that price should be called a cup of Joseph -- was $6 more than my breakfast coffee, an hour earlier, on the deck of the Eurodam, a new ship that began cruising out of Copenhagen in early July (seen in Flam, Norway, right).

I should have had my fill of coffee on the Eurodam before heading ashore -- a good lesson in economics for travelers who are about to cruise Europe or are considering a future cruise.

While cruising is hardly the cheapest way to vacation in Europe, it is far less expensive -- starting at about $100 a day per person for two -- than any comparable accommodations or meals on land. And coffee is included.

Meanwhile, on land, prices in Europe seem exorbitant, at least double what Americans would pay at home for the same purchase, from coffee to a nice dinner.

The best way to beat that currency imbalance -- when the dollar is declining in value compared to the Euro and the English Pound -- is to buy your foreign vacation in dollars ahead of time. That works well on all-inclusive package tours and on cruises.

Of course, the opposite is true for Europeans, who are smiling as they buy goods and services on U.S. cruise ships. My $25 haircut on the Eurodam was only 16 Euros. That's one reason you will see so many Europeans cruising this summer. For them, the exchange rate is an extra gift.

"We're making Starbucks look cheap," says Micky Arison, chairman of Carnival Corp.,  which owns Holland America Line. Eurodam is the 14th of Holland America's active ships.

Next blog: Cruisers look at the new Eurodam

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Molyneaux is editor of TravelMavens.net. CLICK for articles on cruising, golf, Florida, Europe, adventure and travel gear and gadgets.

A splendidly pink Carnival Splendor

Real ships wear pink.

And Carnival Cruise Lines’ newest vessel is as pink as you’ll ever see at sea.

The Carnival Splendor, now on its inaugural voyages in Europe, is Carnival’s  largest ship at 113,300 tons.

That means more cabins (for 3,006 passengers), including 68 clustered forward at the spa; a larger children’s’ area and a deck water park, with a 214-foot twisting waterslide; more room for casual dining, including open kitchen stations for Indian, wok, rotisserie chicken and sushi; and a huge, Asian-themed spa of 21,000 square feet, decorated with Buddhas and dragons that guard a bubbling thalassotherapy pool, right.

And more places for splashes and splotches of pink, mixed with copper, brushed aluminum and glossy black.

For the rest of the story, including the naming ceremony featuring British musician Myleene Klass, go to Carnival Splendor at TheTravelMavens.com

photo by Andy Newman for Carnival Cruise Lines.

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Molyneaux is editor of TheTravelMavens.com. CLICK for articles on cruising, golf, Florida, Europe, adventure and travel gear and gadgets.

Caution: Signs of Humor Ahead

If you are lucky enough to be traveling in Stockholm, Sweden, through July 20, stop for few laughs in the downtown public square called Kungstradgarden.

The snickers are coming from Doug Lansky's Signspotting Project as thousands of locals and travelers pass his outdoor exhibit each day.

Lansky, 38, at right in Stockholm, is an American who lives in Sweden with his wife and three daughters. He is a lecturer and travel journalist who has been collecting strange, weird and inappropriate signs from his travels around the world, beginning as a teenager.

More than 100 of his favorite signs, from "Take Luggage of Foreigner. No Charge" to "Caution, Depression Ahead,"  are displayed in the park in Stockholm.

The exhibit may someday come to a city near you, as Lansky soon will take his sign show on the road.

The rest of his growing collection, from pictures of signs sent to him by his worldly spotters, are on his website, SignSpotting.com. So far, more than 650,000 visitors to the website have voted on their favorite signs.

One of my favorite roadsigns:  Caution. Blind Drivers Backing Out.

Left, taking a photo of a sign that shows the proper way to sit on a flush toilet.

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Molyneaux is editor of TravelMavens.net. CLICK for articles on cruising, golf, Florida, Europe, adventure and travel gear and gadgets.

Trimmed by the Barber of Eurodam

Tucked away in a spa near the bow of the new Eurodam cruise ship is a single barber's chair.

Behind it stands Nicholas of Australia, who will give you a haircut or a beard trim while the Holland America Line ship plies the waters of Northern Europe this summer.

Other cruise ships offer haircuts for men and women in their spas, but few give the barber's chair even a modicum of privacy.

Eurodam’s barber's chair sits beside a big picture window. Some 9 decks below, the ocean rushes by. I sat for Nicholas, right, as the sea churned a steely green between Hamburg, Germany, and Copenhagen, Denmark.

While a mere mirror and a folding room divider separated us from the chatter of the women's hair salon, Nicholas and I had a private and manly chat. He spritzed and cut, washed and dried my long hair made even more unruly during the past week by the sea air. I also have a new beard, and he gave it a first professional trim so that it no longer looks combed with a garden rake.

We never ventured into the unsafe waters of politics or women. Instead, we discussed skin tones, facial moisturizing and beards that fit faces. Though cruise ship spa folk are required by their employer to encourage the sale of skin care products, Nicholas was affably informative but not pushy.

I paid $25 for the haircut, an extra $15 for the beard trim, all of which was accomplished by the Barber of Eurodam in 45 minutes in a chair with an ocean view.

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Molyneaux is editor of TravelMavens.net. CLICK for articles on cruising, golf, Florida, Europe, adventure and travel gear and gadgets.

A queen christens the Eurodam

Cruise ships never venture into the troubled waters of the world’s oceans without a proper christening, which is a traditional ceremony that is part naming, part blessing. Ships are shes. So, the namer and dedicator is a godmother who breaks the bottle of bubbly over the bow.

I have watched ceremonial godmothers ranging in grace from Rosie O’Donnell to Audrey Hepburn. Beatrix of the Netherlands was my first queen, as, on July 1 in Rotterdam, she dedicated Holland America Line’s new Eurodam. The 2,104-passenger ship is the largest of Holland America’s 14 vessels.

"I name this ship Eurodam," the monarch said from an outdoor stage in front of the ship, reciting the words used so many times at these affairs. "May God bless the Eurodam and all who sail on her."

Queen Beatrix, dressed in lavender and pink with a wide-brimmed sun hat, seemed to be enjoying herself, smiling as she rang the ship's bell, the signal for the release of a giant bottle of champagne against the Eurodam's bow. The bottle exploded against the side of the ship, followed by a rendition of the “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven's ninth symphony, sung by a classical music group Operababes.

The afternoon program, on the edge of the River Maas where Holland America Line began 135 years ago, included a performance by Cantabile, known for their sacred music. The ship’s bell was blessed, with champagne poured over the bell's top.

Short speeches were delivered by the ship's captain, Jeroen van Donselaar and Holland America CEO Stein Kruse, as well as the head of the shipyard in Italy that built the Eurodam. Afterwards, Queen Beatrix toured the ship, during which she talked with several passengers while waiting for an elevator.

The Eurodam begins a series of Europe cruises out of Copenhagen on July 5.