Cruise NH

I used a naval term and I didn’t even know it!

Could you let us know what it said? Where are they going, around Africa? Thanks.

Hadn't heard about Princess, that is interesting.

I see that HAL has already announced that they will not be taking the chance and go through the Suez Canal on their 2025 world cruise. QA is currently scheduled to go that route and I'm wondering if that will hold. We're debating taking this cruise and wouldn't mind if it detoured to Africa but that would be quite a change for them. Is there any scuttlebutt about this? Also I can't believe I just wrote out the word 'scuttlebutt' for the first time in my life.

This is an interesting topic for us! We're on our first river cruise, on Amawaterways, next month. We're going from Budapest to Nuremberg and then onto Prague for a couple of days. The cost of flying business class to Europe is so high we felt we had to do more while there so after Prague we're flying to Amsterdam to do a 14 day Baltic cruise on HAL. I guess we'll see the comparisons up close and personal.

Just found this site, very interesting! Thanks for posting. We'll be on our first river cruise this year, May 15th leaving from Budapest on Amawaterways. We're hoping for nice weather and normal water levels!

I think a lot of the horror stories about boarding in Boston are from before 2023. We were on the Voyage of the Vikings last summer. We got there around 1ish and it was a breeze, no problems at all. Everyone was very professional. I didn't hear of any difficulties from anyone else either.

oh good my memory isn’t going after all! Thanks

Do you pay the suite gratuities rate with this type of room on the Volendam. I know it’s really just a balcony room but I seem to remember on the smaller ships it counted as a suite even for double mariner points but I could be wrong.

I don't think this is a creepy subject at all, it's just a necessary one. Similar to a previous poster we keep a file with all our financial and insurance info in our safe and let everyone in the family know where it is. Beyond that, this past year, we sent a letter to our close family members to let them know how to handle things when (not should, remember we all go) die. We told them to have our remains cremated where ever we are in the world, not to have a memorial service and basically do whatever is easiest and best for them. We'll be dead, we won't care. We wanted to make sure they had no guilt about any of this process. Have fun with the insurance money!

We looked at flight ease for an upcoming trip where we're going into one city and back from another. That's two one way flights on flight ease. Instead I used the 'multi city' selection (depending on the airline it's with the round trip or one way selection) on my favorite airline's site. The multi city choice was a little more then the round trip price but not as pricey as two one ways on the site. I would recommend looking at the multi city option if you have a favorite airline and want to be in complete control of your booking. Not all airlines offer it, eg Delta does, Jetblue does not.

Thanks. I’ll check that out.

Did you find the transfer in with the shore excursions, or some other way? We have to go from SeaTac to Canada Place next September. I would love to take the train but the very early and very late departures aren't convenient. Quick Shuttle is fine if you really love riding on a bus and making a lot of stops! Amtrak does run a bus a few times a day from the King Street station on better times, that can be an option but in the end we might just do the one hour flight unless HAL offers a shuttle.

We're on a Japan cruise from Vancouver next year. The ship stops at Yokohama (for those just doing the trans-Pacific) and then goes around Japan. We'll disembark at a port simply called 'Tokyo'. I understand Yokohama is a city of course but they indicate Tokyo tours are available from there. So what is the 'Tokyo' cruise port?

Thanks woodinville cruisers and ferry watcher for your input! I appreciate it.