LAFFNVEGAS

I plan to post daily on FB but was not sure about CruiseCritic because basically do not spend time over on the NCL Board like I do here on HAL. This has always been my home base so to speak. But I may consider posting over there. We were last on the Bliss exactly in 2 years ago and we are actually in the same 2 Bedroom Haven Suite we were in 2 years ago. The Bliss is going into Dry Dock in January for 2 weeks in the UK, they will be making some changes but there has not been any press releases to what will be done so I hope to get more info on board because Tom and I are returning to the Bliss boarding Feb 2nd in Southampton to bring her back to Miami. That will be our first Trans Atlantic and will most likely be doing a Live from for that.

Thanks Jacqui!! Thanks to all my HAL CC friends 🥰 I guess I need to start packing 😁

BON VOYAGE!!! Enjoy your cruise!!

We had always used texting between other Iphone users on the ship or family at home until my last cruise in April when we were on the Joy. Oddly I could only send and receive text messages to friends I knew that were also on Verizon, my son is on Tmobile and it would not go through and I could not receive his. I also had a client that sent me an email that he was trying to text me. I asked him via email what phone service he had and he had AT& T. I will be on the Bliss in just 4 weeks, my friend sailing with us also has Verizon so her and I will test the texting but pretty sure I already know that I won't be able to text with son. Luckily my phone plan is free for Mexico so once in Mexico should not be a problem just will not sue ship Wifi.

Thanks, We are taking this prior to the Bliss Trans Atlantic Feb 2nd. I compared booking my own hotel and transfers to and from and doing some tours and through NCL it came out slightly less. Could be the time of year we are going who knows. But letting NCL handled everything just seemed easier for our first time to London. For some reason I thought the Stonehenge was the same day as Dover. Not arriving till 2pm does not sound good to me especially since we sail at 4pm. I guess we will just have to go with the flow.

While not on a Trans Atlantic, many years ago we were on the Pearl in 10666 Suite, it was a spring repositioning cruise from Los Angeles to Vancouver. We hit very rough seas, so much so the Captain kept apologizing and when we would be out of these waters. Oddly we felt that our aft facing stateroom was one of the best places on the ship to be. Trust me being forward was not good but the Pearl handled the very high seas like a champ. Also we found we loved those aft suite on the Pearl. The way they are designed the wind does not blow at all while cruising . As a matte of fact it was quite warm out there with the sun shining and we truly enjoyed the balcony. On the Pearl I would not hesitate to book an aft facing suite.

@Haljo1935 Looking forward to following along. Happy Anniversary!!! While you are Closing out the Eurodam Alaska Season, I will be Opening up the Alaska Season on the Eurodam May 3rd 2025. Enjoy your week on the Eurodam!! 😃

Shore excursions are linked to the reservation number, if someone leaves the reservation pretty sure that reservation will cancel and be refunded. The number to call HAL Shore Excursions is 888-425-9376 to verify with them.

Actually I have to admit, the picture I took of Tom's Bacon was already missing a piece that he took off the"Clothesline" before I took a picture 😂

You can do a search of my user name LAFFNVEGAS and a bunch of my previous travel posts come up.

I will probably not do one on Cruise Critic, only because I am not active on the NCL board like I am on the HAL board. Plus it is just different over there. The HAL board is home, been hanging around here for 20+ years 😄 I will however be reporting into my FB everyday and doing the What's for Dinner. Then in January, actually January 29th we fly to Heathrow and are doing a 3 night land tour of the UK through NCL then doing a 13 day Trans Atlantic on the NCL Bliss.

This is my prediction for Pinnacle Lunch, very soon they will see over booking for Pinnacle Lunch due to offering Evening Meal at lunch time and lunch time prices so they will raise the price to be very close to the evening price. Then suddenly the Pinnacle will be a ghost town for lunch. At this point one of two things will most likely happen.They will scratch their heads and say what should we do and go back to a similar lunch time menu with a lower price but higher than current pricing of $19.00 or they will say no more lunch time Pinnacle. Freeing up extra Crew that they don't really have anyway. Sadly I suspect the 2nd of No more Pinnacle Lunch which I will miss. But on a side note I have been impressed with the Main Dining Room lunches. They are changing the menu almost daily with some very good options. We spoke with one of the Executive Chefs as we were leaving the MDR on our first sea day and I complimented him on the new menus and the quality. There are some upsell items on the lunch menu but I can see that expanding to offering what use to be the Pinnacle lunch.

It has been many years since I bought an Elemis product on the ship but do frequent their web site and yes buy when they have the 25% discount or free products.

I do the same as you now, between my Executive AA card and my Venture X we are pretty much covered for flights we take. This past Sunday we had a late flight out of SeaTac with Alaska Air but since we had the AA Executive card we had full access to American Airlines Lounge, we were in there at 10:30 in the morning and left to go to the gate at 4:10. The Lounge was quite nice, and food and snacks excellent. I like the long lay overs to be able to enjoy the lounge and relax. I no longer worry about booking a late flight that is normally less money. We also book flights based on the Lounge access 😁

Yes, Dobiemom aka Marcia had the Lamb chops 😁

The Scallops look similar to how they were displayed Saturday. But I am extremely excited about the Chilean Sea Bass. Just last week I said I so wished they had Chilean Sea Bass. Tom is joking that they heard me 😂 Here is a pic of the Scallops we were served.

Our Pinnacle Server brought out a dish of the Scallops for our table to try this past Saturday and to my surprise they were bigger than I thought, even though he said they were small. Then I was amazed at the cauliflower risotto with it. It was amazing. I am hoping they keep it so I can order that this next May. I only wished I would have had a chance to try it earlier.

Oh this was the best part of my meal in the Pinnacle this past Saturday 😁

I can tell you that I know of numerous cases mine included that all of the airlines are the same when a flight is booked through Flight Ease, HAL's Flight Ease is a third party carrier and all changes must go through them. I can also tell you I know of numerous problems caused by Flight Ease and not the airline. Flight Ease will quickly tell you it is the airline when in fact it is NOT. Those who have status with an airline can often get the airline to help but if not you must go through Flight Ease.

I just came back from the Westerdam and several months in advance I prebooked a massage one day and a facial for another. Once on board I added 3 more treatments. I always book them for port days so that they are less, but it is a good deal booking in advance. Other cruise lines we go on do not do this so I appreciate this discount. What happens when you do this once you get on board the money you purchased in advanced gets applied like ship board credit, then when you have your appointment they charge you what that price was then they tack on the 18% gratuity, you can add to that if you wish. So even if you do not add on the actual cost will be a bit more. Depending on how good they were and if they spent a lot of time with me depends on if I give extra. I did a back to back facial and massage that were to each be 50 , minutes the person who gave me the massage was actually for the facial as well and I was with her for one hour and 25 minutes so she went well over the allotted time and did not try to sell me anything but I discussed with her the Elemis products I was already using.

I seriously doubt it will be there, Koningsdam will have the same menu it has had for several years including the Pork Chop and Chicken. As for the Chilean Sea Bass yes it is a type of cod fish it real name is Patagonian Toothfish. But I prefer it's buttery flavor over the halibut that tends to be much dryer. Unless the Halibut is really fresh I actually cannot even eat it.

As of last week they were definitely not gone on the Westerdam, same old Step One shows that have been performed for 10 years now.

Thanks to everyone for following along and dining with us last week 😁 It was a fun week and the scale by weighing in this morning said we enjoyed it food wise as well 😂 Interestingly enough I gained about what I did last year on the Westerdam and in December on the Nieuw Statendam but it was not nearly as much as Tom and I gained on the NCL Joy in April. We now have 10 weeks to take it off plus some extra before we cruise on the NCL Bliss in November. We landed in LAS at 7:54 last night we did have Alaska Air Lounge access so that made for the long wait at SeaTac to go by quickly.

In all honesty I think this is just a test and they wanted to try something different for this Legendary Japan Voyage.. Just Saturday night we dined in Pinnacle Grill on the Westerdam. I know many years ago the Westerdam and Oosterdam were often called Testerdam because they tested different food items and menus many I can think of were never implemented across the fleet. I guess we will just have to wait and see but I think before there is this new menu there will be a Press Release announcement.

I totally agree that and the Chilean Sea Bass