fla_sunshine

The traditional dining car meal/service is still available (for now) on the long distance Amtrack trains west of the Mississippi. Sadly, I don't expect that to last for long either.

Watching someone at our table of six be served one, even if the lobster was prepared properly, it was not served properly by the wait staff (apparently undertrained). While the lobster sat in front of the customer, the appropriate utensils had to be tracked down and an expedition made to the kitchens for drawn butter.

On our most recent Zaandam cruise we booked an inside Category MM Guarantee. About 2 weeks out we were assigned a Category J inside which we would have been happy with, but less than a week out we were changed to a Category G oceanview (portholes). Then we were shifted to an Oceanview midships and finally overnight before embarkation we were switched to an Oceanview near the Forward elevators and had to have our printed luggage tags removed and replaced at the pier. Despite all of the changes we were happy with the room we actually received and there was no problem with our luggage delivery.

On 2/7/2019 at 8:29 AM, terrydtx said:

I have an American Airlines Advantage Credit Card and my understanding is if I use that CC with HAL to pay for the flights on flight Ease, I will get my standard free checked bags, one of the benefits of the American CC.

With American, it's only necessary that the AAdvantage membership number linked to the credit card be recorded on your booking with American (your PNR, Passenger Name Record). Unlike United Airlines, it is not actually necessary to pay with the credit card.

On 12/14/2018 at 4:19 PM, Krazy Kruizers said:

Thanks so much for telling us about this new venue.

 

Glad you liked it.  But I am not a fan of loud music.  It hurts my ears.

We often listened to it from Billboard across the way for exactly that reason, but it was still terrific.

I just did a close in booking and the only traditional dining time was listed as "Main seating". Is this an Early or Late seating time?

Not sure how she managed it w/ the PSVA, but maybe the Panama Canal segment included one of the ABC islands.

We are going on the Crown in late Feb. We were on her last year and main dining service was really bad. Specialty restaurants not much better. I spoke to the head food person wasted time. Too many pay venues with no additional staff. We have 10 cruises with Princess if no improvement we will find something else to do. Not the fault of the staff they did their best.

Tablemates of ours claimed that the MDR food was terrible last year and much improved this time. I thought it was acceptable this cruise.

We weren't aware it was our 13th cruise, whichever one it was.

I haven't had 13 cruises yet, and I've already lost count.

If you are serious about waiting it out for a potential last minute bargain, you should have a backup plan to do a week of land based sightseeing in the Seattle/Greater Puget Sound area. I would certainly not be unhappy doing that if my ship didn't come in (so to speak).

One more possibility: After wearing acceptable, but not necessarily expensive clothing on the ship, consider DONATING the excess on arrival in Europe. I'm sure there must be organizations that would accept clothing donations for the less fortunate over there.

We just got our second upgrade on Princess since we've been sailing them (we both have between 5 and 10 cruises with them so far, and the first upgrade was on either our 1st or 2nd cruise). In the most recent case on the Royal, it was from a far forward Deluxe Obstructed Balcony (M101) to a Deluxe Balcony mid-aft. I was looking forward to the much larger "obstructed" balcony I originally reserved, but the new location will be better for my somewhat mobility impared DW.

Looking forward to the decoration, we are boarding Royal Princess on Dec 10th.

As are we fellow shipmates. We've taken several early December cruises (Princess and Celebrity) and always had the decorations up.

Another option I've used in the past is to fly into the much smaller Long Beach Airport (LGB). The aren't as many flight options, but the airport is much easier to navigate and there are still ground transportation options available. I've stayed in a hotel that offered a hotel shuttle from LGB on one occasion (then taxied to the port the next day), and on another occasion I rented a car there to get to a more distant hotel when I was picking up someone from a cruise the next day.

Everyone says stairs, stairs, stairs but what about passengers who have mobility issues and are not able to do stairs:confused:

Actually Belgium is issuing a 2.50 Euro commemorative coin commemorating the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo (to the chagrin of the French), not that you will encounter that in circulation.

On our previous Alaska Cruise, my DW and I booked a mini-suite and shared the balcony with our traveling companions who could only afford a nearby interior. That worked out fine for everyone, and I expect a similar arrangement will be fine for you.

This is from the brochures:

<b>

"Upgrade Policy:

Holland America reserves the right to upgrade a guest or guests to more expensive category accommodations at no additional cost."

</b>

There is really nothing you can do if HAL decided to move you, even if you ticked the "NO" "Flexible in Your Stateroom Choice" ("do no upgrade") box.

I suspect that if you tick "No", HAL will not normally do this, but they want the flexibility in case they have to take your room out of service or really need THAT room for some other dire contingency.

Since the person who does the calling probably works in California, I would suspect that the call back process is just starting.

I just did a dummy booking for my Alaska cruise and verified that the price I got last night was not the price I am getting now, so at least for my itinerary they have pulled it. If you are seeing it on a different itinerary, then it may not be completely gone.

I called Princess this morning and the representative said they had just pulled this promotion. :(

Since a lot of the deals were different, you probably shouldn't take my experience as the final word on the subject.

I have a similar question, except that I independently booked my flight and a hotel near the airport with the intent to take the hotel shuttle back to the airport to catch the Princess transfer to Whittier. I assume on that morning I should find the Princess office at the airport.

Also, is it possible on flight arrival at the airport to deposit the checked baggage with Princess for transfer to the ship, and then proceed to my hotel with only hand luggage?

The information on my pre-departure transfer is a bit vague for those not arriving by air the day of the cruise departure.

We also live in Central Florida and can take advantage of cruise bargains from any of the several Florida ports. We were on the Ryandam the first week of March, and agree with much of your review. We did like the violin/piano duo that performed in the lounge just outside the MDR across from the library (and on our cruise they also got a chance to perform on the main showroom stage when we had a malfunction in two of the ships engines that caused us to miss a port stop). We also had a starboard side cabin (interior), and had one plumbing malfunction for which we called maintenance. Fortunately, that happened as we were leaving our cabin for breakfast and was fixed before we returned later in the day. On our departure day from Tampa, we did have significant fumes from fueling as if there might have been a spill aft on our hallway (A deck). We allso noticed it on the way to our lifeboat drill station.

Lunch in the Pinnacle Grill sounds like a winner! Are they open for lunch on port days? There is at least one port my DW and I expect to stay on board and it would be an excellent alternative to the Lido.