Riversedge

Thanks for posting the menus. We are doing a Legendary Voyage next year so we’re also curious about the menu. It looks like some of the usual and a couple things a little different. More choices I think.

Thanks from me too. I love your informative posts.

We sailed Celebrity a little over a year ago and the food was horrible. I don’t think of HAL as being 5* dining but I don’t go hungry. I’m more unhappy with the slow service in the dining room.

OBC=Onboard Credit. You can use it towards gratuities, dinners, shops, drinks, tours, etc.

I’m not Tigerlily and she may still respond, but I can assure you there were several tour choices in all of the Japan ports. We were able to see the tours before we had to cancel but there was a whole brochure of them that I printed off. Yours should show up soon.

What a wonderful blog! You are really making me sorry we can to cancel. I’m thinking you might convince me that we need to book it again. The weather looks phenomenal. We had friends who did this last year and had a lot of chilly rain. Continue to have fun. We will look forward to more posts when you have time.

We would love to see more posts of your trip!

I’m trying to convince my husband to do the Legendary voyage on the Noordam, round trip Singapore on Jan 4. He was all for it until he counted 15 sea days. Some of them are cruising the Great Barrier Reef. What can you see from the ship? Anything? The voyage has two days cruising the Great Barrier Reef, one day cruising the Ribbon Reef, one cruising the far north region and and another cruising the The Torres Strait. I’d love to hear from someone who is familiar with this. Thanks!

Since we weren’t able to go on this cruise I would love to see the daily program. If you have time of course! Enjoy your cruise.

I’ll be following along. We were supposed to be on this cruise but had to cancel due to knee surgery. Will be curious what the weather is like and where you dock at various ports. We may book this cruise again next year.

I’m the one that asked you to do the comparison. Thank you!! So glad to see you back doing another “Live”. I hope you have fabulous weather with lots of wildlife viewing. Maybe you’ll convince us to book another Antarctica trip for next year.

Thanks you for doing this. I’m looking forward to hearing how your experience compares to the Grand you just finished.

We are on the Westerdam in February. We are doing back to back cruises each 14 days long. On each portion the pop up Tamarind is available for 7 nights and the Canaletto is available for 7 nights. (Both in the same dining area) The Tamarind portion is not included in the HIA so it’s best to make your Canaletto reservations as soon as you can.

Great pictures. Love following along. I’m curious how this Grand compares to a regular Antarctica voyage that HAL runs from Santiago to Buenos Aries. We were on the 2020 Grand SA/Antarctica voyage and it was amazing day after day with decorations, gifts, special speakers, cocktail parties, dinner with officers, etc. But that was before Covid. We are afraid we might be disappointed with onboard experiences if we were to do it again on a non-Grand voyage. I know Antarctica is a special experience at any time but I need to convince my husband. And maybe the Grand experience has not gotten back to pre-covid offerings. Thanks for your thoughts.

Perfect! Always good to meet up with another Michigan cruiser.

No, HAL in February

Is this from a recent cruise? We booked 2 tours thru HAL (which we don’t usually do) in hopes to avoid the problem. If the worst thing that happens is that we have to stay on the ship that’s fine with me. China has never been on my bucket list. Thanks for the information.

I’m not sure this is correct. Holland transferred me to the cibt travel information center and we were told we do not need one. Must be on a ship tour or another tour that is approved by China.

I'm curious if you have done the Grand South America and Antarctic when it was done in January? We were on the 2020 Grand and we had such good weather and saw a multitude of sealife every day. We would like to cruise Antartica again but wondering if we should not do it until Jan or Feb. Have you sailed both times of the year and can you compare?

Have a great cruise. You deserve it!

I loved my flannel lined waterproof pants and some days I used silk underwear too. Warm scarf is essential and warmer gloves than you think you’ll need. I took my down winter parka and was glad I did. We spent hours outside. No way am I watching all of that from behind a window.

Enjoy the cruise! It will be the trip of a lifetime. We had an outside cabin and didn’t miss a balcony. We spent most of our time on the front deck where we could walk from side to side. There was usually commentary and even a bowl of soup. My husband and I each took binoculars as there was so much to see that we wouldn’t have shared nicely.

Antartica was the best experience we have ever had. The wildlife is incredible and everywhere you look. Whales jumping, penguins jumping, seals on the icebergs....it's difficult to describe it accurately. We were lucky to have Drake Lake both ways and sunny weather, but I would have enjoyed it either way. It's scenic cruising only but you're so close to land that it feels like you are THERE. I didn't need to step through the penguin poop to feel like I had experienced it all. Like a previous poster mentioned, take good quality binoculars (recommend Nikon Monarch 5) and good camera with telephoto lens. I'd love to do it again.

We reached 5* on our last cruise and received our pins on the bed the next day. I’m more interested in the perks than the pins though. What do people actually do with the pins? I’ve never worn one. Usually goes in a drawer to be thrown away later.

It sounds like you only do HAL excursions. Do you know what the circumstances were for people who wanted to get off and do their own? Were these places walkable from the port or did HAL provide a shuttle to get away from the port? This sounds like a fascinating place to visit and we plan to do so, but would like to do it on our own.