lyndarra

Know nothing of this. As far as entertainment goes, I'm not what one would call a big fan of production shows but I'll watch whatever's on. Nothing wrong with HALs music walk, Rock or BB Kings, duelling pianos et al. Also not a fan of classical music but appreciate skilled musicians so I do miss Lincoln Centre on HAL. On one X cruise, during a real High Tea, we were serenaded by a string quartet but don't see that happening any more. As a child of the 50s and 60s I love R&R, R&B and folk of this era (I play guitar), and now find Music Trivia is all about later music i.e. Gen Z and Millenials. Entertainment has moved on, on both X and HAL.

BTW @Islander500 there are a few threads running ATM, from first time HAL cruisers in the HAL forum, which you may find informative.

I arrived late for this party however I concur with others who suggest HAL as a viable alternative. I've cruised an equal number of times on both and found they are similar in some ways and different in others. Pre COVID I have found X had the advantage as far as food and ship ambience but since COVID they seem to have slipped a little in the MDR offerings. My priority is the itinerary and find HAL wins hands down.

Welcome aborad HAL. Seems to be a lot of first timers posting lately. Could it be there are a lot of unhappy campers switching lines? I get that impression from browsing Princess and Celebrity forums or is it just me? Readers. Please don't see my post a reason to start us & them gripes. It was just me musing.

Thanks for clearing that up. Volendam was my first HAL cruise but it was a while back.

Itinerary variety. Always seem to include more ports than competitors.

Stay safe. I was in San Diego in 2015 and the place was in drought, IIRC. I'm almost same lattitude South as you are North, also Pacific coastal and have a similar weather. Looks we are heading for a very hot El Nino summer - again.

I'm sure you and Lynn will love it Lyle. Zaandam, I believe, is sister ship to the now sold Maasdam. Maasdam was my favourite HAL ship. Very comfortable and ideal size which allowed it to get into some ports the behemoths couldn't. My last cruise on Maasdam was Auckland/Sydney Feb 2020. Looking forward to your observations on a cruise I would love to do some time.

You reminded me of the time we were in Tokyo with a group of Aussie highschool kids. My wife (a teacher) and I had a free day and we wanted to visit the Honda MotoGP race track and Collection Hall (museum) at Motegi. Getting there was a little daunting. It involved a short walk from hotel to the local station catch a suburban train to the Tokyo Shinkansen station. Shinkansen train to Utsunomya. Bus from Utsunomiya to Nanai station. From there took a ride in a bus, fitted with train wheels on narrow guage track, to Motegi station. This was a delightful ride through the countryside past farms and paddyfields. Then a taxi from Motegi station to the race track. Not speaking Japanese was not a problem. Everyone we met along the way were very keen to help. Lots of "signing", pointing at maps etc.. So long as we could pronounce place names all was good. There was a dedicated bus that daily ran direct from Utsunomya to the track once in the morning then back in the afternoon. We arrived too late to catch it in the morning but we did catch it back in the afternoon.

I'm a motorcyclist of fifty years experience and there's no way I would ride a scooter or any bike in Bali. Too many crazies.

My CC conditions allows motorcycle use under 250cc by licenced rider. However, last time I looked, it had a no cover exclusion for Bali. I had to take out a seperate policy for my ill fated motorcycle tour of NZ, IIRC about $135, as I was riding a 1200cc bike. I had a crash and it was fully covered including a business class flight to return to Oz as I required extra leg room due to my my left leg being in a cast.

A poor Aussie bloke is in hospital in Bali after a scooter crash. The hospital want $65k for an operation paid upfront. Thought he was covered by CC insurance. BIG mistake. He didn't check the fine print, well, it's not really fine print but an exclusion. Riding scooters is not covered.

Feedback is always welcome, preferably balanced and unbiased.

Correct. I recall seeing Zodiacs on Maasdam while on a New Zealand cruise in Feb 2020.

BTW In my experience, Sydney shuttle services are notoriously unreliable.

There is sure to be a train station somewhere close to "downtown" Sydney. Take a train from the airport. Cheap and quick. This may help. https://transportnsw.info/travel-info/using-public-transport/getting-to-airport

Have done two repos to Singapore. I don't mind which way, to or from. On the first we flew back on Scoot IIRC. The second was Qantas (last January). Scoot was better. The Qantas was the worst international flight I have ever experienced, cramped, old Oz domestic plane with terrible inflight food served in cardboard boxes. The two cruises were booked through an online TA and flights were included. Was much cheaper than booking seperate.

After reading all the irking of cruisers caused by Princess post COVID I find I'm no longer checking out Princess Cruises ads I get from TAs.

Found this one in a Vancouver hotel restaurant. No cash, no problem.

Same here. Perhaps a $1 or $2 coin for a shopping trolley in case I can't find the one in the car I keep for that purpose.

This was on NA during my cruise last June. We would have a quiet drink and enjoy the music before dinner.

I pretty much agree having sailed an equal number of times on each but have not cruised on X post COVID. No more production shows or ship band on HAL but I really didn't miss the shows. It's usually the HAL itineraries that win out.

Contact your credit card insurer and they will issue you with a Certificate of Insurance which you can print out.

I have often used CKS Sydney Airport Hotel at Wolli Creek. It's about 1.5klm from the airport and they run a shuttle. There is also the Novatel in the same street which uses the same shuttle and is a few $$$ dearer. I have also used that one. Both are good.

I've had quite a few trips to US and Canada but I have not seen this happening before my last cruise tour in January. This one below, roughly translated into Strine, reads "We underpay our employees. Can you make up the difference?"