Tigerlily75

Thank you Kazu, and bon voyage to everyone too!

It was lovely waking up to all these nice messages, thank you! I checked in for our flights when it opened at half past midnight. MH gave me a mini-panic attack when I clicked on “check destination requirements” for Hong Kong and their information is clearly well out of date. It was talking about PCR testing and making sure you’ve booked a Designated Quarantine Hotel! I rushed off to check official government sources (again!) and nope, all requirements are well and truly lifted. Phew! The only thing they have is temperature checks you walk through at the airport, which has been in place since SARS anyway. It’s now Sunday mid-morning here. I got busy doing other things yesterday so today is packing (and cleaning the bathroom!) day. I also need to go pick up my Chinese Yuan either today or tomorrow, I’m thinking tomorrow since the shopping centre will be less busy. We’ll leave home for the airport around 9pm tomorrow night.

I have heard about the immigration procedures, but hoping it is getting better! That’s encouraging to hear you had decent local entertainment, I’m looking forward to that.

Oh that must have been disappointing! I hope the surgery and recovery goes well and you can get back on board in future! I’ll report on the weather, and yes docking locations! It’s definitely taken some sleuthing trying to figure out exactly where we dock in each port.

Ooh, thank you, I got very lucky then!

I agree. My receipt simply says “1x prepaid hotel service charge” for each of us. If I’ve only bought OBC then my receipt should reflect that. It’s just poor business practice to claim I’m purchasing something that I’m really not, and then potentially inflate the price afterwards. It’s misleading and has nothing to do with how much I appreciate the crew!

I thought it was pretty good for my upcoming cruise - gratuities for us would be US$448 onboard which is AU$681 at the banks rate. HAL charged me AU$582 to pre-pay them. Did it used to be much better? The exchange rate for us is just terrible in general, so I was happy to save $100!

How lovely to come all this way and then be able to catch up with an old friend! I will definitely be on the look out for any new offerings and share them here. If there is a Q&A, or if I happen to get a chance to speak anyone who would be in the know, I will ask too. The way you describe it sounds amazing and I’m sorry to have missed it. I’m curious too if we will have things like guest speakers on various topics, and local entertainment coming on board.

We are booked at Wusongkou Cruise Port (Baoshan) so sadly not downtown. That would have been amazing. Similar in Hong Kong, we are at Kai Tak (the old airport), there’s a different ship booked for that day at the better situated Ocean Terminal.

I’m following! I always enjoy seeing Australia through other eyes.

Thank you!! Very excited to try HAL, every report I’ve read say the staff are amazing, and that the food is very good too. I’ve seen mixed reports on recent entertainment offerings, but with a port intensive cruise like this we should be fine - although I was sad to learn the Lincoln Centre is no more!

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I would probably describe us as mid-range budget travellers. We’ve booked a guaranteed interior room, and generally look for decent affordable boutique type hotels. We also haven’t booked any tours in port (HAL or private) although that’s not really a financial decision, but rather a preference for these ports. They are super easy (for the most part) to navigate and we like to do our own things in our own time. A little about pre planning: I should probably start by saying we are huge Disney fans. I’ve been to Disneyland (Anaheim), Disney World, and Disneyland Paris. It was only after booking this cruise it dawned on me we could actually do Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo, all in one trip! Shanghai became the trickiest, because it’s like a mystery tour. HAL hasn’t been to Shanghai (that I could find) since pre-covid, and so there’s very little information on procedures, from visas to shuttles. No one can or will provide clear answers on whether specifically the 72/144 hour visa free transit will be available, and I won’t bore you with all the details, but suffice to say people are getting different answers all over the place. It’s been very confusing! So long story short, we went ahead and got Chinese Visas just in case. We did it ourselves at the consulate, and here I take issue with both the advice and cost of what the HAL recommended visa service provides, but maybe that’s a post for another time. In short, always check if you can do it yourself. Or, whether you even need what they say you do (hello, South Korea). Go to official government sources. If you can do it yourself, it’s often just as easy (or easier!) and WAY cheaper. We are in Shanghai overnight, and will visit Disneyland on day one so we can stay for the fireworks. We have booked a private transfer both ways, and they should hopefully be waiting for us as we walk off the ship. Day two in Shanghai, we will explore the city on our own. I’ve made a (flexible) plan for every port, so we have a good idea of what we want to do in each place. We have our tickets, our visas, WeChat downloaded and I even managed to set up WeChat Pay with an international credit card. China is almost a cashless society, but international cards can be a problem at times - and so yet another long story short - I’ve covered all our bases. I have WeChat Pay, Alipay, cash, and various credit and debit cards. One way or another, we shouldn’t starve! I also have an iPhone and I hear Apple Maps will completely transform once inside China, so that seems to be the best option for English speakers. I’m not going to bother with a VPN, and have given family back home my WeChat contact. I can live without Meta and Google for a couple of days. So for future cruisers to Shanghai post-covid, I’m going to take many notes so I can provide all the answers I was searching for myself! So that’s about it for now - until we leave on Monday night. It’s currently Saturday afternoon here in sunny Australia, and I’m about to pack my thermals for this winter-y trip. Thanks for reading!

Hello all, I thought maybe, perhaps, one or two people might be interested in a “live blog” (at least, an attempt at) from an inexperienced cruiser, and first time cruiser on HAL. I’m an experienced traveller - by plane, land, bus, train, ferry - but not so much cruising! I did my first cruise in 2015 when I won it in a competition. It was an 8 night Carnival Spirit cruise from Sydney to the South Pacific Islands. I liked it so much I did two more, and then did a transatlantic on NCL Epic in 2019. So it’s been five years! I’m travelling with my 24yo daughter. She has just returned to Melbourne after two years living in Edinburgh. The end of her visa meant leaving behind her boyfriend she met there. He’s a dual American-British citizen who grew up in California and moved to Scotland, where his mum is from. We are meeting him in Tokyo on February 17, so a happy reunion awaits! We’ll spend 10 days in Japan and then he’s coming back to Melbourne with us for 3 weeks. (And later, will return on an Australian working holiday visa). We leave for Hong Kong on Monday night, flying Malaysia Airlines via Kuala Lumpur. We have 4 nights in Hong Kong and then board the Westerdam on Saturday afternoon! One week from today. Super excited. I absolutely love Asia and so happy to return. We’ve been to Hong Kong and South Korea (but not Busan) before, but haven’t yet been to mainland China or Japan. Here is our itinerary:

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Ok that makes more sense, and yes I agree, I’d just get myself to the next port.

I can't figure out what the "bad decision" was if whatever happened to them was outside of their control. I wouldn't expect the ship to wait for me, but I also wouldn't consider getting off the ship on my own a "bad decision". Since I am a grown adult and not a toddler. I don't know if that's what you meant!

Same here, I saved about $100 by pre-paying them.

It looks like HAL has now updated their website: Crew Appreciation is a daily (adjustable) amount added to your onboard account and pooled in order to recognize the many team members throughout our fleet who contribute to the guest experience. For all sailings departing prior to February 14, 2024 as well as the 2024 Grand World Voyage and the 2024 Grand Australia & New Zealand Voyage, the daily Crew Appreciation is $16.00* per guest per day for non-suite stateroom guests and $17.50* per guest per day for suite guests. For sailings departing on or after February 14, 2024, the daily Crew Appreciation is $17.00* per guest per day for non-suite stateroom guests and $19.00* per guest per day for suite guests. The Crew Appreciation charge is paid to Holland America Line team members and represents an important part of their compensation. An 18% service charge is automatically applied to all beverage purchases, bar retail items, specialty restaurant cover charges, all for-purchase a la carte menu items, and all Spa & Salon services. Local sales taxes are applied where required. *The charges are subject to change without notice.

Thank you!!

In Victoria, it's the local council that determines if supermarket trolleys have coins. That why some coles/woolies have them and some don't.

The crew appreciation is not a surprise, obviously, since I’ve prepaid them in full, I have a receipt that says I’ve prepaid them. The surprise would be if I board and then they say they’re not prepaid after all and I need to pay more.

I’m glad to hear that. My first HAL cruise is coming up February 3, and I’ve prepaid gratuities. How you describe it is exactly what I had just assumed and was expecting. So I’ll be really annoyed if it’s how @aussiedisneyfan describes it. It says nothing on my receipt about it only being a credit, or that the price could change. It just says I’ve pre-paid the hotel service charge and shows the dollar amount I paid. So that should be that. I’ve also only ever spoken to Australian HAL staff operating out of Sydney, and paid both the cruise and gratuities in $AUD. (I know it will be $USD on board). So surely they would have to operate under Australian consumer law, when they present to the consumer as a business operating in Australia. The law does not allow for hidden or surprise charges, or any kind of misrepresentation. All costs must clear and up front (not hidden in fine print). I’ll wait and see what happens on my cruise!

Thank you very much everyone!

For those who have had overnight stays as part of their itinerary, is there usually a curfew time to be back on ship? It may be dependent on local immigration authorities but I’m still curious. We have an overnight stay in Shanghai on Westerdam in February. We’re going to Disneyland and will stay for the fireworks, with someone picking us up and transporting us back to the ship. We could be back by 10pm or a little after. I’m just worried there will be a cut off time.