Corinne Marie

Do not ever use Holland America;s travel insurance.  It has been such a hassle trying to get reimbursed for using the ship doctor.  Medicare does not pay for foreign visits with doctors, hence the need for travel insurance.  Thank God it was only 206 dollars.  They will not pay if I do not have a denial from Medicare even though they admit that Medicare will not pay for this visit.  I have used Allianz for a foreign doctor visit this summer and they reimbursed us with not questions asked.  I know who I will use in the future.

Ballerina Jewelers is awesome. Have been buying from them for many years...Have done settings as well where I had my own stone. Do not go to any ship recommended store. They get a kick back and you will pay for it.

Do not bother with the Oosterdam. Just got off the panama canal transit from San Diego to FLL. The food is horrible. Lido food has the same choices and very boring and tasteless. The main dining room is not much better. The best food is the Pinnacle and we ate there a lot. If you do not care what your food tastes like, then the Oosterdam is okay. I am 4 star mariner and the Holland America brand has certainly gone down hill.:(

Call Sig and edgar Hanson of the Norwegian and they will know how to fix the dream.

Do not ever buy from a ship recommended store. so much higher in price and a nightmare to deal with. We have bought lots of fine jewelry in the VI and we use family owned or non ship recommended stores and have never paid sales tax. we have had the best service in st thomas..

:)

I have At and T and have only used my phone in st thomas or san juan otherwise it goes in the safe on the ship. No need to stress about cost of minutes on a ship.

Just off the dream and I agree with above poster. Food was not good and we ate in the dining room every night. Don,t bother with Belize. Do an all day pass in Cozumel. With island marketing to sabor resorts for 50 dollars. The pools were not fun, way to crowded. Hard to move around the ship too many people who do nothing but eat. Lots of noisy people. If all you want is a drunk stupor than this is the ship for you. Cabin suite was good, nice ac and our steward, dewi, and his helpers were great. We tipped them well.

Just don't buy any jewelry from a cruise recommended shop in the Caribbean. You will pay high prices.

I was also on this cruise to the Panama Canal and we were in a suite cabin and used the Neptune Lounge often. We also had intermittent a/c issues on deck 7 and had a toilet that did not flush for one day. Our room was huge, but the balcony was horrible. It was a pop out balcony and had wind issues, never could enjoy it. The balcony was filthy, never cleaned. Food was okay. This was the worst embarkation I have ever experienced by a cruise line. We waited over an hour with priority check in and only two people working our line. Two people passed out (older people) with the long wait. I have been on many cruises and many different lines, but this is my last with Holland America.

DO NOT SAIL IN ANY OF THE POP OUT SUITE CABINS ON ROTTERDAM DECK ON THE ZUIDERDAM. we were in 7093 and the balcony and room were huge, but oh what a mistake. The balcony has gale force winds and you can't sit out there for more than 2 minutes without feeling like you are going to be blown overboard....Really scary!!

WORD OF CAUTION NEVER BY FROM DI ESPECIALLY SINCE THE CRUISE LINE GETS A KICK BACK FROM THEM.....DO NOT BUY FROM ANY JEWELER THAT THE CRUISE LINE RECOMMENDS....YOU WILL BE TAKEN...:mad:

It is illegal to bring the conch shells back to the US through customs. Just be careful

This is one of those stories where you would have to be there to see this:

An elderly couple (friends of our family) were on a cruise in Asia about 10 years ago. The husband had the early signs of Alzheimers. He got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and ended up in the hallway and the door locked behind him. He was in his birthday suite which is how he slept at night. He was rather large and I imagine not a pretty sight to see this way. His wife soon discovered that he was not in the room and she took off in search of him and the door slammed behind her and she forgot the key card. She was in a skimpy nightie, she was also rather heavy. She finally found her husband roaming the halls and they had to knock on someone's door and ask them to not open their door but to call down to the purser's desk and get someone to come up and help them. This happened to be an asian gentleman. I can only imagine his face when he saw this couple. What a horrific scene this would have been. Everytime we think of this story we just laugh until we are almost in tears. They were also on a really classy cruiseline at this time.

CMG

This is one of those stories where you would have to be there to see this:

An elderly couple (friends of our family) were on a cruise in Asia about 10 years ago. The husband had the early signs of Alzheimers. He got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and ended up in the hallway and the door locked behind him. He was in his birthday suite which is how he slept at night. He was rather large and I imagine not a pretty sight to see this way. His wife soon discovered that he was not in the room and she took off in search of him and the door slammed behind her and she forgot the key card. She was in a skimpy nightie, she was also rather heavy. She finally found her husband roaming the halls and they had to knock on someone's door and ask them to not open their door but to call down to the purser's desk and get someone to come up and help them. This happened to be an asian gentleman. I can only imagine his face when he saw this couple. What a horrific scene this would have been. Everytime we think of this story we just laugh until we are almost in tears. They were also on a really classy cruiseline at this time.

CMG