Cleckie

19 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

Bumping up to Neptune is unusual lately from what I can see.  More likely HAL will offer you (and many others) an upsell to buy your way up to a Neptune for a decent price. 

Kind of what I was thinking too, but I'll be happy with signature suite if we don't get bumped 🙂

We are on the Westerdam in January for 28 nights. Booked a guaranteed cabin for the first time. Booked guaranteed SS category of signature suite, since this is the highest category of signature suite I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a bump up to a neptune suite.

DH and I will be sailing on the Westerdam in January for 28 nights starting in Singapore and ending in Yokohama. We will arrive in Singapore several days early then visit Thailand, Cambodia,  Vietnam,  Hong Kong, China (Shanghai) South Korea and multiple ports in Japan. Wondering if anyone has advice on whether we will need local currencies and if so recommendations on amount. Thanks in advance for any insight. 

Wow, I'm starting to wonder if doing a long cruise on the Westerdam is a mistake. We are doing a 28 night Singapore to Yokohama in January.  Sure hope these issues are corrected by then. We have only done one other HAL cruise 7 years ago on the Eurodam for 13 nights and loved it.  Thought about canceling our Westerdam cruise, but we'll do this one and then decide if we will continue with HAL or not

Really enjoy reading about the port stops and really sorry to hear of the over charges, lack of entertainment and shortages on different wines and alcohol. We will be on the Westerdam in January,  Singapore to Yokohama. Sure hope these issues improve by then

8 hours ago, Mary229 said:

Adding there is also Seek by National Geographic which tells you which plant, animal or insect you are looking at.   Compass is called Compass and the best free sky viewer is SkyView lite 

Thanks, I just put them on my phone 🙂

8 hours ago, Pompeygirl56 said:

Anybody have any idea when these will be put on sale? After having Christmas 2022 cancelled and the alternative offered for 2023 not the same itinerary, I'm awaiting to see what next year brings!

If you are looking for Asia cruises starting in January 2024 they are already available for booking. We are on the Westerdam January 20, 2024 28 nights Singapore to Yokohama 

11 hours ago, nini said:

 

Excellent advise! Do not judge Princess on the sole basis of the Emerald! I

Sad, but true.

I agree and although I enjoy reading all the reviews of the different ships I also keep in mind many things are subjective. What one person dislikes another will like. About to see what I think of the Emerald.  We will be on board in a few hours.

20 minutes ago, sonomaphil said:

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the as live as the internet onboard will allow it to be Emerald Princess 15 day full transit Panama Canal cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles.  This first post comes to you from someplace high over Arkansa enroute to FLL.

 

This is our 20th Princess cruise and the longest we’ve ever taken.  We did a quick repo cruise back on Royal last September Vancouver to San Francisco as a primer since through circumstance (Covid) and land vacations (Hawaii and Europe twice each) we haven't been on a cruise since 2017. While I liked the Royal (with some reservations) I'm glad to be back on a Grand class ship.  

 

We have wondered if we might be on the younger side of the demographics on this cruise even in our late 50’s!  Guessing this is not a cruise filled with children or teens.  Speaking of that (filling a cruise) as of three days before the cruise you can almost have your pick of cabins if you don’t want a suite.  I counted 8 minis available and gave up courting available balconies when I got to 75. Interior and oceanview are wide and I mean wide open. My guess is we may be south of 1800 onboard. I heard the cruise before us in reverse had 2700 but that was over the holidays. 

 

We stayed at the Hilton San Francisco Airport for one night since our flight is at 8AM New Years Eve and we didn't want to wake up at 3 AM to make the drive. Works out well as the off airport parking lot in front of the Hilton was much cheaper than our regular lot at SFO by $150.   We’re on a nonstop flight from SFO-FLL on Alaska Airlines, first time flying with them for me though my wife has before. Southwest is my preferred airline but nonstop wins every time.  Same flight on SWA we would have stopped twice with a plane change and taken 3 hours more.  We land (hopefully) at 4:30 PM in Lauderdale so we can have a nice New Years Eve dinner to start our vacation.  

 

The Hilton was just fine and we had a few adult beverages and some apps at a place called Kincaid’s that was within easy walking distance.  Very rainy at SFO but very beautiful at 32,000 feet!  We left on time and will arrive a few minutes early.  More to come!

 

 

 

 

Younger than us since we are early/Mid 60's. Wow won't that be nice if we are 50 to 75 percent full. See you on board 

Really looking forward to your posts and reviews. We will be boarding on January 2nd when you get off so your posts will heighten my anticipation 😀 

18 hours ago, ReadyToCruise2 said:

Coral,

 

Great information!  We will be boarding the Emerald Princess after you arrive on Nov. 23 for a 10-day Panama Canal cruise.  Even though yours is a longer cruise, I suspect there will be some commonality (some menus, entertainment, etc.) between your cruise and ours, so your review is very helpful of what to expect (and at the very least getting us more excited to be onboard!).   Also, based on the number of still available cabins on our cruise, I suspect our passenger load will be similar to yours at maybe 2/3 of full capacity.

 

One question: Are they using all 3 main dining rooms on your cruise? 

 

I've noticed on our cruise in pre-reserving dining times in the DMW app that only the Da Vinci and Botticelli dining rooms are available to select.  The Michelangelo never comes up as an option.

We are on Emerald Jan 2nd for full Panama canal transit. When dining first opened I was able to book all 3 main dining rooms, then one day she I was checking my dinner reservations all my nights booked in Michaelangelo were blank and that dining room was no longer an option to book. Looks like as of now it is closed for our cruise.

On 9/16/2022 at 6:20 AM, Coral said:

Obviously the dry dock in October is going to take care of all the necessary mechanical needs and requirements. Main reason for dry dock.

 

Does anyone have any information if any interior parts of the ship will change, be updated, etc...? If anyone is on the ship now and can ask - that would be great!

 

Thanks!

Saw this on Facebook yesterday:

One of our teams has begun work on Emerald Princess. Over 6,500 sqm of carpeting in cabins, stairs, landings and restaurant and over 1,800 sqm of Astroturf is being installed by our flooring experts.

On 9/26/2022 at 9:25 AM, Brickwood said:

Ours opened 59 days prior to our 11/19 cruise.  Weirdly though, the earliest time given was 1:00 pm so I'm keeping my eye on it in case they do something silly like add earlier times and leave us at 1:00. None of the cruises I've been on it the past have started boarding that late.

We are on a full panama canal on Emerald in January.  Ship is scheduled to leave Florida at 4pm. Can't select arrival group yet, but my travel summary says boarding starts at 1:30

1 hour ago, Mike45LC said:

I prefer it when they don’t give me the insulated cup.  If they give us them, my wife wants to bring them home and put them in an over-crowded cabinet where they will sit for years.  And we don’t use these cups on board —I want a regular glass when enjoying a beverage.

Still have and still use the princess cup I got with my soda package 9 years ago, hoping to get a new one in January with my plus package.  

1 hour ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

Just off the Emerald last week.

We were told there were 2666 passengers. Capacity ( I think this is double berth) is 3080, so that would be about 86%.

What were your impressions of the Emerald. We will be on her in January 

Guess I need to start looking for another cruise

1 hour ago, Coates55 said:

Given that Princess and Celebrity have already advised that they are cancelling their Asia 2022/2023 itineraries, surely it won't be long before HAL do the same.

I knew Celebrity canceled but I've not seen or heard anything about Princess for fall 2022/winter 2023. We are booked on the Westerdam January 2023 and just waiting to see what happens 

On 11/12/2020 at 2:16 PM, kazu said:

 

$11 drink max covers a lot of the drinks on HAL.  Just about any specialty coffee, mixed drink, liquor (standard), etc.  I just don’t care for the by the glass wine choices but there are wines included under $11.

the 15 limit drink is for the alcoholic ones.  The non alcoholic are included in the package with no limit I am aware of.

 

I should add that some people that are wine aficionados or like really fancy liquor upgrade to the Elite package.  Some have been successful and some not.  I believe (my memory can be short) it is about $10 per day plus tip pp.  Wait until someone else posts who is more knowledgeable than I on the Elite package to confirm or correct me.

 

 

Just fyi. HAL changed the signature drink package.  The 15 daily limit includes non alcoholic drinks ..the elite package is unlimited non alcoholic and 15 drink limit on alcohol 

On 2/22/2022 at 8:46 PM, Montanabound said:

We’ll be on NA the end of March for our first HAL cruise.  Forgive me if my questions are answered elsewhere on the board, but do they provide bathrobes, and do they have shampoo in little bottles or in shower dispensers?  Thanks, and enjoy your cruise!

All rooms have bathrobes 

6 hours ago, mikebsxm said:

My biggest concern cruising now is the disaster that happened on the NCL Gem 10 day cruise from New York to the Caribbean on Jan 9.  The only port that would allow them to dock was St. Maarten.  All other ports denied the ship's entry.  They had an overnight in St. Maarten and a slow cruise back to NY.  That would be my concern cruising now.  Yes, they got their money back, probably as future credits, but not a great way to blow a 10 day vacation.

Actually I believe they received 100% refund to original form of payment in addition to 50% of amount paid as FCC

We were going to send ours for renewal next month. When I saw they were going up I just went ahead and sent them earlier this week.  We'll have an extra $40 between us to donate to the HAL shops or casino 😆 

Can anyone tell me how much the  unlimited laundry package is?

Just wondering about flightease.  Can you book business class or coach only? 

We had this happen also. Several hours later it was back to normal showing our cruise info

What are the chances final payment for Explorer, Tokyo to Singapore leaving Nov 2nd will be pushed out. Final payment on June 5th is creeping up fast and the United States just made Japan level 4 travel advisory.