richwmn
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Posts posted by richwmn
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The fact that this is even on the Cruise Critic website is sad.
It is NOT relevant to this site, and if it is legitimate, then Cruise Critic has (yet again) sold itself down the road for profit.
Hmm. I've got an Embassy Suites ad. Is CC selling ad space?Cruise Critic has always sold ad space -- that is how we manage to get it free. Would you rather pay for the site, and not get ads?
Commonly, ads are served by a different company. Cruise Critics, and other sites dependant on ads, set up space and a link to the ad serving company. That company then displays the ad, based on whatever criteria they have. CC has no control over the ads, save that if they report a malicious ads, it will be pulled.
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I got my cabin assignment this morning for the Eurodam cruise leaving Dec 1. The assignment did not appear on the baggage tags before today.
I am booked with a PCC and did get an email about the assignment later in the day.
Rich
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Even though your PCC might not work on Saturday or Sunday, someone in the department does. What I found out recently was that the department that has the PCCs is different from the online and call in people, and the relationship is like a TA to HAL. If you book through the website or call in, it is difficult to get credit to your PCC. On the other hand, my next cruise was booked on a Sunday when my PCC was off. Another person took the reservation. I asked at the time about my PCC getting credit and was told it was no problem, that they covered each other all the time.
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Is that control still on headboard on Zaandam?
I thought they were all removed at dry docks. I remember well when we would tune to the 'communication' channel and leave it there for the cruise but there were also several music stations.
Veendam, Maasdam, and none of the Vista or Signature ships have that headboard control now.
It was last March when I was aboard. The only reason I thought about it was that the previous passenger left the volume up real loud and the first announcement came through loud and clear!
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On the Zaandam, and maybe others of the same class, there is a volume control and channel selector on the "headboard". Most of the time the volume control is turned all the way down so you don't really notice it. If you turn up the volume most of the channels have music, and one is for announcements.
If you leave the volume turned up to a comfortable level and leave it on the proper channel you will have the announcements in your cabin.
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On our cruise to Bermuda our Explorer / On Location states we had Carlos Mendoza. We found Anthony Choice to be a great friendly guy on the Maasdam.I agree, Anthony Choice is one of the few I remember.
As soon as I saw Anthony's name I remembered him as one of the better Cruise Directors I have had. Very friendly and easy to talk to.
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Sorry to say but he starts his vacation Dec 8.
Which happens to be the end of my cruise, and the date the Eurodam goes into drydock.
Thanks
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As Ruth said, each of us will have different ideas on this. For me, the Cruise Director needs to be out and about and open to the passengers. Being "on time" for the activities, in my opinion, is not enough. (S)He should be early enough to have everything ready to start on time. By the same token, (S)He should allow time between activities so that (S)he is not rushing out of an activity almost before it is over.
In many cases some of us might feel that a particular CD is wonderful while others may feel that particular CD is one of the worse. In particular I know of a CD that many on here particularly liked. He happened to be from a place that I spent a lot of time and I tried to talk to him about it. He constantly blew me off. He had better things to do.
On the other had, one Cruise Director and three staff members on different cruises seemed to constantly run into me on the ship and would stop and ask how thing were going.
I realize that there are over 1,500 passengers on most of the ships, but these interactions formed my opinion of the people involved.
Most of the Cruise Directors do an good job. They show up for the activities, but sometimes their "heart" is not in it for whatever reason. It may even be different from cruise to cruise.
It is difficult for anyone to be "up" all the time, yet we generally expect the Cruise Directors to be just that way.
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I believe he was the Cruise Director on the Zaandam Cruise I took to Hawaii earlier this year. If so, I thought he did an excellent job. I hope he is still aboard the Eurodam when I board in 3 weeks.
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I booked a Caribbean cruise for myself and my boyfriend for the first week in December. We will be stopping at grand Turks, San Juan, st. Thomas, and half-moon bay. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on shore excursions? I was thinking about doing the Bacardi tour at San Juan as well as a dinner show seeing as how we don't get to the island until the after noon and leave at 11pm. has anyone done a combination of excursions on one island and Is it do-able? also are there ways to go the the beaches on the islands without booking an excursion through the ship? Or is it just easier and cheaper to go through the cruise ship?
all suggestions and advise are greatly appreciated! :):D:cool:
It sounds like you might be on the Eurodam starting Dec 1st. If so, come join our roll call at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1792919.
To answer your questions, both San Juan and St. Thomas have plenty of taxis and shuttles available. If you want to do several things in St. Thomas, I would suggest getting a taxi and telling the driver what you want to see and do. San Juan, although I have not been there as much, should be about the same.
Others should be able to give more information about Grand Turk, I have only spent a very short time there when it first opened its dock.
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I have been following this thread, and find it very interesting. First and foremost, most of the talk about "nickel and diming" concerns goods or services that are only used by a portion of the cruise population. So why is there a problem with those people, and only those people, covering the cost of providing that good or service?
As to the sign about the $.25 cost for printing boarding passes. I can't find anything in what I have saved to back this up, but I believe that there has always been a "per page" price for printing anything. From what I remember, it was greater than the $.25 for boarding passes - so perhaps this was a "special" reduced rate for boarding passes only.
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I went back to my old documents, and each "Know Before You Go" since 2004 has had the statement prohibiting any alcohol except wine and champagne.
A scan of the 2004 Booklet can be found at
http://halfacts.com/kbyg/KBYG-04.jpg
and the 2007 Booklet can be found at
http://halfacts.com/kbyg/KBYG-07.jpg
Rich
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What do you mean??
Is this in response to the plain spoken and easily understood comment that kazu made regarding someone named Frank on the Oceania Board and the she is consifdering a cruise with that line??
I just am lost as to what you are trying to tell us here... But then again, some of the comments made recently on some of the threads here on the HAL board have me shaking my head and wondering what is meant by the comment(s) and what it/they could possibly have to do with the cost of tea in China:confused::confused:
Joanie "The Lost One"
Frank Del Rio is the CEO of Oceana. He has been known to post on the Oceana forum of Cruise Critics. He has also been known to jump in and take care of problems.
That said, Oceana has 5 ships with a total capacity of 4552. That is less than the capacity of the HAL 'S' Class ships alone (5000).
So it is much easier for Frank to address all aspects of his line, than it is for Stein Kruse to do the same
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4. The HAL representatives were woefully incorrect in advising the OP that his foreign-issued BC was acceptable.
I am not so sure that the HAL rep necessarily understood that it might not have been a US iisued birth certificate. I am not even sure who issued ithe BC, I think I recall reading about translations which makes me think it was issued by Germany.That is why I stated in my earlier post that I believe there was a communications disconnect between ejammer and Nikki or Nikki and Dane. The chat shows ejammer saying he is a US Citizen and Resident, but no where does he mention that his birth certificate is German.
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Thank you, Rich.
I was thinking this but am so unfamiliar with U.S. birth's abroad, I really did think a U.S. birth certificate could be issued to a U.S. citizen born in a U.S. Military hospital. Though my DH served and I traveled with him, we did not have children born abroad and I really had no way of knowing this information. Most of us here on CC don't have that information.
I do not believe it is an automatic process. Here (http://travel.state.gov/travel/living/living_5497.html) is the state department's website about applying.
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IMO you are stating your misquoted opinions as fact here. Nikki never said "should be WHTI compliant", she said "is WHTI compliant".
And why would anyone (including Nikki and her experienced supervisor Dana) assume a person born in Germany would be issued a birth certificate from any other country other than Germany? Has anyone ever even heard of the U.S. military issuing their own birth certificates?
Another, not so obvious fact in that convo with Nikki, is that I was on hold for approximately 15 minutes as she responded with 3 "I'm still checking" type apologies, while she checked with her supervisor. IMO the fact is when I said to Nikki, "That sounds great! I just want to be sure. I'd hate to show up for my cruise, and not be able to go", and she replied with "I spoke with my supervisor Dana who is well familiar with this", she could have said, something like, "Well not really", or, "kinda, maybe, sorta", etc. But that is not what she said. Would anyone have questioned her further, or should I have believed these two expert representatives? Should I have said are you, and your "supervisor who is well familiar with this" really, really, really sure, or purdy please with sugar on top, could you also check with your supervisors supervisor, or your supervisors supervisors supervisor, or the CEO? Come on! Would anyone else have done that?...even an experienced traveler/cheerleader, much less a first timer like me?! :rolleyes:
ejammer -- Like everyone else I am sorry you missed your cruise. I hope there is some restitution, however I believe there was a communications disconnect either between you and Nikki or between her and Dana in that the fact that it is a German birth certificate.
Like you, I was a military brat then served on active duty. However, a very small portion of the US population fits that description. Where you ask in your response above "And why would anyone (including Nikki and her experienced supervisor Dana) assume a person born in Germany would be issued a birth certificate from any other country other than Germany? Has anyone ever even heard of the U.S. military issuing their own birth certificates?", someone unfamiliar with the military could just as easily ask why the US Government does not issue a birth certificate. The answer is that they do - it is the "US State Dept. Consular Report of Birth Abroad" which is one of the allowed documents.
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You dont need to prove a point here. You need to prove a point with seattle. But really, military, and never been issued a passport? Get one. It's worth the expense. In the old days, you got a diplomatic one. Those disappeared after Iran.
I am not sure when the "old days" you are talking about were. During my service ('73 to '79) active duty did not need a passport while overseas as long as they were under orders. I had to get one to travel on leave between overseas stations, but could not get it until I returned to the US.
Most of these don't establish citizenship. But iirc, the DD214 does have a field where citizenship is listed (been a long time since I examined one). If so, that should have been sufficient.I just looked at my DD214 and couldn't find a citizenship field. Mine was issued in '79, so documents issued in other times may be different.
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Absolutely you can hook it up in an SC.
Here is a video of our cabin from a couple of years ago SC 4181 aft corner and in the video my ipad is hooked up to the tv playing music videos.
Sorry I'm not positive which cables I used but I am pretty sure it was the component dock connector. i travel with both component and composite and a set of barrel connectors (in case I have to use the existing dvd player cables as described above).
On the Eurodam I have been able to connect in VQ, SC & SB. We are cruising Eurodam again in November but will be in PS :) so pic may not help you.
Unfortunately saying "absolutely" is a bit misleading. The TV that is in your cabin may not match those in the cabins on either side, or even in the same cabin a week later. They are changed for various reasons -- and a non functioning TV (or anything else) may be replaced with another make and model. While not quite the same thing, on my last cruise the DVD player didn't work. They came in and replaced it, but it was noticeably a different model and had a different remote.
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I don't know if you saw my other note, but that thread seems to have disappeared.
You should still have my email -- please send me a note this evening.
Rich
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I happened to pick up a copy of last Saturday's (9/12/09) Atlanta Journal & Constitution and found that Air Canada has file suit against the US Dept of Transportation. It seems that some of Air Canada's sports charters fall afoul of the PVSA. Air Canada is trying to claim that each "season long charter" is one voyage with multiple stops overnight. The problem mostly seems to stem from the fact that they pick up passengers as they go along, and leave them as they wish -- so some passengers are transported between US cities without a "distant" foreign stop.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/09/11/financial/f125130D77.DTL
http://www.canada.com/sports/Canada+fighting+move+sports+charter+flights/1980775/story.html
Rich
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There's a local (Nashville) conservative syndicated talk show host by the name of Phil Valentine who's sponsoring a "Friends of Phil" Alaskan cruise this September. The advertising says the ship is "the Holland America" :D, so it could very well be the Westerdam. The advertising also mentions that a "special guest" may make an appearance. I wonder who that could be? ;)
Let's see...political conservative, Alaskan itinerary, stop in Juneau which happens to be the state capital. Well, I'll leave it up to you to figure it out, but I have my own hunch.
Roz
The Phil Valentine group is on the Amsterdam Sept 12th -- information is here
http://www.philvalentine.com/AlaskaCruise.htm
Rich
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Rich...
Is there a group booked for the Westerdam Alaska cruise Sept.20th?
Thanks.
I don't see anything -- any indication that there is?
Rich
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Hi Rich!
Any groups on the 8/17 sailing of the Noordam? (Eastern med).
Thanks!
Maggie
There is a small group centered around crocheting and knitting (see http://www.wa70.com/hdisplay.php) but they should not bother anyone and will most likely number under 100
rich
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I am completely LOST...maybe beacuse I am still stuck on the navigation deck of westerdam...just got off..
I need to find if there is a roll call for westerdam for Oct 18 2009 and where did the roll call go for Nov 29 2009...was gone 10 days and they have seemed to vanish...did I experience glacier hangover or are they really not on the roll call..please assist...somebody......anybody...:p
michelle.....thanks
Westerdam 10/18/09 --
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=879556
Can't find 11/29 Sorry
Rich
Hal pcc
in Holland America Line
Posted
I agree with lorekauf and daveokc. I book outside cabins and when I have looked at online TAs I have been quoted the same price as my PCC within a few (less than 50) dollars. None of the online TAs have offered any benefits.
I am on my third PCC, the first two left the company for various reasons. All have gone the extra mile for me. Today I was able to upgrade for a modest amount. I don't think a TA could do any better.
Rich