tunafish

5 minutes ago, kazu said:

Yes - didn’t do Morimoto but the fish offered is better IMO and cooked well.

 

Have been on Rotterdam and that ship could cook fish (transatlantic sailing) and several other fish aficionados agree with me.

 

Sailing on the Volendam and the fish has been with more choices and well prepared.  In fact, I just had rockfish tonight which I very much enjoyed.

Great! Thank you. Is Rudy's gone now as I do not see it on their website

As we have several HAL journeys lined up I was wondering if there is any improvement of seafood and fish availability since Mr. Marimoto was introduced to HAL brand? Do you see the difference?

I would book a specialty restaurant or something else. these are premade in the morning and usually look like a pre-packed sandwich from a supermarket. just my 0.02

On 4/23/2024 at 5:49 PM, jillhavens said:

Hi.  I am going on an Alaska cruise on the Eurodam in June. I am contemplating a whale watch - probably in Icy Strait Point, but maybe in Juneau.  I want to know if anyone can compare it to whale watches elsewhere.  I live in New England and have been on a dozen whale watches out of Provincetown and Boston. They have all been wonderful and I've always seen whales - sometimes more whales than other times. And sometimes much closer than others times.  These tours, even at full summer prices, never top $75.  It's hard for me to picture how a whale watch in Alaska at 2.5 or 3 times that price is worth it - particularly if it's not much different.  Does anyone have any thoughts on whether the experience will be all that different than whale watching in New England?

Thanks!

in my experience there is nothing special in AK as far as whales in comparison to MA. My MA trip was more "productive"

Vancouver is your best bet.

On 4/2/2024 at 9:33 AM, RedIguana said:

I think they were skirting the ban for a while by using Chinese processors. I believe the US closed that loophole back in December. So there may be excess stock still around, or another way they are skirting it. I have no clue what the EU or the Mediterranean area have in place, so Russian products may be available there. But my understanding was that a lot of the east coast crab was a product of Norway. I picked up six pounds last month on a grocery store promo at $14.99 lb. Not the giant legs I am used to, but still king.

in our Costco "Product of Russia" was right on the pack and boxes with crabs. All declaration of sanctions are nothing but politics and has very little with business. Even plane soarer parts and semiconductors are being imported with a single middle man. Cash talks

On 3/30/2024 at 8:02 PM, RedIguana said:

I would suspect it comes from Norway. The US has banned seafood imports from Russia, including King Crab.

costco sells russia caught crab so is other fish dept here in FL

do you guys know if it is possible to add or purchase trip protection after you booked the cruise? Also, do you know if someone else can go instead of you?

do you guys know if it is possible to add or purchase trip protection after you booked the cruise? Also, do you know if someone else can go instead of you?

Just off Grandure. Absolutely nothing to write home about. the only plus is size with less crowds and lines. Run down ship, very old furnishings, the only music venue is atrium and all cabins along that area will have a very loud boom-boom until 11p-12a. Windjammer is hot and humid. For me food was really non-existent, I was struggling to find something to eat each night but I know food is subjective but as an example all chicken dishes tasted the same. there is overcooked dry bird with lack of flavor. Even toast on breakfast in MDR is soggy and not crisp. all drapes had stains on them, ripped carpet, old and smelly furniture in the room. we had no cold water in shower, toilet flushing issues and lukewarm AC. Pool is tiny and murky with a film of sunblock and hair in it. 
I am writing all this and this was a comped cruise by a casino. I would be really upset should I pay a full price. 
She either needs to be sold to company which would refurbish it completely or become and artificial reef. RCCL can not age the ships.

4 hours ago, topnole said:

This tour has always been a maybe type of thing.  Been in two suites since December.  No invite to a tour.   Was in suites several years ago and we were invited most times, but not always.  Some they just didn’t do it.  
 

I think they have pretty much stopped doing the complementary version for suites guests since Covid.  Not so much a bait and switch and just bad information from someone IMO.  

well, it is still on their website, but I guess it means nothing

10 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

I'd like to do that tour ... but I don't want to pay that price.  

 

Back to your question though, I suspect they slipped in a little qualifying phrase like "on participating ships".  They probably covered their butts.  Still, I hope you get the tour you wanted. 

Their butt is covered solid. But based on this phrase they can cancel pretty much any perk they offer. It is just like a banner in a bar "Free beer and wings tomorrow". 

5 minutes ago, shof515 said:

it seems like that agent was suppose to gift you the 149 tour but forgot. was this a royal agent or  a travel agency agent? 

it is part of the suite perk. Grand suite and up list it as an amenity

I had a casino offer for a JS for a short carib cruise on Independence. Upon booking the agent offered a GS upgrade that we took. Will be sailing in GS for the first time. One of the upsell points was a bridge and gulley tour that is included with GS perks... or so I thought. Couple days ago concierge desk emails a generic letter checking in. I replied with a question on how to book this tour. His reply "sorry, we do not do this on this ship, but I will be happy to book you a $149pp tour for 3 of you and I can even give you a discount". Emailed him back with perks, he replies with a fine print that not everything listed is guaranteed and can change in any time. When I told him it was a selling point during the upgrade he replied that he needs a audio recording of the call to rectify the issue.

I feel like I deal with Barcelona gipsy scammers and not a reputable company. What may not be available in visiting the bridge? No resources needed for this, yet tour is available for extra $450. Had to downgrade two offers already with no compensation because JS are not available to book but available for an upgrade $$$. Sad.

1 minute ago, zitsky said:

You call them law snakes but I would say they can provide an important function in this case.

the short answer is "no". They drive cost of medical care up, providers are forced to practice "cover your ass" medicine instead of common sense evidence based approach and cost of malpractice insurance goes to the sky, again ultimately hurting the patient. 

22 hours ago, BSinPNS said:

Your treatment was good compared to what we observed on Holland America a few years ago.  Our guide in Spanish Morocco directed all passengers to get their passports out as we were going to cross a border.  One pax stood up to get her purse from the overhead bin as the driver made an emergency stop propelling the woman forward and into the front window of the bus.  The HAL rep on board insisted we return to the ship.  (The guide wanted to continue.)  On arrival at the ship, medical met her pier side and refused to let her reboard as the incident was the responsibility of the tour vendor.  She was transported the local hospital and then flown to Spain for treatment.  She was able to rejoin us a day or two later.  I am not sure if the fact that it was head trauma made any difference or not.  So much for the ship taking care of you.    

That's really not a very smart statement. This type of injury requires cervical spine clearance as well as ruling out intracranial bleed the likelihood of which determined by mechanism of injury plus personal medical history including meds this person is taking i.e. blood thinners for example. This is a routine and simple workup but needs a CT scanner that ship does not have. There would be a line of lawyers willing to take a case if there is a bad outcome in this situation on board the ship. There is no justification ship doc could offer to the law snakes as to why he/she decided to board a person when the ship was in port with facilities available for transfer

On 4/28/2023 at 4:19 PM, alfaeric said:

Cold is relative. We’ve been here 4 times since December, and it’s warm to hot to us. And the cool water feels really good when it’s in the 80’s.  It’s why winter is our cruising season. 
 

Hotter than 85 would be pretty miserable. 

I was talking more about water temperature. The pool there is not heated, so there is no escape. While the 72-74 water is swimmable it is not pleasant by any stretch of imagination, I know it is as good as it gets for NJ or CA, but still. Add wind to the equation... but what do I know, I live in Florida

19 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Yeah, but $500 room charge has a $25 service charge. The ATM will charge you $7 service charge. 

not if you are prime which is just 2500 points

1 minute ago, topnole said:

Agree on places like the Greek Isles.   Perfect for cruising.  Stops they call Rome, Florence, etc, not so much.   Too far from the ports and way too much time needed.   

To call port a Civitaveccia a "Rome" is just WRONG. I agree 100%. 2 hours at least just to get to Termini station

The location of CC is the problem - it is cold most of the winter and early spring. The pool is not heated and the beach is manmade leaving those nasty sharp pebbles of limestone you constantly step on. also entire area is guarded by those guys on jetskis that are pretty much "snorkel ***"

12 hours ago, topnole said:

Respectfully, cruising is a very poor way to explore countries and cities.  Particularly in Europe.  Yes it is an easy way to do it, but you do t really get to see

or experience much at any given place. 
The are a few exceptions (such as right ver cruising), but cruising is simply not ever going to be anything more

than a way to scout out a city you might want to explore more by visiting later via land based trip.  

I think it is just different way. It also depends on what and how you do it in ports. If you do everything DIY, rent cars or go around - it can be an awesome way and a very productive way because you can sleep while moving to your new adventure. Just think of Greek islands logistics. How much time would you kill in ferry going to santorini or mykonos. Dragging your luggage to the hotel and such. Also there is nothing to do to occupy even 5 days

2 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

One thing to note that I didn't know until my last cruise was that if you are getting cash at a machine through a room charge but then subsequently don't play machines with but instead only play table games you can't go back to the machine for a second round of cash through the machine room charge.  I was told by the Casino host that you have to play at least 50% of what you charged to your room before they the system will let you charge any more money.  So if your intent is to mostly play table games take out as much as you might think you need for the entire cruise.  Otherwise you are at the mercy of the 5% they charge when they charge while sitting at the table.  

interesting... I saw that practice before on a different cruise line but last week I needed $400 for a port stop and got in out of the slot machine and did not see any restriction on the subsequent room charge attempt. but in any case, you for sure can use slot machine as am ATM machine at least once or twice

unless you are PRIME with the casino there will be a 5% service fee for such transactions (100% sure for tables, not sure on slots). But once you are prime the transaction is free and if you have some cashback on your card you already have an advantage (kinda joking)

there is no dress code. I don't know, apart from wet swim suite and bathrobe over naked body maybe

Since ship docs are pretty much an ER doc, the scope of help would be similar: we would treat bleeding, possible infection and pain... The goal is to stabilize the patient until seen by a specialist