cruisingrob21

the trick with vancouver is board around 2pm. No lines. The area around canada place is nice to spend a few hours in.

Other vista class drydocks are usually in the 9-11 day range. So 3 -5 more days could be a lot of additional time.

Note that on the Pinnacle class ships its possible to get food someplace nearly the entire day. On all other ships the 10am to 11ish is the main time when there isn't grab and go food available (Dive In and NY pizza doesn't open until 11ish if I recall)

The ships are much more similar than different. The main pro for the NA is more food options and a second defacto observation lounge (tamarind bar). Pros for the Noordam is the Explorations Cafe which is down on deck 3 which serves as a second area for reading/games etc (with a coffee bar and small snack case) and a few hundred fewer passengers.

Deck 2 aft has a small outdoor area with stairs up to deck 3. While the deck 2 aft area is just as scenic as deck 3 (and kind of a secret). It can be pretty noisy from the wake of the ship while underway. It's still a great spot to enjoy the scenery.

It still has Northern Lights and supposedly the most desirable exploration lounge configuration of the vista class. I'm guessing those will be adjusted and "the library" on will be put in the area somewhere. Sailing on the Noordam in April and it sure seems to be the "phantom sister" of the vista class - few reviews and posts on her and only a handful of videos of her on youtube after covid.

Been on all the classes of HAL ships. R class ships are probably the least crowded in all scenarios (maybe during peak meal times in the buffet, or on deck when its sunny, or embarkation/disembarkation in a port), but they are also smaller than other the other classes. The vista class ships occasionally have crowds and the signature ships may feel a smidge more crowded than vista. The Pinnacle ships seem to handle their crowds a bit better than the vista/signature, but there are more people for not that much bigger of ship. Overall, you'll find HAL ships are less crowded in most instances. Part of that is there are less activity "magnets' during the day and nights. Another way to look at it is that Princess, X, and RC all have a few large venues for events. HAL has a large stage on most ships, and a secondary performance lounge and that's generally it - there are many more "independent activity" areas on board that seem to pull some crowds away.

Yes, travel agents got this news via email today. It came near the bottom of the weekly email blast with news and updates. HAL did the same thing when they raised gratuities....all the way down at the bottom of the email. I hated the wording of this which amounts to "price increase, but not if you buy the more expensive bundle!" I really hope that they offer a "lite" version of this package eventually. I think it would actually sell better if say they only offered beer and wine or a non alcoholic version.

Disney announced that to keep your status you will have to cruise every 5 years. If that catches the wind I could see other cruise lines following suite, if only for upper tiers. Alternatively, Princess continues to water down benefits, so that's another way for them to cut costs I suppose.

While the more affluent ports tend to have higher port charges, there have been rumors that the cruise lines sometimes do pad the port charges with their own "fees". Certainly the panama canal is not really a port but it does have charges, which have gone up considerably in the last 20 years for vessels to transit it. Based on anecdotal stories, various harbor pilots charge exorbitant rates, but it's the price to visit a specific port I suppose. There are theories that cruise lines are also padding those fees somewhat it might be true. We have occasionally noticed an on board credit "refund" for port charges and fees even though there was no change to the itinerary. Makes you wonder if the cruise lines estimate the charges and if it's calculated after the ship leaves and is less, the cruise line then gets a credit. It's hard to say since there is no explicit breakdown of those port charges

Thank you for posting - because of this info I've got plenty of time to change to another voyage to avoid a group. Certain ones do tend to monopolize the crows nest and other venues from time to time which is inconvenient at best, quite frustrating at worst.

Yeah but the price is higher for sure, and their latest "upgrade" to Princess Plus was effectively making previously gratis items extra for folks who didn't pay for the promotion - mainly making Alfredos sit-down pizzeria an extra charge, eliminating the ability to get the medallion sent before the voyage to board quicker, and making the medallion "order now" feature an extra cost along with most room service. This would be akin to if HAL made NY Pizza and Dive-In an extra cost to those without the Have it all promo (among other potential examples). But I agree, getting the gratuities included is a nice touch.

At some point the value proposition of these packages starts getting really lean - you have to drink a lot to make it worth it, more than most people's liver can or should handle over 7-14 days for most (for alcohol drinkers). For coffee and or soda drinkers, you have to drink even more, probably also not healthy, unless its tea or carbonated water.

It could be. There were a lot of musicians boarding in San Diego as I disembarked. I thought that maybe the Rolling Stone group had 2 groups, but there were at least 30 musicians all heading toward the ship as I left the terminal.

There are a lot of shore based contractors onboard the Kdam in San Diego today. Some large cranes are preparing to hoist some crates onboard near the aft pool; the whole area is closed off to passengers

Kdam cruisers, just noticed tonight that the lights around the sea view pool were removed this afternoon. Not sure if it's temporary(for cleaning or something) or for something new. They will need to put something there because right now it's just wires hanging out. They also removed a steel lattice that was over the red box in the photo below where you can also see the wires around the pool.

No need to rush - lots to see in Vancouver. Whenever I go I either head over to Stanley Park or take the Seabus to North Vancouver/Lonsdale Quay which offers a spectacular view of downtown, your ship, and a few photobombing tankers. I'll head back after lunch somewhere and be at the terminal around 130 or 2, depending on departure time. Usually by then there is a very small line, if any.

right, but given the prices it seems like its not selling well.

Oct 24th Koningsdam (K373), plenty of available cabins and categories (which may be misleading), but more importantly, pricing has dropped to 99 per person for a 4 day cruise (flash fare), and even the standard "advantage" fares have dropped twice since final payment. And this voyage is sold as part of a longer one so I'm sure there is some cabins held back for the 11 day voyage (coastal+mexico) as well. I've had 2 upsell emails The voyage was originally supposed to stop in Avalon (where HAL seems to but putting a lot more emphasis on than in years past) but it was switched a few months back to Astoria.

typically, yes

A dumb question, but if I have a early time (1040am) for a clearly undersold coastal cruise, is there any point to showing up at that time? Not likely my cabin will be ready and there are some breweries in the embarkation port that don't open up until noon 🍺

I think this is on the Ruby - looks like new carpet coming in (or maybe old carpet being removed). Not an easy job for these hard working folks with Xaler. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyEREMHJZlh/

I think the Majestic had the best use for this space - originally it was a high limits area when she was stationed in Asia, but other than some additional machines and tables, most of the area is a really nice sports bar area with a few different tvs showing the few sports they get via satellite. The Royal has a similar set up, but the Majestic does the best version of this. A sports bar is something that I think a lot of the Princess ships are missing, and the casino bar isn't the most comfortable place to watch sports.

And sometimes they will give you an upgrade regardless of your preference - but that's pretty unlikely. Unlike Princess, you can't mark a willingness to accept an upgrade only to the next type of cabin (ie Oceanview to Verandah, etc).

The Noordam sailed into SF just now