shawn742

I've won a $100 bundle once, followed by another person winning a $100 bundle less than 10 attempts after I won. In my experience, aside from being there at the right time to get a full-strength claw, the key is to pick the bundle up flat with two grips on (or slightly beneath) a long edge, and the other grip on (or slightly beneath) the opposite long edge of the bills. I've personally never seen anybody win by picking up the bundle vertically.

We were just on the Nieuw Statendam in a Vista Suite last week, with the same room configuration (4 guests).

The sofa had cabinets above it but was stuffed full of life jackets. You could always move these under the bed I suppose. No drawers under the sofa.

I don't think the pull-down bed could be used for storage, as it folds up flush with the pocket that it sits in. You would also need a room steward to unlock/lower it I believe.

1 hour ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

Excellent strategy! Sailing from there April 8th! Wonder if they'd notice beer lol.

If the box is shaped differently than those fridge boxes that sodas generally use, that may be a red flag. Try and see!

26 minutes ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

Thanks for reporting back. What port did you sail from?

Fort Lauderdale. I looked for the X-ray line that I assumed would care the least, based on how miserable they appeared 😅

I can provide updates on my recent sailing on the Nieuw Statendam.

• Blackjack:
  • The lowest table minimum was $6, and I also played at a $10 table that was adjacent to the $6 table.
  • The $6 and $10 table were 6:5 on BJ, and they used an 8-deck shoe that gets hand shuffled. They had the usual "Lucky Ladies" bet option, as well as a "Bust Bonus" bet option that I've never seen before.
  • I didn't see a $25 table, but also didn't walk to the other side of the pit to check.

• Craps:
  • One table, with a $5 minimum, and 2x odds on the pass line.

All of the table games were on the non-smoking side of the casino, which was nice. Dealers and Pit Bosses were all friendly, and even provided drinks on the house during the last couple days at the craps table during the late night. Craps had a lady who rolled for about 2 hours, and a guy who rolled for about an hour. Unfortunately I showed up on the tail end of each of these rolls, but the house was taken for >$10k on the 2-hour roll, and >$5k on the 1-hour roll. I personally didn't have much luck though.

Overall, the Casino was smaller than other cruise ships I've been on, but it operated just fine, and I enjoyed myself.

Update: I brought four 12-packs of soda in a carry-on luggage and security didn't even bother to open the luggage. As always, your milage may vary!

Cruise ship card counting is generally made unachievable by continuous shufflers, or 8 deck shoes that are cut about 3/4 in.

Craps has been hit and miss on the recent cruises I've been on. Generally the table is filled with the same people, and you don't get a lot of newbies leisurely joining in, so if you don't have a group of regulars, it won't be open. I only play in the evenings though, so I've been pretty lucky finding an open table.

Thank you for all the replies. Blackjack is secondary to craps for me, but I'm glad to hear about the low minimums for both 🙂

Does anyone know what the casino table minimums are, particularity for Craps and Blackjack? Also Craps odds if available?

I'll be sailing on the Nieuw Statendam, but I'll assume all HAL ships carry the same minimums.

Thanks!

I'll just bring a 12-pack of soda during embarkation, and if it gets confiscated, so be it.

Thank you all for the replies. Are the complimentary beverages on board the same as Carnival?

Hello! I was wondering if HAL allows you to bring on a 12-pack of soda per person, like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, etc. do?

Thanks for the replies everyone! It sounds like the entertainment is semi-lackluster compared to some of the cruises targeted at the younger demographic, but we'll get by. My wife also joined a FB group, and it seems like there will be a fair amount of kids being that this cruise sails during Spring Break for many.

I'm sure this question has been asked many times, but with Holland American being owned by Carnival LLC, is the food generally in-line with what Carnival serves, or is it a step up?

Greeting Cruise Critic!

This will be my first Holland America cruise. I just booked my family during Spring Break (11-Mar through 18-Mar) on the Nieuw Statedam out of Ft. Lauderdale. We're typically Royal Carribean or Carnival cruisers, but I booked this being that it was a great deal, with a Vista Suite being the same price as an Ocean View or worse on Carnival, and not really even in the ballpark of Royal Caribbean, for the same week and number of days. The itinerary is also great for kids (Nassau (blah), Amber Cove (so-so), Grand Turk (yeah!) and Half Moon Cay (yeah again!)).

Aside from the stops, I was wondering if my kids (or myself) will be bored out of their minds during sea days and evenings? I know that I'm well below the age demographic, as I'm 39, my wife is 33, and our kids are 7 & 6...and none of us particularly care for pickle ball 🙂. I usually hit the casino when everyone goes to bed, so I'll find some entertainment there.

Do the rooms have interactive TVs where we can watch movies and shows on demand? The newer Carnival and RC ships have this and my kids really enjoy it, but the older Carnival boats just have a few low quality tv stations, and a bunch of cruise line promotional stuff.

Any tips, good-to-knows, etc. for traveling with young kids on Holland would be much appreciated!

Nice review so far, I was on the same sailing.

For future reference, Sorobon Beach in Bonaire is decent, and only a $5 pp taxi ride each way. They have a restaurant and beach loungers for purchase ($10 each), but we normally just throw our stuff somewhere in the sand just outside of the field of beach loungers. The water directly in front of the beach is just so-so with a lot of protected sea grass, but you can walk out beyond the sea grass through a waist deep channel, and it's beautiful. They also have windsurfing equipment available for rental.

We've done this beach both times we visited Bonaire. As you mentioned, the taxi line can be a bit hectic, but they'll eventually get you there.

20 hours ago, 1kaper said:

I was on the Spirit for Thanksgiving and mine didn’t look like that. 
Not a great picture. I didn’t know what the round thing was. It was dark meat of the Turkey with spinach. (I thought the waiter said duck meat and Turkey with spinach 😂) 

 

I was on the same sailing and got the same dinner as you. The following night the server did mention that the MDR ran out of Turkey later in the evening on Thursday, so maybe the first picture was the result? 

A little fun fact. I booked one cruise ~1 week prior to the sail date. They weren't able to process my request in the short time frame, so they granted a "one-time courtesy refund" in the amount of the OBC to my credit card that I booked with.

The "rules" don't address this, but I believe the email used to claim the benefit is reviewed by a actual person. Assuming you have up to 3 weeks to wait for a reply, then another 3 weeks to have them process your claim, you could email and ask.

I always provide my most recent statement to eliminate any uncertainty.

Well, it appears that COVID helped to validate my originally query, that there is a much more vacation-friendly way to complete the muster drill. Look who's idea wasn't so bad after all 🙂

Got the free interior offer last Friday.

Called Sunday to book the Symphony in November. Added two kids for free with only port fees and expenses. Paid a modest $12 to upgrade to a neighborhood balcony guarantee!

Get this...an OV balcony upgrade would have been ~$1000, and to upgrade to an interior that would've fit 4 people was ~$500, crazy! We got really lucky with the neighborhood balcony guarantee upgrade for next to nothing. I think it's just hit and miss based on availability at the moment.

46 minutes ago, Snit13 said:

I will have a scooter on Harmony in November.  If a cabin on my deck had a scooter parked in the hallway how would I drive by?

It has been posted on CC that it is a fire violation as well as being rude to others.  On Enchantment I parked scooter in cabin day and night as the rules require.

 

To OP, hope your mother recovers enough to enjoy a cruise.  You can rent a transporter wheelchair which folds up and is easy to push around. 

Please see my last statement. I’m not condoning it, but there was plenty of room to pass in this particular section of the hallway.

There were 2 adjacent cabins on my cruise on the Harmony last week that often had 3-4 scooters parked in the hall periodically during the day and always overnight. Although I doubt it's allowed per the ships's rules, this part of the hall was wide enough where it didn't create an issue for other scooters or strollers to pass.

We went on a 7 day cruise last September with a 10 month old and 20 month old that turned into a 10-day cruise due to Hurricane Matthew re-routing us. It was on the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas, which is a little more open that Carnival boats, but my tips should still be applicable.

My tips are as follows:

•Definitely bring a stroller. Even better if the stroller has an area at the bottom that can hold accessories. Ours also reclined, which allowed the kids to fall asleep in it while we saw shows or hung out in public areas. I'd say for the most part, everyone (staff and guests alike) were very friendly and accommodating of us pushing around a stroller. We are courteous with it though, and don't use it as a battering ram.

•Grab boxes of cereal at breakfast and bagged chips (if available) to keep in the room, our kids liked to snack in between doing stuff.

•Whatever you think you need as far as diapers, clothes, etc...pack 25% extra.

•Dinner was always a struggle for us. On our next cruise, we're going to bring an iPad with movies loaded on it.

•Bring toys to keep in the room.

•As others mentioned, if you can afford a balcony, it's worth it. At the least, I'd get an ocean view.

Well, then they shouldn't serve drinks until after muster. Or, they should hold everyone in a waiting room on the pier until everyone has checked in and then let them all board at once. If it's not done at one time, it is not in any way similar to the real thing, and again, regardless of how much you may think the passengers and crew are panicking, everyone needs to have done "the real thing" at least once, why do you think there was a change in the requirement to have drill before sailing after the Concordia?

 

Here's an article about the Las Vegas hospital regarding the mass shooting this year:

 

https://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=46292497

 

The important section is:

 

Sklamberg said the ordeal, despite the hospital's imperfect response, proved to him that hyperrealistic emergency training for hospitals, police agencies and others ultimately pays off.

"Part of it (is) communitywide drills," Sklamberg said. "When you drill, drill like it's the real thing."

He said that in communities throughout the country, there is always a risk that states and counties wrestling with budget constraints will be tempted to skimp on, or totally cut out, interagency emergency preparedness training. Local governments should never give into that impulse, Sklamberg told KSL."

Every passenger should be taking muster drill as if it were the real thing, not some interruption of their boozing.

The cruise lines (or the powers that be) also relieved the requirement to physically bring your life jacket to the muster drill around your neck; presumably because it was a safety concern of people tripping over the cords dragging behind the passengers in front of them.

If they wanna make it "like the real thing", they'd have to do a fake drill at random in the middle of the cruise, and make passengers scramble back to their rooms to get life vests, then scramble back to their forgotten muster stations, all while trampling other passengers in process. I don't think that would make for much of an enjoyable vacation, but then again, "safety first?" :)

I don't personally think it would make much of a difference whether the drill was done while you board, or 30 minutes before you leave port...but then again, I'm no expert.