Juanita462

We have only been offered an upsell once and it was in a poor location so we

didn't take it. Never been offered an upgrade in over 500 days of cruising with HAL but our friends, on their very first cruise with them were upgraded, free of charge, from an inside cabin to a balcony. that really bothered me - why upgrade people who paid the least rather than those who paid a lot more.

Our experience with gluten free on HAL - they told us to have the forms in

60 days prior to the cruise but imagine 30 should do it. Bread - was not good, pancakes and waffles were excellent - the dining room steward would give us the next day's menu after dinner - we had to fill out our choices and turn it in to the dining room before 10 a.m. the next day.

It was not always possible to get certain items gluten free because of cross

contamination but we did pretty well just the same - if I was in doubt about a dish I would just order baked potato and steamed vegetables.

Desserts were a problem and we usually ended up with a hot fudge sundae or a fruit plate.

Because of some digestive issues we suspected that some filler was added to

some of the food and not sure what it was but could be cellulose or something

like that. It is too bad that they don't bring a more palatable bread onboard and some Udi's cookies would be great for a snack. and some gluten free crackers would be nice.

Still, they do handle it as well as they can given the number of people to be fed and other diets to cater to. It doesn't stop us from cruising.

One good outcome is that we usually lose a few pounds during a cruise - no matter how long it is!

I can sure relate to this situation - but in my case, on a grand cruise and doing a bus tour when a woman a couple of seats behind us coughed constantly into the air without bothering to cover her mouth. I came down with the virus and lost a month of our cruise and also had to pay $150 in doctor and medicine bills. Now I never forget to pack my medical masks and take them with me on cruises and tours and don't hesitate to wear them if some clueless person is not considerate of other passengers.

For the noro outbreaks I take plastic or rubber gloves and wear them rather than handle the railings with my bare hands. we have cruised over 500 days and on many ships with noro but never had it - thank goodness!

We have done a Grand World Cruise and 2 grand cruises - but no survey

here either. Strange but perhaps it is because we have a 50 day cruise

booked for the fall.

I once asked a woman who cleaned the public washrooms about this - and her

answer was " we all have managers who get the best deal they can for us and a contract - what we get is what is written in the contract - period.

We started our travelling with bus tours - all we could afford at the time - went all over North America and then Europe - but a relative invited us to go on a cruise with them and we thought "why not" and booked a Panama one.

Well, I could have danced down the halls - it was amazing and we were

hooked on cruising and Holland America. No cooking, cleaning or chores - someone else to do all that - perfect. Lots to see and do every day. Never looked back and now have over 500 days of cruising and hope for many more.

this has happened to us so many times - even when we go down the last night

and get a copy of the bill to make sure there are no mistakes.

One thing we saw all the time was minibar charges - they would bring in a bottle of water and charge for it even though we were off the ship - once they charged for the laundry bag! When we disputed it the woman was quite sarcastic and said we put it in our suitcase by mistake. we do not take items from hotels or ships - ever!

What actually happened was that the passenger that was in our cabin before us died and they didn't clear it out - his suitcase was even under the bed and there was no laundry bag in the room - we assumed that he sent out a bag of laundry but of course it was never processed - at least that is what we think happened. that suitcase was so heavy that even the room steward had to drag it out of the room - wonder what he packed that weighed that much. Am sure it exceeded the airline allowance. and why didn't the room steward notice the suitcase when changing the bed - or vacuuming - mysterious.

We had problems on the Amsterdam and went to see Krystal Mensink and she gave us a choice of 3 cabins for a move - and provided help for the move - problem solved. the front desk did nothing for us so now we take any problems right to the hotel manager or the customer relations person. Krystal and Henk have been very good and we are always glad when they are onboard.

We would be furious if they ignored our booking and dumped us into another cabin and didn't provide the things ordered. We started cruising with HAL in

2002 and notice a huge difference in quality of service and treatment of

passengers since then.

thanks everyone!

Good advice - forgot about the tour costs and they do mount up.

We did the 2012 world cruise and met so many wonderful people and found that everything was so much better - lectures, entertainment,. etc.

and yes, have met some of the crew on other cruises and it is like seeing

friends again.

Guess we had better get busy and book our cabin!

thinking about booking the 2016 World Cruise - what are the chances

of getting a decent cabin if we wait for the better price after final

payment?

Or is there a better price then? So far that has been our experience for other cruises - a drop in the price after final payment.

Any info greatly appreciated - that is a whopping big cost for this cruise!

we don't sail on the Veendam anymore since they took the wrap around deck away from the majority of passengers and gave it to the lanai cabin folks.

last time we sailed on her we sat at the back and stared at a wall of metal instead of the sea - the deckhands refused to bring out chairs so that we could at least sit in between their designated chairs, and we never saw anyone walking round the deck as they do in other ships.

there is a long cruise next Sept out of Seattle which goes down the coast to San Francisco and then to San Diego and out to Hawaii and then Tahiti etc.

It is 50 days. We were all disappointed when they took the Zaandam off the annual cruise to Hawaii out of Vancouver and back.

It would be nice to have more cruises out of our area and not just to Alaska.

Pathfineress

the captain was PJ van Maurik

think that is the spelling - but a fine gentleman who put on an exceptional

lunch for medallion mariners.

We sailed on the Zaandam when we reached our 500 days status.

It was really different as there were only 8 of us receiving medallions.

We had lunch with the captain, hotel manager and cruise director - in the Pinnacle Grill - I didn't know food that good was ever served aboard ship - it was exceptional. The meal was informal and friendly with lots of conversation and jokes - it was the highlight of the cruise and after the meal each couple had their pictures taken separately with the captain and hotel manager and then received 2 free copies plus our medallion of course. It was the best celebration of receiving a medallion that we ever experienced.

Hats off to the captain and hotel manager on the Zaandam who really know how to make guests feel special!

OTOW guy

Wow! Never thought of that - tallied it all up and you are absolutely right.

May rethink this one and look at something else. Lots of time before

final payment is due. Being used to the amenities we didn't have to think

about the extra charges but they are high.

thank you - excellent information and I would rather get a good price on

the cruise rather than OBC anyway. what I will miss is the free shipped luggage - checked with luggage forward and it would cost about $500 return per case to ship from here - so not worth it.

Just wondered as all the long cruises we took were labelled "Grand" with nice

perks. Am hoping that everything else will be up to the standard that we are used to when sailing on the Amsterdam.

Has anyone booked the Amsterdam Hawaii/Tahiti 50 day cruise for next year - Sept to Nov - and knows why they removed the Grand cruise designation?

I see all kinds of Grand cruises in the Med - 7 days - 14 days etc. so why

no Grand designation on this cruise? and no benefits whatsoever - no SBC,

amenities or anything. It is unusual to not get at least SBC for these long

cruises. Our Ta just said that they weren't offering any amenities ' "yet" does that mean they will be offered after final payment date?

We did some volunteer work in Lima one year and the local people arranged a trip to Machu Picchu through local travel agents - it was 2 flights, 2 nights hotel in Cuzco and the train trip to the site and a full day on Machu Picchu - all for $300. We did pay for our own meals. I was astonished at the cost of this trip through HAL. It would be more now, but not that much more!

A word of warning - do check with your doctor about altitude sickness before taking this tour - it is common up there and I had the worst headache of my life which even oxygen at the airport didn't help. The locals have some medication that does help but we could never find out what it was - it did help DH but my headache came on at the airport and the locals were gone.

I believe that Cuzco is at about 11,000 feet - we took a bus tour that went up to 14,000 feet and it was spectacular.

We did a cruise to Alaska in September and the embarkation took forever as they only had 2 US customs officers for processing the 3 ships going out that day. The lineups were horrendous. coming back we only had to go through the Cdn customs and it was a breeze - several officers on duty and no long line-ups - 3 or 4 minutes and on our way.

So we assumed that there were cutbacks - one of the local HAL workers said it was making a nightmare of embarkation for them.

Now, when we came back from our world cruise into Fort Lauderdale we were so thankfull that we had booked afternoon flights!

We are also disappointed in the entertainment on our last few cruises - it used to be so good but now it is hardly worth listening time.

Have booked a 50 day cruise for a year from now and then found out that they have even removed the grand cruise designation so there are no amenities. So disappointing and perhaps we will rethink this one - when we wrote to headquarters about it they said that the powers that be decided to do this - of course, having no amenities is a big saving for them - no shipboard credit, no free shipped luggage, no gifts, no special events with costumes and decorations etc. and no special entertainment.

Maybe it is time to make a change - don't want to spend 50 days with nothing much to do and no decent entertainment or anything to make it special.

Oh for the good old days of cruising with HAL - the Rosario Strings, the Texas tenors, The Australian tenors, the wonderful instrumemtalists, comedians, jugglers, magicians, singers. the fun games and contests and getting to know people through them - the cheapening of the prizes - plastic pins? ugh!

most of the above - but also throw in some plastic gloves in case the dreaded noro hits and electrolytes and masks, and ginger capsules, and a tooth repair kit available at the drugstore to temporarily fill the space if a filling falls out or to glue a crown back on - a pack of the antibiotic that is safe for us to use,

a tenser bandage for knees or ankles in case of a fall, wrist bands for sea sickness, and a general first aid kit for cuts etc.

I mention the masks because on one cruise we were on a tour and one woman coughed into the air through the whole tour and I picked up the virus and lost a month of my cruise enjoyment and paid quite a bit for the meds - I never travel without them now and keep them with me when touring and don't hesitate to wear them when needed.

We have had some issues with the laundry, one item totally ruined - 2 pairs of slacks with double creases, broken buttons on shirts, bra totally ruined but replaced, so I went out and bought all dark underwear and socks for the both of us and have had no trouble since with them - we don't send slacks anymore and make sure the shirts and t-shirts are all the same types of colours - we also ask for cold water wash and have had far less problems with

things since then.

the worst thing I think was when my favourite pink t-shirt came back with 5 blue fingerprints on it - have no idea how they could have got there - maybe from staff handling blueing, but thought that wasn't in use anymore - anyway, they never came out and now it is my gardening shirt and makes me smile every time I wear it and remember that cruise.

We booked an Alaska cruise this past September for 1079 - not long after booking the cruise went on sale for 733 - we checked with our Ta and she said that we couldn't have the sale price - we checked with HAL and they said that the Ta would not "break" their contract with HAL to give us the benefit of the sale. We were not happy - especially when the TA offered us another cabin at the sale price but would lose all the amenities and not have a refund on the original cabin - what! pay for 2 cabins, lose the amenities? What was she thinking.

I never cruise without my "sea bands" and have sailed in 32 foot waves on the Tasman Sea and crossed Drake passage in seas so rough that the dishes were sliding off the table in the Lido. Never had a moment's queasiness.

I do take ginger capsules with me too though, just in case. Our daughter and granddaughter had severe motion sickness and this is what helped them.

We were in a cabin further down but a warning about cabins on the Port side

Our window had plexiglass over it and we wondered why - well, we found out as every port day that they refueled the ship there were fumes in our cabin all day - I suspect the plexiglass was to keep them out but it did not. We complained and an engineer came to check it out and at first said he didn't smell anything but after a few minutes he said "I've got to get out of here"

so we had to spend every refueling day out of the cabin - they did offer us a cabin right at the front of the ship - oh right! crossing the Atlantic at the front with the up and down motion - a recipe for sea sickness. then one added on cabin at the back of the ship with walls so thin that the tv next door sounded as though it was right in the room, and no privacy with people being able to look in as they walked by.

I think the plexiglass was from about midway to the back but worth checking out first. If I booked on the Prinsendam again I would book starboard.

We get the unlimited laundry because of number of days cruised - but one warning - if you are sending slacks to be laundered you may get them back with a double crease - happened to me, DH and a friend of ours - that was 10 years ago and the double crease never came out - from my best slacks to my gardening pants in one blow. Last cruise they put a crease in the facing on my blouse - it will not come out no matter what I do.

Next time I think I will march down to head of housekeeping and ask them to remove the creases professionally. We never send our slacks to the laundry anymore which is a pain but not worth the risk.