Blackduck59

@foodsvcmgr I am not a huge fan of "exclusive" suite amenities and even less of a fan of "Ship within a ship". They are both ways for the Suite crowd to look down on the other passengers when they come out of their private enclave and take up prime space in the theatre for the shows or wander in to the dining room being all special. I like the set up HAL has now, pay for a Premium suite get a large premium cabin, priority boarding, and priority seating in the dining room. Of course there is also the lunches in Pinnacle grill. I would hope that any new builds or refits will NOT include "exclusive" suite restaurants or god forbid a "ship within a ship". I would suggest those that need those things should perhaps look at the luxury brands. Of course if they were to go there where everyone is "special" then there is nobody to look down on.

I'm trying to understand just exactly what this long post has to do with "new ships for HAL". It is just another slag HAL and promote any other line, often those with much higher prices. We get it you're pi**ed at HAL, and you feel that every other cruise line is miles better. Clearly the HAL product does not suit YOUR requirements, so let it go and move on to those premium brands that you so enjoy. Or you could apply for the job of CEO and drag this failing line into a new prosperity. I have no idea what HAL has in mind for new builds or the time line for making new orders; however I hope they are not any larger than the current "Pinnacle" class. I think that there is a market for smaller ships (not luxury line small) that can go to ports without tendering. We will have to see what the future brings but those people who enjoy what HAL has to offer will be around for some time to come. Some will be disgruntled and move on, others will move to HAL because the lines they used to enjoy aren't what they want now.

@Tampa Girl While your post is indeed amusing I'm not sure how helpful it is. When we booked our cruise about 18 months in advance we got the "Early Booking" HIA upgrade which included Gratuities, the Elite beverage package and enhanced wi-fi. We received some OBC because we booked on board through "future cruises". A few months later we decided to extend the cruise and to do that we chose to go down in stateroom category to make it more affordable. With the help of our most excellent TA we were able to book the extension, in the new cabin class (and the same cabin throughout the now 43 day voyage), we were also able to have the enhanced HIA for the full voyage, although we lost $100.00 of the OBC when we went from a signature suite to a veranda cabin. To the OP I'm afraid the answer to your question "has the HIA package changed?", no, although there is an "enhanced" version that has upgrades including "Crew Appreciation". How and when this version is available is a mystery to us the great unwashed. Perhaps the cruise you booked isn't selling well and they are adding the "enhanced" HIA package to boost sales.

I have been aware of the no tipping policy for some time. That is why in my posts I often refer to something as "included in the price" when others may say "free" or "complimentary". The funny thing about "gratuities" is you can at least withhold them if the service is bad. The optimist in me says the servers will be professional and all will be well.

@Bubbeh I'm afraid that it is mostly arrogance. "Look at me the valuable tourist" helping out your pitiful economy with my largess. And just to make more of a point I will buy your fealty with my "Universal" currency. We tip well in a restaurant with service, when the service is good. We have been known to tip low or not at all when we had poor service. Gratuities are unfortunately part of the culture in North America and getting more out of hand. We will NOT be "those tourists" trying to buy good service, we will be those Canadians expecting to be treated with resect, by our friendly server who we will give back that resect with please and thankyou. (It's the Canadian way eh)

Please do get with the program, if the guest removes the auto gratuities the name goes on a list. You will probably get the bare minimum of service. If this bare minimum meets your approval, you may give the person some token amount. Keep in mind that if that crew member does not turn in your cash gesture it is grounds for dismissal. People who remove the auto gratuities and then hand out cash thinking they are being big heroes are just making a pain in the a** for the crew. Better to leave the auto gratuities and keep your cash. Many people leave the gratuities in place and also give cash (which the crew member can then keep). So those that remove the auto gratuities, you be you, lucky thing for the poorly paid crew you are in the minority.

I'm not sure "Immune" is an appropriate term. I'm sure there are and will be plenty of American tourist who will be more than happy to try and buy servers with a fiver and expect instant service with a smile all day, no matter what rude things they may do. I am of course generalizing, and I guess there are Canadians that operate the same way.

I wish they would just be included in the price, there has been some discussions on other boards about this subject. Of course there are many differing opinions and rumours about the result of including the "crew appreciation" in the price. I'm afraid that the "tipping culture" has gotten out of hand in North America. The other day I got a "tip?" prompt at the liquor store. I recently saw an ad on TV for a cruise tthe audio said $899.00 plus tax. The graphic on screen showed $899.00 + $427.00 taxes and fees. I hate that, just tell the price.

I was going to ask you about that 😉

So I made a bit of a soup

My boss gave us some mussels We enjoyed the wine. I used a Chilean Pinot Gregio in the pot, quite drinkable but much less expensive than the bottle we drank.

Thanks Lyndon, I tried the front seat but between the barrier and the payment point mounted behind the seat, the front seat is all the way forward. So if you are in the back seat the barrier made it like the front seat was all the way back. Suffice to say I'm not going to want any compact car for a cab.

This is an interesting discussion. When we were on our most recent cruise to the east coast (Boston to Montreal). We had 2 absolutely terrible experiences with the cabs in Boston we ended up trying Uber for the first time. What a difference, The cabs were all crappy Toyota Corollas or Prius, the first Uber was a BMW M5, not once did we get a Corolla. We are more than happy to use cabs but, in our limited experience Uber has consistently better cars. If the standard for cabs in Australia is a Toyota Corolla or Prius then we will be using Uber, as far as tipping goes it's not part of the Australian culture and we won't be tipping anywhere,

Zaandam doesn't have a dual piano set up, it was and I assume still is a single piano in "Mix" and there is a piano in the Ocean Bar.

Yes they are, but even without the whole piano inside, that will be an awkward and heavy piece of furniture. Of course some clever cabinet maker could have made the case with a knock down assembly system like Ikea uses.

Because you seem to like bold font I will use it for you. You missed my point entirely, my post you quoted and disregarded was "how did the thread about music start a big back and forth about the friggin' casino. Does the C.L.I.A. have rules about the entertainment in "Billboard on Board"? After all this thread is about the change in format in Billboard on Board. Just sayin.

I thought that would be fun to do when we were planning the last 2 trips that got cancelled. of course it was not around race time and there would be no track, just the public roads. Of course this time the track will be set up and the drivers, crews and personalities will all be in Melbourne, We will be flying out the same day as FP1 and we will be boarding the ship in Auckland on race day. Who know maybe we'll stumble across someone by accident. Probably no current drivers but maybe Brundle or Hill or Button. I know Melbourne is a big city but it could happen.

It is a very short walk to the panning stream, it was fun and you are guaranteed to get a few flecks of gold. Wear shoes you don't mind getting messy. The salmon barbeque (cooked over an open wood fire on grates) is very good. We felt it was worth the price, and it is a fond memory for us.

On Zaandam the balconies start with "Vista Suite" which on any different line and even most of the HAL fleet would be a veranda cabin. One thing is that being a "suite" means you get the double "Mariner" points. We prefer a veranda cabin midships so for our Zaandam cruise that meant a "Vista Suite" I don't know the price difference, we don't look at that. We pick the cabin range we like and ask the price, if we feel the price is appropriate for what we chose then we make the reservation. Recently we chose to change from a Signature suite down to a veranda, by doing this we were able to change our 14 day cruise to a 43 day voyage and only doubled the price as well as eliminating the return air fare.

How did the billboard thread suddenly become a big conversation about casino "rules" and whose standards they use. There were grand casinos in Europe when Las Vegas was some desert town with dirt roads. I'm not sure why there seems to be the need to assume that Nevada sets the "standards" for the world. Considering the casinos on all cruise ships don't operate anywhere near Nevada, and most of them spend very little time in American waters.

@Bubbeh Thanks for the picture to clarify the Scotch Finger question. It's interest that the start of this thread showed up, complete with a photo of the B52 breakfast. I have been reading back at the beginning, this started right after everything was shut down and the optimistic among us thought that surely the plague would pass before our scheduled cruise in January of 2021. Well we know what happened there. Then of course plan 2 took shape and there was a road trip to visit new friends. Now plan 3 is a whole different road trip with more friends and the cruise portion of this adventure is longer than the whole trip was before. I haven't even got to trip 2 with the long road trip. Of course that has changed with new stops to visit @lyndarra in Lake Macquarie and @mr walker in Penrith, both places we hadn't planned to visit. We are looking forward to seeing these places that the average international tourist wouldn't see in their limited time available and the need to see all the "important" things we have all heard one "must see" in Australia. For us it's more about meeting people and seeing every day Australia. I think for the most part the road trip will remain the same from Canberra. Of course this time we have been fortunate that @Mareblu has offered to let us stay with her and Mario and also Bateman's Bay, we look forward to meeting them and seeing Canberra from a local's view. Of course we will be doing touristy things like the Zoo and P[era House, Museums and other things, but once again it is the Great Australian meet and greet tour now.

@gbenjo Hi Graham, I thought I should reach out and say hi. When we planned this trip before we were cruising on Celebrity Eclipse, and we were looking forward to meeting you at the cruise port. As it turns out the new plan is quite a bit different. We are cruising on Holland America Westerdam and it has gone from a 14 day Auckland to Sydney and it is now a 43 day Auckland to Seattle with a stop here in Victoria, we will arrange to get off here. We still want to meet you and wonder how we can make that happen. We arrive in Sydney on the 19th of February 2025 and have a few days there before we set off on our road trip. We also have a port stop (actually a turn around day because the cruise is a "collector" so technically a B2B. We will probably meet up with Julie and Rolf during that port stop. Hopefully we can get together, either during the time we have pre-cruise or during that port stop.

Now that it is complete we can use this excellent scale representation to research Sydney 😉

That sounds like something we have called a "twix" bar.

why does that sound like a rude gesture?