triiip42

Deck 1, atrium area for gallery...I think most auctions were held in Billboard area. but they were so loud you attended them(whether you wanted to or not) as far away as BB kings area. Everybody cleared out of Rolling Stones area during that time....

We were on R'dam In Jan and Feb 2023 and it was yes to both.

On 1/26/2023 at 7:26 PM, westcoastcruiser said:

She has moved a bit but we still see her on occasion.  She is kind, efficient and beautiful.  Will let her know of your hello.

she is currently hostess in Club Orange for 2 cruises and then goes home.

We just returned on Saturday from a 21 day Caribbean on Rotterdam...Our experience (YMMV) with the unlimited laundry was:

-pre-cruise price of $147($7 per day), we decided to wait till onboard to get it so as to use OBC for this. We did the On board unlimited, price was $147($7 per day)...... (per Bag price was $20 per bag)..

-This allowed us to pack less and just do laundry more frequently due to warm climate and alot of walking. To our surprise, we did about 13 or14 loads(full bags) of laundry for the $147...

-We requested two more laundry bags and papers from our room stewards on day one. We usually sent in two bags each time. Some with different requests but everything in each bag was to be done by that request so as to minimize confusion...

-We sent in some bags with no special requests as to temperature or drying....

-We sent in some bags with requests for regular wash but low or medium heat for drying....

-We sent in some bags with request for gentle or delicate cold wash and either low heat dry or air dry...

- We sent in some clothes that had a blue ink mark on a white shirt and some that had food/juice spill on it. We specifically wrote which clothes had these issues so they would know which ones...

- We never checked the boxes on the papers as to folding or hanging or pressing...

-We wrote our special requests on the space at the top of the paper...

-We took a picture of each laundry paper that we sent in....

Returned clothes: -Every item was either folded or on hangers appropriately...

-All stains or marks completely removed....

-Clothes had been pressed....

-All our special requests had been met as best as we could tell from the great condition of our clothes...

-Gentle washed and air dried clothes took an extra half day to return. But we had anticipated and planned for them to have it longer, ...

-most loads were returned the next day. We had planned for it to take about 2 days..

We were/are extremely pleased with the results and this gives us confidence with taking less clothes along and just planning for the laundry timing.

Each returned load had a note with the laundry persons name on it. We ensured that we put in good comments on the navigator "connect with us" comment feature for each person multiple times..

We missed this one but next trip will look into how to tip those people a little extra...

Long-winded but that about wraps this up from this cruise. Now we have to get over the fact that our laundry at home is not going to do itself. Oh well...🤪

Thank you for taking the time to review your cruise and share your thoughts. We board this Saturday and happen to be in deck 6 vista also.

On 12/31/2022 at 7:23 AM, jb008 said:

I'm sorry to sound like a salesman, I promise I'm not. But, the hero of this story continues to be the AirTag as I was able to tell a day early that there's no way the bag is getting to me as scheduled and that was the prompt that allowed the phone rep to push the depot staff that the bag is already late and in limbo.

I know you said this but you really should contact AirTag folks and sell them your story.🙂....Just look at how many people on this forum have said they are going to buy airtags just from your experience.

25 minutes ago, Torquer said:

Where exactly on the HAL website do you see the vaccination & testing requirements for a cruise in 2023?  For our cruise in February, I went to "Manage my booking" and don't see any obvious place to find it.  I did not try "Check-in", since I don't want to do that yet, so I guess it might be there

Go to HAL main web page...At the top are two lines about protocols....click on "look up protocols"...you will get a fill in form....fill it in if you want or I just click on the "here" link listed in the top paragraph of that page...it then pops up a list of cruises up thru April 2024...just find yours...then click on the standard or enhanced link to see the requirements...

great camera operator

It is one of the last pages in your HAL cruise booking "check-in" documents.  You cannot fill it in until 72 hours-ish before your embarkation.

We did NS in New England and Canada, B2B in Aug/Sept 2022. It was $9 per day unlimited or $30 for the bag for both/either leg(s) of the B2B..We did unlimited and we were charged the $9 per day.

Maybe because "England" is in the name of the cruise??

On our upcoming Caribbean on Rotterdam, the pre-cruise purchase for unlimited is the $7 per day price.

Either price it is still a great deal..

On 9/17/2022 at 12:13 PM, colin v said:

Just completed 21 days and our crew appreciation came out of our non refundable OBC. We had 11.10 left over. On the last evening we filled out a form to add that to our crew appreciation to zero out our OBC. 

 

 

Was there a name for that form? On N Statendam in Aug/Sep we asked, at GS, if we could fill a form or something so we could give our remaining non-refundable OBC to the crew appreciation. We were told we could not do that.🙃

Okay, for us another lesson learned yesterday in-regards to B2B accounting of cruise credits.

They posted our new credits yesterday for the 2 segments that finished last Saturday on N. Statendam. The first booking totals looked about what I was expecting. The second booking totals looked to be about 7 days less then I was thinking.

Called Mariner Society and asked about it. He politely explained that per the ships accounting we had spent all this money on the first segment but hardly anything on the second especially with no shore excursions. I said, whoa, rein that horse in a little bit cowboy. I politely read off to him all the SE we had done (thru HAL) and the OBC my DW was "forced" to spend each segment....He paused and then He put me on hold for about 10 minutes. Said his lead figured out that the accounting had placed nearly all our spending under the booking number for the first leg. Said they had seen this before and it would take a bit to sort it out. 

We had lost those extra points because you cannot earn more then the days of the cruise.

To my surprise, 50 minutes later  I received an email with the corrected statements. Double checked online and all is good. They most likely would never have questioned it if I had not called.

So make sure you have an idea of what you should earn and double check that it is applied correctly to both(or more) bookings. Actually this applies to any cruise not just B2B.

18 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

Thank you this! We will have $200 for each of our separately-booked B2B cruises, I believe all non-refundable. Must remember to spend it up! 

You are welcome. This almost got us because when I clarified with GS that we were doing B2B they said that everything in our account would transfer over to 2nd leg. I questioned that again with someone else and they clarified that nonrefundable vs refundable at the end of the segments. Since we had HIA and pre-paid crew appreciation, DW had nothing to do but go on a end of segment shopping spree...She managed to survive thru it..

You have to determine if you get value or not but we just finished two cruises both with the HIA drink package. we do not drink much and thought it would be a waste but to our surprise we really liked the package. It was very relaxing for us to get specialty coffees, dinner drinks, etc. we knew we would never get to 15.. I know it says, one drink at a time.

Our experience: We had the room stewards empty out the mini frig. in the room. We then went to a bar and asked for 4 cans of un-opened soda(2 on each card)..took those to the room. Then we got 4 bottles of unopened beer(2 per card) and took those to the room. We kept it stoked ourselves with the package. we could put more in if we wanted without buying the 5 beer pack or soda package. So in room we had want we wanted and the rest was available from any bar on the ship when we were out and about or at dining.

Can't help with the bottled wine...but iceman93 mentioned what several of the wine drinkers do.

Enjoy your cruise..

We just finished our first B2B. Our turn-around port was Quebec City. During the week We made it clear to Guest services that we wanted to get off first thing in the morning and explore town. So all our questions to them had to do with that. I have attached(I think) a copy of our In-Transit letter we received the day before turn around. The getting off in A.M. went smooth......The terminal activity was a zoo. Supposed to be a shuttle for in-transit explorers but no one knew what was going on, so(just be flexible) we hoofed it into town and spent the day. Upon return, the terminal staff we encountered were not sure what to do with us. But because of what we had read from other CC people, we explained about the little in-transit card and bypassing the lines. I even ended up showing them where we could go to get past the lines.LOL...then that was very smooth to get to ship...Actually the whole thing went okay just a few little bumps along the way.

Another thing to remember is that any non-refundable OBC will end at each cruise segment, only refundable OBC will carry over to your ongoing account.

After my third contact with HAL over this past year in regards to the tiles, this is my latest reply from them...Just an FYI, we are not losing any sleep over it but I was just checking with them again to see if it was really going to happen...

Thank you for your recent correspondence with Holland America Line. We apologize that an unexpected increase in email inquiries resulted in a delayed response time.

Thank you for your follow up correspondence regarding your delft tile from your September 2021 cruise. 

Due to the ongoing global supply chain issues we continue to experience, the shipment of tiles has still not arrived from our supplier and we currently do not have any inventory of our Delft tiles exclusively created for Holland America Line Mariners by the master craftsmen of Royal Goedewaagen in The Netherlands. 

The Nieuw Amsterdam has a list of all guest's names and addresses who did not receive their tile while onboard.  Once they receive the tile shipment from our supplier in Holland the they will mail your tiles to you.  

Unfortunately, with the number of tiles in backlog and due to extensive logistics challenges, we do not have an estimated time as to when that will be.  We sincerely apologize for the continued delay and we appreciate your patience.

Please let us know if you have any further questions, or visit us at www.hollandamerica.com. 

Thank you for contacting Holland America Line.

Kind Regards,

Shanon
Mariner Society
Holland America Line
800-547-9139
206-626-7359
Monday-Friday 8:00am – 5:00pm PST

Savor the Journey

We have been waiting since Sept 2021 for our N Amsterdam tiles(over a year). Contacted mariner society several times and always get the: the tiles will be made and mailed to NA people that are still waiting, supply issues.....We have seen on CC that there are others who have been waiting just as long..🙂

Just off the Nieuw Statendam, Aug 27th-Sept 17th.....They showed the Thursday Sept 15th NFL game on the Lido Poolside giant screen. I do not know if it was shown elsewhere or on other ships or if they will show every Thursday night game.

We board NS on Aug 27th for the east-side of Canada.

At this moment for us (as I understand it):

"Fully" vaccinated for Canada (and thus HAL) is our first two shots. This level of "vaccination' is required. It also puts us into the testing pool of 2 day before for Rapid Testing (or if you can get a PCR that quick).......

"Up to date" vaccination (Not required by Canada and thus not by HAL) is the "Fully" description plus all available boosters.....This then puts you into the testing pool of 72 hours before for PCR or the 2 day Rapid....

And as HAL says (covering all bases and telling you to be aware), some places around the globe could require either level of shots or none so be aware as it could impact where you want to go. And it can change at any time.

We are  on the NS on Aug 27th. and booked at the Hampton. Who did you use to get from the airport to the hotel?

On embarkation our intention, if weather cooperates, is to walk with our luggage to the terminal, is that doable there?

If they say they are available then I have no clue on that one.

2 hours ago, trtog7 said:

Is it possible to either print boarding passes from Navigator or email them to yourself so you can print them?

YES you can, this is how I do it in navigator...

Go to Nav home page...

under "Planning your cruise" click on "Check In"...

enter my booking number and my name and answer the security question...

It then opens whichever cruise i have called for...

I click on #2..."check in for your cruise"..I pick all guests...hit continue..

At the top of this next page it shows 7 icons for your check in process...The last one (supposed to look like paper) is your documents.....I click on it...this is the "summary and boarding pass" page....

now you can pick,,  print or email of either/ both your boarding pass and luggage tags...

Then hit send....

Hope it works for you....I do not find it easy to find my way around in there...😀

3 hours ago, terrydtx said:

I do not want metal canned water to drink, I see that we can buy a 6 bottle Acqua Panna spring water package from the HAL website.  Can this package be purchased once we board?

That's what we did on our Sept. 2021 cruise. Bought it with OBC as soon as we boarded. It was delivered to our room very quickly. Be aware that at that time, once you open the cap, they are not screw-on resealable caps. If you don't empty the bottle you need to have a snap on lid/cap if you want to put a partial  bottle in the frig..

If you don't want to refill from your bathroom sink, you can then either order more as you go thru them or just refill it in the lido(following the rules on filling water bottles)..

We also bring insulated plastic sports bottles for filling and going ashore.

They may have different lids now but that was our experience.

Would you mind sharing what hotel you are at and your thoughts on it and its location? We are going to be in Copenhagen in the future for a cruise and are gathering info.

TIA

2 hours ago, bbstx said:

I bought these night lights for my last cruise.  They sound similar to the ones WilloL described but smaller. They have magnets on the back that are quite strong.

So did you use them with the built-in magnet and not with the extra portable stick on magnet?