onelegcraig

On 9/16/2022 at 11:33 PM, BirdTravels said:

But it sounds like the poster was looking for things to complain about... "you had to ask for robes and extra towels"... the ship should have hired a mind reader to know when extra items are needed . Coffee dispensers in the buffet run out of coffee... sounds like just about every ship I been on. 

I'm very sorry if I sounded like I was looking for things to complain about.  We have traveled to many countries, and have had very few complaints, we tip well, and make a point to meet the staff and the locals. We travel with a wheelchair, so believe me when I say we pack our patience and sense of humor, as it is always needed.  We spent over $15k on this cruise,  which is at the top end of our vacation budget.  We did not meet the stateroom attendant till the third day, and that was only by accident, and communicated by sticky-notes on the mirror.  We were provided with two large towels, one hand towel and one face cloth, which in our opinion was insufficient.  We did receive more once we asked, so perhaps the cruise line is cutting back on linens in general.  The staff worked very hard, and we spoke to a few that were looking forward to the end of their contract, and were not planning on renewing.  Also, we spoke to a few guests who had the gratuities removed from their account, but we would never do this.

Also, given the fact that covid is still out there, it was surprising that the common areas (bathrooms/tables) were not kept clean and the buffet was self serve.  (HAL in May was staff serve only). 

I was only trying to say, the services were very different than what we experienced on our last POA cruise in 2018, but the costs were much more.

(BTW we travel to Cuba annually, we are Canadian, and the resorts there are not at capacity, and not fully staffed, however we did not notice much difference in service from pre-covid).

I hope you have a wonderful day, and blue skies and calm seas. 

On 9/16/2022 at 10:53 PM, Linsuesue said:

I hate to hear this! We are on the Pride of America in a couple of weeks. There is definitely a limited supply of specialty restaurants to experience. How full was the ship? Was it in the 40% - 50% range?

Some staff said 40%, others said 50%, so lets say 45%.  Pack your patience and sense of humor.

We just returned from POA.  Public restrooms were not clean, and looking at the posted cleaning records, they seem to be cleaned only 2 - 3 times/day!  Dining tables in buffet would sit dirty for quite a while, so sometimes there was lack of seating, unless you wanted to clean your own table.  They ran out of coffee every morning in the buffet, so when they finally got around to filling the machine, it would be a rush to get one before it ran out again.  Only 2 bars were open at a time, so the wait for drinks was long. The bar on deck 13 did not open the whole week, so if you were a smoker, or using the back pool area, there was a bit of a walk to the Ocean Drive Bar, which closed at 6pm everyday.  The bartenders and drink runners worked hard, but they are so short staffed, sometimes we would ask for canned beer instead of mixed drinks to make it easy for them.  Service in Cagney's and Jefferson's was good, but they were the only two specialty restaurants open for the week.  The service in Cadillac Diner was probably the best we found on the ship.  Our stateroom was kept clean (thanks Richard), but no nightly turn down service, and you have to ask for robes and extra towels.

We did this cruise for the itinerary, not the ship.  However, it was a huge difference in service and cleanliness from our HAL cruise in May.

We stayed at Aston Waikiki for 2 nights pre-cruise, and Hilton Hawaiian Garden for one night after.  We like the location better for Aston, but the hotel is showing it's age.  The Hilton is beautiful, but too big and busy for us, lots of walking, and the location on the strip is not the best.

We travel with only carry-on frequently.  Two weeks Alaska (land & sea), two weeks Hawaii, etc.  We pack for three days, plus one swimsuit, one lightweight dress (dress pants for hubby) and hiking sandals.  Roll clothes tightly.  We wear jeans and running shoes on the plane (black runners do double duty as 'dress shoes' in main dining room for hubby).  We wash out clothes every night in cabin and hang to dry overnight.  Mark's has the best travel clothes, no wrinkle, quick dry.  Except for meds, we do not bring any liquids, happy to use whatever soaps/shampoo/lotion etc the hotel/cruise ship has to offer.  We buy sunscreen at the destination, and leave it for room attendant to either use or toss out.

We stay at the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel.  Reasonable price and across the street from the beach.  You can get a city view or Diamond Head view cheaper than ocean front.  Subway and ABC store near by to save on food dollars.

There is a great playground (& ice cream) on the board walk.  You will want to take a stroller though.

We did the HoHo bus last week on a port stop.  It does stop at the cemetery, but we did not get off there.  It was a great way to get a feel of the town, although a little expensive.  We bought our tickets on shore and they billed it to our stateroom account.  Then we walked along the harbourfront for a couple of hours and went to the Maritime Museum, which was very interesting.

We just returned from a Montreal to Boston on HAL Zaandam.  Sydney was my favourite port stop.  We did a ship tour 'A taste of the Cabot Trail' which was about seven hours and included a very nice buffet lunch.  We usually try to avoid large bus tours but this one was exceptionally run.  We went as far as Neils Harbour then turned around and returned to the ship.   We would not have enjoyed the scenery as much if one of us was driving a rental car.   The locals were very happy to have the ships back in town.

I would not attempt the drive from Montreal to Niagara Falls.  The highway can be awful going through Toronto.  Try to find a flight from Montreal to Hamilton (or Toronto if you have to), then rent a car and stay in Niagara for a few days.  Visit Niagara on the Lake for pretty wineries and some history for two nights, and then one night in Niagara Falls Canada will be enough.  You can then take Niagara Airbus shuttle to Buffalo or Niagara Falls N.Y. airport to fly home, or head back to Toronto/Pearson airport.  Billy Bishop Airport on the Toronto Islands is another option but they may have limited flights.

BTW we just returned from the Zaandam Montreal to Boston.  Great cruise and itinerary.

21 minutes ago, princeton123211 said:

Thats a ship specific question-- some (mainly newer) ships can accommodate but many (mainly older or smaller ones) cannot or at least without some stairs. If you share the ship we might be able to offer some insight if someone has been on it before. 

HAL Zaandam.  We have been on that ship previously but have never had to tender.  (we have tendered off other ships in Caribbean & Hawaii with no issues)

Is the tender available for someone who uses crutches & a manual wheelchair (can go up & down a few steps).?

Anyone have experience of Springhill Suites by Marriott?

Thanks for the quick replies.  Guess we have to start watching the exchange rates (we are Canadian) and buy U.S. money again.  🙂

Sorry if this has already been asked and answered, I could not find it on these boards.  We have booked a 10 day Canada/New England/Newfoundland cruise for 2021 on the Rotterdam.  It begins in Boston and ends in Montreal.  All of the ports are Canadian except one.  Will on board purchases be in Canadian or U.S. currency?  When we give extra cash to stateroom attendant, waiter, etc , which currency would they rather receive?  Thank you.

So sorry if this has already been asked and answered.  We have been unable to find anything on the boards.  Is there a plant-based milk substitute available on the ships (oat, cashew, almond, soy)?  We would bring our own, but I don't think our room has a fridge.  Thank you in advance for any information.

Thank you for posting.  We will be in #3437 on lower promenade aft in February.  So excited.

Great review, thank you.

We have 'done' Alaska twice.  Great tour with Dave & the railroad on our first trip which included Skagway.  Second time the ship docked in Haines and we got married at the totem pole.  Haines is one of our favorite ports.  Skagway is much more touristy, Haines is more real Alaska.

I know as a resident of Ontario, our provincial health coverage is not valid in other provinces.  We need to buy 'out of country' insurance each time we go to Vancouver or Montreal.    We have found it best to buy an annual plan (from Costco I think) to cover those unexpected trips out of province as well as to the U.S. and beyond.

Couple pics of the train, and our first glimpse of Denali from the train.  We later got to see it up-close-and-personal from a small plane.

We have done Holland America Alaska twice with a wheelchair, first time cruise only - round trip Vancouver, second time land/sea (Triple Denali).  They were very accommodating to our needs.  The McKinley Explorer train had a lift to get to the dome car, all our hotel rooms were handicapped accessible (as we advised them of our needs in advance).  Our travel agent advised us to do the land portion first and cruise second, which was good advice.  The land portion is tiring (or we made it that way by trying to do and see everything 🙂. ) Then the cruise portion was a chance to relax.  With advance planning we were able to find tour operators that were able to work with our limitations.  My advice is to stay in Denali for as long as you can, it is beautiful.  We stayed at the McKinley Chalet Resort, and did a few excursions from there.  Our luggage was picked up and transferred for us to/from each hotel, which was a big help, and then magically appeared in our ship stateroom.

I sat in the garden talking to the cats 🐈, while my wife did the house tour.  She said it was very interesting, but would have been difficult even with my crutches, steep stairs and no elevator.  The gardens are beautiful though and the cats were friendly.

Thanks for the pictures (they really are worth a thousand words).  The streets remind me of Havana and Puerto Rico, not too wheelchair friendly.  Wife really wants to see Monkeys and Sloths on this trip.

We are starting to research ports for our February 2020 Panama Canal transit.  Any one have experience with Puntarenas Costa Rica.  I can use crutches for short distances and stairs, but being a one-leg amputee a manual wheelchair is used for distances.  (Other ports of concern are Corinto Nicaragua and Puerto Quetzel Guatemala.)  Thanks for any input/suggestions.

We have booked HAL Rotterdam for February 2020, Ft Lauderdale to San Diego. We chose this based on the promenade deck, which we really liked to be out on during both Alaska cruises, and the ports of call offered. Also, since we travel with a wheelchair, this itinerary only has one tendered port (the HAL private island). We also have never been to San Diego, so decided that would be a great place to spend a few days post-cruise.