robotpony

We did a 2 week Caribbean B2B in November/December that ran over the US Thanksgiving holiday on the NS, and as Canadians we forgot how big a deal Thanksgiving is for y'all. The holiday week was busy (2900+, lots of families, kids, etc.), and the following week was more manageable (~2600). The Lido pool was too busy the first week to use, except later in the day. It was fine the second week. The Lido market was doable outside of prime hours both weeks, but much better the second week. The main dining room was slower the first week but decent enough, and fine the second week. Speciality dining was fine both weeks, but much more booked the first week. Nami sushi wasn't busy either week (and we ate there when we wanted some quiet). The Retreat area was fantastic both weeks, and similarly quiet both weeks. Disembarkation was a bit busier the first week, but didn't get in our way either week. We were able to eat at all of the fun venues (Dutch, Dive in, etc.) both weeks. Music venues and shows were fine too. A busier week is not our ideal, so we also will be avoiding it in the future. But, for the right itinerary we would be fine with a busy ship.

This can go both ways too; sailing the smaller ships can make it difficult to go back to the larger ships, depending on what you're looking for and the itinerary. We like each class of ship for different reasons and in different regions (cozier Vista or R-class on speciality itineraries, for example).

You're right that drinking is less invasive to personal space. And while I also do not enjoy second hand smoke, the impact on me personally is small enough to fit it in the category of to-each-their-own. I have only noticed faint smoke around the Pinnacle class ships a few times, but at best it has been a minor annoyance. It's never been bad enough to trigger my asthma, which I use as my personal boundary of discomfort. As for the annoyance part, I'm annoyed by many intersections of freedoms and humans, and have made peace with most of those things too 😆

I'll never be a fan of smoking areas, but it's a trade-off of freedoms: the right for people who enjoy it versus the slight inconvenience it causes me. And this is from someone who suffers from severe asthma, who grew up in an era where smoking was much more common than it is now. My experience on HA so far has not been significantly impacted by people smoking, though I have noticed it. It's funny to think about drinking under the same lens, which is very roughly as bad for folks as smoking. There are certainly several drinking venues around the ship, and you even occasionally see the side effects of drinking; slurred words, bad jokes, the smell of alcohol, and occasional behavioural issues. I enjoy a few drinks on a cruise, and I'm glad for that freedom. I'll do my best to minimize the impact on others, but some personal enjoyment is good for us.

Our first "free" cruise experience ended up feeling more positive for us, but we expected to pay for HIA and any other upgrades we made. We received a "free" cruise in August 2022 that we booked for September 2023. With taxes/port fees, a cabin upgrade and HIA the 11 day European cruise was around $4200 (CAD), plus flights, hotels, and such. This seemed like a good value for us, so we were happy with it!

Assuming you're from the US! Roaming for Canadians in Alaska is pretty reasonably priced for most providers (CAD$7-12/day), and this worked well for us last August. WIFI was adequate for email, some messaging, instagram, and Facebook (the mid tier). Some of the time it was unavailable, and it was slow much of the time. It's worth noting that WIFI can appear to stop working and it may not always be a weak satellite connection (try re-connecting through the app and it may start working again). We found this at least a few times on our last few cruises.

Yes, we had lamb a few times on our last Caribbean and Alaska tours. Yes, speciality restaurants are generally open on sea days. On our last few cruises Tamarind was easy to get into on most days, but the others required booking ahead of time. The Dutch Café is great! We haven't tried CO yet, but the menus I've seen had some interesting items.

We also enjoyed the horseback riding. The horses seemed to be treated quite well and were healthy (and friendly).

We met a couple on tender who were geared up to birdwatch on HMC, and based on their recommendation we walked all of the trails we had access to on the island. In addition to the huge chicken population, we also saw woodstars, bananaquits, some egrets, and some smaller birds we could not identify. We also heard there were also ospreys, but we did not see any on either of our days there.

We've seen ducks on HAL ships in 2022, both on the NS and Koningsdam.

I'm just guessing, but I assume that Navigator is run from the local to the ship when onboard and from the interwebs when not on ship, on top of any potential VPN differences. Network changes can cause applications to require signing in again, depending on a bunch of technical details. Holland America IT will be trying to make this as seamless as possible, but there are some technology limits that cause the sorts of issues you both mention. On top of that, most cruise internet plans filter out various services and settings, to provide fair internet sharing for thousands of people. (More background that y'all can ignore, but in case you're curious) A VPN is a type of special network that routes through a computer somewhere on the global network, which probably will not be able to loop back to the onboard systems where I assume Navigator runs from while at sea. My guess is that you would need special VPN rules for the onboard system, and if I figure out what these are I will post details later. I haven't bothered trying to run my work laptop + VPN while on ship, mostly because I'm on holidays and I try to leave that stuff at home when I can. I do plan to work from the seas at some point, so I'll be testing out my work setup on our next trip that has more sea days and can report back. I also want to figure out how to get my Kindle to play well with onboard internet access, for the occasion that I run out of books to read.

You should receive a confirmation when requesting it (and if you don't, respond to it and ask for confirmation). I ask my TA for an updated invoice before embarkation so I have a hardcopy of the OBC I'm expecting, as we often have TA, Shareholder, and price drop OBC. If the invoice isn't correct, our TA usually will get it fixed. It would be nice if this was in the app, but I am assuming that things like shareholder credit are more manual than other things in the system.

In my experience, It won't appear in the app until you're on board, and it will only be visible on your statement. If you have a TA, they can print out an updated invoice (which includes the other OBC, including any TA OBC).

We did this excursion in November and thoroughly enjoyed it. The tour guide was a lot of fun, and talked about the history of the island while we drove through the windy mountain roads to a large gift shop with a fantastic view. The shop had a bar and classic island drinks (some of the best we had on the trip, despite it being 10 in the morning). After the mountain view gift shop, we descended to Magan's bay as the first set of cruisers there. There was a small burger shack and bar, both of which were enjoyable. The beach and bay are lovely and we'll likely return there for a non-cruise vacation in the future. After the beach time, the bus brought us back to a shopping area, which had stalls, stores, and restaurants.

Not in my experience. It normally resets overnight when the bars are all shut. Others have reported that it is reset at 2AM, which seems pretty sensible.

This would be fantastic. One of our favourite homemade Dutch dishes is Boerenkool Stamppot, which is a similar hearty dish (potato, kale, and onion I think with rookworst). What a treat that would be on a cruise! We're going to try to sample all of the Dutch Café dishes on our next trip as we haven't found the time or space to do so on previous trips.

Over Thanksgiving I believe at least one or two bars were open on select days past midnight. At least I recall getting back to our room around 2 a few times, shortly after our beverages ran dry. The ship was super quiet by 2AM, and most people disappeared after the performers were finished.

We saw the mini food station stocked around the duelling pianos on sea days for our August 2022 trip, but not in November/December 2022. It was a bit off-putting in August, as people kept using their hands instead of the provided tongs 😆 We enjoyed the NY pizza place in the later hours, as well as room service. We totally forgot about the Lido being open later too, so next trip we'll be trying it as a snack central between evening things.

Quick napkin math shows this is a 7% increase, just under US$12 / day. That tracks to inflation for 2021. If HAL has upgraded to Starlink, then the value may be worth it. I would have no problem paying $12/day to be able to get some work done or FaceTime with fam.

This is a neat idea for sea days!

I'll offer some non-cruiser perspective. We didn't start cruising until fairly recently, so most of our vacations have been the typical resort or hotel experience. Our cruises so far have been comparable to Allcor/Fairmont level resort stays ($300/night) and better than our Bovoy/Marriott stays, but at more modest prices (sometimes better than Marriott-level prices). There are several huge plusses to cruising compared to resort stays: The hotel magically appears in different ports every few days The hotel moves up and down and I sleep like a dream Views change regularly, and lots of chill spaces Regular entertainment, and good value for basic nightlife Several food choices, and even more in port Low stress overall, compared to booking multiple legs and navigating various transit/road systems on our own It's worth noting that service at most of our favourite hotels has evolved over the pandemic and over time, and it roughly matches the changes we've seen in our few years with HA. Most of the changes aren't only penny-pinching, but also driven by how difficult the supply chain is, and how many employees need to be hired and approved for immigration. These problems are affecting hotels and restaurants too, quite significantly in some cases. I expect (and will be vocal with HAL) that food quality should improve as supply chains and cost increases slow down. The food on our November/December cruise was generally good to great, but had room for improvement. Service was good, but sometimes stretched thin (compared to previous experiences). We were also guests at Fairmont Whistler in the Fall and a Disney hotel in September, and both had similar food and staffing issues, so to us it feels like HAL is navigating the same set of challenges as other similar land-based businesses.

We really enjoyed them in November/December too! There was even a future cruises talk, and despite the marketing nature of it we really enjoyed it (and learned about the Viking Voyage we booked for 2024). Add to that the BBC presentations, dance shows, and cover bands, we had a lot of fun.

While the Lido does lean towards banquet items, it does have a few gems too; there is often an Indian or Malaysian curry or two towards one end of one of the "Distance Lands" sections, past whatever most people are lined up for. Sometimes these curries are *spicy* and extra flavourful. Opposite of the one of the dessert spreads is an ice cream section, for those that want the cake and ice cream too 😆. Around the orange celebration they have a lovely orange sherbet as well. At least half of the dessert items are good-to-great, often the key lime pies and crisps. We had a crispy banana crisp in the Caribbean last year that I have not forgotten. The sushi is okay, but is prepped the night before at Nami and is mostly California-style rolls (according to the chefs we talked to at Nami last trip). If you're craving sushi, the up-charge Nami is solid, and their miso is one of the best at sea, The meat stations are generally ok-to-good, so focus on meats that work well as roasts versus steaks. Prime rib is decently good, as are the pork and other roasts. The rest of the meat and potatoes meals are done fairly well, and are a nice change from the more carefully assembled MDR and speciality meals. We don't eat a lot of breakfasts, but the Lido does it as well as any mid level hotel. Lots of choice, and some lighter items like fruits and granolas for those weird left coasters like us. The NY Deli makes a decent egg sandy if you're craving something more like a NYC BEC. Lunches have been a bit more hit and miss for us in the Lido, but we mostly had it delivered to us in our cabana (so isn't as hot as eating in the Lido, and you're not picking items out yourself). All in all the food is good enough that I'm looking forward to it in April!

I hope so!

I had to look it up for myself and it's currently at 3152 guests on the 19th. We were on the NS in November with 2900 guests and the ship was *busy*, so 3200 may be a bit of a challenge.