Shalandara

Oh I am in several of the facebook groups. I also have several friends who long term attend so I am very up to speed on the history and culture. And since I am a veteran of old school sci-fi cons I know my way around almost all of it. Add in my day job as a librarian and believe me, there is little I do not already know about it before stepping onto that charter.

Change of plans! Remove me from Rotterdam - 23-Feb-25 - 12 day Panama Canal Sunfarer Then put add these B2B charters 😆 N Amsterdam 23 Feb 25 - 7 Day Irish All Stars N Amsterdam 2 Mar 25 - 7 Day Joco2025 Still a celebration of DH birthday and 30th anniversary -- but now we get to combine our musical tastes and hobbies in a longer cruise holiday (Irish All Stars is Fort Lauderdale to Half Moon Cay to St. Thomas to San Juan to Grand Turk to Fort Lauderdale -- this seems a normal itinery although the picture on the charter webstite has the direction arrows reversed?) (JoCo is Fort Lauderdale to Half Moon Cay to San Juan to St Maarten to Fort Lauderdale -- this is a deviation and not a normal HAL itinery I think) Thanks!

While hubs and I are really not that much into going to shows and whatnot, we do like music. Especially soft background music for bars and common areas. We just booked the Irish All Stars cruise for 2025 *because* of all the extra entertainment that *that* charter can bring onto the ship. Yes it can be more expensive to do a charter. But the chance to hear some great quality Irish musicians seems worth it. Not certain we would ever go for one of the soul or blues cruises -- we love music but that is an awful lot of just one type. (Yes, I realize I said this after telling you what charter we are booking -- but while the performers are all Irish the*type* of music they are performing is still pretty varied within that.)

@stonecruisin Thank you for asking this question! I came to this board to basically ask the same thing as we are considering this itinerary for 2026 (whenever it gets opened up). We would also be sailing with Viking for the 1st time. We have done several HAL cruises and one Disney (please-do-not-ever-put-me-on-that-again!).

There have been other posts/comments on that elsewhere on these boards. In summary, from my memory of those, these included: Making a lot of accessibility improvements to doors, locations of loungers in spa, etc Adding paper towel dispensers to public bathrooms New lido tables and chairs

Nieuw Amsterdam: 02 March 2025 – 09 March 2025 : Caribbean : no itinerary published @VMax1700 JoCo just announced that their 2025 sailing will be those dates on the NA. And for any who care, They Might Be Giants are one of the guest acts. (Hubs and I are now rethinking our 2025 plans and possibly doing the All Star Irish followed by JoCo -- hits both of our musical styles all at once!) 🤣 And they stated that JoCo2026 would be in late march sailing out of San Diego FWIW

@islandgirlejfan On the non-pinnacle class ships there is no smoking in the casinos. So consider that when looking at future possible bookings. The sea view pool on all ships is the designated smoking section -- usually port side. That is another thing to look at when weighing room choices for possible future bookings. Much of this is brought up on other past topics ont his forum as well as the pinned posts.

Good thing I am actually not into fish at all! 🤣 (Well, except salmon) I am aware of the differences in food standards and was not making claims or assumptions as to what is or is not better. The issue I raised is if they can refer to something as USDA grade when it doesn't pass through any USDA inspectors. That would possibly explain why the USDA phrase doesn't appear (as that was one of the original questions earleir in teh thread and partly what I was addressing.)

Off the top of my head part of it is size and part of it is location/itinerary based on time of year. Ive been monitoring this list for a while -- partly to see what types of charters are out there and partly to calculate if the ships/itineraries I am interested in are likely to be snatched up as charters. For size -- the charter pays for the whole ship so they kinda need to make sure they can get enough interested passengers. The difference of a few hundred berths between NA and the pinnacle ships is important in that. If you notice the Oosterdam gets a lot of charters in the Med -- something I noticed and will consider if looking at a Med cruise in the future. The NA fits a sweet spot I think -- decent size, slightly more amenities than others (like the Oosterdam) since it has the NY Pizza, regularly does 7 day itineries (another thing most charters are no more than 7 days).

Interesting. I guess then fish is a different matter (thinking about the local catch listed on menus recently). Or do they have a USDA food inspector on board? Or at foreign ports?

Hello! I am looking at using the Park-N-Go at FLL. When starting the reservation process it automatically gives a check in time once you pick the check in date, and that time is tied to the time you are doing the booking. How much of an issue is that? (I was starting the booking late at night so my checkin time was being listed as 11 pm on the sail date -- which is of course long after the time the ship leaves. I have tried again midday and noticed that it gave me a midday timeslot). Before I try calling them direct (for a variety of reasons I really do not like phone calls which is why online bookings and online forums are so nice) I was wondering if anyone here had advice or info on how they operate and if it is a problem if I show up on the correct date but hours before the time slot. (Exit time is also linked to the same hour slot also). TIA!

Yes...those knitters and quilters are mean and armed with scissors... 🤣 But, yes, in all seriousness, I also appreciate the heads up on the booked groups.

Although probably not on your cruise (since it originated in the US and was probably stocked from there) when HAL is stocking from foreign ports I am thinkin that the meat acquired will not have been put through USDA certification since they are not (by definition) US ports. And as such they cannot/willnot put USDA inspected as text on the menu for legal reasons.

So it seems that only the OP has received date stamped drink coupons?

Which ship/sailing were you on? Because ours were not date stamped. (Koningsdam in 2022 and Oosterdam in 2023). Wondering if it's a ship-to-ship thing or a new to all ships thing.

With HIA drink packages it has been worthless. We are saving them though -- our next trip is actually on a charter and we are forgoing a drink package (neither of us are big on beverages other than the "free" ones). So they will come in handy then.

As lowly one-stars for our past two cruises (we are now two-stars) the free cocktail voucher was waiting for us in our cabin when we boarded. Still haven't used them.

We did have a verandah -- opposite side of the ship (starboard for cabin and port for cabana). We did that on purpose to handle possible sun/shade issues. This was a transatlantic in November after all. And since we swung to a more southerly route it got quite warmish at times. So the balance worked well. We had the cabin balcony for late night after dinner as well. But yes, if you have an inside then booking a cabana gets you fresh outside space of your own for a good portion of the day.

There was pizza in the Lido on the Oosterdam this past november for the transatlantic crossing. Hubs and I both agree that *it was not very good*. (He considers himself a pizza expert having worked at a pizza place as a teen). We did both like the pizza on the Koningsdam the year before. YMMV

So, weeks after my trip I am finally getting around to commenting/updating this thread. Mostly so that anyone searching the forums gets answers/information. The retreat was amazing. We had it for the full 14 day cruise -- there were only 4 of us booked for the entirety. Yes, it was windy on the first few days. But since we missed ports early on (and also had all the sea days for the later half) the cost (admittedly lower then) was worth it. The attendants were amazing (we had Ross, Michael, and Alexi). Just having a place to always know I could go and have a seat was worth it. If I was grabbing lunch from Lido or the Taco Bar (I do it as a salad actually) I would just carry the plate up to the Retreat since I knew there was a table, and utensils, and drinks available. We are light on the "needy" side, and not much into drinking. So after the first few days they learned not to offer us the bubbly (but always reminded us that we did pay for it as the package). They learned that hubby liked the frozen grapes (but alas they were seeded) and I liked the frozen strawberries. Hubby tended not to eat lunch up there (he's a picky eater and needed to see what the food was before getting it) -- I loved putting in lunch orders and having it delivered. One time hubs had gone down to the cabin to get a new book, and on the way back got a smoothie from a bar on the way back. The crushed look on the attendant faces when they told him they could have gotten the drink for him was comical. But I made up for hubby's lack of proper use of them with my requests. Although they seriously questioned the fact that I rarely ordered dessert with lunch. But even my specified "only these things in a salad" happened. I did get almost a tea service up there. I asked for the plate of goodies from the tea from the Dining room but not the tea. And it happened! Granted just the sweet treats and not the savory ones (I did not complain at all at that). And the next day they surprised me by getting it without me asking! After we hit the full sea portion of the trip a few more people started booking by the day, and it did get slightly harder to get attention at times -- but only slightly. They had come to learn our schedule and likes and dislikes by that point and had refills on our bottled water and my lemonade addition. But I have to say I felt oddly special in that we were always called by name but the newcomers were just addressed as "sir/madam". Before the TA we had already booked the retreat for our next trip (Rotterdam in Feb 2025) betting on it being a good thing. After having experienced the Retreat we are glad we booked before the price went up. It fits our needs and personalities just fine. A not-crowded place, dedicated seats, ease of getting things, a good enhancement to vacation. Yes the weather can play havoc with it a bit. Windy at times. Slightly too hot on certain days (we were forced onto a more southerly route for the TA which actually proved to be quite nice). A big thank you to @POA1 for going so in depth and sharing the ins and outs of cabana life.

@POA1 I want to thank you for your scientific research into the cabanas. You answered a lot of my questions last fall as I was preparing for my TA on the Oosterdam. The retreat was amazing. We had it for the full 14 day cruise -- there were only 4 of us booked for the entirety. Yes, it was windy on the first few days. But since we missed ports early on (and also had all the sea days for the later half) the cost (admittedly lower then) was worth it. The attendants were amazing (we had Ross, Michael, and Alexi). Just having a place to always know I could go and have a seat was worth it. If I was grabbing lunch from Lido or the Taco Bar (I do it as a salad actually) I would just carry the plate up to the Retreat since I knew there was a table, and utensils, and drinks available. We are light on the "needy" side, and not much into drinking. So after the first few days they learned not to offer us the bubbly (but always reminded us that we did pay for it as the package). They learned that hubby liked the frozen grapes (but alas they were seeded) and I liked the frozen strawberries. Hubby tended not to eat lunch up there (he's a picky eater and needed to see what the food was before getting it) -- I loved putting in lunch orders and having it delivered. One time hubs had gone down to the cabin to get a new book, and on the way back got a smoothie from a bar on the way back. The crushed look on the attendant faces when they told him they could have gotten the drink for him was comical. But I made up for hubby's lack of proper use of them with my requests. Although they seriously questioned the fact that I rarely ordered dessert with lunch. But even my specified "only these things in a salad" happened. I did get almost a tea service up there. I asked for the plate of goodies from the tea from the Dining room but not the tea. And it happened! Granted just the sweet treats and not the savory ones (I did not complain at all at that). And the next day they surprised me by getting it without me asking! After we hit the full sea portion of the trip a few more people started booking by the day, and it did get slightly harder to get attention at times -- but only slightly. They had come to learn our schedule and lieks and dislikes by that point and had refills on our bottled water and my lemonade addition. But I have to say I felt oddly special in that we were always called by name but the newcomers were just addressed as "sir/madam". Before the TA we had already booked the retreat for our next trip (Rotterdam in Feb 2025) betting on it being a good thing. After having experienced the Retreat we are glad we booked before the price went up. It fits our needs and personalities just fine. A not-crowded place, dedicated seats, ease of getting things, a good enhancement to vacation. Yes the weather can play havoc with it a bit. Windy at times. Slightly too hot on certain days (we were forced onto a more southerly route for the TA which actually proved to be quite nice). (I will also comment on that thread so that anyone doing searches might find my comments there as well.)

Final payments have been made and we are eager for March and our JoCo cruise. I don't hear about them much here on these forums. I'm actually kinda interested to see how a whole ship charter differs in the standards when compared to a normal sailing for a cruise line.

Last month on the Oosterdam the Retreat hours were 8 to 5 -- with the attendants setting up starting at 7:30 ish. We never stayed after 5 -- mainly since the attendants do have other duties in the evening and we didn't want to mess up their end of day cleaning duties. I sometimes came up before 8 but not often. They were willing to do stuff before 8 if I was there.

Ive had Prime Rib in the Lido. Which means it was also on the MDR menu. (If you track the menus daily you can see the rotation and how usually what is in the MDR is also in the Lido.)

Not the glass elevators but we were in 7101 recently -- the door to the cabin is "behind" the aft elevators basically. Yes, we heard dings regularly but they were not really loud and frankly I tuned them out most of the time.