Double D Cruisers

4 hours ago, Hobar said:

Travelling soon on Koningsdam with my mother and sister who are avid mah jongg players. They asked on a roll call if there are any other players, but no one responded either way.  Is mah jongg ever listed as an activity (such as bridge that I’ve seen on other cruise lines)?

Yes, Mahjong has been listed on past cruises from 1:00 to 4:00 in the Explorers Lounge.  On my last cruise (Volendam) they had 4-5 sets to use.  If you want to guarantee a set, show up early, they go fast!  Or you can bring your own 😊 Have fun!  I will be on the Koningsdam March 23-30 and will be playing, along with a friend.

10 minutes ago, leerathje said:

 

Oohh!  How was the sailing?  Many ppl on?  I've been trying to come up with a reason to go to Vancouver just to try it out.

Hi,  May I ask who the cruise director is on the Volendam?

Thanks,

Debbie

4 hours ago, Destiny0315 said:

Zuiderdam July 19-August 23

Thank you!

On 8/12/2023 at 4:58 AM, rodndonna said:

For those of you that like to plan early like myslef, Europe Fall 2025 cruises are now visible with pricing on a large 3rd party booking site. I can see pricing per category, but when you try to continue through it says no cabins left. They don't appear on HAL's site.

 

This happened with Alaska (before available in HAL) and I could swear I had seen Europe for a while earlier this summer and then it disappeared. Fun to start peeking though when they show up like this 😃

Is  2025 Voyage of the Vikings up yet?  What ship?

1 hour ago, AllTheSun said:

We want to learn on our late fall New England to FL cruise but I’m concerned about weather. Is the court outdoors on all ships? Looks like it from photos but I don’t want to screw up and find myself wearing the wrong clothing. Do they do lessons if it’s cold outside? Does wind from weather or sailing affect this?

The courts are outdoors on all ships.  I’m not sure if they cancel lessons if the weather is cold, but the courts are available for anyone who wants to play whether it is cold, windy etc.  

18 hours ago, GHCruiser7 said:

I was on the Volendam.  The port side had a striped P court, no basketball. We asked them to stripe the starboard side (with basketball) and the did, and bought a second net.  Zaandam is the same size as the Volendam but I don't know what they've done.  We never had to make reservations on Volendam; just went and played, any time of day.

Thank you!  We will be on the Volendam, so it’s nice to know they have two courts.  Looking forward to playing lots of pickleball 😊

On 4/12/2023 at 3:25 AM, GHCruiser7 said:

The When&Where will list it at 9 or 930 most every day on every HAL ship.  Pickleballers will show up.  You can also set an afternoon play party with others that you meet.  I played every day at 9 and 3, including most port days on the Volendam Grand South America this year.  Bring extra OUTDOOR balls (I recommend Franklin X40s, not orange).  Indoor balls don't work very well, even with the slightest wind.  You can't rely on HAL to know, accomodate, or have enough of the right balls, unfortunately - they will eventually learn if they listen.  They will have paddles but the quality is not great.  Also, HAL should be up and running as the official Pickleball cruise line for the PPA.  They were NOT ready for the South America Grand Voyage earlier this year.

The Volendam did, however, stripe a second court and buy another net during the 5th or 10.5 weeks of the Grand S.A..

Hi,

Is the second court for pickleball ball on the starboard side where the basketball court is?  When we were on the Zaandam in February they had one pickleball court and had pickleball lessons at 9:00, tournament at 10:00, and then they had open play available on a reservation basis.  Are the reservations made at the front desk, or do you sign up with the sports director?  My husband and I will be on the 56-Day South Pacific cruise in September with lots of sea days, and I look forward to playing.

What happened to the chairs at the seaview pool?  They are no longer there.

20 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

The aft / small deck outside your cabin (7086) is not an inclusive crew only deck! It if is (if they changed it), there will be signs on the interior corridor doors (one on each side) of your deck to access it, plus similar signs on the deck above, and the one below, yours, identifying it as such! Having said that, you won't find a lot of pax out there - there is really not much to accomplish out there unless you' want to watch the moon light -  so you are more than welcome to go out there and enjoy the ship's wake.

 

There is a set of stairs on that aft deck that go up one deck to Lido deck, and let out aft of the Sea View pool (you can just see it as a rectangle on the attached Volendam ship's diagram and in the pic (in the back, aft of the two colorful pool chairs with the white railing with wooden bannister around it).

 

Unless, the crew places a chain across the opening of those sets of stairs with a sign dangling from it that states "Crew Only" "Do not pass Go and do not collect $200 U.S." (just kidding on the last part), you can use it to go down to your deck and cabin and vice versa. Remember, those stairs only go down as far as Deck 6 because the upper dining room is below that, and they prefer you not to come rappelling down on those dining room windows! Just some trivia for the next quiz 😉 

 

 

 

20 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

The aft / small deck outside your cabin (7086) is not an inclusive crew only deck! It if is (if they changed it), there will be signs on the interior corridor doors (one on each side) of your deck to access it, plus similar signs on the deck above, and the one below, yours, identifying it as such! Having said that, you won't find a lot of pax out there - there is really not much to accomplish out there unless you' want to watch the moon light -  so you are more than welcome to go out there and enjoy the ship's wake.

 

There is a set of stairs on that aft deck that go up one deck to Lido deck, and let out aft of the Sea View pool (you can just see it as a rectangle on the attached Volendam ship's diagram and in the pic (in the back, aft of the two colorful pool chairs with the white railing with wooden bannister around it).

 

Unless, the crew places a chain across the opening of those sets of stairs with a sign dangling from it that states "Crew Only" "Do not pass Go and do not collect $200 U.S." (just kidding on the last part), you can use it to go down to your deck and cabin and vice versa. Remember, those stairs only go down as far as Deck 6 because the upper dining room is below that, and they prefer you not to come rappelling down on those dining room windows! Just some trivia for the next quiz 😉 

 

 

 

 

On 4/5/2023 at 4:58 PM, Arizona Wildcat said:

Pickleball started in the 1960s.  Popular then in the US and Western Canada.  Popular now because courts are smaller and less expensive.   Also because lots easier for those that are a bit older and less mobile.

How dare you 😂 

I have a question for Club Orange fans.  We will be 5-star Mariners on our next cruise. I notice some of the Club Orange perks we already get. One benefit for us may be Priority Seating in the MDR (for non-Pinnacle class ships.)  We prefer anytime dining (Open Seating.) I don't like being forced to eat at 5:00p or 8:00p.  Would rather eat at 6:30 or 7:00p. Is Orange Club "priority seating in the MDR" priority ANYTIME, or only priority only if you show up at 5:00p or 8:00p? .  We have never had a problem with open seating since 2013.  However the last couple cruises (post pandemic) were disappointing.  We were on a 28-day cruise on the Koningsdam in October 2022. Were able to eat in the MDR exactly once. Lines around the block every night for those wanting to eat "Anytime". We ate most nights at the Tamarind, Canaletto or Rudi's,  which were all easier to get into than the MDR.

Holland America Line's Holiday Gift Card offer that adds a 10% bonus gift card to gift card purchases of $250 or higher. The promotion is available to U.S. residents only, and runs from Dec. 2 – 13, 2022.

14 hours ago, netingirl said:

Does anyone know how the $25 deposit is supposed to work? My assumption would be that we each pay $25, but when I logged in to look at making a booking - one flagged boldy with the $25 deposit banner - my booking showed a deposit of $1400.  Just a little confused and no information on the Holland site that I could find.

Do no rely on the HAL website.  More times than not, it does not work properly.   The same thing happened to me regarding the deposit showing more than the $50.00 (CyberSale deposit amount for two). I tried a couple more times after rebooting my iPad, clearing cache etc.) with no luck.  Finally realized the website is not reliable and called my PCC.  Call your TA or PCC to get the correct price.  Hope this helps.  Good luck!

8 minutes ago, zelker said:

I wound up calling HAL this morning and asking if gratuities were included since I couldn't see them for any online-bookable fare either.  She said they were so I was able to have her book us on an Advantage fare (refundable deposit).  Got our booking confirmation and they show on there as well. 

 

BTW, we also got some Mariner OBC because it's still within 90 days from when this cruise (Holiday 2023) was opened for booking.  👍

I did the same thing and I was able to get the gratuities added.  It is so frustrating that the website does not show the gratuities as part of the fare.  Unfortunately, this makes a lot more work for the PCC’s.

8 minutes ago, dutchclogs said:

Yes, I can't see the BF offer either for an April Europe sailing

I was hoping to get the gratuities added to two cruises I have booked for 2024, but the pre paid gratuities were not included.  HAL’s website is terrible!

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Taking a cue from @WCB and I am going to try to post about our upcoming adventure that will (like them) take us from Glaciers to Palm Trees 

but unlike Bill and MaryAnn we won’t be aboard quite as long and we aren’t 84 Star Mariners😂 Additionally, since we won’t spring for Internet aboard there will be some days with nada, followed by days with multiple posts(when we have cell data from T-Mobile) documenting what we did while away from the innerwebs. 
 

Presuming Hurricane Ian doesn’t affect us tomorrow morning, we should be leaving Raleigh, NC at 7am  headed to Vancouver (via Phoenix & Seattle) for an overnight prior to boarding Koningsdam on October 1, 2022 for the first of our b2b cruises. We start with a 7 night cruise to Alaska and then stay aboard on October 8 and sail to Hawaii returning to Vancouver on October 24, 2022. 

 

A little about us-we are longtime cruisers, but this will only be our second time aboard Holland America Line. Our previous cruise was a Caribbean on board Veendam in 2019. 

 

My husband Mike and I have been together almost 33 years and in December will celebrate our 8th anniversary of being married legally. We retired early in February 2018 (I will be able to join Medicare next year and Mike is 5 years behind me-you can do the math!) spent the first two years living nomadically. Prior to retirement most of our cruising had been on Norwegian Cruise Lines with a couple of Celebrity and a Princess voyage along the way.  For our retirement celebration (and to have a comfortable ride to Europe where we spent most of our first year of unemployment), we ended up booking a Viking Transatlantic (after discovering that for repositioning cruises their apples to apples pricing was comparable to NCL.) We have been Viking loyalists ever since. So part of this thread will likely do some compare & contrasts between the two.
 

We were originally scheduled to be cruising on Viking Orion from Hong Kong to Bangkok at the end of October, but presumably because of Japan’s issues with receiving visitors (they just announced  this week that they are reopening) and Visa confusions in Vietnam, Viking canceled the segments between Tokyo and Bangkok of their repositioning cruise from Vancouver to Sydney. When we mentioned the cancellation to long time friends, they suggested joining them on their Alaska cruise onboard Koningsdam. Since we first visited Alaska with them in 2003 (aboard Celebrity Summit), we decided it would be fun to do it again.  But since (unlike them) we aren’t constrained by having to return to work and we hated the idea of flying cross country for just 7 nights, we elected to stay aboard and go to Hawaii. This will be my first visit and Mike’s second but his last was almost 40 years ago. 

 

So tag along if you like and join us as we go from Glaciers to Palm ….ahem, King Crab to Poi!

 

We, Debbie & Dave, will ‘literally’ be tagging along with you on the King Crab to Poi cruises 😃 Cheers!  It looks like Bernie needs a drink 😂 Have a safe, non stressful flight!  Debbie

43 minutes ago, dfish said:

Yes.  Last I knew it was Heineken Zero.

They had it on Zuiderdam this past February.

Hope this cruise is as good if not better than the last!  Looking forward to your reports.

Call HAL and tell them that you did not intend to pay in full, they should credit the difference back to your credit card.

21 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

You chose well.  Was it a Cannonball?

 

Your "digs" look great!

 

Have a great and a safe cruise!  

I N V U 😃

Our thoughts and prayers are with you ❤️

2 hours ago, zelker said:

@AtlantaCruiser72 where did you see the Tales of the South Pacific in Fall 2022 bookable as a 47 day out of San Francisco?  It’s nt on the website and the PCC I spoke with said it’s only available out of Vancouver or San Diego, 50 or 45 days respectively.

@zelker

I received the detailed itinerary for the Fall 2022 Tales of the South Pacific and it’s different segments from my PCC.  It showed all three segments, and my husband and I were interested in sailing out of S.F.,  but the way the voyage has been set up is the guests sailing from YVR to SAN or round trip SAN will be able to select staterooms.  The guests sailing from SFO to SAN will be on a guarantee.  This is most likely due to HAL also offering a Coastal voyage of 5-days from YVR to SAN.   We decided to choose our cabin and sail from Vancouver.

My prayers are with you and his family ❤️

6 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

 

I think that would be permissible, but, the cruise lines are being SUPER cautious right now so as to not piss of the CDC who has a stranglehold on their ability to operate or not.  If they step too far in one direction, or don't hop on one foot vociferously enough whilst doing the Hokey-Pokey the CDC will shut them down again!

That’s what it’s all about!

We have booked Oct. 10th - Nov. 3rd  24-Day Mexican Riviera & Circle Hawaii on the Koningsdam.  If this one is cancelled, we will be on yours!  Also have 50-Day Hawaii, Tahiti, Marquesas booked for September 2021 on the Volendam.