charliebeagledog

Has anyone noticed how they are having local cheeses from the ports we visit in the Lido. After Malaga they had some wonderful choice from there and today they had a ton of cool choices from São Paulo Azores plus fresh Pineapple from the island (and were sautéing some of it at the station across from all the cheese…yum!). The different cheeses are impressive and definitely a premium touch to us. the HA Fleet Executive Chef is on board and seems to be directing lots of these things ( he did a Q&A yesterday and we saw him directing the setup of the cheese display. This is our first HA cruise ( we’ve been on celebrity a bunch previously). We are really enjoying ourselves!!

On the Nieuw Statendam and every glass has been poured into a carafe and then poured into my wine glass… they did rinse the carafe before filling it with wine… no generous pours so far…

Terrydtx we are long time Celebrity cruisers doing our first Holland America on a TA on Niew Statendam in a couple of weeks.. Thanks for your posts you have single handedly convinced me of the value of Club Orange for the two week cruise and we added it yesterday exclusively because of your posts and how you demonstrated the value proposition it presents. (we asked them NOT to upgrade our cabin because they gave us a huge balcony on Deck 4 and we didn't see any value in letting them move us form a VB to a VA) thank you so much for your descriptions and posts. Now hoping the starlink upgrade is completed and operational while in drydock before our cruise!!

Hank, I really appreciate the detail you shared here. Wouldn't be a problem for me. I walk 3 miles a day a day. I was more concerned about there not being racks on the regional trains for the big 50 lb roller duffel bags have us train shying away form the regional train and choosing the Freece if something happens to our shuttle reservation. I'd carry the two big bags and my wife would carry our carry on. The shared shuttle wasn't that bad at 85 Euro (goes down to 80 if someone else books it) we did get cable locks so we can secure the bags if were not seated in eyesight of them.

We have our pick up set up that if theres a problem we can still take a cab to Termini and get the Freece train and thanks to suggestions here we picked up a couple of cable travel locks we can attach to our bags at if we needed to leave them at the end of the car.

Thank you!! that looks like an ideal option!! we just booked it!

We are flying in a week early for a Cruise leaving Civitaveccia 11/26 and booked a place in Civitaveccia for one night before Saturday 11/25. We are staying on Vatican property (extraterritorial area) across the street from the colonnades of St Peters Square. Looking for transportation with luggage (2 large roller bags and one carry on bag) for my wife and I. Looked at the SIT bus or for others and I'm not finding any scheduled for Saturday. A taxi seems quite expensive. Thinking of taking the Train. Its a 12 minute walk (uphill a little as I understand from reading some posts but not unmanageable) from where we are staying to the station Roma S Pietro. Would we have a problem on a Saturday morning with all that luggage on a regional train or should we go to Roma Termini and take the Freccibianca train? Theres a Freccibianca train at 11:57am its A little later than we wanted to go but manageable. The Frecci is also 60 Euro vs 10 for Euro the both of us. Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge

I have a November Sailing that i purchased some shares to recieve the shareholder credit. I have recieved the notification it will be applied as an onboard credit both in email and in my reservation. How long do I have to continue to hold CCL stock to receive this benefit? I plan on holding shares long term but juat purchased it and it has had a good run up and technical indicators look bad short term so I was thinking of selling and rebuying at a lower price later. Am i required to hold it until the sailing is complete? Or can I sell it now and pick it back up when it hits my target price? Thanks

I was quite pleasantly surprised at how nice they were in helping me with this. Our booking had a non refundable deposit so they wouldn't offer onboard credit ( but some of the offers were the functional equivalent) but they did offer several options and we are very pleased with the outcome . I would advise anyone in this situation call and ask. I went in with had no expectation but was very happy with the outcome. We booked a non obstructed veranda guaranty and they assigned us an awesome cabin that represented quite a upgrade (and with it being a transatlantic cruise in Nov/Dec we won't be worried about motion sickness. The rep was an absolute pleasure to work with. Thanks for all for your insights and shared experience on this.

Lots of helpful information here, Thank you. I've been watching the fare daily and haven't seen any other change. It was a non restricted fare I suspect as it did not require full payment at the time of booking but I was nervous about the gift cards so I purchased them and immediately booked and then applied them. I may call and inquire and see if they would add some amenity as suggested but certainly if the insist I cancel and re-book I agree its not worth the hassle plus waiting for the gift cards to be refunded so I can reapply them. With AARP gift cards if I want to pay for the tipping and use them for credit onboard would have to bring them with me and use them onboard and have them applied on the ship? can I use them for dining and the spa? Thank you

Booked a November cruise on HA two days ago and already see the price had dropped for our Cabin category VF by 30/person Booked using AARP Promo for $200 OBC (I got validated through AARP waited until it was on my Mariner account before booking) Paid in full using AARP Holland America Gift cards saved $200 Will send in information on CCL Stock benefit of $250 OBC next month We are still 108 days out from the cruise. I can't find what the price protection is on Holland America on their website. Can I get an additional $60 OBC issued from HA without losing the AARP promotion I booked through? How would you suggest I proceed?