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We have over 900 days on DAM ships and never get anything in the mail or email about a private sale. How do I get on the list?

Last year I got to the World Stage early for a presentation and there was a group of crew members there and a guy from corporate doing training on how to handle stressful situations during an abandon ship situation. He was very good and did some role-playing acting out as a parent looking for their child and then giving examples of what to do if a person fell on the stairs and was blocking the stairway. I was very impressed with the training. My concern being is the lifeboats as supposed to handle 150 with bulky lifejackets. When we use them for tenders, we only have 60 people without lifejackets, and it is packed pretty tight. I don't see how they are going to fit 150 people. Also, how long will it take to get that many people with some using canes, walkers, scooters, etc. to board the lifeboat at night with rain, 30 knot winds and rolling seas?

On the Pinnacle class ships the muster stations can not be on the outer deck because it is too narrow. The muster stations are in various public spaces (our cabins are usually on deck 1 aft so we muster in the MDR) and then if there is an abandon ship order the crew leads the guests to the lifeboats.

Their room is not one that they can sell to a paying guest so the only expense is food and remember they do spend money on the ship too. They not only have Mass for the guests but also the crew and provide counseling to families and crew when on board.

I talked to the leaders of the Apostleship of the Seas which is the group that schedules the Priests and this is no shortage at all. We had dinner with a priest on the Volendam a couple weeks ago. In 2024 there were 300 cruise openings for priests and most everyone was full. The 2025 he received showed only 71 cruises.

The Surf does limit sites you can visit. It will not allow me to see my local newspaper. Email was fine with gmail and comcast.

We will have about $1200 of SBC and free crew appreciation so we will probably what and purchase on board. Everyone just has to run the numbers and see what works best for their situation. Just like people ask is the HIA worth it - it depends - if you drink a lot and take ship tours then HIA is probably good - if you don't drink and do private tours then probably not - you just have to run the numbers and see what is best for your personal situation.

If you are 5 Star you get a $30 reduction of wifi purchased when on the ship. If you don't have a lot of on board credit to spend it is cheaper to purchase before the cruise. Also if you look at the chart that was linked - depending in the number of days you may want to wait a day before purchasing. We are doing a 52 day starting in January and if I wait until the second day of the cruise I can get the 51 day price which is $60 cheaper.

If your cruise is not until late 2025 you should be able to cancel with no penalty.

We are doing an overnight tour out of Alexandria to Cairo and they said our bus would have a restroom plus we will have a stop along the way.

You can purchase AARP gift cards for HAL under both names so you can purchase $5000 each month and save $400.

We are 5 Star with over 900 days on HAL and normally have several future cruises booked at all times. We get very few email or USPS advertising from HAL but we do get notices for my mother-in-law and she passed away 5 years ago. Go figure.

If you buy a wine package I suggest that if there is just one of two wines in the package that you like have them give you all the bottles and put them in your cabin. They ran out of the one we like a couple years ago before we got all our bottles so now we ask for all the bottles when we purchase the package and store them in our cabin then take them to the dining room in the evening.

Thanks for your great review - we board the Volendam on July 27 for 24 days going to Greenland and Iceland. Looking forward to being back on that ship. Can you please comment on the selection of books available in the library.

When we were cruising shortly after my wife's knee replacement we used ziplock bags and filled them with ice. Staff was happy to fill them for us.

This is for folks that have sailed on HAL ships under the new wifi programs of Surf, Premium and Stream plan which began recently. Can you view YouTube videos on the Surf plan? Now that HAL has eliminated a Catholic Priest on most cruises we will need to go back to our Covid process of seeing Mass online via a YouTube video.

My wife and I are both AARP members so we can each purchase them so can save $4,800 per year.

We are sailing on the the Volendam in July/August and wondering who are the current Captain, Hotel General Manager, and Cruise and Travel director. Just wondering if it is officers we have sailed with in the past.

I contacted AOS and they said they had nothing to do with it and have priests available. I talked to our Parish priest who does HAL cruises as a working priest about this and he also said that getting priests is not an issue. He told me their cabins are small interior cabins that are used for the guest entertainers so by not have a priest it does not free up a cabin for paying guests so it can't be a money issue.

It is interesting about the tendering process being used - from your description a first time HAL cruises that purchased the Club orange or a Neptune Suite gets priority for tendering over a long time HAL cruiser with thousands of dollars spent over many cruises. I can understand President Club members first but Club Orange and Neptune folks before 5 star is just not right. BTW - thanks much for your posting - we have 7 friends onboard with you - you may know Bob and Judy G as they have done the World.

We were on the 10 day and 11 day Caribbean doing B2B2B2B

In January/February 2024 on the Rotterdam we filled the BB King "church" for Saturday evening Mass.

Are folks able to watch YouTube videos on the Surf package? Now that they are limiting the Catholic Priests on the ships we may have to attend Mass via YouTube like we did during the pandemic.

We get the AARP and Teacher Credit through our TA and had it for 3 cruises this year and already have it on 4 cruises for 2025. I did have to call the Mariner society about the Teacher credit on one but they took care of it in just a couple of minutes. It had to do with the verification - it seems that even though you have qualified as a retired teacher you have to requalify which makes no sense since once you are a retired teacher you are always a retired teacher unless you go back into teaching in which case you still qualify.

We have had to do the same thing.