boulders

I highly recommend the Eurostars Grand Marina Hotel. It's right next to the cruise port. It's a beautiful hotel. We stayed at it in 2010 for our first Mediterranean cruise. I had booked 2 rooms for myself and my 3 kids (oldest was 14) and asked for the rooms to be adjacent/adjoining. When we arrived in the morning to check in, there were no 2 rooms that were adjacent or adjoining. So the front desk put us in 2 adjoining suites. They were beautiful. The sea bass from room service was wonderful as was the breakfast buffet the next morning. I had the best sleep ever after a long flight and woke up raring to go.

Yes, I'm an experienced cruiser on both HAL and RCCL as is my son. And you would be surprised at how much closer I am to the HAL demographics than the RCCL demographics. ;p I was originally booked on Ovation of the Seas but the ports and shore excursions didn't interest me. Their sail date was also inconvenient. HAL's itinerary suits our needs much better. We have sailed Oasis class and my son was not interested in any of the bells and whistles. After sailing HAL, RCCL doesn't do it for me anymore either. I'm just curious if anyone has info specific to a New Zealand cruise in March.

A company's website is the face of the company to the consumer who logs on. It is an indication of how well run the company is. There are several firms that we stopped ordering product from because of their abysmal web site. Why bother when their competitors had such good web sites that were a pleasure to shop.

I agree. The main reason I've never taken a Celebrity cruise is because their website was so awful whenever I've looked. I still don't like their website. The new HAL website has a similar format. I've booked 2 HAL cruises in the past few weeks and I've had to make a phone call to reserve both of them. If I wasn't a past customer, I probably would not have booked the cruises because of the awful impression the website gives.

What course of action can the captain take when quarantined passengers don't obey the quarantine?

Thanks to both of you. That's what I suspect. That's OK. We'll be off the ship in most ports anyway and DS is good at entertaining himself. If there are kids his age, it will be a bonus.

Princess has a higher passenger average age than HAL, so there's that. I sailed Princess to Alaska. It seemed to me that there were more couples, mostly in the 60-70 year old range, on that cruise than there were on my HAL cruises. HAL seems to be more education oriented than the other cruise lines I've been on.

I'll be sailing on HAL's Noordam this coming March with my 13 year old on a 2 week Auckland to Sydney itinerary. I've sailed HAL a couple of times before. Both were during North American break times and one cruise had 300 kids and the other had fewer than 30, so I know not to expect a lot of kids. I know it's not a school break time in Australia or New Zealand. I'm just curious if anyone has an idea if how many kids to expect on board?

We did this cruise a few years ago. It was wonderful! The lecturers really made it fabulous. Have a great time!

In early December, temps will range from mid-70's to low-80's. It will be cooler at higher elevations. The hot and humid months are August through October. December isn't humid on the dry sides of the islands. You will likely run into rain on the wet sides.

September is prime hurricane weather in Hawaii. It is rare that a hurricane actually hits Hawaii, but it frequently gets the remnants of hurricanes at that time of year.

On my one and only Carnival cruise, my 2 year old was run over by an older child running through the dining room. I was shoved in the buffet line several times. On one Royal cruise, a parent was showing his kid how to push all the buttons in the elevator when I stepped on. On a different Royal cruise, my daughter was called a racial epithet. That got security at my door shortly after I complained at the front desk.

On HAL, Princess and Disney, I've never seen anything like that. Disney had screaming children in the dining room though. HAL is now my favorite line. A very large number of kids on HAL is 300 out of 2000 total passengers.

How much is a large Pellegrino or a latte if one doesn't buy the package?

I'm another one who would not let my daughter be out and about on her own at the same age as my sons. Females are several times more likely to be sexually assaulted than males. It has nothing to do with whether or not the child is responsible. It's the danger from fellow passengers that makes me more protective of my daughter.

We did the cruise in the opposite direction over Christmas/New Year's. The weather was fabulous. I was looking at Antarctica in my bare feet on our balcony.

One consideration I would give for timing is the season for the penguins. Volunteer Point was my absolutely favorite all time shore excursion. There were thousands upon thousands of penguins. We went through Estancia Excursions. Double check on the best viewing time for the penguins if that is of interest to you.

I suggest the starboard side for your cruise. I was on the port side (going the opposite way) and had views of the continent almost continuously. I don't recall the ship doing any turns.

There was a message earlier today that the website would be down this evening between 7 pm and midnight Pacific time.

If you book a cruise, make sure the excursions include what you want to see and do. I was originally looking at a RCCL cruise in the same area, but the shore excursions were like night and day. RCCL's excursions were very active, white water rafting, ziplining etc. HAL's cruises looked much more interesting to me.

Holland America's Noordam sails one way cruises between Sydney and Auckland in winter 2019 and 2020, and some (but not all) include Melbourne, Hobart and Port Arthur, plus about 5 ports in New Zealand.

HAL's Maasdam will be in Australia/New Zealand/South Pacific in winter 2020. There is a cruise that starts in Sydney in mid-February, goes to Auckland by way of Hobart and several New Zealand ports. The next cruise goes from Auckland to Papeete, French Polynesia (aka Tahiti) and includes small South Pacific countries. Then the Maasdam goes from Papeete to San Diego by way of several more French Polynesian islands and several stops in Hawaii.

My guess is you are going on a South American cruise? I pre-purchased a fair bit of Brazilian and Chilean currency before I went on my cruise. In Uruguay and Argentina, shops took USD and Brazilian currency. It's been about 4 years since that cruise. I would check out the South American board (if that's where you're cruising to). I found a lot of very helpful info regarding ATM's, ie certain locations were known to steal your information if you used the ATM. For this reason, I didn't use an ATM at all. I'm pretty sure I didn't use a credit card either, because of the rampant scamming.

It depends on the kids (and adults). Does anyone like to spend hours in the bathroom? Then get 2 interconnecting cabins. Are the kids the type who will get into mischief? (leave the room in the middle of the night, climb on the balcony furniture, sleep through a little sibling exiting the room), then get one big cabin.

I did several cruises when my kids were about the age of yours. I have 3 kids, but just one parent. I tried the interconnecting cabin set up once and didn't like it because I was always checking on the boys' room. The boys were 12 and 2. I tried non-connecting, but adjacent rooms, when the kids were older and the 5 year old locked himself out of his room in the early am when he tried to come find me. After that, I always got one cabin for the 4 of us. I much preferred Royal Caribbean's family oceanview which has 2 bedrooms and one large living area. You have to call the cruise line to book any cabins that sleep 6.

I was talking to my PCC a couple of weeks ago. She mentioned that she could see I had booked a HAL cruise with a big box TA. She suggested that next time, I book it through her and then transfer it to the TA. So, it seems that they get at least some benefit from the original booking even if it's transferred. I plan to talk to her tomorrow and I'll see if I can find out more.

Volunteer Point in the Falklands is a must do.

I've cruised HAL with kids and teenagers. We've also cruised Disney, Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Princess. HAL is my teenage daughter's favorite line. The boys prefer Royal Caribbean. I like HAL.

HAL does not have the massive numbers of kids on board, which is a good thing. They do combine age groups if there are few kids on board. For a summer cruise, there should be plenty of kids, but not huge numbers. The kids get more individualized attention on HAL than they do on other cruise lines.

A lot of the "fun" things on other ships involve water parks, which are a no go in Alaska.

Happy Canada Day!

Flights from Vancouver to Asia are almost the same length of time as Toronto to Asia. I'd do a stopover in Tokyo or Hong Kong or Taipei instead.

We took HAL's Zaandam to Antarctica for their Holiday cruise 3 years ago. We were plenty close to the continent.

One of the best features of the HAL cruise were the lectures they had on board by scientists who had worked at the South Pole. There were multiple lectures per day.

Older teen boys might like a Royal Caribbean ship best. They have a good video game room, climbing walls, Flowriders etc and are generally a very active ship. However, their port selection is pretty tame and they tend to have short cruises.

Our family also likes HAL. They have the best itineraries, imo, and they give the best bang for the buck. We took a 24 day Med cruise on them in July a few years ago. There were about 300 kids on board the Nieuw Amsterdam. If you go in July, and take a newer ship, you should find plenty of other families on board. I've found the service on HAL to be better than RCCL too. The Koningsdam has interesting Northern Europe itineraries.