Divi

Thank you, all the sailaways are fun but the Oosterdam is special. We will be doing the 11 day cruise in November.:):)

Thank you for your review and wonderful pictures. We will be on the Oosterdam next month. Can hardly wait.:):):)

Beautiful, thanks for posting.

Thank you for your review and pictures. You obviously put a lot of thought and effort into writing such a balanced report and your pictures were wonderful.

We will be on the Oosterdam for the first time in November and, if possible, we are looking forward to it even more after following this. :)

Oosterdam 11day Southern Caribbean Wayfarer

November 16 - 27, 2015

8th HAL cruise

We spent two nights in Venice after disembarking the Ryndam last month

Our hotel was near the Rialto Bridge. It was about 250€ a night and included breakfast and wifi. The front desk was very helpful.

However, like many hotels in Venice, there was no elevator. Two long flights of narrow stairs to haul luggage.

We took the people mover and a vaporetto to get to our hotel and the water bus to the airport.

Again, schlepping luggage over bridges and down narrow streets crowded with people.

Certainly we saved money on transportation, 30€ for the Allilaguna to the airport rather than 90€ for a water taxi but we won't do it this way again.

Next time in Venice we will either choose the HAL option or choose a hotel with private transfers.

Hank,

Thanks for your post. We will be arriving in France a week from today.:). We have 9 days in Paris and 9 days travelling in France before making our way to Barcelona for a cruise.

We have rented a car to be picked up when we leave Paris and have train tickets booked from Montpelier to Barcelona, all accomplished with your help in previous posts.

Our accommodations were all booked with price and location in mind. We'll soon know if we have made good choices.

Thanks again for all of your advice.

Deen

In my opinion, one of the most important aspects of the Passenger Emergency Drill is that it is a vital training program for the crew. In an emergency situation, crew need to react from instinct, which a well practised process will become.

 

An actual emergency is no place for crew to try to learn how to direct passengers to their muster station, to organize them within their group to maximize deck space, or to identify them and cross reference to the master list. Also accounting for each passenger, and finding missing ones if needed. Reading what your duties are is totally different than applying them in real time. Practicing your duties in a controlled atmosphere is far more valuable to learn what is expected of you.

 

One of the well documented facts of the Costa Concordia disaster was that the crew were disorganized and did not know what to do. There were also two passengers lost when the Queen of the North sank off British Columbia a few years back. Crew thought all passengers were safe, but did not do a proper safety check, and lost two passengers because of it.

 

I gladly attend the HAL drills, and remain quiet while the crew do their jobs. It gives me a sense of confidence that if there were an emergency, the crew's instincts will kick in and they will be confidant in their familiar and well practised role to keep us all safe.

Well said.

The Muster Drill is a minor inconvenience lasting 30 to 40 minutes at the very most. Small price to pay.

It also means your cruise is about to start. :)

We were on the Zuiderdam last August for an Alaska cruise and again in November for a Panama cruise.

We had a wonderful time on both cruises, great crew and great food.

We went on the excursion to the Embera Indian Village and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is muddy where you get into the dugouts so wear footwear you can easily clean.

Have a great cruise.

Thank you POA1 and PeetNL. :D

Sometimes, without meaning to, we refer to a people or country in a way that they may consider insulting. It always helps to add humour to an explanation.

Kazu,

Our Ryndam cruise is 10 days, Sept. 10 to 20, 2014., Barcelona to Venice.

Thanks,

Divi

Ryndam September 10 - 20, 2014 Mediterranean Splendour

I will just post a caution about the Explore 4 promos. If you book a cruise with that Promo you might be well advised to monitor the price after the promo ends. As an example, we booked a longer HAL cruise with the Explore 4 promo for about $23,000 (total cost) After the promotion ended we managed to reduce our total cost to about $12,500 by giving up the promo and watching for price increases. DW and I did not think the drink package was worth $10,000!

 

Hank

Not close to $10,000 but we did save over $1100 for the two of us, more than making up for the Explore4 package.

This has been a very informative, fun thread to read. Thank you.

We had the Explore4 package on our upcoming 10 day Med cruise . After reading part of this thread, I checked the current price of our cruise.

The price drop was more than the $500 plus the free Pinnacle Grill dinner per person offered by Explore4.

We were able to cancel and rebook getting the same staterooms.

Having now read through the whole thread, I am reassured that we have made the right decision.

Cheers! 🍷

We will be travelling in France and Spain before a cruise that goes into Italy finishing in Venice. I would like to get a prepaid micro SIM for my iPhone (unlocked 4 band) that does both talk and data. Does anyone have advice or experience ? If I can get something before I leave in mid-August that would be great.

Thanks

Once again, Hank, thank you very much!:)

Hank,

Do you have any suggestions of where to pick up a car rental in Paris? We don't want to be driving in the city of course.

We will be travelling south, towards Bourges.

In Paris we are staying near Les Halles Metro and Chatelet les Halles RER.

Any advice?

Thanks.

Thanks, Hank. More very useful information.:)

Thanks Hank. Will check out all your suggestions.

We want to rent a car in France for 7 or 8 days. We will be travelling from Paris to Barcelona.

We understand that drop off charges in a different country are very expensive so we plan to return the car in France, possibly Montpellier, and take a train from there to Barcelona.

We haven't been able to find what the costs are when you pick up and drop off in different cities.

Anyone know?

Thanks for your help.

We will be on the Ryndam for the first time in September so I really appreciate your pictures and review.

Thanks

We are sitting in the airport in Ft.Lauderdale having disembarked the Zuiderdam this morning.

We were on an 11 day cruise and we enjoyed every minute of it.

The food, entertainment and crew were all wonderful.

Captain Turner runs a great ship.

I think there were some problems with the A.C. but those were in a very small number of staterooms.

We were on deck 5 , mid-ship, and never had any issues.

The only problem we had was leaving the ship this morning and going through U.S. Customs. There just aren't enough agents for the number of passengers .

This is not HAL's fault. The agents were all working hard but it is very slow.

I would have been in a panic if we had a flight this morning.

Thanks so much for your postings. We will be on the cruise following yours so it is great hearing about the Zuiderdam.

Enjoy.

The news just gets worse and worse. Prayers for everyone affected.

Thanks Sail, will do.