sunviking90

We just returned from Hawaii on the Volendam and I can tell you that there is a shuttle in Hilo to town, but we didn’t use it, so I’m not sure if it was free or not. If not, it was only a nominal fee. It only runs about every half hour, so there was a waiting area for it with a lot of people waiting. Our ship was only 1200 passengers too, so for Koningsdam, I’m sure there would be longer waits. We walked to town and it was about 40 minutes and an overall pleasant walk. There is NO Walmart or Hilo Hattie shuttle anymore. If you’ve not been before, I’d recommend either renting a car for the day, as the airport is close to the port or going to Volcano National Park. I believe there is a city bus that goes there too. In Kona the tender drops you in the town and it’s a cute area to walk around. No shuttles available there, but once again city buses/uber/taxis if you want go farther afield. In Kahului there were taxis available, but no shuttles, or just walk out of the port and you’re in an area of strip malls, Walmart, target, etc. There is a small beach close by, but not the best in Maui by far of course. If you are mobility challenged, be warned it is about a 5-10 minute walk out of the industrial type port area, to the Main Street, but taxis will be at the ship. We rented a car at an off airport Avis in a hotel nearby. It was a 15 minute walk away and cost us $35 for the day. We drove down to Wailea and Makena beaches and then over to Paia town for lunch. We talked to a number of first time Hawaii visitors from the ship who hadn’t made arrangements here and were disappointed that there wasn’t anything very “Hawaiian” near the port. I highly recommend making some type of plan here. In Kauai there are shuttles available that will take people to the Sonesta/Marriott hotel area. There is a nice little beach there and it is also a 10-15 minute walk from the ship if you’re mobile. The airport is close by the port if you opt to rent a car for the day. We had planned to do so, but the days forecast was for rain and flash flooding so we decided to cancel. As it happened it was a beautiful day.

Bon Voyage!🛳️

This was the breakfast door hanger last month on the Volendam. I’ll be curious to see if the crew on Koningsdam has mastered the spelling of “dining”. 😃

This. You are effectively taking a cruise from San Diego to Seattle without a distant foreign port. This is why you’ll see all of the westcoast repositioning cruises from the US end in Vancouver even if they are going to be doing an Alaska season from Seattle. Then they do the one night to position for Seattle.

Thank you for your review. Glad to hear everything was good for you on the ship. Weather is unfortunate. I think going forward we all need to be ready for more and more “unexpected” weather events. What used to be, no longer is.

Yes, I used to enjoy @Steelers36’s posts too.

I was curious so I checked the HAL site and it clearly says pets are not allowed, but service animals are. Therapy and emotional support dogs don’t come under that description. And, 2! Surely, if they had somehow managed to manipulate this only one would be permitted.

Yes, this is what we did when we received them a few weeks ago. They were just handed to us by our steward, and while I appreciate the recognition I don’t need them at home. I’ve seen them, so that’s it. Left them to be reused.

Barking dogs!? That has to be a first for a cruise complaint. Did you complain to anyone? Wouldn’t they be service dogs? If so you’d think they be much better behaved. i hope things quiet down for you.

Yes, I’m thinking it must be wifi issues too. Hopefully she’s enjoying herself.

These are nice staterooms. It’s great to have a couch. Is that the Solar Eclipse cruise? Enjoy!

I have a link to the photo in my post above.

Thank you. I see that there are some aft. Perhaps OP has the wrong stateroom number as E510 is definitely a deluxe balcony. We usually get one of the rooms down the hall on the bump out with the extended balcony.

Thank you for this. I wasn’t aware there was a web version. I just tried and got a message “something went wrong, Please try again later”. That’s ok. I’ll try again tomorrow.

I’m pretty sure your stateroom is a deluxe balcony, not a mini suite. Are you sure it’s on Emerald deck? Here is a link to the same stateroom on the Royal Princess if you’re wondering how the obstruction is. https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/ships/stateroom-details.php?ship=Royal-Princess-III&cabin=E510

Thanks. I ended up calling medallion assistance and after an hour on the phone they are “escalating” it. I'll just wait a few days and not worry about for now.

Posssibly Boxing Day sales, but I think they’ll be gearing up for wave month in January.

Thanks. Contacted CVP and she cancelled the bad booking. Problem now is it still shows in my app, but if I go into the details on it, it shows as cancelled. That’s fine, but app still won’t let me add the correct booking. I logged out, deleted and reinstalled the app etc, and same thing. I just want my dining reservations so emailed CVP back and maybe she can put those in for me.

We are booked for a cruise in April 2024 which I booked through my CVP. I noticed today in my personalizer that there is a duplicate of the same cruise in there. I think she held it at one point for me and then rebooked it. There is no deposit attached to the duplicate booking so I’m surprised it didn’t self-cancel, but it is still there. They have 2 booking numbers. The correct one has my deposit showing and our OBC has been attached also. My problem now is that I checked the app and it has the duplicate booking in there and I unknowingly booked all of our MDR reservations months ago in the app and they’re attached to the wrong booking. I just tried to add the correct booking number to the app and it doesn’t find it. Should I contact my CVP and have her cancel the wrong booking and then try again to add the right one to the app? Or should I contact app support and see if they can add the correct booking and transfer my dining reservations over? Thanks

Thank you! lol. I love being right. 😀

Volendam does have Lanai cabins midship on deck 3. I was just on it. Zaandam does not. I personally don’t see the attraction of these cabins. They are smaller than the OV’s on deck 2 and 1 and are priced fairly close to the Vista suites.

Volendam is the sister to the Zaandam, so if you liked Zaandam you will also like Volendam. She’s had a very nice refurb/renovation in the last year or 2. We were just on her for 18 days and loved it, but I love a smaller classic ship. Our stateroom (Vista) was in great shape, and the inside and outside rooms have also been redone all with nice new showers. Our stateroom on Celebrity’s Solstice last year looked very shabby in comparison. We were on a Hawaii cruise, and did notice as we got into hotter weather our room wouldn’t cool as much, but we weren’t uncomfortable. We’ve noticed this on other cruises into hot climates especially this summer on Princess to the Panama Canal. I honestly suspect that they change the settings so as not to over stress the AC and not allow people to try and cool their rooms to 60f. We were never uncomfortable. People we met were in an outside room and said their room wouldn’t cool lower than 71 while we were in Hawaii, which to me is fine. We noticed many of the Lanai cabins on the promenade leaving their doors open, and were also wondering if this was messing with the cooling system. We experienced no plumbing issues at all. Food is subjective, but we enjoyed most meals in the MDR. I did find the food salty, but I usually do on cruises. We loved the lunch menu, but didn’t enjoy all the dinner menus as much. We felt the food we’ve had on Princess in the last couple of years to be better, but once again subjective. We avoid the lido except to grab tea or coffee or an afternoon snack, but be warned the hours are SHORT! Don’t get hungry between 10-11:30 am or 4-5:30 pm. There is NO food except Dive in burgers, or room service. We were wishing we could just grab some fruit, etc, so eventually preplanned better. I think the Lido also closed for Dinner at 8 pm which, so it would be very busy during the open hours. Loved the ship overall and would sail on her again! Wish we were still on!

Have a wonderful cruise! We are very envious. Your itinerary is fantastic and I think I would much prefer it to a world cruise. We are just off the Volendam December 10th and she’s in great shape.

Glad you made it! What a stressful night. Enjoy your cruise and Hawaii 🌴

Sounds convenient to me. We were under the lido on the Volendam last month and we did hear the occasional trolley, but it was super handy to run up and get a cup of tea.