sunviking90

Bon Voyage Everyone! Great itineraries 🚢

I actually like that menu. The Salmon Poke bowl especially looks good. Agreed the menu is very much like HAL lunch which is the same every day. We didn’t mind it at all on HAL. I pretty much eat the same thing every day for lunch at home, lol. As long as Princess doesn’t copy HALs dinner menus. Very meh, weird choices and mostly accompanied by corn for some reason. We actually chose Princess for a 54 day cruise for the itinerary, and we couldn’t imagine eating HALs mdr dinners every day.

Thanks for clarifying. 😊

On the Volendam recently I believe there were 2 Mariners lunches back to back. We were at the second with other 3 stars from what we gathered. Not hosted by anyone and no awards. My 100 medal was had been left in our room the day before. I would assume the 4 and 5 stars had officers attend and medal awards, but not sure. The lunch was very good. I didn’t mind not having my medal “awarded” as we don’t like attention generally, but I thought it was odd that there was no “host” for the luncheon. I would have at least expected a 1 minute blurb from someone about thanks for your loyalty, etc. The last one we attended was probably 8 years (we’ve been 3 star a LONG time) ago, was hosted, awards presented, etc.

It looks like it has another 7 day inside passage cruise on Sept 18before starting the South Pacific cruise on the 25th.

Gosh, you could almost fit the Zaandam in one” cheek” on the Icon! 🤭

This! Fancy time signs and everything. It’s the only port where we’ve seen this. Lesson learned, which I guess is what they want.

There was no mdr embarkation day lunch on our Volendam cruise in November and when ai asked was told there were too many crew changing over for them to staff it that day. We did have it on the Koningsdam in January, so it seems like they have it unless they are short crew.

Good morning Dailyites! I’ve actually been to today’s destination which is not often the case, so I’ll share a few more pictures. It took this Western Canadian over 50 years to get to this part of Canada, but was well worth the wait. It was before a fall repositioning on the Zaandam right before Covid. The last is inside the original Bank of Montreal. To the right were the names of all the employees lost in both wars.

Interesting. I can’t get off of the start page with the booking made thru a TA, so I did a mock booking (a hold) of the same cruise online and was able to get into flight ease no problem. After all that, the prices for my particular cruise weren’t much different than I had seen elsewhere. Thanks for the replies.

You’ve apologized multiple times and been gracious in acknowledging a faux pas many of us have made. Kudos to you.

Really enjoying your trip report so far. I hope Disneyland happens for you, it you have a great attitude about accepting travel hiccups. As another Disney girl, I appreciate you including reports of the Happy Place in other parts of the world! I’m hoping we can squeeze in Tokyo Disney before our transpacific in April, but DH is not so sure 😜

It has changed and no longer gives that option on the start page. If I change the start location to Fort Lauderdale, it still takes me back here. Am I the victim of really excellent website design, or is it because my TA has to do this.

I was trying to look up flights for a cruise in the fall. We only need flights one direction home from Florida after a transatlantic. When I try to look up flights and enter where we want to start, then “find flights” it does the circle thing and takes me back where I started. I booked this cruise thru a TA. Is that why? Do I need to do this thru her? I hope not. I like to see things myself.

Oh wow! That’s ridiculous. We also ran down to our “old” room to make sure their keys didn’t have our names on them. Those ones had the new occupants names. I was worried about charges going on our account and the “fun” trying the fix that.

Consider yourself lucky to wait in the hangar like room! The rest of us in steerage had to wait in the scorching sun outside, lol. I agree about the keys outside the room. I would much prefer to get them at check in. We upgraded our room 3 days before sailing and found the previous (cancelled) guests keys at the room instead of ours. This meant I had to line up at guest services for an hour to get correct keys.

Quite an experience during a stressful time. Thanks for sharing it.

I’m sure @DAllenTCY can confirm, but the procedures early January for the Koningsdam were completely different than what we experienced in November for the Volendam. At that time we walked right up, dropped out bags, and went inside as you did. January, they had signs for queues with various check in times on them on the side of the building, and we had to join the right queue outside in the blazing sun. We were the only ship in that day.

I tried to negotiate last time when I first called about the offer. I was following what @DaveOKC(I think) had said in an old thread about paying 1/3 of the current difference in price between what I had booked and the better cabin. They refused. This was about a month before sailing. I called a few more times in the next few weeks and just asked what upsells were available. 3 days before sailing I called and got my Vista for what I had originally offered. Interestingly every time I called I got different answers as to availability, etc. Some said I didn’t have a current offer, some didn’t even check if I did. When we boarded the stateroom keys, and various info sheets in the room had another person’s name on them. He must have cancelled last minute.

This is what we did also. Our TA forwarded us the email with the number to call.

Arrive at the time on your boarding pass, no earlier. We are 3 stars and unknowingly arrived 20 minutes before our boarding time for the Koningsdam a few weeks ago as it had changed at some point to a later time. I didn’t notice until I opened it again at the pier. We waited in the hot Sun for the 20 minutes, then our “group” was delayed another 15 minutes outside as so many 4,5 star, suite people etc were arriving and they had priority. I was glad I had filled my water bottle as there isn’t any. It was only around 63f that day, but where they make you wait is full sun, next to the building and SO hot.🥵 There were a lot of elderly in our line and I felt so bad. I’d call it the worst embarkation line I’ve experienced in over 25 years. I don’t know why they can’t erect some type of covering if they’re going to do this. On the Volendam in November we just walked right in, so the line ups with the times in the signs may be new? Or just because there are more people for a larger ship? Don’t worry about missing MDR lunch. It was the same lunch the served every sea day anyway. OP bring water and a hat for your mother. I know you’re in a suite, but just in case.

Well, I’ve been cruising since 1991 and I don’t know how many cruises, but a few weeks ago I accompanied my sister on a “free” cruise offer on the Koningsdam. We paid to upgrade to obstructed balcony and were given 4047 (we couldn’t choose). The music from decks below us was SO loud we could make out each song and lyrics! It was the first time I’ve been bothered by loud music on a cruise to that extent, and we’ve often had guarantees. We called down to the front desk and they were very nice and luckily able to move us to a nice quiet veranda aft on deck 8 the next day. I think they “knew”. The new Holland America?

Even among your table mates, political discussion should not be in the MDR or anywhere others can hear. On the Volendam a few months ago there was a fellow loudly telling his table mates all about what he’d seen on his “news” channel of choice, and spouting his opinions on the upcoming election in the US. Slowly the tables all around him cleared. We also left without dessert.

Yes, I agree. I don’t really consider forums as social media. I noticed you had cc handles only on our roll call spreadsheets. That’s how it should be done.

Awkward 😬