FredT

"...Arguing with a bunch of Cubans with AK 47's????".....more please!!!!!!!!

My wife and I were on the Cunard Countess. At Grenada we chose to "go on our own" and grabbed a local cabbie to see the island. After about an hour he dropped us up at the fort, and said he had to get gas and would be right back (We had not paid him so we were NOT concerned) Off he went, and off we went, only to be confronted by a "civilian" brandishing an AK47.

He asked who we were and we replied we were off the ship. At that point he excitedly yelled to the fort "Captain, Captain they're AMERICANS!!!!" (He had no idea that I had been born in Puerto Rico and spoke fluent spanish) Needless to say I played the dumb (non spanish speaking) tourist, and we spent the next 20 minutes taking pictures of everything BUT the fort while six Cuban soldiers argued about "what to do about us"...

At that point our cabbie pulled back up, and we "happily" waved goodbye and strolled (quickly) to the cab. When we asked the cabbie "***?" he replied "Oh dont worry about them, they're EVERYWHERE on the island." Three months later we invaded........

Oh yeah, as a postscript. Our next stop was Barbados, where the ships crew went on strike... End of cruise!

Thank you (both of you) Based on a lot of things, (Including both these posts) we just booked a Grenadines trip on the Royal. We're excited about this as it is the first radical departure from mainstream cruising we have taken in 33 years together.

A further point of interest will be our stop in Grenada. Our only other visit was on a Cunard lines ship on our honeymoon. And THAT did not go so well as we spent the afternoon up at Fort Frederick arguing with a bunch of Cubans with AK 47's. (Thought my wife was NEVER going to leave the states again after that!)

To me, EVERYTHING is about the itinerary and the ports, so I am with the poster who brought up the fact that only the smaller ships can get into many of the more "exotic" or downtown ports. So, by default we shy away from the "monsters".....

PS: After 4 HAL cruises, we just booked a Star Clipper Caribbean cruise. 5 out of the 6 ports are NOT accessible to large cruise ships. After 15 or so Caribbean cruises THAT appeals to me!

OK.... After a lifetime of "big ship" cruises my wife and I are looking at a couple itineraries on Star Clippers.

What has me a bit concerned is that my wife is "slightly" prone to sea sickness, so before we book the Andaman Sea (20 hr plane flight) or a two week Med cruise, we are looking at a simple (close by) Caribbean trip to "try" things out.

Well, as they say, "all the plans of mice and men..." Neither the Flyer or the Star are available in Jan-March. (Cuba, then a charter) So...... the backup plan is a one week Royal itinerary.

No problem, but my question is this: Is the "experience' on the Royal vastly different from the smaller ships? By "experience" I mean how the ship rides, handles, the cabins, food, ambiance, etc etc.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

FredT

The joy of a "real" library on the ship is that I can (and do) pick up 10 -20 books on a 2 week cruise. All authors I have not read, all authors that I know nothing about. If I dont like them... "shrug" I wander the few feet back to the library and find something else..... Yeah.. I NEED a library on a cruise!

PS: So the Koningsdam does not have a lot of boos yet... Then BRING a bunch! I have always thought that these libraries have been "populated" by past passengers anyway... Gonna take time, so do your part and bring a few on-board!

Well, add me to the "bitterly disappointed" group. Just off the Noordam where I took OFF five pounds mostly due to my obsession with walking the Promenade at all hours.

While I am pleased to see so many "HAL" things on the deck (The doors, wooden handrails, wooden benches, etc.) the fact that the deck is SO narrow at spots is a real killer to me. (I like to walk and talk to family/friends)

So while travel on the KDam was already pretty doubtful, (way too large for my tastes) I think it's now out of the question... (Sad)

Hmmmm.... We started looking at the 2017 cruises specifically due to the canal crossing. Like others above I have noticed that this is the third recent mention of a night passage. Now I think I am going to reconsider. Too bad,,, Windstar looked interesting.

My wife and I just got off a 2 week NZ cruise with the drink package (Free with part of a promo, but we did have it) We did however keep a pretty good tally of drinks.

Between sodas, beer, house wine and mixed drinks we averaged a little over 6 a day each. (So if we had paid for it, it would NOT have been worth it monetarily)

BUT, as teamflames noted above, was worth it to us just to have the freedom to order what we wanted and not worry. I wanted to try a WangWang for instance (had heard so much about it) Turns out it was crap, but ordering it did not bother me.

My wife LOVES her beer, and used the opportunity to try every beer they had on board... Dont like it? so what? Try a different one!

Well, if you want to cruise to cuba now, Star Clippers has dedicated one of their ships to Cuba for the coming season... Of course there are still those pesky restrictions on US citizens..... :(

Well, I was wandering one of the other threads here and found this Picture. I guess it pretty much says it all for the Promanade deck... :(

Captain Albert mentioned that the Greenhouse Spa and Salon will have such an individual employed.

 

I have had my hair cut by Greenhouse Spa ladies on several cruises and have always been pleased with the results. What will a licensed barber do that would be different from what I have experienced in the past?

Well, after 5 HAL cruises I never knew that you could get a haircut on board... (AND, being a typical clueless male I would never go to the "Greenhouse Spa" to get my hair cut! :p )

So having a dedicated "barbershop" is a great addition to me.

Just off the Noordam (February 2016) and while you had to ask, all the bars would pour them. (And yes they did qualify for the drink program! :D )

And yes they were REALLY potent!

Interesting... In todays entry the Captaain speaks about a new "DAM" ship already in the pipeline at the shipyards. Have I missed something here?

I am talking about the blog that Capt. Albert Schoonderbeek is writing daily on the new Koningsdam. To get daily glimpses on the progress of the new addition to the fleet is both fascinating and somewhat addicting, and no fancy press releases or glossy video can bring her to life as the Captains words are doing.

My complements to both the Captain, and the enlightened executives who have permitted (and encouraged???) him to do this for us.

LOL... Try reading it ON a cruise! My jokster of a sister bought me a copy and slipped it into my luggage before a HAL far east trip a couple years ago. Well, it looked interesting, so I set about to read it.

About half way through the book ( was sitting in the Mix) I heard a voice say "huumph... REALLY?"

Sure enough it was the Captain. When I looked up he just smiled, shook his head and walked on..... :rolleyes:

(Good read though)

To clarify a point here: the age limit was printed on the excursion tickets. When we picked up the excursion package and examined the tickets is when I noticed it. We were already at sea and all I could do was go to the excursion desk and cancel the dive. At that point all I could do was wait and see and hope for the best. Whether it was posted or not does not change the fact that HAL and the dive shop discriminated based solely on age.

Hmmm... A few years ago we also found out (after sailing) that a booked shore excursion was not what we had expected. Cost me almost $30.00 :eek: to log onto the HAL internet, research alternatives and book one. (Almost 20 minutes of my time!)

AND a few years before that,we were on the Veendam with a short scheduled stop at Port Stanley. So short that there was not time to do Volunteer point and the penguins. The night before we arrived (in the middle of the south atlantic) the captain came on and said that we were running ahead and would be there for 4 more hours. Again to the computer, and a quick booking which turned out to be the best shore excursion I have ever done... (And that was on a HAL computer in the middle of the atlantic. )

No sympathy from me.

I read theis thread with great interest, especially what is legal and what is not. As a good friend is a TSA agent out west, I e-mailed her to ask what their "guidance" is. Her reply is below:

Fred:

The LAW is clear. If you dont have pills in a marked bottle or container, and have no official doctors prescription with you, they are liable to be confiscated by customs or us. Having said that though, this is not something that we ever would do unless there were underlying circumstances. In my 7 years with TSA the only time I have seen any medications confiscated was either when the passenger was being a real *****, when they were trying to smuggle some other illegal item , or when there was a large quantity of the unknown pills.

Remember though, I work at an airport that has few international arrivals, and they are handled in another facility, so I dont see what happens there.

Since this thread has morphed into one of “What would I like”, I’d like to toss in an idea.

 

I’d really like to take a HAL cruise through the northwest passage across the top of Canada. I think a cruise from NYC or Boston heading north then west and ending in Seattle would be a great experience.

 

I don't know of any cruise line that has gone there before.

 

Scott & Karen

I'd do almost anything to sail on that itinerary. I've been looking for years at the LLoyd ship that goes "up and over" Russia, but at a base ticket of $43,000 it's a bit beyond our means!

Until I started to follow this forum I had NO idea that you could save so much money by booking your own shore excursions (And get better ones to boot!)

I had never heard about the on board laundries (or unlimited laundry packages)

Never realized that HAL was one of the last holdouts of the wrap around promenade deck (Important to me)

Never realized that the casino/photographer/shore excursion desk was not run by the cruise line.

We were "stood up" by our tour company two winters ago, and ended up simply hiring a taxi at the airport. Simple and easy. BUT, get your price up front and firm before leaving. It's about an hour and a half drive, all on a modern highway.

The Arctic, including the White sea.... Or even better, the Alaska to Norway, across the top of Russia cruise. Hapag LLoyd does this one on their one small expedition ship...

Probably never gonna happen though, their "inside stateroom" pricing per person would pay for about 30 "lesser" weeklong cruises! :D

I think most of those shots were from NCL back in the days when you HAD to have your picture taken when boarding (or entering the MDR) I know if he ever took my picture, the expression was a lot worse than most of those grumpy old men... (And I was YOUNG back then!)

Obviously, one of my pet peeves is pushy photographers..... :D

Hmmm.... Super bowl. 9 am in Christchurch NZ. So do we book a shore excursion or dont we? Will the Pats repeat? (In other words is all of this SO pi##ing Brady off that he will be playing with a giant chip on his shoulder? :D )

Gonna be interesting. (But with a 9am kickoff can we start early with the beer and not be considered lushes? )

When we booked our January 2016 Australia cruise the price was 2400 pp, including the explore 4... It's now 2200 pp (Same category) without it. So for us it was a GREAT deal.

Fact. (Not third hand "I heard it somewhere" )

On a new years eve 2013 RCCL cruise to Couzmel we added 2 passengers (and one stateroom) to our group at 9pm the night before departure. Price was good (but not great) No issue except longer check in time.