KroozNut

It's encouraging to read these optimistic personal accounts about not having any issues with COVID post start-up. Especially when the folks who didn't have a good experience (contracted COVID) seem to be very forthcoming about relating their experiences. Hopefully we'll see some more accounts from people with post start-up experience that had no problems at all with COVID. I know it's the majority that don't, but it seems that mostly the relatively few that do are the most vocal on these threads about it. 😏

Great review... Thanks! We're sailing NS in a few weeks, and you candid comments were very helpful.

I don't understand this post 🤔

Now that's a little overkill IMHO, but after reading what you do in the bathroom sink 😬I'm definitely sanitizing that sucker 🤨

Thank you for posting this. It's a great reminder to me that one of the first things I'll need to do after boarding and getting into our cabin next month is to thoroughly clean the bathroom sink before using it to shave or wash my face, etc..

I'm counting 4 maybe 5 cabins at most in the picture.. an awful lot of quarantine cabins on a ship of 2,600 pax?

Using proper nautical terminology, the smoking section on Rotterdam is on deck 9 aft (Sea View Bar area), starboard side (facing forward). The non-smoking area is on the port side.

Interesting, because on every ship we've sailed on (and not just HAL), we've always had a continuous clamor of background noise that we expect from the hustle and bustle of a very busy dining room serving hundreds of people at the same time. it is expected/accepted background noise that has never interfered with table conversation, or any other aspects of enjoyment of the MDR experience.

If it had been me in that situation, looking at my phone would have been enough, or the issue would have been elevated to whatever level in the onboard chain of command it needed to be until it was resolved.

Personally, I would call that overkill and a waste of paper and printer ink. We have all the documents you listed electronically, and readily available on our phone. Have never had any issues at check-in, or onboard. But of course, whatever makes you comfortable.. 😉

Thanks for refreshing my memory. I did see those pictures of your PG lunch. We are planning to do lunch at PG during our upcoming sailing on NS next month. We currently live in N County inland SD right now (Rancho Bernardo), but I've lived here all my life, and have resided in most of the areas of SD County at one time or another. Coronado is very nice, and we try to get over there as often as we can. Wow, as it turns out, we have a lot in common! I too am a former Hospital Corpsman from that era. Boot camp in SD 1973, HM 'A' school at Balboa Naval Hospital, then stationed there until 1975. Transferred to NTC SD clinic from '75-'77, then got out. After that, went back to college, got my degree and received a commission in the Navy Supply Corps for another 26 years and retired. Small world isn't it?

Did you happen to try the PG lunch?

Some would argue that pool peeing is a much more annoying behavior than smoking in the designated smoking area.

I honestly doubt that there is any 'perfect spot' on any ship for smokers to partake of their habit. I'm sure that if they made it the Sun Bar on deck 11(as you suggest), there would be people complaining about that too. Smokers will never catch a break, and full disclosure, I'm a non-smoker.

Only the starboard side allows smoking, the port side is non-smoking. So no, I wouldn't refer to the entire adult pool area as a "smoker's paradise", as you put it..

Can you elaborate a little on this.. What was the source of the noise, engine vibration, hustle and bustle of service in a busy dining room.. something else?

Love the daily programs... thank you for posting!

Cigars and pipes are allowed in otherwise designated areas on outside decks, not anywhere inside (see my post above).

This is the latest from HAL's current KBYG.. For the comfort of all of our guests, all staterooms (cabins), showrooms and most other indoor areas are designated non-smoking. No smoking of any kind will be permitted on any stateroom verandah. Designated Smoking Areas Eurodam, Nieuw Amsterdam, Noordam, Oosterdam, Westerdam, Zuiderdam Sea View Bar area Oak Room (Noordam only, including cigar and pipe smoking) Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam, Rotterdam Sea View Bar area Casino-smoking is allowed in designated areas for active players only and only when outside of 12NM from the Netherlands Volendam, Zaandam Sea View Bar area Casino-smoking is allowed in designated areas for active players only and only when outside of 12NM from the Netherlands Sports Deck, outside Crow's Nest Cigar and pipe smoking is not allowed anywhere inside the ship; it is only permitted on the outside decks where smoking is otherwise allowed. Electronic cigarettes are not permitted in staterooms or in other public areas of the ship other than designated smoking areas. Any guest who smokes inside staterooms or on verandahs in violation of our policy will be charged a US$250 cleaning fee per day of violation and will risk being removed from the ship for repeated violations. Holland America Line reserves the right at any time to modify the smoking policy onboard or alter the locations where smoking is permissible.

Disagree 100% on this, but do agree that we can move on. 😉

After 24 years at sea as a US Naval Officer, serving on a variety of different vessels in all sea, wind and weather conditions (including major typhoons), I believe I have the qualifications and experience to know how wind behaves on a ship that is underway in open ocean.

Oh, but there really is a difference. Because on an open ship deck at sea underway, the wind always blows aft, not sideways.

Are either of you in the last picture of the dive boat?

It is important to point out that while smoking is allowed in the designated smoking area on those ships, it is only on one side of that open air deck. The opposite side is non-smoking, so it's not that smoking is allowed at the entire Seaview pool area.

It's just personal preference for us. When we book a cruise, we pick the cabin we want, based on location, amenities and price point. For this reason, we prefer not to be surprised with automatic 'upgrades', nor are we interested in emails/phone calls from HAL offering us 'deals' on other cabins that we are likely not interested in anyway. We understand that others enjoy the suspense and anxious anticipation of playing the up sell game with HAL, but we'd rather focus our time and energy on other aspects and the excitement of cruise planning.