obriendan

I organized M&G's for the Statendam Sept. 7th RT Alaska cruise and the Sept. 21st final repo cruise Seattle to Singapore. We had five M&G's that were well attended except for the last one that conflicted with the Mariner's Luncheon and a lecture. We had as many as 150 participants. We were provided with coffee, tea, and pastries. No ship's personnel attended.

Dan

Corkage, $18 per bottle above the allowed two bottles per stateroom, is charged at embarkation. The bottles charged are stamped and may be consumed in the MDR, other venues where alcoholic beverages are consumed, or in your stateroom.

Dan

Thank you, Ruth! You are correct. I don't read that list. Please pardon me. And, I appreciate the information.

 

We have a very large Roll Call for this cruise. It appears to be a great group of well-traveled folks and some new to CC people.

We have 159 signed up for the three Meet and Greets! A lot of CC'ers will be aboard to say farewell to the Statendam!

Dan

On the Statendam's Alaska cruise now. Upon stateroom arrival there was an invitation to Mariner's Recption in Crows Nest at 2 PM. No Mariner's luncheon. Reception well attended. Champagne served with light snacks.

Dan

Thoughts on the three paintings from the RYNDAM. I have not seen the paintings since the maiden voyage in 1994! For some reason.... I just never seem to get the ship in the right place. Shame. Miss her now for sure!

 

 

No 1. RYNDAM outbound from Plymouth Sound. Plymouth was the UK call for a lot of HAL passengers. The ship would anchor in the Sound and passengers would be brought ashore by one of the large tenders of the Great Western Railways. From the ship, tender into Millbay Dock... then direct to Paddington on GWR train. Six or seven hours... and you could be in London. Much faster that calling at Southampton. My only interest in Plymouth? Well, from 1987 to 1990 I lived in Plymouth. Great place... and a beautiful place. So.... if you look at the hill behind of the stern of the RYNDAM.... that is my house. ;-)

 

No. 2. One of my favourites. A lot of work on this one... took ages... I remember about six or seven weeks. It started off showing the scene of RYNDAM outbound from the Upper Bay.... at night. Rising full moon... all the lights on the city and the ships. I had worked on it for about two weeks and I was not happy. Just did not seem to wok as I had hoped... and panic... a lot of work for nothing! I sanded off a lot of the work... was able to keep most of the drawing. So... it became a Noon departure! Much better. Lovely little RYNDAM. Th other interest... the ship at right... arriving is the Italia CONTE BIANCAMANO. I could have painted any NY liner in the scene but I went for the CONTE... with a good reason. The head of Carnival Corporate Shipbuilding was Captain Vittorio Fabietti. In the years working on the HAL paintings my contact was through Captain Fabietti... of course I worked with HAL but the main contact was through Fabietti. So, I decided to put one of his old ships, the CONTE BIANCAMANO. When a new collection was finished I would send a set of photographs to Corporate Shipbuilding... and an Invoice.

;-) The secretary know what this was about. She handed the three photographs to Captain Fabietti and said... "Here are the new paintings from Stephen." He immediately saw the middle photo and went right to the CONTE BIANCAMANO. He went about telling everyone.... "That was MY ship!"

 

No. 3. Well... pretty standard portrait of the new ships.... shown in Alaska fjords. To give a bit of scale to the mountains I included the old NOORDAM. Worked out just right. On the maiden voyage on RYNDAM I was looking at the painting on the stairwell and one of the 3rd Officers saw at the painting and pointed at the NOORDAM. (You have to know that soon before time the NOORDAM had been in collision with a Greek ship down in the Mississippi.) So, the 3rd Officer pointed at NOORDAM and said.... "Ah! The NOORDAMAGE!" (The 3rd is still with HAL... now Staff Captain.... no he was not on the collision!)

 

Just old stories. Will be good to see these paintings in the KONINGSDAM.

Great stories. I'm fortunate to have framed prints of No. 2 and No. 3. So interesting how the Conte Biancamano got into No. 2.

Dan

The other day I was trying to purchase beverages on a PC and the HAL site said it was less than three days until I would cruise - actually it was 27! Switched to an iPad and had no trouble.

Dan

Previous Nieuw Amsterdam, Alaska, 1998, three day cruise to Skagway followed by 10 day land tour.

Dan

I'm not quite as well-cruised as many here, but I understood the medallion would be awarded on the following cruise. In our case, we board at 99 days for two weeks, and I was told we would not receive our copper medallion until our next cruise. Am I incorrect in my thinking / understanding?

 

Smooth Sailing ! :) :) :)

Gerry

No. You should get the Copper medallion on the cruise on which you earned it. See post #18.

Dan

I too am on the Seattle trip to Alaska on Sept 7. I have booked a trip to Homer and it is called Highlight to Homer. Only 76 more days till the trip.

Can't wait.

I am going with my mother and I am having a big birthday 60 yrs old.

hope to hear from you.

sally aka 3 cats in a row.

Hi Sally,

Please join us on the Roll Call thread.

Dan

Our large online TA does. For our last cruise they emailed us with three separate upsell offers, none of which we accepted.

Dan

I've organized several Meet and Greets. In my request email to HAL I have always included the following:

"...We would like to extend an invitation to the Hotel Manager, the Cruise Director or other ship's personnel to meet with us if they wish."

For the meetings we have had, ship’s personnel, usually the Hotel Manager and the Cruise Director, less often the Captain, have attended perhaps 50 per cent of the time.

On our last cruise, the Rotterdam Singapore to Southampton in March, the last M&G was exceptional. The Captain, Hotel Manager, the CD, and several others attended. The Captain, Hotel Manager, and CD all gave brief talks and then stayed around for most of the meeting and visited with small groups. All of the CC members were greatly pleased.

I have just requested M&G times for our upcoming Statendam Seattle to Singapore cruise in September. In the response from HAL the following appeared for the first time:

"Also, regarding the request for ship staff to attend, unfortunately the ships staff will not be able to attend however they are frequently out and about where you can meet them."

So things are indeed changing. Perhaps this is just a general statement meant to indicate that more often than not ships personnel will not attend but I bet that they still will occasionally.

Dan

Here's Yum Yum man Sue, all dressed up for formal night on our recent Rotterdam cruise.

Dan

We’ve booked a cruise with the $400 per person Shore Excursion credit. Here is a quote from our TA's invoice:

"Anniversary Sale Shore Excursion Credit Offer Details: Shore excursion credit for suites on cruises 11+ days in length is US$400 per person (US$800 per stateroom). Credit cannot be used to purchase or reserve shore excursions in advance (must be done onboard.). You must book at least one shore excursion. The remainder of the funds may be used toward any onboard purchase. Unused credits are non-transferable and non-refundable."

So you must reserve at least one shore excursion after you board but the remainder may be used as regular OBC.

Dan

... the HAL App will not work on my Kindle Fire, so I am unable to provide feedback at this time ...

 

R

Same with my iPad. It doesn't seem to load.

Dan

We were on the Rotterdam for the Singapore to Rotterdam cruise, Mar 3 to April 6, 2015 and there were still launderettes aboard. However the Rotterdam went into drydock after that cruise and changes may be being made.

Dan

Statendam - 7-Sep-15 - 44 day Alaska RT Seattle, Final Repo Seattle to Singapore

obriendan

Thanks.

Dan

Just booked a cruise with the $400 per person Shore Excursion credit. Here is a quote from my TA's invoice:

"Anniversary Sale Shore Excursion Credit Offer Details: Shore excursion credit for suites on cruises 11+ days in length is US$400 per person (US$800 per stateroom). Credit cannot be used to purchase or reserve shore excursions in advance (must be done onboard.) You must book at least one shore excursion the remainder of the funds may be used toward any onboard purchase. Unused credits are non-transferable and non-refundable."

So you must reserve at least one shore excursion after you board but the remainder may be used as regular OBC.

Dan

thank you all! Of all things we are leaving a day early because of a potential cancellation of our flight from College Station to Dallas due to ice! Here we have ice and a winter storm usually once a decade.

Dan and Barb,

 

Great itinerary! Unfortunately we were on last year's version of the Rotterdam cruise or we would have loved to be with you. This year we are on the Volendam, 45 days from Singapore to Vancouver.

 

Next cruise we will buy you that Wang Wang!

 

Bon Voyage, you're the best!

 

The Brainy Blondes

Hi Barbara,

We've already booked the Koningsdam March 22 to April 3, 2016 24 day Med cruise so look into it and join us.

Dan and Barb

World_Cruise_Reservations@HollandAmerica.com

This is also the email address I've used on our last three cruises. For our upcoming Rotterdam cruise I emailed a PDF file of our statement page showing our HAL shares and received email confirmation 26 minutes later!

Dan

Rotterdam 6-March-15 should read 3-March-15 for our 34 day Singapore to Southampton cruise.

Dan

I just opted for the less expensive ($41 vs $47) gin with 3 cans of tonic for our upcoming Rotterdam cruise. My plate is not sensitive to tell the difference.

Dan

I've always emailed a pdf file of a scan of the pertinent portion of a recent statement. Email confirmation is always received in a matter of hours or less.

Dan

We were on the Ryndam for 3 weeks in Norway this past June and there was no Happy Hour in any bar.A large number of passengers had the Explore 4package so maybe that was the reason.

Ditto for the Rotterdam Aug 2-30 cruise. The Explore4 beverage packaged seems to have made Happy Hour irrevelant. I mourn the loss:(.

Dan

Too bad we didn't have him three weeks ago.

 

We had Bob. Bob is the worst I've seen in my life, no hyperbole.

 

It was karaoke, not a piano entertainer.

Might help if Bob had a family name ;)

I agree. We had him on the Rotterdam Aug 2-30. He was the worst Piano Bar man we have ever had. No or very little crowd interaction. The prized chairs around the piano were rarely filled. Bob was the only name we ever heard. I think he said he was from Germany.

Dan

Mary,

What a wonderful review. What beautiful girls. It is such a pleasure to see how your family has grown since we first met you. You, Keaka, and your sister were kind enough to take us on a tour of the North Shore of Oahu when we were members of the "Voyage of the Spammed" in 2006. You also went to the luau at Barbers Point and reserved the best seats for our group.

Dan and Barb