cruiseaholic78

4 hours ago, forgap said:

Yes, you have to be a keyboard warrior!  I booked the morning tickets became available,  it was really fantastic.  It is a bit difficult to find, though.  Look for small signs in English pointing to “ digital art”.  

We couldn't find it got directed to the police station, hilarious trying to pronounce Team Labs into their phone no luck with that, then one knew what we meant and acted out two bridges found them. Still looking then saw a small crowd and found it. 

On 8/7/2024 at 11:56 AM, forgap said:

We also booked Team Lab Borderless (https://www.teamlab.art/e/tokyo/) which is a digital art exhibition that was simply fantastic.  Hope you enjoy your cruise!

I was going to post this tip but just saw your recommendation, we loved it so different to all the temples.

I do have one tip though, in our few days in Tokyo it was sold out then our last free morning I checked again and found eight places, while discussing the logistics it was down to three so clicked on it!

Happy planning

4 hours ago, ak1004 said:

To me to sail on any of the R ships, both itinerary and price has to be much more attractive. But O at least has a better food than Az. What Az can offer that I cannot get on Vista for a similar price, but much more attractive ship? 

I agree its difficult to compare the R ships to Vista but in my opinion I would not say that O has better food. We were on a Christmas New Years cruise on Regatta and they had a Red Ginger evening, I went to get the famous Duck salad, there were some bowls with tiny bits of meat in them. I asked about the salad and he pointed to them, to this day I regret not taking a photo.

There were some who complained about the food who got phone call from management and to be honest it did improve. To see if Azamara was as good as we remembered we went on a short cruise a few months later. I was blown away by their welcome buffet and brunch later on and the usual offerings were also as good as O.

On another note we had more entertainment on this short cruise than on the Australia navigation, BBQ on deck etc. Christmas and New Year on O were disappointing to say the least!

I was nearly forgetting the Azamazing evening an onboard or offshore event organized for the whole ship. We have had some fantastic ones.

Here are some examples.

On 8/11/2024 at 6:48 PM, TheShag said:

Take the 'approved' shuttle to AKL, drop off luggage, and themn return for some sightseeing? Look for a place to store luggage for the day and then just Uber/taxi back to AKL for the flight? Just hang out in the ANZ lounge [if we're allowed that far in advance]?

Sometimes cruise companies will offer a city tour dropping off at the airport.

I would suggest you book a day room at Auckland airport, this gives you the chance to relax before your flights home. We have done this in Sydney and chose a hotel with a pool, it was private we were the only ones there, then a relaxing meal before changing back into cold weather gear before returning home.

Here is one example but there are many google day room etc.

https://www.dayrooms.com/en/day-rooms-auckland/novotel-auckland-airport/

20 hours ago, DanielNL said:

- I’ll be sailing out of Rotterdam, The Netherlands; are there luggage tags available at the pier? 

When you fill in your pre booking docs you are asked what language you want.

Why not just print out your luggage tags?

20 hours ago, DanielNL said:

I know a lot of people with more life experience will travel with HAL, can I still expect other cruisers with children? 

At this time of year I wouldn’t expect many cruisers with children as the little darlings all have to be in school! That said there might be some with younger children but HAL customers are more likely to be grandparents than parents.

 Fijne vakantie 

Rosalyn

You will be getting some wonderful history with a combination of Hotel New York and SS Rotterdam.

Here is all the info you might nedd.

Happy planning 

Rosalyn 

https://ssrotterdam.com/

There is not much to do here, most people wandered around and went to the 7/11 to spend their remaining Yen.

On 8/11/2024 at 9:01 PM, elmac40 said:

Hi 

Looking for advice from anyone who has done the above cruise. 

 

After this when on the cruise do we pass our passports to HAL for them to have this checked by the Indonesian authorities (our first port after Singapore is Surabaya) or when off the ship do we have our passports checked at the port in Surabaya? Any advice appreciated. 

You might also have to register with Singapore its quick easy and free. Have a great cruise its a fascinating part of the world.

https://www.ica.gov.sg/enter-transit-depart/entering-singapore

Happy planning

We like the Shinjuku area and have pleasant stays at both Hilton and Keio Plaza Hotels. However we have no idea of your budget.

There is so much to do but for a completely different experience I suggest visiting TeamLabs Tokyo.

The public transport system is very good making it easy to arrange most visits on your own without having to book a tour.

https://tokyocheapo.com/

Happy planning

On 8/18/2024 at 6:24 PM, Vaxine said:

Newbie here:  How do I know what constitutes a "one category upgrade"?  The stateroom I really want on the Niew Amsterdam is VA 8092.  Do I "book" a VB in order to upgrade to VA?  or are they non-alphabetical?  HELP 🙂🤪

You can book the cheapest balcony guarantee not the VB, pay the CO and book the (balcony) cabin of your choice. That is of course if CO is available for your cruise. You should be able to do it in one go your TA might have to make two phone calls though.

Happy planning

Have you thought about booking with Club Orange (if available) book the cheapest guarantee pay the excess and choose any available balcony cabin. Much less stress than hoping for an upgrade/upsell.

https://www.hollandamerica.com/content/dam/hal/inventory-assets/activity-types/dining/club-orange/Club_Orange_Benefits.pdf

Happy planning 

2 hours ago, shadow 123 said:

I had to dump my bottled water in Boston before getting on the ship. My shampoo was fine they didn't touch it.

A slightly different sort of Boston Tea Party!

Well done you two, I just wanted the four star free laundry, great after a pre cruise road trip. I think we have quite a way to go before we get to five stars.

I hope you enjoyed your cruise.

Rosalyn

5 hours ago, HSBC said:

lj77346,

I don't know I can book a day room.

Thanks!

If you decide to do so here is an example, just google day room Dubai/Airport.

https://www.dayuse.nl/s/united-arab-emirates/dubai/dubai/garhoud?sluggableAddress=Dubai+Marina&checkinDate=2024-08-21

Not converted but some veranda cabins on the Vista class ships at the back of deck four have showers with a shower curtain.

We prefer this to a shower in the tub and always look for these cabins first.

Here is some useful information and photos of various cabins.

https://halfacts.com/vista-class/

happy planning

Now without making it too complicated have you considered Club Orange? It looks as though you want a VB cabin. If they are available and C.O. Is available (you have to check this as it is limited) Then you can book and pay for a veranda guarantee plus the costs for C.O. which is shown below and choose your own (more expensive) VB cabin.

Sounds complicated I know and you have to do the maths if it is worth it for you, in our case paying the extra for C.O. was cheaper and we got a few extra perks.

https://www.hollandamerica.com/content/dam/hal/inventory-assets/activity-types/dining/club-orange/Club_Orange_Benefits.pdf

As I haven’t seen a mention of this invaluable website I thought I would post a link here. You can find photos of most cabins too.

https://halfacts.com/signature-class/

Happy planning 

Are you going to use a left luggage option? is one available? usually you can only check in luggage a few hours before your flight.

Here is some general information regarding cruising to Japan.

happy planning 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/best-time-to-go-to-japan?stay=1

I would definitely go with Azamara the itinerary is much more varied also visiting the North of Japan and the overnights make such a difference.

With the different areas visited you are also much more likely to see the cherry blossom somewhere.

Just another question, we are on a small ship Azamara also going to Bay of Islands, for us it is a tender port making logistics there even more complicated. As much as we like to do our own thing or book privately with a Tour operator, in this case with a tender port (maybe not for you)  I would definitely go with the ship.

If not do check their cancellation policies as we have lost out when having to cancel when ship couldn’t go.

Seeing the complicated logistics and maybe a silly question but in this case is it not possible to book this with your cruise company?
happy planning

15 hours ago, Cruizer Bill said:

Ros, your New Zealand cruise looks great.  Hope your flight goes better than ours did.  We flew out a week early and visited Queenstown, which was quite adventurous.

I dread to think what happened on your flight! not really looking forward to the long ones but we have broken them up with Kuala Lumpur!

Have a great time, we enjoyed our Copenhagen to Boston cruise in July 2022 which probably visited many of the same ports. 

On 7/23/2024 at 10:33 PM, lorimay said:

Another minor complaint - the hangers in the closet do not have grooves to hold shirts on them. All of my stretchy shirts keep sliding off. I know, first world complaint, but I just can't understand why no one thought about that.

If you have some elastic bands wind them around the hangers, this should keep them on.

Happy cruising

Here is my experience with HAL for instance as I like to face the way we are sailing instead of going backwards.

If you look at the deck plan you can see an entrance at the top or bottom of the cabin. If its at the top you are sailing facing forwards if its at the bottom you are sailing facing backwards.

4158 forwards

4162 backwards

There could be small deviations for this but this seems to be the general rule.

Happy planning