12cruise2

Re wines and availability, once in awhile we order a bottle of wine. Now the rates are $30-$40-etc. for the "less expensive" wines. Of course they often don't have the wine listed on the menu. Also, I've gone to the cabin and googled how much the wine would be at home at our supermarket. Without fail, the very same wines that we've found on the ship for $40 are $7-$8 at home at our market. That's great news for when we get home as usually we enjoy the wines, but the markup is amazing! And every year the price for the same wine on the ship has gone up by $5-$10 per bottle. I'm just saying.

I'm so grateful you'll be writing this thread upcoming. I have a friend we met on a Cuba cruise who will be making the trip. We took the Ocean Princess Dover-around Africa-to Miami in 2015 and really enjoyed it; I'm envious that you'll be going to Petra and other ports we didn't get to. Thank you so much for doing this! Bon Voyage.

I often think of the quote I heard, "when people show you who they are, believe them."

Besides what's mentioned above, I think the biggest problem is that you can't count on service available exactly when you might need it. If you can work at any time, then that's one thing; but if you have to use the internet at specific times, then I would not count on it at all.

Welcome aboard Cruise Critic; thank you for responding to my question. I'm sorry to hear about your husband's being ill; I hope he recovers soon. He was isolated in the area where we usually like to get a cabin. Last fall though, without explanation or letting us know, when we came on board and went to our cabin 40xx port, there were no card keys for us there. We went to the front desk and found they had assigned us to a different cabin, on the main deck; I think that was why, that for that cruise they were reserving our area for isolation. I don't like the main deck because most of the cabins are under noisy or mystery areas of the deck above so they can be noisy at various times through the night. How long were you on the cruise? Were you on port or starboard side?

Oh, don't worry! The crew knew ALL about her; by the time she was on, we'd been on the ship for 6 weeks and knew the main officers and were friendly with them; they were the ones who hinted a week or so later that she was causing all sorts of problems! We found out at dinner the night she boarded; she'd gotten seated next to us at the next table, by herself; she proceeded to tell us that she really wanted our table, but that we had it for several weeks, then she went on about how she wasn't vaxed and we were furious; we reported her immediately to our friend-by-now who was the maitre d'. We got a better table on the other side of the aft as it turned out, and of course, she got our table! We didn't want to stay seated anywhere near her, and HAL wouldn't move HER! HAL had the policy to let a few unvaxed folks on who petitioned even though they never really clearly admitted to that policy in writing; one had to read between the lines in the policy.

Thank you so much; that would be great. If I can convince my doc, we want to cruise four weeks Nov-Dec. Cross fingers. We did that last year and had a blast--course, only 800 or so passengers on the ship and everyone was vaxed, masked, so little to no problems (well, except for one woman who had gotten on and was not vaxed--and bragged and bragged about that and caused quite a few problems overall for the crew because they weren't publicizing they were letting ANY passengers on who were not vaxed; caused us to have to move our every-night dining table as we were furious for the deception on HAL's part.)

This is exactly what I just figured out, which also would explain why a new passenger got on board only to find cabins on both side of theirs isolation cabins. However, then it would seem that both/all parties in a cabin would have to stay in that cabin, even if only one was positive; that would basically insure that all parties became infected. On Celebrity the end of May, because one of us was positive and one negative, they considered us close contacts so made us isolate together overnight until we were offloaded the next day! Of course in a day or two, the other of us became positive.

But this is the Nieuw Amsterdam we're talking about. . . .

Good to know. Thank you for the info. I'm sort of afraid of that intermingling coming about. Yes, on one ship as you may have read, someone reported getting on to find their cabin between two cabins that were isolation cabins, and they wouldn't change them to another cabin. The wild west out there.

Please, can someone report where the crew and passenger isolation cabins are on the Nieuw Amsterdam? I'd really appreciate the information. Thank you.

St. Louis Cruisers--thank you so much for the complete info. Time to buy some HAL shares!

What is the fax telephone number? I'd appreciate having it. We don't photo/pdf/email. Thank you all.

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/faq.shipboard-life.what-are-your-emergency-phone-numbers.html

I would like to stress taking the immodium/antidiarrheal; that is the one medicine over the many years of cruising that I seem to have used the most, and when you need it, you need it right now. I keep it and bandaids in my fanny pack that I take everywhere when not on the ship; I even had to use it one morning while awaiting disembarkation--when we had no luggage, just what was in my fanny pack for medicines. One eats different things from normal when cruising, so you just never know. And yes, all of the above, though I find that an antihistamine and tylenol are enough meds because when you read all the "cold and flu" remedies, those two ingredients are primary for the most part. I find that my nose needs the most control so that it doesn't run; I may not even need tylenol, so I try to take as few "ingredients" as possible, just enough to cover my symptoms. I even cut an antihistamine in half as that was enough needed, and it didn't make me so sleepy but dried my nose enough so that it didn't run. Cough drops (any sucky thing really should do the trick). And we take two weeks of extra medicine; this is per the suggestion of the cruise line. Plus the above re tests and such.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. May I make a couple of comments. To block out the under-closet-door lighting that annoyingly comes on at night when one gets up, before bed, we stuff a damp, maleable bath towel under the edge of the closet doors and that blocks the light from coming on and off; we make sure it is not blocking the pathway where one could trip over the towel; we find the light too bright and annoying to come on when someone gets up during the night. And we always ask the room stewards for about 35 wire coat hangers; we ask as soon as we get into our cabin so that they bring them first thing, before our bags arrive. The stewards are always so kind to bring the wire coat hangers quickly. Using the clothes line in the bathroom and wire coat hangers, one can hang quite a bit to dry as needed, plus the wire coat hangers give us more room in the closets as you find. Thank you for giving us the suite tour.

Great for Princess and those passengers. That's the way it should be.

I, too, am so appreciative of the OP's sharing their experience. If only this thread was required reading for everyone who books a cruise. At least the playing field would be leveled with the majority of the passengers being aware of what's really going on on the cruises; most are completely unaware of the real situation and if they had the info, potential passengers could make an INFORMED decision. Rodndonna, that's really the whole point--potential passengers aren't aware of the risk involved to make an informed decision, then don't want to abide by any rules that might be set once onboard.

So let the cruise lines start having a hard time again--they have some responsibility in this whole situation. So then it's okay for passengers to go around infected with covid because they don't want to report it to medical, and of course they won't wear masks as required by the captain? So you're worried about the cruise lines revenue? On top of it all, the cruise lines don't want to accept reasonable responsibility to have confirmed hotel res., transportation, etc. for those infected as promised to them? There is something terribly wrong with this picture. So no one has to be responsible--passengers, cruise lines, etc.? If it's important enough to help protect the cruise staff and passengers for the captain to require masks, then it's important enough for testing to be required because passengers don't have the courtesy to follow the rules. It's the tail wagging the dog. Something needs to change--less revenue would make the cruise lines wake up to maybe enforcing the rules set by the captain or taking some responsibility. Always follow the money.

Of course there are things we can control--not cruising for example--at least on HAL. And NORO isn't nearly the health issue that covid is. And with experiences again and again reported like the one noted by the OP, I have had it with Holland America and its poor service--telling passengers they have hotel rooms when nothing seems to be booked or apparently no confirmation number provided or requested by the OP, (or the hotel lied to HAL about the passenger having a res. in the first place and didn't want its hotel to be used as a covid isolation hotel). No help with transportation to the hotel. We've cruised 17 weeks since September 2021, 14 of them on HAL with no incidents (except having to change cabins multiple times because of faulty A/C, the usual with HAL). But August will be our last HAL cruise for a very long time. When my DH got covid on our very first Celebrity cruise the end of May, they sent us a letter and contacted us immediately--they gave me the phone number of a hotel to call to make reservations myself for the next five nights, I did, got a confirmation number and told Celebrity. Celebrity arranged a car service to take us from the ship to the hotel. No problem, reservation made and we were treated wonderfully. Then with a little work on my part while isolating, I found out the procedure to request reimbursement from Celebrity that they had promised, which I did the minute we got home. Celebrity told the truth and held up its end of the situation is my point. I think we are at the point where the cruise lines HAVE to test passengers while on board every few days, required, so that the spread we constantly see is controlled. It's out of hand on the ships. Passengers refuse to wear masks. Captains tell folks they have to wear masks at all times and passengers refuse--and the rule is not upheld. We say, test folks every few days on cruises, required, so that there can be no lying or ignoring symptoms, thereby spreading covid all over the ship. Charge $30 for the test to the passenger's account. Isolate those with covid. Passengers have to pay attention; if they won't wear masks at least, then control the situation as a cruise line. If they don't like it, then THEY shouldn't be cruising. This is not the wild west where we can all do what we want--or is it!

I don't understand why many of you are telling people who said they were told they had to have a PCR (not antigen) test pre-cruise to have an antigen test instead. These tests are not the same. Who are you to know that the antigen test is acceptable, let alone advise someone to get another type of pre-cruise test. If the cruise line is telling you PCR, I'd pay attention to what you are told in writing. This PCR test may be required by the cruise line because of a long, international cruise before they embark, and from Australia. A lot depends on specifics involved for the cruiser.

We were on the NA 2021 Sept. and Oct. and Nov./Dec. and never received a tile on any of the cruises. We were on the Eurodam last month and were given tiles. They are combo NA and Eurodam tiles--I'll say they are lovely and different from the others. So, at least they exist for Eurodam and NA.

When we were on the Eurodam last month, I noticed that the term for the fancier nights has been changed to "Dressy." No longer is "gala" used as the description. I think they may be trying to hint at dressing "nicer" than the other nights. Gala dress really doesn't mean dressy. Hmmm.

Instead of all this worry about Verifly, simply take all the docs in paper form that Holland America says are required, present them at check in and you are good to go. We have not encountered any long lines or any of this. Quit fooling with all this extra stuff that is not required in advance of the cruise--all these apps that don't work, contain misinformation, etc. Go by what the HAL web site says, bring the docs in paper form, and you're through check-in in a few minutes. The hassle/problems with apps in advance of the trip is just not necessary.

We were on the Eurodam for B2B 7-day Alaska cruises in August, and I noted that now instead of staying the (formal) nights are "gala" dress as they've been doing for quite a few years now, they are saying "dressy". Maybe you can urge them along with your snappy look!