Mitwif

O started cruising HAL in my early 40s, absolutely loved being one of the youngsters, closing down the Northern Lights Disco at midnight, lol. This year I celebrated my 60th, and I really appreciate the music of the Rock Room. We still both work, but have the vacation time to do a 21-day next January. Can't wait! I am now diligently working toward my 5th star :).

Fresh fruit in the rooms, Dutch night (with his & hers hats), real formal nights, the Yum Yum man, waiting in the lounges for the dinner chimes, bottomless Pina coladas in the pineapple, the string quartet while enjoying after dinner coffees....sigh.

We were on the Rotterdam last November, and I was able to stream college football games on my iPad (premium plan). I'm hoping that it works just as well this November!

- It is adult friendly without being a "party cruise"

- The variety of greater than 7 day itineraries

- The all-weather pool with the retractable roof

- The Grand Dutch Café and  Tamarind

- Phenomenal room stewards

- The thoughtful, interesting people I meet every time I cruise on a HAL ship

- Best buffet in the business

- Free room service

The smaller sized ships (not as small as I would like, but still better than the mega ships out there)

- The laundry service (finally free for me!)

That's my plan!

Just curious, how bumpy are the roads on this tour? 

I have been to Martinique before, but never did a tour. After reading these reviews I booked this tour for our cruise in Feb 2023. So excited!

I'm heartbroken that there won't be a HAL cruise for us in 2015 [emoji25], but your tunes will keep me singing all day long! Next year will be a good year [emoji3][emoji3][emoji3].

Looking forward to our January 10th departure. While I hope this will be fixed for good, we are prepared for late departure/early docking. DH says as long as the bars stay open, he's good, lol. Good to hear you had a wonderful time [emoji41].

Glad to hear that! HAL only carries Stringbow. Not as good, IMO.

We had a booking with HAL for January. Unfortunately we had to cancel due to some unexpected expenses (one car died, the other was totaled in an accident). NCL had a deal I couldn't refuse, and was also in our restricted budget. Soooo...we will also be sailing on the Spirit. We are surprised to feel very excited about it. The folks on the Roll Call seem like a friendly and fun bunch.

Our last (and only) NCL cruise was in 2006, and it was ok but not great. It's the right time, I think, to give them another chance.

We will be returning to HAL next December :) .

Following

Through our roll call I discovered that the January 8-18 2016 sailing of the Oosterdam has a Jazz Sea group onboard. It sounds like a pretty fair-sized group...DH and I are keeping our booking, hopefully we won't be inconvenienced much.

You need to ask about the Mariners' Reception and Brunch/Lunch at the beginning of the cruise, if you think you are eligible. The event is scheduled on a day and a time convenient for the Captain and other staff and is by written invitation only so you won't see it on any schedule. By the time you hear about it through the grapevine, the event will be over.

Thank you, that sounds like good advice. My husband and I will be eligible for our bronze medallions on our 2016 Baltic cruise. I'll make sure we notify the appropriate party early in the cruise. We are really, really excited about this! :D

Yup, we are a bunch of Toot lovin' fools. :D

Mitwif, would you please come back after your Nevis tour to give more info on your trip as well? I've booked this same excursion for Feb and would appreciate your thoughts as well. Do you plan to take the tour as described, taking the 3pm ferry? Our ship leaves at 5pm so we do have some concerns about making it back in time. Thanks!

I will certainly do that. Our ship also departs at 5pm. Mr Grey has assured me he will get us back in ample time.

I decided to make my cruise a little more interesting. Yesterday I broke my big toe. :eek: I can still travel but I am wearing a boot and using a crutch. Oh well, deck chair and fru-fru drink, here I come! :p :D

This reminds me of my last Maasdam cruise. I tore my meniscus and ACL, spent the last 4 days of the cruise hobbling around and self medicating with Advil and alcohol, lol. I still had a great time. I think the perfect "rehab" is a cruise!

Thank you, everyone, I can't wait!

We just returned from a 12 day on the Gem with a stop in St Kitts from 9-6 pm. We've been to St Kitts several times before and wanted to see Nevis. I checked the ferry schedules and it didn't seem possible. I contacted Thenford and he assurerd me that it was, so we booked the tour with him. He asked that we get off the ship as soon as possible in order to catch the 9:30 ferry. He had someone meet us at the terminal and drive us to the ferry dock. Thenford came by and greeted us and said that everything was arranged and Hellerina would meet us at the dock in Nevis. His man Harry bought our ferry tickets and gave us an envelope for Hellerina ( I assume it was her pay and money for the return ferry). The Ferry from Port Zant takes 45 minutes and our van was literally parked 20 ft from where we stepped off. Hellerina was wonderful. Our drive around the island included many stops for photos and several stops at former plantations now hotels with beautiful gardens and views. She's 4th or 5th generation Nevisian and full of information and local stories. We could have had lunch and spent some time at the beach but decided to catch the 12:30 ferry back to Port Zant. If we did stay we would have had to take the 3 pm to the southern tip of St Kitts ( 10-15 minutes) and then have a 25 minute ride back to the ship- good if you're not in a hurry or haven't seen the southern end of the island.

 

Thenford picked us up at the ferry and offered to take us to the beach for a couple of hours (he had a group there already) in his new large 15 or so passenger van for no charge, but we decided to have lunch in town. He is a lovely man, I highly recommend him for any of his excursions

 

Nevis is a beautiful island. If you have been to St Kitts before, see Nevis- it's as beautiful if not more

Thank you for your excellent review. We have booked the Nevis tour with Mr Grey and can't wait!

On our Rotterdam cruise I noticed something I had not seen before. There was a notation on the menu that one could ask for a "smaller portion" of any entrée item. We appreciated that as sometimes it's just too much.

 

 

 

We also had the cordials each evening, with the "free" glass. We managed to collect 26 of them to take home! The SBP includes this drink. The glasses made great gifts for the people in my office. They are quite attractive. The Hazel Eyes, in the menu above was my favorite.

 

 

 

That looks yummy! I'm looking forward to trying some of the cordials on our next cruise.

Look forward to cruising vicariously through your entertaining posts. Our cruise is in 32 days...feels like forever!

Thanks for the review, I'm so glad to hear the Westie is holding up so well.

I too was able to reach him and arrange a tour to Nevis. He is very pleasant and a class act.

Our cabin price is still more than we originally paid (plus we got Explore4). This is a first for me and I am thrilled I booked early :) .

I hope it will still be offered...it's my husband's favorite "welcome aboard" drink.