Daisyloo

5 hours ago, Sea42 said:

I was hoping to bring my hiking poles. Would they be allowed?

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N4O3HF3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

We took our treking poles on our last 2 cruises and had no issues.

Yes it will be open.  On our Noordam cruise in September I had a haircut on embarkation day.  

On 1/12/2023 at 1:56 PM, tigger54 said:

My husband and I are taking side by side cruises next month. Will the laundry rooms be open on embankment day? Our first cruise on Holland America does not have laundry facilities so hoping that when we get on Princess Sky we can do laundry right away. Also, what time do the laundry rooms open up in the morning?
Thank you

 

HAL has good deals on laundry.  You can get an unlimited package or "stuff a bag" .  They do an awesome job.  Then you can start your Princess cruise with clean clothes and not have to spend your vacation time doing laundry.  

The first time we stayed in Vancouver we stayed at the Pan Pacific and it was nice, and very convenient.  It was also very expensive.  

Our second time, this past September, we stayed at the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel and loved it.  It was fully half the cost of the Pan Pacific.  We had a corner room which gave us a view to the waterfront.  It was a 5 minute walk to the waterfront, and maybe a 10 minute drive to the port. We are booked to stay there again before our next cruise.  I would recommend it. 

That is kind of weird.  Usually excursions are available a long time before the cruise.  We had some of our excursions booked months ago for our April cruise on the Koningsdam. 

14 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I have never had a bad meal at the Crown Grill. If a selection is not up to par, speak to the the Assistant Manager while still in the restaurant and he will correct the issue.  Service is excellent.  
 

My recommendations would be the lamb chops and sea bass.  The filet is extremely tender.  The rib steak is not consistently good, but it was recommended that I have it cooked to a medium rare.  
 

If the first night is not acceptable, you may cancel your other two evenings.  Is there a reason why you are avoiding the MDR?  

Our recent experience in the Crown Grill on the Regal was very disappointing.  I had the lamb chops and they were as tough as an old boot.  My husbands steak was okay.  The sides were all so salty!  (And we use salt at home so it's not like we eat low sodium and are complaining about a little too much salt.)  This food was salty!!

We also found the service to be sub standard, and we felt that it was because they were understaffed, and therefore overworked. 

We enjoyed all our meals in the MDR (Club Class).  Good food and excellent service. Much better than Crown Grill in our opinion. 

We haven't sailed on the Rotterdam, but have been on her sister ships, the Koningsdam and the Nieuw Statendam. There will be a blow dryer.  It is a decent blow dryer,  better than I have used on other cruise lines.  

Glad that you will be reunited with your bag!

We bought suitcase covers that are super colourful and there is no way anyone could mistake them for their bags.  They are really easy to spot in the sea of luggage in airports and cruise-ports.  They were relatively cheap - about $25 each on Amazon.  

We also bought Air tags and they gave us peace of mind being able to see where our luggage was at all times.  

We were on the Regal this November and December for her TA and then her first Caribbean sailing of the season.  Over all we thought the food was good. We were in Club Class and the food is the same as the MDR.  Service was exceptional. The food in the buffet was good too.

The meal we did not enjoy was in the Crown grill.  I had the lamb that was very tough.  My husband had the porterhouse and he enjoyed it.  We both thought everything was very salty (and we like salt).  Service was slow and all the waiters seemed very rushed.  Maybe understaffed?  And it was so noisy in there - seemed more cafeteria like than a nice restaurant.  

Thanks for the quick responses.  One less thing to worry about taking.  

We are Canadian so we won't get our medallions mailed to us.  We will pick the up at the pier in Italy.  Will Princess include a lanyard with our medallions, or should I buy my own before we leave for Italy?

TIA for any answers.

The hair dryers on the ships we have been on lately have been okay.  Not salon quality but acceptable.  On the Pinnacle class ships they were in a drawer at the desk and they were attached so they couldn't be used elsewhere.  I have short fine hair and for me they were fine. 

We just did 14 days on the Noordam to Alaska.  It was our first cruise post pandemic and we quite enjoyed it.

We felt the service was excellent.  The crew were great and seemed very happy to be back at work.  The food and service in the MDR was very good and seemed the same as pre pandemic cruises, except that there seemed to be fewer choices.  We found the food in the Lido to be lower in quality and with fewer choices than pre pandemic.  It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great.  But we always found something we liked.

Overall, it was a great cruise and I am glad we did it.

35 minutes ago, dianeh said:

We are so confused. We are Canadians and sailing out of Vancouver for Alaska. Holland sent us an email instructing us to fill out our Arrivecan prior to embarking. We are aware of crossing into Canada from USA visits with our arrivecan. But why do we need it on embarking Canada? 

 I know it seems counterintuitive to have to do it as you are Canadian, leaving from Canada.  But you have to do it because the government says so.  

We are in that cruise.  We were notified several months ago about the changes.  I was glad we hadn't booked our flights yet.  

We have been in a cabin in that area a few times.  We really liked it.  If you want to be unseen while sitting, just pull your chair back towards the cabin.  If you want to be out in the sun, pull it forward.  We never had any issues with noise.  

1 hour ago, Coquitlam Cruiser said:

thanks for my photo done ok but for some reason cannot upload vaccination maybe I will delete and start over.  Thanks

 

We couldn't upload our vaccination proof until we were about 3 weeks to travel time, which was last weekend.  It took us a few times before we could get mine accepted.  My husbands was a bit easier.  The health questionnaire and the covid  test results can't be uploaded until right before the cruise.  

Look on your boarding pass.  I'm pretty sure you will see it there.

HAL does read these pages, at least some of the time.  

A few years ago I made a comment on these forums regarding HAL's Flight Ease.   A while later I got an email from CC asking if they could give HAL my email as they would like to talk to me about my comment.  I agreed and HAL contacted me. I had a nice conversation with the HAL person.   So, they do read these boards.  

If you don't get seasick it probably doesn't matter whether you are fore or aft, or high or low.  My only recommendation would be to pick a cabin on a deck that has cabins above and below,  instead of being under the Lido or above the main theatre.  

I am pretty sure you can.  I used mine and my husbands FCC to buy the Princess protection plan for me. 

3 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Thank you for today's fleet reports and Daily Rich.

Looks like some lovely destinations for all the ships.

Neither of us like Red wine.

Nice quote.

I will give today's food and drink a miss.

We are relaxing in the garden where it is sunny and 66°F.

All of these Elderberry trees are full of berries overlooking where we are sitting.

I hope everyone is safe and well and enjoying today.

Prayers for everyone who need them and happy sailing for those currently cruising.

Graham.

Beautiful.  Do you make anything with the elderberries?

17 minutes ago, cruise-kat said:

Hi…first time cruising on HAL. Just wondering how dressy the formal nights are on the Caribbean sailings for gentlemen. Just booked a 10 day cruise on Rotterdam in January. Also how many formal nights are on a 10 night cruise? Thanks for any info.

You will see lots of different things on formal night (gala night).  Some tuxes, some suits but not that many. Maybe a sports coat or blazer with nice slacks.  Lots of men will be in nice slacks, a long sleeve shirt and very possibly a tie.  That is what my husband wears and he seems to be in the majority.  Mind you, we have not sailed since the start of the pandemic so things could be a bit different now, but I doubt it.  We will be sailing in September so we will see.

You will likely have 2 gala nights.  

Enjoy your cruise!

We did this a few years ago.  Got off a Princess ship, got into a taxi, and had the driver take us to a HAL ship.  We made sure to give the taxi driver a good tip.  Also, we had opted for the latest disembarkation from Princess so that we would have less time to wait before we could embark on HAL.  

We used the last bit of our FCC to buy the Princess insurance.  Our travel agent  said we could use it for anything that gets added to your invoice. If you booked air through Princess you can use it to help pay for that.