Mark

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

Depends on demand, but usually a van. Low demand...might be a taxi.

 

Are you sure its to be used for hotel transfer? Or is Celebrity going to have a bus stop by?

guess I will have to ask the front desk when checking in

Question about the transfers over to the pier...my wife and I will be staying at this hotel the night before our cruise and purchased the hotel room stay along with transfer to the ship from Celebrity Cruise Line...they gave us a coupon for transfer from hotel to the ship...

My question is how does the hotel transfer to the ship work?  Is it done by bus, van, taxi?  We have an assigned check in time at the pier of 11AM and am wondering if the provided transfer is the way to go or if we should just call UBER?

How is the weather? Is the wind very bad? If so, is this typical of the carribean at this time of the year?

Question...what happens if we place a bid on a more expensive cabin or suite...Celebrity accepts the bid and we are upgraded...and then...we decide to cancel the current cruise that has the upgrade and take a cruise later in the year?  Do we lose the amount of money Celebrity charged our credit card for the upgrade bid?  Do we get it refunded? Or is it applied to the next cruise along with what we initially paid for our original cabin?  My concern is that if we cannot make this cruise, we would lose the amount we paid for the upgrade?  I currently had an open bid on a Celebrity sailing in February...

Question...what happens if we place a bid on a more expensive cabin or suite...Celebrity accepts the bid and we are upgraded...and then...we decide to cancel the current cruise that has the upgrade and take a cruise later in the year?  Do we lose the amount of money Celebrity charged our credit card for the upgrade bid?  Do we get it refundedd? Or is it applied to the next cruise along with what we initially paid for our original cabin?  My concern is that if we cannot make this cruise, we would lose the amount we paid for the upgrade?

What defines a Medallion Cabin???

The wife and I are sailing on Caribbean Princess out of Ft Lauderdale in September...will CP have the new Ocean Medallion program up and running on her for our cruise???

I agree with Andy and Sue and I was on the July 8 cruise...everything was fine and I did love the Veendam! However, there are two areas that need improvement and fixing that I just read on the review page

Dining Room Service was horrible...it really sucked big time! You could place your order and sit there for an hour waiting for anything to eat! The quality and taste of the food was quite good but the service was just awful and we did have assigned seating for a table for two at 8PM.

The mid-ship pool on Lido deck is way too small for the ship. And when they allow children and young kids to PLAY in it unattended inlcuding jumping into the pool the adults have to leave. There is no pool for adults only like on Carnival ships and Holland America permits parents to bring their children onboard and go anywhere they want and do anything they want unattended and unsupervised. I am disappointed that HAL did not have ship personnel around to police the activities at the pool...I do not blame the children...they are after all just kids and do not know any better but I do blame HAL and their parents for ruining what would have been a perfect cruise. By the way, HAL had to shut down the pool the last day in Hamilton since they found a diaper floating in the pool and could not empty it until 12 miles out at sea! If children with diapers are not allowed in the pool...how did it get in there?

Personally I do not understand why parents would want to take their children on a Holland America cruise rather than Norwegian, Disney, Carnival or Royal Carribean...all of which have ships leaving from NYC area piers...but for me the children issue was a turnoff and I will go back to sailing with Carnival or maybe try Princess or Celebrity!

Beagle

Sorry yo have to tell you this...but the Indians chopped up Norway in late 2008 in Alang, India...and she is now being used to make things like razor blades, storm sewer covers, manhole street covers etc...if you do a query on SS Norway Alang, you will see some of the last photos...very depressing...very sad...what a terrible ending to such a fine ship...one of a kind!

Mark

Just remembered three more SW escorts that I had...Julie McCormick, Julia Stramm and Beth Grosholtz...all very good and much fun just as Dominick and Jamie were...

Jeff...any idea or info on where all the Singleworld hosts are today and what they are doing?

Janet I understand...now...that it is a "woman thing" and therefore really cannot add anything since I cannot relate to it being a guy.

But from a guy's perspective, I personally have never had any interest or desire to become involved with any females working on the ships I have sailed on...sorry...

Also from what I understand, current cruise line regulations forbid all members of the crew except for officers and dance company members from fraternizing with the paying guests...has something to do with liability such as in cases when women passengers have reported being raped onboard by crew members. I guess times have changed from when Home Lines ships sailed the oceans...

I am confused with the posting on this boad and have to ask this question...I hope I don't get "yelled at" for asking this...but here goes...why would American women (citizens) want to look for a husband who is an Italian citizen working on a cruise ship as a waiter, cabin steward or bus boy? What am I missing here? These guys were proabably all looking for a marriage certificate to become a US citizen and lets face it...they were not the doctors, lawyer, professors and financiers of Italian society. From what I recall in talking to some of the guys who worked on Homeric, they went to hotel school in Italy and planned on spending their working life at sea on Home Lines ships. :confused:

That is a great story about Nordic Prince...thanks for sharing it. NP was my first cruise with RCCL and the captain at the time was Leif Otto Bang and from what I understand has become a legend with RCCL. I loved my cruise to Bermuda, the cruise line and the ship and have sailed with RCCL many times since...thanks again!

I always felt the same way about NCL Seaward and RCCL Empress of the Seas...the right size ships for cruising to Bermuda and allowed to dock in Hamilton and St George...not that God forsaken Dockyard with a view of the Royal Bermuda PRISON!!!

Well we know where NCL Dreamward is right now...where is the Windward?

T thanks for the update...one minor point...Majesty is not Dream's sister...Majesty is one of a kind...Dream's sister is actually Wind...thanks again

Do you know why she is going to Greece?

So why is the Dream just sitting there in Freeport rather than in service with NCL, Star or some other cruise line?:confused:

You are right about no parties, no visitors and high security on the ships for debarkation...and of course 9/11 certainly added to that situation...however, security changed and was increased on the ships before 9/11 as a result of the Achille Laurel hijacking by those Arab terrorists...remember how they threw that poor Mr Klinghoffer in his wheelchair over the side of the ship?

I gave up sailing NCL after they were acquired by Star Cruises...heard they were never the same after that...prior to the acquisition NCL was very much like Royal Caribbean...so I have stuck with RCCL as my primary and Carnival as my secondary since then. Have heard good things about both HAL and Princess.

St Pat's? I have been marching in the annual Bay Ridge St Pat's parade since 2005 with the OLPH Ridgemen Alumni...starts at St Pat's at ends at OLPH...one long parade and that hill at the end is a killer! What made you decide to leave the Ridge for Jersey?:cool:

Sue,

I grew up in Sunset Park...went to OLPH grammar school and Xaverian HS...played baritone in the OLPH Ridgemen Drum and Bugle Corps...one of my buddies from OLPH is a bartender now in Kettle Black...if you ever have been in there you can't miss him...he looks like Santa Claus! LOL...he and I have been doing a senior alumni drum and bugle corps lately based in Garfield, NJ called the NY Skyliners...lots of fun but lots of work too!

Mark

Well..Holland America is going to send Veendam back to Berrmuda starting next year...maybe we could do a Home Lines reunion cruise on Veendam...after all the NYC Bermuda run was a major piece of the Home Lines business...

S,

Sorry but I have never been on a Costa cruise...SORRY...but I was thinking it would be nice to be get together on the Home Lines Homeric while she is still in service for Costa...hey if you go and if I go there would make two of us and maybe others would also follow...where are you from? I am from Brooklyn...live in the Dyker Heights Area if you know where that is...

If I do the Home Line reunion cruise on Costa Europa, it would have to be 2009 since I booked myself on Carnival Triumph on Nov 9 out of Miami for this year...

Mark:cool:

I have an idea...why don't y'all plan a reunion cruise on MV Homeric...Homeric (AKA Westerdam) is not sailing as Costa Europa...it might be nice to have a reunion on a Home Line Ship!

Homeric was my first cruise and my first cruise on Home Lines...I was on the 13th cruise which went R/T NYC - Bermuda with Capt Salvatore Musamicci in command...you know...the captain that grew the basil and tomatos on the bridge in large wooden boxes.:cool:

Baker

I see you worked on Nordic Empress...she was my favorite RCCL ship after Song of America left the fleet...I was sorry to see Nordic Empress leave since I thought she was just about the right size! I think the differences you reference while working on some of the newer ships is due to the fact that they are just so big and maybe just too big...they all have nice facilities but look like floating refrigerators as compared to the classis lines of ships like Nordic Prinnce, Nordic Empress and Song of America...I belived Monarch of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas are the last classic looking ships left in the fleet and I did enjoy sailing on Monarch of the Seas.

I notice you also worked on Westerdam...I sailed on Westerdam when she was Home Lines Homeric on her 13th cruise NYC/Bermuda...she was also used in the movie Out to Sea after she became HAL Westerdam...Homeric was the ship the hooked me on cruising for a vacaton.

Mark