Astromaid

Clay, I have seen you playing a game of LRC and needing 3 one dollar bills. There is a whole discussion on Carnival about some one reporting this game being played on a Carnival ship and the participants have fists full of dollars. Illegal on Carnival and security shut them down. Must be that Viking is OK with the game. 

This will be my first time on Holland America, specifically on Rotterdam.

1. I am confused about the availability of self serve drinks on Lido, I have read about disappointment in the length of time getting a beverage with your meal, I am hoping that there is availability of self serve. I bring my own thermal glass to drink water, juice and lemonade. 

2. I always avoid Lido for embarkation lunch. Will other venues on Rotterdam be open for lunch on that day? We do have Club Orange, but I think that dining room is only open for breakfast and dinner?

3. I read that I cannot bring cans of soda on board. But in looking at what I can preorder for my stateroom, every beverage except soda can be pre ordered. My cruise is a year out, maybe they will add this option at a later date? I did not purchase the Have it all package, we are not heavy drinkers. I drink mostly water, maybe one can of soda, maybe one alcoholic drink per day. My husband likes one maybe two beers a day. So it did not seem to be a good value for us. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed your trip, I will be taking a similar cruise on Rotterdam in a year. I bought Club Orange based on what I read in the forums and will be in our first aft cabin. I read a different forum by someone on Rotterdam who was not happy with the Club Orange dining room, food was cold, not as ordered and service was poor. Did you experience any problems? From what I read you seemed satisfied. Also, were you comfortable in the cabana? I have read they can be very hot with no air movement and depending on the sun, no shade. Thanks so much for your entertaining insight. 

6 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

Welcome to HAL!!

Aft cabins are the best - the wake view is fabulous.

Safe travels- enjoy your cruise and your CO tote.

I told my husband the best perk of Club Orange is I get a tote! Notice the "I". You are one of the people I followed here on your last trip, I hope to meet you one day on a cruise, you sound like one of my kind of people. 

I just wanted to thank the many people on this forum who contribute advice and suggestions. You have convinced me to try HAL for my 15th cruise. Today I booked the 8 day Southern Caribbean Seafarer on Rotterdam March 28, 2025. Based on what you taught me I booked an obstructed veranda, purchased Club Orange and upgraded to an aft veranda. 

We are considering getting an inside cabin and a retreat cabana going to the ABC Islands. Are there pillows available to use with the loungers? I prefer to sit up more. Is a cabana always shaded? Is there an elevator to this deck or do you need to use a flight of stairs? Will there be airflow with the cabanas on the side (with the better view) or better airflow with the forward facing ones?

We loved Chibang. ate there three times, but we thought the Chinese was better than the Mexican.

I see the pricing does not include Noordam, I am getting mixed information as to whether the Noordam has cabanas. I see deck plans where they are listed and then on the Holland site they are not. Does anyone know if they have removed them?

Does anyone know how  Viking will pronounce it? Veela or vayla?

Does HAL offer craft get togethers? On other lines I have been able to bring a project to work on and join  with others to craft and socialize. It is fun seeing other projects,  

My grandson has a Gabb watch that he communicates with family. Will this work with the Carnival's chat feature? My guess is no, but I don't know anything about this sort of communication. 

Almost monthly I get brochures from Viking on their river cruises, and a couple times a year I get a brochure on their expedition cruises. I never get one on their ocean cruises, which is what I am interested in. Does anyone get ocean brochures?

Is the charge applicable to anytime dining too or just if you have set dining?

12 minutes ago, cmmaxwell03 said:

 

Viking newbie here 🙂 Is it true that for the most part the World Cafe and Restaurant have the same menu?  That would be great when you just want to try a little bit of most things on the Restaurant menu but do not want to be wasteful.

Absolutely! there may be small differences but you can even get the appetizers. Unfortunately you don't get the controlled portions like the dining room so it is too easy to overeat because you do want to try everything. The amazing thing is that the Viking crowd is very good about not wasting food, unlike some mainstream cruise line guests that leave plates of discarded foods. 

We were on our first Viking cruise in June. We also did not care for the close two tops in the dining room, we only ate there once. We were sat in the middle of two very close tables,  the one couple deliberately ignored us, I like to at least say hi. It made for a very uncomfortable meal. On all our other nameless cruises we always eat in the main dining room because of the better quality of food as opposed to the buffet. When we discovered they have the same menu and the quality of food was just as good in the World Cafe we never went back. And the tables are much further apart.  And it was fun interacting with the servers and getting their advice on what to try. Especially Phillip from the Philippines, he usually was carving meat on the left side of WC when you walk in. Clay, you should see if he is still on the Saturn, he is a gem.

1 hour ago, sugarside said:

Not being too serious here but if you both have Apple Air Tags and each of you has one with you then you can find each other 🤔😂.

Could be useful if you got separated on an excursion?

He hates my Iphone, he has an android, lol!

Does Viking offer a chat feature through the WiFi to send messages between myself and my husband? On other cruises we use this feature to find each other. We might be able to use Whatsapp, if not. Also do they offer accurate  menus and activities on the Viking App?

16 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

I second that one Tom.

 

That was the best, the others were pretty entertaining except for the circus one.

A lot of people don’t like the circus, we were thrilled with the production, but we were seated right in the floor where all the action took place. Celestial strings is the best production we have ever seen, the violin trio are amazing. 

This was also in the press release.

“We are also grateful that Ann Ziff has honored us by serving as godmother of the Viking Saturn. Having traveled with us for years, Ann is a loyal Viking guest, and she shares our commitment to the arts and cultural enrichment. Her contributions to the Metropolitan Opera, one of our longtime cultural partners, as well as many other important causes are truly impressive.”

We are scheduled on the voyage from New York City on June 7th. Saturn's naming ceremony is on the 6th, can anyone attend or is it a closed ceremony? Would it be interesting to attend?

We loved ChiBang on Celebration. went there twice, we did not think as highly of the Italian restaurant. I will admit we prefer the Asian choices better. We considered excellent: pot stickers, chicken spring rolls, lettuce wraps, beef and brocolli (my husband's favorite meal),Singapore chili shrimp, hakka noodles, broccoli, super loaded nachos, queso fundito. Good to very good: egg drop soup, kung pau chicken. Not good: pascado frito (too much breading), yucca (yucky, never had it before, never again)

We were on Celebration a few weeks ago, there were numerous comedy shows, both pg and R. Some of them were duplicate, but there were so many we did not see them all.

9 minutes ago, Lee Cruiser said:

My wife and I like the PG Comedy shows.  One of the things that we really liked about Mardi Gras was the abundance of comedy shows.  There were more PG shows than any other ship and over 50 total shows during the week.

 

Two questions about comedy:

 

1.  For those who have cruised on Celebration:  Is the amount of comedy on Celebration similar to that on Mardi Gras?

 

2.  For those who have cruised other lines:  Do other cruise lines have both PG shows and R-rated shows, or just R-rated shows?

Family has decided on Carnival, no issues with bed configuration, cheaper and they did Carnival before. I still want to try Oasis class but it will wait until it is just my husband and I, Thank you for all your suggestions. 

1 hour ago, jbrinkm said:

How would you feel about checking in with a GOOD travel agent to see what they can do for you? They often have a better price due to group rates and can find unusual rooms. It might be that you can book an additional inside room across the hall for the same price as 4 in a room by using a TA. There is not as much of a discount from Royal on teens as there would be for kids 12 and under in the same room. 

Parents would never allow the kids to sleep in a room without their direct supervision. Daughter in law has to have a balcony, I did check two adjoining balcony rooms, too expensive. I have used a travel agent once, I am not keen on giving up complete control. But thank you for the suggestions. 

Sailing with two teens, boy and girl. I don't seem to be able to figure out whether there is a pullout couch for 3 & 4th to share (not acceptable) or whether some of the cabins have an upper berth. Can't really splurge for a suite or two adjoining cabins.