mightycruisequeen

4 hours ago, alyssamma said:

So, deposits are back to $3500 for the cruise I booked. The price is the exact same. To me, this was a great deal.

Amen!  Same here!  I'm so glad I jumped on it for our long 2026 cruise, plus I got the cabin we wanted.  Win/win/win! 

I'm wondering how far back the "seaview bar area" extends?  Does the smoking area include the deck chairs all the way back to the back rail of the ship?  On our last cruise, there were some people taking ashtrays off the tables and taking them to smoke in sun loungers right next to the back rail.   I thought the smoking area was pretty much understood to be the tables under the overhang on the starboard side.  

On 3/23/2024 at 2:58 AM, Bill B said:

 

No, but the Oak Room on the Noordam - designed as smoking lounge (where you can't smoke anymore) - has a beautiful fireplace. 

According to HAL's website, the Oak Room on Noordam does currently allow smoking.   

For the comfort of all of our guests, all staterooms (cabins), showrooms and most other indoor areas are designated non-smoking. No smoking of any kind will be permitted on any stateroom verandah.

Designated Smoking Areas

Eurodam, Nieuw Amsterdam, Noordam, Oosterdam, Westerdam, Zuiderdam

• Sea View Bar area
• Oak Room (Noordam only, including cigar and pipe smoking)

Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam, Rotterdam

• Sea View Bar area
• Casino-smoking is allowed in designated areas for active players only and only when outside of 12NM from the Netherlands

Volendam, Zaandam

• Sea View Bar area
• Casino-smoking is allowed in designated areas for active players only and only when outside of 12NM from the Netherlands
• Sports Deck, outside Crow's Nest

Cigar and pipe smoking is not allowed anywhere inside the ship; it is only permitted on the outside decks where smoking is otherwise allowed.

Electronic cigarettes are not permitted in staterooms or in other public areas of the ship other than designated smoking areas.

Any guest who smokes inside staterooms or on verandahs in violation of our policy will be charged a US$250 cleaning fee per day of violation and will risk being removed from the ship for repeated violations.

Holland America Line reserves the right at any time to modify the smoking policy onboard or alter the locations where smoking is permissible.

We see it on every cruise~  people at the customer service desk demanding that the daily service fees be removed from their onboard account.  I can believe people have issues on their cruise, but I can't believe that it warrants withholding part of the crew's wages for the incredibly long hours of working so hard, and graciously putting up with no shortage of rude, entitled passengers.  This is, of course, just my opinion, but there it is.

On 2/5/2024 at 5:56 AM, ottahand7 said:

The rest of the Daily. 

We just got off Saturday.  I'm missing game night.  😕  

The reason I ask is because we won't be using the Navigator app, and our phones will be "OFF" and in the safe, not teathered to us.

Can someone verify that they've gone on a ship tour with only their ship card being scanned, or that the ship has printed out tickets for them?

If you've booked HAL excursions for your cruise, do you still receive a physical ticket, or do they only offer electronic tickets?

We've been on Volendam several times, most recently over Easter 2023 & we really love the ship.  We've had minor issues on some of the sailings, but nothing to deter us from wanting to come back.  We've ALWAYS found the service and food to be very good to crazy-good, and feeling of spaciousness on that ship is wonderful.  

I think that reviews are helpful, but some can be so nit-picky, I just take them with a grain of sea salt.

12 hours ago, raesive said:

HIA/SB holders, be aware! Embarked yesterday and discovered they have updated the prices on all the drink menus... (A woman who was on for the previous sailing now is paying $1 more for each grapefruit cosmo than last week) Most drinks that were previously $11, are now $11.50 or $12... And if it's not a special listed drink, you'll just be surprised as to the price. My lemon drop came back at $12 and was included in my package on my last sailing. The only positive is that you can pay the difference now instead of for the full drink, but now it feels like getting nickeled and dimed. Still don't appreciate the lack of transparency as I have yet to find a menu that shows the prices for each spirit. 

 

Rock Room Menu:

WOW!  Never been a better time to be a teetotaler!🥰

I'm okay with their shampoo, but I don't like their conditioner.

It doesn't do a good detangling job, so I bring my own.

LOVE the body wash and the lotion, though.

1 hour ago, Navybikermom said:

 The guys would probably love it, but would get plenty of stink-eye looks from their wives. 

Probably the most accurate answer you'll see on this thread! 😆

Wish that HAL's IT would get their ship together.

1 hour ago, rodndonna said:

 

I get that problem if I open in Chrome without being incognito, so in Chrome I if I am using HAL site, I automatically just open a new incognito window.

 

I expect deleting your cookies might also work.

I go straight to excursions on the new incognito window too.   😕

40 minutes ago, happywandering said:

I'm not getting the error messages but instead EVERYTHING takes me to booking excursions.  Would like to do a few other things to manage my bookings.

I'm having the same experience.

We have three HAL cruises booked, but more often than not, the website says that I have no cruises booked.  Their website is an absolute trainwreck.  Thankfully, their website wizards don't run the ships.

Their website is absolutely pathetic.  If I click on "Manage my cruise", it takes me instantly to shore excursions for that cruise.  I can log out and log back in, clear my cookies, try different web browsers, and still get the same stupidity.

Honestly, I can't remember visiting a business website that was so fraught with problems.

16 hours ago, RuthC said:

I'll just skip lunch and head straight for the cakes. Yum! 

My thought, exactly!😋

We're booked on (I think) the same cruise you're talking about, but booked it with an agency who set final payment date as Nov 9, so I called to make final payment first thing in morning on Nov 8th. I've never pushed it to the last day, Sunday or not.  You gotta have nerves of steel!

Volendam is doing a 21 night Ultimate Caribbean January 4, 2025, followed by the 133 night World Cruise beginning January 25, 2025..

10 hours ago, jsn55 said:

I so agree about who should deal with the smokers.  Cabin stewards are really excellent at taking care of pax and making them happy.  To expect them to confront a smoking pax is quite ridiculous.  The problem, of course, is catching someone actually smoking on a balcony.  Not sure how you'd get a photo from your balcony ... stick your hand out around the partition?  But counting on the stewards is very myopic.

I agree.  I don't think the cabin stewards should be expected to deal with the smoking scofflaws anymore than I think the security personnel should be expected to make my bed!

Awesome, thank you!

I have to agree with others about the free laundry for 4 star mariners being pretty darn awesome!

...and speaking of smoking, science, and dinosaurs...

We've been on a bunch of HAL cruises, and there was only one that we didn't have a priest onboard.