bnickle

Great info, one small question. Can you use your Explore Four perk towards getting a can of coke out of the Neptune Lounge?

So happy to see you blogging your trip! Hope you're having a wonderful time!

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Thanks! We went ahead and booked the upsell; my only one big concern was that we all get off the ship together at the same time, and turns out that is not a problem. Everything else is icing on an already wonderful cake.

We've just been offered a tempting upsell from a SS to a NS but need to factor in our family traveling with us. They are in an inside stateroom. Can they come to the Pinnacle for breakfast with us? Can they embark with us at the priority embarkation? Any help would be appreciated.

Try to get to Lincoln Center Stage about 15 minutes early. You'll want to sit in the part of the room with the performers. (This will make perfect sense when you see the space.) Drinks can be had from the Pinnacle Bar next door. Lincoln Center tends to get busier as the week goes on and people find out about it.

Great advice! Thank you...this is the info we need!

Thanks for the link! It builds the crazed excitement for the upcoming trip to a fever pitch! What a gorgeous day that was...hope we can enjoy that lovely kind of weather as well.

Absolutely read the linked reports Old As Dirt Mom provided...they are chock full of interesting, if subjective information.

We're doing this cruise in three weeks, and bringing along our three adult children (20, 22, and our oldest who turns 25 on the cruise). Our oldest lives across the country from us now, so this is a trip to reconnect as well as see some amazing sights. I'm bringing the games SuperFight, Taboo, and Cards Against Humanity for us to play, as that's what we do when we all get together. Toss in an Explore Four package for four of us and Cards Against Humanity will take on a whole new dimension. Also, all three of them are hoping that Rogue One is still playing because, seeing it together three times is apparently not enough. They have talked about maybe doing a trivia get together one night, and my oldest especially wants to hear some music at the Lincoln Center Stage. Kinda cool thing about cruising; you can make it be the trip you want it to be. It's Choose Your Own Adventure traveling!

Thanks for the location info! We'll be sure to do our own art crawl.

Thank you so much for this great review and report! We're getting ready to sail in two weeks and it will be a first time on a HAL ship for us so I've been combing various reports to make sure I have the info I need (and frankly to armchair travel while I wait.) Great advice and really well done pictures!

Rembrandt was my favorite Dutch painter and much of his work was on display throughout the ship . I credit him as the originator of the selfie movement which is so popular now .

Ha! Pretty sure that the common belief that he originated the phrase, "OMG r u srius" is just a rumor. The art looks lovely. Do they provide any kind of a guide or tour to the artwork on board?

Your pictures are gorgeous! The Chihuly blew us away with its beauty and almost surreal atmosphere.

This is a nice time of year to visit Seattle with long hours of daylight, and all the flowers out:) Have fun with the family. I see you are cruising a couple of weeks after we are. My sister will be doing her live photo and travel blog, if you want to follow along. We can give you a riveting blow by blow description of our embarkation process:D Bon Voyage!

I am totally on board for this. (See what I did there? I slay myself.) Very cool, and bon voyage!

Wonderful! You'll arrive in Seattle in excellent spirits (haha:D). If it makes you feel any better, my sister and I are doing the Eurodam to Alaska on May 20, and we plan to arrive by 11am:D We like to take pictures and find even the terminal at pier 91 exciting ( but we are the ultimate cruising geeks;)).

Have a wonderful time! I think I've arranged for the car to pick us to to take us to the pier about 10:45. So pretty much the same plan. We just visited Seattle for the first time last fall and just loved it so we're excited to spend a couple of days there with the kids.

Also, apropos of nothing, I received four free drink coupons from Southwest in the mail yesterday, so I may take it upon myself to quaff a Bloody Mary on our outbound flight. Nothing to do with this thread; it's just making me smile.

When I sailed on the Koningsdam last August out of Amsterdam we were given a number upon checking in at the terminal. We then were told to wait until our number was called to board.

Yeah, that's the standard, but suddenly they are sending out email updates with staggered boarding times that do not mesh with what I read from various travel reports and posts. My only deal was that if this is hard core I need to rearrange the pickup time for our ride to the pier, but I think all is well. At the end of the day I'm going to be on a vaycay with my husband and adult kids, and anymore that is really hard to arrange because everyone has such divergent schedules! It's all good, and it's going to be all fabulous.

Do you know if there is also a large pre-booked group on your cruise. That could also explain the staggered booking. The Eurodam is popular with large groups.

Excellent thought! I checked, and nope. Just us average, everyday people in search of some balcony time.

From a poster who embarked Eurodam in Seattle five days ago:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=53009733&postcount=54

Yeah, I have seen that be the norm so I planned accordingly. The "important update" kind of threw me, but I'm just going with the original plan.

My cruise is further out than yours, so I have not received an e-mail like that.

 

This was not the case on our last HAL cruise (in 2012).

 

Maybe they are doing this to help with crowding & lines?

Could be. Really, if that's what they want it's not an issue. We're coming two days before we sail and we have a condo rented right off if Pike Place Market so we could just arrange for our ride to come two hours later and have lunch at the market.

We are sailing on the Eurodam three weeks from Saturday, on the 7 day Alaska itinerary. I just got an email from HAL about "an important update." The update is that there is a staggered schedule to board, so that boarding for deck 6 begins at 1:30 in the afternoon. Is this the normal way of doing things? My understanding from reading the boards is that people just typically start showing up at the cruise terminal 11ish or so, with no fixed schedule to board. Not trying to be nit picky, but the 11ish schedule worked great with the checkout time of the condo we've rented. So my question is, I guess, is it a new thing for HAL to have a boarding schedule?

It wouldn't surprise me if that procedure is put into place eventually. Princess Cruise Line is getting ready to debut their "Ocean Medallion" on three of it's ships within the calendar year. While, so far, you can't order food in the dining room with it, you can order food and drink while, for example, lounging by the pool, or sitting somewhere on the ship other than your room. I think we'll see more and more digitally handled on most cruise lines over the next few years, but they are going to have to seriously upgrade their wifi systems for that to work.

Our daughter lives in Manhatten and was told to work from home today. She stopped by the market on her way home from work last night and said it was nuts. I think the idea of working while in her pjams and doing a Netflix binge while working is appealing.

 

It doesn't cost anything' date=' doesn't take away from anything else, and doesn't bother anyone. Not sure why new technology like this deserves the Luddite responses...[/quote']

 

 

...or the snarkiness. The OP asked a question politely and some of the responses have been pretty belittling.

My mom and her twin sister turn 90 in April, and we're taking mom to Texas so they can spend it together. I am so sorry for your loss; I've witnessed my whole life how firm and unshakable that bond can be.

:) I really appreciate all the replies and info! Still have a window of time to work with before our final payment so I'll look into it! Thanks a lot. :)

I hope this doesn't seem as ignorant a question as I actually think it is, but what is the advantage of transferring a booked appointment to a TA? Really not being snarky; I just want to know.