1884Vic

I will be on the Jan 4 11 day and we do not need to test if we if we are vaxxed.  You can locate the voyage-specific  health protocols by looking up the your confirmation or journey number on the HAL site. 

5 hours ago, Himself said:

If you had my connections with the Almighty, you would not say that.

This might be the most arrogant thing I have ever read on any message board.  Anywhere.  I don't give a toss what one's profession is. 

That said, we canceled our late fall 20th anniversary 14 day cruise in anticipation of this extending through 2020.  

6 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Does HAL have a fully trained "Care Team"?  I have read of these teams flying in to assist in times of emergencies in the past.  For many people who do WC, the attraction is they don't need to fly. These people are not going to be skilled on arranging flights - working the system.   To compound matters, Perth is not a major international flight hub.  

I don't know.  I know I am Monday morning quarterbacking, but I felt like they had a responsibility here and dropped it.  Maybe they did everything they could. Time will tell and I don't think they are a company who wishes to alienate their clientele. 

I keep thinking if this was my mother, would would she do?  She and my dad traveled all over the world until he passed two years ago.  I travel extensively as well. This past November we did a DIY trip for several weeks to Peru.  My husband picked up a parasite in Cusco.  We managed but it was stressful.   We also had a pretty great adventure into the Amazon for a week but got stranded in Iquitos for some time.  Iquitos is notorious for being the least "connected by roadways" city in the world.  We managed, and it was totally fine.  But I am 45, healthy, speak a little Spanish, and know how to use a tech device like I do a fork. 

8 hours ago, Captain Ricky said:

This is my next to the last post of this cruise blog.  In it I am critical of HAL, I hope in a constructive way.  I would be interested in your thoughts.  My final post will be a positive one reflecting 10 weeks of great cruising seeing parts of the world most people never see.  I have to end on a positive note because that's the way I feel.  That will come in a few days, now this.

 

https://www.rich.mcclear.net/2020/03/28/penultimate-thoughts/

Thank you for writing this.  I can appreciate that conditions were changing on a minute by minute basis in the US, but I cannot, for the life of me, understand why HAL left hundreds of people (most of advanced age) on the other side of world fend for their own air arrangements. On a good day making emergency air arrangements is stressful.   Throw in technology and connectivity issues and you are asking for trouble. 

I had a negative experience on HAL a few years back - rather inconsequential - but I was not super impressed by how they handled it.  They completely wasted hours of my time and came back with such a limited compensation it was laughable. I didn't care about the money; I resented my precious vacation time being wasted more. My husband and I have done land-only vacations for the last five years, in spite of previously loving HAL. We have a cruise booked for this Christmas/NY and I am not 100% sure I am thrilled about taking it. 

If they sailed from NY,  I would be there in the proverbial minute. I live just outside the city and can easily book last minute.  I never understood why they left NY.  The other cruise lines seem to be packed, according to friends and family who have sailed from NYC during the summer months. 

Thanks all.  I am leaning towards doing something in FLL that day . Trying to stay out of the way doesn't sounds like a vacation day.  We know FLL well and don't mind fooling around for a few hours so there is less stress on the staff. 

We're doing a B2B for the holidays and I am not as curious about process as I am about the general facilities and mood onboard the ship during that day.  I am genuinely curious about how cruise ships operate, but I don't want to be in the way of the very busy crew.  I also want to be able to use facilities.  We are buying a thermal spa pass, but does that mean it is closed until later that evening because of cleaning and first day tours?  Is the pool available? 

I am going to give a dissenting view. 

We had a retreat cabana once.  I did not think it was worth it for us. 

It rained like hell on one of our two sea days so it was useless that day.   Two of the days were actually a little cool, so we wrapped up in robes for those days.  And this was on a Caribbean cruise!

We also like to do a lot of activities around the ship, and since the cabana was a little pricey, I felt obligated to use it.  Our cabana overlooked the retractable roof over the pool.  That meant less wind, but I spent $300 to look at a roof.  And the hours are/were  limited.  We would have loved to sit there in the evening to star gaze but I think it closed around 6. They may have extended hours now. 

The service was very nice. But I get great service around the ships almost anywhere.  We now put that money towards the thermal spa or a nicer room I can use 24 hours a day. 

Thank you for this review. I was supposed to be on this cruise with my parents but my dad passed away in late July. My mother decided she wanted to pass this year but we may do it again in the future. We took this cruise in 2014 and loved it so much, which is why we booked it again. Thanks for the photos. It has stirred up a lot of very nice memories.

I own an 1884 victorian that sucks up too much of my travel money. (But I still love it.)

I went in November three years ago and am planning for December this year. $900pp is too rich for my blood and a $2000 price difference for both of us would probably mean I wouldn't go. My day in the Canal was hot, humid and totally fine. Panama is a rainforest and equatorial - so always hot and humid. November sees an average of 13 days of precipitation versus 3 in January. I am a gambling woman, so it's worth it for me to save the extra money. Other's opinions will likely be very different.

I love the thermal suite but I could not get cool on my Panama cruise. I love the heat and tolerate it well, but something about sitting on hot tiles or in warm, bubbling water was not appealing to me. That said, I have a large credit burning a hole in my pocket and am thinking about the suite on my upcoming partial canal cruise. I like the peacefulness in the suite.

If you like really good beer the selection is terrible. Occasionally a bottle or two of something interesting makes it onto the ship but it's largely the regular commercial stuff. Nothing comes out of a tap. My husband is a very serious homebrewer and loves to find interesting stuff when we travel. Unfortunately you can't bring it on board like you can wine.

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Drawers are only in the nighttables. There are no drawers in the closets- which is enormously frustrating to me. Small items like socks and undies get lost. Closet is 3 doors. My parents use a HC room and I think their closet is 2 doors but wider.

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I had a huge credit a few cruises ago so we "bought" the package. We were on the eastern caribbean itinerary with my parents and have done it many times before, so excursions weren't going to be our thing. We figured - why not spend it on booze? I had to add about $200 to make purchase it for both of us.

It was.........ok. I like gin and tonic (a lot) and I was able to have them whenever I wanted. I also got to try a lot of stuff that I would never normally buy. But I am also a wine drinker and the stuff on the package is not good. I won't say undrinkable (because I drank it!) but I never would have paid for it. I also drank way too many sweet "poolside" drinks. I am not a juice drinker and everything started to taste the same after a few days. I do like Pellegrino, Perrier and fancy tea, but I don't go out of my way to buy that stuff on a cruise.

Was it fun? For sure. Would I buy it again? Nope. If the wine was better I would definitely consider it. My husband would say the same about the beer selection, though he is a serious home brewer and is not happy unless he finds something unusual.

I was/am (I still do consulting) an American art curator. I avoid these auctions like the plague. I remember when the giclee craze started - it's a fancy word for poster.

However - I will say what I always told people who would ask me about their piece of artwork. Do you like it? Then it doesn't matter what you paid for it. Unless you are buying art as an investment (generally not wise) or are a curator buying for a collection (you would be run out of town if you did that on cruise ships) then don't worry about what other people think. Unless you are being totally scammed, it's not worth getting knickers in a twist about this stuff. I have plenty of stuff in my home others would not find to their taste, and vice versa. Art should evoke an emotion and give us some degree of pleasure. If it doesn't don't buy it.

His choice of where to stay may not be up to him. It may be due to wherever HAL has booked accommodations for him. (I am assuming that HAL does provide such hotel reservations as required for their Officers to reach their ships.)

It's possible- but still, not convenient. To be honest, I was even aware there are that many hotels in Jamaica that are tourist-grade. The Air Train runs to JFK and the LIRR to Penn, but it's an odd place to stay.

Still- glad to see a HAL ship was in NYC. It would be nice if they sailed out of here more frequently.

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Captain Albert is posting again on the "new" Holland America blog site. https://www.hollandamerica.com/blog/albert/

Thanks! I enjoy his blog and the inside view.

Native New Yorker observations coming: Why he chose to stay in Jamaica is beyond me. There are so much closer places to stay that are a LOT nicer if you are sailing from Brooklyn. Also- the cables he references next to the "Ed Koch Bridge" (we all call it the 59th St bridge) goes to Roosevelt Island. The tram is operational and gives some nifty views of the city. However - it does get stuck from time to time!

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I am totally mistaken - I did get an "upgrade" but it wasn't on that cruise. I booked that the Westerdam aft balcony. I asked my TA to move up ob ov to any balcony on my Zuiderdam Panama cruise in 2014. That's where I had to give up the $100, which amounted to about $9/day (it was an 11 day cruise). That cruise felt about 2/3 filled - it was wonderful. We booked the same itinerary for mid-December.

We did - we went from an obstructed oceanview to an aft VB on the stern on the Westerdam in December 2015. I used a TA and called them. I lost my $100 onboard credit but I thought it was a fair trade for a huge balcony. Our ship was only 75% full, so I would imagine that was how I was able to do it so easily.

We did this itinerary back in November 2014 and will repeating it again this December. The Panama day is a very long one, but worth it.

We were up before the chickens to watch the ship enter the canal- make sure you move all over for different views. You will hear narration around the ship. About 30 min before our tour time we had to meet in the theater. They will load each tour onto a tender in Gatun Lake, and you'll be brought to a pavilion on the shore, and then put on your buses. We took the Embera Indians tour, and it was one of the best days I've ever had on a vacation ever (land or sea). We toyed with the ferry through the canal but that seemed like a long day and a little confining. Incidentally, that particular excursion got back so late the ship left an hour later than scheduled because those folks were not yet onboard.

You can only take ship sponsored tours in Gatun Lake. If you decide to stay onboard, the ship will return through the same locks and you can enjoy the views on a nearly empty ship (my parents did that). Your bus will bring you back to Colon, where there is a small tourist flea-market.

This December we will likely be taking one of the excursions to Panama City. I adored Panama and would like to return for a land visit in the future.

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We really enjoyed our deck 8 aft cabin on the Westerdam last January and have another booked this November- except for one incident.

There was a VERY loud staff party one evening at the aft pool. This went on past 2AM and was an absolute disaster for anyone directly below that area. I am fairly young, enjoy my share of loud fun and games (we had just returned from the last set of BB King) and live in the burbs of NYC, so I am used to noise. This was DJ-thumping-glass-shaking-hundreds-of-feet-running noise. Probably an isolated incident, but one I do not care to repeat. We were given a free bottle of wine and a small cruise credit for our trouble.

This November we have booked deck 5. Lesson learned.

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We did the Embera Village and it was probably the best day we had during a nearly perfect cruise. Great tour guide, bus ride wasn't too bad, loved the dugout canoes and the village itself was fantastic. Bring cash in small bills for some neat local crafts at the village. I bought a beautiful basket and a bracelet for about $35.

We toyed with doing the full canal excursion but I didn't want to be on a small ferry that long since we plan on doing a full transit in the near future. I was doubly glad when the busses came back two hours later than advertised- we had to hold the ship. I don't think that is normal, but it made for a VERY long day for a lot of people.

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We did it on the Zuiderdam in 2014 - it was offered twice. We did not expect it to be as much fun as it was. We kept running into folks who were also on the crawl and everyone had a fabulous time. Lots of good games.

The only reason we passed on our recent cruise is because we were on the drinks package and had enough alcohol. ;)

I've stayed in the Main Deck large insides and it is my second favorite cabin (second to the aft verandah). I was recently on Deck 8 in a verandah and twice I knew I had to get low and center because I felt a wee bit woozy.

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