DeepWaterMariner

The new Wonder of the Seas doesn't have its first cruise until next week.

12 minutes ago, bob12 said:

The Freewinds is run by the Church of Scientology.  It is often seen docked in Aruba

The Freewinds has been docked in Aruba every time I've been there.  Many years ago she was the Boheme of Commodore Cruise Line when we sailed on her.  We were in Aruba in 2013 and watched the Freewinds taking on "passengers".  It was a surprise when we saw the "passengers" doing chores on deck related to ship's maintenance.  That night there was a big deck party on the Freewinds that we saw from our balcony as we did our sail away.  

Sorry for going off topic.

It's not a world cruise but still wonderful to read about your travels again.  That's especially true as we look forward to sailing again on HoAL in January for the first time since leaving the Amsterdam in Perth on the 2020 world cruise. We've done two cruises this year on RCCL but it will be like returning home to sail on HAL next month.

I haven't looked at the itinerary, but 11 sea days are fine if they are broken up by a few port calls.  The problem is the size of the Ovation will limit the port opportunities in the South Pacific.  I've crossed the Pacific 4 times and loved it.  The maximum days at sea in a row on those crossing was 8.  Not a problem for the old salts on those cruise on much smaller ships than the Ovation.  More activities than we could fit into a day.  The ports were heavy on  tendering which would obviously be a problem on a ship the size of Ovation.   

Use a Visa agency and get the multiple entry 10 year Visa.  I live in Houston where we have a China consulate and it only too a week.

I've enjoyed all your reports.  We'll be waiting to board in San Diego when you take a holiday break from the Amsterdam.

Glad to hear that the Station Band will be back for the Grand World.  I've never been on a Grand cruise without them.

I'll be reading your posts faithfully until we board in San Diego for the holiday cruise and staying on for the world.  You've already provided some useful info about the Mall remodeling since that was on our agenda for last minute shopping.

21 hours ago, TiogaCruiser said:

Was this “private” insurance that covered the single supplement?

It was private insurance and single supplement didn't come into play.  We live in different states so we had separate travel insurance policies with different companies.  HAL had been paid in full and we were well into the cancelation penalty period so my partner only received port taxes back from the line while collecting on her private insurance.  I didn't have to pay anything additional for single supplement.

I've been through this when my girlfriend had to cancel for health reasons after final payment.  She had insurance so she got her money back that way and I sailed alone with no additional charges for single supplement since HAL had been paid in full at final payment and only refunded the port fees for my partner.  

1 hour ago, erewhon said:

 

Passengers leave the "Privacy Please "  and write a note stating service of room not required, please have  a good time with your relatives today (or similar message) and stick on the stateroom door.  There were numerous such messages on the doors during the ship visit at Benoa.  The crew members really look forward to being on a cruise that calls at a port in their home country.   It is a pleasure to see crew members showing their  relatives around the ship.

 

It's a little better organized on the Grand cruises that call in Bali or Java.  On the 2019 Grand Asia we were provided with a card where we indicated what service, if any, we wanted during our calls in Benoa and Samarang and to leave the card in our mail slot by the door.  

I tell the room steward if there is something that bothers me.  The only time I've done anything myself was on port calls to Bali or Java where I've given the room stewards the day off to visit family.  All I've done on those days is straighten out the bed.

Sounds good to me.  

We did the high speed train to Paris from Amsterdam in 2017.  Very easy and no need to change trains.  Its a short taxi ride from the pier to Centraal Station.  Booked ahead of time, you'll know your train car and seat.  Position yourself on the train platform in the location of where your car will be so you can board quickly, while there is still room in the luggage storage area.  The biggest issues you'll have are finding the right platform at Centraal Station and the long taxi line at Gare du Nord in Paris.  Our only misstep was not booking an earlier train.  I wanted to leave plenty of time in case of any problems, but we could have been in Paris earlier.

You can bypass check in lines but you still need to go through security.

My standard answer is always the cruise on which I met my wife.  That was on North German Lloyd's Bremen, 7 days from NYC to the Caribbean a half a century ago.  There have been many favorites since then including our first cruise after we got married on the old Rotterdam.  Now I can name bucket list Grand cruises as favorites, especially the Grand Med, Grand Asia, and Grand World.

I gave up flying international but still fly domestic to get to embarkation ports.  The idea is to take long cruises to make the flights worth it.  We did a cruise we called our European adventure by cruising over on the Prinsendam, doing some back to back cruise there as well as land and river cruises.  The trip home was on the Rotterdam.  It was fun planning and one of our best trips.  Otherwise its Grand cruises which is one step away from living on a ship.

Like many, the Prinsendam is my favorite old HAL ship but I also have very fond memories of the SS Rotterdam.  The Amsterdam is my favorite of those in operation.  My relationship  with the Amsterdam has to do with Grand cruises and I feel like I'm cruising with family because so many of the crew are old shipmates.

I've done tubbing the ditch in Kauai a couple of times, done a doors off helicopter tour around Oahu, and lots of car rentals to do our own touring from Hilo, Kona, Lahaina, and on Kauai.

Interesting pictures.  I sailed on the ship in a pre-Prinsendam design, when she was the Seabourn Sun, and several times in her Holland America design.  Sorry to see her go, but this is the fate of aging cruise ships.  

We've done cabin swaps a couple of times and it has gone very smoothly each time.  Ours have been completed before 9 AM so it was no impediment to going ashore for the day.  The only time I've had a change of cabins where the non-hanging stuff was moved for me was when I was moved from a cabin with a leak.  In that case my move was supervised by an officer and everything in the new cabin was in exactly the same place it had been in the old cabin.  Otherwise, my moves required packing up the stuff in drawers and loose items.

15 hours ago, awhcruiser said:

How did you get to where the excursion starts?  I am seriously looking into booking this.  

When we booked this tour through the ship the tour operator picked us up and dropped us off at the pier.  We used a taxi when we booked it on our own.  The tour operator's location isn't an expensive taxi ride and you might be able to share a taxi either going or coming with other ship's passengers.  The last time we did it, 2017 off a Princess ship, it wasn't offered on the ship but we shared a taxi with cast members from the production show team on the ship who were going on the same tour.

12 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

"Worth it" is really up to you.

 

I loved Kauai.  We did the Tubin' the Ditch excursion there.  I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

 

And WalMart was handy after being on the ship for a few days and figuring out what we forgot to bring.

I've done the Tubin' the Ditch excursion twice and would love to do it again.  What a hoot!  I've also done car rentals a couple of times, once driving to Waimea Canyon and driving up the other coast the second time to the beach where South Pacific was filmed.  Tubin' the Ditch wins hands down if your physically able.  The first time the tour was offered through the ship.  The second time they didn't offer it and we had to book it on our own. 

Good advice from the previous posts.  I usually mention it and then check my statement a day or two later.  Sometimes its automatic but I've had to get charges removed at guest services.  On the 2018 Grand Asia, the 5 star mariners were being notified that they had not used there complementary Pinnacle dinners as we were getting near the end of the cruise.  That was a first!

It depends.  My preference is for long cruises to interesting ports, many too small for large cruise ships.  Those cruises are generally on smaller ships.  I consider the Amsterdam to be about the maximum size for that type of cruising.  If I'm doing a shorter cruise, like less than 30 days, I'd probably consider Vista class ships to be acceptable but certainly not optimum.  For a family cruise with the grandkids, then a mega ship is fine with me.  Plenty of activities for everyone in the family.