debdiva

I avoid spa purchases because they are very expensive and all I have tried included very hard sells for products.

Wine tastings often include reminders that these wines are parts of packages.

Alaskan cruises seem to be heavy on promoting jewelry/t-shirt stores that may be owned by cruise line partnerships.

Art auctions are an embarrassment to the cruise industry in my mind, but there are people who faithfully attend.

I was pleasantly surprised that HAL Zuiderdam shore programs were actually presentations, not sales oriented. I'd say the shore program on Venice was indispensable for those who've never been to Venice before.

I have no problem walking out if a "program" becomes an offensive sales pitch.

Your cruise is what you of it. I wish you had given the cruise line that you used, because I would avoid it.

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I took ballet flats and heels for dinners, even wore Vionic sandals (rubber like flip flops, but dressier) in the MDR at least one night. Ihave yucky feet, so I need a variety of shoes to accomodate the latest pains. None of my shoes were heavy (except the workout shoes), so they didn't add much to the baggage weight. It was a 22 day cruise, so I took very light clothes and not one person commented on my wearing the "wrong" shoes or even most of my clothes. Take what feels good to you.

I wore a TravelOn crossbody on my last cruise (25 days between land and ship) and Ireally loaded that thing down somedays. Ihad no problem and I have shoulder and neck problems. The previous cruise (10 days altogether), I wore a tiny crossbody wallet from another company and had to give it up and stuff it in a coat pocket because it caused so much pain. The Travelon had nice wide straps, a RFIDpocket for my passport and a RFID wallet besides. It was well organized, held lots, including my 10.5" tablet, and did not hurt my neck or shouder.

No one stopped the joggers on the Zuiderdam, not even during On Deck for the Cause when they were dangerous.

Our post dry dock Zuiderdam did not have the days of the week in the elevators.

DH and I are considering staying on the cruise ship when we're in Nassau next month. We've been to Nassau before and to be honest, it isn't one of our favorite ports. We've never just stayed on the cruise ship before.

 

Has anyone chosen to stay on the cruise ship when in port?

After overdoing it in Rome before our cruise, I spent more of my port days on the ship, leg propped up and iced. It was delightful. Either the MDR or a for fee dining room was open for lunch, but room service was also an option. And, one day, the bar attendant saw to it that I got "room service" at the pool!

Although my leg was an issue for walking, I still got in my gym time and port days were great with no one in the gym to monopolize machines.

I know, I shouldn't talk about port days on ship, folks will start staying "home" in the ports and the luxury of having the ship to myself will go away.

Just back from 22 days on Zuiderdam. Vegetarian service prompt, flexible. It was everything our earlier experience was not. Now, I can say special diets should be fine in the MDR. I even found goodies in the Pinnacle.

I just got back from Med this week. I would say jeans are too heavy. Capris seemed very popular on our ship. I even wore maxi skirts in a couple ports. I wore jackets or shawls to dinner because the MDR seemed cool. I endorse the idea of buying some things along the way. I got a beautiful caftan in Mykonos for €29 and Italian and Turkish leathers are exceptional.

We were starboard on Med cruise this past month. Advantage starboard for Stromboli because we could see it at night from our verandah rather than the cold and windy bow decks. Generally, we stayed on our verandah when we got the view, went to crow's nest or one of the open decks if we didn't have the view.

A group on our cruise did a cooking class (private excursion) and two of them got sick, the rest did not. What did the two have in common? They drank the water. They might have blamed ship water, but they realized ship water on most lines is safer than water in your home while water in the towns may not be so safe.

We just got back from 22 days on the Zuiderdam after drydock. We heard complaints of plumbing issues. We did have issues with hot water and I had to rinse my hair in an unoccupied stateroom one morning. They rebuilt the water system in drydock and there were some glitches that didn't show up until there was a relatively full ship. We didn't have toilet problems, but we heard some people had them. The carpet was new in all public areas as was much of the upholstery and some of the furniture was new. It was my understanding that the curtains and bedcoverings were replaced in the drydock. Consequently, there were a lot of respiratory issues among the passengers. My husband and Iwere among those with bronchitis that came from cheaing out and not using the ship's doctor.

That said, all passengers got a $200 shipboard credit on the first 11 day out of drydock. We thought that was fair. We knew we were on the first cruise out of drydock and there might be issues and anyone who joined the roll call was well aware of the dry dock. I think we even heard about the strike. We were willing to risk inconvenience for a spectacular itinerary at a marvelous time for weather in the Med.

We had great service, good food, marvelous ports and perfect weather. Yes, there were snafus, including a rather disorganized departure in Rome, but it was a good cruise, particularly compared to a previous, not out of dry dock cruise with 5 toilet outages in a 7 day cruise, never getting my vegetarian meal ordered the night before until my tablemates were eating dessert. There was no drydock to blame on that cruise, no responsiveness from staff or crew.

Iguess it is all relative.

We barely got our 8am cab. We were scheduled for 7:15-7:30 disembarkation. Once we made it to A Deck, we flew through the process. For us, the hang up was the crowd on Deck 1 and lack of elevator service to A.

We were supposed to self-disembark (take our luggage off ourselves) and got hung up in a major jam on Deck 1. Elevators wouldn't go to A deck and they dumped HAL excursion folks into the mix. Quite a mess.

I live in total fear of lost luggage! I wear a plus size, so it is often difficult to find decent cruise clothes. I always pack at least one change of clothes in carryon and split his and hers between checked bags so we each have formal and informal clothes in each suitcase, but losing both checked bags? Disaster!

I found an excellent price there on the hotel's website. It did not include the transfer from the airport, but that's only about $50 Canadian. So just add $50 to the hotel price to see if the HAL price is a good deal. In our case, the HAL price was nearly $300 and we paid $169+$50.

Cyber hugs. It is never easy to lose your mother.

I took some of the Pilates classes on Statendam a few years ago. It was obvious the instructor had no knowledge of Pilates.

DH uses Elemis. I bring my own hair products, facial cleanser. I'm spoiled.

We got the Explore 4 promo when we booked our cruise. We're about 45 days out and wondering how we get those drink cards and Pinnacle dinners. We want to make reservations in the Pinnacle for my birthday, so do we go ahead and do that now and trust the Explore 4 kicks in or what?

I notice there is no category for Split, Croatia, but this looks like the logical place. Is the port very near the town? Can one see the best Split has to offer on foot?

We used our Sonicare on the Statendam in 2011. No problem.

DH pinches pennies twice. I would never surprise him with an upgrade. Well, there was the flight home from the last cruise and I got us in first class for less than $50 each. He'd been sick, so he appreciated the luxury.

We like the deck above the lido with the roof open to the pool, we get some of the excitement of the lido, but fewer obstructions for sail away pictures.

The hop on hop off is a great way to get an overview of Vancouver. Your hotel can tell you the closest stop, probably even arrange tickets. Also, the Vancouver visitors bureau has a nice area in the Pan Pacific (ground level if I remember correctly) where you can organize many tours.

We loved the Pan Pacific. Booked through hipmunk or hotels.com or something and got an amazing city view for $169/night. HAL booked us in at higher prices with water views and tinier rooms. I just checked hotels.com for a random night at in November and saw a $192 rate.