Bill S

Hi Kazu!  

Well, we fly to Seattle on the 6th, fly to Fairbanks on 7th.   Land tours run from the 8th through 11th. We embark on the 12th and disembark on the 19th at Vancouver. 

Thanks,

Bill

Hi Kazu! 

It has been a long time since I have been on CC.   We had cancelled or were cancelled by  HAL for 3 cruises this year and early next year.   However, we just booked a September 2021  Seattle Triple Denali cruise: flying from Seattle on 6 September to Fairbanks for the land tour, followed by a 12 September cruise from Whittier to Vancouver.   The cruise portion will be on the Noordam.   We have our fingers crossed that the COVID-19 era will be over by then. 

Thank you for keeping us HAL troops informed! 

Bill S

Here's another vote for the Banks Mansion!  Very nice and centrally located hotel, especially for the Rembrantplein (sp?)-Rembrant Square.  There is a very good Indonesian restaurant on the Square, too.   However, on a forthcoming cruise out of Amsterdam, we chose the Movenpick, only because it is in walking distance to the cruise terminal. 

Dave, we were on the Eurodam in December and in this month, too. 

While the Billboard is spacious, that is where our M&G was held and we had about 50 people there,  So, just be aware that if a large M&G is formed for the day you propose, it is entirely possible that you may not have a lot of space available. I would recommend a 9:00am session to ensure enough seats.   

Also, on sea days the Lido is open until 10:30, and some mornings it was still quite busy even then.  Perhaps, having your group meeting up there at 11:00 might be considered. 

The Crow's Nest is really spread out with respect to seating, and the area that used to be used for M&Gs is more like a classroom/lpresentations and/or for religious services.  

I hope this helps a bit. 

8 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

We are thinking of doing our own informal Meet & Greet on the Eurodam.  We would like to do it on the first sea day (Sunday) at 10 AM.

 

Since we have heard that the Crows Nest is now much smaller, is there another place(s) on the Eurodam to hold an informal meeting for about 20-30 people?  We were thinking perhaps the Canaletto dining area or maybe the Lido pool area. 

 

Any thoughts/suggestions?

 

On ‎2‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 3:21 PM, Ine said:

Seldom HAL ships dock at another place. But to be sure where your ship dock and return check the website of the terminal Amsterdam. https://www.ptamsterdam.nl/en/cruises-portal

Hi Ine!   Thanks for the information about the cruise schedule!   Very helpful!   I will email you why it was so helpful.  Regards,  Bill

Another way to deal with the "no lids" situation is to bring your own travel thermos jug with a lid that allow you to drink from the jug.  We use Zojirushi (means "elephant" in Japanese) mugs which are steel, keep hot drinks hot for hours,  are lightweight, do not leak, easy to clean and are almost indestructible.  Available on Amazon.  On board, I go the Explorations Café each morning to get coffee for my much better half to get her day started on the "right foot". No spills!  No burns!  No waste! 

In 2015, we had booked an excursion that required a lot of walking. The day prior to embarkation DW suffered a very painful ankle sprain. After boarding, we went to the excursions desk and advised them that we had to cancel. We were told that we would not get a refund, unless 2 other people purchased the excursion, and even then we would have a $10 penalty. We were lucky as 2 other people purchased it and we were given a credit of the purchase price, minus the $10. I am not sure if this was the usual practice or if it was due to the reason for the cancellation.

Not in my (admittedly limited) experience.

 

I rarely eat breakfast in the dining room, as it closes too early. But on the times that I have eaten there I have found it to be painfully slow. Not only does it take a long time before my order is taken, but then it takes a long time to be served. In between, it has been frustrating trying to get more coffee.

 

That's not even including the time my order was wrong---twice. Took three tries before they got it right. I could have been in and out of the Lido three times in the amount of time that breakfast took.

Hardly a lovely, relaxing meal.

Totally agree with you Ruth in all respects, especially closing too soon & painfully slow! Disappointing for sure.

Thank you! Can that staircase door be opened from inside ship so anyone can access our balcony?

No, the staircase has no way to enter or even see your cabin or verandah. The staircase is completely encased by the superstructure.

We have 7076 on 28th for Panama Canal. Does it have semi-wraparound balcony? Thanks!!

My recollection is that it does have a very small wrap-around- a foot or two, maybe 3 feet, but large enough for one person to stand in it. The staircase is inside the ship and can be accessed via a door immediately to the left as you exit out the cabin door.

I hope you will have a great cruise and will enjoy the cabin!

We had a port-side cabin on our Valpariso - Antarctica - Rio cruise and that worked well; however, we spent more time either up in the Crow's Nest or out on the open aft Lido Deck, especially in Antarctica waters. Antarctica is spectacular-go outside to enjoy it! Be sure to take sunglasses and sunscreen! It is definitely a cruise of a lifetime!

We booked this cruise in May with the Future Cruise Consultant (FCC) onboard the Maasdam (another advantage of using an FCC). They know about some cruises well before they are posted on the HAL website. This will be our 2nd VoV-awesome itinerary!

Also, we already have a great Roll Call going and growing here on CC! Please join us if you book!

We cruised on the Rotterdam in 2015 on a Norway cruise, in an aft facing, corner cabin. We loved the ship and the cabin-we booked another aft facing, corner cabin again for the VoV.

We were upgraded from an SS to one of those SC cabins on the Oosterdam a few years ago, and I almost had to call security to get my Dear Wife to leave upon disembarkation! They are awesome cabins! Yes it is a hike to the Neptune Lounge but still very much worth the hike back to the cabin!!! :D

We have been on 4 cruises that visited Tracy Arm and have never gotten close to the Sawyer Glacier. While the Tracy Arm is beautiful, it is frustrating to see Sawyer Glacier only from afar.

Having tried a half-dozen or so of thermoses, I finally found one that is simply outstanding! As good as the Starbucks thermos mugs are, check out this thermos: https://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-SM-KA48BA-16-Ounce-0-48-Liter-Stainless/dp/B004LP0DYS.

I have a 16oz and 20oz Zojirushi thermoses. They are not bulky, almost indestructible, can be locked to prevent spills and very easy to clean. They will keep hot coffee hot for at least 8 hours and cold water cold just as long. I take mine to the Explorations café each morning for my morning caffeine fix!

I haven't tried a Yeti, yet, but may try one of those for comparison.

Hope this helps! Now, everyone sip some java and talk amongst yourselves! :)

Our first ever aft-facing cabin was on the Rotterdam last year: 7076 and we loved it! The best view ever, no wind, and the cabin is a bit "deeper" in our opinion than side-facing cabins in the same category. Also, the only foot traffic is from the other few occupants who have those cabins. Very quiet! We were not bothered with vibrations nor the pitching motion in heavy seas (North Sea off Norway coast a couple of nights).

As a result of our experience we have booked aft-facing cabins on the Westerdam and the Rotterdam for 2017. Hope this helps!

For those of you who have embarked in San Diego, is it possible to drop off your luggage in the morning but not embark? This is what we usually do in Ft. Lauderdale, drop off the big bags around 11 AM and then go out to lunch, returning to embark about an hour before the deadline. Can we do this in San Diego? What time do they start accepting baggage for a 4 PM departure?

We drive down to San Diego for HAL cruises and we drop our luggage off first and then go park the car, so our return to the terminal does not take very long. But I am confident that you will be able to do as you plan. Because we drive to the terminal, we have to show our cruise documents, but I do not know if those who are in taxis or who are walking with their luggage have show their documents. I do not know how early the porters start accepting baggage, as we like to arrive after 12pm to avoid the long lines in the terminal. Have a great cruise!

Seriously, you need to contact your insurance company to get the answer to your question. Regardless of the advice you get here (even if it is correct), it is the insurer who makes the definitive decision; not anyone here.

We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam in February and had no problem getting into Grand Turk.

One of the issues surrounding the recent Grand Turk cancellations could be that the fall months are during the annual hurricane season which runs through November. Perhaps, even without hurricanes, it still might be more windy than usual. But having said that, on our February cruise, we had to miss a port in Mexico due to 40knot winds. So, I guess winds can happen at any time.

Tough way to end a cruise. JC, what, if any, was the HAL compensation if you remember please. Thanks.

Kevin, yes we have vivid memories of the compensations offered: there were two offers.

1st offer: complete refund of cruise fare and 25% of that fare as a credit for future HAL cruise.

2nd offer: completed refund of cruise fare, but if you let HAL keep it, they would increase the future cruise credit to 50% of your cruise fare.

Because we had a Neptune Suite our credit was "sweet", and because we knew we would be cruising on HAL again, we took option #2. Our next cruise was to South America and Antarctica, and even booking a Neptune suite again, it only cost us only an additional fraction of the new cruise fare.

Additionally, for those who had used HAL-arranged air travel, they booked air travel back to the airport of origin and refunded the air fare. Luckily, we were in that group.

I do not recall if guests who had booked air travel on their own got a refund or not, but I do know that they had to rebook the flights home on their own. Also those who had used their airline travel points not only did the not get a refund, but the had to rebook on their own as well.

The experience was a bit tense (it was at night) with fire fighting teams pulling fire extinguishers out of the passageway cabinets and smoke in the passageways; at most, it makes for a great story. ;) The best news is that no one was injured.

Holland America have good reasons for banning certain electrical equipment being brought onboard.

May 23rd 2000 - Nieuw Amsterdam was in Glacier Bay when a cabin fire broke out - in a crew cabin. NTSB report highlights the cause as an unattended appliance left on.

So all passengers should follow the rules so as not to endanger the ship.

See plenty of info on the web - Prinsendam fire 1980, Statendam fire 2002, Star Princess fire 2006.

While I am in total agreement that bringing high wattage/amperage items onboard is potentially dangerous, I thought that details about the Statendam fire should be explained.

We were on the Statendam when it had the fire in 2002, but it had nothing to do with anything that a passenger brought on board.

A main circuit beaker for a diesel generator suffered a catastrophic failure. It set off a fire in the electrical switchboard below decks. The ship lost all propulsion and most electrical power. Smoke permeated the ship for a while. We had to be towed back to Vancouver by 3 tugs & the next day, the cruise was cancelled.

Here is a link to the Canadian Transportation Safety Board report: http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/marine/2002/m02w0135/m02w0135.pdf.

We have been on a few cruises when the scheduled port stop had to be cancelled. Yes, the CD has to scramble to get a new "plan" in effect and yes, some CDs do it better than others.

What that has taught us is that we need to have a contingency plan, too. For example, we bring a new book (or Kindle) to catch up on reading, and a travel version of Rummikub, etc. Sometimes we have to make our own entertainment whether it is just going up to the Crows Nest to enjoy the view and chat with other guests, many of whom are so very interesting or entertaining.

The bottom line is that we are just grateful to be on a floating resort, even if we have to entertain ourselves.

We have done 11 Alaska cruises with HAL, in May, June, July, August & September. 5 or 6 of those have been in May. As others have said, the Alaska weather is unpredictable from year-to-year, with it being given that one should expect to encounter rain regardless of month. However, our experience has been that we have had fewer rain or very warm days in May than in other months. But, even in May we bring our rain gear.

Other reasons we like May Alaska cruises is that the snow is usually down lower on the mountains, eagles and whales are easily seen, the merchants are very happy to see you, and the cruise fares are lower than in high-season! :) Also, for some of the crew, it may be their first time seeing Alaska. Finally, there are probably fewer cruise ships up there in mid-May than in June, July and August: not as crowded in the ports.

Have a great cruise! We will be going again on May 22! Yaay!

They are gone!!!! Yaaay!