Banditswife

Thanks, dh will enjoy that

Looking forward to trying this next week on the K. I am wondering: is this usually held on a sea day? During lunch? Later afternoon? The jars look yummy, decisions, decisions-cake or jar or both. Then how to burn those calories. Guess it is an extra walk around the outer decks for me. I hope they will add some of these cakes to their everyday menus in lido or MDR. Hubby loves carrot cake, but rarely find it on the menu.

enjoy your cruise, we board the K next Saturday.

I agree, even if I had $2000 unspent OBC, I could not buy that Effy piece I really wanted. Do cruise lines really think someone would/could buy a $95,000 piece of jewelry?

I think we will have this problem on a 27 day in 2025. Our booking shows $800 OBC, Elite HIA, pre paid crew appreciation. We should gain veteran OBC, stockholder OBC & our TA gives a bit of OBC- so well over $1000 in OBC. We will probably try to book a few shore x while onboard in addition to those included in HIA, the spa sounds good, & giving extra tips to the bar servers sounds good too. I don't need a bunch of stuff from the shops nor do I want to spend it on jewelry. My pet peave is that I cannot specify a crew member, with the exception of bar servers & specialty dining servers. Our cabin stewards have always deserved the extra & sometimes MDR/Lido servers. Wish we could single them out. All in all- a nice problem to have

Things we enjoy sailing w/ Holland America: *longer itineraries *some unique itineraries & usually more time in ports to explore *enrichment classes- art classes, calligraphy classes, etc *crew members always seem happy & helpful *Pinnacle class ships-Dutch cafe *Tamarind is worth the upcharge when available *cloth hand towels in public restrooms *service in lido buffet, very little self serve

We only sailed HAL once pre covid, but have sailed HAL 5 X post covid. Strictly my opinion, but I have enjoyed HAL more post covid than I did our 1 pre covid. The crew is still great, food good/acceptable, accommodations good/acceptable, entertainment ok/acceptable, & price fantastic. Like others have said: the world has changed, including myself, since covid. I am a bit older than when I took my 1st HAL cruise in 2017- so maybe my age, employment status, has something to do with it. I don't want an active cruise, I want a relaxing cruise & HAL delivers.

I got a kick out of the DH thing. My dh (husband) would love for me to NOT have charging privileges. But he is stuck with my bill, so sorry-NOT sorry.

We will be on a 10 day "sea of Cortez," boarding 11/25 on Koningsdam. So will our menus be similar to the current 7 day west coastal cruises that K is doing now?

Enjoying your menu pics & food porn- now I am hungry.

We frequently explore on our own, especially if we've visited that port previously. I am careful to note the ship's time before wandering off on my own. And I wear an old fashioned wrist watch that is set to the ship's time. Cell phones can go wonky in foreign ports & as others have said - local & ship time might be different. We make a point of heading back to the ship at least a 1/2 to 1 hour ahead of the all aboard time. All aboard time will be posted in the daily & IIRC in the navigator app. The navigator app will also show ship's time, but doesn't always work when away from the ship. Good luck exploring on your own & have a great cruise.

enjoying your review, thank you for posting

Following along, thanks for taking the time to post this live thread. We board the K on 11/25. Enjoy your cruise.

We are booked for the Zaandam holiday cruise this year. We expect there might be more kids, but hoping they don't take over the ship. We are hoping the smaller ship & longer itinerary will help to reduce the number of children. We are looking forward to the festive decor & more holiday related activities.

We have a deeply discounted cruise coming up in 3 weeks, checked with our TA about my hubby's military credit & was told it wasn't allowed on the promotion we are booked under. But she also said to show our "sheer ID" proof at guest services once on board. It is worth a try, but doubt it will be honored.

There is even a group that does the duck hiding on land. Saw a car at a Walmart that had several ducks lined up on the dashboard. A bit overkill, but to each their own. Edited to add: a young girl started the duck hiding thing in order to bring kindness & happiness to others.

Why do that, when any child & some adults would enjoy having the duck. If you notice a duck & don't want it, just leave it or give it to the next child you see. We have even seen ducks that are knitted or crocheted. It is my wish to find one of those handmade ducks.

Can't really answer your pickleball or scuba questions. But I will comment on your upgrade question: It is of course entirely up to you, but we rarely spend time on our balcony when we have one. It is too windy while the ship is in motion, sailing. But having the daylight & fresh air is nice. Are they allowing you to choose your cabin if you upgrade? That would also be a deciding factor for me. I think what you've been given or booked is probably an inside guarantee. I doubt this means you will be assigned 1 of the 8 cabins you mention. It usually means any inside cabin anywhere on the ship. We've booked inside guarantees several times. Sometimes we love our location, other times we didn't really like what we got. But like your friend said, we are rarely in the cabin, so no big deal. We are just there to sleep & shower. Enjoy your 1st cruise

We have found & hidden ducks on HAL ships. The tag usually says something along the lines of "keep or hide, you decide." So yes, they can be taken home as a souvenir. There have been a few we kept & a few we have re hidden. Adults gets just about as much fun out of it as the kids do. On NS earlier this year, I wanted our server to put one on our table for my DIL. She said " oooh, I collect those ducks too." So we later made sure she got one.

The casinos on the ships are open as early/late as allowed by local laws. They want your money. I have seen casinos open as late as 3-4AM on ships, as long as people were still playing. They do usually have to close within a few miles of ports-before & after.

Thank you for your interesting review & safe travels home.

At home: no one gave me clean towels in the bathroom-I gotta do that myself? no cute towel animal on my bed? no one greets me when I walk down the hall from my cabin (oops bedroom?)

Have a great time. Enjoy your cruise & vacay.

I usually throw in a sports coat/jacket for hubby. He prefers not to wear it & sometimes it stays in the closet on the ship. But he does wear a pair of dress slacks with collared shirt for dressy nights & nice jeans/slacks with a polo or tropical print type shirt on casual evenings. But they don't seem to enforce the rules, too often we see shorts & t-shirts. This makes it difficult for the wives who want their spouse to dress up a bit. For me, I enjoy wearing a dress or nice slacks. So that is what I wear every night.

We had a B2B last year, with both legs originally porting at KWest. One got changed to Freeport the other to Bimini. Neither stop would have been our preference. FlaMariner must have been on the same ship-LOL Yes, both ports were a disappointment. Hopefully they will quit putting KW on the itinerary, a lot of people booked the cruise for the KW stop.