Cheekyrn1

On 3/19/2024 at 10:36 AM, Loose moose said:

Good afternoon

My husband and I have booked a 14 night cruise from Santiago to Buenos Aires departing 19th February 2025. I'm looking at the itinerary and don't understand what happens when we arrive in Punta Arenas.

The itinerary reads,  

Feb 25 Strait of Magellan , cruising only

Feb 25 Punta Arenas arrives 0600am departs 0600pm

Feb 25 Cockburn channel cruising only

Feb 25 Beagle channel cruising only

 

Do we have to decide between disembarking in Punta arenas at 6am  😳 and staying there till 6pm  or staying onboard and cruising?

 

Perhaps someone has cruised this itinerary and can explain

 

thank you so much 😊

Hi loose moose. We are on same cruise, my twin sister and our spouses. We are so excited. Started looking at private tours this weekend. It will be here before you know it

I’m confused. I’m looking at cabana info page where it clearly states there are retreat cabanas on Noordam yet when I call to book the agent tells me that the Noordam does not have any cabanas. Which is true?  Thank you

22 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

On the Oosterdam and I think all the Vista class ships, deck 5 aft-wrap Neptunes have HUGE balconies (can fit 40 people on them).  My second choice would be deck 7 aft-wraps as this is the deck the Neptune Lounge is on (also the majority of the regular Neptunes).    Having said this, the aft-wraps are a bit smaller cabins than the other Neptunes, plus it is a long walk to most things on the ship (except for the MDR and seaview pool).

 

The aft-wrap Neptunes on the other classes of HAL ships differ in size from the Vistas.

Hi Dave. I have an aft Neptune deck 5 on the oosterdam coming up. Is the cabin much smaller than a midship Neptune?  I welcome getting in all the extra steps I can so distance is not a problem. Thank you

We have used the lido cabanas on the eurodam. I hated it while my sister loved it. Too many people walking by watching you. The music was way too loud..it was very warm in the cabana. Never saw a grape..we always went to the lido and got our own lunch. But we are thinking of getting a retreat cabana next January on the Noordam when cruising in New Zealand. 

4 hours ago, gregma60 said:

Not once during the entire sailing??  Yikes.  How would one get coffee at 5:15am?

 

-gregma

We bring our thermos from home and I go to the lido and fill them up. We are early birds and the coffee is available at 4:30am. I usually go in my bathrobe too and no one else is there

Yes we did. Our cruise finished in rome.  The day before we were in Naples   We decided to leave in Naples as we found a much more convenient flight home..we have been in rome numerous times so we didn’t mind missing it. We did have get to permission from HA before the cruise started because they had to do something with customs/immigration. 

On 11/9/2022 at 9:02 AM, Sea42 said:

There is a limit on how much spending credit you can receive. You receive 1 day credit for every $300 spent. I think the spending credit is capped at the number of days of the cruise. So on a 14 day cruise you can only receive (an additional) 14 days of credit from purchases.

Thanks but we didn’t get any spending credit, not for one drink, nor any tours, nor spa or anything

We did the Far East discovery itinerary and purchased a couple of very expensive HAL tours one of which was the 2 day Angkor Wat excursion never received Mariner credit for this

Thank you

Hi. Does anyone know when Holland America will release Australia 2024 itineraries?

thank you

Any recommendations for a transport service from Bergen port to Bergen airport?  Thanks

We are boarding in tillbury March 25. We are arriving March 24 with an all day private tour scheduled for the 25th. We don’t plan on checking in on the cruise or embarking until about 9pm. We did call Viking and they said this was ok since we are in port overnight

17 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

On all things nautical I defer to all the experts on this Viking board.  For all things Greenwich - we have just sold our lovely second home there - you must defer to me !

Congratulations on selling your home. Now I will show my ignorance..can you recommend best way to get from doubletree Hilton in Greenwich to the port of tillbury please?  And then best way to get from tillbury to Westminster as the Viking rep told me no free shuttles will be provided. Thank you so much for your advice

Is the Thames express also available when docked in Tillbury?  We will be docked there next month?

We received a full refund ONLY because of credit card dispute...while I understand the difficult situation every single travel company is in right now, some are treating their customers better than others...uniworld is not one of the better ones

I am incredibly disappointed with uniworld...I understand this has been a very difficult time for all tourist businesses and the financial impact has been devastating..I finally spoke to a uniworld rep yesterday and verified that our September China cruise has been canceled...she said I have 2 options..receive a 50% penalty as a FCC and 50% refund to my credit card or transfer all funds to a new booking..I asked why I should be penalized?   I also stated I want a full refund because I cannot make future plans at this time...she then became very adamant that this was policy “across the board” and there was nothing she could do...I told her I was not interested in the policy. That I didn’t think it was fair for uniworld to keep my money...she was becoming frustrated and I’m sure it was because she had this same conversation with 100 other people all day long...i reiterated that I did not want a FCC as I would not be traveling with uniworld again ...she responded again with the “ that’s the policy  across the board”. We ended the call as neither one of us were satisfied...I contacted my credit card and they have initiated dispute

We are scheduled for China September 2020. Upon checking uniworld website our cruise is no longer listed. I assume cancelled, rightfully so...now waiting for uniworld to contact us and I anticipate a battle for a full refund vs a FCC

We also have a cruise with them in September to China ..we really do not want to go for numerous reasons. The obvious of course is the virus ...but also with Us not working full time right now the question is will we have enough vacation time left to be gone for 3 weeks? And then when things go back to full time will we even be able to take vacation time because hopefully we will be busy?     We cannot accept a FCC because we already have vacations planned and scheduled for 2021 and 2022...so much uncertainty 

I can only comment on Neptune suites. We have always had aft NS on 4 different ships. The koningsdam was the worse. Very small and stupid configuration with the tv over the sofa. Sometimes we like to watch a movie after dinner and that was near to impossible...my favorite was the oosterdam: large and very comfortable...next favorite was the volendam.  I loved having a closed off dressing/vanity area with a walk in closet. I get up earlier than my husband and it was nice to dress in exercise clothes without waking him...the eurodam suite was also small and the decor was dark and not pleasant 

We have an Egypt cruise scheduled for 09/21 which I am comfortable with. We also have China scheduled for 9/20. That one I am not comfortable with...our work hours have been cut significantly and when things attempt to return to normal and work schedules resume who will be able to take vacation time?  And with the tragic financial times ahead for the entire world who can afford a vacation?..not to mention of course vaccine availability etc etc

8 hours ago, twodjs said:

Halfacts dot com has guest pictures of all HAL ships. While your cabin is not listed, the mirror image on the starboard side is included. Sorry, it does appear the cabin and the balcony are smaller than normal.

Thank you. I looked at the photos. Dang. It is small but I think all the cabins on this ship re smaller compared to other ship.   Things could be worse I guess.  

3 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

I just looked at the photos, and the cabin does look small. Cramped is a good word for it. It looks like there's too much furniture squeezed in there.  I had a deck 7 aft wrap and it was definitely larger. (it looked like the photos you can see of the deck 4 aft wrap)

 

Hi. Where did you see the photos at please?  We have 6210 next month and definitely was not expecting a smaller room.  We have always stayed in the aft Neptunes and have always had lovely rooms.  Now I’m disappointed ☹️ 

4 hours ago, racnwdow said:

 If you have a TA have then get permission to leave the ship a day early.  Otherwise contact HAL to get this permission.  We are also getting off early (one day) for the same reason you are (but to Omaha).

 

We did....we are looking forward to having a quiet evening to relax and chat about our adventure. We have a room at the Marriott and will have a nice dinner , do a little walking then catch 9am flight

We have decided to disembark in Naples the night before...this allows us to catch a 9am flight and be home same day...there were no flight options out of FCO to get us home same day to West Texas

Thanks for the photos.  We have an aft cabin on level 6 in September.