POA1

Apologies if someone already posted this, but here is the page and the policy from the HAL site. https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/about/our-company/accessibility Holland America Line only permits service animals on board, defined as those animals that are individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability. We do not permit our guests to bring pets, therapy/companion animals, and other animals that do not meet the definition of service animals. If you have any questions about whether the animal you wish to bring on board is, in fact, a service animal, you may contact our Guest Accessibility Department. Your itinerary may include ports of call that have very specific and strict requirements that need to be met prior to your service animal being allowed off of the ship. Please be sure you understand the requirements for a service animal to disembark in each port of call. The best places to obtain specific information on required documentation and immunizations for your service animal are the U.S. Department of Agriculture's website, local customs offices in the specific ports, and from your service animal's veterinarian. All documentation and immunization requirements are established by government authorities and not by Holland America Line. Should you need assistance in locating this information, please contact our Guest Accessibility Department. To board the ship, your service animal must have current vaccinations. Records confirming the vaccination status should be provided to our Guest Accessibility Department prior to your departure. We also recommend that you carry the immunization records with you in case they are required at any port of call. If you do not have the proper documentation and proof of vaccinations for your service animal required at a port of call, or if there are local quarantine requirements, your service animal will be denied the right to leave the ship. If your service animal is denied the right to leave the ship in a specific port of call, the staff and crew will work with you to determine what actions may be possible to allow you to visit the port without your service animal. Please note that in your absence, you will need to provide for the care and supervision of your service animal. Except in those circumstances where your service animal has been denied disembarkation, you may not leave your service animal unattended on the vessel or in your stateroom at any time. Important Information for Service Animals on Australian Cruises The Australian quarantine authorities have changed their approach regarding service dogs on-board cruise ships. Unfortunately, their new approach makes it practically impossible for us to accept service animals on domestic or roundtrip cruises from Australia. The Department of Agriculture now considers these cruises to be akin to an international voyage and therefore under ‘biosecurity control’. As a company, we are incredibly disappointed with the Department’s new approach, and we have written to the Federal Minister to ask for a return to their previous way of doing things. At this time guests will not be able to travel with service animals on voyages that end in Australia or call upon a port in Australia after visiting a foreign country. Guests sailing on voyages that begin in Australia will be able to sail with their service animal provided the voyage does not return to Australia after visiting a foreign port. Should you have further questions please contact our Guest Accessibility Department via email at GuestAccessibility@HollandAmerica.com.

Merry Christmas, Rich! Thank you for taking us along. I am tempted to start answering those Volendam / Zaandam "bait posts" - you know the ones - with "*Full Blown Taco Bar*."😁

Buy OBC with the gift card. Put a slot charge on the room key.

As Tiny Tim said, "God bless us, everyone!"

The Retreat Cabana area on the three Pinnacle Class ships has more cabanas than the Retreats on the Vista or Signature Class vessels. The Nieuw Statendam and Rotterdam have a hot tub in the Retreat. None of the others do. The photos below are taken from Deck 14. That deck does not appear on the deck plan, but I believe it's called the Sky Deck, Sun Deck, or Kevin. The photos above were taken starting on the starboard side and continuing around to the port side. The final photos below are of the hot tub. It's the same tybe of tub as the ones on the Lido deck. There is a chair lift for guests who would not be able to get into the tub otherwise. (This is the closest thing HAL has to an on board "ride." 😉)

BTW - If you are on the Pinnacle class ships, there's an area with plenty of chairs on Deck 14, forward. You can take the forward elevators or the stairs from 12 to 14. There is no Deck 13. This area was empty pretty much all cruise. You're one deck up from the Crow's Nest (drinks, light snacks, coffee) and one deck above the nearest restroom. (Drinks and snacks - out.)

We never saw the appeal of the Lido cabanas, but someone obviously likes them. They definitely take up a chunk of Lido pool area real estate. Merry Christmas to you as well!

Thanks, Roger! Your list does not appear to have the Rotterdam Retreat Area. It's listed on the diagram, but not on the price table. Also, unless something has changed, the Noordam is still the only Vista without a retreat area. Thanks for taking the time to ask about all the permutations of pricing.

I should point out that my reliable source emailed me with, " I think your bubble of awesome calculator might be busted..." She is absolutely correct. Our 9 Day in Spring is not up nearly as much, percentage-wise, but there are weird break points in the cabana pricing. There are weird break points in other places as well. For example, the 14 day Club Orange cost is less than the 10 day outlay. If you look at the pre-cruise liquor purchases, you can even find instances where the cans of soda have a negative price, deceasing the cost of a liter of booze.

Update on the pricing. A reliable source tells me that the increase was 60% on a 12 day sailing. That's getting up there. There's a list of "improved amenities" for the Retreat, but there was no change to the amenities on our sailing.

And the Club Orange Tote Bag. Don't forget the most terrific amenity ever! 😉

Poohby Joe's Guide to Cabana Living - 2023 Edition Due to inclement weather, my schedule for the Guide got a bit messed up. I planned to take my pictures on our last sea day and get everything posted when the ship was in Half Moon Cay. Fortunately, we had enough photos between the two of us to cobble something together. There is no pricing because HAL hasn't released a new price sheet yet. (I checked with a few authoritative sources, including Ships' Services in both the US and Philippines, and they are simply quoting prices based on the voyage.) Not that I don't love you guys, but I wasn't about to call Ships' Services and hold over and over to build a pricing table. Near as I can tell, cabana costs are up around 40% over the old price levels. I can't really complain because there was no price increase since 2016 - or possibly earlier. The maps below show the layouts of the cabanas on all the ships that have them. We're only touching on the Pinnacle Class ships in this post, but we'll do a more in-depth report in April 2024 for the 10th Anniversary of Poohby Joe's Guide to Cabana Living. Here's a bigger version of the map for the Nieuw Statendam. We had Cabana #3.

On Premium it was fine. Same with MS Teams. There is lag or skips if you are in "room" with a lot of people, but that happens on land as well. It makes working a lot easier, but I don't know if that's really a plus. Kinda defeats the whole reason for vacation.

We don't usually have a problem getting served. Years of practice have helped us to develop a thirsty look. If you are in a loud, dark, busy venue - think BB King while the band is playing - raise a hand.

Thanks for posting the breakfast specials @Haljo1935 They do not show up in the Navigator app when I look at the MDR breakfast menu. That could mean that the Rotterdam isn't doing specials at breakfast. Or, it could mean that they don't change out the breakfast PDF file in Navigator. No one is live blogging from the Rotterdam as far as I know, so I'll put it in the mystery category until we can check in a few months. The specials look great, but we generally avoid high carb breakfasts. They tend to make us sleepy, particularly me. That's why I tried to order a small portion of bread pudding. It was only came in one size though. I hated to waste it, but I didn't want to be in need of a nap right after getting up for the day.

Thanks for the screen caps, @Haljo1935 We're on for Easter next. I don't know if that rises to anywhere near the level of Christmas or New Year's, but we will see.

Thanks to all of you for looking into this. I don't think we have a definitive answer, but now we have more information. I could see setting a flag on a booking and using the flag to toggle display of CO menus. That would be good program design - which really seems like something they would not do.

Question for someone who is not booked into Club Orange - do you see the CO dinner menus? We do, but we have da Club on the upcoming cruise.

Yes, the menus have been updating. (Vacariously following and waiting for the various holiday menus.) Rudi's appears on the app. Screen shots below. I'm keeping an eye out for the Morimoto night to appear. There are no reservations available for Tamarind one of the nights, and my guess is that will be the night for Morimoto. Here are the menus for the CO dining room today.

Michelle just pointed out the typos in this post. I told her to post, making fun of me. 🤪 She didn't want to, but she has me under close observation.

Bar service was uniformly good. Even when we were seated in the Ocean Bar's far seating area. One of the servers in the Billboard / Rolling Stone Lounge area was crazy good. His name is John Lee, but Johnny On The Spot would have been more appropriate. We used the Let Us Know feature in the app to give him a shout out. You can find Let Us Know under the Connect tab/icon/button in the Navigator app. You can also use the Let Us Know function to point out service issues. Traveling in the Bubble of Awesome, we don't find ourselves needing to do that. However, we do wind up using it for Attaboys pretty often. If someone goes above and beyond for you, use the app to pay them a compliment. It will get back to them. They will appreciate it.

You're welcome. Bear in mind that CO has a limited capacity. If you think you want it, you should add it early. If you wish to take advantage of the upgrade, you need to pay for it right away. It's non-refundable. Add the cruise protection if you worry about the possibility of canceling.

$25/pp/day. https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/onboard-experiences/dining/club-orange

We are able to follow along with the Rotterdam'a dinner menus in now since that is our next cruise. I kind of like seeing real menus from the ship. I don't know exactly what we're going to do with it, but we did put the two 9 day sailings before ours in our calendars. I'm theorizing that those menus will track with ours. Of course, the burning question is: Will we get the Wiener Schnitzel?

Yes. There is a sink. There is also a shower if you want super hygiene.