sewgood

Thanks Julie, that's a low percentage of about 1.2% that tested positive. We are usually Princess cruisers and did our first HAL cruise in November so we are looking forward to hear after you get home what you thought of HAL and if you bought a FCD from them!

You don't happen to know the number of passengers continuing on to Singapore do you Julie? Just curious to work out the percentage of positive cases.

We put our bags into storage at the hotel including our walk on/carry on bags and just take a small backpack each with the important stuff, I use to worry a bit at first but we have never had a problem.

When we had a boarding time of 4:30 in November we took the ferry out to Watson's Bay. Another time when the ship was delayed due to high winds (7pm boarding that day) we went to the movie theatre around near the Opera House as I couldn't be on my feet all day but that was before covid.

Was that on the Southampton to Singapore cruise?

Thanks Julie for you description of a day spent at Bruny Island. I haven't been there but now it's on my list. A good reason to book another cruise to Tassie. 😄 I enjoyed the photos as well. 😊

Thanks Julie, I also asked the future cruise consultant if you can add share holders benefit on top of this and the answer was yes. I thought it would be but it's always worth checking.

No idea but there seems to be a number of cruise ships recently caught out by it. The Viking ship was also denied entry by Hobart and by Adelaide. The last I heard she is out at sea to have to problem fixed by divers before going to Melbourne. There must be a lot of disappointed passengers on the Viking ship and rightly so.

On the Westerdam the future cruise consultant said in her presentation in the theatre that she would give you extra OBC for booking onboard in addition to what you got from a FCD. So I agree with SilvertoGold.

Thanks for information as this was our first cruise on HAL and I will now know to check on our next cruise what the deal is.

On my cruise on the Westerdam they had it twice a day at 4-5pm all bars and 11pm to late. At the Ocean bar they would start taking orders for it at around 3:45 in the afternoon.

We once sat with a very elderly lady at breakfast who was vertically challenged who asked for extra tea bags from the dining room waiter. She told us that she was collecting them to take home and she had difficulty reaching them in the buffet.

Thanks Julie for the photos from the sounds and what a beautiful baby in the photo! I know what you mean about the service in the dining room while the waiters are lovely it was the first time that we had seen waiters running in the dining room, they were rushed off their feet at times. We were in anytime and changed tables every night and found the younger waiters needed more training while the older waiters rarely ever mixed up an order or appeared rushed. We put it down to a lot of new staff.

No need to book for the dining for lunch or breakfast. Just turn up and enjoy the service. Check the patter to see if lunch is on in the dining room in tender ports not just sea days. We were caught out with this on our last cruise but now know better.

Merry Christmas everyone. I for one am glad to have a high of 29 degrees here for Christmas (in the Snowy Mountains). I just watched the Canadian national news on SBS to see the big snow storms and the mass pile up on the roads. 😲

We saw three great shows from them in the first half of our cruise then they seemed to disappear off the ship, (maybe they went over to the Nordam) and then we had the BB Blues band start up. The One step dance Company stayed on the ship the whole time, they are also really worth seeing.

I loved this too, it was interesting to hear how they started their careers especially the guy from Liverpool who at five years old was entranced by a musical. I felt for the singer from Ukraine who has a wife and children. I didn't dare ask where they were, all I could do was wish him and Ukraine all the best from all of us.

You betcha they are. HAL still gives out pillow chocolates on their dressy night. Maybe keep it as a souvenir 😄 as the days of pillow chocolates are fast disappearing.

Enjoying looking at the food photos. But it does make me want to be back on a ship. 😪 The food looks much better than at my place.

I had to laugh when I read this as my husband loves his speciality coffees and after having two on the Westerdam he gave up and waited until he got ashore to buy his latte. Looks like things haven't changed.

Julie keep an eye on the daily program for a performance of the musicians in the Lincoln Center Stage if you like listening to instrumental music. On sea days they often have performances in the afternoon. The B.B. King's All-Stars were great to listen to but there was not much masking that went on as most people had drinks.

Wow, how good is that? That must be some kind of record.

We got off the Westerdam two weeks ago after a wonderful 1st cruise on HAL. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. The afternoon tea is really worth going to, better then Princess 😲 If you want a table for two for afternoon tea, just wait 15 minutes after it starts otherwise you might be herded onto a share table. Have a great cruise, it's a lovely ship.

Unbelievable cheap prices but a bit sad to see them have to offer prices this low. I received the email and also found it on an Oz site so available for all.

As well as the 109 tram which can be very crowded there will be the 109 bus labelled as the cruise shuttle which leaves from just outside the terminal building and takes you into the city. We caught the tram last week but it was standing room only for the return journey in the afternoon.