jayhawk66

Thank you for the pictures! I love seeing a BHB sailing again!

I’m so excited for you and look forward to reading your posts as you board and experience the first Hal cruise! Bon Voyage!

This is Lucas, age 13 1/2. He is the fourth miniature Schnauzer that we’ve been blessed to have as a faithful family member. He is mostly deaf and has a slight heart murmur, otherwise quite healthy for his age.

Nieuw Statendam leaving Port Everglades a few minutes ago. Can’t wait to sail on her next year! 

14 minutes ago, mapleleaves said:

 

CruiseCritic is good when you only need a port hotel for 1 or 2 nights before a cruise, but for longer stays, tripadvisor is a better resource.  Go to the Rome forum, look under TOP QUESTIONS ABOUT ROME and you'll find info about the various areas, convenient locations, and apt rentals.  And it's a very popular questions so just read thru the first few pages of the forum to see what info has been provided.

Good luck !

Thank you!

We are booked on a Holland American transatlantic terminating in Civitivechia on May 8, 2022. We intend to stay in Rome for a week or so before flying back. We’d prefer a small apartment not a hotel. Looking for recommendations for which part of Rome to locate in and if anyone has a specific recommendation for a Air B&B or VRBO I’d appreciate that as well.

Bon Voyage! It is exciting to know that cruising is resuming after such a long dry spell! ( pun intended😁)

I see occasional comments from others who have received free or heavily discounted cruise offers. If you have received such offers how much do you think is necessary to spend in the casino and is slots only sufficient ?

FWIW, we once had a similar issue and went to the Maitre De as soon as we boarded and he was able to change us to the fixed time we wanted. We’ve also found anytime dining in the main dining room a good alternative.

Link: https://viewfromthewing.com/greece-says-vaccinated-americans-welcome-this-summer-europe-could-follow/

Perhaps the first glimmer of hope for cruising in Europe this summer!

I have used HAL flight ease and found it to be much less expensive than booking on my own. I don’t believe that the price changes once it’s booked even though it hasn’t been paid for. I don’t know for sure about whether HAL insurance cancellation also covers flights booked through flight ease but I think that it does.

When you are on the screen that shows that they will select your cabin select “change my room” and then you will have the option to pick the room that you want.

I notice that Eurodam is not one of the six ships listed as being re-crewed and moving towards the US. Any idea why?

We would be driving to Ft Lauderdale and overnighting before boarding the Zuiderdam tomorrow for a 26 day transatlantic and Greek Odyssey cruise. We will likely book the similar cruise on the Westerdam for next year. We are waiting to receive our refund for this years canceled cruise and to make sure that cruises are resumed.

We are booked on a transatlantic departing on April 19 and terminating in Venice on May 15. I am glad to see the new cancellation policy but not surprised. I wonder if air booked through flight ease will also be refunded as FCC. Additionally, we prepaid for internet and some shipboard credit and would hope that those amounts would be simply refunded. While we will wait until close to March 31 to decide, I don't see a lot of hope that we will be confident enough to not cancel at that point but who knows? Questions, questions!

11 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

I just checked my April 18 Mexico cruise and it shows that the 50% cancel fee is valid until March 20.  Wonder why the difference?  Please tell me if I am wrong as March 8 is coming up quickly.

Below is copied from my cruise contract:

All other sailings and cruise tours including Holiday departures:

91+ days prior to departure: No fee (unless you booked under a nonrefundable deposit cruise fare rate)
90 - 64 days prior to departure: Deposit amount
63 - 43 days prior to departure: 50% of total cruise fare
42 - 22 days prior to departure: 75% of total cruise fare
21 - 0 days prior to departure: 100% of total cruise fare

You may want to double check your contract to make sure of the cancellation dates.

We are also booked on a cruise departing 4/19, transatlantic and following cruise terminating in Venice. I bypassed my TA and called HA. I was also told that I could book another cruise departing in the same time frame of equal value. No help at all! We have decided to roll the dice and gamble that either it will be safe to take the cruise or that HA will cancel and will be obligated to a full refund, rather than the 50% we'd receive if we canceled by March 8.

Thanks! I was not aware of that forum.

My wife and I are booked on the Oasis for a 7 day cruise in February. We live in Tallahassee and will be driving to Miami the day before the cruise. I'm looking for recommendations for a park and cruise hotel. Also, we are veteran cruisers but have never cruised with Royal or on a ship anywhere nearly as big as the Oasis so any tips will be welcomed!

I will definitely be following and  am grateful that you will be posting during the cruise! Peggy and I will be boarding the day that you disembark! I will be interested in the quality of internet that you experience as well as any observations about the ship, lectures, entertainment, food, etc. Also, we are booked in an aft veranda on deck 8, so any observations re vibrations etc. will be eagerly read! Bon Voyage and may you experience fair winds and following seas!

If you happen to talk with any passengers in a stern facing storeroom I'd be interested in learning if they are experiencing excessive vibration. We're booked in 8173 for the Hawian cruise in February and a recent post cited bad vibration in a similar room on the Eurodam.

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I had to look up powdered eggs! I’d never heard of them. :') I guess it saves space in the pantry area over fresh. Is this fleet wide? We will be on Oosterdam in November. I love a good egg— my husband is severely allergic so when we travel I tend to order and eat a lot of eggs, lol!

They use pasteurized liquid scrambled eggs, not powdered. While they may taste slightly different, they are much better from a food safety standpoint than fresh cracked eggs. I was a part of a large group staying in a five star hotel. Our last day they offered cooked to order omelets. Sixty of us contracted salmonella poisoning from the omelets. I’m glad to see pasteurized eggs being used!

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I’ve never figured out how to see sold cabins and available cabins by type. Any tips on how to do that?

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It would be helpful to know which ship as the number of musical venues does vary. Almost all have a B.B. Kings lounge with a dance floor and usually there will be a performer in the Ocean Lounge in the early evening, again with a dance floor. Sometimes late nights in the Crows Nest there will be a DJ.

If early dining fixed time is waitlisted you could choose anytime dining and go when you’d like. Also, I’ve had success going to the Maitre D as soon as I board and getting the seating time I preferred even though I was told it wasn’t available when I booked.

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