QuattroRomeo

Depending on your tour, there should be opportunity to buy larimar; there is amber and larimar in lots of shops at other Dominican ports. You might check out the ship's shops, as they usually have some too and you could check their prices and quality to compare later!

There is a local artisan market at the Grand Turk terminal shops area that might have something else made locally, since you like that. I got some homemade scented bath salts there but there were other things. 

 Early start for us this morning. Meeting up for our shore excursion at 8:15.  We did a small group cooking class with chef Helmi Smuelders.  It was a HA Food and Wine magazine tour and it was excellent.  Our group of 12 cooked about 7 different dishes and then enjoyed them at a relaxing lunch.  Well worth the time and money.  We came home with new ideas and new recipes.   

What an absolutely wonderful-looking spread! What kind of cake was it?

15 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Effy onboard ships is the equivalent of Diamonds International ashore, IMHO. Their aggressive marketing is annoying. Look at the daily program of any ship that has them aboard and you'll find "events" listed throughout the day whenever the shops are open. I'm sorry, but "Introduction of the new Firefly Collection" should not qualify as an event... 

 

Thank goodness ships have really limited printed flyers delivered to cabins. A few years ago the adverts for promotions from Effy were so bad that my DS and I were joking about the next Princess ship being named "Effy Princess" and the new HAL one would be the "Effydam".

 

 

Effydam- love it! You are right though, there are tons of "promotions" in the daily program; they actually make up about half of it! Not only jewellery but spa stuff, cariloha, del sol, various watch brands, and on and on. None of these sales pitches qualify as "events". Mind you, some of the actual activities shouldn't qualify either..! 

I guess that if it helps to keep the cruise prices down that's good, but we do need something else to do besides shopping. 

On Rotterdam in December, (Caribbean) the only true "sale" was 4 for $20, and they were all Baltic cruise t-shirts. The others were 2 for $40. There might be similar clearouts on your sailing.

I remember seeing some at La Aurora, which is a cigar place actually, during a tour last year. They also sold very nice rum and some jewellery. Lots of places will have it though. Since we didn't have time to shop right at the Amber Cove port places, I don't know if they have it there. I bought a larimar set years ago, in San Juan. What other ports will you be in?

3 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

Fairly recent addition to pre-cruise purchase options.

FWIW Carnival has also added the Effy credits to their site, so I would say Effy and CCL are trying to increase awareness and encourage spending.

Yes it has to be about the money, for sure! I'm not a marketing expert, but I imagine that if you buy a credit, you are more likely to actually follow through with a purchase!

Excerpted from the article above by retird, "Rotterdam 1873 is roasted fresh in small batches in Beukenhorst Coffee USA Inc.'s West Palm Beach facility and supplied to the ships. For more than 20 years, Holland America Line has been serving Beukenhorst Koffie imported from the Netherlands in the Lido Market, Dining Room and other venues where complimentary coffee is served."

In the article (from 2019, when Rotterdam 1873 was introduced), it reads that coffee from Beukenhorst had already been supplying coffee to the free venues on HAL for 20 years. Since Beukenhorst makes various coffees, isn't it possible that Beukenhorst still supplies the Lido/MDR one, too? 

Maybe we've been lucky, but on our last 3 or 4 cruises, we just showed up at noon and got in. No reservation and no problem! Sometimes, it was almost empty.

Hi there and welcome to CruiseCritic! There is a recent thread with lots of input on the standby program that you might find useful:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2975687-sail-standby-for-49-a-day-new-program/page/11/

1 hour ago, Duquesmom said:

Celebrity has this, too. 

Is it fairly recent, or has it been there for awhile? Similar amounts?

2 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

No, that is definitely something new. Out of the last 3 HAL cruises 2 both when in a Neptune Suite we have been given about 2nd or 3rd day in a Gift Certificate to spend in Effy. The first one was for $500 and the second was for $300. We were not given one when we booked a regular balcony despite having previously purchased Effy when we got the $500 on board credit for them.

I do have several Effy pieces and do not mind purchasing when I have a whole lot of SBC from HAL, when I have that and the $500 from them and then my bottom line is only about $250 I consider it a win. But with that being said I honestly  would not pre buy $1700.00 or $1500. I see it is fully refundable but just not sure I would do it. Some of the Effy shops will work with you on pricing especially toward the end of the cruise 😉

I don't own any EFFY pieces but there are some very nice ones in the shop! I did notice on our last cruise that there seemed to be a lot of promotion for them, and read on another thread here about an EFFY cruise, so it must be becoming a sizeable partner now..?

I probably wouldn't buy these credits though; too much money to tie up "just in case" I like something...plus, the exchange rate would add over $500 to the cost of the silver credit for us..😲

I just happened to be browsing through the "extras" page of things to pre-purchase on a booking, and came across these EFFY credits. Never noticed them before!  l guess if you're in the market for jewellery it is a nice deal. Has anyone had occasion to use one?

2 hours ago, cruisedd said:

I was in a single cabin forward of the stairway so I was not underneath the music venues.  Cabin #1011.  It was very quiet and I liked the location.  

That's good to know. Could you hear anything from the Main Stage?

We have been on deck 1 three times on Pinnacle ships. Mid to aft, no problem. Wouldn't do forward though; too many music venues above.

1 hour ago, electro said:

This is a scheduled activity?

And not in the kids club! 🙄

Wow, HAL is really scrapping the bottom of the barrel of cruise activities!

Agree, I think a connect-the-dots paper sheet should simply be available at the front desk and library, along with the crossword puzzles and sudoko.

The "adult colouring activity" also confounds me! I get that people like to colour just to relax, but to schedule it as an activity? Is it so they can keep track of their coloured pencils?! 😁

Yes, I too was hoping it would be something much more interesting when I saw it advertised, so I had to check it out! Oh well..

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2977662-live-from-rotterdam-dec-3-22-daily-mini-review/?do=findComment&comment=66614126

Glad it helped! I find that when you look at the excursions on a booking, sometimes the reviews are there and sometimes not. So I try the general (no booking) site too and often they are there. But we all know how bumpy the website maintenance is! 

Plus, in Jamaica many of the tours are the same from 3 different ports, so you can try looking at Falmouth and Montego Bay, too.

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/ca/cruise-destinations/caribbean-cruises/caribbean-ports/ocj/29320

You might try reading this, it has 37 reviews, several are recent. I found it searching excursions on the general HAL site.

11 hours ago, Floridastorm said:

Considering a transatlantic in March or April either on the Rotterdam or Statendam. I notice that on just about all of HAL's ships the Oceanview cabins are on the main deck (lowest deck) and below an activity deck. That to me always means noise above. Is this true with the Oceanview cabins on both of these ships? If so we will get a veranda cabin just to be sure of fairly quiet nights. 

 

Thanks again for any info provided. 🛌

 

Dave

We had no issues on a couple of Rotterdam cruises in OV, more toward aft section . Nice and quiet!

So glad to hear that your family enjoyed the cruise! 

Very unfortunate to have a suitcase stolen, but you managed to recover really well! Was there ever anything found?

The dreaded polar vortex has descended upon us; we are -30°C tonight.. I am reading every thread about the Caribbean right now!!😄

Thanks for your comments! It's a shame about the Morimoto lobster though. I had it in December on Rotterdam and it was very good- in fact I wished there could have been more sauce because it was so tasty! Glad to hear that the cod was good. I. had the XO halibut and it was very nice also.

We really like photo excursions and haven't done one in Cozumel yet, so we're glad to hear you liked yours! Was the open air bus comfy enough?

p.s. - how do you keep finding those ominous looking water creatures with the pointy snouts...!?!😄