CruiserBruce

You will find a lot more info on the Ports boards, like Northern Europe: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/116-northern-europe-baltic-sea/ Good chance this will get moved there.

You will find far more info if you look on the Princess board, here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/119-princess-cruises/

These things are discussed here almost daily. Carnival sails from Pier 91. The "best" (whatever that means) way to get to the ship, and back to the airport is Uber/Lyft or taxi.

And to be clear, the most you will have to do is an Immigrations process...showing your passport to an Immigrations official. Your stuff doesn't leave the ship, which possibly could cause a Customs procedure, but as Customs is not done in the case of a B2B, won't happen.

If you look around the board, there are a huge number of threads about Miami hotels. The ones with shuttle are near the hotel. Conversely, the better areas to stay for restaurants and the like are in the downtown areas, like Brickell. The Hampton Brickell is a great hotel in a very user friendly area.

Yep...a full 12 hours later than expected.

Depending on the meal, various drinks are self serve in the Lido. Water, coffee, tea, is always available, 24/7. Various drinks (milk, juices, etc) at breakfast. Rotterdam has several restaurants...the Dive In, the Deli, a couple others. Club Orange is only for breakfast and dinner. I don't see HAL adding the ability to order 6packs of soft drinks, for example. But you never know. There are things like the Quench package for your needs.

Thanks for asking...we finally got on a plane at 7:30, but due to the construction and weather issues at SFO, it didn't actually depart until 8:40, getting us to SFO at 10:20pm, and in bed just before 1am.

The topic of cutbacks.... In terms of personnel, I would say we saw no sign of cutbacks on Zaandam. We have discussed the impact of the drink packages on workload for the bar staff, and speed of service. Obviously, the bar staff workload has increased...that is obvious. Is that effectively a cutback if HAL doesn't increase staff?. I can see that argument, but on the other hand the number of beds on board for staff is rigidly capped. It's not like they could add 20 or 30 new staff beds at the next drydock. Or start hanging hammocks over the torpedo storage racks like in WW 2. It's my understanding that they have been some modifications in the seafarers contracts guaranteeing more rest. It also seems like meal services for staff are limited to certain hours...those are the only times staff can get breakfast, lunch or dinner. So all staff need to rotate through breaks at certain times. In the past breaks seemed to be during transitions from one event time frame to another. For example,, as the afternoon progresses,, and bar staff need to transition from Lido pool bar servce to Happy Hour and dinner drink demand, , breaks were put there.... we definitely saw that. Cutbacks in food. Well, not on prime rib, that is for sure. On some courses, yes. Vegetables on dishes seemed to be less at times. But the filet mignon serving sizes in both Pinnacle and MDR haven't changed. Some of the desert serving sizes are smaller. So, I guess in summary, I would say there have been some cutbacks, but not huge. Small cutbacks. In overall food products, I would say the only cutback I noticed and dislike is the reduction in variety at Lido lunch. It seemed only one or two items changed in the main line on a daily basis. Salad bar is still great. Sushi/Asian food, still great. The pasta station is noticeably better this cruise than last September. Maybe a little cutting in deserts...a few less choices. I think dinner in the Lido has much improved variety. Lido for dinner was very popular on this cruise. As mentioned in previous posts, French fries at the Dive In have almost been cut in half. Serious problem! Overall HAL product cutbacks....yes, of course there have been cuts. No Mariners lunch. ( But appears to be coming back.) No suite luncheon on the longer cruises. A few other amenities. I think, from our experience, are the most disappointing. There were 3 classical musicians on this cruise. They performed most nights.

There are several vendors recommended on this board every day. The one we have used is Rome in Limo, great company, huge thread just down the board full of recommendations.

2 days...no return visit with any info...

The crew, as always, were wonderful, happy, friendly, and of course, hard working. Every single one. The only member we even had any doubt about was one we interacted every day, knew us...and everyone we saw around us, by name. We know that he is coming to the end of his 4th contract, and about done with the cruise ship life. He has used his money to purchase some farm land, and is ready to settle with his wife and children on it. He seemed a bit tired and down a couple days, but the next day, greeted us by name, with a smile. Susette was the primary Neptune concierge. Professional, exuberant, greeted us with a big hug as we had sailed with her last September. Handled the few small problems we had easily and quickly. Funny and a great smile. Top notch...she already knows she is going to Volendam next. Madi and Midi were our room stewards. Reached out to us immediately, perfectly adapted to our routine, perhaps better than any other crew we gave had. The "ordering" form for specific services was followed to a "t", first time, every time. We like to have a table for 2 at dinner, but we quit seeking window seats a long time ago. Instead, we like to people watch, so we request a table in the center raised platform of the lower dining room floor, all the ships have them. We usually have a selection of table numbers that meet our desires. Niman, the assistant maitre d, arranged the exact table we wanted at noon during boarding, then personally arranged the guide to the table when we arrived at the MDR. The platform area is not in high demand, nor was any time dining on this cruise, so our wait staff rarely had more than 2 tables...3 people. It was like Rachmat and Hery were our personal waiters. They were very attentive, very focused on us. They were funny...we had a routine going about how stressful our day was...not. Lastly, Richard and Ryan at the Ocean Bar. Yes, it's easy to be happy when they are plying you with drinks. But these guys were very busy, and the definition of a team, and a well oiled machine. Not only that, but they constantly kept all the customers and wait staff laughing every night. Lastly, they had a new employee who they were training. Having been a firefighter, team building in a stressful situation is one of the most valuable skills I can imagine. But these two did it so well...and the "new guy" just ate it up. Just a few examples...HAL has not lost a single step in the employee selection and development process.

OK, to start the review, please know that we like the product HAL offers, otherwise we wouldn't be 5 star Mariners. Is it perfect? No, of course not. I will certainly mention some negatives. But none are worthy of a hasty detachment from HAL, at least at this point. And I am not one to think badly of people who like the classical music, even though we don't. We like the 60s-70s-80s music tilt that HAL is doing. Or the lack of a yum yum man is not driving us to some other cruise line, even though we frequently liberated mints from him. We have two cruises booked in 2025 on HAL, one a 21 day Med cruise to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. First, please fly in the day or two before. San Diego is a beautiful, pretty easy to use town with a small airport that has a fair amount of flight services. And it's a short flight from most West Coast cities, and with the time changes, not hard to fly from the middle or eastern parts of the county, and still get here in the middle of the day, and make your flight. Until it's not... It really does rain in Southern California (contrary to the song), and be honest, Southern California doesn't handle moderate to hard rain very well, which we had on March 30, sailaway day. This rain caused a major bump in the road for flying into San Diego, and, along with a couple other things, a delay in our sailing to allow people and bags to catch up. To be fair, the delay was not just delayed passengers. But there was definitely some serious problems. That rain also made disembarking and embarkation on March 30 less than pleasant, especially for those using the Broadway terminal. The Broadway terminal was an ugly political compromise between people who wanted a big expansion of cruise service,,and those that wanted no additional cruise visits. It resulted in a less than efficient cruise terminal for ships greater sized than Pinnacle class ships. The Terminal building worked pretty well for Zaandam, except there is not sheltered area outside, and only a small staging area inside after check in. Lots of people getting wet. There were some tents set up..the small 10 ft by 10 ft size, but it was also windy, and thus not overly effective. And, then, with Zaandam and KDam parked at adjoining docks, there was barely room for one fuel barge at a time. It frequently takes 3 to 5 hours to fuel a ship, so you can see at least 8 hours the two ships couldn't move due to proximity. If there were two Pinnacle class or bigger ships side by side....ugh...

Wellllll....as our flight has been delayed 6, 7 or 9 hours, depending on which source you check, I guess I have some time to do some writing. The cruise was fantastic, loved every minute of it. The Eclipse was worth every penny of the cruise fare...the rest was just icing. Let me wrap up a few odds and ends before I do my review. Last night we ate in the Pinnacle...DW had the surf and turf, and required me to taste the filet and the lobster to make sure it compared with our previous meal. It did, very well. The filet was almost no knife required...I didn't have a steak knife, and had no problem cutting the meat, or the lobster with a regular knife. I had the scallops. I am a big scallops fan, and we have a very good restaurant that serves excellent scallops...the Pinnacle was going to have to work hard. Our favorite restaurant gets a 10 plus for their scallops, Pinnacle gets a 9.5...very good. DW loves the creme brulee...I had the chocolate souffle...not bad, but maybe a little less chocolat-y than in the past. By the way, there was several mentions around the ship that the Pinnacle is now run by a female Executive Chef. She came around and talked with us last night (but not our previous meal), and I recognized her from working out in the gym some mornings. I am not sure what exactly she might be doing differently from anyone else, but the food is really good. The saxophonist didn't interest us, so we had our final drink, listened to a little music, and finished up our packing before going to bed. United played games with our flight schedule. We originally had 1:30, then it was 2pm, then 3, then finally 5pm. We took the opportunity to switch to 10:20, and figured we would be the first off the ship. And we were, literally. We ate breakfast at 6am, the ship docked at 7am, and the gangway opened at 7:30. Immigration was facial recognition by HAL land based staff...the Immigration folks were there, but off to the side somewhere. We were in a cab by 7:40, and through TSA just before 8am. The only hang up is if you are dragging your bags, you MUST use the elevator, as the escalator is too narrow for checked bags. Otherwise, disembarking has never been easier. Ever. And, the line for people carrying off was pretty short. Again, not an early group of pax, and a fair number who can't carry off luggage. Then, the United saga begins. We boarded on time, looking good...then broke something taxiing to the takeoff spot. Took us awhile to get back to the gate with all the traffic. Just now, as I am writing this, they texted to say it's now a 6:30 pm flight now.

FB groups are "owned and operated " by the founders. They get to make the rules. That being said, I joined my first FB group a month or prior to a cruise we just got off of today. It was informing and helpful. However, there was also a couple people, including one of the moderators, who put flat out wrong info in the posts, and refused to even correct or acknowledge their errors, even when confronted with the actual facts. No wonder we have so much false info going around that people believe without any thought.

It has been discussed here KDam is going to Ft Lauderdale just for the one Caribbean season, and probably a dry dock. She will return at the end of that Caribbean season.

Only you can decide "worth". We never cruise without a balcony.

Have you searched on the board? George's Taxi is mentioned regularly. There is another mentioned frequently as well.

In one right now on Volendam's sister, Zaandam. Not a single problem with noise.

Or, to just simplify things, would park at the port.

I would call the hotel and ask " what should we do?"

This was a special problem with 3 ships in port at San Diego, not related to the OP's question. It was redacted, and not enforced. I know because I was on the Zaandam that day sitting next to you. The combo of weather, 3 ships in port, fueling delays and a couple of other things made it a total cluster...but the cruise was fantastic.

Impossible to decipher. Can we stay away from amateur investment advice?

You were right ....it was a bartender. Don't do now what you can put off for an hour or two!

They have been eliminated. A month or so ago.