SusieKIslandGirl

We have a HAL transfer from AMS to the port but not on our arrival date. When do we receive notification as to when and where to meet the bus? Thanks!

This seems to happen every so often. It happened to me about 4 days ago. Because it wasn’t the first time, I wasn’t too worried.

@StLouisCruisersOn the Island Princess last Nov/Dec, I was surprised at how few people lined up to pour the bubbly.

@cruzn singleDoes your pudding recipe include hard sauce and thin sauce with either rum or brandy? Yum! A Christmas treat in our family since forever.

We had "in transit" passes on Island Princess in December. We finished our TA from Rome and then continued on the Partial Panama Canal cruise. We walked to Walgreen's and Publix and had an easy return to the ship, bypassing those waiting to embark.

Thanks for the review! We leave in a week for Auckland and board the Noordam on the 25th. Can't wait! I guess we'll ask for hot food when we place our orders. 😊

Can you call to see what's available for you to book? Also, what times are listed for each of the excursions? Do they include an airport stop?

I book through the big box store. I was interested in a certain cabin for a B2B and their listing showed it wasn’t available for both segments. They called the inventory dept. and the cabin was released so I could book it for both segments.

Thanks @JazzyV, for the link to Kathi’s blog. But you can you tell me how to get a comment posted? I always get an error notice. Thanks!

I'd like to add a caution on booking Club Orange. I think you were lucky being able to book it last minute. I found out it is capacity controlled and not always available. I called 4 months ago to add it to a cruise in September but nothing available. A friend also was denied booking it on a different cruise.

For those of you needing ice packs, my friend gave me the "recipe" for a great one after my recent hip replacement. Use a resealable freezer bag and add 1 cup of alcohol (the rubbing kind, not the good drinking kind) and 3 to 4 cups of water. Be sure to remove as much air as possible. Then seal inside another freezer bag. It stays slushy so molds to wherever you need it and stays cold longer than a regular water filled ice pack.

I had a friend who swore the moon was the cause of her sleeplessness for 3 nights-before the full moon, night of the full moon, and the night after. Who knows?

Thanks @tuolumne couple. I know we never get the calls from Big Box and usually don't want upgrades but sometimes an upsell might be interesting. I guess I'll try and call and find out what they say.

First thing I thought of when reading about showering with a friend is we do it all the time near Seattle. We seem to always be caught in a rain shower whenever we have shopping to do. And does the Hokey Pokey ice cream taste of toffee or does it have a honey flavor? I don't care for honey but would love to check it out in a couple of weeks when we get to Auckland.

Thanks for all the information. My question is, "Can you call HAL directly about an upsell even if you booked with a TA/Big Box agency?" If so, does anyone have the number that you should use? Thanks again.

Thanks for the heads up on the move of NZ Fabrics and Yarn. It is one of my planned pre-cruise stops in a couple of weeks. Hopefully Auckland will have dried out by then.

cruisingwithbillandmaryann.blogspot.com is what I have on my favorites list. I hope this works.

@erewhonTell me more about the ice cream shop please. We'll be there in about 3 weeks. Can't wait!! Thanks.

@dfishAbsolutely beautiful quilt! I've always been intrigued by the pattern, the illusion of curves with only straight seams.

@marshhawkWe also visited Santorini in October. We did a tour that included a snorkel trip across the water and then walked on an island where you could feel the hot earth just fractions of an inch below the surface. Both were amazing.

Wow! For once, one of the days applies. I’m making a huge pot of clam (geoduck) chowder for a meeting tomorrow. Some will be kept as plain potato soup. If you don’t know what a geoduck (gooey duck) is, be sure to Google it. We dug them last summer. Be well-or get well everyone. Can’t believe January is over already!

We've had this phone number for nearly 45 years and don't really want to give it up. Besides, we were 1st. Let FedEx change theirs. 😁

My funny answering machine story: I worked for the postal service for over 30 years. Well, if you didn't use the 800-area code for FedEx and instead used the local area code, you reached my house. So, for quite a while my message said that you'd reached Loren and Susie's house where the Postal Service is our preferred shipper. And even then, people would leave their tracking number and ask where their package was! And when rotary dial phones were still in use, we had many 2 am calls for the local tow truck. Our number was one off from theirs.

Another option, if you decide to stay downtown and don't have a lot of luggage, is to take the light rail from the airport (through the parking garage) to downtown.

If you're not planning on seeing downtown Seattle, there are many airport hotels with shuttles. It's easy to go back to the airport to catch the HAL transfer the morning of the cruise departure. We usually find a decent price at one of the several Hampton Inns near the airport.