afdds

TiagoCruiser, would you happen to have that email address?  And I will compose an email and see what they say.  Boy or Boy, do they need to change their wording.  I guess this is one case where checking and rechecking your excursions and dinning didn't pay off.   We have already had several airline schedules change including our flight home that would NOT  have allowed us near enough time to clear customs in Vancouver, so I guess my senses or gut feelings are on high alert.  Thank you for your help.

HALJO1935, Thank you for the tip about the spa Kiosk.  We will head that way as soon as we board.  

Ok, this is making more sense now.  I hope this is the case, that even though your specialty dinning reservation isn't with the "Have It All" , that the reservation is saying " Delivered to Dinning Room"   I was so worried that the "Have It All" reservations were being forced to eat in the main dinning but ordering off the Pinnacle Grill menu.    If this is true I have no idea why the representative said, Good News, Bad News....I checked and there are no more reservations for 6:30pm on any night.  Good News, I will try and call and see if we can work something out.  Then another 15min later, he came back on the phone, said he can switch it but can't send me any confirmation.  Just check on the reservation when I board. Which I will do, first thing!.   Thank you for all the help and I will call again this afternoon.  Fingers and toes crossed.   I would like to mention that RC does NOT word their reservations like this.  It just simply states the time and the speciality restrauant by name and time.   HAL and their website is a horrible learning curve.   Hopefully, it will be smooth sailing!  Can't wait for our Anniversary trip to Alaska.

7 hours ago, hamnabsma said:

Agree, there is no pull down tab to select delivery to dining room or cabin at all when making a Pinnacle Grill reservation.

 

I wonder if it's just a system note, kind of like with the Beverage Package purchase. The location for the Beverage Package is "Delivered to Stateroom" but obviously the beverages aren't delivered to the stateroom.

Nope, not the case.  The representative said, he is showing that we are eating in the Main Dining Room.We can order anything off the Pinnacle Grill menu.  This is not good!  And not what I imagined my anniversary dinner to look like.  Husband keeps telling me it's not the worst thing to happen.  But there are only a few days in the year that I'm a hopeless romantic.   And eating dinner in the main dinning does not qualify for romantic.

7 hours ago, julia said:

@afdds

One thing is for certain... when calling HAL reps, they are frequently misinformed.  It's very sad. It's very frustrating. Do NOT fret... this will get cleared up and you WILL dine in the actual restaurant. 

Thank you Julia for the positive thoughts. I will check with them later this afternoon and see what another representative says

7 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

This is concerning - we book PG dinners (and lunch) to eat IN the PG. Curious to know if this is also happening w/lunch reservations 🤷‍♀️

Perhaps it's another recent change intended to increase revenue and was not "announced." This would possibly allow incremental PG sales by allowing dining companions to order separately; currently everyone who goes together in the PG is charged. Hmmm?

I’m not sure what is going on but something is.  Another red flag was he wanted me to go on trust and could not send a confirmation of the change he said he made.  

18 minutes ago, hamnabsma said:

Interesting: I checked my Pinnacle Grill dinner reservations for my July 2024 Alaska Inside Passage cruise on the Zaandam and it also says "Location: Delivered to Dining Room."

 

Does anyone have a Pinnacle Grill reservation that says "Location: Pinnacle Grill"? 

I had the representative look and he confirmed, two pull down tabs, one for Main Dining and the other for cabin delivery.  I had no interest in  arguing with him that there wasn’t any pull down tab. 

1 hour ago, POA1 said:

Can you redact any personal information and post scan of what you are talking about? We have an upcoming reservation with HIA and just had a cruise with HIA last month, so we have fresh paperwork. There's nothing that mentions delivering food from our specialty dining reservation.

1 hour ago, afdds said:

I will try tomorrow.  I'm on Mac right now and need to take pic with my phone. Thanks

Was able to post picture further down

53 minutes ago, POA1 said:

How to take a screenshot on your Mac. To take a screenshot, press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 3. If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click it to edit the screenshot. Or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.

 

 

Thank you and I tried.  Have no clue why I have a Mac when I can’t figure anything out.  I was able to take pic and edit with my phone.  Posted further down

Ok , the representative had full command of the English language and he was really trying hard.  Anyway, here is a screen shot. The pic with the pictures is the one that hinted at a red flag.  The word Dinner added .  The other pic is when I hit edit to see if I could figure this out.  That’s when I saw “delivered to dinning room”.  

2 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Here's the T&C from the HIA specialty dining for our booking:

 

Specialty Dining is based on cruise duration and ship type. For 6- to 9-day cruises, guests will receive one night at Pinnacle Grill, Canaletto or Tamarind. For ships without Tamarind, guests will receive one night at Pinnacle Grill or Canaletto. For 10- to 20-day cruises, guests will receive two nights: one night at Pinnacle Grill and one night at Canaletto or Tamarind. For ships without Tamarind, guests will receive two nights: one night at Pinnacle Grill and one night at Canaletto. For 21+ day cruises (excluding Grand Voyages), guests will receive three nights: one night at Pinnacle Grill, one night at Tamarind and one night at Canaletto. For ships without Tamarind, guests will receive three nights: two nights at Pinnacle Grill and one night at Canaletto. Offer excludes Specialty Dining events in Pinnacle Grill such as Rudi’s Sel de Mer, A Taste of De Librije and Cellar Master Dinner. Reservations and dining times will be available to pre-reserve.

 

Yep, I made sure before calling that I had this information handy.  I wanted to check and make sure since this was our first HAL cruise.  I know how RC works because we never eat in the main dining room and pay extra each night to eat at a specialty restrauant.  It's that word "at" in the second sentence that speaks volumes.

4 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Can you redact any personal information and post scan of what you are talking about? We have an upcoming reservation with HIA and just had a cruise with HIA last month, so we have fresh paperwork. There's nothing that mentions delivering food from our specialty dining reservation.

I will try tomorrow.  I'm on Mac right now and need to take pic with my phone. Thanks

3 minutes ago, julia said:

Never, ever, EVER heard of this before and so sorry that you are dealing with this.  Your dinner in PG is NOT "free" (your words), it's simply "included" in what you paid in the Have It All. Call again, keep on it... they will eventually get it right.

True, but I'm afraid I might get really upset if I lean in that direction instead of "free".

 But you are 100 % correct.  We have paid for it. LOL a year ago!   I will call again and ask for another confirmation.  I did check today online and it still states " Pinnacle Dinner @6:30 Main Dinning.  

Never thought about that.  The representative was trying to tell me it was something I did.  He kept saying there was a pull down tab for either Main Dinning Room or Cabin delivery.  And for the longest time he was trying to switch my reservation to the Cabin instead of the Main Dining Room.  It took awhile for us to get on the same page that NO I wanted the actual restrauant, which is what I assumed I was receiving.  Of course, I can't check on this tab because I have already made the reservation.  I can however, go into our 2025 cruise once the reservations open and see if there is such a tab that exists.  I know there was no such tab on the first day they opened their books.

Does anyone know if the split pea soup is served everyday?  I've  seen other groups say in Alaska they run out on sea days.  Anyone experience this.  Hopefully, they just run out of sea days and not all the time.  Thanks, we are so excited for our first Alaska cruise.

First time with cruising with HAL in July 2024.  I have a little bitter taste in my mouth with the details around the "HAVE IT ALL PLUS"   We booked over a year ago for our Anniversary, sailing to Alaska on the Koningsdam.  I waiting patiently for the dinning reservations to open so that I could make reservations on our Anniversary.  Mission accomplished or so I thought back in March.  I was checking on our account and finishing up our check-in  when I noticed something strange.  Our dinner reservation said "PinnacleGrill Dinner" 6:30pm.   When I called HAL, they stated we were getting our specialty dinner delivered to the main dinning room.  The terms and conditions of Have it all states the dinner is @ the restaurant.  So that is what I assumed.  No there wasn't a  drop down tab to have it delivered to the main dinning room.   Too late now to switch dates and get an early dinner reservations.  I stayed on the phone for 45 minutes while the representative talked to different people.  After going back and forth, he came back on the line and said it's moved to the Pinnacle Grill however I can not send you a confirmation email  or change the way the wording is on the booking.  Ok, do I just have blind faith that this is going to happen for our Anniversary?  He said to check as soon as we board.   Blind Faith it is.  Has anyone else been told it has to be served in the main dinning room?  Is this normally how the free specialty dinners get served.  I totally understand that they will be able to make over a hundred dollars by selling my time slot to another cruisers that doesn't have the free dinners.  Hope that Holland America will honor what their representative has told me, because I have my second cruise with them booked already for 2025.

11 hours ago, TheOldBear said:

The current bridge cameras have all been out for several years - I don't recall seeing recent announcements.

 

You may want to consider rental or used equipment instead of purchase.

 

The FZ300 / FZ330 / Leica VLux 4 is a small sensor camera - it is weather sealed, with a constant f/2.8 aperture zoom lens. I would rate it as 'most likely to replace my FZ50'. The compact size, reasonable price and bright lens for the zoom range are all tied to the smaller sensor.

 

The Nikon P950 and P1000 are the kings of zoom magnification - they put a huge lens in front of the small sensor.

 

The 'one inch' sensor cameras Panasonic [FZ1000, FZ1000mk2 [Leica VLux5], FZ2500] and Sony RX10 series have a different set of compromises. The larger sensor requires a larger lens for the equivalent zoom range, along with larger overall size. The Sony RX10mk4 is weather sealed, and has the fanciest electronics so is most suited for action photos.

Thank you so much, I’ve been researching all day and still can’t decide to take my iPhone 13 max or buy a bridge or compact camera for Alaska. Wish I could just drop dollars on the Sony RX 10, but a few vacations a year doesn’t justify it for me.  In the mean time, I’ll keep reading and learning.  Thank you for posting 

What bridge camera are you happy with?  I’m heading to Alaska in July and want something with a better zoom than my iPhone.   I can’t do compact camera because I have a hard time with the grip.  Same problem with my iPhone, I just can’t get comfortable taking pics with it.  I do not want to change lens.  Also, my pick would have been the Panasonic FZ300 until I noticed it came into production I’m 2015.  However, it seems to do everything I want it to do.  🤷‍♀️.  The newer model DC FZ 1000 II  is way more expensive, but could swing it.    Any other models that I’m overlooking. Thanks for your help.

On 1/29/2024 at 7:56 AM, Mr. Boston said:

We took the train in October and stayed at the Hotel Abbazia, around the corner from the Santa Lucia train station in Venice.  It was so convenient and allowed us to maximize our time there without having to shuttle around to get to and from our hotel and train station.  The train station in Trieste was a 15 minute walk to the ship.

 If I understand correctly,  You took the train station Santa Lucia back to the ship?  Did you have to make any connections?  Is there only the one station to get off at in Trieste.  Was there restrooms on the train?  I'm sorry for all theses question.  I'm trying to figure out if I want to book with Holland American in July 2025.  They have an overnight stop in Trieste.  The day tour is $319 each.  Im thinking I would rather spend that money on a hotel.  Thank you for the help.

5 minutes ago, Cooper30 said:

sorry for the delay.  I got busy and forgot. 
 

here’s the post I made 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2985244-can-anyone-help-with-advice-for-travelling-venice-to-ravenna-via-train/?do=findComment&comment=66759026

Perfect thank you so much!  I really appreciate the help.

Thank you everyone for all the information.  I'm so disappointed that the cruise ships can no longer dock in Venice.  I've been looking at several different cruises trying to decide.  LOL plenty of time, booking for 2025.  The RC cruise is so much cheaper than the other lines, I'm guessing because of the proximity to the port.  I will make sure and book 2 nights in Venice with another night in Ravenna before the cruise.  Has anyone looked into the possibility of renting a car one way or maybe Viator tours for private car.  I'm guessing the last one is just too far a trip. Thank you once again as I continue my research.

Can anyone tell me before I book a Venice  cruise if RC offers a Pre cruise hotel package in Venice not Ravenna.  I would like to do a Pre cruise hotel stay  in Venice.  But then how do we get to ship in Ravenna?   Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Will probably do our own air so I’m assuming no transfers for us.

My grandson is sailing on the Harmony of the Seas this Christmas.  I wanted to give him money for the arcade.  Does anyone know how the games in the arcade work? Do you put money on a card, cash or does it have to go on your sign and sail?    I'm not cruising with them and I would like to purchase it as a gift waiting in his cabin. Any ideas or information would be greatly appreciated.  

1 hour ago, 9tee2Sea said:

this may sound stupid, but MAKE sure the train you are booking is for Vancouver BC, NOT Vancouver Wa.  Made that mistake once when I was waiting in Vancouver BC to board the train back to Seattle.  I wondered why I had found a good time for the Amtrak to leave post cruise, turns out I booked my ticket to leave from Vancouver Wa.  The Amtrak folks were really nice and helpful in changing everything around ( I got the bus back to Seattle).  They said that happens very often.

Oh no, that would be awful.  Thanks for the heads up.  Right now, I can't find a time that works unless I stay a night in Seattle or an extra night in Vancouver upon our return.  Extra night means for $ for the hotel and extra dog kennel night for our boys.  Looking like I just need to book roundtrip airfare from SA, TX to Vancouver.  But not giving up on the train just yet.  I want the train the whole way , not part train and part bus.  

Thanks everyone for all the help.  l will only rely on the Navigator app when on board or traveling.  While still at home I will use my MAC.