OlsSalt

Welcome to HAL. The location of your cabin 7140 will probably not be a noise problem. The elevator doors face towards the center of the ship, which is where people might be talking. You would still a hallway away from that central gathering spot for that elevator bank. Plus the bathroom and closets buffer any hallway noise too. Few use the stairs, so that most likely will not be a problem either. Just the opposite - you won't have the long walks down the corridors to get to different parts of the ship, since both stairs and elevators are right around the corner. I think you are off to good start. The website HalFacts provides photos for particular cabins on the various HAL ships - yours might be one of them. HalFacts: 7143 on a sister ship in the same class - close enough, since they had the same concerns about location and noise - reported no problems https://halfacts.com/pinnacle-class/7143-nieuw-statendam/

Renew your requests for each cruise. And then check in with the dining staff in the main dining room to reinforce that notification. HAL does process thousand and thousands of passengers on each of its many ships. So there is probably no secure nor automatic follow-up on your very original request from a prior cruise. Glad to hear you had such a positive first experience. Hope you have a wonderful cruise.

I always like the Lido for Alaska viewing. If you want to sit for a while and not be out in the elements. All the chairs get turned to face outside, and away from the pool on these cruises. With the glass roof closed, it can feel like a toasty sun room with snacks and beverages only a few steps away. The captain will try to give both sides of the ship a good viewing time, so all good things come to those who wait until the ship turns and suddenly the empty side is the prime viewing side.

I believe the point to the staggered embarkation times was to have the appropriate banks of cabins ready when that group was given their embarkation times. Instead of the former random embarkation times, that required everyone wait for the call onboard, that the cabins were finally ready later. .

There may the added issue of "clearing the ship" if this applies to your B2B cruise - being required to leave the ship, or go someplace as an escorted group while the ship is cleared. You will be given written instructions depending on how you plan to spend that turn-around day, if this applies to your cruise. Ours was two separate bookings with two different cruise numbers, not an official HAL offered B2B. (1) Will you leave the ship and then come back later in the day as "transit" passenger? (2) Will you stay on the ship and go through the ship-clearing as a HAL-escorted group? (3) Or will you go through the ship-clearing with the group and then leave the ship later before its departure in the afternoon, again as a "transit" passenger? We "stayed on the ship" on our last B2B when we also needed to change cabins. We met with the HAL-escorted group, and by the time we returned to the ship after it "cleared" the stewards had all our items in the new cabin.

Remembered best when VOV Rotterdam stopped at Cornerbrook: seeing an actual map drawn by Captain Cook in the local museum center - amazing accuracy, still valid today.

Soooo ready to get on board her, but I still have a month and half to wait - Sept 17 and then 14 days. Please have some Northern Lights ready for us, okay? We are hoping maybe between Anchorage and Valdez we might have a chance to see some. If you have any rain god dances, please start stomping the earth on Sept 23 to scare the clouds away.

If you don't already know about the "Shetland Bus" during WWII - bringing supplies into the Norwegian resistance when they were under German occupation, it is a remarkable good read and worthy of honoring the role the Shetland Island played during those very difficult days. There are monuments to this event in both the Shetland Island and in a coastal port in Norway - the name of which escapes me right now. But visiting both "book ends" of this operation was a satisfying way to honor their valor.

Comfortable waterproof shoes - we like the LL Bean ones -- because chances are you will either be walking in the rain, or walking in rain puddles after the rain. Hard to dry shoes out in the cabin. Though we do hang them from the ceiling on rare earth magnet hooks in front of the ventilation outlets in the past. Good thing about Alaska is they sell inexpensive "fleece packs" (hoodie, scarf, gloves, hat) in every port since they know many do get caught on the wrong side of their highly variable weather. Our later Alaska cruise at the end of Sept, just maybe will offer some Northern Lights viewing, so I will probably bring my longer puffer coat, mainly to just throw on to rush out on deck if we get the call in the middle of the night they are appearing. But mainly I hear you pack for rain in September, and the always good advice for layers. Starting with a good set of long underwear - I start with silk and later add Patagonia or Uniqlo HeatTech stuff.

The HVAC linked cabins can be on different floors - part of the fire suppression systems. So whether there are no open verandah doors on one deck will not matter- if you are on a shared circuit with verandah cabins elsewhere ChengKP has offered very extensive explanations in the past. This can be the source of these temperature regulation problems, but certainly not the only source .Equipment failure happens too. Plus inherent design issues that simply may not work efficiently when facing extremes in heat, or cold. Though even Antartica did not seem as cold, as cruising across the equator seems so hot, particularly in the afternoon side cabins. We experienced this too on some ships in some locations, but luckily one does sail out of them as much as perhaps a fix is found. There are small signs on the verandah doors, requesting they be kept closed at all times. The Boys in Beige - the engineering staff - one more layer of unsung heroes on these floating hotels who must have available parts and expertise to keep it all patched together ..... while at sea..

Keeping in mind also, the older ships like the Volendam have linked ventilation systems so when someone opens their verandah door to "cool down" their cabin, this will negatively affect all other cabins on that ventilation circuit. Staff will seek out who is leaving their cabin doors open as they can track the rush of air from the hallways, when complaints are made by other passengers on that same circuit.

There are consistent experiences of "stressed A/C systems" on this class ships when traveling into the tropics zones and near the equator. They will not instantly chill your cabin to 68 degrees. 75 degrees is within the company range for cabin comfort. However, 75 degree cabin temperature can feel hotter, just like 75 degree cabin temperature can fell much cooler on colder cruises. (I tested this and kept track once.) Particularly a problem if you have a cabin that is on the afternoon sunny side of the ship when traveling in hotter zones. As you move out of the extreme zones, the cabin comfort returns. So no, they did not "fix the A/C, though often a technician comes in and fiddles with it if you complain loud enough. If this is deal breaker, then one should cancel their reservations. But if one choose to go to these tropical zones, one should go in with the idea they may actually be experiencing the extremes in temperatures found normally in these zones, and consider this part of the travel experience. I would not "blame" the ship's AC system in this case on these older ships, but accept this comes with the itinerary and ship choice. New ships have installed more powerful temperature control systems. Older ship designs probably assumed these geographical temperature variations were part of normal travel expectations.

What did you read that worried you the most. Ship, crew, cabins, food, entertainment, itinerary? She is among our favorite HAL ships, along with her sister ship the Zaandam. We would follow her anywhere. And we have. Though once on a comprehensive Asia Explorer cruise, I mentioned to another passenger isn't this a lovely ship and a great cruise? I had my ear chewed off by that couple, complaining without end this was the worst ship they had ever been on ..... no fully staged broadway productions, no ice capades ....etc. etc. Get the picture? Depending on what you are looking for matters.

I see the price now is $666 per person per day for the same Neptune suite that we got on a very last minute up sell on the old Prinsedam for a wonderful Mediterranean- Black Sea cruise - one of the larger named-suites on the upper deck by the Crows Nest lounge. Thanks forever to kazu, who recommended grabbing it about 24 hours before our departure. Now called the Chopin Suite, was the Amundsen Suite. Prisendam was not cheap back then. but it certainly was not $1200 a day per Neptune Suite. Yes, she did excellent itineraries with very special flexibility to add extras when called for. Clunky in her interior design at that point due to add-on and reconfigurations, so it would be interesting to see what the recent make-over accomplished to correct some of her as-built deficiencies.

We have an interesting possible window - an at-sea day between Anchorage and Valdez - Sept 23. Only a new moon those days to get in the way, and prior reports do indicate the captain can turn off the lights on a selected viewing deck. 8pm departure from Anchorage and 6pm departure from Valdez. Where will we go doing that sea day - can the captain look for less overcast skies, like they do for solar eclipse cruises? Thanks for the reminders about camera flash interference. Hopefully a gentle reminder to other guests, should be strike it lucky.

Our port stops in Anchorage and Valdez get us closer to the striking zone.

The Noordam is doing its last 14-day Alaska run starting Sept 17 - Vancouver up to Sitka and then down the Alaska Coast ending Oct 1 back in Vancouver. Fingers crossed we get break in the overcast skies. Maybe while lounging in the Thermal Spa looking out their vast windows ........... yes, an aft-view cabin would be terrific for this cruise. The only sure bet seeing the Northern Lights on the Noordam is the late night disco by the same name, that did not get converted into the much more serviceable Gallery Bar on this Vista ship.

Once saw a famous swimmer on the Maasdam who hooked up a harness to the end of the after deck pool and swam "against" it. He was famous for swimming from Russia to America - actually two close by islands. That is how he worked out in the HAL pool every day. He did pick off-hours - typically at the end of the day when most are going off to dinner. What permission he got to hook this system up in unknown, but he was also a special guest.

Some times a change to a tender landing can be good news. Like in Stockholm, where the lucky ship gets to park in their gorgeous inner harbor and tender directly into downtown. It was an overnight and the tenders did run all night. Longer waits after midnight. But full of lots of crew members in those late hours. The big ships had dock in the less inviting spots out of downtown. The dock in Reykjavik is quite a walk into town. Maybe this will be good news too to tender in to a closer location. Sorry to hear about the loss of Bergen and Dublin ...mid cruise. We just lost Monterey and Santa Barbara on a coastal Noordam cruise. But hey, we got San Pedro and Catalina as substitutes. 🫤 Time to re-activate some great travel advice I got once ...... there are no uninteresting streets in India. Just go for it, never know what is around the corner in even the most unlikely stops.

Mind the gap, between climatologist predictions and observed incidence of weather patterns: https://dailysceptic.org/2022/12/08/massive-reduction-in-cyclonic-storm-energy-across-northern-hemisphere-in-2022/?highlight=oceans getting warmer We are still coming out of the last Northern hemisphere Ice Age 10,000 years ago, so gradual warming should be a natural part of this cycle. 13 billion years is a long time to measure post-Big Bang temperatures on planet earth with any certainty. Core and mantle fluidity plays its hand in surface ocean temperatures as well. Not much we can do about that. As a Maasdam In Depth geologist was always fond of saying: civilization exists only with the permission of geologic forces.

Fairbanks is ground zero for the highest visibility, right in the magnetic pole axis. Did a land trip years ago to see them in Fairbanks, and stayed at Chena Hot Springs outside to Fairbanks - hoar frost on all the trees, bubbling hot pools, very short days, carpeted in December snow but dog sled rides were available, and hay bales stacked up in the middle of the airstrip to view the northern lights- quite a package. Brrrrrrr.....

Valdez tourism teases us with a two-fer northern lights and the Big dipper. In fairness they also warn about the high probability of over-cast skies.

This is the best website we found too - great link. Thanks. Hopefully it will tell us whether to sleep in that night, or have the puffer-coat ready to throw over the PJ's and get out on deck.

WSJ "Off Duty" today highlights taking a cruise: 7-day HALAlaska - $329 7-day Celebrity Mediterranean - $1,099 6-day Virgin Caribbean - $1,820 7-day AquaBlu - Indonesia - $8,960 4- day MSC - Bahamas - $239 Leading the value cruise world yet again, Holland America

Has anyone taken a HAL cruise and seen the Northern Lights? We are on the late Sept two-week Noordam Alaska cruise which includes Sitka and Valdez. Early darkness, small towns, edge of the viewing zone, and a good year in the 11 year cycle has Roll Call members hoping we see them It was recommended to ask Guest Services for a wake-up call, when the bridge spots them. Any other tips? What are the good viewing spots on the ship. Our Roll Call will greatly appreciate any information you can pass on. Thanks.