OlsSalt

This discussion is a little bit of this - is it not? Which way can two people see the same thing and reach opposite conclusions. Is this an old lady or a young beauty?

The trend for ships to feel more like floating hotels and not unique sea going vessels with their own set of quirks, creaks, sounds and motions, can create more people surprised when they experience what it takes keeping these huge floating metal boxes in good working order. Hope this family take in the Captain's behind the scenes video program - a city at sea? -- because the breadth and depth of services required for these self-contained, 24/7 mini-cities is awesome to appreciate. I also wonder if these kids closely and emotionally followed the recent story about the very horrific Titanic submersible tragedy. That said, mother's reaction and demands did come across as over the top. Hope this does turn into a good teaching moment for the kids, and provides new respect for the being at-sea environment. Once in my much earlier life I said I preferred being on a ship compared to flying .....since I knew I could always swim, but I could not fly if anything went wrong. Then one dark night I was out on deck after leaving Australia by passenger ship, and saw waves and troughs that appeared to devour the entire ship itself. I then realized I was not going to be able to swim out of that one. Choosing sea travel is not for the very faint of heart. Choosing cruising today at least ups the odds it will be a safe journey. But Mother Nature always plays the last card. Fair winds and following seas to all. (Whatever that means.)

Who knows, maybe we were there on the same night? Both service and food were off for us that night, and we were dining as couple. Dressed up for the occasion too. Every once in a while, those one-off nights can just go way, way off. It could only be laughed off, as it proceeded from disappointing to bad, to finally the worst with the failed dessert that particular night - Rudi's alleged Salzburger Knockerol*. (*I have seen other's pictures of what looked like the real deal having also enjoyed this egg white spectacular many times in Austria, but that was not even close to what we were served that evening.) Rudi's remains something to experience and I do appreciate HAL trying to add this upper end option. I just did not expect that degree of quality variability for the surcharge. Thanks for your tips about Club Orange - that would be the only way I would ever try a Pinnacle class ship again. It would need a spectacular itinerary to even tempt me. Or the only West Coast departure ship in town. More likely.

What other suggestions to you have to retire the covid-inflicted $10 billion dollar debt CCL was forced to incur, just to sail another day?

We were one and done with Rudi's Sel de Mer on the Konigsdam, and cancelled our later reservation. Your mileage may vary. We found it was just not worth the surcharge, not even close. But glad we tried it, at least once. MDR has a seafood option every night.

Should have branded this as Cocktails with the Classics, with special music-themed drinks of the day. Under-utilized obviously means under-performing revenue wise. No open, quiet space is ever under-utilized because that is its primary intent - just knowing there is at least one quiet underutilized space on board one can go to during the day, is priceless.

I can't think of a time when we were not given routine written notice, if work was being done around our cabin. Has it been verified in fact there was no notice, or did it get lost in a pile other paper notices dropped off at the affected cabins? Did the adjoining cabins get notice? Post 8 am routine maintenance on a ship is a given, including blocked off areas, paint smells and fumes. Ships are hollow metal boxes, sounds reverberate. Agree, how did the kids miss the actual lessons required upon boarding, and reinforced by the parents, that they should have committed to memory in case there was ever a real emergency. Safety drilling by parents, for reinforcement of lessons learned - when, where and how to respond is critical. Instead of crying hysterically, why didn't they automatically run for their life jackets?

Guarantees are like gambling: you pays your money and takes your chances. Anyone have a spreadsheet about the relative win:loss ratio? Chances are for the most part the final cabin assignment will be just fine. But there are Goldilocks cabins out there, just to make the game interesting. Some matter, some do not. 1. Under the Lido deck 2. Near the elevator 3. Under/over entertainment areas 4. Under the ping pong table 5. Near crew stairwells 6. Near the anchors 7. Under tile-floored galley and prep rooms

Delos and Borneo are also islands of relative stability, among their notorious, tectonically erratic neighbors Magma flows deep under the earth crust are now speculated to materially impact ocean temperatures leading to El Ninos, and changes in the Gulf Stream, let alone the shifting of the magnetic poles. Magma bulges may be the biggest climate drivers of all. Brave new world for exploration considering how very recent the tectonic plate theory is. Was not taught when I was taking college Geology in the 1960's. Explains the uniqueness of the Seychelles granite islands, among the sea of Indian Ocean volcanic island chains. Endlessly fascinating topic since HAL takes us all around the world, to see these geologic manifestation first hand.

Boarding times were meant to ease embarkation back-ups and coordinate with having cabins ready. Go ahead and ignore them, but keep in mind the potential consequences of disrupting this intended crowd control and cabin readiness flow.

All it takes is on bad guarantee cabin, and suddenly choosing your cabin is worth it. We stopped using guarantees after getting a cabin over the Ocean Bar on the old Maasdam - loud singing, every word clear, thumping bass, and the reception desk telling us it would not stop until after 11pm. And no, they could not turn it down. For others, this would be zero problem and the Ocean Bar groups was actually very good. But we are the in bed by 9pm types, so it was not how we wanted to spend the next 14 days. They did move us the next day to the "last" available cabin - a prior no show - and it was bliss. So for us, it was never again using guarantees. Seems like we have been paying extra for some time. But since we don't mind being under the Lido in a carefully chosen location, those cabins always seem to cost less than other parts of the ship.

Travel is always an adventure, and subject to unique phenomena where one chooses to travel. And Iceland is about as unique as it gets - part of it lure and lore .That is all. We love Iceland. Hope you have a wonderful time and keep learning about its natural and unpredictable wonders. Hope you can include one of its famous thermal resorts - Blue Lagoon or Lake Myvatan. Iceland makes its natural wonders work for their own benefit; except when they can not.

Iceland - the land of fire and ice. Sits atop the great tectonic rift between the US continental plates and the European continental plates. The earth is literally opening up beneath your feet in Iceland. Other major volcanos in Iceland are "over due" for eruptions, straddling this highly active tectonic zone. The last major Iceland eruption that shut down air travel for weeks, left our cruise with many, many empty cabins. Luckily, we had arrived at our cruise departure port three days earlier. As a geology prof on one of the Maasdam In-Depth cruise always liked to say: Civilization exists only with the permission of geologic forces.

Types of cones for ice cream - cake -sugar- waffle: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/guide/678/types-of-ice-cream-cones.html

**NSA = No Sugar Added, but may use artificial sweeteners.

DUTCH HARBOR: Loved this little out of way stop and walked all the way out to the small town and the Russian Church, to find a very good Thai restaurant there too. In town we kept seeing "Deadliest Catch" logo items, and we did not have a clue what that was all about. Only after getting home did we check out re-runs of the Deadliest Catch TV series, and got totally hooked on the early shows and personalities. We were sorry we did not know a thing about Deadliest Catch when we were in Dutch Harbor, so just hint to anyone else who also missed out on this popular connection with this seldom visited Alaska port.

There is a free ice cream station on all ships with sauces and extra sprinkles, and on the largest Pinnacle class there is a for-fee Gelato Bar - excellent gelato which is well worth the modest upcharge. Can't remember what cones were available at the fee gelato bar. But that will not be available on your ship, the Nieuw Amsterdam anyway. Sorry. Maybe the array of sauces and sprinkles at the regular ice cream bar, along with a variety of fresh cookies can make up for no waffle cones, if that is the case. I do think they have regular cones and sugar cones. Be sure to look for the fresh crepe station for breakfast at the Lido, as well as Belgium Waffles. Enjoy the Nieuw Amsterdam - it is a lovely ship, and be sure to visit the Tamarind specialty pan-Asian restaurant (fee) but a lovely experience. Finding the large stainless steel Big Apple on this ship in an out of way corner, in commemoration of the ship's namesake, makes a good treasure hunt.

We are about 70 days out and still have no excursions offered for LA or Catalina Island after these ports were added recently, after Monterey and Santa Barbara were taken away on an Oct Coastal California cruise. Monterey we expected to lose - after they declare the entire area a Marine Sanctuary - no cruise ships ever again. Still not clear why they eliminated Santa Barbara at the same time. But there are plenty of things to do on our own in both new ports.

Methinks maybe HAL wanted to earn some early loyalty bonus points from us. The upgrade fairy works in strange ways. We never looked back, and never chose another cruise line after that. And even later paid for a few Neptunes on our own. 650 days and counting now on HAL ships.

We got our "final room assignment" once at check in - they bumped us into a Neptune Suite. So you never know. Our luggage had already been checked in, and went to our prior assigned guarantee cabin. We did not mind waiting for it to catch up with us on that cruise. Hope you enjoy your first HAL cruise.

Tip for HOMER ALASKA, if you opt for the school bus shuttle into town -visit the sporting goods outfit NOMAR - one of the school bus stops. We love their Nomar Mesh Bag , later ordered more for family members and continue to use ours every time we go shopping. https://nomaralaska.com/collections/mesh-bags

You picked a great cruise. Congrats.

It was Truth Aquatic's boat the Conception - some of these boats dock at the same Sea Landing, where the HAL tenders come into Santa Barbara. Those lost are honored and remembered by this town. The entire town was in shock.

The most plausible explanation for the Santa Barbara Dive Boat fire was over-loaded circuits and/or exploding lithium battery packs - was not up to handling all the charging equipment now brought on board. It also sounded like it was such a flash fire, there was little that could have been done even if someone was on active duty watch. A truly tragic event. A horrific tragedy all around. Made me realize when the stewards unplug items getting charged while we are gone, that is very much the right thing to do. Now I worry about any lithium battery packs at home while we are gone on a cruise, which I had never given consideration to before either.

Sobering reminders we passengers need to take the required embarkation safety drill much more seriously, rather than thinking it is merely an annoying inconvenience.