new and floundering

[mightymak]

Just joined and wanted to know how to locate the particular cruise we will be on to see who else is sailing and if interested in doing tours etc. together as a group. Thanks.:confused:

[Mar56]

Right above your post is a star withNEW find your roll call. Click on that put in the info they ask for and voila there it is. Have a great cruise.

[sail7seas]

Tell us which ship and what date and we can provide a link to your roll call.

 

[sail7seas]

Here is a link to the HAL Roll Call page.

Scroll down to find your specific cruise IF there is a roll call started.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=86

[RJ2002]

Just joined and wanted to know how to locate the particular cruise we will be on to see who else is sailing and if interested in doing tours etc. together as a group. Thanks.:confused:

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

As was suggested, click on the link near the top of the page with the star "Find Your HOLLAND AMERICA Roll Call".

[OlsSalt]

Be sure to ask some general questions here too, because sometimes the cruise roll call groups on the other forum are not very active. Welcome aboard.

[PathfinderEss]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

Don't know what cruise your going on but if it is like a year out there may not be a 'roll call' formed yet. Also because some cruises very few Mariners are going on or CCer's you may not see a 'roll call'. Hope it works out for you.

[mightymak]

thanks for the encouragement. will be going on the Rotterdam, out of Rotterdam on Aug. 2, 2014 on the 14 day Norwegian fjords. Anyone been on that ship or that cruise?

[RuthC]

Anyone been on that ship or that cruise?

Not recently, but I have sailed on the Rotterdam well over 100 days, and cruised through Norway more times than I can count.

 

So, if you have any questions about your upcoming cruise, this is the place to get comfortable, read the various threads, and ask all sorts of questions. I know I'll be happy to contribute what I can, and I know others will, too.

[PatsyAnne]

thanks for the encouragement. will be going on the Rotterdam, out of Rotterdam on Aug. 2, 2014 on the 14 day Norwegian fjords. Anyone been on that ship or that cruise?

I didn't find a roll call for that cruise yet. Someone may start one soon. It looks like it hits most of the ports we will see on the Prinsendam starting August 10 from Amsterdam, so I have to say the itinerary looks good. :D

[Netty13]

thanks for the encouragement. will be going on the Rotterdam, out of Rotterdam on Aug. 2, 2014 on the 14 day Norwegian fjords. Anyone been on that ship or that cruise?

 

What ports are you going to? We did a cruise on the Rotterdam to the Norwegian Fjords last May and loved every minute of it.

Went to see Bergen, Alesund, Geiranger, Eidfjord, Stavanger, Kristiansand, Oslo and Flam.

 

The Rotterdam is a lovely, not too big ship, the crew was amazing and the food just too good ;-)

 

If you have any specific questions, just ask. (Sorry about my bad English... I'm from Germany)

[boulders]

What ports are you going to? We did a cruise on the Rotterdam to the Norwegian Fjords last May and loved every minute of it.

Went to see Bergen, Alesund, Geiranger, Eidfjord, Stavanger, Kristiansand, Oslo and Flam.

 

The Rotterdam is a lovely, not too big ship, the crew was amazing and the food just too good ;-)

 

If you have any specific questions, just ask. (Sorry about my bad English... I'm from Germany)

 

Netty, your English is excellent. I would not have known you were not a native speaker.

Edited October 31, 2013 by boulders

[Netty13]

Netty, your English is excellent. I would not have known you were not a native speaker.

 

Awww... thank you!

[Typhoon1]

Welcome to CC. You'll find it to be an excellent source of useful information.

[NoWhiners]

You have gotten great advice here, I second all of it. I just wanted to say that I find it easier to go to the HAL Roll Call boards to find a roll call, rather than use the new button up above. When I did it for our cruise, it took a lot of info/button pushes to get to it!! Just my experience, but I don't find it that helpful. others seem to like it so it must be helpful at some level.

 

If there isn't a roll call set up for your cruise yet, go ahead and start one--lots of fun and then others can find you. Sort of a "if you build it, they will come" thing:)

 

Good luck

ML

Edited November 1, 2013 by NoWhiners
oops

[mightymak]

thank you all for the help. I could not even get back to this board so you can see I am a real beginner at this but do like all the interaction. As best I can tell there is not a roll call for our particular cruise only before and after our date. Do you think the ship tours are worth the money or should we try to do our own? We will be on the Aug. 2 sailing on the Rotterdam doing the fjords up to Honningsvag. I agree that Netty English is good. Keep the advice coming while I try to figure our how to respond to you. Thanks. mightymak:confused:

[nana51]

The nice thing about doing excursions through the ship is if something happens and the tour is running late, the ship will wait for you. If you organize it on your own, they are under no obligation to wait.

[Netty13]

We did the ships tours in Eidfjord, because we couldn't find any local tours and in Flam. We wanted to go on the Flam Railway and it wasn't possible to book tickets in advance (only for groups). So we decided better book the expensive tour via Holland America, than ending up in Flam with no excursion at all. For both ports we don't regret it. The excursions were worth the money.

 

In Geiranger, Alesund and Stavanger we booked excursions with local providers.

[catl331]

We were a little hesitant when we were new cruisers to book tours on our own. We still are for new ports but take advice from known CC members that like a certain company. In some ports though, we think ahead as to what way is there for us to catch up to the ship if we don't get back in time. We still are careful with tours in foreign countries. Also we book ship tours ahead of time if it is a tour we really want or one we know is very popular. You can always cancel and not lose your money.

[mightymak]

we will be going out of Rotterdam but will be stopping in Flam so will take your advice and book thru the cruise. Can you tell me who you used and what you did in Alesund and geiranger? Appreciate all of your help Netty.

 

Mighty Mak

[Netty13]

we will be going out of Rotterdam but will be stopping in Flam so will take your advice and book thru the cruise. Can you tell me who you used and what you did in Alesund and geiranger? Appreciate all of your help Netty.

 

Mighty Mak

 

I'm away for the weekend and have all the papers and links at home. I'll send them to you on Monday.

You're very welcome!

[moviefan2010]

Save money and consider doing the Flam trip your self or do it via a rollcall group. You will save a lot of money by not using HOl. I did it myself and that was pretty easy since our ship arrived early and only two small ships were in port and the incredibly short walk to the train station allowed me to be in line before the station opened. Check the port arrival schedule for Flam and if you ship arrives before other big ships then you are safe if you get up early.

[Netty13]

we will be going out of Rotterdam but will be stopping in Flam so will take your advice and book thru the cruise. Can you tell me who you used and what you did in Alesund and geiranger? Appreciate all of your help Netty.

 

Mighty Mak

 

Sooo, here we are:

 

In Geiranger we had booked one excursion (Fjord Tour on a small boat) online via http://www.geirangerfjord.no/SHORE-EXCURSIONS-3-3

 

After arriving in the port we went to the tourist information and booked another tour (Bus trip up the Eagle Road) and my boyfriend even booked a helicopter flight there (I get sick very easy, so I decided to skip that ;)).

 

In Alesund we took the Hop-on-hop-off bus, did a whole tour through the city and on the second round, got off on Mt. Aksla, from where you have a wonderful view above the city and the fjord.

After that we just wandered through the town back to the ship.

 

Hope this helps a bit ;)

[mightymak]

Thanks again Netty we appreciate you help. If you can think of anything else for the trip or the about the ship, keep me posted. Maryann

[Netty13]

One thing we found out: unless you're really starving or want to try norwegian food, don't eat in the ports. We spoke to two other couples during dinner who told us they paid horrendous prices for a bowl of soup or a pizza :eek:

Annette

Edited November 16, 2013 by Netty13