Holland 22 day cruise

[sandyrich]

We are looking at a 22 day cruise through the Panama Canal on Holland.  DH and I have done 15 day cruises but none longer.  Is there enough to keep busy on these longer cruises.  Any suggestions?

Edited January 16, 2019 by sandyrich

[Cruising-along]

Just now, sandyrich said:

We are looking at a 22 day cruise through the Panama Canal on Holland.  DH and I have done 15 cruises but none longer.  Is there enough to keep busy on these longer cruises.  Any suggestions?

The longest we had done was two 15-day back to back and then we took a 38-day cruise.  Never got bored!  We now are booked on 3 back-to-backs totaling over 60 days.  And looking at a 51-day cruise for 2020.  

 

Short answer -- no, I don't know how anyone could get bored.  Even if you aren't interested in the lectures, shows, demos, etc. there's always walking on the promenade deck, enjoying the amazing views.  We do bring books, but there have been times I haven't even opened my book.  Join the roll call for your cruise if you haven't already.  It's great having familiar faces, and many roll calls do more than just a Meet & Greet.  

[kazu]

10 minutes ago, Cruising-along said:

Join the roll call for your cruise if you haven't already.  It's great having familiar faces, and many roll calls do more than just a Meet & Greet.  

 

So agree with this.  We’ve done all kinds of stuff on roll calls if we had a bunch of sea days.  It’s all voluntary so you only sign up for what is of interest.

 

We normally do 30 + day cruises now.  I’ve never been bored but I don’t need to be entertained 24/7.

 

You should have good lecturers on your sea days and the Panama Canal will have commentary as well as the Panama buns 😉 

 

There is stuff going on during the day and definitely in the evening.  Everything may not appeal but there are tons of options.

 

HAL is not as big as other lines on entertainment though.  No hairy chest contests or that type of thing.

 

Panama Canal is always great 😄. Many people go back year after year.

[CruiserBruce]

Been on a few cruises longer than 20 days. Never been bored on a ship. Whether or not you will be bored depends on you. Do you expect the ship to entertain you 24/7? Or can you entertain yourself?

[sandyrich]

I have always been able to stay busy.  My DH has fewer interests, so I'm a little concerned. Seems Holland is  a bit light on activities but I really like this itinerary.  Hoping they add activies to their longer cruises.

[OlsSalt]

34 minutes ago, sandyrich said:

I have always been able to stay busy.  My DH has fewer interests, so I'm a little concerned. Seems Holland is  a bit light on activities but I really like this itinerary.  Hoping they add activies to their longer cruises.

 

HAL's virtue is they are "light on a lot of activities". What does you husband like to do to fill his  time when he is on land?  But being the case for a lot of the smaller HAL ships and longer cruises - "light  on activities" - you might want to keep looking until you do find a better match. For us it is the HAL itineraries and reading about where we are going -past present and future that keeps us easily engaged.

 

We are at the point where we don't even think it is worth packing for anything under 21 days.  It may take a few days, particularly if you are having jet lag, but one does get into the "zone" of routine activities on the longer cruises.  (aka Stockholm Syndrome - captive of time and place - make it work for you)  Unfortunately, our own "zone" includes thinking about what are we next going to eat - moving from meal to meal throughout the hours of the day.

 

But putting in a fitness routine every day or several times a day, a ritual drink at one of the bars,  board games, walking the 360 promenade deck X numbers of times,  whiling alway on the internet, browsing the library, attending classes and lectures and crafts demonstrations, hit the sports bar for a game, a movie.  NetworkTV in the cabin or DVDs from the front desk .  

 

Spa thermal surcharge pool or regular pool. Afternoon tea or afternoon ice cream - these decisions can break up the monotony of at-sea days, after one gets into the lazy zone. Do I snooze in the sun on  the aft deck the center Lido pool deck, the hidden forward or aft decks. Decisions, decisions, decisions .... and then it is time to pack up and go home. And finally having a vacation from our vacation. 

Edited January 16, 2019 by OlsSalt

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have never been bored on longer cruise.

 

There is a lot you can do -- join with others on port days and see the ports.  On sea days -- wine tasting, reading, relaxing, trivia, bingo, etc.

[wyobean]

I am never bored even at home. If I don’t have anything to keep me busy I explore the ship. I find all kinds of surprises... you can always go to the Crow’s nest and work on a puzzle.

[knittinggirl]

We've done several 30+ days, either B2B or a single cruise.  Never been bored. 

 

HAL is in the process of removing their libraries on some of their larger ships.  While the Veendam still had books, the Nieuw Amsterdam removed everything except a few travel books in their Crow's Nest.    Be sure to take a reader along, and download a bunch of books before you leave home.  During our Transpacific, we were out of touch for the Hawaii to Sydney crossing.

 

The HAL Cruise Director didn't schedule special groups, except some authorized by corporate.  Between our Voyage of the Vikings in 2016, they'd stopped scheduling our knitting group.  Something that will never earn our CD a top score from us, and I mention this in each post cruise evaluation.

 

If you're interested, be sure to plan a special group on the roll call.  We've had scavenger hunts, cabin crawls, roll call lunches, Meet and Greet, etc.

Edited January 16, 2019 by knittinggirl

[JimnKaren]

I read, Karen knits. Never been bored on a sea day on any ship on any itinerary.

Only you can decide if the itinerary itself is the reason for booking a 22-day trip.

We have a 34 day coming up in March; and a 51 day coming up in October. Nothing to the longer itineraries.

Jim

[Betty in Cozumel]

39 minutes ago, JimnKaren said:

We have a 34 day coming up in March; and a 51 day coming up in October. Nothing to the longer itineraries.

Jim

 

WOW!!!  I want your life.  🙂 

[utahtea]

5 hours ago, sandyrich said:

We are looking at a 22 day cruise through the Panama Canal on Holland.  DH and I have done 15 day cruises but none longer.  Is there enough to keep busy on these longer cruises.  Any suggestions?

 

Our very first cruise was a 7 day cruise to Alaska.  Our second cruise was a 20 day Panama Canal cruise.  After the second cruise we decided that a 7 day cruise is WAY to short!  The shortest we will do now is 14.  We've done a 39 day cruise and are now booked for 40 a day cruise.  Love the sea days...and don't even do anything special.  Your experience might not be the same as ours, but you won't know until you try.

 

Utahtea

[Betty in Cozumel]

I would love to do a long cruise but it's too hard to leave our 3 dogs alone for that length of time.  Also not too safe to leave the house empty that long too; especially when we have to have someone clean the pool at least once a week.

 

Maybe I can go with a sister or friend and leave hubby at home to watch everything.  LOL

[kazu]

24 minutes ago, Betty in Cozumel said:

I would love to do a long cruise but it's too hard to leave our 3 dogs alone for that length of time.  Also not too safe to leave the house empty that long too; especially when we have to have someone clean the pool at least once a week.

 

Maybe I can go with a sister or friend and leave hubby at home to watch everything.  LOL

 

Ahh, a pool open all year?  I’m jealous 😉 as the snow blows here.

 

Just close down the pool and find a good place for your dogs to go.

 

I don’t leave mine at home as they would be waiting for me to come home.  (If your dogs aren’t like mine, then by all means, there are good dog sitters out ther) I take them to their “home away from home”.  Nothing fancy but they love Debbie, get two walks a day and have heating and air conditioning. (And she has vet tech training and in good contact with my vet).

And she takes great care of them.  I can’t say they “dance” to go anymore since I lost my Fox and Miko doesn’t know what Debbie is yet but Marley will convey the excitement.

 

Mostly we only go once a year.  Time is not a concept to dogs.  As long as they are happy to go and happy when you are back, it’s all good.

 

Think about it.  You can do it 😉 

[Betty in Cozumel]

kazu:  We had a great dog sitter in Canada but then we were still working and could only go for short trips.  (Max 3 weeks at a time).

 

Now that we are retired we can go anytime but it's hard to find a good place for the dogs here on such a small island.  We did have a place but we had a bad experience last year when we were away for a month cruising in Asia.  Won't ever take them back there.

 

For our upcoming cruise, we cut it tight to 3 weeks (as we have to travel via Toronto) and we have a friend watching them at her house for us.  Dogs were there for 10 days in November and they seemed to enjoy it but the house was empty.  Best solution is to have a friend or sister come and house/dog sit.  Who wouldn't love to come to Cozumel and relax by the pool with three adorable dogs.  🙂

 

[kazu]

10 minutes ago, Betty in Cozumel said:

Best solution is to have a friend or sister come and house/dog sit.  Who wouldn't love to come to Cozumel and relax by the pool with three adorable dogs.  🙂

 

 

I bet you would have people beating down your doors for this job.

 

All you have to do is find the “right”, trustworthy person.
 

I’d be very tempted with the winter we are having LOL -  pretty sure you would have tons of takers.