35 night cruise

[Vict0riann]

We had a great roll call on our French Polynesia cruise - led by our intrepid Jacqui aka @kazu, so there was never a dull moment.  I hope you are on your roll call and can participate in lots of activities and tours.  It really makes life easy, to board with a ready-made group of friends.

[tuolumne couple]

31 minutes ago, Vict0riann said:

 I hope you are on your roll call ...

Yes, of course. We always do that. This was a thread for incite from people who have taken a 35 night cruise with repeat menu questions and if the blue silver gold gala menus repeat or tidbits to offer.... , but I so appreciate you chiming in. 

[rkacruiser]

10 hours ago, Hlitner said:

But one drawback for us was the entertainment. 

 

For many years in the past, there has been a sole man who somehow had enough influence over the entertainment and music offered aboard the ships that his influence became noticeable.  In the negative sense.  

 

Live music went from canned music to....and it has repeated itself.  Cruise staff--even on the 2008 Grand World Voyage--some of whom might have had difficulty holding a job at McDonald's.

 

I have enjoyed what I perceive is an improvement in the music and entertainment offered on my recent HAL cruises.  Even the "trashing that has been done on CC about the EXC program" has shown improvement, I think.  (More to do?  Of course.  Perfection is never achieved.)  

 

I don't have any idea whether this "Entertainment Guru" for so many years is still employed given the staff reductions that HAL has had to do.  I'd think that he and his "favorite CD" ought to have sailed "into the sunset" during this time.

 

 

 

 

[Shmoo here]

11 hours ago, Hlitner said:

The singers/dancers actually got bored on the 28 day segment (we became very friendly with one of the singers) but contractual rules forbid them from doing much other entertainment. 

I agree with the lack of variety in entertainment on the long cruises.  I was really tired of the ubiquitous magician/ventriloquist/comedian hamster wheel we were on on our 28 night cruise.

 

I do recall on one of our longer (21 nights) cruises, the performers did a special show one night that they put together.  Not a regular HAL show.  Maybe that's not allowed now?

 

 

[canadianbear]

We have found the entertainment the last couple of years dismal at best.  However, for this 35 day cruise we are going for the ports, snorkeling and since we enjoy playing cards and just relaxing we won’t be disappointed.  Maybe we will be pleasantly surprised with entertainment-one can hope, lol.  

[tuolumne couple]

You know, to have top rated entertainment, perhaps you should visit Las Vegas, or Broadway. HAL does the best they can, with the food, excursions, the ship and the sea. While we continue to enjoy the entertainment on Holland America Line, we also continue to enjoy all the types of entertainment offered, including the ones we fabricate for ourselves. We love the excursions, and the food, and the staff. Well, this has all been said before many times. Some of the best entertainment remains to be the passengers themselves. whether they know it or not. Myself included!

Thanks all of you whom have taken the time to answer my simple question.

Edited November 23, 2020 by tuolumne couple
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[Hflors]

We are booked on this cruise and have been booked for many months.  When we booked the cruise was on the Volendam  passengers 1432, a couple of months ago hal switched ship to Zuiderdam 1964 passengers.  Why am I bringing this up?  This cruise has 7 tender ports.  The zuiderdam has 500 extra passengers to tender into and out of ports.  Believe me almost everyone gets off the ship on a cruise like this.  I am guessing that there are going to be some problems.

  ( I was on a cruise in bar harbor maine we were supposed to be there from 8 am till like 5 pm.  My sis and I didn't get tender tickets because we were just going to walk around town and have lunch.  At noon people were still waiting to get off with their tender tickets!  That cruise was on Eurodam with 2100 passengers)

 

This is what I am worried about.  If we can't get to shore to meet our tours few people are going to care about food and entertainment!  We will see.

[KirkNC]

We are also on the cruise but selfishly aren’t to worried as we get priority tendering.  You can have problems on any size ship if conditions are not good.  On the 2019 world cruise, the Amsterdam with 1,300 passenger stopped at Easter Island.  Only approximately half the passengers were able got off as it took 45 minutes to load a tender due to swells.  Hopefully we will have better conditions.

[KirkNC]

17 hours ago, tuolumne couple said:

Yes, of course. We always do that. This was a thread for incite from people who have taken a 35 night cruise with repeat menu questions and if the blue silver gold gala menus repeat or tidbits to offer.... , but I so appreciate you chiming in. 

We have done many long cruise, three or four over 100 days and what we find with menu items is that if the cruise is one booking like a world cruise or this cruise, they will try to keep repeats to a minimum.  There will still be individual items repeated, after all, you can only make so many things, but there should not be whole menus repeated.  Where you get lots of repeats is when you do long B2B2B type cruises.  We did a long cruise on the Maasdam (6 B2B) and counted coconut shrimp nine times.  Luckily my wife loves it!

Edited November 23, 2020 by KirkNC

[canadianbear]

2 hours ago, Hflors said:

We are booked on this cruise and have been booked for many months.  When we booked the cruise was on the Volendam  passengers 1432, a couple of months ago hal switched ship to Zuiderdam 1964 passengers.  Why am I bringing this up?  This cruise has 7 tender ports.  The zuiderdam has 500 extra passengers to tender into and out of ports.  Believe me almost everyone gets off the ship on a cruise like this.  I am guessing that there are going to be some problems.

  ( I was on a cruise in bar harbor maine we were supposed to be there from 8 am till like 5 pm.  My sis and I didn't get tender tickets because we were just going to walk around town and have lunch.  At noon people were still waiting to get off with their tender tickets!  That cruise was on Eurodam with 2100 passengers)

 

This is what I am worried about.  If we can't get to shore to meet our tours few people are going to care about food and entertainment!  We will see.

I imagine since this cruise is not a back to back that a lot of the passengers will be 4* and higher.  That would mean a lot have priority tendering.  I can see it being an issue for private tours to not book too early in the day just in case.  

[kazu]

9 minutes ago, canadianbear said:

I imagine since this cruise is not a back to back that a lot of the passengers will be 4* and higher.  That would mean a lot have priority tendering.  I can see it being an issue for private tours to not book too early in the day just in case.  

 

Your are correct on the 4 and 5*.  

 

For you and @Hflors, we did this cruise a few years ago on the Westerdam.  The tendering was pretty efficient overall although it can always be frustrating 😉 

Our issue was the inability to tender due to the weather at several ports.  We ended up with a lot of unplanned sea days (although Capt. Van Eerten and the HD did a great job of keeping us entertained with pool parties, etc) and a complete itinerary change mid cruise which eliminated some private tours as the guides were booked for the new dates.

 

If you are booking private tours, make sure that if a payment is required that it is refundable if you cannot make port.  And book Patrick in Bora Bora asap.  He fills up quickly 😄 

[KirkNC]

Patrick is already booked up!

[kazu]

1 hour ago, KirkNC said:

Patrick is already booked up!

Obviously my asap wasn’t soon enough 😉 

 

Hope you were able to be included.  It really is a great, memorable day. 😄 

[canadianbear]

3 minutes ago, kazu said:

Obviously my asap wasn’t soon enough 😉 

 

Hope you were able to be included.  It really is a great, memorable day. 😄 

We are on our roll call wait list for Patrick if anyone cancels.  Will have to look at other options though as we want to snorkel for sure.  

[KirkNC]

9 minutes ago, kazu said:

Obviously my asap wasn’t soon enough 😉 

 

Hope you were able to be included.  It really is a great, memorable day. 😄 

Yea we did it in 2019, lots of fun.  We are on the waitlist for this cruise.

[KirkNC]

13 minutes ago, canadianbear said:

We are on our roll call wait list for Patrick if anyone cancels.  Will have to look at other options though as we want to snorkel for sure.  

I am cautiously optimistic as they are considering adding another boat.  Not firm yet but Valaire brought that up.  We are #9 & 10 and a boat holds 12.

[zelker]

On 11/20/2020 at 8:33 PM, tuolumne couple said:

can anyone chime in on this for us?

on a 35 nighter:

how many gala / formal nights? 

do the blue silver gold gala menus repeat?

any other tidbits you wish to share to better inform us would be helpful, as we look ahead to this one in 2022

 

 

We sailed from Vancouver to Auckland (40 nights) last fall on Noordam, with many stops in Hawaii and some of the South Pacific islands along the way.  What we thoroughly enjoyed were the surprise opportunities that the head chef did to bring fresh local catch and produce onboard for miscellaneous dinners in the MDR ... some of the best meals we've ever had at sea (or on land for that matter).  Hopefully you'll get lucky and have s similar experience.

[canadianbear]

8 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

I am cautiously optimistic as they are considering adding another boat.  Not firm yet but Valaire brought that up.  We are #9 & 10 and a boat holds 12.

I thought they had no more boats?    I wonder what number hubby & I are-I had no idea!   Hope that happens!! 

[KirkNC]

3 minutes ago, canadianbear said:

I thought they had no more boats?    I wonder what number hubby & I are-I had no idea!   Hope that happens!! 

They are considering renting a fifth boat.  Ted can tell you your number but I think you are ahead of us.

[canadianbear]

19 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

They are considering renting a fifth boat.  Ted can tell you your number but I think you are ahead of us.

Yes, I think we are too.  I’ll wait to hear from him with hopefully good news for us all!  Saves me trying to find someone else.  Thanks for the update.   

[Roger88]

35 nights sounds a bit too much for me. Especially now, when there are very few excursions and other ways to leave the ship (not talking about limitations on board the ship itself). So, All I wanted to say that spending 35 nights on board at this moment may be very boring 

[canadianbear]

2 minutes ago, Roger88 said:

35 nights sounds a bit too much for me. Especially now, when there are very few excursions and other ways to leave the ship (not talking about limitations on board the ship itself). So, All I wanted to say that spending 35 nights on board at this moment may be very boring 

It certainly can be boring for some.  Luckily hubby & I always find things to do and have fun.  We don’t get bored easily.   I’ve wanted to do this cruise before we reach an age where we may not feel comfortable snorkeling any longer.  
 

Everyone who books a long cruise has to think hard about their expectations especially where it comes to being bored.   You realize it would be too much and I hope others that have booked have thought about it too.  

[docruth]

25 minutes ago, canadianbear said:

It certainly can be boring for some.  Luckily hubby & I always find things to do and have fun.  We don’t get bored easily.   I’ve wanted to do this cruise before we reach an age where we may not feel comfortable snorkeling any longer.  
 

Everyone who books a long cruise has to think hard about their expectations especially where it comes to being bored.   You realize it would be too much and I hope others that have booked have thought about it too.  

@canadianbear

 

We love the long cruises, all together, or B?B in segments with the same cabin.

 

My DH is 60+, and still an active instructor with both PADI and the Handicapped Scuba Agency. He, and his 75 year old Uncle, just got back from Galapagos & Machu Picchu, where there was plenty of climbing, hiking & snorkeling. He still goes diving in freakin’ freezin’ water, including quarries & springs, just not so much anymore.

 

I myself have some mobility issues, but still continue to actively scuba, only because I never liked to snorkel. We’ve dived together in warm waters from Fiji to the Caribbean, and on to the Med. Treasured it all. We’re not ready to call it quits yet, especially after just meeting dive buddies in their 80’s in St. Vincent’s.

 

So my message to you is, get in the pool, do your laps for a month before your trip, get some cool new gear (don’t spend too much), grab an inexpensive waterproof camera, and go for it!

 

Cheers,

 

Doc Ruth

Edited November 23, 2020 by docruth

[canadianbear]

14 minutes ago, docruth said:

@canadianbear

 

We love the long cruises, all together, or B?B in segments with the same cabin.

 

My DH is 60+, and still an active instructor with both PADI and the Handicapped Scuba Agency. He, and his 75 year old Uncle, just got back from Galapagos & Machu Picchu, where there was plenty of climbing, hiking & snorkeling. He still goes diving in freakin’ freezin’ water, including quarries & springs, just not so much anymore.

 

I myself have some mobility issues, but still continue to actively scuba, only because I never liked to snorkel. We’ve dived together in warm waters from Fiji to the Caribbean, and on to the Med. Treasured it all. We’re not ready to call it quits yet, especially after just meeting dive buddies in their 80’s in St. Vincent’s.

 

So my message to you is, get in the pool, do your laps for a month before your trip, get some cool new gear (don’t spend too much), grab an inexpensive waterproof camera, and go for it!

 

Cheers,

 

Doc Ruth

Love hearing this!!  I’m over 65 and love to snorkel even having my prescription mask all ready again though our cruise isn’t until 2022!    I wish we had of kept up scuba diving but had kids and didn’t.  However our daughter is a diver so I live through her experiences!

 

One of my favourite snorkel adventures was with the whale sharks in Mexico-such a wonderful time and they got so close to us.  I’ve had an underwater camera for years and love it.  

 

If only I could return to the pool-it’s the biggest thing I miss with this pandemic.  I also have mobility issues and the pool was my saviour.

 

Thanks for your encouraging words.  

[kazu]

57 minutes ago, Roger88 said:

35 nights sounds a bit too much for me. Especially now, when there are very few excursions and other ways to leave the ship (not talking about limitations on board the ship itself). So, All I wanted to say that spending 35 nights on board at this moment may be very boring 

 

Actually, having done this cruise, I can state with experience is is NOT boring.  In fact there is great fun between watching the hula lessons, or watching the ukulele or drum lessons, etc.

Our cruise (as others have stated) had fresh fish brought on from ports and fishing boats and it was excellent.

 

Lectures on this cruise are entertaining and enthralling - at least they were on ours.  You needed to get to the showroom a bit early if you wanted a seat 😉 

 

And the 35 day cruise isn’t NOW - it’s in the future when there could well be much better times safety wise (I hope).

 

Each to their own.   That’s why their are cruises of all length.  The longer cruises hold their own attraction and time flies by all too fast for many of us.