LAFFNVEGAS "LIVE" from the Nieuw Amsterdam, First HAL Ship to Sail!!

[atexsix]

1 hour ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Went up to the Lido for a small bite to eat. Saturday through Wednesday Lido lunch was or appeared to be the same entrees at each station with the exception of one main meat entree at the carving station. But suddenly yesterday and today there were different items in the various stations. I also don’t remember seeing the Asian station set up till yesterday and I had walked around once before. At the Asian station they have those good shrimp rice crackers that had been in Tamarind in years past. Now Tamarind has the much larger crackers that are really not flavored.

 

When we got back our Cabin steward placed our luggage on the bed….hint hint, they are kicking us off. . Then we also received tiles as well as our Port Valet information which I will picture below.

UGH, I hate the disembarkation packet!  I always want to scream when I see it!

 

Sorry your cruise is ending, how bittersweet to see the luggage, I looked on marinetracker and can see you inching closer and closer to Washington.

[12cruise2]

Lisa, one last thing--did they possibly bring back the daily newspaper??  I'm guessing probably not, but one can hope- - - -

[atexsix]

18 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Oh something I did forget to mention. They started handing out menus. When we had lunch in Pinnacle on Tuesday we had menus. Then Last night in the MDR we had menus as well as this morning in the MDR 

. It doesn’t appear anyone is using the QR menus. Plus there was a good portion of time we had no intranet WiFi here on the ship. So the QR code’s were not working.

Wow, it went the way of the dodo sooner than I thought

[Copper10-8]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Boston said:

I must jump in here to say that I am one of those “bean counters” and we aren’t the ones that make the decisions.  We provide the information (real news) to management and management makes those decisions.  Leave bean counters out of this, our only task is to tell you that your baby is beautiful or ugly.

 

1000 apologies Mr. decision suggester for that obvious faux-pas! Yes, the decision makers are obviously in the atelier where the proverbial buck stops

[12cruise2]

1 hour ago, JudithLynne said:

Lisa...did you receive a boarding pass from the Port Valet program?

I'm not Lisa, but in 2019 from Seattle, we used port valet and did receive boarding passes.  However, TSA at the airport made us get "new" boarding passes at our airline--(either Southwest or Alaska, I don't remember)--we were able to use the computers at the airline check-in counter, but it was a nuisance.  TSA had a guy at the beginning of our TSA line who monitored that and sent folks to check-in.

[Copper10-8]

1 hour ago, rkacruiser said:

 

This tile is different than any I have seen before.  I like it.  .................

 

It's actually from the 2019 series which is the same as the 2017-2018 series but without the "ms" in front of the ship's name ...........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rkacruiser]

13 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:

It's actually from the 2019 series which is the same as the 2017-2018 series but without the "ms" in front of the ship's name

 

Thanks for these photos.  I have none of those and I have sailed on HAL several times in the 2017-2020 era.  

[rkacruiser]

1 hour ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

He has a new restaurant opening on the new Carnival Mardi Gras that has her maiden Inaugural sailing tomorrow. This is the first Carnival ship for Rudy

 

Thanks for this information.  I was not aware that he was "jumping brands".  

[quilty964]

Thanks for taking us along on your cruise!  I've enjoyed your pictures and stories!  

 

[Coffeeluvr05]

41 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

It's actually from the 2019 series which is the same as the 2017-2018 series but without the "ms" in front of the ship's name ...........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do all that sail on HAL get one of these tiles at the end of the cruise?  I was hoping someone would post a pic.  I didn't know what they were.  It reminds me when we flew on KLM and they gave us one of their ceramic dutch houses filled with gin.  

[Florida_gal_50]

2 hours ago, zgscl said:

Totally agree. Having them come over from the home office for the sail away is nice, but having them onboard and interacting with guests could be a huge boost. Maybe they didn’t like the MDR menus and decided to stay away 

Love ❤️ it 

[Copper10-8]

1 minute ago, Coffeeluvr05 said:

Do all that sail on HAL get one of these tiles at the end of the cruise?  I was hoping someone would post a pic.  I didn't know what they were.  It reminds me when we flew on KLM and they gave us one of their ceramic dutch houses filled with gin.  

 

Yes and yes, the HAL "tegels" (Dutch for tiles) and the KLM miniature traditional Dutch houses filled with "Jenever" (Dutch Gin) are made from Delfts Blue

 

[zelker]

1 hour ago, JudithLynne said:

Great  info...thank you.  We booked our flights with HAL.

We are nervous that the first group does not exit until 8:45 am.  Our flight is t 11:15.  We are also TSA pre check.  Fingers crossed.

Per this letter Lisa posted earlier today, the first group can disembark at 7:45.  And with TSA Pre-check, you'll be fine.

 

 

[farawaygal]

Thank you so much for all your valuable information. Last minute...are there electrical outlets on the end tables?

[LAFFNVEGAS]

1 hour ago, 12cruise2 said:

Lisa, one last thing--did they possibly bring back the daily newspaper??  I'm guessing probably not, but one can hope- - - -

No they have the daily When and Where that replaced a daily newspaper.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

4 minutes ago, farawaygal said:

Thank you so much for all your valuable information. Last minute...are there electrical outlets on the end tables?

No only USB but there is electrical on the desk/dressing table

[kazu]

7 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

No they have the daily When and Where that replaced a daily newspaper.

 

That’s a shame.  We always had the When & Where on cruises BC (before covid) but also the newspaper.  Oh well DH will have to read on electronics whether he likes it or not 😉   Thanks, Lisa.

[travelnap]

Lisa, Thank you and Tom for taking us all along on your cruise.  You can tell how much the rest of us miss cruising by the number of pages in this thread.  I hope you two have a safe trip back home and get to enjoy your next Alaska cruise a little bit more and not have to worry about us who traveled along with you two.  

[syesmar]

1 hour ago, kazu said:

 

That’s a shame.  We always had the When & Where on cruises BC (before covid) but also the newspaper.  Oh well DH will have to read on electronics whether he likes it or not....

My last couple of sailings, though they had stopped delivering them to the room, I was able to get a copy of the daily newspaper at the front desk if they didn’t have it in the Crow’s Nest or Lido. ymmv.

[Sharon in AZ]

1 hour ago, kazu said:

 

That’s a shame.  We always had the When & Where on cruises BC (before covid) but also the newspaper.  Oh well DH will have to read on electronics whether he likes it or not 😉   Thanks, Lisa.

Jacqui, on our last BC cruise, June 2019, the news in paper form was available near the front desk. Hopefully that is still the case. I never thought to ask Lisa to check. 
 

*Oops, I should have read the next post. 😉

Edited July 31, 2021 by Sharon in AZ

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

No they have the daily When and Where that replaced a daily newspaper.

You mean replacing the NY Times edition?

[Sir PMP]

2 hours ago, Coffeeluvr05 said:

Do all that sail on HAL get one of these tiles at the end of the cruise?  I was hoping someone would post a pic.  I didn't know what they were.  It reminds me when we flew on KLM and they gave us one of their ceramic dutch houses filled with gin.  

This is what we do at the end of the day:

 

[Laminator]

2 hours ago, kazu said:

 

That’s a shame.  We always had the When & Where on cruises BC (before covid) but also the newspaper.  Oh well DH will have to read on electronics whether he likes it or not 😉   Thanks, Lisa.

The Navigator App shows a daily news icon in the connect section. I believe that works off the ships intranet and is free. 

[Dismomx5]

6 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

 

 

 

It looks like having breakfast in the room is not available on disembarkation day. That was always a nice relaxing way to start the (early!) day for us.

[SusieKIslandGirl]

A question for anyone who has used the luggage service from Seattle or Ft. Lauderdale--does the system recognize passengers who are eligible for no fee bags on the plane? Thanks!