bob brown

Agree that they should not get into the Alaska market. IIRC, they don't even own the expedition ship they use up there, but charter it from another company. I would have liked them to stay on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence market, however...

Not sure if they ever restored the Z-drive that they lost on the American Queen, that caused our Red Wing to New Orleans cruise last October to need an escort tug the whole way.... Could be that, or something else?

They have already announced that the Ocean Navigator and the Ocean Voyager are up for sale (doubt anyone other than a scrapper will make an offer).

Ensenada serves round trip cruises, such as Los Angeles to Hawaiian Islands and return as a port of call. It occasional serves as a termination port for a one way Hawaii to Ensenada repo cruise, where the passenger's will then be bussed to San Diego or Los Angeles, or the reverse. In these cases, the ship will sometimes "deadhead" to San Diego or LA...

😉

Yes…as long as they are foreign. But for example, Key West would not, right?

One region's loss, is another's gain. I imagine Capetown, and similar, are having to scramble to accommodate all the extra ship's that want to now call there...

Of note is that the 8 ships mentioned were all designed for and built for HAL, except the Prinsendam, which was inherited from Seabourn, and was built as the Royal Viking Sun for Royal Viking Line, unless (not likely) you were referring to the original HAL Prinsendam built in 1972 and sunk in 1980

The exception for San Juan is sort of an enigma, as it is excepted from part of the PVSA rule, prohibiting cruises starting from one US port and ending in another (itself), but it is not considered a "distant foreign port" to serve as an intermediate stop, on say, a Fort Lauderdale to San Diego, Panama Canal cruise. Whether it would be considered "a near foreign port" for a cruise that would say go from say Fort Lauderdale to San Juan and return, without any additional foreign ports, I am not sure..Probably a moot point since.I don't think there would be any cruises that would ever sail that far with only that that on a round trip itinerary, anyway...🤷‍♂️

One minor point..."Full capacity" is not always dictated by all berths being occupied, as in some cases that would exceed lifeboat capacity, which cannot be exceeded according to SOLAS regulation. In many cases, when "full" capacity is approached, the cruise line may limit further bookings to no more than two to a cabin, even if third or more berths are available in those cabins...

Interesting topic... I'm trying to think back about other ship's I have sailed, that allow or even encourage passenger's to play a piano...not certain, but I believe the old retired QE2 allowed it in their "Chart Room" lounge. While a crew might allow, or disregard certain "violation's" to any "rule", to make an exception only for certain people, even if well received by some other's, may offend other's that are excluded from the exception...🤷‍♂️

I was on the Seashore a couple of weeks ago, (not Yacht Club), and I noticed a sign by the dual piano's down in the Times Square lounge that said: For use in performances only", so I guess in the Yacht Club only, passenger's are permitted to play?

Actually, it was them that canceled the cruise. After researching the choices, I decided to take refund, rather than risk rescheduling for something else...

You would think AQV's parent company would help them out. That is, if they themselves are solvent. I don't have the ambition to dig further, as I am not planning to book with them again...

Hi RuthC! I haven't been on HAL since 2010, when the Veendam was pulled from the NY homeport, nor have I been a regular on the HAL board, so good to see you still active here.🙂 I am on the Volendam October 5 sailing this year, and scored inside 2619....is that still a good one?😉

Yes, but on a somewhat limited basis...not all of their levels quite match up, only some. Still it is nice when they do. Even though they are the same ownership, you only gain status on the one you sail on, not both simultaneously. The other multiship lines like Carnival Corp. and NCL Holdings, do not offer anything. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity status I believe is still honored on Celebrity "spin-off" Azamara, even though it is now a separate company. Ironic, because Silversea is part of Royal Caribbean now, but they are not included in the cross honoring, although on Silversea, everything is included, anyway pretty much, so the perks would be meaningless...

Wouldn't it be great if other competing cruise lines also offered this "status match"? If so, once you reached the top level at any one, you could have it at all (who offered it).😎 Not very likely...😉

Enjoying reading both "Live From" threads. I was wondering if you partake in any of the shipboard activities, more specifically the trivia games? I am a trivia fan, and wonder how popular it is on this ship, and what, if any, sort of prizes they give the winners or participants?

Ahhh....I took another look, and I see that you are correct. It was just an optical illusion in one photo where the sofa appeared to be recessed further back then the bed. Thanks for the clarification.🙂

Thanks for taking the time to do this thread. Following along, as I would like to learn about this ship that I will be sailing on, on January 7th. I was sorry to read about you dining alone on an 8 seat table, one night. I would think on such a large ship, MSC could do better for solo traveler's, and have a "solo traveler table". NCL does a much better job in that regard. Another thing that mystifies me, was the photo of your cabin. Unless I am misinterpreting, it seems the bed is in the "narrower" part of the cabin, and the sofa is in the "wider" part. In my experience, when cabins are fitted in this "interlocking" design, they place the bed in the wider part, and the sofa in the narrower part, in an alternating pattern.

Most smart phones also have a GPS receiver that tracks your position. If you have an iPhone 14 or 15, you also have a satellite phone, that can be used only for SOS messaging in an emergency, when you are out of WiFi and cellular range.

And there’s no shortage of friendly folks, fellow passengers or crew, who will be very happy to do so for you…

What I wondered about, on the Insignia on the last ATW, was that the Waves buffet area would be staffed lunchtime, but not at breakfast time. In the morning, it was self-serve for fruits, etc.

Anyone know who the crew will be next summer (12 July to 1 Sep)?

I used my VZW iPhone at sea for WiFi calling with no problem while in airplane mode. The first time I tried, a couple of years ago, I had trouble, because you have to initially set it up while you are still connected on land with the cell signal active. Once you do that, you can enable WiFi calling on and off, any time . As for making calls at sea, when using WiFi, I will sometimes use Apple’s Facetime for video calls, or if calling someone, I know has an android phone, I’ll use Whatsapp.