Junelovestocruise

HAL is selling a one day cruise on Eurodam leaving Vancouver on May 3 and arriving in Seattle on May 4. My sister and I just added this to our Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver cruise. 

Are you not eligible to do the same thing because you are boarding in San Diego?

29 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

On Aug 3? It was a terrible mess. Fortunately we didn't have anywhere to run off to.

No, it was August 27 so I  guess things didn't improve after your experience..

I will second that comment about the lack of cabs in the Boston cruise port. I was there last August and the line and the wait was extremely long. I think that we waited close to an hour. The line was so long that it had doubled back on itself and of course there were some who felt entitled to try and cut into the front of the line. 

@Kate45 you can pre-pay crew appreciation in Canadian dollars.  I'm about to do that for my May cruise and just checked online to make sure that it's still an option. Once you are in Manage my cruise, choose Travel Planning to find pre-paid crew appreciation. It's a very good exchange rate that they use.

Thanks Sue. I'm boarding the Volendam on December 17 and I had already mentioned to my sister about this new opportunity that we could try. I guess that I had made the assumption that it woukd apply to both of us - just like the specialty restaurant discount when  I was 3* and she was 2*. If it's as you remembered, I won't have to disappoint her!

I'm newly 4 star, traveling with my sister who is 3 star. Will we both get an invitation because of sharing the same cabin or only me?

I also found it in the Navigator app. Choose Dining & Drinks from the Experiences button at the bottom and then choose Sommelier Suite.

Do you get to keep it? My sister and I are driving to the port so would be able to take it home if that's an option. 

Rudi's discount of 25% is only for 4 and 5 star mariners.

Just checked my account and for a 24 day cruise in an ocean view cabin I received 24 credits for the cruise and an additional 24 points from onboard spending. That would require $7,200 of spending and I can assure you that my sister and I did not spend anything even remotely close to this!

1 hour ago, roxybear135 said:

 

Tonight we went to Tamarind for a special Indonesian dinner. It booked up extremely quickly so we were lucky that they were able to squeeze us in because of all the people being late from their tours. It was $30 a person and well worth it. We got an appetizer, salad, soup, a plate full of different Indonesian foods, and dessert.  I definitely recommend doing this if you get a chance. Just make sure you can handle spicy food. 
 

 

 

@roxybear135 - how far in advance was this special menu advertised? My sister and I will be on this ship next month and this is something that we would love to try.

Roy,

I  continue to be amazed by how few days there are that you don't have a sunrise or sunset photo to share with us from one of your cruises.

I also like that you usually have some part of the ship in your shots. For me this adds interest and also makes it obvious that this was taken at sea. I need to try to remember this for my own photos. Since I am rarely out and about at sunrise though, my shots are mainly of sunsets!!

22 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

The rental car guy dropped me off back at Tim Hortons and for the next 5 or so hours I hung out there, getting a steeped tea and a single Timbit every hour so to keep myself legitimate as a customer.  Something I could not do at Dunkin Donuts since I don't think they sell anything less than a half dozen.  Not the best evening I ever had but far far from the disaster it might have been.  I've been a pretty loyal customer ever since.

Roy, you obviously have more will power than I do. There's no way that I could limit myself to just one timbit per hour! (Especially if they were the chocolate ones.)

Seeing that seahorse made me think of one of my favourite seahorse photos. This is from the 2017 NWP cruise when it started to snow. I remember racing out of the Palm Court to take this shot.

27 minutes ago, KenzSailing said:

One question:

 

Where do I go to get my "I survived 2020" t-shirt?

I want the one that says "I survived 2020 without a cruise".

Cold but no snow in Montreal. 

40 minutes ago, BWIVince said:

 

The first one that pivots on that from potatoes to meatloaf wins.  😁

Funny that you should suggest that. I was looking for recipes to cook meatloaf in an Instant Pot and almost everything that I found told me how to cook the potatoes for mashed potatoes in the same pot as the meatloaf. I had my heart set on a baked potato so just did the meatloaf in the oven as usual. 🙂

On 12/8/2020 at 8:59 PM, KenzSailing said:

 

MQ,

 

We have the Philips air fryer, and love it.

 

The models can be a little confusing at first, but you really only have  two decisions to make:

 

Analog controls or digital

 

Size: they come in three; papa, mama, baby

 

I would recommend springing for the digital controls.  Size is a function of how many folks you cook for.  Since it's the two of us, I use the baby digital model, so can't vouch for anything larger.

 

I make a lovely chicken parm, a spicy fried chicken sandwich,  very nice roast chicken breasts, roast asparagus (really any veggie) and, of course, french fries (or any sliced spud.)

 

Not that you asked, but here's how I go about deciding whether or not to acquire another appliance: I buy a cookbook specializing in using said appliance.  I figure if nothing appeals, I wasted less money on the book than on the appliance.  I really like the stuff the America's Test Kitchen folks turn out.  Their book "Air Fryer Perfection" sold me on purchasing the gizmo.  (Additional tip: get it thru one of the 3rd parties on Amazon that will charge you a few bucks more for a spiral bound edition.  Much easier in the kitchen if you're like me and can never remember is some ingredient was supposed to be a half or quarter teaspoon.)  

 

Hope this helps.  Happy cooking!

I bought the Air Fryer Perfection cookbook based on your recommendation and have just finished looking at every recipe in there. Everything looks amazing and I love that there is a photo to go along with each recipe. I know that I will be trying lots of them. I recently purchased the Ninja Foodie Smart Grill from Costco and it has an air fryer mode so it's nice to have so many simple sounding recipes to make in there.

Who knew that I'd find a great cookbook recommendation on Cruise Critic? Thanks again!

p.s. I didn't see an option to get a spiral bound copy in Canada but can understand why you recommend that.

7 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

well done June, Mighty Quinn, and Beav.  Since June didn't specifically mention Pond Inlet, you all get credit.

 

Roy

Roy,

I knew as soon as I saw it that it was Pond Inlet - I have the same exterior photo where you can clearly see the name on the Canada Post sign. I thought that it would be fun to just post the interior photo and let others keep guessing. 

4 hours ago, rafinmd said:

Today I am doing different "where am I" posts on the Crystal and HAL forums; I don't think the other cruise line has visited these places.  I will post 2 photos here of the same port:

 

 

and

 

 

Roy

 

Roy,

Here's a photo of my sister from inside the northernmost Tim Horton's in Canada from our 2017 NWP cruise. Nice memory, so thanks for choosing that photo today.......June

Thanks for this info. Our Hong Kong to Singapore cruise on February 15, is now Taipei to Singapore so your suggestions will be very useful. We are planning to spend 2 or 3 days there ahead of the cruise..........June

Thanks for taking the time to share this info. My sister and I are scheduled to cruise from Hong Kong to Singapore with several stops in Vietnam so a few of your posts are pertinent to our trip and I will be printing them out for reference. We are scheduled to leave Hong Kong on February 15 and given the current Corona virus issues, we realize that there is a possibility that our cruise might be cancelled. We have really been looking forward to visiting a new part of the world for us so I hope that it will still happen.........

Thanks for all of the great pictures and information about what you did in each port. My sister and I are on a Koningsdam sailing from Amsterdam to Rome in September and we will be stopping in Gibraltar plus several of the Spain ports that you visited. Your input will be very helpful for planning our own time ashore. It looks like there is lots to do just staying in the port city.

Thanks for the great pictures. My sister and I are booked in a VE cabin on this ship in September so it's nice to get a preview. It looks like there are a couple of hooks on the wall and I'm wondering if you can tell me whether or not the walls are magnetic. We always wish that there were more hooks and I'd like to bring along some magnetic ones if they will work - it looks like there is lots of space to add some more.