alwayscruisetime

Yes. If it appears on the internet, it HAS to be true!

No. This was in Pattaya, closer to the port of Laem Chabang (where ships dock for Bangkok. Damneon Sauak is close to a 4 hour drive from the port, so the Pattaya Floating Market was a more manageable trip.

Have fun with it! Come Christmas Eve and Day, every crew member will be in a Santa hat, so there's no question people expect to "celebrate", whether it's a holiday that's a part of their culture or not. We were on the Oosterdam last year over Christmas and will be on the Westerdam this year. Last year's itinerary started in Buenos Aires, where the weather was in the 90s, and took us down to Antarctica, where it was freezing, so we didn't have a lot of room in our bags for extras, but we did take decorations. As someone mentioned, Dollar Tree has lots to offer that's lightweight, and of course cheap enough that you don't mind leaving them behind. (And of course whatever you don't bring back, leaves room in the suitcase for souvenirs!) Heavy duty magnets hold most things to the walls and doors. I ordered those from Amazon. As for the crew, they seemed to enjoy it. We had stockings hung outside our cabin door, and occasionally we'd find a piece of fruit in each. Inside we had a "Santa scarf" - a red furry scarf with white fluff balls on either end with jingle bells in the center of the fluff ball. The room stewards had fun integrating the scarf into the towel animals they left for us. We had a small (1 foot? 18 inch?) tree (cheap and ugly with an integrated metal stand to keep it upright) and a single short strand of lights to decorate it (maybe 25 lights?) as well as a Dollar Tree light up plastic tree with an on/off switch on the bottom in our room, but someone a few doors down hung battery-operated full-size (6 foot) strands of lights around the outside of their cabin door frame, and it felt so festive I went looking at ports to see if we could add one. I'll be taking a set this year, along with extra batteries. Remember they don't allow you to bring extension cords, so either battery-operated lights or you have to give up one of the few outlets and decorate close enough to said outlet that the cord reaches. Because all the walls are magnetic, if you can get Christmas-themed magnets they take up little room in the bag and work on your door as well. Sometimes stores will have a full 12x10 inch "sheet" of themed magnets or window-clings, so you can build your own little scene. Hope you have a great time decorating!

I understand the confusion. I had read that Indonesia did not require a visa, but I just checked out the US State Department's page and found that they do! https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Indonesia.html

Thanks for sharing, Baggy! I'd love to get his contact info as we're looking to go there during a Christmas cruise. What a fascinating personal history he brings to a tour! Please send email to shop at pbaker dot net Thank you in advance!

George thank you for sharing all these - we board next week. We, too, are doing the helicopter tour. We were warned that the avian flu might mean a change in plans - I'm assuming so far it's smooth sailing (or flying?) for you on that front? I'll be anxious to hear what you think of the tour. We've asked to see the Elephant Seals in lieu of the Rockhoppers.

Thank you all for your input. Wherever they're from, I will be celebrating Christmas, and one of the ways I celebrate is through gift-giving. Since I'll be away from friends and family, I will be giving cash gifts to my "new neighbors", as I do the regular workers here in my neighborhood at home (the postman, the garbage collectors, etc.) and the same way I bake cookies for many of the people who live in my neighborhood. (Obviously I'm not baking for the crew!) It's a joyful occasion for me, and it gives me joy to share with others. Something makes me think they won't be offended by a cash gift one week into a 3 week cruise - whatever the reason! Thank you for all the information on the Neptune Lounge and Neptune Suites - I'm so looking forward to this cruise! (My husband, on the other hand, is afraid that the suite will spoil me for future cruises...) Happy holidays to all of you!

Thank you all! Going to the bank for nice, crisp bills in the morning - already have the cards.

Thank you, Librarian! That's EXACTLY what I was looking for! And Crew News I agree. The gift will be cash in a holiday card. Something they can use, and something that takes up little space in our luggage. I just wanted to know how many cards and how much cash. It's hard enough to shop for people I know well in my everyday life! I'd never presume that I could choose something suitable in advance, for someone I've never met. 😄

I hope you can help - we fly for South America next week. We've never sailed with Holland before - and have never been in a suite on any line before! We'll have access to the Neptune Lounge on our 22 day cruise that spans the holidays, and I'd like to have small gifts for the crew members we'll have gotten to know by then, just to mark the holiday. I know that we'll see our cabin steward daily, we'll probably have some waiters we see regularly, but I have no way of guessing how many crew members we might come to know in the Neptune Lounge, because I don't know how many employees there might be at any given time in the lounge. Is it safe to say that we wouldn't have more than 4 different servers/concierge/other crew members that are posted there regularly? Thank you in advance.

Thank you all so far. Crystal, I'm glad you said something about documenting that this tip/gift shouldn't count against the overall gratuity. I hadn't thought about stating somehow that this wasn't in lieu of Crew Appreciation, but guess that I can hand-write that in the Christmas card? ("Please know that our Crew Appreciation is pre-paid in full, so this cash gift is just for you, to thank you and to wish you a Merry Christmas")? Is there some legal-ese that's necessary to keep them from having to report it or turn it in?

We'll be on a Holland America ship over Christmas. It's a 22 day cruise, so we'll be with our room stewards and concierge for quite some time both before and after Christmas. It's our first time on HAL, and our first time in a suite anywhere. Not sure how many crew members we might become familiar with and might want to give a little something extra to acknowledge their working for us on the holiday. Can any of you give me some guidance about how many individuals that might be (servers in Pinnacle at breakfast, Neptune Lounge staff, etc.) so that I can go prepared with cards and small bills? Thank you in advance.

Mindaugas - he was wonderful! He met us just outside the gate when we walked off the ship, drove an immaculate car, provided running commentary throughout our trip and was able to answer any questions we had, no matter how obscure. To cap off the perfect day, he brought us to an amazing local restaurant that was NOT on the tourist circuit (in fact, they didn't speak English!) so that we could get a taste of local foods for local. While ours was a driving day, he also organizes cycling tours throughout the Baltic. Highly recommend - this day was our favorite of our 2 week cruise!

We wanted to visit the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania which wasn't an option on any of the ship-organized excursions, but Klaipeda Tours ( www.klaipedatours.lt ) was able to customize a private tour for us that combined a visit to the Hill of Crosses (our favorite stop of the whole cruise) as well as the Cold War Museum (where Russian missiles were housed unbeknownst to the Lithuanian people - the missiles that were later central to the Cuban Missile Crisis) and then a stop for lunch at a traditional Lithuanian restaurant for real down-home cooking - no one there spoke English. Our guide, Mindaugas, was outstanding, and the communication with the company was easy. We would highly recommend. We were picked up literally steps outside the gate at the port and dropped there with time to spare, despite the fact that it was quite a distance to cover everything that we wanted to see.

My husband's a big proponent of indoor cabins, both for the lack of light, which helps him sleep, and for the cost savings, but we were really glad to have a balcony on our 2-week Baltic/Scandinavian cruise earlier this month. A lot of the ports involve a lengthy sail in (and out) where you pass by picturesque little islands and lighthouses. Also, it was light from 4:30AM to 10:30PM, so you had lots of daylight to enjoy those sights!

We did an independent tour with www.klaipedatours.lt in Klapeda, Lithuania, and our tour guide (who we'd recommend very highly if your travels take you there!) said that this year they're expecting 70 cruise ships, when in the past their previous record had been 20 in one year. With cruise lines removing St. Petersburg from their itinerary, it frees up a couple of days for other places, would be my guess?

On our cruise earlier this month we only did one private excursion, but I can highly recommend www.klaipedatours.lt out of Klaipeda, Lithuania, if that's one of your stops. They responded promptly by email, created a customized tour for us based on what we wanted to see, and our tour guide (Mindaugas) was a wealth of knowledge, a good driver, and found us the perfect local place to have a traditional Lithuanian lunch.

Hi, ClayHillHouse - not sure if you've already left and if our experience will help you at all, but just in case ... We visited Skansen the last time we ported in Stockholm and liked the Lemurs at the Aquarium at the Skansen Museum so much last time that we went back again. (I know - lemurs don't belong in an aquarium, but that's where they are!) You actually get to go into the enclosure where the lemurs live, which allows for some great up-close viewing, and when we were there 2 weeks ago, they had a one-month old baby that was an awful lot of fun. You have to pay an extra admission for the aquarium, but it was the highlight of our visit. Riga had a great food market. Seeing what people eat in different countries, how it's served, and how it's sold, is always a highlight for us in different parts of the world. If you don't have it already, get the Google Translate app. When you see signs in another language, you can focus your phone's camera on the text and the words on the screen will magically translate into English so you can see what it is (or what the ingredients are). Lots of new dessert options to try there. Our favorite day was spent in Klaipeda. We hired a tour guide through Klaipeda Tours ( at www.klaipedatours.lt ) because we couldn't find an excursion that covered what we wanted to do. We went to the Cold War Museum (the missiles that eventually ended up in Cuba for the Cuban Missile Crisis were housed there unbeknownst to the Lithuanian people) and to the Hill of Crosees. The Hill of Crosses was incredible, and the highlight of our cruise. It's a bit of a drive, but our driver/guide (who also guides cycling trips) was a wealth of knowledge and took us for an authentic Lithuanian lunch on the way back (where even he was surprised at the good prices, the true homestyle cooking, and the very traditional desserts that they offered). Hope some of that helps?

We booked an excursion with Klaipeda Tours ( www.klaipedatours.lt ) for our Baltic cruise earlier this month, and we spent a wonderful day with their tour guide, Mindaugas. Ours was a sightseeing tour (we visited the Hill of Crosses and the Cold War Museum) but in talking with Mindaugas, we found that he also arranges and leads cycling tours in the area (the next tour he was giving was in Riga). Our private tour was perfect in every way, so you may want to reach out to Kalipeda Tours to see if they could offer you something that suits your needs.