Ken the cruiser

If I might ask, did they offer lectures on sea days?

We originally had two of these Celebrity 14-day cruises booked B2B this past January, so we could have 4 days in total visiting the Antarctica Peninsula. Then we found a Princess cruise during the same time that spent 4 continuous days cruising around the Peninsula as well as visiting the Iceberg A23a, the largest iceberg in the world. Needless to say we switched to that cruise. We actually wound up booking a 30-day B2B, which turned out to be an awesome cruise! For more information as well as to see a bunch of photos, check out my Live From thread in my below signature area. The cruise actually starts around page 5.

We've done that cruise twice now. Once for 22-days on the Zaandam back in 2018 and most recently a few months ago for 30-days on the Sapphire Princess (Live From in my below signature area). Both times were awesome!

I have to say that looks like a pretty cool itinerary that also includes going to Egypt to see the pyramids!

For those interested in a little more unique 18-day cruise at a very reasonable price, check this Majestic Princess cruise out. https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=8502

The Voyage of the Vikings cruise is definitely an awesome 35-day itinerary!

Here’s hoping you have an awesome cruise and fair weather from here on out!!

Your cruise looks awesome! Here’s hoping you have an awesome time!!

Sounds awesome! We did some awesome cruises with Oceania back in 2018 where we did a 17-day Cuba B2B on the Sirena followed by a 30-day Northern Europe, Iceland and Greenland cruise on the Nautica! One of the many fun memories from that cruise was seeing a whale breaching 6 times as we were leaving Qaqortoq, Greenland!

True. We’ve did the Hawaii cruise on the Amsterdam back in 2016. It was fun with plenty of sea days. But you’re right, unless it’s part of a longer itinerary that may include Tahiti, Fiji and maybe Samoa along with some of the other nearby islands.

Our all-time favorite itineraries with HAL have been a 40-day B2B on the Maasdam back in the Fall of 2019, featuring the short-lived In-Depth EXC program, where we first visited some New Caledonia Islands before going on a 30-day Australia circumnavigation cruise, which included visiting Komodo Island! Our second favorite itinerary was a 22-day Antarctica/South America cruise in Jan 2018 on the Zaandam, which included 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula where the wildlife viewing options were just totally awesome! Our next favorite cruise was in the Fall of 2022 on a 38-day B2B on the NCL Jade which started in Athens, with a transition day in Dubai before heading to Cape Town (see Live From thread in my expanded signature). Then there was a cruise in Jan 2020 on the Island Princess that included a 25-day itinerary from Ft Lauderdale to Santiago by way of the Panama Canal and Easter Island, which was also a totally awesome cruise! Just wondering what some of the other awesome 15+ day itineraries might be out there that may need to be explored? I know the HAL 28-day Alaska cruise which includes visiting Nome looks pretty awesome!

Thanks for the heads up!

FWIW we will be flying into Amsterdam a day early and staying at the Hotel NH Amsterdam Schiphol Airport located at the airport. This way we just have to wake up the next morning, walk over and catch our pre-booked transfer to the ship. The only difference is that we will be catching the Celebrity transfer rather than the HAL airport transfer.

Just a suggestion but you may want to use the ALINEA option rather than the PLAID to first manually upload your brokerage statement to Stockperks with your account number and other nonrelevant information blotted out. See post #119 in the below lengthy thread regarding this issue for an example on how to do that. You also only need to provide your email address as well as your name of course when creating the Stockperks account.

From 2012 to 2019, we cruised on the Ryndam (Caribbean), Zuiderdam (Partial PC), Oosterdam (NE/Canada), Amsterdam (Alaska), Veendam (Panama Canal), twice on the Koningsdam (Norway and Caribbean), Zaandam (Antarctica), and Maasdam (Australia circumnavigation). We are currently booked on the Eurodam to cruise again through the Panama Canal in Apr 2025. Fingers crossed we’re going to have an awesome time! 😁

Sometimes going through the new locks can be fun, especially if you have an aft-facing cabin and see this type of ship following in next behind you. 😁

Just heard back from our awesome TA. She wasn’t able to get the sale’s $200 OBC applied during the refare process, probably because it was for new bookings only. However, she was able to get us $550 off our original fare, which works out even better than we anticipated as the reduction also brought down the price of the insurance! 🕺💃🏻

Thanks for the heads up! We just requested that our TA refare our booking to not only take advantage of the $200 OBC but also save us $350 in fare reduction. 👍

And just for the record, the fare for a Celebrity cruise is now 20% more if you book it with a refundable deposit rather than a nonrefundable one, regardless of cabin category.

We like the Grand class ships over the other Princess ships for one reason. They have fully covered aft-facing verandas.

@Cruzingal#9 for us we've been through the Panama Canal 3 times, once on the HAL Veendam (old locks), once on the Island Princess (old locks), and most recently on the Caribbean Princes (new locks). Each time we have been in an aft-facing cabin and loved it! If your budget can afford it, there is an ideal aft-facing Premium Balcony currently available on your cruise. If you look in my below expanded signature area, you will find a Live From thread from April/May 2022 where we cruised through the Panama Canal on the Caribbean Princess from SF to Ft Lauderdale. On page 18 starting at post 440, you should get a good feel for what you'll see from an aft-facing cabin when going through the Panama Canal, to include the locks.

That's what I always thought. The same "minimum" rules apply on Princess cruises as well. But if some folks want to get dressed up on those nights, or any night for that matter, that's cool too. I'll even wear a tie sometimes. 😃

But on Gala night, is it mandatory for a gentleman to now have to wear a jacket? From past experience a button-down dress shirt (and optional tie) were the minimums required. I can't remember ever having to bring a jacket on a HAL cruise. But then again that was back between 2012-2019. Update: I just checked the HAL website and was finally able to find this, with the operative word "recommend" versus "mandatory" on Dressy Nights: Know Before You Go (hollandamerica.com)

Thanks for sharing. Have a great cruise!!

I am just curious, here is a 7-day Regent cruise in June from Vancouver to Seward where the cheapest veranda cabin is $6,699 pp or $957 pp/day, including all perks. What HAL category are you comparing it with?