asebastian

I doubt they will be resumed post-Covid. In the 4 cruises we have been on since 2022, HAL has shown the City on the Sea video presentation as a substitute, followed by a Q&A with the captain on aspects of the ships operation. The chief engineer also has a Q&A session, usually on a smaller venue such as the Rolling Stones lounge.

Yes you need to access the Internet to do anything useful. The computer provides a browser window, but the desktop is locked so no other apps may be launched. You can get to a very limited number of news sites on the browser. I used the printer there to print several lists (was on the Westerdam and had put together 5 tour groups from the roll call). Had my documents stored "in the cloud" so had to use my Internet access, get to Google then print my documents. Westerdam had 3 computers set up in a quiet spot near the library on Deck 3. Several people had tried to use the computers unsuccessfully, there is no contact number for tech support, you're pretty much on your own there if you have issues. Guest Services can be clueless too - initially I had two different answers from them on the use of the printer (was trying to print documents from USB, but that didn't work).

Will probably be picked up in the x-ray... I was really making a point to those who said no knives or blades are allowed on board.

Blades ARE allowed, QUOTE sharp blades over two and half inches long are prohibited UNQUOTE - this is from the FAQ Know Before You Go on the HAL website. We always carry a small folding knife with a 2.5" blade, as we tend to buy a lot of local fruits when ashore at the various ports, particularly at the Asian ports. The knives at the Lido are really blunt "butter knives" of sorts, and unless you can pocket a sharp steak knife, those are useless for fruits.

4 cruises in 2023 and we got the same 150th anniversary tiles on each of them, missed out on the ones with the ship! On the last one we also got a nice 150th anniversary "limited edition" medallion (metal), same as what many crew were wearing, that was being sold in the Gift Shop for $25! Our room steward mentioned that only some in the Neptunes got them, not sure how it worked. Hoping to make up the "proper" tiles in the next 4 booked to Mar 2026 now.

We've just booked the 28-day South Korea and Japan Collector for March 2026, released about 4 weeks ago. So I think you may have to wait for a few more months. Cruising in Japan is fantastic, we spent 56 days on board for the Japan Discovery, Japan Singapore Collector and Indonesia Discovery B2B2B in Oct-Dec last year on the Westerdam. Amazing Asian destinations, although we didn't go to China.

I generally avoid these types of people, just grab my book and go. One would never know how they would react, could be aggressive and abusive.

I wish the Westerdam was like that! In the last cruise, there was a lady sitting in there almost daily having a loud conversation on her phone...

Yes, many books in the Westerdam library are multiple copies. Not many, I've seen up to 3-4 on certain titles, sometimes just 2. As the library operates on an honor system, you would never know if someone had borrowed or simply taken a book out and not returned. The book selection seems to be the same across the fleet, there was a title I was reading halfway during our Panama Canal cruise in April on the Nieuw Amsterdam that I managed to finish on the Westerdam! FYI - we were on the Westerdam for 56 days from Oct to Dec last year, Asian cruises.

I'm diabetic as well. Just have come off a 56-day cruise on the Westerdam in Dec. Just be very careful at the Lido dessert bar, on quite a few times I have noticed that the NS tag (and the GF tag) is just randomly put in a shelf - was put onto full sugar regular desserts instead of the No Sugar dessert that the menu said. I complained to the Sous Chef who walks around the Lido daily, he said that's a constant issue they have with the servers who have to be educated daily to correct the slip ups! The NS and GF labels are also different on each side of the Lido! Sugar Free ice cream is available, but 99% of the time it will be just plain vanilla. No other choice! In the MDR, one server actually told me that the sorbet is sugar free and I ordered it once (Lime flavored) but to me it tasted full of sugar, so first and last time.

Idiots on the ship, or did you mean the Mafia, John...?

On our last cruise, we were having coffee in the Neptune Lounge, and some idiot made a loud comment about the "Filipino Mafia" running the entire guest services on the ship, and a severe look from the concierge stopped further comment and he left the lounge pronto. I guess he didn't realize that the nice concierge was also Filipino and part of guest services!

Damn penguins sucking up the bandwidth with their mobile phones... 😄

We were just on the Surf package, with HIA. We had access to a great wireless access point mounted in the ceiling above the bed, in our Neptune suite. But coverage elsewhere in the ship was comparable too.

Good to hear, that's our next ship in June

We didn't do any zoom, but plenty of video calls with WhatsApp and they were fine, no lag at all.

We're just off a long (56-day) Asian voyage in the Westerdam. Starlink worked great, BUT the ship fell back to the old satellite links when we were in Taiwan (both Keelung and Kaohsiung) as well as in Hong Kong. Google was glitchy for some, FB didn't work for some and a lot of people complained that WhatsApp seems to relay messages in a delayed fashion. I guess the great Chinese firewall at work. All Starlink connections were restored automatically after about 4 hours sailing out of those ports. Screenshot of Starlink speed on the Westy....and the message displayed on the Navigator when we had issues of blockage...

We had two in our cabin during April's Panama Canal cruise on the NA. Ocean Bar said you can have anything you want!

Agree with the comments above on the new sales consultants lack of knowledge. Just booked a 2025 Mediterranean cruise with the early bonus HIA+ with my TA, and she had a lot of issues speaking to the consultant, even having to explain which side of the ship was Port and Aft (where I wanted our cabin)!

Actually we can do that here in Australia via an app...price is locked for 14 days. But now both cars at home are EV so we don't use it any more... Airlines do it all the time, future prices locked in months ahead, in some instances pre-paid as well. Very few airlines pay the "price of the day" as they don't spot buy, it's all contracted budgeted price and spread out the expenditure. No reason why cruise ships can't do the same.

Always a roll of the dice with HAL upgrades (pardon the pun)

My TA told me that it's a complicated way HAL determines to offer you an upgrade - depends on several factors such as where you booked it, category and price of original fare, ship occupancy, your own number of sailings and days at sea, Mariner status, how close are you to the next level up and so on - probably an algorithm running to spit out potential upgrade candidates for marketing. May look random but I'm sure there's a method in the madness. She also said that it excludes offers made to "losers" at the casino...😃

I received both my offers through my TA. HAL has never contacted me directly about the upgrades.

Not true. South Korea for example has a health declaration on arrival https://cov19ent.kdca.go.kr/cpassportal/biz/beffatstmnt/main.do?lang=en Also Japan, until very recently, required a Covid declaration. So things can change at an instant.

ours here (in Australia) can be stored in the Google Wallet (encrypted) direct from the government health website (vaccine register under Medicare) so it's quite secure, and always accessible if/when we need it. We also carry paper printed certificates too just in case, in our travel folder. As someone above posted, regulations can change mid-cruise if there's a major outbreak or the global health status is under threat (again!).