richwmn

Rich - to save yourself some counting in the future, bookmark this link:

http://www.hollandamerica.com/assets/news/FastFacts.pdf

 

It says 675 cabins, including the 185 triples and 87 quads for a max pax of 1709. :D

.

I had looked a little for a fact sheet like that but couldn't find it. Lots of good information.

It does back up the assertion that the listed capacity is for all "lower berths" to be filled and doesn't put anyone in the third or fourth berth.

Uhhh... is this where we tell you we think it is time for you to take a nice long cruise? :cool:

 

(Actually, thanks for this hunt and peck research data - heroic, really)

Actually, I left the Prinsendam yesterday after 16 days - really wanted to stay!

Ready for the next one which isn't too far off but only 7 days.

With this thread in mind and maybe just looking for something to do, I decided to do a little research.

The Veendam lists her capacity at 1350.

Trying to do a reasonable job of counting the cabins on each deck, I came up with a total of 671 cabins, which is just short (by 4 cabins) of the number of cabins which would hold 1350 passengers at double occupancy for each cabin.

I also counted the number of symbols for triples and quads, and if each cabin was filled to its limit that would add around 220 passengers, for a total of 1570. I don't know if it is possible to find the lifeboat capacity.

Happy New Years to you as well!

I Depart in 44 Days on the Koningsdam (but I'm on the Prinsendam!)

19 December 2016 – Half Moon Cay

First, to answer Roy’s questions.

Access to your account information, daily schedule, menus and so on are separate from any internet plan you might have. When you connect to the ship’s wifi, you are presented with a page that lists your options, including connecting to paid internet. NYT, Holland America, Holland America Blog and a couple others are still free.

To your second question, yes this is my first cruise on “The Elegant Explorer” and I am really enjoying it.

I am doing this offline, but I want to thank the poster that complimented my picture from HMC. I really appreciate it.

Additional comments on the Prinsendam.

First breakfast this morning was in the Lido. I went up around 7:15 and found that while everything was ready there was no line. Fresh eggs fixed quickly and great service by the Lido Staff. The restaurant seemed to me to be very well laid out.

Tendering began around 8:30 to the island. All passengers were requested to go to the show lounge to pick up tender tickets. Four and five star mariners were to get priority tickets there. I was ready to go to the island around 9:30 and while waiting for the elevator to the show lounge the announcement came for open tendering, so I walked down one flight of stairs and was first in line for the next tender.

After a quick tender ride I was at Half Moon Cay. It is very nice and seems to be well maintained. A nice stroll down the road showed me the Chapel, volleyball court, a couple of bars and the Lobster Shack (pictures may be posted by now).

Lunch in the Lido again, and it still seemed with the change in focus from breakfast to lunch that it still seemed to flow easily with no lines. I was very pleased with the attentiveness of the staff.

Trivia was held twice today, 4pm in the Ocean Bar by the Cruise Director and 7pm in the Crows Nest by the Show Host. The early one was well attended, the late one not so much. Questions were about the same as other cruises.

Dinner in the Lido was again well set up, easy and no lines.

Tomorrow is a day at sea and the CC M&G.

Beautiful day at HMC today.

ms Prinsendam and ms Veendam just off the Cay

thanks for the good wishes.

To answer the obvious question “Is this going to be a ‘live from’?” Maybe yes and maybe no. But I did want to post some observations about “The Elegant Explorer”.

First I want to say that the ship is very pretty and looks like it is lovingly maintained. The crew so far has been outstanding.

To start with embarcation. We were at terminal 4, which seems to be an overflow terminal. It is drab and isn’t associated with and cruise line. In addition, it is a very long walk from where luggage is dropped off to the terminal passenger entrance.

I arrived around 10:30 the entrance was open, and they were allowing people to check in. Both the priority and regular lines were rather short and check in went quickly. We then waited until boarding began promptly at 11:30. I walked in and like always, the cabin was ready. Before I messed it up, I took pictures and sent them to the website that can not be named.

On check in I was handed an invitation to a Mariner Reception for 4 and 5 star Mariners. I did go and there was a nice sized crowd. I found out that the Captain is Christopher Turner, usually at the helm of the Zuiderdam. There was no receiving line on entry, and the only ships officer I saw was the Beverage Manager.

After the reception, I decided to email the pictures. I got out my laptop and connected to the wireless signal. I was a bit surprised that I didn’t get the old page which allowed you to purchase internet minutes. Instead there was a nice page listing available services which included menus, account information, daily activities, shore excursions and more. It even appeared that you could reserve specialty restaurants and shore excursions from your laptop. I checked and the site was even correctly formatted for my Samsung 3 mini and my Verizon 7” tablet. I bought the package and emailed the pictures. Speed seemed similar to past usage on other ships.

Next was the Muster Drill, on the deck as usual. Our Cabin Keys were scanned for attendance and for lifeboat 1, only 9 people had to be called out. Within a couple of minutes, all were present. About 10 minutes later, the Drill was finished.

For those that want to know, my outside cabin still has the older TV/DVD player combination, and the Ship Flicks booklet is on the desk to list movies to borrow. The TV is visibly bolted into the cabinet so the only possibility for hooking up your own equipment is thru the composite/audio cables that are currently hooked up to the DVD player.

I had a very nice dinner in the Main Dining Room with some old and new friends. Then came back to the cabin to send this. Several things going on this evening, may just relax.

We just left Port Everglades after a very easy embarcation.

I have sent tonight's menu to the Hal Facts site, and they should appear shortly.

The Prinsendam is lovely and looks like we will have a wonderful cruse.

Rich

I believe the answer to #1 is not the one you want. Somewhere on the HAL site it states that prebooked items canceled prior to 3(?) days before the cruise will be refunded to the card used, otherwise it will show up as additional OBC

Thanks bUU I will take some on and cross my fingers they work. I am just not sure what the Noordam children DVD selection will be like.

 

 

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This is a link to a listing of the DVD library from about a year ago. Most of the DVDs should still be available if the ship still has the DVD players.

Again, thanks to everyone for the answers and suggestions.

I find that trying to arrange a trip of this type is very frustrating. For example, as Globalizer mentioned, I can find ATL - FCO and LIS to YUL for around $1500 on American and Delta. On either one, one way ATL - FCO is around $3100.

I am finding other small changes that would make the entire experience better for me, but trying to do any of them goes back to the huge air fares.

I will be booking this around the first of the year, and at that time will lock in my plans.

Rich

I lost track of what you are trying to do in the second part.

 

However, the "problem" with "changing planes" with different tickets - especially on different airlines - is usually when one is flying two (or more) legs of ONE part of the trip, without stopping over and staying in the city or taking a cruise, etc.

The underlying problem then is that if an earlier flight is delayed or cancelled, the later flight/airline won't know about it or try to put you on another flight OR even have any obligation to do anything at all to help.

 

Is that what you were concerned about? Or is there something about different flights on different days (not connecting, etc.)?

 

And the others above seem to have been able to get lower fares by a very straightforward way, so it isn't clear what was generating those high fares for you.

What software were you using? That might be it.

Software was browser going to the Delta, American and other similar websites. As you may have seen, others found the same prices as well. When I was checking, the best price I could find was as I mentioned, but prices do change daily.

As to the first part of your response, I was aware that problems existed but I don't have first hand knowledge about how bad they can actually be. I was hoping someone here had some insight.

Thanks to all who answered.

Just out of curiousity, what ship goes between Montreal and Fort Lauderdale?

 

 

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Holland America does Canada / New England for several months, then the ship moves south. For this year and the next it is the Veendam. North in April, South in October. I have done the Northbound twice, and will now be doing the Southbound next year.

Yup, you're right. I had it once on google flights and went back to check and it was long gone into the $5K - $6K range. Sorry about that!!

 

 

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It is funny, I have had that happen a couple of times. I wish I had jumped on it when I saw it. Can't change the past.

Just checked the ATL - FCO and LIS - YUL segments and it shows a little less than $1500, and I know I can get from FLL to ATL for less than $200, so that is acceptable.

The AA flight from FLL to ATL is also via PHL, so over 5 hours of travel for a 1.5 hr flight on DAL

I guess we were checking the same thing at the same time

I have it at $1,783 on those dates bookable with American.

 

 

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When I put those dates in on aa.com I get:

Lowest Average Price 5,273.67 USD

Flight Stops

Filter by AMERICAN AIRLINES Non-Stop

Filter by 1 Stop

Filter by 5,273.67 USD Filter by 2+ Stops

Filter by 5,275.17 USD

Thanks for the responses so far, sorry I didn't put exact dates.

1. ATL - FCO leave ATL on Sept 4, arrive FCO Sept 5

2. LIS - YUL leave LIS on Oct 4

3. FLL - ATL Oct 20

Good evening,

I am looking at doing two cruises in '17 that are 17 days apart. The hope is to make the following work.

1 - Fly from home to Rome

2 - Cruise from Rome to Barcelona

3 - Stay in Spain and Portugal for 2 weeks

4 - Fly to Montreal

5 - Cruise from Montreal to Fort Lauderdale

6 - Fly home

If I price flights from Atlanta to Rome, then Lisbon to Montreal, then Montreal to Atlanta it comes out around $6k.

If I price flights from Atlanta to Madrid, then Madrid to Montreal I find a price of around $1,300, then flights from Madrid to Rome, Lisbon to Madrid, and Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta for around $150 each for a total of around $1,750.

I understand that problems occur when changing planes booked under different tickets rather than a continuing ticket - how bad is it?

Is there another way to book the tickets at prices closer to $2k than $6k?

Thanks for any assistance.

Rich

Very frustrated with my PCC. Have sent several emails about three cruises I am interested in and no response. She has been emailing me every few weeks about working with her directly and anytime I email her I get no response or a generic response that is computer generated. I have called and left messages but nothing. She is in the office so I don't get it. Would love to build a relationship with a PCC or TA and work with them directly but appears I am stuck with a dud. Really unfamiliar with researching a good TA. :(

You can call and have a different PCC assigned to you. It is an easy process.

We use our PCC exclusively when booking all of our HAL cruises and don't feel it's right to transfer to a TA just before final payment. Sure, the PCC gets credit for the initial booking, but not as much as they would have gotten after final payment. But then again we book as soon as the HAL cruise we want becomes available and then make changes to it as promotions come and go over the next 18-24 months and usually have 3-4 HAL cruises booked at any one time. We just don't think it's fair that our PCC does all the work and only gets credit for the initial booking. But that's just us.

 

It also comes down to how much control you want to maintain with regards to your booking. By staying with our PCC, we get any HAL upgrade/upsell offers sent directly to us rather than having them sent to the TA. In addition, as was the case on our last cruise, we were able to get an upsell at a significantly reduced cost from what was listed on the upsell email because our PCC knew someone.

 

As far as OBC goes, we usually average between $800 - $1100 per cruise using our PCC which for us is plenty.

I'm curious as to the difference in credit for a cruise transferred to a TA and a cruise that isn't transferred.

My PCC has told me several times that they receive the same "credit" whether the cruise is transferred or not.

I had almost immediate response to my query and Zuiderdam rep is working on it. If we can get a venue at this late date, wonderful. If not, no great loss. We have 10 days of cruising which in itself is wonderful.

Good luck with it, hope you have a great cruise.

Can someone please direct me to the person in charge of setting up a meet and greet for our Zuiderdam roll call.

 

Thanks.

If you send an email to KCarlson@HollandAmerica.com you will receive assistance. However, be aware that they usually ask that you place your request 30 days out.

Interesting that some Posters are quick to put the blame on HAL for everything, even (or maybe especially) when they don't even have the facts. As any sentient person should realize, there are many reasons why some people may not have received the HAL e-mail notice, among which are the following: (1) HAL does not have e-mail addresses for ALL passengers because some passengers do not use e-mail or have chosen not to give their e-mail addresses to HAL; (2) For passengers who book through a TA, HAL generally communicates directly with the TA, and the TA may not have passed the info on in a timely manner; (3) As jtl513 noted above, some passengers to whom HAL did send the e-mail may have "ignored it"; and (4) Passengers who did not receive the notice may be on the list of cruisers whom HAL has targeted to make as miserable as possible on every cruise. Just my thoughts on the subject ...

Smooth sailing ...

Not to mention "spam" filters which sometimes put important messages into the "spam" or "junk" folders.

Do know one needs to present HAL with the list of CC'ers complete with last name and cabin number (if available) for these meetings - but that should not be here.

It is most unfortunate that HAL requests this information. It isn't necessary and all it does is confirm to HAL which passengers are active on CC. The end result is that those who do not want to provide it usually choose not to participate in the M&G.

I have set up many M&Gs without providing HAL with full names and cabins, only number of participants. If you provide names, they may get invited to additional functions.