richwmn

April 26 – Bergen, Norway Some forecasts are telling us that it is going to rain today. At least one shows it to be overcast all day, but nice. Who knows?? We should arrive in Bergen on time today. We are still a little way out, but still have a little over an hour until we are supposed to be able to go ashore. It really should be another nice, but chilly, day today. Heading toward Bergen this morning

April 25 – Eidfjord, Norway Position at 7 am Position at the Dock This is a bit late getting posted. We had an announcement yesterday that the internet connection would be bad today and it was. Once we got near the town the mountains on both sides blocked the satellite for the entire time we were there. Even the local data signal was a bit slow from the ship, but was decent while in town. The sail into Eidfjord is beautiful. The mountains are snow capped and the lower portions are green. For the most part it has been a bright sunny day. The city itself is small, we only walked about 3 – 4 blocks from the center of town before we were on the outskirts. There is a little sight seeing train that a few people took to see the highlights of the city. There is a small market which seemed to be well stocked. It is very convenient to the dock. There were also two restaurants that opened around 10:30am or so. Everything was compact and easily walkable. Most of the cars seemed to be electric, and there was a multi car charging station right in the center. The temperature was chilly, but the sun was out. It turned out to be a very nice day.

During his talk aboard the World Cruise a few days ago, Gus Antorcha (President of HAL) said that he chose to add up charges for several items rather than increase the base price of the specialty dinners. He also said that due to the response, that might not have been the best choice.

April 24 – Haugesund, Norway After an early morning that looked like it might be overcast and rainy today it has turned out to be another very nice day. It is currently 45° F / 7° C and the sun is very bright. We took the HOHO bus from the dock around the city.

April 24 – Haugesund, Norway Today is day 3 in Norway, which so far has been a very beautiful country. We arrived this morning on time after an uneventful trip. Ship's position at 7:00am Position at dock: Activities for today, menus later

On Pinnacle Class ships Club Orange has its own dining room. It is on Deck two, starboard, between the mid ship and aft elevator banks.

April 23 – Kristiansand, Norway Position at 7:00am Position of Dock Today's activities and menus This morning at breakfast we talked about the forecast. It was supposed to be an overcast day with chances of mist & rain all day. I decided to take a day off. Of course it turned out to be another nice day. It is afternoon and there is not a cloud in the sky. The temperature is comfortable but a little cool. It is a bit of a walk to anything.

April 22 – Oslo, Norway I’m back from a day experiencing Oslo. First thing to say is that this is a city I would like to visit again for a couple of days. It is a beautiful city and deserves some time. Now for the particulars. We were supposed to be able to disembark at 11:00am, but the ship wasn’t cleared until 11:30am. I had already determined that I wasn’t going to go ashore until after noon. When Ian announced that the ship was cleared he also mentioned that City Sightseeing was available and was endorsed by HAL. I have no problem with that. When I got to the ticket stand I found that they were set up to charge tickets to our staterooms – cool! I asked about an offer from yesterday, but they didn’t know about it, ok no big deal. They did offer a discount since I had used their company the day before. Great, but unfortunately they couldn’t put the discounted price on the stateroom. Again, no big deal but curious. We got on the bus and we left in about 15 minutes. Now I have used City Sightseeing many times in many different cities. Only once was I disappointed, in NYC a few years ago. Oslo was also not up to the service I have received in other cities. I won’t say that it was bad, just not as good as I am used to. There were long stretches where no commentary existed. In other cities that time was used for information about the city, or lesser attractions. Most cities also have background music so at least you are sure the sound system is working. Again, not necessarily bad. When we got back to the ship we walked about half a mile to a shopping area near the dock. It was well attended but not crowded. It is a very pretty area with several things to do. All in all a very good day.

Today in History: 1976 Barbara Walters becomes 1st female US nightly network news anchor (ABC News)

April 22 – Oslo, Norway Ship's position at 7:00am Good morning! It is clear, bright, and chilly today. According to the tv information it is 52°F/11°C with winds at 1.3mph. As you can see from this morning’s position, we have to sail quite a way up a fjord in order to get to Oslo. It has been very pretty looking out the verandah during this time. Our time in Oslo is a bit short, 11:00am to 4:30pm so I’m sure there will be a rush to get off the ship. No mention has been made of a shuttle so it seems this might be a walk off port. Today’s plan is to walk around the port area and into whatever city center is available. There is a HOHO bus available which might also be an option. @erewhon Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed them. I had a good time there. Ship's position at the dock. Today's activities and menus Pictures on the way to Oslo

Yesterday I was asked which of the two long grand cruises I was choosing. To be very honest both are calling very loudly. Both have features in addition to the length that I think I would enjoy. However, there are a lot of considerations that I have to take into consideration that I won't know about until after I return home on May 12th. On the 1st of June I need to make final payment on the Grand Australia, then pay for air fare, then pay for the additional 2 cruises I have linked to the Grand Australia. I also have some concerns at home that need to be addressed even before I can commit to any further very long cruises. Of course, if I win the lottery -- All bet are off!

April 21 – Copenhagen, Denmark Went out into town on another great day. It started out interesting. Yesterday I bought tickets for the HOHO bus. I used City Sightseeing since they have done a good to great job everywhere I have used them. For the first couple of hours after we tied up this morning I kept seeing red double deck buses in the parking lot. Turns out that Copenhagen has four Hop On Hop Off Services and they all used red busses decorated about the same. It is like someone bought an old CS bus and put a new name on it leaving the rest of the decoration. Although their website indicated that CS had a shuttle, I didn’t see one but I knew that that ships shuttle went to the Little Mermaid which was a stop on the CS tour. We got to the Little Mermaid just in time to get on a tour which was very nice. At the end of the tour we ended up back at the Little Mermaid and took some pictures. Several people were climbing over the railing to get right next to statue making it difficult for others to take pictures. After the pictures we got on the CS shuttle back to the ship. If we had chosen the ship’s shuttle we would have been back a few minutes earlier but we really weren’t in a hurry.

Today in History: 1956 Elvis Presley's 1st hit record, "Heartbreak Hotel", becomes #1 RNB must have known!

April 21 – Copenhagen, Denmark Sunrise this morning from my verandah Ships position at 7:00am Position Docked in Copenhagen Good morning! We are now in Denmark and it is again a cool but nice day. We already have tickets for the HOHO bus and I just saw one drive up. It appears that one of the stops is right outside our dock and since the brochure states every 30 minutes it will be easy to time our departure. Yesterday, to some degree, was consumed with the presentation by Gus Antorcha. His talk began at 2:00pm and was available on stateroom tvs. Unfortunately, the system on board strained to keep up with the demand of people watching from their staterooms. The wonders of modern streaming technology. The old cable system would not have had a problem. His presentation lasted for about 30 minutes, then he opened a Q&A session. He answered questions for about two hours. He gave answers without referring to notes and appeared to be knowledgeable about the subjects being discussed. He admitted that mistakes had been made and promised to do better. On a couple of questions he mentioned that a previous President had made the decision and he would look into the reasons. On another note, when I returned from breakfast I found a note that the HVAC in my area would be worked on today between 9:00am and 5:00pm. I haven’t had any problem with temperature in my stateroom and I’m pleased that ongoing maintenance is being done. View of Copenhagen from my verandah

And both itineraries look VERY nice. As an added note, those currently on the World Cruise have until the 3rd to reserve a spot on either. Those who have already reserved a spot have until the 12th(?) to decide which one or they default to the World Cruise. General availability is May 24th(?). I hope those two dates are correct or at least close.

Different TAs and PCCs handle this differently. My former PCC and my current TA both handle such things when asked. I had to fill out the form for Military Credit but once approved she has made sure it was applied. I generally do the Stock Credit myself but again she has when requested. As far as the invoices you have received from your TA, those are generated by their accounting software. When changes are made to a reservation HAL provides, upon request, a receipt in two parts. One is for the TA, the other is for the guest. It is generally a four page pdf. The first page contains the Guest and Payment information. Guest.pdf Note the line that says On Board Credit. That is the total of the HAL (or CCL) supplied OBC. Any OBC provided by the TA will not appear here. The second page contains any packages (HIA, Gratuitues, etc) as well as cancellation information. The third page is terms and conditions while the following page(s) contain the itinerary. Most TAs only provide the Guest Copy if pushed. Many don't even know it exists as they work for a large agency that doesn't forward this to the agent. I'm lucky because my agent knows that I want it.

HAL takes the position that it is up to the Travel Agent (if you use one) to provide you with such information. If you booked directly with HAL, it would show on your payment page, but only a total, not a breakdown. Your TA can provide you with a guest copy of HAL's invoice, but again that only shows the total OBC, not a breakdown. One note on the Military OBC. It states that it is only for new bookings. For the most part it has been applied retroactively but your TA has to push a bit for it.

This shows credits that will be applied to future cruises, it does not indicate OBC that you have on any particular cruise. The only real way to find that is on the Guest Copy of your reservation that you can get from your TA or PCC. Unfortunately HAL does not itemize the OBC you will receive. Stockholder OBC won't show up in this area.

for look alike -- Currently on Zuiderdam I have a dopleganger. Since the first day we have both been asked if we are the other. I did have one in the town I live in, but he passed away about a month ago.

Today in History: 2008 Danica Patrick driving for Andretti Green Racing wins the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi

April 20 – at sea destination Copenhagen, Denmark Good morning from Zuiderdam. Our cruise continues with good weather, even if it is a bit colder now. A coffee group that for the first 100 days or so met outside is now sitting at a large indoor table every morning. The last Cruise Critic M&G will take place shortly in the Crows Nest. HAL’s president, Gus Antorcha, is aboard to give a presentation at 2:00pm which will be available on all tvs throughout the ship. Today we will only have one trivia session, at 4:00pm. The normal 1:00pm sea day trivia is not going on due to other commitments of the staff. The 6:30pm session will be ‘Scribble the Scramble’. This is a game that they show a scrambled word and we get to identify it. It is thirty words, generally themed, with answers after a thirty second period. For me, if I don’t get the word immediately I won’t.

Just reporting what I was told on the phone and the quoted email. The military credit is for all veterans, not just retired. When I look at my account under Future Cruise Credits, then Onboard Credits it lists

Approximately 330 days from the date of your return flight, which doesn't have to be the day the cruise ends.

April 19 – Amsterdam day 2 Five years ago on the Voyage of the Vikings I visited The Netherlands for two days in July. My pictures and notes from that trip can be found at http://www.wa70.com/vov/Day18.html. Yesterday Zuiderdam arrived on time in Amsterdam for another overnight visit. The previous evening I was feeling a bit ‘puny’ so I determined to use the days in Amsterdam to recover. It has worked and I feel much better and have one more day (at sea) before arriving at Copenhagen, a place I haven’t visited before. It has actually been a couple of nice days on the ship. With the festivities in mind, everyone has been in a very good mood. The mid ship pool area was nicely decorated and the entertainment brought aboard was very good. Most people were nicely dressed in suits or better for the party, a few were not. Last night we ate in the Main Dining Room with Kelly and Jett. It has been very nice getting to know them and having dinner with them several times. It is always a pleasant evening with good conversation and last night was no different. The special menu was good and was prepared well as always. Also yesterday we received another ‘pillow gift’. This one was a duffel bag that folds into a zipper bag about 12 square inches. It looks to be about the size of a sea bag and could prove useful. Today was a nice, leisurely day aboard Zuiderdam. We didn’t have much in the way of activities since it was a port day. We did have a trivia session where the host showed partial pictures of travel landmarks and we had to identify them. Some were obvious like the foot of the Statue of Liberty and the hand of Christ of the Redeemer. Others were much less obvious like the ceiling of the Arch de Triumph. We got 16 of 19 points, so it wasn’t too bad. All aboard today was 4:30pm with sail away at 5:00pm. Everyone was aboard and we left on time just in front of P&O Ventura. It has been an easy transit and we are now at open sea. Copenhagen is next on Friday followed by Oslo on Saturday.

According to the email confirmation I for military credit it has to be renewed each year, unlike Princess. Here is the quote from the email I got: Starting in September 2022 there is a new process for verification that guests need to submit to get the offer. This is on our website at www.hollandamerica.com, under Cruise Deals. Once this is verified you will receive a notification. This offer will be attached to your mariner ID number and is good for 1 year.