richwmn

I am not an iPhone person but know many that are and they have had no problems with iMessage over the ship's internet connection but I'm not sure if it is just the premium package which they had. Using the yahoo website is not a problem for receiving and sending email, I do that regularly and should work with any package as I think yahoo is an allowed site for the social package.

I should also mention I did one cruise years ago that we left from Terminal 26 and returned to Terminal 4, quite a distance away. That was the last time I parked in the Midport Garage. It took quite a bit of time for the shuttle to fill enough to move from the terminal to the garage. If I had been parked at one of the off port services I would have been on the road 30 - 45 minutes earlier. However, that rarely happens.

It has been a while, but I have have used both Park'n'go and Park'n'fly, both right outside the port. I had no problems with either, Park'n'fly had to help me around a dead battery, but I think either would have.

I didn't notice that I put those two names on the list. My fault. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

I actually like the off port better when I drive. You park your car and transfer you and your luggage to a shuttle that takes you directly to your terminal. When you leave the ship, the same shuttle takes you right back to your car. No walking across the port area and getting into an elevator. Even if one person goes to get the car it is still a bit more of a wait. The off-port parking is generally significantly less then the Midport Garage.

The Midport Garage is within easy walking distance from all terminals that HAL generally use. Most people drop off their luggage before parking. If HAL happens to use a terminal away from the Midport Garage, there should be a shuttle to it.

You left out the third musician that died that day - J.P. Richardson aka 'The Big Bopper'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bopper

The ship's WIFI service is not turned off at all. The ship has a cell service, Cellular at Sea, that can be used at a high cost to make phone calls. That is what is turned off when approaching a port until the ships is sufficiently away from the port. Depending on your carrier and the ship you may be able to do WIFI calls. I have T-Mobile and I am able to make WiFi calls on Zuiderdam at no cost. On another HAL ship it was the international rate of 25 cents per minute. Whatsapp and FB messenger work great using the ship's internet connection.

February 03, Tauranga, New Zealand Last evening was a little sparse on activities. We did have two sessions of trivia, but not much else. All four music venues were active. Most of the activities listed at 5:00pm or later were marked as promotions. So this morning we are in Tauranga. It started out as a dreary day and has remained overcast, but hasn’t rained. The temperature was mild, just right for a walk along the beach. Tauranga is a picturesque little seaport city.

Greetings from Tauranga, New Zealand on a dreary Friday morning. It is overcast, chilly, and feels like it could rain at any time. Thanks again to @StLouisCruisersfor posting each day and to the F&B department for their contributions. The view from my balcony this morning.

the most recent PCC that we both worked with told me that he lost all credit if the cruise was transferred.

We actually exited the ship thru the street level of the hotel, similar to Pan Pacific in Vancouver (pictures added)

February 2 – Auckland, New Zealand Last night we had two good trivia sessions. At the 4:00pm General Knowledge session we had a pretty full team and did ok. We didn’t win but were close as always. The 6:30pm session was dedicated to Music from Woodstock. At the beginning the team consisted of three players, with a fourth arriving by the eighth question. Each question was a snip of a song to which we had to answer with the song title and artist. Fifteen songs, 30 answers – we got 28 of them. Missed two song titles but got the artists. Last night on the Main Stage was a second session by Barry Seacroft – the sax player. During his first performance he showed that he good at playing the sax. From the number of people headed for the Main Stage during trivia, he had a good audience again. This morning we arrived in Auckland, New Zealand on time. Here is my view from the verandah. After a typical breakfast and a small delay I exited the ship and walked to the HoHo bus. It wasn’t a long walk and this area is very pedestrian friendly. A very friendly guy was selling tickets and within a few minutes a bus arrived to take up around the city. The loop took about an hour and we had a great day for it. The commentary was pretty good and truthfully worth more than the $30US it cost me. It has continued to be a good day in Auckland, contrary to what it has been for the last few days. We leave at about 6:00pm for Tauranga, our second New Zealand stop.

Good morning from Auckland, NZ. It is overcast here and has been raining a lot. We will have to see how the day goes. This is the view from my verandah Other views of Auckland from the ship

February 1st, second day at sea toward Auckland. Yesterday was a very good day at sea. As always, very relaxed. Trivia was good and at the 6:30pm session our group had the most correct answers on Holland America Trivia. Questions included the location of HQ, the name of the first ship, the ship that signaled Titanic, and others. The bonus question was to name to four Vista Class ships. The only question we missed was about the only ship to be sunk twice during WWII and still be the first to enter NY. It was Westerdam. After trivia I joined friends in the Main Dining Room for dinner. A very enjoyable time. I was warned that the Beef Bourguignon might be a little tough but I had it anyway. Mine was good. I started with Shrimp Cocktail, and ended with Rum Cake. Everything was good. Kelly and Jett had steaks, Sue had Salmon. Everyone said they enjoyed the meal and company. After dinner there was a bit of time before the 9:30pm show featuring Stephen Barry. He is a good singer with a pretty good range and selection of songs. After leaving the show I took care of a little business at Guest Relations, three attendants with no line. Then back upstairs for a bit of TV before turning in for the night. This morning I managed to sleep until my normal 6am, then down for breakfast when the warm line opens at 6:30am. While waiting for my omelet, Tom tapped me on the shoulder and invited me to join him. I did and we had a great conversation.

January 31st – First of two days at sea toward Auckland, New Zealand Last evening’s trivia was very difficult. Our hostess showed pictures on the screens and had us identify things about the picture such as name of the building, location city, country, and so on. She has 30 pictures which ended up being about 46 answers. Some of the pictures were easy, such as the Rialto Bridge in Venice. Others were very difficult, such as Angel de la Independence in Mexico City. We muddled thru and were two short of the winners. After trivia I joined a friend at the blackjack table for about an hour and a half or so. My contribution was acceptable and I called it a night. I did get to see quite a bit of the playoff games, both live and as repeats later in the evening. This morning has been back to the sea day routine. Up and getting a couple of things done like reading Cruise Critic before breakfast in the Lido. The same early morning crowd was there. While eating we looked out the window and saw squalls a couple of miles out. That is a very interesting sight over the open ocean. You can see where the rain is coming down heavy and then a very short distance away, no rain at all. In his daily announcements our Captain has been commenting on the rain and flooding in Auckland. I think he is preparing us for the possibility that we will not be able to complete our stop there. It seems that there is quite a flooding problem there. Also, Noordam was there a couple of days ago and the wind caused a mooring line to break. The problem was resolved for Noordam but if it is still that windy we might have problems stopping there.

For any cruise longer than 29 days it is $30/person/day. I'm not 100% sure about the cutoff point but it is 29 days or something close to that.

From someone who does this regularly, including the current World Cruise. When filling out your documents check the box marked cash instead of a card. If you give them a card at all they will authorize $60/person/day for the length of the cruise and it doesn't matter how much you have prepaid. If you have any OBC from HAL / CCL (Stockholder / Military etc) that will be on your account. They request that you provide enough cash to cover the same $60/person/day but at this point your OBC counts. As in a lot of things what Seattle wants the ship doesn't always enforce. In this case as long as your have enough OBC from whatever source you are good. The last night of the cruise you have to visit Guest Relations and they will return any moneys owed to you in cash. I always have close to the amount requested and get a refund at the end.

January 30th – Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga Last night was uneventful. The show on the Main Stage was ‘Encore’ featuring the hits of stage and screen with Zuiderdam’s singers and dancers. I must admit that I missed it, although I had intentions of going. We had trivia at 4:00pm, which my group managed to win, but not at 6:30pm. This morning we arrived in Tonga. It was a nice sunrise with some lights showing from the island. The island itself is very pretty. I got off the ship shortly after we were cleared. I wasn’t really planning on doing anything other than walking around a bit, but I changed my mind and got a short tour with a cab. The cab ride took me around the island a bit, with views of the Royal Palace, the Military Headquarters, residences of several of the Royal Family, and the Tonga Blow Holes. Unfortunately, the attraction wasn’t active while we were there. It was interesting to learn that there is a major Mormon presence in Tonga, along with Catholic, and the Church of Tonga which I was told is a type of Methodist Church. Tonga is a right hand drive country which can be a little unnerving at times, but my driver was very good.

this is what you will see if you look at your cruise history: Note that it shows how many days were for actual cruise days, how many were fro spending, and if you received a suite bonus. Once you look at that, some of this conversation will sort itself out.

I agree that is the cruise we met on. We actually met in the hotel lobby waiting for the shuttle to the ship, if I remember correctly. I just noticed you said Quebec City - Fort Lauderdale. I'm pretty sure that was from Fort Lauderdale - Quebec City and we met in the hotel in Dania Beach, a hotel I still use when in FLL.

It is 6am aboard Zuiderdam and we are approaching Tonga. I look at the Daily and it is on the third page. Thanks to everyone for keeping this going.

For most of the Cruise Critic world today is January 28th. Aboard Noordam, Westerdam, and now Zuiderdam today is Sunday January 29th. Sometime in the last few hours we crossed the International Date Line and skipped a day, in our case the day was Saturday. So a very short weekend, but we are on a cruise so to some extent every day is a weekend day. I’m not sure if I have mentioned it before, but we are generally having three ‘Happy Hours’ a day. If you are a beer drinker, you have your own ‘Happy Hour’ from noon to 1:00pm at the Lido Bar and the Sea View Bar. That one is 25% off all beers. Then we have the general ‘Happy Hours’ at 4:00pm, 6:30pm, and 10:00pm for an hour (or so) each. All the general ones are at Billboard Onboard, Ocean Bar, and Sea View Bar. Additionally the Crow’s Nest participates in the 4:00pm and 6:30pm ones, but not the 10:00pm. The general ‘Happy Hours’ are 50% off on Cocktails, Beers, Wine by the Glass, and House Spirits. Today is the last of three sea days headed toward Tonga. Sea days tend to fall into a pattern, particularly when we have several in a row. Along with quite a few others, I wake up pretty early and head to breakfast at the Lido close to when it opens. I generally see most of the same people there including several people that join me for trivia each session. Each day Mass is celebrated for Catholics and anyone else who wishes to attend. Also every morning there are Tai Chi and Pilates classes (Pilates is $20). Ian has a coffee chat most sea days with someone different each day. Over the course of the morning there will be several organized games and other activities. Lunch goes from 11:30 until 1:00pm in the Main Dining Room, and until 2:00pm in the Lido. Again I generally see the same Guests who have early breakfast around for early lunch. Afternoons mirror the mornings with several activities schedule throughout the day. Trivia is generally held in the Crows Nest at 1:00pm. Later we usually have trivia at 4:00pm and 6:30pm in Billboard Onboard, nicely happening during ‘Happy Hour’. My team of early breakfast eaters usually does pretty good. We have seen victory once and have tied twice only to lose in the tie breaker.

Happy Sunday morning! Today we crossed the international date line and join @erewhon and friends a day ahead of most of y'all. Thanks @StLouisCruisersSandi for posting the daily, I hope @rafinmd Roy gets the attention he needs. FYI - the software I use to edit pictures is GIMP. It is free and easy (at least for me) to use. I hope everyone has a great weekend.