raesive

Last year the hubby was asked to change from shorts/sandal to pants/shoes when we got in line. Depends on who's running service, I think. It was not the "dressy" night. 

HIA/SB holders, be aware! Embarked yesterday and discovered they have updated the prices on all the drink menus... (A woman who was on for the previous sailing now is paying $1 more for each grapefruit cosmo than last week) Most drinks that were previously $11, are now $11.50 or $12... And if it's not a special listed drink, you'll just be surprised as to the price. My lemon drop came back at $12 and was included in my package on my last sailing. The only positive is that you can pay the difference now instead of for the full drink, but now it feels like getting nickeled and dimed. Still don't appreciate the lack of transparency as I have yet to find a menu that shows the prices for each spirit. 

Rock Room Menu:

50 minutes ago, 0106 said:

Liqor 43 tastes like vanilla and citrus.  You make a Carajillo by combining expresso and Liquor 43.   They have Liquor 43 onboard.  The problem would be the espresso.  You could probably get one at the Dutch Cafe.  If not,  order a shot of Liqor 43 at any bar on ice.  Go get your own espresso and pour it in the glass with the 43.  It is a chilled drink.

 

A popular sweet drink with 43 is a Creamsicle: vodka, 43, OJ and cream

I know they keep espresso in a carafe at bars for the espresso martinis (obviously it's not going to be as good as a fresh shot), so as long as they have the licor 43 they should be able to make it then. I wonder if the Dutch Cafe bar has it as well, that would be convenient. 

The creamcicle sounds yummy too!

I recently learned about a cocktail called a Carajillo, which is apparently pretty similar to an espresso martini, only made with something called "Licor 43". I couldn't find that spirit listed on any HAL menus online, so wondering if anyone has ordered before and gotten one? How do you like it? Figured having the drink package would be a good time to see if it's a drink I'll enjoy. 

9 hours ago, jules815 said:

Are you able to go all the way out on the bow of Nieuw Statendam? 

Only on certain occasions. The Captain will open it up for scenic cruising sometimes. Otherwise, no. 

Got our two 150th anniversary tiles today on NS. 

We're on right now, I agree about the hot plates in Lido! Did they make everyone sign receipts for drinks on your sailing too? We have the bev package but still required. They definitely weren't doing that last April and I find it annoying and a waste of paper. 

I redid the dummy booking. I see the Crew Appreciation bit now, though the price did still go up, def not 40% off. Was $849 for HIA inside, now $899.

Has anyone booked a BF sailing? I did a dummy booking, but couldn't find anywhere where it showed that the gratuities were included. Looking at the Tropical Caribbean cruise for February. Waited on purpose for those to be included, the previous onboard credit amount for an inside room wouldn't have covered it. 

Was on the leg to Barcelona, also loved the Rock Room band. The Billboard pair was ok, but the better of the two (Ivy) got off when we did as her contract was up. Hopefully her replacement is as good.

Service was mostly good, but sometimes it was difficult to flag a waiter down for drinks in the pool areas. 

Food was always great, and most days at lunch there was a Lido station with completely different options for the day: dim sum, Dutch/German meats and sauerkraut, Portuguese charcuterie...

Agree on the smoking being annoying- why the smokers area in the casino is located in the main walking path confounds me 

It was a great crossing!

Waiting in the NS line. It's more organized and less chaos than an hour ago when we arrived, but still crazy. Broward FD stopped by to hand out waters before a crew member showed up with more. Still going to be on today tho!

14 minutes ago, iflyrc5 said:

That room on the NS is empty except for tables - it was used for painting classes.  I did not see any computers available for guest use.

Thanks for the response. I might just buy a second SD card and we can just swap when the first gets full. 

The spot that used to be called "Microsoft studio" on the NS deck plan is just an empty box now. Anyone know what's there? We're hoping to leave our computer at home, but wanted a way to move videos off our GoPro SD card if it fills up. Just looking at options. If we could use a computer to facilitate the move to a larger external drive that would take much less space than a whole laptop. 

The most recent posts I could find were from 2021- anyone know what capacities HAL is currently sailing at? 

You can't take one bottle per person on for free anymore?

I emailed my request on 1/5/22, and got confirmation today that we got it. This was my first time, so excited to get it! I also got an updated "booking confirmation" email with the amount showing on it. Booked directly, so no TAs to deal with.  Final payment date is Monday, so unsure what would happen if it had been granted after that date.  

The Vimeo version seems like it's not the final edited version, but it's still a fun watch. Myself, husband, cousin and his wife were on the cruise they recorded, and we're in the video! I can't remember exactly where though. Love that ship and looking forward to our next cruise on her. :)

Brilliance is chilling here in Tampa already. I'm sure she'll go in December. It's possible her dates filled up sooner because Brilliance was always supposed to sail from here... Serenade replaced the Sept-November cruises that were supposed to originally go with Brilliance because it had already passed all the covid regulations when sailing up in Alaska. Gave them more time to jump thru the hoops with Brilliance is my guess. 

That is exciting. We're just 1-stars, only 5 away from 2, and our next is a 14-day with HIA in April. Not a suite, but would be nice to get to 3 stars faster than expected. 

We just did Walgreens before our cruise last week. I answered all questions honestly (yes for first two, no for rest, I believe). We were told to bring our insurance cards, but when we were there for the actual test, the lady said it was covered and wouldn't take them. This was in Florida, not sure what Texas does. 

Do I need to pre-book for equipment or can I decide once there that I want to snorkel and pay with my seapass card at the equipment shack? I don't want to lock in yet because I don't know if I will feel like snorkeling or just relaxing when there in a couple weeks. 

I have this problem for my Oct cruise... It says nothing available and I should book on the ship. It's still 60 days out.  Was originally on Brilliance and it changed to Serenade. I keep checking daily in case it shows up. 

On 8/10/2021 at 9:12 PM, TiogaCruiser said:

Are you sure there is an option to only pay a deposit?

 

 I was watching a cruise over New Years, and when I checked in June, final was due in about a week.😨 In my book, that’s about 3 months too early. Especially with the uncertainties of Covid.

Oh there definitely was the option, this cruise isn't till April and the full amount isn't due until January. I definitely saw it on there, but I guess I missed the "default" option where it ignores that and pays in full... heh.

Your holiday cruise seems like the final payment ought to be in Sept/Oct, usually it is 90 days out, so it's pretty odd that yours was so soon.

49 minutes ago, Galer99 said:

I did this once, too, so you are not alone. I called HAL, explained my error, and they refunded (pretty quickly) the overage. 

The lady I talked to said I was the second person she had worked with with that same issue today... makes me wonder if the website did something wrong when processing and it wasn't actually my mistake. 

Thanks for the advice! I called and asked them to refund the difference, and it went very easily and surprisingly quickly. I agree, I don't like them having so much money right now with all the Covid uncertainty. If these were pre-covid times, I would probably just pull some money from savings to cover the difference and not worry too much. A lot can change before the January final payment date!