njfredd

Agree that the Thermal Suite on the Emerald needs some improvement. I was on the Emerald for a Caribbean cruise (NYC to Fort Lauderdale repositioning) in early November. I had a full suite but had to really dig deep into the various benefit data to determine that I was entitled to such access. The location of the thermal suite is not the most inviting location - have to walk down a somewhat dark and foreboding stairway to arrive at the location. There are five lounging chairs provided, which proved somewhat inadequate on a fully booked ship. When finally able to access, they were very comfortable and relaxing. However, in comparison with the setup of the Holland America lounges - on those ships that I have been on, the comparison was most unfavorable. Kind of the difference between a room that feels like a dungeon and one that has views of the seas outside from the multiple windows provided on HAL. I know that some may indicate that the older ships would make a difference, but we were on the comparably aged Zuiderdam this summer and it had some wonderful sea views. On Emerald, there was the ability to go out to a private pool and hot tub, but it was not really disclosed and ine had to deduce that they could use those facilities- had to venture out and use, with no objection from any staff. The Thermal Suite did have a very good Aromameric "I would call it a pod due to its small size - two fit comfortably and if anyone else wishes to enter "very to maybe ta Bravo show friendly". I may have missed it, but did not see real saunas on board, only two mild versus more intense steam rooms -not quite the same as a "real" sauna.

Bottom line: I don't think that Princess really has put any emphasis on the value of the facility, keeping things somewhat dark and dreary in atmosphere, figuring that the suite guests won't figure out that they are entitled to this perk as part of their reservation. I know that Princess and HAL are "cousins" through ownership. but a conversation or review of what HAL has accomplished with similar space restrictions would definitely be beneficial for Princess.

Daily Bread pudding offering at the Lido!

Figured we would repost inquiry re: any LGBTQ+ community booked for our Voyage of the Vikings cruise 7/22-8/26on the Zuiderdam. Itinerary is incredible, hoping to meet other LGBTQ+ members on our 35 day voyage. 

Kind of disappointed with selections in vodka and gin departments with brand selections available. Grey Goose, Tangueray, Hendricks, Ketel One, even Tito’s and Absolut missing on current selection. Glad that Beefeaters is available but feel that HAL is going downscale to achieve some sort of profit margin. I would gladly pay extra for a more palatable brand selection.

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Any LGTBT+ folk booked for the Holland America 35-day Voyage of the Vikings 7/22-8/26 on the HAL Zuiderdam? We did a similar sailing in 2016 with a few port changeups (2016 - Isle of Man, Liverpool and several Norway stops: 2023: Belfast, Cork, Isle of Lewis and Lerwick Shetland Islands, plus an extra Greenland stop). Hoping to meet some other family members on this cruise. We are from central New Jersey (Hamilton. NJ - Princeton/Trenton area - closer to Philadelphia than NYC). This will be one of my legacy cruises (age-wise) and would look forward to any advice on Amsterdam (we are booked for a day trip "on one's own:") and Irish Cobh (Cork) visits (my formerly redhead heritage). 

On 12/9/2022 at 7:43 PM, njfredd said:

 

 

Currently on the 15 day Panama Cruise from Fort Lauderdale to LA. Seems to be several changes - captain, restaurant director, cruise director and assistant.. Attached photo of current officer listing. I think cruise director (British fellow) may be new this week as not included in photo, but from his Linked In page, he seems to be a veteran of Princess, HAL and Celebrity. His assistant Shelle is a very personable Malaysian with a great sense of humor, at least from what we have seen from her Wake Show and game show emcee duties.

 

SHIP	CAPTAIN	CRUISE DIRECTOR	ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTOR	DIR, RESTAURANT OP's
CaribbeanPrincess	Vincenzo Lubrano	Kristoff Greyling	Daniel Gibson	Oscar Perego
Coral Princess	Diego Perra	Karen Rogers	Kelvin Joy	Joachim Rothe
Crown Princess	Vincenzo Lembo	Olivia Guthrie	Michael Kujawski	Mariusz Czemarmazowicz
Diamond Princess	Fabrizio Maresca	Dan Falconer	Duke Christopher	Jean Paul Muslu
Discovery Princess	John Smith	DuVaul Gamble	Neil Rose	Francisco Patricio
Emerald Princess	Giuseppe  Castellano	David Frost Shell	Martyn Moss	Enache Popescue
Enchanted Princess	MarioCiruzzi	Jody Miles	Bernie Fuentes	Silvio Zampieri
Grand Princess	Michele Bartolomei	Aaron Hawkins	Callie Smit	Giuseppe Francina
Island Princess	Paul Slight	Andi Sanders	Susan Rawlings	Francesco Ciorfito
Majestic Princess	Andrea Spinardi	Kevin Tugwell	Ron Goodman	Neville Saldanha thru 12/8/22
Regal Princess	Paolo Arrigo	Gary Golding	Alex Yepremian	Nicola Furlan
Royal Princes. s	Steve Holland	Corinne Steel	Tim Donovan	Daniele Saredi
Ruby  Princess	Mario Tani	Aaron Mac	Sammi McDonough	Giuseppe Gelmini
Sapphire  vPrincess	Todd McBain	Fernando Cunha	Marissa Wurms	Mario Propato
Sky Princess	Marco Fortezze	Matt Barnard	Matt Thompson	Ciprian Hoidreag

 

Just off the Emerald Princess. We had a very enjoyable Panama Canal Cruise, going through the new locks. When departing the ship, noted that a holiday oriented officer listing appeared for the cruise that commenced today 12/18/22. New captain and cruise director, updated above. She’ll indicated that she was staying on - great resource. Bon voyage!

1 hour ago, startedwithamouse said:

Malaysia

Yes, she is very telegenic (on the Wake Show) and plays off JC’s leading questions/comments perfectly, with some hilarious “accidental” put-downs and “whatever” responses. Saw her host one of those “newlywed type” games and she definitely was quick witted and entertaining. 

Currently on the 15 day Panama Cruise from Fort Lauderdale to LA. Seems to be several changes - captain, restaurant director, cruise director and assistant.. Attached photo of current officer listing. I think cruise director (British fellow) may be new this week as not included in photo, but from his Linked In page, he seems to be a veteran of Princess, HAL and Celebrity. His assistant Shelle is a very personable Malaysian with a great sense of humor, at least from what we have seen from her Wake Show and game show emcee duties.

re: tile distribution. We were on a B2B for our cruise on the NS and we received tiles during the first week (Western Caribbean). We did not receive anything for the second week (Southern Caribbean), but not sure if others who had joined the ship commencing the second week received anything. 
 

We did receive separate HAL Journeys booklets, with stickers to insert for each week.

Just disembarked from the Nieuw Statendam after a two week Western and Southern Caribbean cruise.
 

The arrival process at the Aruba port was handled in a terribly disappointing/disorganized manner. The original exit place became extremely crowded- with those booked for tours and then those wanting to exit lining up - crowding the stairs and hallways. There were no announcements that I could hear to try to organize the departing hoards, and certainly no social distancing, or even attempts to assist those elderly or mobility impaired individuals. Finally an announcement was made that an additional exit was made operation, resulting in those stairs and exit points also being overwhelmed. Adding insult to injury, at the A exit level point, exiting ship staff was also allowed to join the crowded hoards trying to leave. Overall a very unsafe situation all around, where some sort of announcement and notification by Ship safety or in-charge personnel on the ship PA system  would have been welcome from the start, but was seriously lacking.

ship debarkation was also marred by a malfunctioning gangplank. Ship crew handled the process as best they could, but again notification was lacking for at least an hour from the time that passengers were supposed to begin the exit process, again creating lines and folks trying to access elevators to no avail. The captain finally made an announcement, pretty much indicating his displeasure with the malfunctioning unit and the overall process, but again some of the issues could have been avoided by a simple announcement/explanation of the issue at the time that departures were scheduled to begin.

Overall we did enjoy our time on the ship and the ports visited. Our Neptune Suite concierge, Lorraine could not have been more helpful and accommodating. Our cabin crew, Arye and Ron were fabulous - we give them great credit for their attention to our requests (even providing nightly towel animals and chocolates) in spite of what we could see were increased number of units on the ship for which they were responsible. Also, kudos to the Club Orange staff, with special thanks to Prio and the husband/wife chef team, for their attention and skill. A little more delay with more people seemingly purchasing the Club Orange package in the second week particularly, but the free mimosas provided at breakfast helped to sooth over the situation 🥂🥂.

in spite of the couple of ship exit issues, we would highly recommend the ship and the efforts of the crew throughout the trip. 

23 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

The sun is just as strong in Key West as it would be in the Bahamas.

Not on the pub crawl that I had planned for Key West🍸🍹🍸!!! Cover planned wherever I planned to go. Bimini, on the other hand 🥵no matter where one goes - will rather stay on the ship - after mandatory photo op, of course.

On 9/17/2022 at 9:45 AM, wnyork49 said:

We were scheduled to stop in Key West on the Statendam in December. Received an email today changing stop to Bimini. Not even close to the same thing. I believe there would be only an 80% refund if we canceled. Key West was the only reason we booked this cruise. Not happy

 

We are also scheduled for this cruise and equally disappointed about the cancellation of Key West as a port stop. My Irish skin has no tolerance for the "wonders" of Bimini Beach 🥵

However, I think from my perusal of other CC dialogues, I figured out what caused the cancellation. There appears to be a be a very significant (in regard to numbers of participants) boat race taking place in Key West the week that the NS was scheduled to arrive in port. It appears that due to this activity the cruise port that our ship was scheduled to use elected to close down on the days that indicated the most activity (actual race days - semifinals are on the day that the NS was scheduled to be in port). 

Not sure who was responsible for the late notice, the cruise port or HAL (in my mellow years will not pass judgement - but will throw shade at HAL anyway) but does not appear to be completely arbitrary. Looks like I will go on land for mandatory "I have been to Bimini" photo, and then a relaxing day on board the ship, dreaming about the Duval Street crawl that will never be (at least for now). 

The Nieuw Statendam is a newer ship in the HAL fleet (Pinnacle Class). Our last cruise in 2019 was on a sister ship, the Koningsdam. One of the advantages of this class of ship was the addition of the “Music Walk”, consisting of BB Kings (also used by Lincoln Center for classical early in the evening - zzz for me), the Rolling Sone Rock Room, and the Billboard room with a pair of singer/piano players. The bands in the rock room and BB Kings we’re good, and definitely kept the crowd going - much later than We experienced on the older, smaller ships. From what I read on CC, the quality can be variable (the piano players get the least love), and there seems to be a set playlist that one would notice during the course of the cruise. But if one gets the drink package, one might not notice as much😜. Disadvantage on the ship seemed to be the limited use of the Crow’s Nest - that seemed busier on the older ships (maybe because the nite owl/experienced drinkers congregated there, due to limited late night activity elsewhere.

The clientele on the Koningsdam seemed to be a mite younger than the older ships that we sailed, I think because of itinerary- Croatia, Corfu, Rome. We are kind of on the cusp of the “typical HAL” age range, but I enjoy later evening entertainment (huzzband on the other hand…). Similar to this Caribbean offering, that cruise was packaged for one and two week terms. I think that, plus the newer ship atmosphere, may help to bring the average age and potential later evening activity to a livlier potential.

Hello Cruisegoer;

Edd and Frank here from Hamilton, NJ (Princeton/Trenton area- closer to Philly than NYC - but you are from Allentown PA so you should have a general idea). Hence NJ Fredd label. I am native Philly boy and husband has always lived in NJ. 

We are booked on the Nieuw Statendam for both this week and the prior week (11/4-11/11). Prior week goes to Half Moon Cay, Ocho Rios Jamaica (will get off the ship only for photo op), Grand Cayman, and Key West (if Disantis is in a good mood and allows us to land without voting for/bowing to him).  We haven't ben to Key West in close to 20 years, so the one-day visit is what I am looking forward to - the rest of that week we will probably be "resting". 

This will be our first cruise since April 2019, and really looking to get away.  We had scheduled same cruise on the Rotterdam in January but decided to delay "in the interest of caution". Worked out better as deferred January trip had at last minute substituted Turks/Caicos and Bermuda for Grand Cayman and Key West. 

We were on the Koningsdam back in 2019 and really enjoyed that class of ship. Saw the flyer this week noting the great rates - wondering how the capacity will be, subsequent to the offer. Our carryover rate from our delayed booking was less for better accommodations than in January, so we are very happy.

Hope to see you in November! At least this cruise will not have heightened precautions (no pre-testing). We have a Panama Canal cruise scheduled in December and unfortunately testing still required. 

Edd and Frank

One of the posters on the VOV 2023 roll call linked to a blog from a cruiser currently on the 2022 VOV. The blog includes descriptions and photos from the two ports visited so far (Bar Harbor and Red Bay), along with additional info on the Zaandam experience so far. I have inserted the site reference below. Hope that this will help.

We have booked the 2023 VOV, as it will include three Ireland port stops (never been to Belfast), and we were able to get a nicer cabin selection - and better pricing - on the Zuiderdam next year. We were on the 2017 VOV and thoroughly enjoyed the experience immensely (that year it included Liverpool and Isle of Man). with great weather - even had sun in all of the Iceland ports! 

http://gdjmtravels.blogspot.com

My husband won $5k at the slot machine on the last day of our 20+ day Transatlantic/Mediterranean cruise in 2019 on HAL's Koningsdam. Great result as he did not have the chance to send the funds back to the casino through additional play. And I got a "free" martini out of the transaction 🍸- plus a complimentary 1099 memorializing the transaction! We have been receiving casino offers, and hopefully we will be able to take advantage when we return to cruising in July 2022 (Voyage of the Vikings).

We are booked on Holland America's Voyage of the Vikings - 35 day RT from Boston to Boston on the Zaandam.  Includes Bar Harbor, Newfoundland-Labrador, Greenland (2 stops), Iceland (5 stops including overnight Reykjavik), Norway, Rotterdam (overnight - we are going over to Amsterdam for one day), Dublin, Scotland, plus more Canada (4 stops in all). This is our second outing on this trip (a few changes in ports - more Iceland, less British Isles). Commences 7/9/22. Anyone else booked or possibly interested in this cruise?