Tom O.

15 minutes ago, DivotMaker said:

 

Can you post a link to that article?  I've been looking for current season flu stats and can't find anything like this.  If my math is right, that comes out to a mortality rate of about .0005%.  Thanks.

 

The website referenced in Post #2 above has this statement:

For comparison, the case fatality rate with seasonal flu is less than 0.01% (1 death per every 10,000 cases)^[8]. Mortality rate for SARS was 10%, and for MERS 34%.

8. Case fatality risk of influenza A(H1N1pdm09): a systematic review - Epidemiology. Nov. 24, 2013

I wonder how they can tell the difference between Corona Virus, and ordinary Flu. I would think this would require some lab tests that would take time. 

If you end up with a huge OBC that is part of a HAL sale, you may have trouble spending it all, and if you have some leftover at the end of the cruise you will loose it.

You can use it for excursions, specialty dining, beverage packages, etc. as long as they are booked on board. It will also apply to your automatic tips and any other things that you charge to your key card.

So, you will probably not want to book to many things before boarding.

Have a good time. I am one of the people who bad mouthed the Westmark on one of your previous threads.

I think the reason it seemed so bad, was that on a cruise you expect top notch accommodations. If I had booked the Westmark on my own, and knew ahead of time that it was cheap and not so great, I would have been OK with it. I have stayed in worse places. In fact, just a couple of months before our Alaska tour last August, I went on a salmon fishing trip with a friend, and stayed in an airport motel in Anchorage. It was terrible, made the Westmark look like the Ritz.

2 hours ago, DivotMaker said:

 

Speaking of dessert, is there any issue with ordering an extra?  We typically only eat dessert on cruises, so we find ourselves splurging and having a difficult time deciding between all the amazing selections.  Thanks.

Yes you can order extra desserts. And if you don't care for the dessert that you ordered, you can go to the Lido and grab one and take it back to your room.

32 minutes ago, DivotMaker said:

 

I like this idea a lot.  Do they bring the whole meal all at once or is it staggered?

 They bring it all at once.

First step in doing this is finding out what the menu is for that evening. There is sometimes a way to do it with the tv. Or we have done this by using the HAL app on my wife's Iphone. If all else fails you can walk by the entrance of the MDR in the afternoon and the menu for that night will be posted.

Once you know what's on the menu, you call room service, and tell them that you want to have your MDR dinner delivered. I usually call around 3pm. They will take the order for all of the items you want off the MDR menu - don't forget desert! They will ask you what time you want it delivered. They have always shown up within 15 minutes of the appointed time. There is no extra charge for this service, but I usually give the delivery person a $5 cash tip.

It all comes in covered plates, I have not had a problem with it being cold. But I don't recommend getting ice cream for desert. By the time you finish your dinner, it will be melted.

24 minutes ago, boom_boom said:

 

The anytime dining pretty much mimics the time for the fixed dining in a separate dining room, same menus.

 

Both fixed time and anytime dining are served in the Main Dining Room and have the same menu, I believe this is the same on all cruise lines. If you want a different menu then you can go to a specialty restaurant. Or you can purchase the Club Orange option, where you have one extra item to choose from.

If you want to have no waiting at all, you can choose fixed dining.

Or you can do what I do, I order the MDR dinner to be delivered to my room. I can eat in my pajamas if I want to.

19 minutes ago, RuthC said:

I would expect there to be three Gala nights on a 10-night cruise. Is there some day you are leaving port early? If so, that could be a Gala night, too. 

Thanks Ruth for reminding me there would probably be a 3rd Gala Night. I checked our itinerary and on day 6 we will leave Helsinki at 4 pm, that could be a Gala Night. I was incorrect in my original post, our 2nd at sea day is on day 8.

But it would seem odd to have 2 Gala Nights with only one day in between.

Oh well, I will try to guess which days are best for our specialty restaurant dinners, and like Gigi suggested, if I am wrong, I will call and change the reservation.

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

Very likely the Gala nights will be the sea days.

28 minutes ago, Gigi1977 said:

My experience is always sea days- so think you can safely book other nights in specialty dining and they will certainly move you to another night if it should conflict.  (I don’t book specialty dining on gala nights either! 😊)

Thanks Bruce and Gigi. Your input is very helpful.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that HAL ships are decorated in a more classical manner. And there will be not be gaudy painting on the hull.

If you choose Anytime Dinning, you can make reservations a few days ahead, while on board. There are certain times (I don't remember what they are) that are not available for reservations.

What used to be formal nights, are now Gala Nights, the dress code is now the same as other nights, but some people choose to still dress up for Gala Night. But it is not necessary.

The dress code for dinner is Smart Casual. For men this means a collared shirt and slacks.

There will be less kids on a HAL cruise than on a NCL cruise.

We are booked for our first Baltic cruise next summer on the Zuiderdam, 10 days out of Copenhagen. Can someone tell me which days will be the Gala nights?

I am guessing they will be the two "at sea" days. The "at sea" days occur on Day 2 (the day after embarkation), and Day 7 (the day after we leave Stockholm). But I would like to know for sure.

I want to know in advance because I want to schedule a couple of nights at the Pinnacle Grill, and prefer that they are not on Gala Nights.

If you want to have an easy embarkation, arrive after 2 pm. Lines are usually gone by then, and it only takes a few minutes to check in.

I can understand the OP's complaints. However none of the issues listed would affect me.

We always get a room with a balcony, and because of that, we spend most of our time in our room.

We always get a room at or near the back of the ship, and have never been disturbed by noises. Hal should really do something about the noise from BB Kings. They should close those rooms that are affected and use that space for something else.

We never eat in the Lido. We eat in the MDR, Pinnacle Grill, or we have dinner from the MDR delivered to our room.

Also, we never attend any shows or activities.

So it depends on your cruising style.

I am not a robe person, I just don't find them comfortable. Perhaps this is because they come open so easily.

What I lounge in are pajama bottoms. Now that I am retired, I pretty much live in them. I will even go out to the mail box or to get the newspaper in them. But I would never go to a store or any place like that in them.

I do see people at the store wearing them though, mostly young people.

While on a cruise I spend all my time in the cabin in them, and only get dressed if I am going to leave the room.

Since we often have dinner in our room, I can wear them while having a first class meal. Very comfortable.

6 minutes ago, llbz327 said:

would it not be better to buy beer during happy hour? first beer full price and the next $2.00. you can buy as many as you like

That would be a better price, it is just not as convenient as having the beer waiting for you in your room.

I have never bought beer at the happy hour, will they give them to you unopened? And is it OK to bring them to your room?

I was just browsing through the stateroom beverage packages available for my next cruise, and I happened to notice that all of the beer packages were now "5 Packs."

They used to be all 6 packs. But then I noticed that the prices have been lowered. Using Roger Jett's list from last July, a 6 pack of Heineken cost $40 - that works out to be $6.67 per beer. The new 5 pack of Heineken is $32.20, that is $6.44 per beer. The other brands a similarly priced.

So while, most other alcoholic drinks delivered to your stateroom have seen significant price increases, beer has gone down. I would recommend to anybody who likes beer to take advantage of this situation before HAL realizes their error.

2 hours ago, alwaysonaship said:

I booked an aft suite on a September Alaska cruise. Was that a bad choice. Fortunately we don’t get sea sick, but I am concerned about all the walking. I have bad knees, and am normally fine if I stay away from steps. 

Well it depends where you are going. If you're headed to the theater, it is a long walk. If you are headed to the  MDR  - it is right below you. The walk to the Lido is a medium walk. You may only walk to the theater once or twice during the cruise, but you will probably walk to the MDR at least once a day.

There are plenty of elevators, so you shouldn't need to go up steps, except at the safety drill at the beginning of the cruise.

3 minutes ago, Crew News said:

Aft-wrap suites are a photographers dream and nice loungers for relaxing out of the wind created by the moving ship.  Great place to have dinner and don't forget the LED candles to create ambiance.

I am with you. I love having dinner on the balcony, even the smaller ones.

Several people have said that the aft is rockier, but I have never noticed that. I know that the aft is less rocky than the far forward cabins.

There is another recent thread about aft cabins you might be interested in. It is not about suites but it should give some good info.

looking-at-aft-facing-cabins-on-nieuw-amsterdam

This is a non-issue for me. I prefer buying excursions and other items in advance with my credit card. If I cancel them (and I often do), I quickly get a refund on my credit card. I prefer saving my OBC for expenses on the cruise. I rarely have much OBC anyway, so there is never an issue of me not using it up.

Also, I book through a TA, and cannot even see my OBC until I am on board.

But, I understand why some people would not like to charge up their credit cards, unnecessarily. I suspect that the ability to use OBC for pre-purchased items will not come about until HAL makes some major renovations to its computerized billing system and web site.

12 minutes ago, Iwantacruisenow said:

In rough seas we also noted the ship rocked abit more in the aft cabin than in our usual side cabin.  But I have no problem with seasickness so that did not bother me. 

I would bet that the extra rocking was also due to operating on only one azipod. I have been on several cruises on aft facing cabins, and never noticed any extra rocking there.

I haven't noticed more engine vibration either, but there is definitely more noise from the wake. But I find that soothing, reminds me of the sound of river rapids.

I can think of no advantage of booking with a PCC.

But what you might want to do is check with more than one TA, you might even save more.

Club Orange sounds to me to be of little value. On the ships that I cruise, it is simply a separate area in the MDR. The extra item available on the menu, doesn't sound like it is worth an extra $25 per person. And the room upgrade is of little value to me, since it is within the same category - it is exactly the same room, it is just in a different location. 

Anyone considering buying vanilla extract in the Caribbean or Mexico should read this article:

Truth About Vanilla

It is on a website that sells vanilla, but the same information can be found elsewhere.