Mandalay1903

I just Googled it and it's either Hennepin County Medical Center, or Ho Chi Minh City... 😉

40 minutes ago, JennysUncle said:

As of 32 min ago, the Westerdam's AIS tracker has appeared on VesselFinder.com.  Yesterday it had been loafing up from Ishigaki towards Okinawa, but now it is east of the southern end of Taiwan, heading southeast.  That's a course consistent with heading for Hong Kong.

Thanks for the news, JennysUncle. Their heading could equally take them to Thailand or a number of other places. The good news is they're traveling fast, roughly 19 kn, which indicates that they have a solution for a port.

1 hour ago, Viv0828 said:

a person on another thread posted that taiwan was out??

can anybody actually confirm or deny this??

TIA

See the attached news story from Focus Taiwan CNA English News.

17 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

This is a terrible  situation  for those  on board  Westerdam  & yet still no comments of what will happen ,coming from holland or Carnival corporation 

I agree. I'll bet they're skipping Taiwan...

We're booked on the Westerdam for 28 days beginning 2/29/2020. We have been given new tentative itineraries (which look pretty good), but haven't received our new flight information yet. Maybe some information will break tomorrow, being a weekday.

28 minutes ago, dillpickle48 said:

The way things are at the moment, other countries refuse them entry as well.

I agree. A look at Westerdam's current position and heading on Vesselfinder.com shows them heading 31 degrees NNE, which is not directly toward their next port Kaosiung. It's as if they're heading toward Ishigaki Island.

On 1/8/2020 at 5:15 AM, VMax1700 said:

I am heading off to Fort Lauderdale tonight to board Koningsdam on Sunday. 😁😎

I hope to see you on board! 😎

Please see my earlier post on 11/1.  We boarded our HAL Zaandam cruise at San Antonio (Santiago) 5 days ago and had a lovely time passing through the Chilean Fjords.  We finally made it to Punta Arenas today after having had to cancel our port call at Puerto Montt due to very high seas in the Pacific. We avoided swells of up to 9-10 meters but experienced swells of 5-6 meters by changing the itinerary.  Inland, the weather in the fjords was cold but very nice. 

All is peaceful here in Punta Arenas as far as we can tell, though the local tour guide advised us that we might see some demonstrations if we head into town. According to her, the locals want to make their statement in front of the cruise line passengers--but that may just be her opinion.

My understanding from passengers on the previous Zaandam cruise (Ft. Lauderdale to Santiago) had at least one previous port call canceled due to unrest in Chile.  Also, continuing passengers were either not allowed (or advised not to) disembark in Santiago due to the unrest. One other observation is that our cruise embarkation check-in procedure in San Antonio took place ONBOARD the cruise ship--in the main show room.  The local San Antonio authorities did not want the cruise line to use the fairly new cruise terminal there fearing that it might trigger demonstrations and damage there.  HAL is handling this all very well and we've heard of no disgruntled passengers.  Again, my wife and I experienced no transportation delays in Santiago due to the unrest. That said, if you go there you might find your visit to Santiago curtailed by the protests.

Nevertheless, we're glad we came on this cruise and are having a great time despite the weather in the Pacific.

We arrived in Santiago on Delta today and had transport and hotel (Sheraton Santiago in Providencia) provided by HAL. Everything work very well and on time. We saw no issues. Our shuttle attendant warned of walking in areas where there may be a riot (today anticipated between the hours of 5:30 and 10:00 p.m.), not because of a fear of violence but because the police use teargas liberally.

We had a delightful jet-lagged day here today walking the streets near the hotel, but lots of stores and shops were closed because of the national holiday here. I expect tomorrow's transfer to the cruise ship to go smoothly. Nothing I saw or heard about today would deter me from coming here to catch a cruise.  Nice-looking city suffering from a severe drought and some dissatisfaction with their government.

Thank you, CCWineLover for passing along this information from your tour operator.  Their comments are in line with what we've been following in the news. I appreciate their suggestions for hotel locations. We're booked through the cruise line at a hotel in the Providencia district one week from tonight, and their comments are very comforting to us. Enjoy your Andes trip and South America cruise!

Thanks, CCWineLover, for passing on the information you received from ILoveChileTours about Santiago. We're booked there for a one-night pre-cruise stay before our Zaandam cruise begins next week. My PCC said there was no official guidance from HAL yet, and Delta posted travel advisories only through 10/25.  Hard to predict what might happen in the future.  Be sure to check in with the US State Dept. website, too. Best of luck with your future travels.

The Koningsdam is beautiful--Music Walk is great with the shared, larger venue for BB King and Lincoln Center.  The biggest problem (IMO) is that with this new Pinnacle Class ship they've added about 500 guests onto a ship with public spaces about the same size as the Eurodam. Therefore, everything is much more crowded--especially the World Stage, Music Walk, and the Casino. Plan to arrive at least 1/2 hour early to get a seat in the World Stage for a popular performance (e.g. dance company or America's Test Kitchen). Also, the Casino allows smoking so if you're a non-smoker... The third problem is that the Promenade Deck outside walkway is quite narrow and has mostly obstructed views--in some places it's single file. This is because of the odd way that the tenders have been mounted.  Overall, the Koningsdam is a great ship and I wouldn't avoid it--just go in knowing some of these issues.

Tamarind was great on the Koningsdam on our cruise last month. Nice and quiet especially on Gala Night--great personal service. Be sure to use the stern elevator...

I didn't mind the toilet on our Deck 5 Veranda stateroom. However, the shower door wouldn't stay closed or open. It banged loudly on the wall and glass enclosure during rough seas. Both the cabin steward and Engineering tried to fix it but weren't really successful. Maybe bring duct tape...? 🙂

Not a fan of the Club Orange dining. While on Koningsdam las month I noticed that Club Orange dining always had just a few guests.

2 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

I find it fascinating that the above is the one and only email I ever received about it.  But, if I think about it, maybe I don’t.  😅

Same here about "the one and only" email I received about this after my April cruise. But in the past my HAL personal cruise consultant has taken care of this for each of my cruise bookings made within 60 days of the last cruise. It's as if we booked the next cruise while onboard the previous cruise. She refers to this as the "Welcome Home bonus". Thanks, HAL, I appreciate the shipboard credits.