CNSJ

Ice buckets that don't auto refill.

My real world experience is that you can stack Teacher/First Responder/Military credit with AARP and the Shareholder benefit. A very nice perk for being loyal to HAL. One of each per cabin, however they can split across passengers in same cabin, so passenger 1 can have AARP, while passenger 2 has shareholder and military. Can not speak to the pay early....

Bringing my own Popcorn and popping it underway is far from my idea of a fun night on cruise. On the Pinnacle ships they have popcorn by the pool during movies.

Key Lime Pie in the Pinnacle Grill.

Yes, a no brainer it is. Any type of account in your name.

With US AT&T is a max of ten charges per billing cycle. I don’t have to hunt for Wi-Fi and I can tether my laptop when I want to. Phone connectivity at $10 a day is a small price for some piece of mind. Considering the cruise is about $400 a day…. Not a big deal to me.

Totally agree the ship was relatively safe in Haifa Harbor. It is an Israeli Navy port and a ways from Gaza, but not Lebanon. I do not agree they should have let the tours continue. In the opening hours, I am sure there were and still are concerns about attacks within Israel reacting to Hamas’ call to arms. Tour buses are easy targets. Thankfully we were not in Ashdod, as scheduled for Monday. Well within rocket range of Gaza. Also, consider that With hundreds on overnight tours to Jerusalem Sun-Mon and the ship sailing Haifa to Ashdod on Sunday night without those guests, getting them out of Israel would have been a mess as the ship would not have pulled in to get them.

Thank you for the clarity on the recall decision. However, it was clear enough that I could see IAF jets at high speed flying north to south over Haifa area. You are correct, they were not “right over ship” - but from the jogging track on Deck 11, you could hear and see them.

We stop in Kusadasi in a few days…. That’s prob why HAL didn’t go there.

CruiseMom Have you been to Analya Turkey? Wonderful port! We had a great day!

Maybe I’m asking too much. But at least send the texts out - even if only a percentage go through

On a good note: HAL picked Alanya Turkey. A wonderful port! Not sure why HAL doesn’t use this port all the time! It’s clean, friendly, great beaches, history within walking distance of ship! Fabulous! Beats Kusadasi by a wide margin! All Kusadasi has is Ephesus.

On N. Statendam- it seems the rockets started flying at about 6:30 am as we docked. At 7am we started to depart ship and our bus for HAL tour started at 8. Not sure why they allowed buses to depart. If they had held us, the first groups - we could have left within an hour or so. my guess is HAL leadership had to be woke up and approve recall and departure. I don’t think US State dept put out a notice until around 8:30. But HAL should have recalled quicker than the notice we got at 10am on a HAL tour. I will recommend to HAL they invest in a notification system to send texts to all passengers in the event of an emergency. All passengers should provide a number and have phones on ashore. Quick way to recall for ANY emergency.

Because a war broke out.

Underway…..

Captain waited more than four hours on two passengers. Medical issue popped up as we were casting off lines.

Perhaps the slow to return passengers wound up saving life of person that left in ambulance. I doubt we would have pulled back in to take them off had we left a few hours earlier.

Medical emergency onboard, not with pilot….

Due to medical emergency, lost our pilot. Now scheduled for 8pm local.

I think so, I’ll look again as we depart.

Alanya. Nice beach resort

I think the protocol for when a ship departs early is different than when you fail to return on time for scheduled departure. if ship was in imminent danger, Captain may have had to consider leaving many behind. I’m just happy we were not in Ashdod when this started - rockets were flying overhead there….

Are you on the Nieuw Statendam ? Just confirmed with a ships officer, sea day, Alayna Turkey - then normal schedule…

N. Statendam arrived this morning in Haifa for what was a two day visit followed by a day in Ashdod, Israel. Tour departed early this AM. We were on tour of Galilee region at Jordan River when we were all recalled to the ship. Awaiting last passengers to return so we can depart for sea as soon as possible. Three days in Holy Land has become three hours. So many on this cruise picked this itinerary for Israel. Obviously this is beyond HALs control. Captain just informed us that we are sailing in a few hours..at sea tomorrow followed by a stop in Analya Turkey on Monday, then back to our scheduled stop in Cyprus on Tuesday.

More fish equals better. Fresher fish equals better Locally sourced usually equals better. HAL in right direction on this.