roxybear135

It’s been a while since my husband and I cruised and we just booked a September cruise to Alaska that I’m very excited for! We booked have it all which includes the signature drink package. I know you used to be able to upgrade to the elite beverage package and just pay the $5 per day difference (plus 18% gratuity). Can you still do this? If so, what is the easiest way to get the upgrade done? I remember we had some difficulty in finding someone on board who understood what we wanted to do and was able to get us upgraded, so hoping to avoid that if possible. Thanks!

Congrats on taking your first cruise - you will quickly be hooked! I've done 2 HAL cruises to Alaska, but both were roundtrip Seattle. I can't answer all of your questions, but can answer a few. For the wifi and drinks package for HIA, it won't show up anywhere other than your booking confirmation. When you get your room key, the drink package will be loaded on to it so you can start using it right away (keep in mind the 15 drink limit per day, including non-alcoholic drinks). As for the wifi, you will be able to sign on to the wifi on whatever device you want to use and activate your free wifi package on there. You can then switch between devices if you want (i.e., from iPhone to iPad) because the wifi only works on one device per person at a time. You should be fine decorating the door to your stateroom, as long as it is with magnets. I've seen a handful of people do that on the cruises I've been on, and some go all out with it. Make sure to pre-book your free dining included in the HIA now, so you get the time slots you want. They tend to book up quickly, so you don't want to get stuck with something that doesn't work for your schedule. Also, keep in mind that the dressy nights (former gala nights) tend to be on sea days and are never on the first or last night, so those are good nights to book specialty restaurants to make sure you don't miss out on the dressy nights because those menus tend to be more upscale. You can start looking at previews of menus in the navigator app to get an idea of what will be on the menu during your cruise. For Juneau, the only place I've ever eaten there is Tracy's Crab Shack, which had really good Alaskan king crab. It's extremely casual though, so might not be what you're looking for. Juneau is fairly small, so you may want to research restaurants ahead of time in case you want to make a reservation. Try and make it up to Mendenhall glacier if you can, it's really beautiful. Enjoy your trip!

Never had a bad meal at Tamarind! Some favorites are the wonton soup appetizer and the crispy duck with udon noodles. The wasabi cocktail is also delicious!

I did the same thing after our last cruise so I sent an email to the president (as suggested above) and named a few crew members who were fantastic. I got a response thanking me for my kind words and saying that they would make sure that those crew members got recognition for what I had said about them.

No there isn't. Just fill out your room service hang tag with what you want and leave it on your door the night before and it will be delivered at the time you selected. We thought the room service coffee was actually pretty decent (the coffee in the Lido was awful).

I think it was around $40-50 but I'm not sure. I do remember it was more expensive than a regular Tamarind meal

We had this on our cruise to Iceland/Norway/Scotland back in June/July on the Nieuw Statendam. We didn't hear about it until I happened to see a sign posted for it on board. The dinner was completely sold out but we were able to finally talk our way into getting reservations for it. It ended up being one of the best meals of the trip (we have been to Indonesia before and the food at Tamarind for the special dinner was just as good as the food we had in Bali). It was a few appetizers, about 6-7 entrees (you got a small portion of each), and dessert. Highly recommend it!

Yes, there's sushi on the buffet at the Asian station but only during lunch. They usually have 3-4 different types of rolls. Our favorite is the poke roll.

They have it at the Asian station during lunch. They usually have a veggie roll, Philly roll, and a poke roll (veggie roll with poke salmon on top). We always enjoy the poke roll a few times throughout the cruise.

Tuna, albacore, and yellowtail are probably the mildest of all the raw fish. The tuna poke (cubed tuna tossed in a citrusy soy sauce with avocado and I believe mango) at Nami is amazing and a must get for us. I would also recommend trying eel (unagi), which is actually cooked. It's flaky and tastes similar to a teriyaki sauce. They make have chopstick helpers (a little plastic thing that clips on the end of the chopsticks to hold them together in proper form and make them easy to use) if you ask, but using a fork or your hands is also fine to do. We always tend to overorder at Nami since we absolutely love sushi, but the prices are incredibly reasonable compared to any sushi restaurant on land so it's a good way for you to try some new things without spending a bunch of money.

Just got an email from SAS this morning saying that I'm getting the 600 euros ($582 USD) and reimbursement for the food I purchased at the airport (it was only around $20). The email said it should be in my bank account in about a week.

I haven't received anything. I also can't find any way to look up the status of my claim. I'm assuming with the number of people who probably filed claims due to the strike that it's going to be a long, long wait.

We've used eMed a few times now and had zero issues with it. You buy the tests through their site and they overnight ship them. You have to sign up for a Navica account to do the test and then they upload your results to that within minutes (and email you a certificate of the results too). Super easy to use and highly recommend them.

We have had Club Orange on both the Koningsdam in December 2021 and the Nieuw Statendam in June/July 2022. On these ships, it's a separate dining room that's only available to people who have Club Orange access either through their suite booking or if they've purchased an upgrade to Club Orange. It's only open for breakfast and dinner. We liked it because there was never a wait for a table, the staff got to know you and your preferences, and sometimes the special entree at dinner time was great. You get the same selections as the MDR except mimosas are complimentary at breakfast and there's an extra entree option at dinner. Our experience at Club Orange on the Koningsdam wasn't the best (the cruise was very crowded because it was a holiday cruise and they seemed to be short staffed) but was absolutely fantastic on Nieuw Statendam.

The cream puffs at the Grand Dutch Cafe (they were absolutely amazing on the Nieuw Statendam but not great on the Koningsdam) and the poke sushi rolls at the Lido. We get these multiple times on every cruise!

Tamarind has been our favorite restaurant on three different HAL ships now. The service is always amazing and the food is delicious! I highly recommend the wonton soup appetizer and the crispy duck.

We went to Akureyri, Isafjordur, Reykjavik, and Djupivogur. In Akureyri we did the excursion I mentioned above. I'm not sure what there is to do in the town there because we didn't have time to explore. There was almost nothing to do in Isafjordur and Djupivogur. Both were tiny towns that took maybe 10-20 minutes to walk to the end of from port. We bought some stuff at the grocery stores in both towns and otherwise just spend most of the day on the ship.

As far as packing, I packed jeans and tops and then a triclimate from North Face (it has an outer shell that's waterproof and an inner warmer jacket that you can zip apart or wear zipped together). I highly recommend bringing something waterproof because you will need it. It wasn't too cold when we were there (maybe the mid 50s was the coldest during the day) but at night it got chilly when outside on the ship. Also make sure to bring comfortable walking shoes that don't slip because you'll need them when walking on the lava rocks near many of the waterfalls. We did the lava field excursion through the ship in Akureyri. It went to Godafoss waterfall, the lava fields, a geothermal area, and then lunch. I wouldn't recommend doing that particular excursion because the time at each location was extremely rushed and we didn't have lunch until like 3pm. They had a ton of different excursions that went to Godafoss and the lava fields, so look for one that does that so you have plenty of time at both places (the geothermal place we went to was very lackluster). For Norway, absolutely make sure to go to the Troll Road. We went on a private excursion through Norway Excursions and thought they were absolutely fantastic. I would highly recommend them and they're reasonably priced (or you can book with the ship and submit this link for price match). The Troll Road was breathtaking and one of the highlights of our trip. https://www.norwayexcursions.com/en/tour/alesund-from-fjords-to-trolls/ I also recommend buying tickets ahead of time for Edinburgh Castle if you plan to go, as it was sold out when we were there so we didn't get to go in. If you have questions about any particular port or excursion that we did, feel free to ask.

We went to Sky Lagoon. It was about a 15 minute cab ride from the port. We really enjoyed it and it was definitely an upscale experience. They have a 7 step ritual that involves the mineral pool, an ice bath plunge, a room where there's rain coming down on you, a body scrub, a steam room, and a shower. We purchased tickets ahead of time and I highly recommend doing this so it doesn't sell out when you want to go. We booked a package called date night and it included admission for 2, the 7 step ritual for both of us, a drink each, and a small charcuterie platter. I think it was around $180 for this but not sure.

Yes, that was us at the table. I also filed the claim, received the confirmation email, and nothing since. I've heard it can take months to receive the money, so I don't expect to hear anything soon from them. I had booked a backup flight but fortunately was able to cancel that when I got them to rebook me because all of the flights out of CPH were insanely expensive. Hopefully you get them to refund you. Or perhaps you can look to see if you had trip cancellation insurance? Some credit cards do cover that. Good luck with getting your money back and hope your daughter had a fun time at camp!

It's $25 a person per day for cruises 7 days per less, and $15 a person per day for cruises longer than that.

My fiancé is a huge whiskey fan as well and definitely drank a bunch of it on our recent cruise last month on the Nieuw Statendam. He would regularly order doubles and it would count as 2 drinks but he wasn't charged any extra for it. We went to most of the bars on the ship and there were zero issues with this at any of them.

On the Pinnacle class ships, there's a free sauna. You can also request the use of a locker for free so you can store stuff in there while you're using the sauna.

They had an app on their phones that allowed them to take credit cards. In Norway, our tour guide for a walking tour said that the people begging their also use a cash app (similar to Venmo). In Edinburgh, we saw street performers who also had credit card readers so you could tap your credit card to make a donation. Kind of crazy!

We were just on the Nieuw Statendam with the Northern Isles cruise out of Copenhagen and the news channels were MSNBC, Fox, and CNN. They also had HGTV, Food Network, a sports channel, and a few other channels. Plenty of on demand movies too.