islandwoman

What's the problem with the Volendam?

How about cargo pants for women? How about dress shirt and tie, but no jacket for men (shirts and ties take up less room in luggage than sport jackets).

Done. Nothing. But then the 2026 Grand World Voyage is not on hollandamerica.com yet, even though it has been announced.

Are there enough refrigerators available for everyone who wants to rent one? I would like to sail in a Lanai cabin, but need a refrigerator. Could I reserve a refrigerator in advance?

HAL's Grand World 2026 has been announced. Has anyone heard anything about other Grand Voyages for 2026? Maybe Grand Africa? or something else?

I hope not. All of my travel pants are cargo pants, not the ones with the big baggy pockets, but those with flattish zipper pockets on the legs.

I understand that HAL will not be taking bookings until May. I have asked our TA to waitlist us for it. Does anyone know whether HAL is taking waitlists?

My favorite reusable water bottles are Yeti. They are well insulated. I take two on cruises, fill them with tap water and keep them in the cabin frig. Before a shore excursion, I add ice and put the bottles into the outside pockets of my day pack. Yeti are sold by Ace Hardware stores and online.

How can we do that? I bought some on Friday (Feb 23) and the drop down menu only went to 5.

I have used AARP HAL gift cards for two different cruises. Two different TA's have accepted them in payment for the cruises and for payment for cruise deposits. With Princess, it is possible to book a cruise onboard and then transfer the booking to your TA. Perhaps you could transfer your HAL booking to your TA. It wouldn't hurt to ask, although it might be a bit confusing..

When "choose a room" comes up blank on hollandamerica.com, does it mean that the category is sold out or is it a glitch on the website? I have tried searching cruises with two different browsers for the past few days and on all my searches except one I got through "Choose Your Stateroom Type", "Choose a ship section", and "Choose a deck". But when I got to "Choose a room", there is no deck plan and no room choices.

Right.😟 I suppose that I could "plan" to lug along (and pay the airline for) another suitcase to hold five more days of clothing, while my main suitcase is relegated to carrying dirty clothes home.

Nope. We have a land stay after.

Does HAL cut off laundry service a day or two before the end of a cruise? I ask because I have a 5 day land stay after my next cruise of 22 days and I would not like to do it in dirty clothes.

Princess cruises has passenger laundromats on every ship with ironing boards and irons. The washers and dryers require tokens. Irons are not allowed in passenger cabins because of fire hazards. Azamara has laundromats at no cost.

Celebrity sent me the email requesting questions, but not one about the webinar going live. Are there PUPs for watching? If yes, please post the URL to the webinar.

Wouldn't that be nice. Although I doubt it. Larger and larger ships seem to be the trend with mid-price cruise lines. I left Princess because they got rid of their small ships and started building bigger ones. On one of my Princess cruises, the captain told us that larger ships were more cost effective.

To every cruise line, hotel chain, and airline, loyalty is worth how much profit they expect to make. Just look at Delta's new loyalty program. It is totally based on how much money passengers spend with that airline. No more credit for miles flown. Celebrity doesn't give benefits to loyal customers to be nice. They give benefits to keep us coming back and spending more money with them. You might want to ask yourself the question, "what are the loyalty benefits worth to me?"

Because suite guests pay more per cruise day - a lot more.

Earth Trekkers https://www.earthtrekkers.com/how-to-visit-paestum-italy/ says "To walk through the archaeological site and visit the museum, plan on spending two to three hours at Paestum" Do you agree? .

Are there private tours or private drivers you all would recommend? In Egypt, we used My Day Trip and were very happy with them. For a trip from Naples port to Paestum they're asking at least 174 Euros for two people. HAL wants US$649 for a 4 hour private vehicle (that's not enough time). When I compare these prices with the train, the difference in price is amazing and google maps is telling me that the trip by car takes over an hour and a half each way. That doesn't seem like a good value to me. Are there any private tours or private drivers you all would recommend?

We've been to Pompeii and Herculaneum previously. Originally our ship had more time in port and we had booked a ship's excursion to Paestum. But then they changed their itinerary and cancelled that excursion. We were counting on Paestum and don't want to give it up 😒 Who knows if we'll ever get to Italy again.

Our ship is not scheduled to dock in Naples until 10 AM and it departs at 6 PM. Are there direct trains later than 8:50 AM?

Can anyone recommend an independent shore excursion from Naples cruise port to Paestrum? or Will someone please tell me how to get from the port to Paestrum by train or bus?

I agree. But they do have a "New! Viking World Voyage I" that departs Ft. Lauderdale and ends in New York. Since it starts and ends at the same latitude, I would consider that one a world cruise. But we have decided against Viking for another reason. In order to get a cabin that we would be happy with for 180 days, we would have to book a year or more in advance. Anything can happen in that length of time, especially to people of our ages (old!) and I find Viking's cancellation penalty for long cruises unacceptable.