Haljo1935

@Barwick Cruiser we did AK April 29 - May 6, so returned just shy of 2 weeks ago. Rained most days (all except Ketchikan) - no bugs, no mosquitoes, no flies, no ticks but there were some pesky gnats, lots of snowy peaks and glorious views! Oh, and some whales, otters and birds 😀

It's only good for the 7 day period it covers - you'll have to purchase another one for the other 7 days.

Love the Corn Hole - to watch, not play as I'm horrible at it 🙃

When we took the shuttle but had not booked? Yes - Dec (San Diego) & Feb (Ft Lauderdale), we showed our boarding pass and they wrote our names & cabin number at the bottom of their passenger list. This month (Seattle) they just looked at our luggage tags then wrote name & cabin number on passenger list. The charge showed up as "shore excursion" on the statement.

They absolutely could take your cabin number and bill the charge to your room; that would be similar to jumping on the airport shuttle when you hadn't pre-booked it - they ask for your cabin number and it ends up on your stateroom account. We've done that several times, including this month, Feb & Dec - all trips where we were not charged the corkage fee. Policy says wine must be carried on, so we do a "wine transfer" dance at airport after we claim our luggage moving it from our airport checked luggage to our ship carry-on bag. Sure wouldn't do that if we didn't have to 🙂

We brought them in carry-on as per policy and acknowledged having them when they scanned our luggage and asked if we had 2 bottles of wine. So we were prepared to see the charge on our statement due to any of those instances, but never did. I did, though, think it was having them open in MDR that triggered the fee, so I appreciate you advising otherwise.

While the policy clearly states a corkage fee, we have not ever been charged one. As recently as Nov/Dec '22 Koningsdam did not charge - we had them open a bottle for us in MDR at dinner, they kept it & we drank it over a couple nights. Feb '23 Nieuw Amsterdam did not charge us - we had them open a bottle for us in MDR at dinner again having them keep it for us to drink over couple nights. May '23 Eurodam did not charge us- had them open a bottle for us in MDR - we drank it in one sitting. We did not have a drink package on any of those trips, did not buy the wine from HAL and had the bottle fully visible as we went into MDR. So the policy is $20 corkage fee to drink your wine outside of your cabin, but it is not consistently enforced. I'd plan on paying and accept the "gift" if not charged.

Kathy - my recent experience (Nov/Dec '22, Feb '23 & May '23) on 3 different HAL ships (KO, NA, Eurodam) is if you have 2 separate booking numbers (so the 14 days is really 2- 7 day B2B) they will not let you book the 2nd week Thermal Spa. On each of these, I let the spa mgr know I was on for 2 weeks and very much wanted to add the 2nd week before the spots were all taken. All 3 times I was told to come in early on turnaround day to get on the list and get my sticker. In Feb on NA, she had me come in Sat evening before they closed and added it herself as a presale, but I had to go in the next day to officially get on the list and get the sticker. BTW - that trip it did show on the onboard statement as a purchase during the first week.

Congrats on the milestone and welcome to HAL! Please see my responses above.

This is Margerie Glacier taken May 3 in Glacier Bay. It was cloudy and rainy the entire time we were in Glacier Bay - but still so beautiful

I love that store (and all the Russian ornament and doll stores) - try to go in every time I'm in Sitka whether I buy anything or not. Thanks for sharing!

This is about 1/3 the number of excursions available when we were in Sitka May 3. They are located right where the free shuttle (from the cruise ship port) drops you off. If you book prior or walk up - same place, same companies.

Fortress of the Bears was a great stop when we were there pre-Covid; seem to always mention it. It was undergoing expansion construction, but surely complete by now. We were in Sitka just under 2 weeks ago - the new welcome center is very nice. Shuttle to town is free and easy - there are several non-ship excursion options in town at the shuttle stop. Had whales join us for dinner! No pictures but they were nice to watch.

We were on Eurodam April 29 - May 6; I did mention some maintenance issues in my review. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2934932-live-review-eurodam-alaska-april-29-may-6-2023-seattle-roundtrip/page/2/ Only real negative was in regards to lack of maintenance - food and service were as expected . We have only cruised on HAL, Princess and Carnival, so I can't comment on other lines or compare. I will say (as I have here on various threads) we price other cruiselines, but ultimately book what we do due to ship size (don't care for mega-ships) and mostly consistent crew. We still have jobs (gotta pay for the cruises, lol) so we can't take longer cruises, but would probably not go longer than 14 days; we are having difficulty finding 7 day cruises with itineraries we like at prices that work for us. HAL is making us work to stay with them. 😪🤔

That's my internal debate.

@CruizinSusan70 what menus are these - NCL?

Respectfully, it's an Italian themed ship - perhaps you should consider booking a different ship.

Well that's not a good start. Hopefully they are well made...

And for the huge number of Venezia passengers that do not live in/near NYC, there's an option to dine at Il Viaggio...

When you solve for that, do share - you'll be the most popular person on this site!!

We ended up on this ship due to a ship swap from the Magic on upcoming Canada trip having been on Carnival only twice in recent years. But now very much looking forward to seeing it.

Yep, especially since @slidergirl said she was on my ship and got it all week. I was very briefly annoyed when he said that then reminded myself I could make due w/the ice & water so long as I got it 2x day. So I spent water $$ on Vanilla Cappuccino!! But it does highlight different experiences on the same ship, same dates, which is unfortunate.

I've cruised 13 times post-Covid and change of Muster Drill procedures; 2 times on Carnival, 11 times on HAL, various ships. On every one of those, our TV was off when we walked into our cabin, but it did start right up to playing the safety video. Likely depends on the Cabin Steward.

We will be on for some of that time - we're on 13 days B2B Sept 16 - 29. And very much looking forward to pictures and write up of the ship. We're portside aft, so likely no pictures from that vantage point, but we'll happily scour whatever you post. 🥳🤯

Also appreciative of seeing the menu to help make a more informed decision on spending basically $100. While I live in a major Metro area (DFW), I don't have easy access to an abundance of authentic quality Italian restaurants (investors/chefs/transplants take note of an opportunity) so I was excited to hear about the addition of Il Viaggio on my upcoming cruises. Truly wish the price was more in line with Italian specialty dining on CCL other ships.