Marion B

   Like the looks of your cabin and the floral arrangement is beautiful.

   Thank you nimi17.  I figured your time might be different because you're doing the coastal and we're the Mexican Riviera.  It's after 5:00 in my time zone, so I've already uncorked the wine - and it's the good stuff - New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

   I'm so happy for you and all others onboard.  Seth's Facebook video already put me in a celebratory mood.

   Happy birthday and happy cruising.  Thanks so much for posting.  I will follow every word to hold me until December. 

   Is sailaway 4 PM (as is ours)?  I want to make sure I am glued to the live webcam to cheer you on with a glass (or two) of wine.

   Bon Voyage!

   Aliaschief said it.  idiebabe seconded it and I third it.  We sailed on the Nieuw Amsterdam this summer. Trusted the vaccine, the protocols and HAL.  Never spent even a minute second-guessing our decision.  Food, service and entertainment equaled or even surpassed what we have come to expect.

  I'm a baby boomer (but still in double digits).  Covid-19 squashed almost two years of cruises and land trips.  The clock is ticking.  Not waiting for my end of January cruise.  Sailing Koningsdam before then, and two more are on the books.

   Everyone's risk and comfort level is different, so I hope you do whatever brings you peace.

John,

   Details!  Details!  Details!  You always post them and I always love them.

   Happy Anniversary to you and Maria.  

Marion

      Wishing you and your child bride safe and smooth travels.

      As I'm following one week behind, I'm very happy that you will be reporting.  

   Missheo, I am on the same cruise as you - August 14th.  There are 3 different tests.  Which one did you schedule - rapid diagnostic diagnostic lab (pcr) or rapid antigen?  Not all are accepted for travel, and return results vary considerably.

   If anyone else has the answer, I would appreciate it.  We don't have much time to get this right.

   Thanks.

   Wishing you a fabulous cruise, Lanky Lad.  As we're booked for Queen Mary 2's November 21st voyage, my hopes and dreams are riding along with you.

   Isn't there an old saying (or poem) "Someday my ship will come in"?

   Wouldn't today be the day?

   Can we exhale yet?

   Always enjoyed your "live from" reports, but this one is in a league of its own.  Never been so excited about a cruise I'm not on.

   Not boarding until August 14th, but my hopes and dreams are riding along with you.

   Fair winds and following seas to you and all onboard.

   Every day I read people's success stories of obtaining refunds.  It kept hope alive for me.

   Queen Victoria June 7th cruise cancelled April 23rd.  Live in US.  Booked with TA.  Money refunded in full - cruise and Cunard air.  Original credit card shut down due to hacking, but money found its way to new one.

   To all those still waiting, I sincerely hope your day will come very soon.

   Best wishes to all,

Marion

   I am posting this from the hotel right now.  We stayed here 3 years ago and liked it enough to return for 4 nights pre- cruise.  It is as delightful then as it was now.  We were in a standard room then and upgraded to a deluxe now.  I believe the lovely breakfast was included in our rate.  Yes, it probably is not as convenient to many tourist sites, but we have found taxi rates to be quite reasonable.  For us, the positives far outweigh the location issue.

   Have discovered many restaurants 1 to 5 minutes away.  The hotel has just started offering dinner service downstairs.  A limited menu, but, for us, good.  

   Do not miss the very reasonably priced drinks at the downstairs bar, with complimentary snacks.

   Very pleasant, professional, helpful staff.  Will book here for our next trip.

   Not in a prime tourist area, so restaurants cater to locals and the prices reflect that.

   A few minute walk to the supermarket - bought local wine for 2 and 4 Euros per bottle.

   A very pleasant walk this morning to the Basilica Santa Maria.

   Have walked around the Termini area - not the most pleasant area but, for us, in the daytime, felt safe.  My biggest fear was getting knocked over by one of the tourists lugging a super-sized suitcase.

   Hope I don't sound like a shill for the hotel - I am just a very satisfied customer.  Judging from the several couples I have chatted with at the bar area, they are happy too.  I like the combination of new world comforts and old world charm.

Marion

I'm happy to report a great deal from Choice Air I scored an hour ago: DFW to Dublin; Amsterdam to DFW - $2300 per person for Delta First on the domestic flights and Delta One on the international legs for our June 2018 British Isles cruise. More than we usually pay, but it's for dh's birthday cruise.

Mary,

As our upcoming HAL (Oosterdam) cruise covers five of your ports, I found your blog particularly helpful - and enjoyable. Your photos gave me a real feel for the different places.

Thank you for posting this.

Marion

Hi Turtles,

Very happy I found your wonderful review before our November cruise. We've done 2 partials and they whet our appetite for a full transit.

Several of your ports will be on our HAL cruise and I had found only limited info on them before your review.. You have confirmed for me that we will do ship's tours for Leon and Antigua, and we will skip Puerto Chiapas. We will check out Gio Tours.Your photos gave me a real sense of what to expect.

Your photography is stunning. I couldn't take my eyes away from Mazatlán at dawn.

I'm going to post your link on my roll call, because I think it will help my fellow cruisers too.

Thanks so much for sharing with us.

Marion

In all fairness, I must admit that the word I used to address our nighttime visitor was not "fool."

Good questions, candbgirl. Unfortunately, my TA didn't get much in the way of answers from HAL and we won't be onboard to find out for ourselves.

I accept that I could be wrong and it will turn out that there was little or no disruption for us not being part of the O contingent.

Marion

Now that I've wiped up the coffee I spilled all over the screen, here's mine (not on Celebrity though).

We were in an adjoining cabin, but not travelling with the people next to us. 2 AM and dh is sound asleep. I hear a key rattling in the door, and being a light sleeper, I'm on full alert. Second rattling of key. Third rattling of key is the charm. Now I hear, "Honey, I'm back" and the voice is coming from the cabin's hallway. I scream "You're in the wrong cabin." I slap dh to wake him up and he pipes up. Now the stranger is screaming, "What the (blank) are you doing in bed with my wife, you (blank)?" Mr.Visitor proceeds to grab the hallway curtain and becomes entangled in it.

This is our first night on this ship and we have yet to hit the right light switch, so this is playing out in the dark. Before we do, our friendly neighbor advises us that he will "beat the blank out of my husband." Somehow he realizes his error, untangles himself and scoots out. The hint might have been when I screamed out, "Unless you're married to (my name), you're in the wrong cabin, fool."

We found out from the Hotel Manager that the ship had just come out of dry dock and our key cards were coded erroneously to allow us and our neighbors to have access to each other's cabin.

This happened about 8 years ago. We recently ran into the same Hotel Manager and as soon as we introduced ourselves, she remembered the incident and said it was a first for her in her twenty year career.

Sail's post struck home. We were blindsided by our booking being one of the special cruises. It would have been a big deal if we had booked airfare or insurance, but luckily had not.

As Sail posted, we felt that HAL was not being open when our TA tried to get specifics about what venues would be affected. When HAL started talking about tickets being issued for crowd control, it was all vague and we felt it didn't bode well for us.

In cancelling our cruise, we thought back to when a large group took over our short repo: Crow's Nest out of limits, our anniversary dinner at the Pinnacle cancelled last minute....

It may turn out that we would not have been impacted much, but we weren't willing to chance it.

Luckily, there are many cruise lines from which to choose and we will see how we like the cruise line we chose which is new to us.

Marion

Thanks to Cruise Critic, I learned that my November 29th Koningsdam cruise was one of the four special sailings. This was a landmark birthday celebration. It was disappointing that HAL wouldn't let us change to an earlier sailing without paying several hundred dollars more. Luckily we were well before final payment, with a fully refundable deposit. Yesterday, we cancelled this cruise and booked with another cruise line.

Having been on short repo cruises where special interest groups took over public venues, we weren't willing to gamble on an eleven-day sailing. Had HAL told us beforehand that our cruise was on the list, we would not have booked it.

Marion

Love your sense of humor, 3rdGenCunard. As my dh would say, I need all the transforming I can get.

My concern is not with the activities, but whether or not they will restrict my getting into the Crow's Nest and other public venues.

We will not be making any hasty decisions, but there was an Azamara cruise that we were considering and now that the rates have dropped, we might substitute that. Luckily, we have a fully refundable deposit and have no money spent on airfare or trip insurance.

Marion

"Oprah Magazine Adventure of Your Life Sailing" (November 29, 2017)

Our TA has confirmed that our cruise is one of four special sailings. It will focus on O Magazine-inspired activities,authors, artists and the Super Soul 100 (people whom Oprah finds inspirational.) There will be numerous special activities throughout the ship, per HAL. According to the editor of O, "This will be a transformation cruise. You will be a very different person than when you came on."

Each person will have to make the personal decision as to whether or not you want to be part of this special interest sailing.

My only experience with special interest sailings was when we lived in San Diego and took many repos to/from Vancouver. Before I learned how to find special interest sailings on Cruise Critic, we had several less than ideal

cruises.

I am very thankful I found this thread. USA Today is now reporting that one of the Oprah cruises is an 11 day Koningsdam Caribbean cruise in November. We have just put down a deposit on the 11/29 Koningsdam sailing from Fort Lauderdale.

I'm not intending to get into an Oprah yay or nay debate - just don't want to be on a special event cruise. Plan to speak to my travel agent later today and see what this involves. Will report back.

To answer Krazy Kruisers - there was a wall-mounted soap dish and glass on each side. DH and I each stashed our toothbrush and toothpaste in our individual glass. I used the one drawer in the middle for make-up and cosmetics, and dh stored shaving stuff on the bottom, leaving plenty of room for other items.

You're welcome, OP. We did not have any noise issues. We were 3 cabins from the midship elevator - very convenient - but being that close was not a problem.

Marion

Disembarked 10 days ago - cabin 8062. Immediately noticed medicine cabinets gone, replaced by decorative tile. No cabinets behind mirror, but there is a new nice-sized drawer in the middle and you still have the shelf on the bottom for storage.

Having been in the signature suites several times before on the O, we loved the new look after refurbishment.

Hope you enjoy your time on her as much as we did. Enjoy!

Marion