cruisinsusin

4 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

@Jim_Iain I was surprised to see the old Daniel Boulud Signatures menu on the Luminae menu still.  Apparently Luminae on Millennium has not transitioned to the new menu and the Daniel Boulud menu with the Raspberry pistachio vecherin is still available.  I asked our waiter and it said it is available every night.  I know what’s for dessert tomorrow. 

 

I was disaapointed that we couldnt get the raspberry pistachio vacherin on recent Ascent cruise- the waiter brought us pistachio gelato upon request each night to try to make up for it!

26 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

I hesitate to agree with the whole be honest philosophy.  Why? On more than one occasion I've had wait staff tell me that they get dinged if you say anything bad about the food as it is their responsibility to ensure you are happy with the food.  Doesn't seem fair or even logical for that matter but more than one person has said that to me.  Personally I would express any concerns of that type by an email to corporate.  If you give a lower grade but put notes in a comments area is that enough to mitigate the damage of a bad rating? Honestly I don't know. 

I have been told the same thing by multiple waitstaff in both main dining and Luminae.

20 minutes ago, cruisinsusin said:

The way I read the Amex travel insurance specs is that the entire trip must be paid with the Amex card so gift cards would make me uneasy, whereas the Chase Sapphire reserve travel insurance  specs say "all or part" must be paid with the Chase card. Might be a good question for Steve in the TripInsurance store

too late to edit the above but adding that there seem to be 2 issues:

1st: is the gift card paid portion of the cruise fare insured using Chase since the specs say "all or part" paid with the Reserve card.  2nd: Are the gift cards refunded byHAL if cruise is canceled before final payment  

On 4/19/2024 at 10:13 PM, YourWorldWithBill said:

I've been hesitant to do that, as I use my AmEx card to cover insurance for the cruise, and although I asked whether they would cover if I paid for gift cards, I didn't get a clear answer. So, I'm just paying with the card.

 

Thanks for that reminder.

The way I read the Amex travel insurance specs is that the entire trip must be paid with the Amex card so gift cards would make me uneasy, whereas the Chase Sapphire reserve travel insurance  specs say "all or part" must be paid with the Chase card. Might be a good question for Steve in the TripInsurance store

1 minute ago, mahdnc said:

We have arrived at Cartagena, Columbia. 
 

We were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed our Cartagena visit last year.

1 hour ago, hcat said:

how was the problem fixed?

was it a quick adjustment  or more of a " project"?

We were on our veranda when maintenance came- it probably took 10-15 min with 3 staff placing shims and caulking 

9 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Our sky suite was cabin number was 10120.  We had no noise at all.  There must be a way to map the noise for future travelers.  I'm glad they were able to resolve your noise issues.  I wonder why caulk and shims works for some and not others...

we were in 11209- we were very glad it was resolved with that repair and only had one sleep deprived night.

54 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

I havnt read reports of banging on Ascent. We stayed in 2 different cabin categories on different decks… one forward and the other mid ship. The only noise I heard at night was made by the freight train sleeping next to me. 

We had banging and popping in a mid ship sky suite on Ascent last week but maintenance was able to place multiple shims around the veranda door frame and then recaulk the seams and it was totally gone.

11 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

Yes, we’ve visited this remote national park that can only be visited by boat or seaplane. We took the ferry option. 
 

We did snorkeling, not diving. 

We snorkeled there as well- pretty good snorkeling- but took the seaplane. It was a cool experience and no motion sickness!

11 minutes ago, Salt Lifer said:

One thing to note, the seas were a little rough on this sailing.  Several days we had 10 foot waves and one night swells got up to 26 feet! Personally, I loved it and felt the stabilizers did a great job of keeping the boat stable. 

 

But a lot of people in our Facebook sailing page complained that their rooms made the "loud creaking" noises that E-Class is becoming famous for.  I suspect the bigger waves were to blame.  Our cabin (11286) was very quiet, but I did notice a lot of vibration which was worse the faster the ship went.  We were very far aft, which might have contributed.  

 

I will be curious what the Transatlantic cruisers experience in this regard. 

We were in 11209 and did have a lot of cracking and popping the first night but, after reporting it, maintenance came and placed a number of shims in the veranda door frame area and it completely resolved( even in the higher seas).

Enjoy David and Marcia! Transiting the canal is an amazing experience 

We were on the Ascent in the retreat and disembarked this past Sunday. We each had premium internet access on one device. Easy to log off and then log onto a different device if desired.

1 hour ago, cruisingxpert said:

I am thrilled to hear the Pistachio Vacheron is back

My favorite too but not available on Ascent this cruise- we asked!

22 hours ago, cruisetonowhere10 said:

Where are you staying?  Cruising out of Fort Lauderdale next year and will likely use Hyatt Points…one option is in Las Olas…

Hope @Salt Lifer doesn’t mind if I jump in - we have stayed at the Hyatt Centric before several cruises out of Ft Lauderdale and have really

liked it. Not very far from the port or airport

The US State dept has great resources for the US traveler

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html.html?_gl=1*1ha5nld*_gcl_au*NTY4MTkxODM3LjE3MTE3NDc3NTc.

drop down to the "learn about your destination " box and enter the countries to be visited. It will let you know about required visas, embassies, health issues and much more.

1 minute ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

We’re currently on the Rotterdam and we have move kids than normal but certainly not 300.  We had a curious discussion with the Hotel Manager.  My DW was expressing her frustration with a group of kids that were running around in the library without any adult supervision turning the library into a playroom.  The Hotel Manager just sort of shrugged his shoulders and said there was nothing they could do to control the kids. It was a too bad, so sad response.

It had been years since we cruised with Holland. We did a 7 day cruise on the  N.A. in January and saw very few children. We actually liked it so much we have several other HAL cruises booked. We will definitely avoid booking the 7 days itineraries during March/April.

HI @saltymac

We used Grayson from Toursby locals

https://www.toursbylocals.com/singapore-walking-tour-local-tasting-food-kampong-glam-little-india-tour-with-locals-grayson

for a food tour that took us to 3 of the ethnic quarters of the city with lots of info re: the city and life( in addition to food!) We really enjoyed our time with him and he was very helpful in the pre-planning as we had someone with dietary restrictions. It is very easy and inexpensive to go to the Botanical gardens and the Gardens by the Bay using Grab ( the Singapore Uber equivalent).

We really enjoyed SIngapore!

Yes we noticed that- we are booked on the British Isles cruise and , at least when we booked, Do we cabins were

all guarantees and the only

way to choose was to start in Rotterdam 

13 hours ago, POA1 said:

 

There are some weird exceptions though. There's a 14 day circle Great Britain that can start in either the Netherlands or England. It's the same cruise, but the turnaround port is different by a day. None of the inventory is in Dover. It's all in Rotterdam (or Amsterdam, I forget.)

 

 

 

@Georgia_PeachesWe have historically preferentially done Celebrity cruises ( veranda, aqua, some sky suites) but have been looking at other options recently. We did a Nieuw Amsterdam 7 day Caribbean cruise in Jan of this year in a Neptune suite and were pleasantly surprised and very impressed. The lounge was just up the hall and we found the concierge to be very helpful with a few issues. It was not as large as the Michael’s club or retreat but had nice snacks and continental breakfast items. There is an honor bar ( if you have a beverage package, these drinks are subtracted from your daily total). The cabin itself was much larger than any sky suite we have had on Celebrity as was the balcony ( other than maybe a corner sky suite). The laundry and dry cleaning were amazing- items come back on hangars and with thank you notes from the laundry staff and typically in 24- less than 48 hours. 
there is not a separate dining room but the Neptune suites can use the same line as the club orange so we didn’t experience any wait for anytime dining. We were so pleased that we have several other much longer HAL cruises booked.

I would second the recommendation to go later or spend a night in Singapore. Disembarkation took almost an hour going thru immigration at the cruise terminal in November and Changi airport, which is beautiful, is also huge so transit through the airport can take time as well. Singapore is a lovely place

and we enjoyed taking a few days there.

We did Rome to Ravenna on Constellation last summer. If you are from the US, there a typically direct flights from the east coast to Rome. Spending a few days at least in Rome is a must. The cruise port is about 90 min from Rome so need to factor that into your travel plan. The mosaics in Ravenna are absolutely stunning ( we spent a whole day touring there, having been to Venice previously), but if you have never been to Venice, it would be my recommendation to head there after disembarking in Ravenna- will need arrange some kind of  transport from port to Venice ( celebrity, private or train) as it is a distance. Many hotels available in Venice and then would

fly back from Venice.

Currently in Aqua on Solstice and footstools are present 

We visited on a Celebrity ship in October 2023 and definitely needed the e-visa ( US passport)

We have stayed at the Riverside and most recently the Hyatt Centric- really enjoyed the Hyatt