Mary Ellen

I believe I’ve heard of obtaining visas for Vietnam onboard. I know we had HAL do our Indonesia visas while onboard, so it definitely can be done - if the country permits. I’d be contacting HAL if I were you. 

21 hours ago, kazu said:

I only sailed her once.  Considering the reply I got from their Head Office (and I’m not a complainer) once was enough. I’m not risking my hard earned money on this line again.

 

I’ll sail on HAL or  another line - but I couldn’t drag DH back on O for love or money.

 

O’s rooms were lovely and I enjoyed it - had the cruise experience been as good as the room, we would have been happy campers 😉 

 

 

Like you we’ve only done one Oceania cruise (Riviera) and had the same reactions. The cabin and our steward were wonderful. The food and service elsewhere.... 🤬 One more than one occasion the menu description did NOT match what was served (example tarter sauce and ranch dressing aren’t interchangeable 🤔).

I didn’t bother contacting the head office after our cruise. When we realized nothing, absolutely nothing (not even a free cruise) would get us back on one of their ships - I wasn’t going to waste my time.

On 11/14/2018 at 2:00 PM, frankandanne said:

Like many, I brought a bottle of booze onboard the Noordam for consumption in our cabin. Found out they go so far as xraying baggage to find it. Never dreamed they’d be so petty. Wrote a letter to them about it, bet never got the courtesy of a reply. No longer keen on Holland America.

Did you not print out your luggage tags? HAL clearly states their alcohol on the luggage tags. Never dreamed someone would be so petty.....

Loving your ‘Live from...’ it is SO you.  I can just hear you.  Please say hi to Mrs. Whogo for us. 

The Princess site lets one check out air fares and routes without being booked. This allows me to do what you did, check for a better price/route, without getting into my actual booked flight. The HAL site (once again) falls short in this aspect. Even when looking at a HAL cruise I use the Princess Flight Ease to get an idea of flight options.

Last summer we saved about $5,000/pp using HAL air for business class r/t Amsterdam. I’ll use cruise air to save that kind of money.

Thanks for the heads up.

I’m guessing the doors to the gym won’t be locked, so go, sweat, enjoy.

Unless HAL is changing that too, your guess is wrong. DH is usually at the HAL gym before 6 a.m. and has to wait for the doors to be unlocked.

My husband is going to be very unhappy to learn about this. The 6 a.m. opening time was already later than he normally goes to the gym at home. He always said it was pretty well used while he was there, so he’s not the only early morning exerciser.

Welcome back Reverand Neal.

Your Witt has been missed

Oops.

I think I have really noticed what 2 fellow cruise passengers were wearing. One was a man who wore plastic tarps tied around his waist with rope and the other was a woman who wore her life jackets 24/7 for the entire cruise. Other than that, I may take notice of an outfit when I see it, but it is quickly forgotten.

So, you've also sailed with 'Tarp Man'. He is a Dutch school teacher who is known for his tarps. He told one of shipmates that he has 5(?) different colored tarps from which he chooses which one to bring. On our cruise it was his blue tarp. He didn't have it tied around his waist, but rather chained. It was a fairly heavy chain, fastened together by a large padlock. We sailed with him in Northern Europe. Our recent table mates noticed him on a Panama Canal cruise. Like you said, one does notice him.

It entirely depends upon the laws of of the country/countries involved. China and Brazil are two that come to mind that do not allow any passengers without visas, if required for their country of citizenship, to just stay on the ship. Neither country permits visas to be issued on board or at arrival. As you experienced, Russia is one where passengers may just stay on the ship if they don't have the necessary visa or approved tour arrangements.

Setting aside the logistics of going to Orlando during a port stop, are you aware that Disney Springs is essentially a shopping/dining area? Does your grandson particularly like shopping?

We've done over a dozen Alaska cruises in the the past 30-some years. I pretty much agree with Sequim. We've never gone 'outside' Vancouver Island on our return, but given the limited number of 'slots' available for the passage through the Seymour Narrows (cruise ships can only transit during a very short time in the slack tide that occurs 4 times times a day), I suppose that could be possible. We've done that portion a few times during daylight, it is far better than being out in the open ocean.

The only reason we would take an Alaska cruise from Seattle would be for a 14-day r/t that includes Anchorage and Kodiak. It used to be much more expensive to fly to YVR than to SEA, but that is no longer the case. I just did a check on airfares for the next month between DFW and YVR/SEA. It is actually less expensive to fly to YVR than SEA.

We've had cabins ranging from insides to suites on our Alaska cruises. Frankly, we really don't find balconies worthwhile on them. The scenery is all around the ship and being on a balcony limited us to what happened to be on 'our side' of the ship. There will be announcements when whales/wildlife are spotted. We didn't want to be in our cabin and hope that they were on our side of the ship. One cruise we probably spent less than 15 minutes the entire cruise on our balcony. Another, I'm sure it was still less than 30 minutes total.

We like the HAL ships for Alaska because there is plenty of open deck space, in addition to the previously mentioned Glacier Bay access. It's very easy to move around as the scenery, weather, and our mood dictates. I would avoid any HAL ship with Lanai cabins though. They have deck chairs reserved for those cabins and that severely limits the number available for other passengers.

Makes sense to me:

 

Many Asian countries require the cruise lines to send a percentage of the tipped crew's salary (not their tips) back to their home country - through the manning agent - for tax purposes.

If the gratuities become part of the fare' date=' they also become part of the crew salary. That forces the cruise lines to send a much higher percentage of the crew earnings back to their government, who then takes a much deeper cut of those earnings.[/font']

In the process, the manning agent who is handling those funds, fiddles with the exchange rates and skims a nice percentage off for himself.

 

Depending on many factors, adding the gratuities to the fare can result in a net loss for the service staff.

It depends how attached you are to that suit. One long cruise we sent DH's favorite silk sport coat out to be dry cleaned. Not only did did they shrink it, but the lapels were pressed at very different angles. We've never had any dry cleaner do such a poor job of pressing. HAL did try to make it right by paying a reasonable price for the sport coat, but still we'll never send anything to to be dry cleaned on HAL again. We'd much rather still have that coat.

We used the China Visa Service Center both times we did cruises involving China. While we used their Chicago office, you'd have to use the LA office (http://www.mychinavisa.com/la). We were very happy with their service both times. The visa availability had changed between the two visas and we were able to get a 10-yr, multi-entry visa for the same price as the single entry. I don't know what is currently being offered, as we still have a number of years remaining on that second visa.

Could you please share with me the website path on HAL's booking site that is 'identical to Princess' for booking flights. It certainly is not intuitive to me.

 

Dennis

First, I never said the website path was 'identical to Princess'. It is much clearer on the Princess site and anyone, booked or not, can check airfares. Once you get to where you book flights the system is identical.

Second, are you booked directly thru HAL or are you using a travel agency? As I said before you must be booked directly with HAL, no agency involved.

When logged in to your booked cruise you can either click on "Book Flights & Travel" (on the left side menu) or "Travel Planning" (on the top menu). Either will take you to "Pre & Post Cruise Travel" where you can choose "Flights". From there it you shouldn't have any problems as it is identical to Princess.

We had an in-depth private tour of the Hermitage with Elena from Best Guides. It was excellent. We were more interested in the Winter palace where the Romanov tzars lived. Elena’s knowledge of the Tzarist history was beyond compare. We particularly enjoyed the Nicholas and Alexandra part of the tour. Elena showed us their dining rooms and offices, beautiful library and lounge rooms, and told a lot about what their everyday life in the Winter palace was like. It was a superb experience.

Thank you for sharing this. We've booked a private tour with Best Guides. Since we, and our friend, have all been to St. Petersburg before, we asked that our time at the Hermitage/Winter Palace focus on the architecture and history of the building. Very glad to see that they took care of your interests.

The HAL system is identical to Princess -- IF booked directly with HAL. With Princess it doesn't matter where you booked. Kudos to Princess.

If you've booked HAL through an Agency you are out of luck trying to book HAL air online yourself. This is the reason I'm now booking directly with HAL and transferring my reservation to the agency of my choice once I've done my air. In fact I booked a HAL cruise today and did our air online (with "meaningful" prices ;) ).

Absolutely no problem booking seats with extra legroom. You just change the default 'economy' setting to 'premium economy'.

I wonder how the price of Oprah tai-chi and Oprah book clubs will compare to the price of the old Holland America tai-chi and book clubs.

You may have hit the nail on the head. The previous book club and Tai Chi classes didn't have fees associated with the. Maybe HAL feels that some will be willing to pay extra to participate now that the Oprah name will be attached. :rolleyes:

I attend meditation classes most Saturdays when I am at home. It helps me destress from my week and unclutter my mind. People with chronic illnesses, facing a major surgery and recovery as well as treatment (one example would be chemo) can experience benefits from meditation. It can help lower one's blood pressure. The tie in would be to other healthful offerings to choose from (i.e. exercise, healthy cooking/eating).

I'm sorry I wasn't clearer. My point wasn't that meditation wasn't worthwhile, but rather that I don't see a need to do it in a group environment. Exercise classes and healthy eating have been available on HAL prior to this tie in to O Magazine.

Everyone is different and her M.D. is the best source of what would be best for her. Many here recommended meclizine. Even though it claims to be "non drowsy", it knocks me out. I do get sea sick very easily. Based on my Dr.s recommendation I use a combination, I wear the transderm patch and take ginger capsules. I'm sure it would be over kill for some, but it works wonders for me.

Also be aware that HAL does not have a one-way direction policy, so walkers beware who is coming around the blind curves.

They did last time we were on the Prinsendam.

I think the 'extras' being offered sound interesting.

What am I missing? I'm not seeing anything 'extra' or new. Onboard book club isn't new. Actually what has been going on with the HAL libraries makes it laughable. Oprah's taste in books for her own book club didn't appeal to me in the least anyway. Tai Chi isn't new on HAL. Exercise classes have been around for years. Cooking demonstrations, again nothing new. Meditation? Who needs a class in that?!?!? I'm entirely missing the point of this tie in. :confused:

Shouldn't some of the ground up food be brought ashore to feed to pigs? There are some of us who greatly prefer bacon to sea food. Why should a significant portion of what we pay (the amount which goes to leftovers) be so specifically directed?

I hope you're being facetious. Given that many countries have restrictions about food imports, your suggestion isn't at all viable.

We have sailed to Antarctica on HAL. You don't mention the specific ship, but all of HAL's ships except the Prinsendam have a mid-ship pool with a retractable cover that absolutely can be used in any temperature. It may be closed because the seas are too rough to safely swim, but outdoor temperature won't be an issue. There was also a photo op swim while in Antarctica at the aft pool. I have pictures of DH in the aft pool during this. It was snowing and there is steam coming from the pool.