taxmantoo

I don't really know why but I always seem to have 3 or 4 in my toiletries bag. Just keep throwing them in there without looking from my collection of hundreds ;)

Sailing on Westerdam on December 7 in a deluxe veranda cabin. Will we be able to get a third deck chair for the balcony?

Better to ask your room steward than to ask here! ;)

The only correct answer you will get here ranges between definitely, maybe, maybe not or absolutely not!

The Caribbean is definitely not a wine region. You will find the usual assortment of low price mediocre wines from USA, Chile, Argentina and then grossly over-priced Old World Wines (France, Italy, Spain). Even the French colony of Martinique sells French wines at 3 or 4 times the regular cost.

While HAL still allows it, you would be much better off visiting Total Wine or another Fort Lauderdale wine shop and bring our favourites onboard with you!

We normally used that day to get off the ship and take a taxi to Total Wine to replenish our supply for the second leg of the trip. Wonder what we will do now ??? :rolleyes:

Even so, carrying on bags full of or multiple cases of wine (how many bottles of wine would be in three cases anyway?!) at embarkation is simply tacky and being cheap. HAL is not an RV resort...

Some people should learn to not comment on something they obviously know nothing about :rolleyes: Bringing on cases of wine is not necessarily a cost-saving exercise! On our last 12-day Mediterranean cruise, we were booked into an SS Signature Suite and brought on one case of wine (12 bottles, btw) and supplemented a few times with bottles bought in ports. I don't think you can consider us "cheap and tacky" when the total value of the wine brought on board was higher than the cost of the Signature Suite for one person!

Wot?!? Soooo, if you walk past the smoking area where I've just had a cigarette and you can smell it then that would make me inconsiderate?

Until such time as HAL decides to totally eliminate these areas, we simply avoid them. Consider your "considerate" nature intact for now ;)

Why do I care about this? Because I am a very considerate smoker who books only Neptune or Pinnacle suites on HAL. I truly appreciate their reasonable policies. I am soon to be four star mariner and had 3 future cruises booked in either Neptune or Pinnacle Suites. I have never sailed in anything less on HAL and have never paid for or had a complimentary upgrade.

I don't think I have ever met a smoker who considers himself/herself "inconsiderate" :rolleyes: As far as I am concerned, the minute I can smell your smoke I no longer consider you very considerate!

Came in the mail today ... Bathroom reading material.

Banning casino smoking could increase the patronage of non-smokers ... or it could decrease the business from smokers. Since ships still have fewer non-smoking casino days than smoking ones, I conclude that the smoking days must be more profitable.

They are both addictions ;) Casinos in Canada (Ontario and Quebec) have long ago gone smoke-free and suffered no noticeable loss of revenues.

As smokers can go outside these casinos to indulge one of their addictions, they could also on HAL ships take a break and head for the Seaview Bar.

EDITED TO ADD: SparklingBlonde, the Julienne Balconys are only on the Eurodam. HAL SAW the "Error" of their design and changed them on the Nieuw Amsterdam, and I believe subsequent rebuilds.

 

Joanie

I think you mean "Juliette" ... as "Julienne" is usually associated with carrots ;)

We were on a 15 day cruise and it was held once. We booked prior on-line and it was around $80.00 dollars for both of us.

 

Not sure whether this will be offered on shorter 7 day cruises. On our Eurodam cruise we were told that to date it was only being offered on the Rotterdam and Eurodam.

 

Couldn't help wonder if this is a test and whether it would be a specialty restaurant on the new Pinnacle Class ship.

It must be popular. Just checked for our February Eurodam cruise and price has increased to $69 per person.

Is the De Librije dinner on the Eurodam offered every night or is it just offered once in a while? Can you sign up for it before the cruise or only once onboard? What is the cost approx.?

Thanks Lorene :)

How about if we get there at 10 or 10:30 ? Would that be also a slow time without lines ? Very little lines as the terminal only opens at 11 usually. Why stand outside in the heat for an hour when you don't have to?Only downside for waiting till 1:30 is we like to get settled before muster drill "That will happen much later in the afternoon ... around 3 pm" and maybe tour the ship as it's our first time. We also need to stop by the Hydropool and get a refund "That will take approx. 2 minutes and can be done anytime before your first visit". Also making sure we got the right retreat cabanas and also book Tamarind for lunch for sail in San Juan "Another 2 minute effort ...".[/QUOTE]

 

Relax ... you will do just fine whenever you board! ;)

The gospel musicians who will be on your cruise are some of the most talented people that you will find on a cruise ship. I have been involved with music most of my life and have come to be a big fan of a lot of the southern gospel music although I'm a West Coast Episcopalian. Your cruise will include The Booth Bros. whose harmony is just amazing. The mother of the Collingsworth Family is an amazing pianist. Give it a try. I think you'll be surprised.

That is usually not an option. If you are not part of the group, you are not invited nor can you attend their sessions. The group has already paid a supplement to the regular cruise fare added to their total fare and allowing anyone to attend would be unfair to them.

Thanks taxmantoo. That is good info. I called HAL and they were unwilling to waive any cancellation fees so I think we are going to have to go ahead with it.

 

I guess we will try to convince them when we get on the ship to let us eat at a normal time. As when you sailed, it looks like the late seating is full and there is no open seating past I think about 6:45. :(

Good luck to you. If the same as last year, you will find that a lot of the "gospel" group assigned to late seating are not really happy about that situation either as they prefer to eat earlier. Many of them decide to forego the Main Dining Room and a lot of empty seats can be seen every night. The Lower Dining Room (open seating) staff will usually start offering people a table in the Upper Dining Room 15 minutes or so after it has opened and people have not showed up. Keep bugging them! ;)

We got caught with this group onboard last year without knowing beforehand.

THE POSITIVE : They did not disrupt any of the normal activities in any way and we could not tell there even was a group onboard. The regular shows were maintained in the theater and none of the public rooms were ever off-limits because of their presence.

THE NEGATIVE : The Main Dining Room seating allocation was a total fiasco. Their entire group was assigned "fixed late dining" preventing anybody else onboard from getting a table at this time regardless of what their reservations said. We are four star Mariners, had reserved months ahead of time, were in a Neptune Suite and had our reservation confirmed for "fixed late dining". IT WAS NOT TO BE ! We saw dozens of passengers with a similar problem lined up at the maitre d's desk on embarkation. After two days of complaining to the Guest Services Manager, who kept saying it wasn't her fault and Seattle had caused this mess, she finally relented and assigned us a table for 2 for fixed late dining in the Upper Dining Room.

p.s. For the first two days, she comped us in the Pinnacle Grill for dinner, as even she could not get us a reservation at a table for 2 in open seating at a reasonable time.

VERY good point!!!! I have made that move already!

You are not the only one ...

Refer to signature below. ;)

I'm sure there will be more to follow!

You did quite well :rolleyes: The "special" Mariner fare is sometimes even higher than the regular fare !!!

Careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

 

Princess could become "identical" to HAL, while I expect you're hoping for the other way around???

SSSHHHHHHHHHHH ... :D

I remember being on Princess once and we did not get any chocolates ;)

Hopefully, HAL and Princess will implement identical wine policies and wine lists aboard their ships :D

I find it interesting now that two hotel managers were annoyed with our response at CC. I wonder if they were involved with the decision, or had some sort of input.

They do much better when you compliment them on the ship and their staff. It seems the overabundance of gushing over them has ill prepared them for the rare constructive criticism or negative comment. Reminds me a lot of myself when I was nine years old :rolleyes:

The range is definitely getting better all the time. On our last Noordam cruise in March (Caribbean) we had excellent reception. I have no idea where the transmitter was (I did not look for it) but our in-cabin reception was great. We were able to use both laptop and iPad in the room, the bathroom and even the balcony. We even used iPad FaceTime while at sea with no noticeable difference than when we use at home. We also used the iPad in many areas of the ship with the same results.

I heard on the news today that there might soon be a shortage of wine because production world wide isn't keeping up with consumption. People in France and America drink the most wine.

While this is true when you table the total number of liters of wine consumed in a country, in the case of the U.S. it is simply due to the size of the population. When you consider the amount of wine consumed per capita, the U.S. does not even rate in the top 60 countries. France, on the other hand, is in 5th position in that regard.

Vive la difference ;)

I was annoyed since HAL prices their wine too high. I have booked a cruise on Princess and found their wine prices (similar policy) much more reasonable. I hope that HAL follows the same pricing that Princess does.

Totally agree with your logic! See signature below ;)