wandrr

The windows are definitely one-way. No visibility inward exists during the day. At night, an observer would have to stand immediately beside the window and shield his eyes. There is so much artificial light on the promenade deck that viewing in is almost impossible, but so is sleeping with open curtains. Just draw the curtains. Your steward will anyway at the nightly turn-down.

Are you on the roll call yet? Already five pages at https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2932165-volendam-january-25-2025-133-day-pole-to-pole/page/5/ .

Expect LOTS of kids and some not-well-behaved adults. It will be somewhat atypical of a Holland-America cruise. We did a seven-day New Year's cruise as a back-to-back with a very long HAL Grand Voyage. The 50 or so passengers who also did the B2B were aghast at the behaviour. Most of us just laid low as much as possible.

Asking is certainly a good idea. Ask the bartenders, ask the beverage manager, ask the hotel director, ask the captain, ask via the Navigator app, and then after the cruise, ask AGAIN when you do your email survey. I have done all of that on every previous cruise (including some very long ones) and got a bit of sympathy, but no concrete results. The on-board beer choices remain atrocious. Keep complaining, all fellow beer aficionados! The wino's on board get all sorts of "local" or special wines from the areas cruised through. Why not beer? 🤬 On one previous long cruise, the beverage manager put on an extra-cost craft beer tasting, supposedly comparable to all the Wine Tastings on every cruise. The "craft" beers were advertised as representative of some of the various countries we had sailed past. The choice he made for a Canadian craft beer was Molson Canadian, of all things. Fellow Canucks should be aghast at the silliness of that choice. For our southern neighbours, Molson Canadian is pretty close to the Budweiser of Canada, about as far from a craft beer as you can get. I blasted the bar staff and the beverage manager for doing such a ridiculous tasting. They just shrugged. I definitely mentioned this foolish attempt in my post-cruise survey. Still, ask away! The more bitching they hear, the better. Maybe someday we will get some quality beer.

Canada uses metric, like the rest of the world other than U.S.A., Liberia and Myanmar.

Has anyone tried insisting on an actual true 16 oz of beer, even when you order a beer in the smaller containers? Ask for one and one third 12 oz beers to make up the advertised 16 oz. Truth in advertising! By the way, much of the world has transitioned to larger size cans, sometimes even 500 mL (almost 17 oz). Here in Ottawa, it is difficult to get a quality beer in the old style small cans.

There might also be a plug or even a power bar behind the TV. You will have to climb up on something to find it. May be European style. We had that in an oceanview.

By the way, a Roll Call already exists for the P2P. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2932165-volendam-january-25-2025-133-day-pole-to-pole/ Three pages already. Come on over.

https://hollandamericaprivileges.com/ . Sure does not seem to be a HAL program.

The official way to request diminished service is to make a formal contact with the Housekeeping Manager (the room steward's supervisor's boss). Send a written and signed request via the Guest Services desk addressed to the Housekeeping Manager. Detail exactly what you want, and the official request will roll downhill to the stewards. The supervisors will be well aware of what you want. Some things you can't opt out of, like vacuuming and a few other sanitation details, but the stewards and the supervisor and the manager know all about that.

While on board during a recent cruise, the Cruise and Travel Director had a chat time with one of the ship doctors. That exact question was asked. The answer was that they are not dentists but would do what they can. They apparently have some sort of dental repair kit (basic tools and materials) that might help with emergencies. The doc said they would definitely seek assistance from the Holland America medical centre back at "Head Office". According to him, if the injury was severe enough, the patient would in all likelihood be transferred shoreside with the repair possibly being completed during a port call. In short, they will certainly help, but major stuff would require assistance. Of course, none of this is free! 🤣

As a somewhat related war story, we were on a very long cruise some time ago. The ship had to resupply several times. One one resupply, they brought on new oranges. The oranges were totally green coloured. Really deep emerald green, perfect for St Patrick's Day. Needless to say, that brought outrage and major complaints from the orange eaters. They pretty much mutinied until the Executive Chef sent around a letter about orange ripening. Apparently, the "green oranges" were tropical (or some such thing) and would never become orange. He certified that they were ripe. He even set up an orange demo station in the Lido where he personally cut up green oranges and gave a quarter to anyone who wanted to try it. Even though I am not an orange fanatic, I did. The oranges tasted wonderful, and the doubters completely shut up. In fact, there was a significant run on the green oranges to the point that the ship ran out again! Sometimes an orange is not orange!

Only on Grand Voyages. Hold your laundry for the second cruise! LOL.

Sometimes it is WAY more than just convenience or personal preference. Consider a person with diabetes suffering from an unexpected low blood sugar situation. Grabbing a bite is life-essential in that case. As a diabetic, I ALWAYS carry a chewy bar. The wrapping is pretty solid, and it fits in my pocket at all times. I have never found a chewy bar on board, though it bothers me as a cheapskate to bring my own food to a place brimming over with great food. Still, my pocket chewy bar has sometimes saved my life. Snacks can be essential. Please, fellow diabetics, no lectures about carrying glucose tablets...

We just applied for permission to leave the ship in Punta del Este, Uruguay and then rejoin the next day in Montevideo, Uruguay. Permission was denied because (in their words) "... Punta del Este is not an approvable disembark port and the request has been denied." Not all requests to spend overnights ashore are approved. Apply well in advance to HAL.

On a world cruise a few years ago, after a few months on board, many passengers more-or-less mutinied for simple food. The galley staff responded by serving mac and cheese. Really good mac and cheese! 😋

If this is aimed at me, then let me tell you my parenting days were way back in the days of sailing ships. My ten-year-old kids definitely did not get off by themselves! 👴

How about a ten-year-old unaccompanied on a tender? I am too lazy to look this up, and I bet not many people have experienced it. I would expect the tender staff to send the kid back to mommy or daddy, but does anyone really know? Similarly, an unaccompanied ten-year-old going ashore at a normal port...

Oh yeah, on the ORIGINAL Budweiser. Once again for the doubters, I suggest a blind taste test between ORIGINAL Budweiser and American Budweiser. The only similarity is the name. I am Canadian, but I have certainly enjoyed ORIGINAL Budweiser in Europe. You are fortunate to have been legally introduced to beer at an early age. We had to do it illegally! 😈

Maybe. Play with https://www.amtrak.com/plan-your-trip.html . Besides finding a specific trip, it is fun to play a bit and dream about a cross-continent journey or something.

Weight. Fragility. Longevity of the beer. Pour it into a glass.

I would suggest that the original Pilsner, called Pilsner Urquell (see https://www.pilsnerurquell.com/ ) is a much better reference than Bud! For one thing, it is still brewed in Plzeň. For another thing, it tastes about 100,000 times better. Try a blind taste test with both beers. Looking forward to HAL Pils or should I say Pike Post Alley Pils with a different label.

In our experience, that is about right, though not on Volendam specifically.

Yes. The Lanai chairs have a tag that says something like "Reserved for Lanai Cabin passengers" or something to that effect.

To be completely honest, we actually had very few people using our chairs without permission. Those we asked to move certainly moved immediately. I suggest that you will get to know some other passengers fairly quickly. (Try your roll calls. I know you are on two with us for a sailing Dec-27 as well as the Grand South Am.) If you feel comradeship with someone, ask them to use your chairs if you are not there. A chair with a person in it is pretty much never used by someone else! I happen to be cursed with insatiable curiosity, so I often stood inside our closed door and watched the deck crew launch the tenders. They had closed the promenade outside, but I had a superb view of the work.