luvn2cruzzz

Sorry, I'll be back at sea around that time. If I hear something before I ship out, I'll let you know

Thanks and safe sailing!

Capt. Robert Jan; for sure a very conscientuous and experienced captain. Takes care of business and liked by his crew

Have never sailed with Captain Robert Jan before so looking forward to it. IF you hear that Mark Pell is definitely on this sailing, would you mind posting that, please? Thanks!

Keep checking frequently, like at least twice a day, to see if a time opens up. I went from not being able to book an appointment closer than 90 days to catching an open slot a week or so out by checking a couple of times a day every day for two or three days. Some have had success dropping by an interview office and doing a "walk-in" but others have reported their local office will not accept or do "walk-ins" so hard to say if that would work or not. Other that catching a slot or doing a "walk-in" there's no way to expedite getting an interview time.

Thanks for the advice. I will keep checking. We have to travel quite a distance s dropping in is not an option for us.

We just received approval to schedule an interview but even travelling a distance, we cannot find an enrollment center that has an appointment open prior to our departure. Is there any way to expedite this or are we just out of luck?

OSDM

 

Capt Robert Jan Kan

HD Mark Pells (unconfirmed)

CD unk at this time

DRM Pulung Baskoro

Thanks so much! We have sailed a few times before wtih Mark. Hope it is confirmed that he will be on board.

What a disappointment that HAL promotes this scam on their ships. We had to sit through a Marriott time share 'presentation' (not our choice for sure), and I use that term loosely, and this has the same tone. Makes me wonder if I want to sail HAL in the future. Anyone aware of other non-Carnival lines offering the same 'incentive' program? Are all Carnival brands touting the same scheme?

Thanks, everyone, for your very knowledgable replies! We will be in no rush to get to the ship which is what I anticipated. We will be sailing out of Tampa on the Oosterdam for a 7-day Thanksgiving cruise--just a nice relaxing week with our son. Have never sailed out of Tampa before. It was easier for us to get than FLL because we have a direct flight so thought, why not? We were on the Oosterdam in her maiden year for our first Med. We hear there have been some recent improvements.

We have never boarded a ship the same day it returned from Europe and I am wondering if there will be a delay in boarding due to elevated inspections. Anyone have this experience? We did once getting off a very 'sick' TA and heard that the CDC was coming on board and boarding passengers were taken to an auditorium to wait out the ship's cleaning and inspections. We will hope this ship will be healthy!

Would you have the staff for Oosterdam November 18, please? Thanks so much!

Not Ceetee, but my itinerary says that the Cesky Krumlov excursion is from Linz on the 15th, and the Salzburg excursion is on the 16th from Passau. We are already booked on the CK trip, and want to explore Passau on our own. Please tell me I don't have things mixed up! 5 weeks to go!

Marie

Thanks! I see where my confusion came from. The original itinerary I received when we booked was just the opposite but the most recent one clearly says what you stated. So I am now up to speed!

Ceetee, may I ask another question, please? Which port were you in when you went to Cesky Krumlov? We want to go but we would also like to see Passau but our itinerary calls for that day to go to CK. I hope it is wrong!

In Cesky, the bus parks at the top and the walking is all downhill, through the castle and into town. Great photo ops along the way. My husband has been having some leg and knee issues and didn't have a problem here. Some up and down in town but not long or severe. Try the local fried dough pastry for 2-3 euros. Lunch is provided in a medieval cave like restaurant that was very good. Choice of trout or pork. Had one of each. Whole trout was the best.

 

Durnstein, we tried to walk up to the castle ruins but only made it half way. Steep and uneven staired path. Folks who made it raved about the view. Make sure to go in the cemetery in town. A good 15-20 minute walk back to ship.

 

Passau, the castle across the river is walkable or a shuttle is available for 6 euro. We didn't go since it wasn't open and just for the view but after lunch we did a nice leisurely walk to the point which is a confluence of two different color rivers.

 

Melk Abbey, bussed up and down. One set of stairs up & down from the parking lot and one set inside with the rest level. Fascinating library. Gorgeous church.

 

Bratislava, another castle on a hill we didn't go to. The town had slight grades.

Pretty lit up at night as we sailed out.

 

Regensburg, the ship parked the furthest from town, maybe because it stayed overnight. It was a good hoof back and forth twice, once for the walking tour and then after lunch to see the cathedral (it was closed?) and to get a big pretzel we passed on the tour (gone) and an ATM ( good one inside bank with 6 machines).

Thank you so much for the invaluable information. That will help us make some decisions. In Regensburg, was there any transportation available to get you into town, cab, etc.? Hope you don't mind all the questions!

Thanks, CeeTee. Appreciate the information. We will have adapters and won't need converters with what we are bringing so we should be good to go.

We are thinking about going to Cesky Krumlov. It is my understanding that there is a lot of uphill and hence downhill walking. Wondering if my DH can manage. What do you think?

We just returned from a Budapest to Regensburg sailing on the beautiful Monarch Empress. This was our first river cruise. We could not have asked for anything more. We had a deck 3 cat A cabin. The crew was exceptional. We had 3 cruise directors which each took care of about 40 people for tours. The food was very good and soups exceptional. Local guides were very accommodating to pace and temperature. Lots and lots of walking, not much down time.

One tip if you are not on a prior land tour, your documents say not to check in before 3 p.m. but when we arrived at 2:45 there was sandwiches and soup available from noon to 3. Promptly removed at 3.

We are sailing on her in September so wonderful to hear your review. Thanks so much for posting! Wondering if you can tell us your experience on outlets in your cabin. Was there a 110v outlet or just 220v? There seems to be a contradiction in what Gate 1 says and what we have heard from a passenger. Did you do any of the optional tours?

So far so good! Safe journey.

We were booked on the NA in the fall and found out on the Roll Call that a conservative political group was on the cruise and would be discussing what else? politics. After more than a year of contentious political campaigns and the election well over, that is the last thing we want to hear discussed regardless of who wins the election. So we cancelled. The following two cruises also had similar groups so we ended up changing ships which was too bad as the NA is our favorite. So far no group (that we know of) on the booked ship. Will keep our fingers crossed!

Oosterdam has the pizza by the slice in the Lido Market.

That is disappointing. Does anyoe know if this will eventually be fleet-wide?

Thanks. Such helpful information.

Captain Michel Willems

Thanks! Kudo to the Captain!

I think I have watched the video five times!

That was fabulous! Would be interested in knowing who produced this video and how HAL plans to use it. What a good promo for the line. Happy we are sailing on the Oosterdam over Thanksgiving. Hope some of those who were in it will still be on the ship. Anyone know who the captain was in the video?

Thank you! That is good news. Last time we were in St. Thomas we were at Crown Bay with Holland America and not happy about that.

Could someone please tell me where the Fantasy docks in St. Thomas? Thanks!

Thank you so much for making your pictures available to us! We first were on the Oosterdam in its inaugural year and the changes have definitely updated the ship. I believe the suites received a full make over unlike the other cabins so it was good to hear there have been some upgrades to them. We sail on her over Thanksgiving so will have to be patient until then!

Some nights we stayed put and did not sail at all, other nights we sailed all night, we had opportunity to see all towns tho. Cabin was fine, no balcony, just French doors to lean out to banister of steel, all transfers were fine. Ship is new so it was clean and crew were excellent.

Thanks! Do you remember when you sailed from Linz or Passau?

Hope you don't mind if I ask a few more questions. Were there any towns you didn't sail until later in the evening? How was your cabin? How were the transfers if you used them?

Thanks!