trk_koa

In Montreal two days ago, we did not have to exit the ship at all on the turn around day. This is on Zaandam. We booked as two booking numbers but our key cards showed the dates for both cruises. We were told to combine the number of days for the two cruises (10) on our Canadian customs forms on day one. We were given in-transit cards for by-passing the lines to get back in the ship if we went off. My DH and I stayed on and enjoyed the quiet time.

Our onboard statements rolled over and show everything. On day one of the second cruise, our OBC for that cruise showed up on our statement. We had a balance due at the end of the first cruise, but it rolled over.  

Sister ship, Zaandam, has one of each, total, and both are located at the desk (in an ocean view). Nothing at all near the bed.
 

No USB either. We just asked and we’re given a power strip by our room steward.  

Deleted. Decided better not to whine. 

My sister had a chosen H on deck 3 forward and also had hers moved to a different H toward the aft. Not an upgrade and no reason was given.

Saw this article this morning….

”Three large cruise ships have already been commissioned…”

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2022/07/cabinet-is-looking-into-placing-refugees-on-cruise-ships-at-sea/
 

Not sure if any HAL ships would be involved but it seems like the government of the Netherlands thinks housing refugees on cruise ships is working out for them. 

We did that excursion and I remember the tour host telling us what the limit is. I believe it’s 1 liter per person duty free. Reality was no one asked. 
 

You will need to surrender it when your reboard the ship and it will be delivered to your cabin the night before disembarkation.
 

There were two excursions for tequila tasting. We did one that was put on by a coop the first time in November 2021. That one didn’t include any food and so after tasting we were a little tipsy. There was a restaurant on the premises and so we bought lunch. There was plenty of time allowed to do that and the food was very good and reasonably priced. We did the one that goes to the “factory” in March 2022. The factory one was more educational and entertaining. It included a nice buffet lunch and entertainment of dancers, tortilla making and a dancing horse. 
 

Both excursions were well done and the tequila was good. We bought one liter of tequila plus a sampler pack of the flavored tequilas each time.

We are sailing round trip Seattle with a brief stop at Victoria as the only Canada port. Victoria is at the tail end of a seven day cruise.
 

I have installed the app. Is there anything more I need to do before boarding the ship?

I asked for and received a larger portion of the tempura shrimp as my main. I think they gave me 5. It was wonderful. 

We had 7147 on Zuiderdam for the  Mexico Sea of Cortez in April and it was very nIce. The cabin seemed to be the same size as any other verandah cabin, but the balcony is nice and deep. I’d estimate the balcony was about half covered. We did have a few days where it was too sunny for me. Sorry, we didn’t take any photos of the cabin. 
 

We’ve done aft-facing balconies several times on Celebrity for Alaska and loved them. 

Just tried a google search and it is easy to find out if you know the hotel or lodge names. Just look for the amenities. 
 

Years ago, we did a Princess land and sea tour, the lodge we stayed at a had an RV park associated with it. It had coin-op laundry in a separate building adjacent to the RV area. 

Ours on Zuiderdam a couple weeks ago was undercooked, fatty and dripping. I didn’t touch it and I’m a bacon fan. My table mates ate it anyway. 

We were aft-facing on deck 7 for April 3-13 and our AC was “adequate” for the warmth in Mexico. We kept it set at full cold the whole time. We also kept the drapes closed during the day when we were not in the cabin to protect from the sun. I’d have liked it a bit cooler, but it was fine. 

Compared to Koningsdam the week before, it wasn’t as powerful. On K, you could make it meat-locker cold if you wanted it that way. 

Thank you, David. Your insights at San Diego are so helpful. 
 

I just did my HAL survey and hopefully our comments will help prevent all the confusion and consternation in the future. Communication is key. 

My recommendation for others doing trans-ship is to let the cruise line transfer your luggage and go somewhere in San Diego for a nice brunch. Board your second ship in a more leisurely fashion at your assigned boarding time. 

deleted 

I uploaded my pics of 11001 on Koningsdam to halfacts. The cabin is OV facing forward. Should be similar on NS. There is a small deck in front of the window but is not accessible so no one walks in front of your window. The cabin is wider and deeper than our verandas have been. Bathroom is identical. We liked the space and would book again. 
 

Over the last five months, we’ve been in an aft facing veranda on deck 6 (6214), starboard veranda (6195 and 6199), 11001, and currently in 11009 starboard veranda. 
 

6214 is smallest. It is about a foot shorter than the starboard verandas. 6199 and 11009 have issues with storage, if that matters to you. There is a support post within the closet and behind the cabinet that results in all three drawers getting cut in half in depth. Part of that closet also can’t hang anything because the post is in the way.

Sorry for the lengthy post. 
 

Do you have any specific questions?

7 hours ago, zgscl said:

The little chef hats are just chocolate. The others are sort of candies but I didn’t end up eating them this time around. Way too much food! 

The round ones are truffles. Yummy

We were on Koningsdam last week in 11001 and loved it. Very quiet. 

We were in an ocean view deck 11 forward last week and had them every night. I think I does depend on how busy the steward is. Our steward told us he had just 15 cabins occupied. Only got chocolates once, however, on the first gala night. DH doesn’t like dark chocolate anyway so I got both😉

Good news. Guest Services here onboard had me use the ship phone for a free call to the World Cruise reservation desk. I got through in just a few minutes and the rep was able to find my email request. He told me they are still processing requests from February 12. He put me on hold and came back to tell me the OBC was now credited to my reservation but might take a few days to show up on my ship board account. A few minutes later I received the confirmation email. So 10 minutes well spent. 

I got the auto generated email that they received the request. Just not the confirmation that it had been processed and credited to our booking. 

I sent ours a week ago when we booked our last minute cruise. Sent again on Wednesday. No response at all. Our cruise is tomorrow. I guess we will check at guest relations. We did bring along a printed copy of our (redacted) brokerage statement. 
 

9 hours ago, Blazza said:

I had the same functionality issues using an iPad (with any browser) until I started accessing each reservation individually through the ‘Already Booked’ tab and then entering the reservation number under either ‘Manage My Booking’ or ‘Book Shore Excursions’. If I access my bookings using my account number it just won’t work.

 

Unfortunately at the moment, whilst I can access excursions and select them for purchase, I cannot pay for them as the credit card entry box is greyed out when I get to the checkout page. It just won’t let me enter a credit card number. This is not exclusive to my iPad and has been happening for over a week on both iPad and desktop, across several browsers, and after clearing caches etc. The weird thing is I was able to successful make a credit card payment towards a final balance for one cruise whilst still not able to pay for an excursion on that cruise.  

 

As a shareholder it really concerns me that HAL makes it so hard for a willing customer to give them money.

Check that you are allowing pop ups on the payment page. I’m not sure why they decided it was a good idea, but before you can enter your credit card number, it pops up a message to inform you that you only have 15 minutes to enter the information and complete your purchase. It won’t let you enter a credit card until after you click ok on that pop up message. 

Email confirmation just arrived. Voyage number is V410

5 hours ago, HAL4NOW said:

Did you get a confirmation email? The voyage number would be listed in that document in the cruise details.

No email. It just showed up in my account replacing the future dam. 

I don’t have any paperwork. It’s just showing up as a booking under my account on the website. I found the cost by choosing “Make a payment”. I don’t see a voyage number there. 

Where on the website would the voyage number be?