sherryf

15 hours ago, Catlover54 said:

One of the two pools on Rotterdam is supposed to be either for adults only (so no kids), or no kids under 16 unless accompanied by adult (I saw  several interpretations when I was on a few months ago, depending on which staff were working).

Isn't one pool (usually aft) supposed to be adults only on all/most HAL ships?  That was my understanding on my first HAL cruise (Alaska, Westerdam 2016) and although it was stated in the daily schedule at least once, it was not enforced.  We had unsupervised kids in the hot tub with us, and when I commented that it was supposed to be adults only, the mother came over and berated me. 🙁

Our second HAL cruise (Nieuw Statendam Caribbean Christmas 2021) was during the pandemic, at a time when vaccinations were required but not yet available for young children.  We had a few very well behaved teens on board, but no children.  We never had issues with pools/hot tubs on that cruise! 😃

We leave Sunday for our next cruise (Nieuw Amsterdam Alaska) and wonder what the pool/hot tub situation will be like.  We are from the Seattle area, so we do like to use the pool or hot tub even at times when others are huddled on deck with blankets. 🤣

No winter coats, just layers.  Your ship does visit glaciers, and it can be cold out on deck those days, so you will want to be prepared.  Hat and gloves are a good idea.

I dislike the color orange and do not own any orange clothing, so I will just pass.  I don't remember there being an Orange Party on my last HAL cruise, but it was Christmas week, so either they didn't have it or I was just too busy to notice.

1 hour ago, Beave8920 said:

including stuff like bears and Moose walking along the road.  

Have you seen moose???  We've done that drive several times, and we've seen bears, but never moose.

You don't need anything bulky.  I have occasionally taken a lightweight, packable down jacket if the forecast is for very cool weather, but usually I just take layers.  You don't want to take anything that will take up a lot of space in your luggage.

New Statendam Eastern Caribbean Christmas 2021 with the whole family for my son's wedding.  I don't know if anything will ever beat that cruise! 😁

To be clear, this program is for "educators" so you do not necessarily need to be a teacher.  I am a paraprofessional, and I qualified for it.  I think anyone who works for a school should be able to get it, since you only need to show proof that you work there, not what position you hold.

On 7/18/2023 at 11:54 AM, RD64 said:

There is a French Eggs Benedict or perhaps it was called Parisian - but it was very good as well.

Do you remember what was on it?  I've tried some variations, like florentine (spinach) but not others like crab (not my thing.)

It really depends on your personal situation.  We live in the Seattle area.  We have mostly done round-trip Seattle cruises, but have done one each north and south bound, and are doing northbound this year.  For us, the easiest way to get to/from Vancouver is using the ship transfer from SeaTac. (I know there are nicer options, but I did say "easiest".) That bus ride is about 4 hours, including the border crossing into Canada, and then we have to deal with going through customs/immigration at the port.  The flight home from Anchorage is about 3.5 hours, but without the hassle of a border stop, no customs/immigration.  Honestly, I find the flight to be easier than the bus ride, so I'd rather do that at the end.

Of course, there are other factors, such as whether you are adding land days, etc.  Many people who do a land tour prefer to do it first and then relax on the ship.  Some people like to sail northbound so the scenery builds and glacier days are near the end.  All a matter of personal preference.

We did this tour about 10 years ago.  My husband is into history things, and he really enjoyed it.  I enjoyed it too, mostly because the guide was really good and made it interesting.

I love being able to eat eggs benedict EVERY DAY! 😁

1 hour ago, quack2 said:

Lots of people on my recent cruise would exclaim "there's an orca!  There's an orca!"  I didn't have the heart to tell them it was a Dall's porpoise.

Funny story... on my first Alaska cruise, my oldest son was 8 years old and obsessed with whales.  He had a good guidebook that he'd been studying and he knew his stuff.  One afternoon we were at the pool and there were people sitting near the windows who spotted some marine mammals.  They started yelling that there were orcas.  My son wandered over, took one look, and told them, "Those aren't orcas, they are Dall's porpoises." Then he proceeded to tell them the differences and how you could tell them apart.  These people were just standing there staring at my little boy, not sure what to think.  So I told them, "If he says they are Dall's porpoises, that's what they are. He knows what he's talking about!" 😁

I guess not everyone has the same taste.  I enjoyed the Saxman Village tour (through Princess) but have absolutely no interest in the Deadliest Catch tour, especially at the price they charge.  My favorite excursion so far in Ketchikan was flight seeing over Misty Fjords with Island Wings.

My first trip to Alaska was when my children were 2, 5, and 8 years old.  They are now all adults.  The youngest remembers *nothing* about the trip.  The middle child remembers a few things here and there, but mostly getting lost in Valdez because they got distracted by a polar bear mural on a wall and didn't cross the street with us.  (No worries, small town and lots of people from our ship who recognized the ship wrist band and kept track of our little wanderer until we realized we'd lost them and went back, only minutes later.)  The oldest has many fond memories, mostly whale watching (he was obsessed with whales at the time) and kayaking with his dad.  The littles were bored on every excursion we did.  All of the kids enjoyed the kids club and the pool when it was warm enough.

My point?  Your younger kids may be bored and not remember much of the trip later on.  The oldest will remember much more.  Gear your excursions based on what the adults and oldest child will enjoy, but won't bore the little ones completely. 

I've cruise to Alaska 12 times and have seen orcas, but definitely not on every trip, and they are often at a distance.  I've been on 3 whale watching trips from Juneau and have never seen orcas on those tours.

N Amsterdam - 13-Aug-23 - 7 day Glacier Discovery Northbound

sherryf and dh, celebrating 14th Anniversary and empty nest

I have spent many sea days on Alaskan cruises sitting by the pool, but usually in July.  May might be cooler, but from what I've read, it tends to be dryer.  It may not be your typical sunbathing kind of day, but that doesn't mean you can't be outside enjoying the fresh air and possibly sunshine.

17 hours ago, Suncoastsailors said:

Sorry, but it does apply to cruise ships as of yesterday. I read the article, but was unable to figure out how to attach it to my posting. Google search Puerto Rice cruise port under News. 

I guess we got lucky!  We were just in Puerto Rico last week on Nieuw Statendam.

15 hours ago, nocl said:

I expect that they use a method of grouping samples.  You combine a portion of each sample into a combined sample, lets say 100 people. If that comes back negative then you do not have to anything more with that hundred.  If it is positive then you make samples of 10 people each.  Eliminate any negatives, and then if one is positive then run those 10 individually.  Basically you  can test and find 1 positive out of a hundred with only have to run 21 tests.  instead of 100.  If everyone is negative you could run 1000 in 10 sample runs with that combination.  It is how the Chinese were doing so many samples early in the outbreak.  Would work very well with the way Viking is sampling.

This is the way that it's done at my daughter's college every week.  They typically have only 0-1 cases each week, so it works well.  

Thanks for all the replies!  As of today, my boarding time is still 12:20 but the youngsters are all now 12:40.  If it stays that way, we will all head over from the hotel together around noon and hopefully board together without issues. 🤞

41 minutes ago, Sea42 said:

Your boarding times very well may change before the cruise.

Check 3 days out. Our boarding times on the NA in November were changed at 7 and 3 days out. The final times were by deck, with suite and 4 &5 star passengers allowed to board at any time.

We are all on the same deck, so that might help... but I will be ticked if I miss my early boarding time because they change it to be by deck and I can't get on in time for lunch in the MDR.

We are sailing on the Nieuw Statendam one week from today with a family group for my son's wedding.  All of our bookings are linked, so I was hoping we would all get the same boarding times.  Unfortunately, they seem to be assigning boarding times based on when check-in was completed.  I did my check in as soon as I could, and I'm in group B at 12:20, but others are just finishing their check in now (I told them to do it sooner!) and are getting much later groups, like H at 2:20.  Since we are traveling together and bookings are linked, if we all show up together, will they really make the folks in the later groups wait, or will they likely let just board together? 

Also, do they need to see the credit card listed on the check-in when you board?  A few of the younger people in the group are on dad's credit card, but they have totally different boarding times from him.

Can you snorkel right from shore somewhere?  I have my own gear.

6 hours ago, Infi said:

 

Not Crew News, but we have sailed HAL over the holidays since 2013. There are special Christmas Eve and Christmas day menus; the one posted here will be served the night of 12/25. Christmas day is usually a gala night for dress code. It is likely you will only see one of the typical gala night menus earlier in the cruise and 12/24 and 25 will be the special menus for the holidays. I hope this is helpful.

According to Navigator, our Gala nights are 12/20 and 12/24, which are the sea days. In my experience, the last night of a cruise is never formal/gala since people need to pack. 

3 hours ago, Crew News said:

1419 pax according to the Front Desk.

Wow that was quick!  And better numbers than I expected.  Thank you so much!