sherryf

15 hours ago, Crew News said:

1250 this week and next so no waiting lines for anything.  Lots of empty rooms.

I don't suppose you can find out the numbers for the 12/19 sailing?  I am guessing more since it is Christmas, but hopefully still not too full. 

13 hours ago, Crew News said:

I have just received the MDR menu for Christmas Day from the Club Orange staff.  Notice the return of lobster.  This meal should be the same for the HAL Caribbean fleet for 2021.

 

Here is the link:  Christmas Day MDR Dinner 2021

Thank you!  We are on NS for Christmas, but it is the last full day of the cruise.  Christmas Eve is formal night.  Will it be the standard formal night menu on Christmas Eve and this Christmas menu actually on the last night?

N Statendam - 19-Dec-21 - 7 day Eastern Caribbean

sherryf - family wedding celebration Christmas cruise for my son and new daughter-in-law

8 hours ago, RuthC said:

@ sherryf 

Did you look at the posts at all? The post immediately above yours referred you to the updated thread, and asked that no new posts be made to this one. 
Kazu even put in a link to the new thread to save you the trouble of finding it. 

LOL!  Obviously not!  Saw this thread while I was scrolling and just added to it without looking through the whole thing.  I'll repost to the new one instead.

N Statendam - 19-Dec-21 - 7 day Eastern Caribbean

sherryf - family wedding celebration Christmas cruise for my son and new daughter-in-law

On 11/24/2021 at 9:09 AM, Crew News said:

According to the live threads from previous cruises this season, "empty" plastic bottles are fine to be brought on board.  It might be good to have them in carry-on luggage so that your luggage won't be diverted to the "naughty" room for inspection.

It sounds like they are trying to reduce plastic waste, so don't want any *disposable* plastic water bottles on board, but allow reusable water bottles.  If someone were to bring an empty disposable bottle, I would not be surprised if it was confiscated and discarded.  The "juice bottles" from Amazon that were posted above are questionable.  They say reusable, but look a lot like disposables.  It might depend on the crew member observing them to decide if they are acceptable or not.

Personally, I plan to bring my ThermoFlask, which is not even plastic, and keeps my drinks cold a long time.

We are sailing over Christmas, Dec. 19 - 26.  Can we expect capacities to still be low then, or is the ship likely to be pretty full since it's Christmas?  

On 10/21/2021 at 8:56 PM, Crew News said:

I received my boarding pass 49 days out from my Nov 28 cruise.  Email notified me to look for it and the HAL website posted it 12 hours later.  Note that the Boarding Pass is really a "Check-in" time appointment.

Thanks!  We are 8 weeks out, so 56 days.  I'll check again in a week!!! 

On 10/20/2021 at 5:33 AM, Sea42 said:

That's helpful to know, thank you! I'll check mine again in a few days and save myself a phone call.

Where can you find your assigned boarding time on your reservation?  I have completed our check in (I think I did it all!) and don't recall seeing anything about boarding time.

2 hours ago, steve4031 said:

Based on what I read on HALs website all drinks packages require the use of the free style coke machine.  I was hoping that cans of pop could be acquired by up one of drinks on the 15 drink limit.  Those freestyle machines in restaurants and at movie theaters are routinely flat.  

Where did you read that?  I looked up the beverage packages for our cruise (Nieuw Statendam, December 19) and this is what it said under the Signature Beverage Package:  

""Excludes Mini Bar, Honor Bar, Chocolate Seduction, In-Room Dining, beverages on Half Moon Cay, Freestyle Coca-Cola and any self-service draft beer."

It doesn't really matter much to me, since I rarely drink soda, but some others in our party drink a lot of soda.  We all booked with the Have It All promotion.

7 hours ago, Daniel A said:

As this is a HAL board, there is an important distinction that needs to be made.  The testing requirement is not 48 hours, it is two days.  Per HAL web site:

"Negative COVID-19 Test: Cruises departing September 13 through December 31, 2021, ALL fully vaccinated guests will be required to produce a negative viral COVID-19 test (PCR or antigen) result taken within 2 days of their embarkation."

 

FAQ for Cruises from USA (hollandamerica.com)

 

 

It has been suggested that for a cruise sailing on a Sunday, the test needs to be taken on Friday, Saturday or even Sunday as long as you can get the results in time.

Does that mean that you can do the test at ANY TIME on Friday for a Sunday sailing?  

We are sailing on Sunday, December 19 and my plan is to go get tested after work on Friday, around 4:30, which would put me within 48 hours of sailing, but it will be more convenient for my husband and other family members to go earlier in the day.  It would be more than 48 hours, but still 2 days before sailing.

We are very lucky to have a convenient, well-run site at a local college.  We have been there with and without appointments.  I had to go yesterday morning and there were no appointments available, but I just went and got in line.  (I have a mild cold, but need a negative test to go back to work.)  They say 24-48 hours for results, I got my (negative!) results 26 hours after the test.  We (myself, husband, daughter) have used the site several times and have always gotten results closer to the 24 hour mark, never even close to 48 hours.  I am confident that we will be able to get our testing done and results back on time.

Here's the fine print: 

"Shore excursion offer is based on cruise duration. For 6–9-day voyages, guests can choose one free shore excursion (up to $100 value) or apply $100 off any one tour. For 10–20-day voyages, guests can choose two free shore excursions (up to $100 value per tour) or apply $100 off each of any two tours. For 21+ day voyages (excluding Grands), guests can choose three free shore excursions (up to $100 value per tour) or apply $100 off each of any three tours. Tour value in US dollars. If excursion chosen has a value of less than $100, you will receive any residual credit for purchasing additional tours onboard your cruise. For guests on a Land & Sea journey, discounts can be applied to optional excursions booked pre-cruise, but not onboard."

Note the bolded sentence.  It clearly states that if you book a tour less than $100, you get the residual to apply towards additional tours.

I can see my previous cruise, but my cruise booked for this coming Christmas does not show and I get an error when I try to find my booking. 🤔

We were on this cruise, and it happened on our wedding anniversary!  We missed our glacier sailing day because of it.  I'm glad to see that this was finally resolved after all these years.

But how soon would they sail?  They've cancelled everything else until August 21.  If they only start AK cruises after August 21, that only leaves a few weeks in the AK cruise season.  

2 hours ago, pris993 said:

I just figured out, with Princess current promotion with tips, booze, wifi... I only have to drink 2 drinks a day to break even, so that is far from overindulging.    

We've only had a drink package once, when it was part of a booking promo.  We did enjoy it, but if we had payed the going price, we would not have broken even.  It's typically not worth it for us to purchase a drink package, but we are eyeing this Princess deal for our next cruise.  I would definitely drink at least 2 per day, and also enjoy coffee, etc. as well.

10 hours ago, westwindwins said:

That seems quite harsh to me. You wouldnt want to be seperated from you family would you.

Well, the "kids" were 15, 18, and 21.  Two were technically adults, and could have been responsible for their little sister.  If they had been small children, maybe the response would have been different.  Of course, given the options, we chose to stay with the kids rather than be separated.

My experience is that you cannot have non-platinum guests board with you.  On our first platinum cruise, we had my 3 teen/young adult children with us.  This was only their second cruise on Princess, so only gold level.  They were allowed to check in with us, since they were on my booking, but they were not allowed to go to priority boarding with us.  I had the choice to send my kids to the regular boarding line while my husband and I went to priority, or to join the kids in the regular line.  We chose to join the kids so we could all board together.  

5 hours ago, deliver42 said:

I believe Princess and HAL are given preference, then the other lines get what's left. 

 Now that I think about it more, I'm pretty sure it has always been a Celebrity ship that has been  anchored when we were there.  I remember reading about Princess ships out of San Francisco having to tender, since they aren't on a regular 7-day schedule.  Some sailings they arrive on days with fewer ships and can dock, but others they end up there on days when there are a lot of ships and they have to tender.

26 minutes ago, trbarton said:

The CDC says only 95% of passengers need the vaccine & other people are saying the 5% could be for children or people that can’t take the vaccine for health reasons. If you book 1,000 people 100 could be non vaccinated. 
 

Tom😀

If you book 1000 people, only 50 could be non-vaccinated to stay at 95% vaccinated. 

10 cruises to Alaska on Princess.  Docked every time in all ports.

On 8/5/2019 at 8:52 PM, polyesther said:

When you say "left while facing the front of the train", does that mean if you are standing outside face-to-face with the train? So it would be your right hand side and the train's left hand side?

When you are *inside* the train!  Sit on the left side of the train.

Yes, it is walkable, without mobility limitations.  If you are at the furthest (AJ) dock, it would be a long walk.  You could take the Mendenhall shuttle and do the museum on your own for a lot less than $89.

I hate umbrellas!  They are useless on a windy ship, and annoying in crowded ports.  A good rain jacket with a hood is much more useful.  I like to wear a ball cap under my hood, which keeps the rain off my glasses and prevents the hood from drooping down too low.  Here in Seattle, we like to say that umbrellas are only for tourists.  I don't think I even own one.

5 hours ago, pompeii said:

We just received ours yesterday and the paper background was blue for both of us.  Our lanyards were different also, thinner and white with blue lettering that says "Accenture> Ocean Medallion" and the Princess logo.  They're a soft material though so I think they'll be comfortable.

We got the same for our cruise next week.  I'm going to switch out the lanyard for one of my own.  Thinking about doing a DIY paper background, but I have less than a week and I'm not very crafty.