Musigurl

My experience with whale watching out of Boston is that we went straight out for 2 hours (I thought we were going to end up in Europe, lol). It was very choppy and many, many people spent the entire trip lying on benches. We saw a couple of tails, but that's about it.

Whereas in Juneau (I highly recommend Harv & Marv) you can see land the entire time, it's very calm and whales galore -- we even saw a pod bubble-net feeding, which was amazing.

13 hours ago, markeb said:

On the app, click on the Calendar icon at the top middle   at the bottom, below the dates, there’s a link that says Change Ship/Dates. Click on that. You’ll have to browse ships and select another ship, or yours. The first sailing will be the current one. Select that. 

Success! Many thanks 🙂

I'm feeling rather computer inept! Someone suggested looking at other sailings and I can only see mine! Was more curious about dinner menus -- not as worried about breakfast ones. Oh well.....it'll be a surprise, I guess.

7 hours ago, SerraG said:

You may have already done this, but try clicking on “Day 2”.  They don’t serve breakfast on the first day.  

....nothing 😞 Maybe I'm too far out? When do menus typically show up?

14 hours ago, jelayne said:

Check the app, you will find the menu. 

I'm looking at the app and I don't see it -- I go to dining / main dining / opus dining room (I've looked at both deck 3 & deck 4 options) .......... and I see nothing resembling a menu.

Can somone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks to everyone for all the helpful replies 🙂

Waves are less of a concern compared to easy entry -- we need a place with no big drop-offs -- I've heard from other that Eagle Beach has one, making it difficult to get in (and out of) the water. Can someone confirm?

Looking to do tours on 2 of these and a beach day on the 3rd. Which island (and location) for a beach day with 1) calm water and 2) easy entry to water?

Thank you for the quick reply!!

I know I can have drinks from 5-7pm in a variety of bars around the ship, but is it based on cost or is there a list?

Does anyone recognize this Fort Lauderdale hotel from the picture?

Friends who work on ships tell me there is a difference between "staff" and "crew". Staff can eat in the buffet during "off" hours, while crew cannot. 

Anyone done this HAL excursion recently? Reviews seem to be very mixed. 

Does anyone know how to find out which pier we'll be docking at in Ocho Rios?

Before our itinerary changed, we (Holland America, Nieuw Statendam) were going to be the only ship there that day, so I'd been assuming that we'd at the main (Turtle Bay) pier. However, now that we're arriving on Tues. Mar. 5, I see that there's a second ship (Costa Pacifica) also there -- and they arrive two hours before us. This makes me think that they'll get the "good" (Turtle Bay) parking spot, and we'll get stuck at the James Bond pier. My googling skills have yet to find a website that lists who'll be where.

I recently changed travel companions for a $50 fee.

Sigh.......ok..........thanks everyone! Most other lines seem to keep their prices more inline with what their packages offer.

On a recent (September) Alaskan cruise, Pina Coladas were included in the HIA standard drink package, but now I'm hearing that they're not. Is this correct? I've been told that they're now 50cents higher that the $11 limit. I realize that it's a small difference, but I hate how 50cents here and a dollar there really start to add up. I thought the price limit was usually inline with most "regular" drinks.

It's an Android (Samsung Galaxy S22) -- I'm not sailing until March -- but had no issues on a recent (September) sailing -- but now flashing, blinking non-stop every time I try to use it.

Anyone having trouble with the app? I have multiple blinking and flashing icons. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app 3 times now and still the same issue. It makes it impossible to read! Never had this problem before.

I saw that -- but way back when (I always check port schedules before booking), both ships have always been listed.

Can someone read between the lines and tell me what this really means? Just received an itinerary update (just days after making the final payment -- grrrr). The dates for some of the other ports have been switched, but no more HMC 😞  I've only been there once, years ago, but I specifically chose this itinerary because I've been wanting to go back. What the heck are "operational considerations"??? If they'd told us before the final payment, I'd have switched to a different week. However, I'm now locked in as I've booked flights and prepaid hotel. Sigh.

Please be advised that due to operational considerations, Nieuw Statendam will no longer call to Half Moon Cay, Bahamas on Monday, March 4, 2024, and will instead spend the day at sea.

On 8/16/2023 at 6:14 PM, shipgeeks said:

Of course, if one wants to get in and out to attend a show or something, it's easy enough to tell the waiter upon arrival.

We did, but alas, it seemed to make no difference.

After having an airline lose a bag en route to the cruise and then having a cruise misplace my bag for morning pickup at the end of the cruise, I am fully committed to only ever doing carryon. I also resent paying $70 Cdn ($35 each direction) to check a bag (that may or may not make it there).

I've now done this successfully for a number of Caribbean cruises, but I'm about to try it for Alaska in September. I know this will be more of a challenge, but I'm determined to figure it out.

Agreed! We were on the Symphony back in November -- dinner took 2.5 hours every night -- more than 30 minutes to get appetizers and then they arrived cold -- ditto on the temperature of the mains as well. Yes, we can send them back, but the wait for new/hot food is insane. Beef dishes were consistently low quality (tough and full of gristle). Had to beg for water refills multiple times.

Our waiter had a total of 24 people in his section to look after. And the assistant was not just his assistant, but the assistant for a totally different waiter as well. The bread basket was the best part of each meal (seriously). I love everything else about RCL (the ships, the shows, etc), but until I hear of improvements in the food area, I'm sticking with Celebrity and Holland America.

Because I'm Diamond, I had 4 drink vouchers per day, but they screwed up multiple times and charged me, which then meant I had to either phone (and wait on hold) or line up (and wait) at guest services to have this corrected. I wrote a long review after receiving an email requesting one, but (surprise, surprise), I never heard anything from anyone.

My mom (who has a list of health conditions) used https://primelinkinsurance.ca/