CMDE

Will this be the first time a cruise ship has used pier 80? I have been looking at past schedules from 2023 and 2024 and can only find the Grand Princess for April 27/24. Not quite sure how to find out.

You can check different floors, too. On our floor on the Grand Princess there are only 2 washers/2 washers in the room, which were busy, but on the floor below the laundry room had 4 washers/4 dryers. They might differ a bit on lots of floors.

Hi, a question about the app. I had the app on my iPad and decided I also wanted it on my iPhone before our cruise. I found it easy to use as an app, made reservations, etc. But yesterday when I added it, it also needed to be updated, so I did that for both apps. But now, I only seem to be able to log in for half the time, and it isn’t an app version anymore - it is just exactly the same as the Safari version, which seems odd. Is anybody having the same problem? Do you think I can just wait this out? My cruise isn’t for 40 days.

Follow-up: well, now I seem to be able to access the app versio on my iPad, at least logging in the other way using my reservation number. So now I will just leave everything alone!

4 minutes ago, meadowlander said:

 

From Parsippany, Google maps shows 287 south to 24 east to 78 east as the fastest route. If you incur traffic, it will likely be on 78 east. At the toll plaza on 78 east, stay left follow signs for 78 east Holland Tunnel NJTP. This 'NJTP extension' road will lead to Bayonne

 

Thank you so much for all the information, so helpful.

The last time we went, with the last printed directions, I think our GPS must have said something about Holland Tunnel and I thought that would only take us into Manhattan for some reason, and thought the GPS was totally bad. I will print out your directions and not panic!

Hi - we are staying at the Hyatt House in Parsippany. Last time we sailed out of the Cape Liberty port was in 2015, and we got driving directions from this website. They were so much better than our GPS that tried to take us into NYC. I know that was a long time ago. I tried finding that again, but are there any more recent directions on cruisecritic that you can point me to?

Thank you so much.

I have another question about the classic drinks package, which was part of our cruise booking. When I was going to print out my information today it shows a cruise credit of over $800 for a 7 day cruise. Does it normally show up as a large cruise credit before you board?

We had a cabana on the Eurodam for 2 cruises, from December 10-28, and it was excellent. It did have some music all the time but luckily it was pretty peaceful. I am sorry to hear about younger children, though, on a different ship, and I can see finding that difficult. I thought that is what the other retreat areas near the pool were supposed to be used for.

The ship for the Christmas portion was completely packed, compared to the first one, and I am so glad we had the cabana. But we may schedule differently for next time,

We received our boarding time for 1 p.m. at FLL. If we do plan on a 1 p.m. boarding, does that mean we could show up for parking at noon (I am a slightly nervous car person), check in our bags and then slowly amble over? I do forget about the process for checking in our bags.

So sorry to hear about you being robbed. You sound very brave and like you dealt with it well. And then you returned to a good rest-of-day on the ship. Thank you for being a great role model.

A friend who is visiting her son in Miami just sent me this photo of your ship.

2 minutes ago, hmmm said:

We had the same notification for our Nov. 19 sailing.  I couldn’t find anywhere to fill in the info, so I called a number that I found on the web site-  it MIGHT have been +1 877-932-4259- but if not, keep looking for a customer service number- the person that answered filled in the form for me- there was nowhere for me to fill it in myself.  Since we are Canadian, we needed to give a US address for before and after the cruise, since we weren’t flying.

Thank you very much, I will call them.

Hi, I received an email today from Holland America that said there was some information currently missing from my check-in. We are Canadian and it says that there is information “missing or incomplete” about our “U.S. address while in U.S.”

I looked at our check-in again and I couldn’t find anywhere to add this info, and every section had a green check mark except the last Health part which I can only do 3 days before the cruise. Can anybody suggest where I might find a place to provide this info, or if I should worry?

Thank you! I have a great-nephew named Ra and I did not know that meaning for the name! Fun to read your posts. 

Thanks very much, RuthC and crystalspin. I’ll prepare for everything!

Thanks for this information about the cabins under the BB King bar/stage, RuthC and crystalspin. I was in the Westerdam in a J cabin years ago and was so happy with the size of the cabin. So I happily booked J1064 for an upcoming cruise in the Eurodam. Is there any chance that is one of the quiet few close to the atrium, as you mentioned? Or should I plan to party late?

The cruise I have booked was listed as one 18 day cruise, but it does return to Fort Lauderdale before the last 7 days. I wasn’t thinking about it - but we do have to either leave the ship or wait in a lounge area for an hour or two?

And thanks for the idea of booking them separately for next time.

I just received an email from Celebrity with the wording “add this to your Life’s Adventures List”. I thought that was great wording and went on to read the part that says “Leave No Must-See Unseen” - again so promising, and I do like reading about their cruise offers, of course. But then further on in the email, there is the phrase I really don’t like - the “bucket list”!

Trivial, I know, and I’ve gotten used to it, but I hate that phrase “bucket list”. Is everyone else used to it?

We have booked on the Eurodam December 10-28 days from Ft. Lauderdale. Since it is 18 days I assumed at first we would have to arrange testing in the US (which I will figure out how to do closer to the date). But that particular cruise isn’t on the list. Is this because it returns to Ft. Lauderdale in the middle?

Of course, I will read up closer to the date too, but just trying to make sure I understand now. We will be Canadians coming to the US (hopefully) for the first time in a long time (yay).

Hi, I was just looking at the Holland America website just now to look at the details of my upcoming cruise, and everything has disappeared - my upcoming cruise and past cruises, my Mariner Society details, etc. Does this happen from time to time, and then return with all the correct info? Thanks.

Interesting to read about your cruise, I look forward to it! Question: what is that green book or ticket holder in the last photo?

On 8/17/2022 at 2:17 PM, Copper10-8 said:

This was the Canadian comedy “Men with Brooms” with, among others, Leslie Nielsen. Centered on the sport of curling, the offbeat comedy tells the story of a reunited curling team from a small Canadian town as they work through their respective life issues and struggle to win the championship for the sake of their late coach.

I'm enjoying reading about your cruise very much. And just as an aside, my DH Tim spent several days as an extra on that movie - as part of the crowd watching the games. So exciting!

This is a great review! Brings back memories of a cruise we took that left Whittier in 2005 (so long ago). Lovely to see your fantastic photos.

I bought A Suitable Boy to read on a flight to NZ in 1998, and what a huge paperback book to lug about, I probably read 30 pages! I just found it in a pile of my books 2 weeks ago, unread, and now there is a TV series! Yay.
 

Now I would take audiobooks on my iPad - lots of them!!

Our first cruise was on Celebrity Century in 2005. We decided to go because my niece was working in the children’s area and we really wanted to see her. The ship was coming over from Europe, and Fort Lauderdale had been hit badly by Hurricane Wilma a few days before we were supposed to cruise - everything was touch and go. We knew very little about cruising but we loved it - we dined at a table of 10 with very nice people and my niece was able to dine with us several times, and she spent one day out with us at St. Maarten. I really was just doing it to see my niece but we fell in love with cruising. That was our first of 15! And more to come!