Granny DI

Thanks for this thread. Finally some sanity on CC. 

We are not cancelling our cruises. We have four booked. We will start looking for bargains soon.

Just read that zinc lozenges are good to fight off the flu.

Just heard from my TA who was supposed to sail on the Royal. Crew member OK. Passengers on last cruise OK. Computers out on the ship. They were given money for lodging, refund and free next cruise. 

We have sailed all the cruise lines in the past 22 years. In the past two years we have sailed Crystal, Princess, Holland America, NCL and RCL. Our latest cruise was last month in a Neptune Suite on the Nieuw Statendam. 
We prefer the Haven on NCL’s larger ships.

Just our opinion. 

Must have been balconies we saw down the hall as there are no mini suites on deck 10. The cabins down the hall looked better to us due to the layout of the SF suites.

We love aft suites on the bigger ships.

We were on deck 10. Noise below never bothers me because I am a night owl...but can’t stand noise above especially early in the morning. We were just disappointed with the layout of the cabin...not a lot of useable space. The minisuites we saw walking down the hall looked better to us. 

We were in one of these Cabins on the Jade for 2 weeks. If you normally sail in suites on the bigger NCL ships you will NOT like these cabins. They are very small and the arrangement is  poor. Our favorite cabin at sea is 12304 on the Breakaway. When we walked into this “suite” on the Jade we said this is the smallest suite ever. We vowed to never sail again  in this category on the GEM ships. IMPO it is not worth the money. Save your money and get a minisuite. 

10 hours ago, Petoonya said:

Ha ha! DIL can’t say no to her DF and My DS can’t say no to his DW despite my exhortations.

 

Been there many times. I say my 2 cents then shut my mouth. Really hard for me to keep it shut!  Hope you have a great cruise in spite of everything happening. Only you know what is best for you. None of us are walking in your shoes.

I have several questions.

When was the last time this man traveled?

Has he ever been on a cruise? 
Have your son and daughter-in-law ever cruised before?

Who is paying for your son and daughter-in-law’s Cruise?

Who invited the father?

These questions may have already been answered. If so I apologize.

From what little I know, I think this problem is your son and daughter-in-law’s problem.

This will be a learning experience for what is yet to come with this man’s health problems. Some very serious decisions will have to be made.

9 hours ago, ski ww said:

I have never been a big fan of the PG. We go maybe once a cruise just for something different. I've never found the service or food any better then the MDR.

We have experienced the same thing on every HAL cruise. We eat there once on every cruise because it is gratis. Just off the Nieuw Statendam and  it was just as you described BUT Rudi’s was worse and we paid for that experience! 

We preferred the service and food in Club Orange but the venue was not good. The chairs are uncomfortable and it”s like eating in a fish bowl. HAL would have a great product by changing the Club Orange venue.

I booked this cruise after our Cuban Cruise on HAL was cancelled.

I loved the itinerary and was excited about the cruise. We had visited all the islands and were excited to revisit. 

Then came our Sapphire Princess Cruise in July. We disliked the cruise so much I cancelled the Crown when we got home. TA was not happy but was not passed final payment. 

Switched the Crown for HAL Nieuw Statendam. We had a great cruise and made all our ports.

DH is not fond of sea days....he was unhappy with the 2 on our HAL cruise! 

My perfect cruise is 2 ports....sea day....2 ports....sea day etc...

3 hours ago, Nemo2005 said:

Thanks, @Granny DI.  Were you with Holland America for this trip?  For such a long excursion, did you have any time or energy for exploring the port area when you got back?

We are on the Nieuw Statendam. We had plenty of time to explore Amber Cove port area before and after our tour.

12 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

Is there any kind of cooking program taking its place?

 

NO.

We did the Dominican coffee experience today. Our tour meet time was 8:15 and we returned to the ship at 2. We were served a local chicken stew for lunch. Transportation was the rough part. You have a one hour ride in an open “bus”. The road going up the mountain is unpaved....very bumpy ride. Lots of pot holes!  

Once you reach the coffee experience area everything will be explained. Our group prepared 300 coffee seed planters for the greenhouse!

The work experience  was followed by a presentation of coffee from seed to cup of hot coffee. Very hands on. My DH said the coffee was the best ever. I don’t drink coffee.

We learned so much in the brief time we were at the coffee experience.

The excursion was one of the most unusual and educational excursions we have done in 23 years.

On 12/23/2019 at 5:56 PM, sprockie said:

As I mentioned in another thread, my husband and I and our teenage kids just got off the Nieuw Statendam yesterday and wanted to mention how much we enjoyed the Rolling Stone Rock Room.  We had never sailed on the NS or the Koningsdam and were looking forward to checking out this new feature.  We were blown away and thoroughly enjoyed the shows every night.  The band was excellent and played great classic rock.  They were a 5 very talented musicians - each with their own expertise and they put together an amazing show day after day.  It added such a wonderful element to my cruise experience.  I had more fun on this cruise than any cruise in the last 20 years of cruising with HAL.  I've never been so sad to see a cruise end.

I really hope HAL rolls out the same type of classic rock show fleetwide.  It was very crowded every night and everyone was having a great time.  I do hope they find another venue for the Rock Room - I found the room and stage to be small with view-hindering pillars.   I am so happy to see HAL catering more to the baby boomers and the younger passengers.  

We are on the Nieuw Statendam at the moment. Went to the Rock Room two nights ago. The place was jammed with 4 deep standing. DH and I are in our 70’s. Most of the crowd was our age or older. We maybe old but we’re not dead yet.....we loved it. They do a little bit of everything and nothing repeated in the next show of the night.. the early show had the Beatles, Sony and Cher, Queen , Bob Dillon etc.

I am on the Nieuw Statendam. ATK is GONE! We loved ATK and booked this cruise for it. Even the videos on the TV are gone. Very disappointed! 

6 hours ago, Tom O. said:

I have decided to buy at least one of those Soda Value Cards for my next cruise. I have not done this before. I have a question that I cannot find an answer to anywhere. When I purchase one of these cards on the website, I am asked which passenger is the recipient. So I assume that if I say I am the recipient, the card will come with my name on it. Can I use it to purchase sodas for my wife? Or is it just for me? Also, can she use it without me being present?

These cards are a much better deal than buying the endless soda package, which I have done in the past.

HAL gifted me beverage cards after I had purchased the soda card. Do not mess with the soda card. I am on the Nieuw Statendam now and soda card means fountain drinks. I prefer unopened cans to use at a later date. No bar will allow purchase of can cokes with a soda card. I have to use my beverage card. I will never purchase another soda card for a 7 day cruise. Big mistake on my part.

We cruise all the lines. We used to prefer Princess. I cancelled our Jan 2020 Princess Cruise and booked a Jan 2020 HAL cruise after our last Princess Cruise.  Don’t think we’ll go back to Princess but who knows. We have 3 future cruises booked....HAL, NCL and RCCL.

Thanks for the info. Just ordered one soda card for our next HAL cruise. Hopefully some of the bar tenders won’t pop open the can so I can save for another time. I never know until I ask. Most will pop them open but others will just put them on the bar unopened.

Been there done that.....NO!

We were on the cruise right after the last POA dry dock in SF. Dry dock was supposed to be done in HNL but the Navy needed the facility so was changed to SF. Cruise was shortened, contractors all over the ship and spa closed the entire time.  We knew this was a possibility but the cruise was cheap.

We are Platinum on both Princess and NCL. Last cruise on Princess was a month ago on the Sapphire. Last NCL Cruise was in Jan 2019 on the Breakaway. Suites on both ships. We had booked the Crown Princess for Jan 2020. We canceled after our experience on the Sapphire. We replaced it with Nieuw Statendam on Holland America.

We love NCL but the Epic is a funky ship.....especially balcony cabins. I enjoyed a solo cabin on the Epic but sister and brother-in-law did not like their balcony cabin. 

Our first cruise on Holland America was on the Rotterdam in 2002. We hated it and didn’t go back for 10 years. We have sailed all the lines and in the “old days” we sailed Princess and Celebrity. We tried Crystal last year and Azamara two years ago. Our go to cruise lines are now Holland America and NCL.  We like the Haven and Neptune Suite products. We like most of the changes from 1997.....the lone exception being food. Food across all the lines including Crystal is just OK to us.

We have sailed all the cruise lines including Azamara, Celebrity and Oceania. We prefer NCL’s Haven concept and Holland America’s Neptune lounge to any of the three above. Crystal is not worth the money and a very poor value for us.  We felt the Azamara Perry Golf Cruise was good except for the miniature bathroom. The Caribbean Cruise in a suite was not a good value. Oceania is the best value of the three small cruise lines, but not saying we prefer it over Crystal or Azamara. This is only my opinion and my experience. Food is subjective but I personally think it’s all the same with the exception of specialty restaurants on NCL. Not fans of hoards of people on the mega ships but have figured a way to avoid them on the mega ships. The hoards keep our cruise prices down. We avoid the buffets and MDR on the mega ships and only eat in the specialty restaurants. We use many other strategies to avoid the hoards. We can sail in suites on the mega ships but only ocean views on Crystal. You just have to decide what is important to you. 

We took our first cruise with HAL in 2002 and hated it. We swore off HAL for ten years.

HAL offered a wonderful Med itinerary several years ago on the Ryndam. We loved it and have been sailing HAL ever since.

We are Platinum Plus on NCL, Platinum on Princess, and 3 star mariner on HAL.

We just returned from a Princess Cruise but we were so displeased that we cancelled a 10 day Princess Cruise and substituted a 7 day cruise on the Nieuw Statendam. We have another HAL cruise booked along with an NCL Cruise.

We are Platinum Plus on NCL and three Star Mariner on HAL. We like both lines very much.

We only book suites in the Haven on the NCL Mega ships and Neptune Suites on any of the HAL ships.

We really like America’s Test Kitchen on the Nieuw Dam Ships. We really like the entertainment on the NCL Mega Ships.

We like the Haven Bar and restaurant and are looking forward to Club Orange on our cruise on the Nieuw Statendam in January. We love the Neptune Lounge.

Food is very subjective but NCL has more variety. 

We do not like the smaller ships of Oceania, Crystal and Azamara. We can read books and relax at home.....and the suites on these lines are not normally within our budget.

 The pricing is very similar between NCL and HAL.

NCL has younger clientele. We are retired but we prefer a mix of ages on our cruises. 

Pre- retirement Thanksgiving to New Years was a just a blur. I was teaching and had three kids with a thousand activities plus all the parties.  Never considered going anywhere during the holidays except skiing in Colorado between Christmas and New Years.

Now there aren’t many parties and the kids and grandkids are all doing their thousands things during the Christmas Holidays. I think this cruise will be perfect for us. If we enjoy it may make it annual thing. 

We’ve done Halloween and New Years Cruises....one and done. The Halloween cruise was over run with kids and the New Years was ok except for the price....high dollar cruise!