irishjim

Ha. Ha. Ok the next question if we can work it out can we organize one?

 

AND the food question is the biggie.

Yes there is christmas dinner in the main dining room.There will also Carol

singing by the crew plus Santa in the main showroom at sea with presents for the childern,just like at home,DW and I will spending Christmas on board the Ryndam.Have a wonderful time on your cruise.

Merry Christmas.

Jim.:D:D:D:D

Wishing all Americans everywhere a wonderful Thanksgiving.

From the great white north,

Jim.:D:D:D

Watched the Noordam sailaway and not a single blast leaving Port.Also noticed only one forward radar in operation:confused:

I wonder if

the lack of horn blasts was in respect for the crew:confused:

RIP to all whoe lost their lives. Jim.

yes $7 or less is correct, not really worth the money:(

Our favorite HA cruise director on HA was Tom Faulkner. We use the word "was" because Tom is no longer a cruise director but will now be found doing is future cruise consulting (along with his lovely wife...Tina) on various HA ships. What made Tom special? He quickly won-over most passengers the first day of every cruise with a short announcement that he would only be making one PA announcement per day (at noon with the Captain's report) and folks who wanted to know about activities could find this info in the daily schedule. To spend all day without the annoying PA stuff was a true pleasure. We are just back from the Veendam where there is an excellent CD (Alex) except that he simply had to interrupt everyone with announcements at around 9:45am, 12:30pm and again at 4pm (and sometimes had 1 or 2 other annoucments). Everything said in those announcements is contained in the daily schedule but I guess HA (and most of their CDs) feel that their charges are illiterate and need frequent reinforcing of the daily schedule and ways to spend their money ("there is a sale at the spa," "a shop sale at the pool," "a scheduled show in the Showroom," etc).

 

There is an interesting facet of cruising for those who cruise on many different lines (we have been on 14 lines). The number (and length) of annoying PA announcements seems to be inversely proportional to the overall quality of the product. If you cruise on the ultra luxury lines there are generally no more then a single announcement per day. But the mass market lines seem to feel that its fine to annoy customers. It reminds me of the "Blue Light specials" that are announced at K-Marts.

 

Hank

Hi Glogo, If you go to the holland america boards there is a link posted by SEA42 It will explain every thing.Hope this keeps you up to date.:confused:

Jim.

I'm new to Holland America (first cruise on this line coming up in June) and I've been looking around the HAL site. I discovered that I can pre-buy a card for alcoholic beverages. My question -- are those also available on the ship? The early buy supposedly gives me drinks at a discount. Will that also apply to the ones bought on board, if available?

 

And, I see that there are also liquor packages, where I can buy alcohol and mixers and have it delivered to my cabin. Based on my experience on other lines, that is intended to be consumed in the cabin...not (at least visibly) taken to dinner, or elsewhere on the ship. Is that correct for HAL, too?

 

(I'm assuming there is no "drink patrol", checking on what might be in my mug, or inquiring where I got the liquid in my glass... :) )

If you preorder your drink cards, make sure you have them in your cabin on your first sea day otherwise you will have to pay tax if you are in port.

Have a wonderful cruise:D:D

Got to be THOM on the Prinsendam by 100%.:D:D:D

My wife and I took our first cruise aboard the Carousel from Festival cruises in 1998.:)

My wife and I took our first cruise aboard the Carousel from Festival cruises in 1998.:)