badtwin

On Rotterdam recently, the water table had some water covered by HIA (cans and maybe cartons) and some other container that wasn't included in the package. I had read previously supplies will vary from cruise to cruise. We did three HAL tours and water was provided on one ( a bike tour) but not the others (second bike tour and an "on your own" bus ride).

It depends. I re-used the same plastic water bottle for years. (No BPA or whatever lecture please) It came with a sports drink in it but it was very heavy duty and had a lovely drinkable top that never leaked. And I would not mind if I lost it. (Or so I thought) When boarding the Rotterdam this fall for the first 7 day leg of a cruise out of Amsterdam, it went through security no problem. When I tried to get it back on board on the transition day (also in Amsterdam) for the next 14 day leg, it was confiscated. Which annoyed me greatly. So then instead of re-using my own bottle, I was forced to buy - wait for it - single use cans of water. Until I got a bottle of water on one of my HAL sponsored tours. I then re-used that PLASTIC bottle for the rest of the cruise, hiding it in my pocket as I went through security. I get reducing waste, especially plastic waste, but when I am reducing waste by using something plastic, it makes no sense to make me throw it away so I must then use single- use cans or cartons. Bottom line, don't count on getting plastic on the ship.

Waking up in the same town with a list of chores instead of waking up in a new city with a list of places to go see.

I suspect several reasons. A microwave draws a lot of power and would require additional wiring. And while safer than many cooking methods, they can still be a fire hazard. And finally, cooking can create odors which could impact neighboring cabins.

The issue is how HAL interprets its Terms and Conditions for the military/first responder/health care worker/ educator OBC. Each has a separate T&C section and each one of them contains the following language: "Onboard Credit offer is based on Promo(s) ZH*. Limit: One (1) onboard spending money credit (“Offer”) per stateroom." So does this mean one onboard credit offer per stateroom per work category or one onboard credit offer per stateroom for all of the 4 categories?

I know this rule but am confused by how it works if you qualify for different community appreciation benefits. DH gets the firefighter. I am qualified for teacher but only his OBC showed up on new booking. Can you stack community appreciation benefits of different categories or do you just get one per cruise per stateroom?

Taxis - I saw some but when you exit Amsterdam cruise port, those with rides waiting are sent to a different area about 100 yards further down the terminal than those for taxis, so I can't tell you if there were plenty of taxis or not. We went with a prebooked ride service (Welcome Pickups) which cost 51 Euro for two people and 3 pieces of luggage in a Mercedes 220 D. Great communication beforehand and no hassle over payment etc. Seemed competitively priced with taxis when I booked. Schiphol lets you book a security time slot. See here. https://www.schiphol.nl/en/timeslots/ Once you put in flight info, the website suggests times to book. How the system supposedly works is explained on the website but we ended up not needing it. I would also suggest reading up on their security rules before hand - a bit different than US so nice to be prepared. Actually easier in some respects with regards to shoes and electronic devices if I recall. And a note for self disembarkation. Guest services suggested we line up at about quarter to 7 (for 7:15 scheduled departure.) We were well toward front of the queue. Staff kept things orderly and reminded everyone very loudly to have your cruise card out and ready for scanning to keep the line moving and it worked. Once they opened the doors the line moved very quickly. Not sure when it opened, but we were in the lido shortly after 6 and they had full breakfast service available. I think I covered the things I worried about....

Let me barge in with our experience - which worked out but was stressful. We disembarked Rotterdam in Amsterdam on October 7, 2023 with a 10 a.m. flight. Luckily disembarkation was actually a little early and our car service was responsive enough to get to the cruise port early too. Traffic was good and we arrived at airport before 8. We were on Delta and therefore KLM was in charge. We used the kiosk to check in and get boarding passes and luggage tags. We then had to stand in line to check bags and have passports checked which was maybe ten to fifteen minutes. There were lots of lines open and things went quickly. We went to security ahead of our pre-booked time and that took about 15 minutes. We ended up a half an hour to board. I would not recommend. In our favor, we got off the ship around 7:05 or 7:10 - a bit earlier than the planned 7:15. In contrast, the people getting off after the first 7 day leg of our cruise got off a half hour to 45 minutes late as there was some problem at the locks and the ship was late to port. Morning traffic was light. In addition, I suspect by October we were past high season. I also suspect things got a lot busier as the day progressed. You can book a time to go through security at Schipol, but as indicated, we were through before our scheduled time. So it worked out but noon sounds a lot more reasonable, although I would still try to get to the airport as soon as possible.

We were on Rotterdam 9/16-10/7 and there were occasionally staff encouraging hand washing or sanitizer at the Lido. Not sure it helped from what I saw

We are just back from 21 days on Rotterdam, first time with HIA. After adamantly saying "the math doesn't work for us" in prior posts, we changed our minds at the last minute after some additional thoughts. Bottom line, HIA was well worth it to us on this cruise, but we probably won't be using it for every cruise. What changed our minds? We usually do a wine package and get internet and a beer for DH in ports. This was a Norwegian and Baltic cruise, and we were aware port prices were going to generally be much higher than usual, so we would want to eat and drink on the ship more than usual. The cruise was the longest we had tried, with 6 sea days which meant long days on the ship (we aren't sea day people) and days without internet if we didn't get an internet package. I also tend to get cheap about ordering drinks on board and convinced DH this would allow me to order a bit more freely (it did but not too much) and the numbers made sense if we would replace our wine packages with HIA. Why we aren't converts for all future cruises? We would not normally go to the specialty restaurants or on ship tours, so it is hard to quantify the value of those. We certainly enjoyed them, and the bike tours were quite a lot of fun. With a lot of ports, it was nice to have an easy option like that. The big problem was the wine selection with the HIA package. I don't think we are wine snobs (we mostly drink from a box at home) but DH was unhappy with the choices, and even though he was willing to pay the extra price for wines at the next level, found the selections by the glass wanting. We also missed having a bottle at dinner and the ability to have a second glass when we wanted it (wine service at dinner could be frustrating) or share with tablemates. On our next cruise, we will be able to take a few bottles with us because we are driving, and even with corkage, it is worth it to get something we like. So all in all, HIA worked nicely for the last cruise, but we will do the math and consider all the factors on each cruise.

I wish I had thought to check menus before I booked our specialty restaurant dinners. We would have picked different nights. It was all good but something to consider.

There are three recent reviews of Rotterdam sailings with lots of menus from northern European sailings posted - MDR as well as lido.

Currently on Rotterdam with brown out situation because something went wrong with switch to shore power. At Aarhus. Captain was on PA to explain but I think his system lost power. Update. It sounds like everything up and running again so only temporary - maybe 15 minutes.

DH tried a couple times with basic package and it didn't work. Might be his phone but he could make hot spot when we have local service from t-mobile.

Yes charged for beer but it was included in HIA.

Same question for the Rotterdam please? And if anyone knows if they are working?

Could it possibly be there is a bottleneck because too many won't wait until assigned check-in time?

Agree. It also would be nice if they could add the expected dock (berth?) although I suppose the issue is that the port authority can change it at the last minute and that would annoy everyone too. I know we can look them up but that is not always that easy

I have a different excursion question. We are on Rotterdam in two weeks and are on a waitlist for biking Oslo. Are we waiting for a spot to open or will they add another tour if enough sign up? Anyone willing to give us odds on likelihood we will get this?

Agree. Except for the Speedos.🙈

Packing for a 21 day Norway and Baltic starting mid-September and I am guessing 4-6 dressy nights on a HAL. I do the evening pants and a few dressy tops in rotation. I was wondering if it is too early in the fall season for velvet. I realize people wear everything but I wondered if it would be too heavy. I guess I am of the generation that still follows rules like no white shoes after Labor Day so maybe it really doesn't matter.

Slightly off topic but related to Amsterdam early flights.. We are flying Delta/KLM. I know from websites there are check-in kiosks at KLM area of Schipol. Will US citizens be able to check bags at kiosk for an international flight to USA? I know to get an appointment for security but I have heard the bigger issue for travelers is the check-in lines with the airlines. I am happy with a kiosk if they will let us. Does anyone know from experience? I will try to find out from airline but it would give me more comfort to hear from someone with real recent experience.

So I am confused now too. I have assumed HIA usually doesn't include crew appreciation (what I called gratuities) the daily extra charge - but that HIA included tips on what you ate and drank - the 18% surcharge HAL adds to such things. Are you saying some HIA packages don't include tips?

Pretty sure tips included but not gratuities with ordinary HIA . Go to HAL website , then cruise deals, then have it all package. Explanation clearly says drink tips included (as would be expected by the receipt discussion above). I can't find where it says also included on dinners yet but think so. Should be clear from receipt you will sign there if you can wait that long

I suspect the OP will also not be cruising with HAL in the future - entirely justified - which may be another factor in HAL's response. If there is no chance of the cruiser returning, there is less incentive to try to make amends. Not saying that is right but rather that HAL makes business decisions. How many of us are going to change our cruise plans after reading this discussion?. The hater hate and the cheerleaders cheer and some of us just look for an itinerary and price we like.