RMLincoln

I can't speak about music being played in the lounges as we stayed away' date=' but we have found Cunard ship a have wonderful classical concerts in the afternoon on sea days. We spent 6 weeks on the Queen Elizabeth last winter and thoroughly enjoyed the concerts.

 

Barbara M. In NH[/quote']

 

Thank you! Good to know as we are looking at Cunard possibilities for fall, both TA and Med. Would be worth the extra money (if any... there are some very good deals out there compared to HAL just now, e.g. Maasdam, Prinsendam) to have classical music. We would love it! m--

We had the duo on Volendam last fall. They were very good and the violinist played solo in the MDR on formal nights while the pianist played solo in Explorers until after dinner when the violinist joined her for their late set.

We very much miss the string quartets! Classical music is one of the things that makes the traditional cruise experience classy, in my opinion, many will feel differently. I think it's just one of many budget cuts that change the feel of the experience, so if we want classical music we'll have to find other places and ways but probably not on cruise ships much longer. At least not at the prices we're paying. On our first cruise we were very impressed with the variety of music and we had a string quartet in 2003 on Carnival Spirit to Alaska! It was part of what hooked us!

For comparison:

We had a lovely string trio on Celebrity Solstice in November 2013 but the venue they were placed in was horrible - the bar just outside one of the specialty dining rooms. There was constant traffic between the performers and where we could sit to listen, plus the noise of the bar and the drink mixers was too much competition.

On Ocean Princess in January we had no classical musicians, but in general the music was very limited, as are many things on such a small ship.

Anyone have experiences to share from other cruise lines? I'd be interested to hear what's happening with classical music in the cruise industry. Thx, m--

When we were in Code Red on Amsterdam they closed the Thermal suite, closed the library, took all the magazine in and all the brochures in the future cruise racks and shore excursions.... just about anything that could be touched. But they let us use the deck chairs :)

Whatever the circumstances, it's hard to have a bad day on a cruise ship... that is, unless you are the one with noro :0

m--

Thank you for the detailed review. I've been looking at the Canada/New England itinerary so this was helpful.

About soda in the morning... wasn't there a mini-bar in the suite? HAL has kept sodas in our non-suite rooms, even if there is no frig, but I suppose one can ask for ice from room service. Sorry it was a difficulty for you, one that would seem simple enough to fix. Disappointing.

There were 3 different kinds of salsa on our last cruise at the omelet station at breakfast.

Yea, now that's progress!

I have a few random questions that I haven't been able to find an answer for yet. We are on the Oosterdam.

 

1. Ladies...do you carry a purse on board? I can't decide what I want to do here. I wear a lot of dresses, so I won't always have a pocket for my key card. What have you found to be most convenient? Lanyard, purse..nothing??

I use a lanyard for my ship card most of the time. During the day on board I carry a small cotton flat tote with my book, water bottle, maybe a hat etc. To dinner in the MDR I use a very compact purse on a shoulder cord so I can hang it over the chair back and not have to worry about it sliding off my lap or getting tangled on the floor tripping people. I carry in it: my ship card, maybe my small, pocket sized camera, maybe a chap stick and small hankie.

2. Does HAL have cholula or picante sauce in the MDR or Lido for breakfast?

I'm from New Mexico where chile and picante are part of all meals! but never saw it on HAL except on their pool area tacos etc buffet. But you may ask and get it that way.

3. My husband would like to know where he can get coffee during the day. Is it served all day in the Lido or will he have to go to the specialty coffee place? Free coffee is available all day in the buffet or through room service.

4. Are the curtains in the SY suite blackout? We all rise with the sun, which I really do not want to do in Alaska ;). Should we plan on bringing garbage bags, painters tape and clothespins?

 

Have no clue about the suites but I use an eye shade :) Much smaller and neater than garbage bags....

 

5. Do the midship elevators have glass doors? Do they go to all floors?

They are in a shaft that has glass windows for the upper floors, but no glass doors. The are 2 or 3 lower floors of the elevator shaft are not glass but are decorated to look a bit undersea, cute.

 

6. I'm debating buying a wine package or just buying wine in Vancouver and paying corkage. Is it cost-prohibitive to buy wine in Vancouver? Are taxes outrageous/exchange rate? I'm considering the cellar master package because the wine tastings and pinnacle were on my to do list already.

 

Can't help you here.

 

7. Don't laugh or flame..but my husband wants to know what there is to do on board. We are in our early 40's. He always feels a bit trapped on sea days. He is the kind of guy who has a hard time relaxing. The activities I'm aware of now are the movie theater, mixology classes, cooking classes, wine tastings, trivia. Anything else he might like??

 

I don't know what he might like.... but I like most of the lectures, reading in a deck chair, doing a bit of exercising, especially afternoon trivia, many play cards or other games, my DH gets caught up in the jigsaw puzzles plus he brings DVD courses on long cruises, or you can check out DVDs form the extensive library (no charges yet)... plus a swim or a hot tub soak, maybe join in or watch some of the deck games, oh and it must be about time to eat again!

 

8. I was going to have my kids wear khakis in the MDR, but after reading about how casual it is... would jeans and polos be ok for them? They have tuxes for formal night.

I don't know their ages but our grandkids (then 9-15) wore pants that were not jeans in Alaska except for maybe one casual jeans night and nobody said anything to them; they looked neat, were with us and they were well behaved which always goes a long way. They dressed up for formal nights. I'd try to pack light, pack light and pack light. Don't make it more complicated than you have to, it is a vacation.

 

 

Thank you all in advance. :)

Have a grand time! I think Oosterdam is such an elegant ship! m--

We usually wear "convertible" cargo pants when travelling; these have multiple zippered or at least Velcro closure pockets including the cargo pocket on the side of the thigh. We carry cash and credit cards etc in the zippered cargo pocket. If we are wearing jeans we use security pouches for cash and credit cards... I have one that loops over my pants belt and tucks into the waist, DH has one that he wears around his waist under his shirt... I like mine better, more easily accessible. Have yet to have a problem with pickpockets (knock wood). m--

If you are looking for a ShorEx that is not listed, ask on your CC roll call (people going on your specific cruise with you) to see if other folks might be interested injoining in on an alternative shore excursion arranged for privately in advance of your sailing. m--

It's a dinner. A dinner of international flavors. So HAL puts out flags to decorate the tables. The flags aren't there to commemorate war heroes or war villains. The flags are to bring an international flavor to the dining room to complement the international flavors of the foods.

It's unfortunate for HAL, and perhaps insensitive, that they picked D-Day for the International Dinner, an emotional day for many nations peoples. And it's unfortunate that HAL didn't make the intent of the dinner clear at the time, doubly insensitive that they didn't address this in their reply to a letter to their Customer Service. sigh The cruise world can't be everything to everybody.

IMHO, it's hard to have a bad day on cruise ship, especially if you don't have to go the infirmary! I may be sad that the OP didn't get a satisfactory reply to their letter, but not surprised.

m--

Thanks for your great review and comparison.

 

We are Elite on Princess as well, but have taken the majority of our recent cruises on HAL. We will be returning to Princess soon to use a future cruise deposit. It is good to hear from a Princess loyal that things still seem on par with HAL. Based on our experiences, your observations seemed spot on, though I will add that IMO Princess' pizza beats HAL's hands down! :D

But now don't you have to pay extra for Princess pizza? In Alfredo's I believe they are charging now, the coming trend apparently. :( m--

We had horrible internet service on Volendam, LA to Sydney. Internet was out for days. They said it was due to the lack of a satellite signal as we crossed the ocean. Paid $100 + $3.95 for 250 minutes. Had so much trouble using it when it was "up" that we used our port days to go find real internet. The HAL internet person was very sweet but almost useless, much like their internet signal.

We sailed back east-bound on Ocean Princess across the same ocean; had free 250 minutes each as Platinum and never were we without a signal! HAL's system just doesn't seem to be up to par by my experiences in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. Can't say about other places. m--

Thank you Ron for your thorough review. Have to agree with most of what you said too. Glad you enjoyed your cruise! m--

Our experiences are similar to KirkNC's above. We did a long trip of 4 months last Oct - Jan which included cruises on HAL, X and Princess (Australia - New Zealand - and back). Most of our cruising has been on HAL but twice on Celebrity which has bigger ships. This provides for more entertainment options. We have enjoyed X's lecturers and we find their Open Dining option to be well perfected - the best! X's rooms are similar and even insides (most, but do check your particular ship if this is a desirable) have a couch. Our balcony on Solstice did not have loungers, just chairs, not even foot stools, a bit disappointing. Shore excursions are similar and similarly priced in that I don't think you'd notice much difference. We have found that X can have very limited evening food offerings in the buffet (the case for us on Constellation but not so on Solstice, so it varies). The buffet had a very good array of food, easy to navigate but difficult to find seating at peak times.

Celebrity has very good to excellent food, most especially so if you are will to pay the extra $30 - $40 or more for specialty dining. I find the passengers to be a more outgoing crowd, more folks in the bars in the evenings than on HAL, maybe because of X's drinks packages.

Entertainment on X may be more comparable to Princess than to HAL but we gravitate to HAL's classical music which is mostly disappearing from ships these days - on Solstice, our last X ship, there was a classical trio but in a horrible venue so it was hardly worth trying to listen to, oh well.

Down sides of Celebrity for us: We have to pay our hotel gratuity up front at final payment if we reserve Open Dining, not a deal-breaker but less convenient; we don't get our stock-holders benefit for holding 100 shares of CCL stock.

If you have an itinerary you like at a price you can deal with I'd say give it a try. m--

Not sure of your itinerary but here's what happened to me once several years ago:

We were travelling from US western states to visit family in US eastern states and crossed into Canada along the way, touring. I brought a case of our local wines with us to give as gifts to family in the US east. At the Canadian border crossing we were allowed to have them store our case of wine at no charge, but of course we had to pick it up at the same border crossing which changed our itinerary a little but not a lot (we were touring in the very beautiful Nova Scotia area.) Enjoy your Alaska/Yukon tour!

m--

Thank you Penguin for your very well done review. I've had many good days and nights on Maasdam (a b2b2b for 35 nights and a 11 night introduction!), my first HAL ship and am quite fond of her. I hope HAL can keep her going for quite a few more years.

Yes, the room stewards are overscheduled with 30 rooms for a team of two (as I've been told more than once on different ships, Maasdam and twice on Volendam). Too much I think but they didn't ask me.... :) Glad you had a good experience and that HAL is still serving those up!

m--

Oh I was missing something! I forgot that Veendam has the Retreat instead of the aft pool. But the DVDs deal is great! I've done all the Harry Potter movies on HAL ships! :)

The retreat is the kids only area. If you want to watch movies together you can pick from over a thousand DVDs and watch what you want in your cabin together any time, no charge, just turn them back into the front desk. Or am I missing something....

You can use your cell phone in port on your own service, not the ship's service, in any port that your cell service has a signal. For smart phones be sure to turn the phone off as the ship leaves port so as not to rack up huge costs for data through the ship's service. Others can answer more detailed questions.

The cost for the soda card is $5.18/day, including gratuity, not $5.75. :) http://www.princess.com/learn/onboard/gifts_services/cellars_culinarydelights/princess_cellars/index.jsp

Sorry, I was putting the tip on the $5 as the OP indicated. I don't drink soda, so just doing the math. Better to have the more accurate info. m--

#1 - get an itinerary with as many opportunities for glaciers. Glacier Bay is the premium glacier viewing.

#2 - Go in and out of Vancouver if you can swing it. The scenery is better and ride is better. it can be a rough ride going out of Seattle and out to open sea on the west side of Vancouver Island.

That said, it's not always easy to go out of Vancouver. We've driven it up from Seattle and parked at the pier twice. And I'd do it again. But coming from Michigan you are probably flying and flying into and out of Vancouver can be more expensive and worse connections. Look at that too.

The ships are too similar to matter, IMO. It's the itinerary that will make or break your vacation.

The 15% gratuity in on the $5/day, so, per day the cost is $5.75, then multiply by the number of days of the cruise for the cost of the card.

Have really enjoyed the southern Caribbean ports, especially the ABC islands and St Lucia. But what are the goals of your cruise? How will you and your companions share your time? Do you want to drink a lot? have fancy dinners? Celebrity may have a better plan. Just the cruise basics and enjoy the ports more? Adventure may win. Either way, you enjoy your cruise. m--

I've cruised with Milos (pronounced Me-losh) twice, once on Constellation in Caribbean and once on Solstice, Australia to NZ. Both times have fully enjoyed every session he had, including some star-gazing when conditions allowed. He's more science than history but very broad knowledge and very fun. m--

We were on Solstice out of Sydney Nov 25 2013 to Auckland, 12 nights. It was cool and rainy in Sydney for our day and overnight there; sunny and quite hot in Melbourne. The crossing to NZ and the fiords were clear and lovely but we did have cold, wet and windy in Wellington, pelting rain mixed with a few snow flurries. The very nice umbrellas that Celebrity allows you to take form your stateroom were useless in the wind! Bring a hooded rain jacket and a fleece vest for the cold and wet; convertible pants that have zip-off legs and convert to shorts are great for varied weather conditions. The rest of our ports were sunny and comfortable. We didn't have mosquitos and only had sand flies on our land tour to the fiords (after the cruise), not while on ship. I'd recommend dressing as comfortably and simply for dinner as you can, repeating outfits is fine, change a few accessories, remembering that packing fewer clothes usually makes it easier. Hope you enjoy this amazing cruise. m--

Enjoyed the three comparisons. We are going to be on the Volendam in Sept. on a similar cruise. We were wondering if you could comment on any of the tours you may have taken or at least recommend some. Are the towns interesting enough to just do a walk about?

I don't know your itinerary so I'll list our port calls and what we did:

Hilo - shuttle bus to shopping center to use free WiFi; previously have taken Princess 1/2 day ShoreEx to excellent botanical gardens. Have also rented a car and driven up to the volcanoes, excellent choice. Bring your National Parks Pass. Easy to get the car with shuttles to the airport but be aware of how much time you have to work with, some ships are only in Hilo for a half day. Or take the ship tour and leave the driving to them.

Honolulu - walked to free WiFi ; but previously have taken "The Bus" (the local island bus, costs $2.50 pp each way or $1.25 with a Medicare card)both to Pearl Harbor (have done this now 3 times and well worth doing at least once) and to Waikiki. I'd take the bus again and that way you have more time in the museum at Pearl, but you must go first thing in the morning because they give out time-slot tickets for the launch that goes out into the harbor to the USS Arizona Memorial which is built over the sunken ship. If you go later in the day the tickets may be for several hours later or may be all given out. I think Pearl Harbor is free or we used our National Parks Pass, check on line. Have taken "The Bus" after lunch on board over to Waikiki for the afternoon and/or evening. Lots to do there. Some took "The Bus" around the island for an all-day tour but it's difficult to hop on hop off as these circle island buses don't run very often - check on line for the schedule. Shore excursions will go out to the Polynesian Cultural center which can be hard to get to on your own. it's pricey any way you go but will give you an excellent oversight of the many Polynesian places you will see on a S. Pacific cruise. We have rented a car which is easy on most Hawaiian islands. Bring or rent a Garmin. There are shuttles from the cruise dock to the nearby airport where you pick up the rental. This was a grand way to see the island, cheap too but more for the adventurous do it yourselfer. Remember never leave anything in a rental car in Hawaii, High theft rate.

Pago Pago - we did a ship tour half day bus tour overview and got to see some nice sights, would recommend and glad we did it but it was average to +

Suva Fiji - It was Sunday and most things were closed. We hired a taxi for $50 and he drove us around for a couple of hours, very nice, safe, easy, he showed us some good sights but again average or + for this sort of thing.

Port Vila Vanuatu - we walked to town and up to a high hill which had a memorial on it, took panorama pictures and walked back. Would never do that again. it was long, very hot with lots of aggressive vendors (think Jamaica) so that on our way out we had to walk the gauntlet for the first half mile. I'd take a taxi next time to town which is colorful with tons of shops including the huge local market.

Lifou New Caledonia - A picture perfect beach where I went snorkeling (not great snorkeling but lovely) and DH walked to a couple of picturesque churches to take photos. Better snorkeling was in the lagoon on the other side, a longer walk and $15 pp for use, bring your own gear. or take ship tour and enjoy the lagoon fish and coral, may be the only lagoon snorkel you get to do, depending on your itinerary.

Noumea New Caledonia - A city. We hired a mini-bus tour outside the cruise terminal for a ride around the area and had a very nice tour and commentary for $20 for both of us, but needed French Polynesian francs from the ATM.

Sydney - there's so much to do in Syndey I couldn't believe that many on our ship were going straight to the airport to fly all the way home. Stay a few days and take in the history at "The Rocks" museum (small but very well done, I went back twice), ferry across the harbor to Manly Beach (skip the outrageously priced dinner cruise, you'll do better taking any ferry and buying any dinner of your choice), take a tour of the Opera House, take a day trip out to the Blue Mountains (2 hours each way on the city train) or any of a hundred other things to do there. Buy a transit pass for the number of days you'll be there. It's a magnificent city, very friendly and helpful people, worth spending some in.

I hope these ideas help you, follow up questions and I'll do my best, but check out your roll call and the ports of call forums on CC for more info and ideas. m--