relo

27 minutes ago, New2Cruisin71 said:

How far in advance can you add Club Orange? I am looking at a June 2025 sailing, but was told it is not available yet. 

We just booked this week our Alaska cruise for June 2025 on the Nieuw Amsterdam with Club Orange.

I booked directly via de Dutch HAL office. I took 4 calls to get the booking correct and add Club Orange and get the upgrade from inside guarentee inside to the cabin we wanted. 

When I called I  got answers/remarks like Club Orange is impossible on the Nieuw Amsterdam, what is Club Orange?, your Future Cruise Deposit doesn't qualify for the reduced deposit and the free upgrade is not for inside cabins.

To be honest it feels like that they haven't any clue about the product they sell and I had to tell them what is and isn't possible.

The extended dock is in use, although far from ready (no pavement, just gravel for example). Regent’s Seven Seas Voyager was moored at the existing dock, the Rotterdam at the extension of it when we were there last Friday. When we left the Rotterdam just sailed backwards until the point we could turn. That is of  course only possible when the other shipshape already left. 

1 minute ago, mets07 said:

I have always experienced what you are observing.  I simply pick a date/time and then go to a specialty restaurant as soon as onboard and get adjusted. You can usually get somewhat close to what you desire.

Thanks. I'm planning on doing that. The cruise is completely sold out. As most cruises at this moment aren't as I understand, it is difficult to relate to experiences on not sold out cruises . 

As far as I know we have the first boarding time (11:30 in Civitavecchia )  and I plan to do that first thing when we board.

2 minutes ago, crzndeb said:

Considering 6-7pm is a prime time for a lot of people to eat dinner, maybe those slots have already been filled. 

Thanks, but I doubt it because I have been monitoring the available times from the moment the cruise became available in my cruise planner. From the very first moment these were the only  times available. 

We have some late departures and overnights (Santorini 11pm and Mykonos 5am) and even on these nights it is the same although we suspect that many people will have diner on shore.

Hi,

In 'my cruise planner' for our our Odyssey cruise I can pre-book the specialty restaurants. But if I look at the available times I see that every restaurant has limited choice of times that you can reserve. I understand that Teppanyaki only has specific times due the nature of the restaurant. But for example Izumi is only available at 5:45, 7:30 & 9:00. Giovanni is only available at 5:30, 7:30 & 9:00. Chops on the other hand has several dining times I can choose but never 6:15, 6:30 or 7:00.

I find it odd you can't reserve these restaurant 6:30 for example. Are these times reserved for on board reservations?

Thanks!

1 hour ago, Gary5441 said:

Port of Bergen still shows the Rotterdam on the schedule for June 24th.  Feels like we are getting screwed for the convenience of the company.

 

CruiseDig isn't a an official port site, they just scrape the information from the different cruise company sites. they are not more accurate than the HAL site.

The official site for Bergen is: https://bergenhavn.no/en/cruise-en/call-schedules-cruise/ and for Stavanger https://www.stavangerhavn.no/en/maritim/cruise/

8 hours ago, Gary5441 said:

I don't know and I was only speculating that COVID was the cause. It just seemed rather coincidental with the itinerary change and mask requirements introduced on the same day as far as I can tell. 

They are not related. We are booked on the June 26th sailing and when researching the ports I always try to find the official port authority and hope to find out where we will be docked. 

I have a PDF from the Eidjford cruise port dated May 9th and on that date the Rotterdam was already scheduled for the 24th: https://hardangerfjord.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/Eidfjord-cruise-calls-2022-pr-09.05.2022.pdf

We also are supposed to stop in Bergen and since I started my research in April the Rotterdam is only scheduled there June 10th en July 18th. The same goes for our stop in Stavanger, not scheduled on the date were supposed to be there.

So I'm afraid that we also get a new itinerary in a few days, especially as our cruise has disappeared from the plan your cruise on the HAL site.

1 hour ago, macaroni said:

Many passengers need to be negative to get home….it’s easy to say that masking is not necessary if you don’t have to worry about flying home.

 

 

That’s why we canceled our Whittier to Vancouver cruise in June and stay in Europe. 

18 hours ago, albingirl said:

I'm not surprised.  Uptick everywhere.  Best to take all precautions, whether you are happy or not.

I'm surprised.

I don’t understand what you mean with uptick everywhere, but in the countries the Rotterdam is sailing the numbers are still declining and certainly not rising. almost everywhere in Europe there is no mask mandate on land except sometimes in hospitals. I don’t see the reason why not on the bus/train/cinema/theater/shops/etc on land but on a ship you need a mask.

15 hours ago, BJzink said:

- I have booked a 14 day Alaska for Sept. 2021, and there are several Zodiac tours available at this time.

That’s interesting. We were booked this June and had booked several zodiac tours on the scenic cruising days. One of the reasons to book the Maasdam. Due the cancellations we have moved it to June 2021. Until now there is not one zodiac tour scheduled on the scenic cruising Days. Only one excursion in Haines what looks like a HAL zodiac instead of a local operator.  Is there one for you for the Inian Island scenic cruising for example?

Maybe this is true in the USA. But I booked via the European office (Rotterdam) and couldn't add this although our final payment is in April. They state that as soon you have paid your deposit and the cancellation fees kick it is impossible to add it. Here the cancellation fees (20%) start at the moment that you have a reservation.

We stop during our cruise in Anchorage. We are in port from 10:00 til 22:00. Thinking about renting a car to do sightseeing and hiking in the area. I think our best option is to rent a car from the airport as they are longer open than downtown. It is difficult to find information about transportation from Port Anchorage to downtown or the airport as not many ships dock here. The questions I have are:

* will there be a shuttle bus from the port to downtown and where will it drop us. Are taxis available to the airport from this point?

* will there be taxis available in the port to take us to the airport and vice versa.

I hope somebody has some experience with this port and is willing to share it.

Thanks!

We are on the June 1st sailing and still have Haines on our itinerary. It is our first cruise to Alaska. Still not sure if Skagway is preferabele. The train excursion sounds fun, but I’m thinking about renting a car and drive to Haines Junction and do some trails along the way. 

2 minutes ago, JuliaMS said:

Does it include lunch on embarkation day? or on the second day of an overnight? We have 13 night cruise with only 2 sea days so wondering if that means only 2 lunches.

We didn't have lunch in the speciality restaurant on embarkation or on the one sea day we had.

Just returned. We had no problem with making reservation at the times we wanted. But our cruise was not sold out (about 3600 passengers were on board) so that could have contributed to the availability.

Thanks all for replying. I will try to remember to post our experiences after our cruise.

53 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

relo, if I were in your shoes, I would not worry. The chances of you getting all of the restaurants you want, at or near the times you want, are very high. 🙂

 

Thanks

Our flight arrives at 10:30 so will be difficult to board earlier 😀. On our Set SailPass  it states that check-in starts at 12:30.

Do they also have stand-by for the restaurants, in our experience with other cruises some people don't show up and their table keeps empty.

Hi,

I purchased the unlimited dining package for our Oasis 7 night cruise in a few weeks. We like to try different restaurants and usually prefer the specialty restaurants over the main dining room. The price was $180 pp and with the 40% discount on bottle of wines in the restaurant this looks like a good deal. 

But I'm a little worried about to be able to make reservations at our preferred time between 7 and 8 pm. Do they keep part of the inventory open for bookings after boarding? 

We will be in the cruise terminal around 11:30/12:00 (Barcelona). This is the first time on RCI, but are platinum due our status with Celebrity. I understand that with platinum we have some priority on boarding. The plan is as soon as we have boarded to make the reservations for all nights.

Thanks!

7 minutes ago, LXA350 said:

this will probablyy just work out fory you, last passengers (Tag numbers) shoud be heading our between 09:30 and 10:00 latest

Thanks

We are on the Oasis in august this year and disembark in Barcelona. I know that there is a stay on board program which allows you to stay longer on board. But does anyone know what is the latest that you can disembark without that program. We will have only hand luggage so I assume we can ignore the luggage tag numbers and just leave at the last moment. Our flight is at 13:20 so we would like to disembark around 10:00 and catch a taxi to the airport.

Thanks  

5 hours ago, Miaminice said:

@relo

 

Here is the answer to your question: Taiwan is OK.

 

In order to take advantage of any China transit visa (72-hour or 144-hour), your original place of departure and your final destination must be different countries/regions. Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau count as a “different country/region” in this case.

 

Find more info here (and on many other sites): 

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/tour/visa/free-transit-144-hours.htm

 

Quote:

What is an eligible transit route?

A → B: one of three areas in Mainland China → C

 

 A and C should be different countries or regions out of Mainland China.
* Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan can be the Destination A or C, so the route "UK-Shanghai-Hong Kong" is acceptable as the typical route "US-Hangzhou-Japan".

 

 

@Miaminice thanks for the answer and the site

3 hours ago, Stickman1990 said:

 

 

What's confusing about the question?

 

1. What port are you in prior to arriving in China? - Taipei (Taiwan)

2. Where are you going to be in China? Shanghai

3. Where is the first place you are flying to after stopping in China? I think they are actually cruising - to Japan 

 

So that looks like a valid itinerary for the 144 hour Visa exception  - except they are questioning whether Taipei, Taiwan is recognised as another country by China. If not then I agree we need to know what country they are coming from before the Hong Kong visit

 

Any experience with the Taiwan issue? 

 

 

 

Thanks so far.

Our complete itinerary in a nutshell is:

fly from The Netherlands to Japan - visit Tokyo & Kyoto - fly from Japan to Hongkong - Visit Macau - start the cruise in Hongkong - Taipei (Taiwan) - Shanghai - Kochi (Japan) - Osaka (Japan) - Shimizu (Japan) - end cruise in Yokohama (Japan) and fly back to The Netherlands 

I'm still trying to figure out if we qualify for the 144 hour visa free transit. It is difficult to find any information because we don't have a typical itinerary for our cruise. We start in Hongkong, then go to Taipei (Taiwan), Shanghai (2pm till 4pm next day) and then to Japan. So far I haven't found another cruise that does this route.

The question is if Taiwan is considered a third country like Hongkong. I don't think you can compare them for the free transit, China considers Taiwan as a part of it (One-China-Policy) and most countries don't recognize Taiwan as an independent  state.

Hope someone has some insight or directions where I can get more info about this.

Thanks

In that case I wouldn't be surprised if it is also chartered on the week following that one. Golden Week in Japan starts on Monday 29th; it was chartered for Golden Week this year.

If it also chartered for that week it will be by another organisation. I don't know anything about that.