REOVA

AH the COVID ship (Reading "Cabin Fever" right now. A interesting perspective from our experience on a different ship at the beginning of the pandemic, even with their creative liberties included). We had over 200 cases a few weeks aqo on the VoV so mask up. It will hide your grouchy snarl as well when they ask you to sanitize 🤣 Probably more cases were onboard but many people rather spread the "love" than get tested and quarantine for 6 days. (We elected the later). Glenn Michael used to be the HAL piano payer and has moved up over the many years. He did treat everyone to a sing along one night when the piano player was out. Fernanda was our Music Trivia host and it was funny to hear her pronounce the songs and artists from the 60's and 70's, as if they were from a fairy tale (long ago and far far away). We only had to show our card at deck 3 and watch safety video on TV, are they back to full muster? Speaking of TVs, supposedly the new TVs were on the dock waiting for installation (Supply chain delay) so you may get a choice of more than 4 channels now. Enjoy and safe travels.

If you have specific excursion allowance then you have to select to use that before you go to payment page. If its not specific for excursion ($200 per person) and its just onboard credit you can't book it prior to boarding (not being onboard). Once onboard you have 2 accounts, onboard credits which must be used by end of cruise or you lose it, and your credit card which you get any unused balance back. I booked everything prior to boarding on my credit card so it won't be sold out and then was able to go onboard and check which tours were not waitlisted or close to full (sitting with the excursion desk) and they could cancel the prepaid booking and rebook it from the onboard account. (You also need to look at what you paid and current onboard prices as they may have increased). The cancelled booking went back to credit card account (which I got back end of cruise) and I was able to use all of my onboard credits.

If you go to your booking and find an excursion, it should give you an option to use your HIA credit. If you have some left over it will show the balance of credit remaining.

Sadly for the Casino workers, the tables (Blackjack, Poker, Roulette, Craps) where empty most of the VoV cruise. Black Jack did have some players at night but they couldn't get enough signed up for tournaments. I remember years ago a dealer telling me he couldn't wait for his next contract on Carnival because HAL doesn't have the players. I think it depends on the itinerary and specific passengers on that cruise. I've seen standing room only crowds and also ghost town.

Great location and plenty to eat/see within walking distance. Sounds like you are off to a great start.

Just off the VoV a few weeks ago so its really a T/A both ways. Masks were not required initially but many people still wore them (Crew required) and then COVID cases with about 200 out of 1100 passengers so masks were required most of the trip until cases went down about a week at the end (many people don't get tested, just like to cough, for fear of quarantine, We ended up in quarantine for 6 days. The decision to mask supposedly is Captain and Medical but Captain said it was CCL Corp directive in this case. We were about 80% capacity so they ran out of quarantine rooms and people quarantined in their cabins, but VoV is a popular cruise. Ship had many crew down with COVID as well and were moving crew around to cover open positions (and training).

We had a 10:55 flight a few weeks ago and went with the HAL airport shuttle. It was about $35/pp but was very smooth and got to Airport 2 hours early with 4 bags to check plus carry on. No hassle or worry about timing or construction in the tunnel on weekends.

Was just on VoV for 35 days and cost pre board was quoted at $319.99 for premium wifi and went up to $399.99 onboard.

Had the same issue with VeriFly. Called and they said to delete the app and download it again. Same thing happened and they said they could not help me since it was so close to departure (2 days) and to bring hard copies to embarkation. So we ended up doing the slow line in Boston to get on board while Verifly passengers whizzed through. Good luck as it does speed up boarding process if it works.

So price for CO would be the same for an ocean view as for a V category for same #days of sailing and your upgrade cabin would just be in the same meta category? (Unless you wanted to pay upgrade to next cabin category which I believe would be discounted if you already paid for CO...so OP might ask for a discount if staying in booked cabin). We've never needed to use the CO program but it's interesting to see how they price it.

Club Orange is just an add on pricewise so you can keep your cabin but I think the price is different depending on your cabin, unless someone can correct me.

If not you can always go to excursion desk once on board and cancel excursions and rebook. They will credit back to pre-board card (or how you prepaid for them) and deduct from onboard credit. Just make sure they are not waitlisted so you don't lose them and check that prices onboard haven't increased from prepaid price.

Depends on ship and balcony. The newer ships Neptune, Signature and Vista balconies have smaller end openings which leaves a little privacy still but the older ships open in center, closer to the cabin wall. Was just on Zaandam and the door wasn't locked and started banging the chairs into the wall in the middle of the night until they locked it the next morning. Depends on how open/connected you want to be to decide which ship and balcony to choose. Once @reposado gets confirmation HAL will still allow it, its easy to see photos and videos of different cabin balconies to see how the layout is.

They did before COVID and I believe someone asked on this board and its was yes. However not sure how that would work if you have to Quarantine in the room. We had to for 6 days together last month even though I tested negative because of "close contact". Depending on the ship and cabin size it may be just 1 small panel opened at the railing. You can either contact your TA or HAL to get confirmation.

Thanks Sharon. That's what I see but I wonder if they have specific rooms/locations for the other layouts like on Koningsdam. I know Aft and Forward and Accessible cabins are slightly different. Who is in the Concierge Lounge, maybe they know if any cabins have the 3 sinks. I cannot get any answers from HAL or online and the FC Consultant is new and is going by the diagram so a bit hesitant.

I pulled it from NS on the HAL website. Is your cabin going to have the third sink area? Thanks.

Yeah all I have found so far are the standard layout in the videos. Not sure why HAL advertises the 3rd sink layout. Thanks Pete.

Pete, Great photos as usual. We just did VoV so good to relive some of those ports (85' here and no fog, back to summer). Our FC Consultant recommended Neptune suite on NS for 3 adults based on the website advertised layout which shows a separate WC/sink (similar to Prinsendam suites) but I didn't think HAL's Pinnacle ships have this layout. Is there someone in the Neptune Concierge Lounge that you can confirm they have this layout in Neptune Suites?

You should make that request now on the website so they will be ready and remind the concierge when onboard .

Depending on where you are cruising, it may not be worth it due to lack of service at sea. You might be cheaper to use your cell phone data at port for any higher speed needed. The length of cruise also determines upgrade cost. I would call HAL to find out the cost (if you are longer than 3 days from departing). I know our last HIA did not include wifi and the price booking pre board to after onboard increased so it was cheaper booking 3 days before embarking.

We both would get 4 cans of water (all I could carry lol at a time) but I am not sure if they limit each time, just per day. I would order a double of any alcohol (wine) each time.

Cheers to the Cap't and crew.... Just returned from the VoV where we had 2 helicopter medevac'uees on our cruise. They have performed well, thanks and prayers to those involved. Glad you are enjoying Zaandam and congrats on another year together.

Pre cruise, I did mostly private tours. Post COVID, we booked all excursions online prior to boarding just in case Ports didn't allow getting off unless excursion booked. (not likely now with cases down). So we knew we had a tour once we got on the ship that wasn't sold out. Once on the ship we noticed the prices they were charging on some tours increased so we got the lower price booking prior. There really are 2 accounts in your statement 1 - onboard credits 2 - credit card. If you do not use your onboard credits, you lose them. Pre-booked tours are not deducted from onboard credit so once on board, we checked with excursion desk to see which tours had no price increases and were not waitlisted. We cancelled those tours (credited back to credit card) and rebooked them (deducted from onboard credit) since we had to use our onboard credit. We also had cancelled (pre booked) tours on board due to quarantine that went back to credit card.

We used our SBP on last cruise this month and it included 15 per day of any drink under $11 which includes, hot chocolate (were were in Arctic), coffee, cans of water, soda, milk shakes (at the pool bar), and alcohol. Not sure if its the same on all ships but this worked for us even though DW is not much of an alcohol drinker.

Was also on VoV just got off last week. When in that area of the world, reception is poor so bringing your own is advised. The hotel manager said the ship is wired for the new system but due to "supply chain" issues new TV/components won't be in until September. I know people have downloaded/streamed shows to their devices and watched during the cruise and our TV did have a USB port visible on the side but not sure if its usable as we did not try it.