vicd1969

T/A's generally won't be crowded in any case. If the T/A is originating from Europe, there may be a larger proportion of passengers who won't mask if it's optional. But still something between the good old days and "caution mode".

San Diego has the best west coast sail-away scenery for me, since I'm a naval history buff and there are plenty of navy ships plus the USS Midway is practically next to the cruise ship.

Before, there were more plated entrees and fewer sandwiches. It also was different than the lunch menu on the sea days. Nowadays if you missed the embarkation MDR lunch, you can go to the MDR on a sea day and see the same options. As for hours, others can confirm on the effective closing time, but I usually travel with a family group and it's hard to get everyone to muster on time for lunch. Plus sometimes you don't actually board until 12 PM, let's say, and between needing to rest a bit from the travel chaos in the morning plus having to do time-sensitive stuff like booking restaurant reservations, it's quite a rush to make it in time. It's certainly more feasible to make the hours if you're just travelling as a pair or solo.

If OP means the exterior dividers in the balconies, and not interior doors, absolutely no problem opening them up. We had 3 consecutive cabins and with 2 dividers opened, it made for an extra-wide balcony to view the fjords 😄

The MDR lunch menu is a bit underwhelming nowadays post-COVID. Plus the limited window of opening hours makes me prefer the lido plus dive-in. To avoid sitting in the crowded lido, I head to either the main swimming pool area or the aft non-smoking area. If on Pinnacle ships, the Dutch cafe is certainly a good option, if you don't mind waiting a few minutes longer for your food compared to Dive In or Lido buffet.

But one drawback is that on non-Pinnacle class ships, Lincoln Center is near the main dining room and has a lot of foot traffic passing by who don't always adhere to the "quiet please - performance going on" request.

While I'm a fan of HAL, I wouldn't want to go on the Zuiderdam 5-day either. HAL doesn't really focus on short Caribbean cruises, the one you are asking about is basically so that HAL can have all its ships sail during the highest peak fare pricing day of the year (New Year's). There are probably better New Year cruises if you wish to have more shipboard activities packed for 5 days. Key thing to note - the Zuiderdam is going on a 128-day world cruise right afterwards, so I imagine it will be a challenge for crew and ship operations to be intense and focused during the 5 days preceding.

I wonder if that is to allow some onshore new year’s eve activities on Amber Cove.

If Princess is cheaper by $700 for your family, i would go on Princess and use some of the savings on dining a few nights in the for-charge restaurants. Both lines do Alaska very well compared to the other mainstream lines. Make sure you choose the itinerary that goes to Glacier Bay.

HAL is not as competitive in its offering for mainstream Caribbean trips. Where it shines is Alaska, Europe, and other international destinations. You are looking at a 5-day trip on a cruise line that has a stronger reputation for 10+day itineraries. When you compare pricing, HAL isn't able to charge the premium that Celebrity, Princess, or even RCL charge on Caribbean cruises of 7-days or less. Also, if you are constrained and have only 5 or 6 days to spare, it won't really give you the similar experience of a normal HAL sailing. Princess may be the better multi-generation option for you, as CruiseMom42 suggested but I don't think they have a short 5 day cruise during New Year's.

There are some evening "game showy" activities of usually more adult nature. Those can be pretty fun. But the regular trivia on HAL is both low-key but challenging - you have a lot of "seasoned" travelers participating so the questions can be pretty difficult. On the longer cruises, you can build a nice friendship with your teammates, if you were strangers on the first day. The trivia contests are always held in a location where they serve drinks, so plan accordingly. 😉

Most of the time, teams are up to six people. Can be solo if you want. The trivia game host asks about 10-15 questions and you write down the answer. After all questions are asked, either you grade yourself or give your answer sheet to another team to grade. Like I said previously, prizes are well, trivial. My last cruise, we won a free alcoholic drink for each person on the team. We all had the beverage package though, lol.

The presentation by the cruise director on the history of Holland America is very interesting - it takes place at least once per cruise. Also if you are going to Alaska, the presentations on what to do onshore are worth your time as well. Trivia is pretty fun if you are social and not cut-throat competitive. Prizes are practically non-existent however. But HAL's ship activities are not its strong point. It's more for lower-key relaxation like sitting reading a book, walking the promenade deck or working on your photos from your awesome shore activities. Or working out in the very uncrowded gym with a great view of the sea.

Pretty sure Flight Ease doesn't do basic economy for international flights. Best way to make sure is get the airline booking code shown on Flight Ease page and then go to the airline's "manage your booking" page to verify.

21+ means OP has been a CC member for over 21 years. But let's direct our saltiness to the real villain in this post - The Holland America website. I was browsing around today and HAL botched the info on Tamarind - the website lists Westerdam and Zuiderdam as having it and left out Nieuw Statendam. https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/dining/tamarind.html

Guardsy, You may even upgrade further to a full unobstructed V balcony for about $25 per day per person with Club Orange. On the Koningsdam it may be worth it because Club Orange also includes a separate and smaller dining room that may be easier for your wife to access, along with other benefits like priority lines for checking in and guest services. If you just book normally the upgrade cost of a full unobstructed balcony is likely more than $25 per day.

Were you able to get any kind of reimbursement for the spa passes? Even though the spa technically is not a HAL service, hope you at least got some FCC. A spa pass isn’t a trivial amount.

Not just on the ship but you will find Alaska to be pretty lax on Covid restrictions. Unless OP intends to do hike in isolation in Alaska, they will have to deal with crowds in the excursions. But if they really wanted to avoid crowds on the ship during dining, room service is always a valid option for breakfast and dinner.

Like quite a few things from HAL, the wording is a bit confusing. That could just mean only gratuities related to casino services. It would have been clearer if they had placed gratuities before the “casino credits…”. That said, part of my gratuities were paid out from my shareholder benefit in the cruises where I didn’t use my OBC for much else.

More like Princess/Celebrity. Even on dressy nights, you can change to your comfortable clothes to attend the theater and music lounges. However, on European cruises with a large number of European passengers, expect the crowds to be dressed elegantly on the "dressy"/gala nights in the theaters and lounges. But nowhere near Cunard requirements.

Had no problem bringing aboard contigo or stainless steel bottles on board. While they were empty on embarkation, they had water in them when we returned from shore excursions and no one had any issues.

Yes, it's important that you don't print your boarding pass too early - you need the one with the bar code to be official. If departing from an overseas port, I would recommend printing them out instead of using your phone as there's no guarantee your wifi or cell connection is available. Assuming you're not flying in on the day of the overseas cruise, you likely can print out the pass at your hotel for free.

As a person of short stature, I never have good luck with bow viewing. Even if I secure a good spot early on, I am stuck in one place and it is not practical to move about if there is a large crowd. So the upper outside areas on decks 10 and 11 are favored for me.

Good to follow CrystalSpin's advice above. Since you're leaving from Rome, may as well buy the nice Italian fashions and wear it onboard.

On the Noordam, I'm not sure OP's cousins would get value from Club Orange, unless they have the lowest category of verandah currently booked and wish to move to a higher level of verandah. Also, they won't have a separate dining room either with Club Orange in addition to not having Neptune Lounge access.