12cruise2

I've seen your magnetic hanging shelves. Under the bed, eh? Not in any cabin I've been in. With the big wooden box that HAL has under the foot of each bed, the room under the bed is seriously reduced for our own use. Thank you for writing this blog; enjoy your cruise; bon voyage.

I have to ask the obvious--where are you going to put all the stuff you brought?

We spent four weeks on the Nieuw Amsterdam Nov/Dec. We still enjoy the NY Times Puzzle. This time, you tell the front desk, and every morning by 8:00 a.m., it is delivered to your stateroom. Sweet!

We always get off when they call our luggage tag, even though we are four star. Better to get out to the luggage first ahead of others. Also, we always put ribbons on the top handle of the suitcase. Painting stuff on the side, etc. can't be seen the way they stack the luggage, so we are sure to put something on the top handle, as well as the side handle. I'm sure air tags would be great. Yes, we got away with someone else's bag--same sort of story as above. My husband doesn't really know our suitcases or pack anything. After an 89-day around Africa, we got off in Miami and I pointed to a case across the luggage hall--they use carousels at the Miami Princess terminal. It was silver and had red ribbons, he didn't know the difference in the ribbon type, and pulled it, and put it on the bottom of three suitcases on a luggage trolley. Of course I didn't check it, dumb. We get to the Princess shuttle bus to Fort Lauderdale airport and waited for it to fill up. Pretty soon one of the port workers came out and called me name; they had figured out that I got someone else's bag because it looked just like the other peoples' bag and mine was the only one left in the luggage hall. Problem is, they could take their bag from me after I waited out front the terminal, but because they didn't take my bag through CBP, they wouldn't give me our bag. Grrrr. Long story short, Princess agreed to pay for shipping, put some much less weight amount (like 20 lbs) on the airbill, and shipped it to me. And it was broken, but at least I got it back, and at least it was on the way home.

No. At least not on the Nieuw Amsterdam, Eurodam and Zuiderdam that we have been on.

I, too, now book separate outbound and return flights. Round-trip flights are too much hassle if something needs to be changed, or if as pointed out above, you don't take your outbound flight, then they (probably will) cancel your return, and that's not just on Southwest but other airlines as well.

I completely agree with azalice above. We like the base fare; then, if we want to add a specialty dinner to the mix when we are on board, we can; it's much cheaper than adding the HIA providing liquor we don't drink and more big meals in specialty restaurants that we can't really enjoy as we, too, eat smaller portions. We do provide the $600 deposit, however, so that it is refundable, especially when you're booking so far out. We always book with a huge travel agency that already has lower fares than HAL directly. November 2021 I got a quote from the future cruise consultant onboard for a February 2022 oceanview cabin for three on the same ship. When I got home, I booked through a huge cruise travel agency and saved more than 40% for the same booking than buying the cruise from the future cruise consultant onboard. And I always book a specific cabin; no guarantees; too risky where one will end up with noises below/above, rock and roll of the ship, etc. (Hi, Dave OKC--met you at the Mariner's cocktail party in August on the Eurodam to Alaska--happy holidays!)

Which is exactly why I ALWAYS make hotel res. for a location the moment I know I need an overnight or two reservation--the holidays can make hotel res. impossible to get closer to the time for sure, especially road trips and such. You can always cancel the res.; I never buy the non-refundable fares.

If the first bartender won't take it for other than the real Mariner cocktail, go to another bar/bartender. Rather than make a fuss, we have had to do that once or twice and it's worked out for us.

Aren't there family cabanas on each corner?

Reliability can depend on where you are on the ship; our cabin isn't always a good location; sometimes by guest services or up in the Lido is better. For sure early mornings are usually good. I have used, tried to use, internet at various times and I agree with comments above, you cannot depend on availability or access at any time. If I had work to do, there would have to be another way that is more reliable. We paid $179 for premium plan purchased in advance for 14 days last month on the NA.

Here's what we do dining wise. We take the anytime dining in the Main Dining Room, not fixed. We like to eat early, so we go before they open, wait a few minutes, and ask for a table for two (ask for one in your favorite area of the ship). You'll be seated, and if you're happy, as you walk out, ask the host at the check-in desk if you can have that table every night at 5:30, say. Usually works out for us just fine. We have never found the need to buy Club Orange; most things you pay for are really available to all for free. And we don't need another pasta dish added to a menu that already has 1-2 pasta dishes these days. We are elite (highest level) on Princess and have given up cruising on them because we don't like the large ships and the way they are laid out. They have no comfortable place for us to be outside, in the shade, in peace and quiet. Needless to say, we don't usually book a balcony, but that would help. The stiff, no-cushion lounge chairs just don't work for us. We don't cruise for the entertainment, so I can't speak to that. As you cruise more, you'll find that the large ships can't get into as many ports as the smaller ships; that's what got us to Holland America, even though at the time Princess had 650-passenger ships that we sailed on many times, but no more. And HAL sold many of its 1250 passenger ships during the pandemic. The 1250-passenger ones they have left can leave a few things to be desired. You'll also find that HAL and Princess could have similar itineraries, but HAL stops at more ports on that particular itinerary, which we like.

Whatever the "various sources" say, we don't like to eat that way with 15 mins. between courses; we let our waiters know up front that we'd like to keep moving on; finally, the last fellow got our desserts at his station ready for us while we enjoyed our main course. As I said, the first three weeks, we didn't have to mention anything to the waiters to be served more quickly, and we were at the same table the entire four weeks. And the last week, the people at the two-top next to us wanted to drink and take their meal slowly and told our waiter as much.

We got off the Nieuw Amsterdam a week ago; we are in open seating and arrive at the opening time and sit at the same table each night. Three out of the four weeks, we got 2-3 courses and were finished by 6-6:15 (from the 5:10 opening time). The fourth week (they changed waiters every WEEK!), the waiter would hold back, hold back before getting courses and leave us sitting for 15 mins. between courses; somehow the other three waiters did it seamlessly, and we were in the far corner, farthest from the galley, aft at the window. Needless to say, we like to be able to keep on eating to the finish, not sit for a long time between courses. My initial impression the first three weeks was that they'd really gotten their act together to serve the meal more quickly. The one thing that really messed everything up was there was one table for 10, or 11 with a baby/high chair, among our group of several two-top tables. The asst. maitre d' even got involved to help with the large table. And of course the large table wanted pictures taken of themselves, a few drinks, all sorts of extra things. Thankfully, that fourth week, that happened only one night.

We just got off the Nieuw Amsterdam last week after four weeks on board--two in 4149 and then moved to two weeks in 4139. The second week of 4139, seas got rocky-rolly; we had a LOUD, bang/pop, then two more, then maybe one-two more in the wall between the sofa and the balcony, the interior/exterior wall, and up near the ceiling. Finally I went to guest services and one of the nice chaps came with me to the cabin as the sea was rocking; he, too, agreed the noise was definitely inside the wall. I insisted this need to be fixed, especially for future guests in the stateroom. I know several of the ladies, including two supervisors, who work at the front desk, from prior cruises. Two "maintenance" men showed up with the infamous shims--no, it's not a vibration sound, tho we had two of those, one of which I fixed myself. It definitely is in the high wall, and the next door cabin also was complaining. It was loud enough to awaken you and went on during the day as well when there was motion in the ocean. By now, we are 2-3 days before the end of our four weeks, and the seas calmed down. Of course, the maintenance guys agreed the noise was coming from inside the wall, that it wasn't a shim-repairable vibration noise, but said they couldn't just open the walls, that they had to talk with their bosses. As per usual, guest services left us a letter late that evening saying "they'd tried to reach us but couldn't"--not true, no phone message, nothing; this wording has occurred on previous cruises re resolution to a problem. Anyway, I knew we didn't want to move with only two days left, and the seas had calmed, so we remained in the cabin; I did not contact the front desk to hear their resolution; had we been going to be on longer, definitely I would have pursued their probable "remedy". So, stay away from 4139 on the NA; 4149 was fine, tho we had the smoothest two weeks I've had on a ship in 4149, so who knows!