terrydtx

Thanks for reminding me why we never fly Southwest, even though you can now pay extra to be in the first seating and boarding group. Maybe Celebrity could use that concept for guaranteed window seating in Blu?

Mike, please don't suck out all the fun before we board, LOL. You have a great cruise too.

We sail in suites and dine in Luminae, we have found if we wait until 6:30 to 7pm we can usually get a window seat in Luminae after the early birds are finishing and leaving. Since the first to enter Luminae usually take the few window tables, they are also the first done with their meal and leaving by 6:30-7pm. Luminae on our last couple of cruises had people lining up 30 minutes or more early to enter, time we used to enjoy a pre diner drink in the Retreat lounge. Before we started cruising in Suites, we only booked Aqua for Blu and used the same 6:30-7pm strategy for dining. When we did book Aqua I resented that Suites passengers were allowed to dine in Aqua, but now that we book suites, I would never take up any seats in Blu by dining there instead of Luminae.

Last year we sailed from Rome on the Reflection and that French Onion soup was one of the best I have ever had in any restaurant. One evening, after a late lunch onshore, we had our butler bring us the soup to our cabin with a shrimp cocktail for diner. Then we followed that cruise with on the HAL Oosterdam from Venice and the French Onion soup was just horrible and more like dishwater with a little grated cheese on top.

Thank you for your positive comments, we are on the June 4th sailing of Equinox and will be dining in Luminae. Our first retreat cruise was in the Equinox and the food and service of Luminae was what sold us on only booking suites from then on.

We are on the June 4th Equinox cruise and out luggage tags were available to print on May 3rd.

We are booked on the Volendam next year for a Canada/NE cruise because of her size and itinerary but we wanted balcony to see the scenery and views of the St Lawrence seaway, so we booked a Vista Suite. If you do not want a VS you should look at a Lanai cabin that has a door that opens to the Promenade deck for the views of Alaska.

We did our one and done NCL cruise in the Haven and thought at the time, it was far superior until we did our first Retreat cruise and we would not be interested in another Haven or NCL cruise.

Some people can't resist giving out false information. I agree with you that was the same offer we got on the Volendam plus a 50% refundable deposit or $300pp.

No where does it say high non refundable high deposit. Our 2024 Volendam cruise the deposit was 50% reduced to $300pp and it 100% refundable

My understanding is they do have one.

Most cruise companies use this hotel for Venice pre and post cruise. It is on an island on the lagoon across from Venice island but very accessible by water taxis that run between both. Most of the water taxis drop off right in front of St Mark's. Last year we spent 3 nights at the Savoia Jolanda hotel one block past of St Marks and loved it. They had a fantastic restaurant right on the lagoon. Hotel Savoia & Jolanda | Hotel Savoia & Jolanda (hotelsavoiajolanda.com)

Thanks for the report, we are booked in a Vista Suite on the Volendam in August 2024.

As one who books cruises with both cruise lines let me add my 2 cents worth. We only cruise in the Retreat with Celebrity because of the Retreat Luminae and lounges. We enjoy the Retreat priority boarding and embarkation and priority tendering. When we cruise on HAL we chose either Signature or Vista Suites which are only larger cabins, like a Sky Suite, but with no Celebrity type amenities. We found that by adding HAL Club Orange (CO) we get for $25pp per day more of the premium amenities like Celebrity. CO gives us priority boarding, embarkation and tendering. On the HAL Pinnacle class ships CO includes a private separate dinning room for Breakfast and diner with the standard MDR menu plus one or two daily specials for CO only. On the other HAL ships CO includes a special section and podium check-in for the MDR. We have CO booked with both of our 2 future HAL cruises. We also book our cabins on HAL with HIA (Have It All) promo which includes a drink package, Wi-Fi package and a shore excursion and specialty restaurant credit and some OBC. One other nice benefit of CO that we take advantage of is you get a free upgrade to higher category cabin within your booking category. For example, on our Volendam cruise next year we wanted a Vista Suite in the highest A category located midship, we booked the lower Cat B cabin and got upgraded to the A cat cabin we would have booked. The cost difference between the B and A paid for the CO cost. Here is a link to Club Orange Club Orange Program Benefits | Holland America Line

The Early promo has more than just premium drinks. You should check again.

Here is a link to the Early Bonus booking promo. It does say the offer is for a limited time but that is all. Have you gone back to try a booking on your cruise to see if the offer was still available? We booked our August 2024 Volendam cruise in February and got the promo. I also looked and it is still being offered on our cruise as well. Have It All Early Booking Bonus | Holland America Line

Jim. I love your pictures in Ireland. Our first trip to Europe was with my parents in Ireland for 2 weeks in 2002 and I loved the country and the people. At that time my parents were my age now and you have put a cruise like yours back on our bucket list. Thanks for the fond memories you brought back today.

🤞

Is it 100% sold out? Are you sure the cruise wasn't canceled? Hard to believe it is not listed any more. There is another Celebrity Thread about Celebrity canceling cruise for next year in Japan.

HAL offers the Elite HIA drinks on early booking promos for cruises booked within 90 days of being released for booking. Our Koingsdam cruise in November has the SDP, but our Volendam cruise next year in August has the Early booking promos and we have the Premium drinks, Wi-Fi and gratuities,

Last year on the Oosterdam we had the HIA with the Signature Drinks, we could not up grade to Elite when we boarded, and I took the issue all the way to the Beverage manager and was told the HIA drinks could not be up graded. This was also before HAL changed their policy of only paying the difference in cost plus tips for drinks over the limits.

We are paying $209 for a Mercedes mini van for the 4 in our group. It is picking us up at our Amsterdam hotel (Banks Mansion) and dropping us off at the cruise terminal. We could have booked a sedan for about $180 for 2-3 people but the mini van with more room for luggage was needed. We booked directly with the transportation company, not Viator, which was a lot more cost.

When you first board there will be tables with crew taking orders for drink packages and specialty restaurant reservations. We placed the order for the bottle water package with the Beverage representative and by the time we came back from lunch the bottles were in our cabin. You can reorder during the cruise with room service too. I have not seen anywhere to book this online prior to the cruise.

Great to know, we are using them for our September Celebrity Apex cruise in Lisbon and Spain. On this cruise we are doing all private tours for all ports, so tired of being ripped off by the cruise companies and stuck on big crowded busses. Our private 7 hour long Lisbon Tour for just the 4 in our group with SDT cost us $125pp, a similar one with Celebrity in a big bus cost $189pp. Last year on two cruises in Italy and Greece we did a mixture of ship and private tours and every private tour was way better than the ship's tours. One thing we learned was to not book any tours that include lunch, the couple of ship tours we did last year did lunches late in the afternoon at places we would not have chosen on our own. SDT will let our group chose our lunch times and we can choose our places to eat, but they will help with recommendations for locations.

They did have one ship like you described, the Prinsendam which had under 1000 passengers, did unique, longer itineraries and was priced like a premium cruise. She was sold off I believe just prior to Covid. Many in this forum were big fans.